When The Luna Broke Her Chains novel Chapter 90

Chapter 90 Always Watching

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Content Note: This chapter contains themes of coercion, unwanted physical contact, and emotional distress.

[XENA]

The oil lamp burns low beside me, casting dark shadows on the creeping walls.

I stare at the open page on my lap and understand nothing.

The figures and glyphs blur together, ink blending into shapes that refuse to settle into meaning. My notes are scattered across the narrow bed–half–finished thoughts, broken questions, fragments of something I cannot piece together.

There are things you don’t understand yet.

The thought fills my head, and strangely, it comes in Knox’s voice.

“No,” I murmur, dragging a hand down my face. “I don’t.”

My gaze drops to my hand that’s wrapped in a cloth. The cut should still be there. Inflamed, ugly, and fresh. I hesitate for a second before unwrapping it slowly. The cloth loosens and falls away, taking my breath along with it.

There is nothing. No gash, no bruise, no swelling–just smooth, unbroken, fully healed skin.

“That’s… not possible.”

I turn my hand over, pressing hard into the place where the wound had been. No pain or tenderness registers. There’s no trace that I was ever wounded, that the mirror shard had sliced through my palm.

I just stare blankly at my hand for a long time, trying to remember if I imagined it. But I didn’t. I remember the blood. The sting. Astrid’s hands. The cloth wrapped tight around my palm.

It was real. So how?

This is how a wolf heals. Fast, clean, and with minimal scarring. But I don’t have one. And it wasn’t Vera this time, or Knox.

My fingers curl slowly. “What is happening to me?” I whisper.

Could it be because of Vera, despite the current distance? Because she stays with me sometimes? Because of whatever strange connection Knox keeps hinting at?

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Chapter 90 Always Watching

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The unexplained, sudden strength when Oriel tried to slap me? That wolf head symbol I keep seeing where it shouldn’t exist?

What if I’m losing my mind? What if none of this is real? What if I’ve imagined everything because I needed something–anything–to make sense of what’s happening to me?

I stand from the bed abruptly, moving along and dashing against the chair, which scrapes harshly against the stone.

No. This isn’t right. None of this is right.

I start pacing back and forth. The room feels smaller with every step. The walls closer, and the air thicker.

Ban’t breathe.

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ng to the window, I push it open wider, letting the night air spill in. It’s cold, but it does ing to ease the pressure in my chest. I need–I don’t know what I need. But I can’t stay

step out into the corridor. The dilapidated tower is quieter at night, vines crawling over

cked pillars and balustrades.

steps

echo softly as I walk before I pick up the pace. I walk faster and faster until I don’t m walking to escape something–or toward it.

“Couldn’t sleep?”

“Just trying to get some air,” I say flatly, pausing in my spot.

Cassian’s footsteps approach anyway.

I start walking again, but he catches up easily.

“You’ve been avoiding me, Xena,” he continues.

“I’ve been merely existing,” I reply.

His hand catches my arm, making me flinch. “Listen to me,” he snaps, pulling me back toward him. “You’re still my wife.” His grip tightens. “You are,” he emphasizes. “And you will behave

like it.”

I look at him. His eyes are unfocused, and his movements just a fraction too slow. He reeks of alcohol. “You’re drunk,” I say.

“I’m aware,” he replies, almost laughing. “Doesn’t make me wrong.” He steps closer. “You think you’re different now?” he murmurs. “Because of him?”

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Chapter 90 Always Watching

I turn my head away, not looking at him.

“You think he changed something? You think you’re better than me now?”

“I never said that.”

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“You didn’t have to.” His hand slides from my arm to my shoulder, then higher before his fingers brush my cheek.

My body tenses immediately. “Don’t,” I say.

He doesn’t stop. “You’re not ugly,” he mutters, studying my face like he’s trying to remember something. “Never were.” His grip tightens further. “But you are pathetic.”

I try to step back, but he blocks me. “Where are you going?” he asks, voice low. “We’re not done.”

You don’t get to decide that.” His arm wraps around my waist and pulls me in.

urmurs, leaning closer. “Kiss me, Xena.”

Something inside me snaps at once. Cold spreads through my veins, and my hands go numb, heartbeat stuttering before it pounds harder than before.

No. No. No.

He presses closer, and then suddenly he jerks–his body stiffens, and his grip falters. “What-” He doubles over, a choked sound tearing out of him as he staggers back, clutching his stomach.

Cassian retches violently.

The disgusting sound echoes down the corridor, raw and ugly.

I stare. “What…”

He stumbles, barely catching himself against the wall as he keeps gagging, breath coming in broken bursts.

It’s sudden, so my mind scrambles for reason.

Alcool. It has to be. He drank too much. That’s all this is. That’s all–but my hands are still

y chest still tight. Something inside me still moves.

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I take a step back and then another. “You don’t get to come near me anymore,” I declare.

Cassian doesn’t respond because he’s still bent over and retching.

“Whatever you think I am to you…” I swallow. “You’ve lost it.”

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I turn and walk away, not looking back. But my heart doesn’t slow until I’m back inside my room, the flimsy door shut firmly behind me. My hands shake, and my breath comes too fast. I press my back against the door and slide down until I’m sitting on the cold floor.

just ha

What did I do?

o anything. He was drunk. That’s all. That’s all this is. Even though h far worse amounts.

eath, but it doesn’t help. Nothing helps.

ment, I force myself up and move to the window again. The night stretches endlessly t, and above hangs the moon, full and watching. Always watching.

the edge of the stone, staring at it. “What do you want from me, Goddess?” I whisper.

Only wind answers, leaving me with the feeling that something has already begun–and I have no idea how to stop it.

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