Page 115 of Shattered & Returned

I was grateful he didn’t lecture me for leaving the academy’s wards. Grateful he hadn’t saidI told you so.

Opening my eyes, I met his gaze. I wouldn’t shy away from this. “Those hunters…they talked about raping me.” The wordstasted like rust. “But one stopped them. Said a mating bond protected me.” A hollow laugh departed my throat. “That’s impossible. We haven’t exactly—” My face burned. “Technically, I’m still a virgin, right? Even if you truly…uh, fucked me, mating bonds are but bedtime stories. A myth. Something for true mates.” I swallowed. “The hunters must’ve mistaken me for someone else because of my very red hair.”

The rest lodged in my throat, the visions of redheaded women dying, their faces mirroring mine flashing before my eyelids. Every time I tried to speak the depths of it, the words dissolved like mist.

His fingers froze in my hair, his entire body going rigid with tension.

“The next hunters won’t lay a fucking finger on you,” he said in a harsh, guttural voice.

“Nexthunters?” I twisted in the water to face him fully. “More are coming?”

His expression turned feral. “I’ll hunt them first. Make them beg before I gut those fuckers.” The promise in his voice was colder than steel. “There will be no mercy. Not in life, not after death.”

A shiver ran through me. Could the dead truly suffer? Then I remembered the tormented wails outside my chamber window.

Beneath his fury, I sensed his fear, raw and visceral and thick enough to choke. Without thinking, I reached up, my wet palm cradling his jaw.

“I’m fine,” I murmured. “I’m here. They’re not. Because of you.” I forced a smile. “And you know what they say? What doesn’t kill you…”

He caught my wrist, pressing a kiss to my palm that sent heat and shiver spiraling through me. The hunters had failed to end me, but this—he—might be the death of me.

His grip tightened around my wrist, urgency sharpening his voice.“Your training begins tomorrow.”The words held a desperate edge.“Youwilllearn to protect yourself, and you must survive!”

A flicker of realization, cold as ice and sharp as a blade,cut through the haze in my mind.

Had we done this before? Not just in this life, but in another? I’d never believed in reincarnation, but after everything I’d seen—monsters, ghosts, the wailing dead—why should past lives be a shock?

How else could I explain the death visions? The way Nero and I burned for each other despite every reason we shouldn’t. That impossible pull between us, as old as time.

The way he whispered“Remember”against my skin like it was a prayer and the only word left in the world.

But he never said more. Because he couldn’t.

Something bound him, a blood vow, a curse, or chains I couldn’t see but felt, tightening every time his lips brushed my throat.

I stared at him, the pieces falling into place.

Whenever I tried to grasp the truth, my skull threatened to split. And as soon as a memory that wasn’t quite mine surfaced, some unseen force dove toward it like a vulture to carrion.

And now hunters were on my trail, and more would come for me. I had to wonder why they’d chase a nobody so relentlessly.

Unless I wasn’t nobody.

Unless I was a threat to them.

I glanced at my frail body.

Seriously, how could I be dangerous to anyone?

Then a spark flared inside me and ignited like starlight. I wasn’t entirely weak, was I? My magic had awoken, and it was damn powerful.

There was more to me than I knew. Nero and our enemies knew it as well.

Was my magic thethreat?

Now I knew,rememberingwas the key, the path to the forbidden, hidden truth. But how could I remember something that had never happened to me—or at least, not in this life?

I shook my head. If I kept thinking like this, I’d plunge over the edge.

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