Aurora’s P.O.V
As Caleb and I stepped out of Alice’s room, her words still echoed in my ears. Have faith… the wraiths are gone… Riley will be fine, he has priestess blood in him… She sounded so certain, so calm, so completely unshaken by the storm that still raged in my chest. I tried to cling to that certainty, but my heart wouldn’t let me. My mind kept replaying everything over and over again, and even though I nodded when she told us to trust, deep down I knew I wasn’t ready to let go of my worry.
Caleb must have noticed it, because as we walked down the hallway of the infirmary in silence, he brushed his hand lightly against mine, whispering. “Aurora, she wouldn’t lie to us. You heard her. Riley’s safe. He’s stronger than you think.”
“I know,” I whispered back, forcing a smile that didn’t quite reach my lips. “But knowing and believing are two different things, Caleb. I can’t shake it… I just… I keep feeling like somehow…I failed him.”
Before he could answer, shouts erupted from the next room, sharp and loud enough to jolt us both. Caleb’s entire body stiffened beside me, his eyes going wide in recognition. “That’s Jade,” he said quickly, and without hesitation, we both rushed toward the noise.
The door swung open violently as Caleb pushed it, and the scene inside made my breath catch. Maggie was sprawled on the ground, her palms pressed to the floor as if she had just tried to get up but couldn’t. Standing above her was Jade, his chest heaving, his fists clenched, his eyes wild with fury.
“Stay away from me!” Jade roared, his voice cracking with something raw and dangerous.
“Jade!” Caleb stepped forward immediately, holding his hands up. “Calm down…”
“Don’t tell me to calm down, Caleb!” Jade snapped, his eyes never leaving Maggie. “Do you have any idea what she’s done? Do you even know?”
I didn’t wait, I rushed to Maggie’s side, kneeling down to help her up. Her breathing was shallow, her eyes shimmering with tears that hadn’t yet fallen. “Maggie,” I whispered, sliding my arm under hers, “are you okay? What happened?”
But Jade didn’t let her speak. His voice cut through the air like a blade. “Don’t ask her that, Aurora. Don’t you dare pity her. She doesn’t deserve it.”
“Jade…” Caleb tried again, his tone firm but pleading.
“No, listen to me, both of you!” Jade’s face twisted, and he jabbed a finger toward Maggie, who flinched at the motion.
“She took advantage of me. She poisoned me. She knew exactly what she was doing. She made me into a lovesick fool, dragging me around like some pathetic dog, begging for scraps of her attention. And all the while she knew…” his voice cracked, his breath shaky but heavy with rage, “...she knew we weren’t mates. I told her! I warned her over and over, but she didn’t care. She just wanted me near her, no matter what it cost me.”
I felt my mind go blank at the accusations, my eyes wide in shock.
Maggie’s lips trembled as she finally whispered, “Jade, that’s not…”
“Don’t!” he barked, and his voice was so sharp it cut the room into silence. “Don’t you dare say my name like that. Don’t you dare try to twist this again. You think I don’t remember the way you poisoned me? The way you put that sick spell on me? You knew what it was doing to me! And you let it happen!”
Caleb took a cautious step toward him, voice low and controlled. “Jade, please calm down. You’re shaking. Just take a breath. We’ll talk about this—”
“Talk about this?!” Jade rounded on him, fury spilling over. “You weren’t the one drowning in it, Caleb! You weren’t the one being held against your will by some sick spell that you believe you were madly in love with the wrong person! You don’t know what that’s like!”
I looked at Maggie, still too stunned to speak as she broke down in sobs. “I never wanted to hurt you,” she choked out, her voice muffled but desperate. “I just… I just wanted you near me… I didn’t know how else to…”
“Don’t lie!” Jade’s voice thundered again, and this time, his eyes shone with tears of his own.
“Don’t you dare lie to me, Maggie. You knew exactly what you were doing. And I was too stupid to stop it. Too weak. I let you chain me with your games, and I… I can’t forgive you for that.”
The room felt heavy with his words, thick with anger and pain. Caleb tried to reach him again, voice gentler now. “Jade… I know you feel betrayed. I know you’re hurt. But this isn’t the way…”
“Then what is the way, Caleb?” Jade shot back bitterly. “Tell me. How do I get rid of this? How do I even look at her again and see past the manipulation?”
