Chapter 204

Alexander’s POV

Ella was alive.

Somehow, after all this time, she was… alive.

I couldn’t believe it. It felt like a dream, and yet no matter how many times I pinched myself, I wouldn’t wake up. Maybe I didn’t want to wake up; I could have stayed in this beautiful fantasy until the world crumbled and the sun exploded and the universe went dark.

I could have stayed like this for all eternity, wrapped up in this little bubble of bliss.

But somehow, by some miracle, it wasn’t just a fantasy. It was real, so real it almost hurt with the intensity of emotions overwhelming me. Ella was alive, and had been right here all along, and I wasn’t going to let her leave me ever again.

And yet there was so much standing in our way of true happiness.

The curse she described seemed impossible; a necromancer in her bloodline? The very thought of necromancy felt like something out of a fairytale, not real life. But Ella had been telling the truth when she told me about it; I was certain of it.

And then, of course, there was the matter of the consequences if she told anyone her true identity.

Death. Sickness. Pain.

I hadn’t believed it at first, of course. It seemed like superstition, like the kind of things elders might tell their grandchildren to keep them from misbehaving. But I’d also seen Liam wither away into nearly nothing over the span of just a few months.

It made sense now that I thought of it. All the nights I’d seen “Stella” slip out of the house at night when she thought everyone was asleep, coming back in the morning smelling like the hospital with dark circles under her eyes and her hands jittering from too much caffeine.

The pain in her eyes—those strange, yet beautiful silver eyes—when I found her with Liam. The way she seemed to beat herself up for it.

The nights spent up in the library, reading until she collapsed from exhaustion.

All of it made sense.

Ella—my Ella—had been suffering right under my nose, had felt so helpless, and she couldn’t even tell me the truth because she feared I might meet the same fate as Liam.

This all felt like my fault, though, in the end. If I hadn’t locked Ella up, if I had been there for her when the Stormhollow mansion burned—then maybe she wouldn’t have died. Maybe she would have remained healthy and happy and would have given birth to our son when he was fully developed.

None of this would have happened if I hadn’t believed that evidence.

“Ella.” I reached out just as she went to follow Anya out of my office, muttering something about checking on Lucien. She didn’t pull away when my fingers wrapped around her wrist, which made it hurt even more. She trusted me when I had been so cruel to her during our marriage. “We need to talk.”

She slowly turned to look at me. It felt so strange, looking into those silver eyes and seeing my dead wife. But it also felt… right.

“We’ve got a lot of talking to do,” she murmured, laughing wryly. She looked fucking exhausted, as I was sure I did, too.

“Yes. For starters, I need to apologize.” I pulled her close and brushed a strand of auburn hair out of her face. She’d always been beautiful, but I had to admit that her new features suited her. She looked even more striking than before. “I need to apologize for accusing you of being a spy.”

Ella blinked, clearly not expecting that. “Where did that come from?” she whispered.

“I locked you up when you were pregnant. Made you think you had to sneak out just to check on your burning home. If I hadn’t been so selfish and mistrusting of you, you might not have died.”

Her face fell, and I feared I had hurt her by mentioning her death. But she just shook her head. “I don’t blame you. If Margaret and my father are up to something dark, then I wouldn’t be surprised if they intentionally caused everything—the evidence, the fire… Maybe they wanted to use the evidence to blackmail me into getting you to start sending them money again.”

Or maybe something far worse. But that was an option I didn’t want to consider right now.

“Regardless,” I said, “I should have trusted you. You’re the mother of my child, my wife, the woman I love—I should have thought about that before I locked you up.”

Ella didn’t respond to that. She just looked up at me, her face softening. I reached out and brushed my hand across her cheek, savoring the sensation of her warm skin beneath my palm.

“And I should have told you sooner,” I found myself whispering. “I love you, Ella. I wanted to tell you before everything fell apart, but I was a coward who was afraid of his own feelings. But I’m telling you now. I love you, and I’m not letting anything get between us again.”

Silver eyes filled with tears. “You mean that?” Ella said it like she hardly dared to believe it, which only made it even more painful.

“Yes. I’ll say it a million times over, right now, if I have to.”

Ella laughed and shook her head, reaching up with both hands to cup my face. “No, it’s okay. I love you, too. I never stopped loving you, even when I hated you.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at that. “I wouldn’t blame you for hating me.”

“I did, for a while.” She bit her lip in that way she always used to—Goddess, how could I have been so blind to the fact that it was her right in front of me all along? “I thought you didn’t care about me because you moved on so quickly. And then you opened up to me during our date, and I realized I’d been wrong.”

My chest ached. “I won’t mislead you again.”

“Good.” Ella drew in a deep breath and looked like she was about to say something else, but at that moment, the door opened. We jumped apart before anyone could see us together.

“Alpha,” Hunter said, sketching a quick bow as he entered, “we searched the location you described and it was empty. But we may have found a lead on another location; it seems that Margaret and Richard purchased boat tickets to one of the outlying islands.”

“Follow them,” I replied immediately. Hunter nodded and left quickly. Once he was gone, I turned to Ella. “Come to my room tonight. I know it’s risky, but I can’t sleep without you anymore. Please.”

Ella looked a bit surprised by my insistence. But after a moment of hesitation, she nodded. “Alright. I’ll come once everyone is asleep, but I have to leave before everyone wakes up. If anyone were to find out…”

“I know,” I said softly, and I meant it. I had a feeling that I was already starting to notice the effects of the curse, although I didn’t want to admit that to her. I couldn’t bear it if anyone else got hurt because of our carelessness.

With that, Ella left. As soon as she was gone, I grabbed a tissue and finally let out the cough I’d been holding in this entire time. The tissue came away red, and I grimaced and threw it in the fire.

We had better find those artifacts. And quickly.