Chapter 6
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Chapter 6
“If I refuse to give him up?” I looked Larissa dead in the eyes, my voice colder than the Olake behind us.
Her expression twisted instantly, sweetness evaporating. Something dark flickered in her gaze as she took a slow step toward me.
“Then don’t blame me for what happens next.”
Before I could even register her words, she lunged forward and shoved me–hard.
The world flipped.
Cold water swallowed me whole.
I barely had time to gasp before it rushed
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into my nose and throat. My body panicked, kicking upward toward the surface.
“Larissa!” I choked, spitting lake water. “My father won’t let you get away with this!”
She crouched at the edge, pressing her hand down on my head. “Who’s going to find out?” she hissed. “This lake swallows secrets just fine.”
Her weight pinned me under. Panic exploded in my chest as water filled my lungs. My limbs thrashed but her grip didn’t loosen. My vision blurred, the world going darker by the second-
Footsteps.
I heard them. Somewhere above the surface.
“Help…” I barely rasped out the word.
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Larissa froze.
Then, as if on cue, she yanked her hand back and launched herself into the water. “Help!” she screamed, thrashing. “Felicia fell in!”
Through the blur of water and pain, I caught sight of him, Samuel. He sprinted across the clearing, eyes wild with fear.
But not for me.
He dove straight in… and swam to her.
He scooped her out of the lake. She clung to him, shivering, whispering, “Don’t worry about me… please… save Miss Felicia. She’s -she’s too precious to drown.”
He held her closer. “Don’t say that,” he murmured. “You’re the only treasure I care
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about.”
And just like that, I slipped under again.
Darkness welcomed me.
“Miss Felicia! She’s awake!”
My eyes fluttered open. The blurry image of Queenie’s swollen, tear–streaked face swam into view.
The moment she saw me stir, she burst into full–blown sobs. “It’s all my fault! I should never have left your side-”
The memory of icy water and Larissa’s cruel smirk slammed back into my head like a hammer.
I sat up, groaning from the ache deep in my bones. Queenie looked… odd. Nervous.
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“What is it?” I asked.
She shook her head too quickly. “N–Nothing…”
I narrowed my eyes. “Tell me the truth.”
And just like that, she broke. “Gamma Samuel… he came by.”
I tensed.
He came?
But not to check on me, of course. That would’ve required a shred of humanity.
Queenie’s voice cracked. “He… he said to tell you to stop using underhanded tricks. That hurting Miss Larissa again would only make him hate you more.”
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I blinked.
“I told him-” Queenie sobbed, “I told him you weren’t like that! That you’d never hurt someone like that. But he wouldn’t listen. He said Larissa would never lie.”
The sting in my chest wasn’t just from the drowning.
I thought of all those nights I stayed up learning to cook just to bring him something warm. The gifts. The herbs I risked going
into the forest to find when he was sick.
He never looked at me the way he looked at her.
And now, he wouldn’t even see me.
Old me would’ve boon chalia
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now?
Only numbness remained.
I reached out and wiped away Queenie’s tears. “Don’t cry”
My voice was calm. Almost peaceful.
“It won’t matter soon. He and I… we’ll have nothing to do with each other anymore.”
Queenie stared at me. “What… what do you mean, Miss Felicia? Aren’t you still going to marry him?”
I didn’t answer that.
Instead, I gave her a faint smile. “You’ll see soon enough.”
That night, no matter how tightly I shut my
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eyes, sleep refused to come.
I kept telling myself not to think about everything that had happened since I came back from the dead, but it was useless.
I used to believe Samuel simply didn’t love me. I never imagined he hated me. That in his eyes, I’d become this vile, manipulative woman. It stung more than I cared to admit.
When I first woke up in this second life, I made a vow to let Samuel go–the man I had once loved for a lifetime.
I knew it wouldn’t be easy. But I refused to relive the same mistakes.
Now, all I hoped for was that Kevin and I might find some kind of peace after we were married. Maybe it’d be a disaster. Maybe
we’d fight like cats and dogs. But even
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that sounded better than the ghost of a marriage I’d lived in my last life–widowed in everything but name.
Tears welled in my eyes again, but I blinked them away. I let out a long, bitter sigh and slid under the bathwater, fully submerging myself.
Eyes closed, I held my breath, letting the warm water soothe my skin. But then something strange happened–where there should’ve been darkness behind my eyelids, a faint blue light flared to life.
My eyes snapped open. I burst up from the water, gasping.
Heart racing, I climbed out of the tub and grabbed a towel off the hook. After drying off, I wrapped myself up and stepped into the walk–in closet to find something to wear.
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That’s when I saw it–something glinting on my vanity.
Curious, I walked over and leaned in. It was a small compass, metallic and unfamiliar. Definitely not mine.
Then it hit me.
Earlier today, when Larissa tried to drown me, I’d grabbed something–anything–just to fight back. This must’ve been it.
Queenie must have found it on me afterward and assumed it was one of my accessories, setting it neatly on my vanity.
I tossed the compass onto the bed and pulled on a soft pink nightgown. As I turned back toward the bed, I caught another glimpse of the compass and sighed.
I should have Queenie return it to Samuel. He could pass it along to Larissa.
I picked it up, ready to stow it away–when suddenly Samuel’s face flashed in my mind like lightning across a pitch–black sky.
And then Ivy, my wolf, howled inside my head.
“Mate.”
My breath caught.
A sudden, inexplicable urge gripped me–l needed to move. To get out of this room. To find him.
I waited until the patrol guards passed, then slipped silently onto the balcony and jumped.
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My feet landed soft on the grass below.
I glanced around. Samuel’s house was one direction, but my hand tightened around the compass and my feet turned toward the forest instead.
That pull–whatever it was–grew stronger with each step
I ran.
Faster than thought, I found myself near a waterfall. My legs froze, refusing to go any farther, even though I willed them forward. My eyes locked on a small wooden cabin just beside the falls.
There was something inside. Something important. Something meant for me.
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I shook my head, trying to resist, but my legs kept moving–slow, steady, unrelenting- toward the door.
What the hell is happening to me?
It wasn’t curiosity. It wasn’t even decision. It felt like fate was dragging me by the throat.
I stopped at the cabin door, heart
hammering. I could feel it–whatever was inside, I had to see it.
