Chapter 141

Kane moved like death itself had taken up residence inside his body.

Every step calculated. Every breath measured. That beautiful, fluid grace I'd fallen in love with? It had twisted into something mechanical and cold—imagine watching your favorite dancer suddenly morph into an animated corpse.

His eyes hit me hardest of all.

Kane looked like something had torn his soul right out of his chest. His deep brown eyes, that I used to get lost in, were now ice cold, completely lacking any warmth.

Giana knew exactly how to hurt me most.

She had Kane stalk toward me across the ballroom's polished marble. Each step spelled danger. Kane's lethal training, everything he'd taught me to protect myself, was now turned against me.

The ballroom felt impossibly huge around us. All those elegant decorations and fancy furnishings turned into obstacles.

"Did you really think someone like me could ever love someone like you? Really, Auora?" His mouth barely moved when he spoke. "What a ridiculous fantasy."

The words didn't just sting—they knocked something loose inside me. Not because I believed them. I knew damn well this wasn't Kane. But hearing him—the man who'd whispered my name in the dark when nightmares wouldn't let me sleep—spit them out? That hollowed me right back.

Giana knew exactly how to cut me deep without using a blade.

"Did you really think someone like me could ever love someone like you?" His face remained blank. Emotionless. A beautiful mask hiding an empty shell. "You're nothing but a discarded Luna. Damaged goods."

Yeah, that one cut deep. Each word was chosen with surgical precision, designed to tear apart every insecurity I'd ever confessed to him in moments of vulnerability. But the thing about Giana? She wanted me broken. Wanted me to stop fighting. To make me believe Kane and I had been nothing all along.

Wrong move, witch.

Beneath my terror, something else stirred. The golden thread connecting our souls was still there. Hidden under layers of magical compulsion like treasure buried deep. I could feel it pulsing weakly, fighting against the darkness that tried to smother it.

Giana's magic was powerful, but it wasn't complete.

"This isn't you." I kept dancing just out of reach, shoving every ounce of love I could muster down the thin, golden thread that tied us together. "I know exactly who you are, Kane."

My voice carried across the ballroom with fierce conviction. Even as he stalked me like a predator, even as those beloved hands reached for my throat, I refused to see him as my enemy.

Kane lunged again. The attack was textbook perfect, the kind of move that would've killed anyone else in seconds. But Kane had trained me himself. I knew his preferences, his patterns, his tells.

But more importantly? I knew his heart.

I rolled away. The chandelier's fractured light turned the whole scene into some kind of nightmare kaleidoscope. Shadows danced across the walls like demons celebrating our destruction.

You ruined everything!" His voice was suddenly full of a fire and fury that didn't belong to him. The cold control cracked, revealing something raw and vicious underneath. "You deserve to die!"

But it wasn't his anger. Giana's hatred poured out through Kane's lips. Her emotions were wearing his face like a poorly fitting mask. I could hear her real feelings bleeding through—the rage, the jealousy, the desperate need to destroy what she could never have.

I wasn't going to fight him back. Not Kane. Never Kane.

Instead, I grabbed every perfect memory we'd made together. I shoved them toward the golden thread that still linked our souls. His face after our first kiss—like he'd just discovered magic was real. That laugh when I beat him at chess for the first time.

How fierce he got whenever anyone dared threaten me. The vulnerability that leaked through when his walls finally crumbled.

Holding me through those awful mate bond episodes, soaking up my pain without complaint. Getting medical help for my mother before I even asked. His gentle hands patching me up after fights.

All those moments when Kane showed me who he really was underneath his careful masks.

I hurled it all at him like sunlight burning through storm clouds.

"I love you, Kane." Tears poured down my cheeks but my voice stayed rock steady. "Whatever she makes you say or do, I love you."

That golden thread between us—the mate bond that had survived everything—suddenly blazed like a star going supernova. I felt it reaching across all of Giana's magical barriers.

Kane stopped dead.

For one split second, Kane looked lost. Confused. Like fog lifting just enough to show sunlight underneath. The spell cracked—tiny fractures I could barely see—but there he was, fighting those invisible shackles with everything he had.

His clawed hand shook as two different forces battled inside his head. Our bond pulsed with desperate energy. Kane's real self was fighting those magical commands with everything he had left.

"What we have is stronger than her magic," I said, taking another step closer while terror screamed at me to run. "Remember who you are."

Kane's breathing turned ragged. Sweat broke out across his forehead as he fought pure magical compulsion. Giana's spell was powerful, sure. But our bond had roots that went deeper than any surface magic could reach.

Those dead eyes started to warm again. Tiny splits in the frozen mask she'd forced over his face.

"You held me through my worst nightmares," I whispered. Gentle but fierce.

I thought about our first real conversation. How Kane listened to my fears about Raymond and Giana without judging me. The way he believed me when everyone else thought I was crazy.

Kane's whole body trembled as he fought magical commands that felt like absolute truth. His neck veins bulged with effort. Fighting compulsion magic was like trying to breathe underwater—every instinct said it was impossible.

The runes on the walls started flickering as our bond challenged Giana's spell. Giana had power, I'll give her that. But she'd screwed up big time. True mates don't break easy.

"That first kiss," I barely whispered.

Kane's face twisted with effort. The battle inside him was visible now—two sets of commands warring for control. Giana's magic screamed at him to kill me. Our bond whispered that he should protect me instead.

"Aurora..." Kane's real voice cut through that magical static like a drowning man breaking the surface.

Hope exploded in my chest. The man I loved was still in there, still fighting for us.

With effort that made his muscles strain and his whole body shudder, Kane turned toward Giana instead of me. His eyes kept switching between blank control and desperate awareness as he battled for his own mind.

"You... will not... use me... against her," Kane ground out through clenched teeth.

Our golden thread suddenly blazed so bright I could actually see it, burning away the dark magic wrapped around Kane's thoughts like poison ivy.

Quick as lightning, he spun and raked his claws across Giana's chest. Perfect precision, calculated force, delivered with all that deadly skill that made him so dangerous.

Except now he turned all that deadly training on her instead of me.

Giana's shriek broke every glass in the room as she staggered back. Red spread across her body. The barriers died fast—those glowing runes snuffed out like someone blew on birthday candles.

Her oppressive magic lifted from the room. Leaving just that electric smell in the air and both of us gasping like we'd run miles.

Dead quiet now. Weird how loud silence sounds after a magical explosion. Kane and I stood there in what used to be a fancy ballroom, now looking like a tornado had ripped through it.

Kane towered over her broken body, chest heaving. His eyes—thank the Moon Goddess—were finally clear again. When he turned to me, I saw him drowning in horror and relief all at once.

"Aurora." My name cracked in his throat like breaking glass. "I'm so…just so damn sorry."

I flew to him, wrapped myself around his shaking body. He held me so tight I could barely breathe—like he thought I might disappear if he let go.

"You didn’t hurt me. You stopped yourself," I said, fierce and reassuring.

Kane trembled like a leaf in a storm. Free from her spell, yeah, but those memories would follow him into nightmares for years.

The war wasn't over. But we'd won this battle by choosing love over fear, trust over control. What we had together beat her worst spells.

Whatever hell waited for us out there, we'd meet it side by side.