When The Luna Broke Her Chains novel Chapter 84

Chapter 84 The Shape Of Another Woman

Astrid watches Xena from the corner of her eye.

Xena sits before the mirror, dragging a comb slowly through her dark hair in a way that’s almost mechanical. Her expression is blank and distant, as though she’s somewhere far beyond the chamber walls.

She had refused Astrid’s help.

“I can manage,” Xena had said quietly.

Astrid nods now to herself, pretending to fold the last of the dresses Princess Aria gifted Xena, though she’s been done for several seconds. The silence in the chamber feels like a living thing wedged between them.

They live together. Sleep in the same chamber. Eat together. Breathe the same air.

And yet there are secrets thick enough to drown in.

For a brief, foolish moment, Astrid had believed Xena might trust her. That perhaps something resembling friendship could exist between them.

She should have known better.

Xena would never forget.

Astrid fucked her husband. And she poisoned Xena for months.

The truth hangs blunt and ugly in her mind. It doesn’t matter how many times she regrets it. It doesn’t matter how much guilt gnaws at her.

Nothing changes the fact that Astrid only regrets it because Cassian betrayed her.

If he had chosen her–truly chosen her–Astrid knows she wouldn’t spare Xena a second glance of kindness or pity.

Astrid once believed Cassian loved her, but she had only ever been a reflection. A replacement.

Sometimes when she looks at herself in the mirror, she sees it clearly–the similar structure of their noses. the mole above the curve of her lips, the eyes that always look the same no matter what emotion they carry.

Davina.

Astrid had mirrored her well enough to tempt Alpha Cassian.

That’s all she had been.

Astrid exhales slowly and tucks the last folded gown into the wall cupboard. The wood shuts with a quiet

click.

She wants to say something. Anything. An apology? A joke? A question?

But Xena avoids her gaze deliberately, and Astrid understands that this distance isn’t only about Cassian and the poisoning.

08:59 Fri, Apr 24 MM

Chapter 84 The Shape Of Another Woman

3.65

Finished

It’s about the Prince, too.

Everyone saw it yesterday. The way Knox looked at Xena in that hall full of women desperate for his

attention.

Astrid had seen it. She had felt it. It unsettles her more than she wants to admit. And she’s dying to ask Xena about it… But how can she if Xena won’t even look at her?

Without another word, she straightens and leaves the chamber.

The corridor air feels fresher. Astrid inhales deeply, almost greedily. She doesn’t understand how Xena can remain cooped up in that room all day. Yes, there is the wolf sometimes. But Astrid feels suffocated within those four walls.

She prefers movement. The wide, elegant corridors. And the balconies decorated with twisting ivy leaves. The hum of palace life.

It’s only a matter of months before she returns to Frostfang, she reminds herself. Back to its dimmed allure, its smaller halls and quieter ambitions.

Aurelune spoils the senses.

Occasionally, she’s wandered too far, earning cold stares from guards and nobles alike. There’s one person she deliberately avoids: Davina.

Today, the chosen candidates are shifting to the Old Alchemist Tower. If Astrid leans over the rails, she can see them below–trunks carried by servants, metal glinting in the sunlight, hopeful chatter rising in waves.

She leans and is suddenly yanked backward. A hand clamps around her arm, dragging her into a shadowed corner between pillars. She gasps–but only for a second.

She looks up, wide–eyed and already breathing hard, only to find Cassian looking down at her.

Her pulse spikes further before she can stop it.

He grips her chin, forcing her to look up at him. “You haven’t been doing what I asked,” he says angrily.

Astrid’s throat tightens. She knows exactly what he means. “This isn’t the place,” she says evenly. “Are you not afraid of people listening to us?”

He doesn’t answer. He drags her into a nearby unused chamber, shutting the door hard behind them.

The air changes instantly. She feels it–the tightening hum, the way sound seems to thicken. He’s shielding the room–sealing it.

A memory flashes through her unbidden: his hands on that study table in Frostfang, the way he’d sealed sound then too, lowering his voice to just a whisper against her skin.

She hates that her body still remembers, and that a part of her still responds. If he chose her now–if he abandoned Davina–she knows she would go running back.

She could burn Morrin’s petition. Erase the evidence. Betray Xena again.

2/4

08:59 Fri, Apr 24 MM

Chapter 84 The Shape Of Another Woman

The thought disgusts her.

Finished

“Tell me,” Cassian demands. “Are you giving her what you’re supposed to give her every day? Her lunar energy has stabilized. Tell me how that can happen if you’re poisoning her like I fucking told you to!”

Astrid turns her head away. Then she decides to drop the truth like an alchemist’s explosive. “It was stable in Frostfang,” she says quietly.

His grip tightens. “She lied to me?” he demands. “You lied to me?”

Astrid shakes her head slowly. “I read Morrin’s letter after she died. The one written to Xena. She said Xena could conceive.”

He stiffens at Morrin’s name. For a second, something almost like guilt passes across his face. Then it’s gone.

“I can’t keep poisoning her,” Astrid says, though she stopped long ago. The knotgrass she’d been forced to carry from Frostfang had been scattered discreetly across the palace gardens, corridors, and hearths- waiting for the day Cassian demanded proof.

“They know,” she adds quietly.

Cassian pales. “About what?” he asks, though he already knows.

“The poisoning,” she hisses. “The Arch–Luminist made me draw Xena’s blood. She definitely knows what is wrong. That her blood’s pumped full of knotgrass! The Prince would want to know. She must have told him.”

She steps back from him, pressing against the wall.

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