“It wasn’t manipulation,” Maggie lifted her head, her eyes swollen with tears, and whispered, “It was real to me…”
That broke something in Jade. He shook his head violently, as though trying to throw the words out of his skull. “No. No, don’t say that. If it was real, you would have stopped. If it was real, you wouldn’t have ignored me every time I said we aren’t mates. You would have listened! But you didn’t. You only listened to what you wanted.”
“Jade, please…” she reached a trembling hand toward him, but I quickly caught it, holding her back, because the look in his eyes wasn’t just anger, it was devastation.
“Don’t touch me,” Jade whispered hoarsely, his fury giving way to something quieter, darker. “Don’t ever touch me again.”
My breath caught in my throat as the accusation hung in the air, sharp and jagged like broken glass. My eyes darted to Maggie, searching her face for denial, for some spark of outrage that would prove this was nothing more than a lie. But instead, she lowered her head, refusing to meet my gaze.
“Maggie,” I whispered at first, but my voice cracked, so I tried again, louder this time, “Maggie, look at me. Is this true? Did you… did you do anything to Jade?”
She stayed silent, her fingers twisting the hem of her sleeve, her shoulders stiff. That silence was worse than any confession. I felt my chest tighten, and slowly, another piece of the puzzle began to fall into place, clicking together with agonizing clarity. My eyes widened as the realization hit me.
“Oh my God,” I breathed, my voice trembling with fury and disbelief. “It was you. All this time, Jade wasn’t himself… he wasn’t free. You…you kept him under some kind of love spell, didn’t you?”
Her head snapped up at that, her lips parting, but before she could speak, I pushed on, words tumbling out like fire. “And if I’m right, it wasn’t even your magic. It was Ashton’s. He’s the one who cast the spell, and you obeyed him without question, didn’t you? That’s why you’ve always listened to him like some puppet. Am I wrong? Tell me I’m wrong, Maggie!”
Her eyes shimmered, tears threatening to spill, but she didn’t deny it. Her silence was louder than anything she could have said.
I shook my head, disbelief curdling into rage. “How could you?” I demanded, my voice breaking with anger. “How could you stoop so low? How could you force someone to love you? How could you trap Jade in a lie like that?”
Finally, she burst out, her voice raw and desperate. “Because I love him!” Her hands shook as she clutched at her chest, her face blotchy with emotion. “Don’t you get it, Aurora? I did it because I love Jade more than anything! I couldn’t stand watching him look at someone else, I couldn’t…he was supposed to be mine!”
I stared at her, stunned. “Love?” I spat the word like poison. “You call that love? Controlling him, stripping away his choice, his freedom…that’s not love, Maggie, that’s cruelty!”
“You don’t understand!” she shot back, her voice rising. “You’ve never been invisible the way I have, never had your heart crushed under someone else’s shadow! I had to do it, it was the only way he would ever see me…”
“No!” I cut her off, my voice trembling with fury as I stepped closer. “You had a choice, Maggie! You always had a choice! And you chose to steal his will away, to chain him to you like a prisoner! Do you have any idea how wrong that is?”
She shook her head, sobbing now, words spilling in broken pieces. “I just wanted him to love me back… I just wanted to be enough for once in my life. Ashton said it was the only way, he promised me Jade would never look away again…”
That was the final straw. My vision blurred with hot tears, and before I even realized what I was doing, my hand flew across her face, the sound of the slap echoing like a gunshot between us.
Maggie gasped, her cheek already flushing red where my palm had struck her. She stared at me, wide-eyed, as though she couldn’t quite believe I had actually done it.
“Don’t you dare,” I hissed, my whole body shaking. “Don’t you dare stand there and call what you did love. You’ve destroyed him. You’ve destroyed yourself. And if Ashton told you this was the only way, then you’re more of a fool than I ever imagined.”
Her lips trembled, her tears finally spilling freely. “Aurora…” she whispered, her voice breaking. “Please…”
Her sobs filled the silence that followed, but for me, there was no pity left, only the bitter weight of betrayal.