Ian:
Throughout the train ride, I kept hold of Clentine’s hand.
Seeing her in that cage earlier had twisted sothing inside . At that mont, I decided I would go with her instead of leaving her behind.
It was sothing I needed to do. I truly believed my life and happiness existed wherever she was.
I realized it when I walked up to the cage, gripped the bars, and looked at her.
That was it.
She was my happiness. She was what I wanted for my life.
When we arrived, I forced myself to stand and helped her up carefully.
She felt lighter in my arms, as if she had lost weight over the past few weeks from whatever she had endured.
I lifted her and jumped down from the train, landing on the platform.
Then I set her down gently and cupped her face in my hands.
She stared at in confusion, as if trying to recognize .
That hurt.
Footsteps sounded behind us.
I turned quickly, expecting fleshmingos.
Instead, I saw Haiden, Troy, Leysa, and Fauna.
I scanned the area, half expecting to find myself back on the mainland.
If this was not the mainland, then why the fuck were they here?
"We had to co," Haiden explained, noticing the questions in my eyes.
"And why is he here?" I grunted, nodding toward Troy.
Troy scratched the back of his neck, guilt written across his face.
As I fixed my stare on him, Clentine swayed.
I caught her before she fell and steadied her.
Then I guided her to a bench and helped her sit down.
She rubbed her face with both hands.
"Look, I know I ssed up," Troy began. "But I only wanted to spend ti with her. That is all."
"I swear I did not even touch her. The mont I took her out of that place, I regretted it."
He paused and glanced at Leysa.
"I started realizing what a second chance feels like. When soone accepts you. When they love you. I am in love with Leysa. Nothing happened to Clentine while she was with ."
He stopped, rembering that ssi had abducted her right in front of him.
"I do not understand," Clentine murmured.
Her voice was broken, and it pulled our attention back to her.
If she had not spoken, I would have taken my anger out on soone. Either them or the fleshmingos.
"You are okay," I whispered, sitting beside her.
She turned toward and narrowed her eyes.
"Who are you?" she asked, making my fists clench.
I lifted my head sharply and glared at Haiden and Troy.
"We did not do anything," Troy defended quickly. "It was the experints."
Leysa nodded to his statent.
"I told you about the dicine they gave her," she said quietly.
She had only shared fragnts of what happened there.
By fragnts, I ant she ntioned a loss but refused to explain it. She felt it was not her place.
I was afraid of what that loss might be.
"Clentine," I whispered, closing my eyes as I drew a deep breath.
"Can you rember what happened to you in the last few weeks?" I asked, thinking about what we had learned so far.
She had been under so kind of dicine that made her accept only Yorick as her mate. Now that he had rejected her, she should have returned to her normal state. Why wasn’t she?
Clentine inhaled and placed her hands on the sides of the bench, staring upward in confusion. She zoned out for a mont while we exchanged silent glances.
"I was at the council leader’s place," she began, and a spark ran through my body. It was a good start.
"And then..." She trailed off and rubbed her temples with both hands. "I... they said..." she stamred, unfocused, her sentences broken, but we let her continue.
"They said I was..."
She stopped rubbing her temples and opened her eyes wide, as if sothing had clicked.
"I was pregnant."
The mont she spoke and touched her stomach, my heart seed to stop. I glanced at Haiden and Troy and saw the grief on Troy’s face. Leysa looked the sa.
Then I rembered the loss they had ntioned.
"They... they fed sothing to make lose my baby." Her voice cracked as she ran her hands through her hair. "They killed my baby. They killed our baby, Ian."
She turned to and grabbed my shirt, shaking before collapsing.
A storm of emotions tore through . My body felt frozen.
It was not easy to react that fast, but I forced my arms around her and held her tight. All I wanted was to leave, find Yorick and his family, and kill those assholes.
Haiden grunted and punched the air before striding away. Fauna wiped at her tears as Clentine sobbed. Leysa’s eyes were misty too.
We had all suffered a terrible loss.
Clentine clung to and cried until she suddenly twisted out of my arms.
"Who are you?" she asked.
The mont she repeated that question, the hair on the back of my neck rose.
This wasn’t how it was supposed to be. She wasn’t supposed to keep forgetting .
"I’m Ian. I’m your mate. Your marked mate. Your husband," I told her, holding her hand and pressing a kiss to the back of it.
She stared at in silence, blinking through her wet lashes.
The look in her eyes cut deep.
"How are we going to fix this?" I demanded, rising from the bench when it beca clear she still did not rember .
I wanted my Clentine back. The fierce woman who could control when she chose to. That was her right. Her identity was her right.
"I think I know what we can do," Leysa spoke up, drawing our attention.
"When Yorick rejected her, that’s when she started rembering anything beyond him," she continued, and I could tell the others understood where she was heading.
"I think she has to be rejected by her mates. All of them except Ian. The marked one."
As soon as she finished, my gaze locked on Haiden and Troy. Both were settled with their other mates now.
They did not look confident.
"Would that work?" I questioned.
Leysa lowered her head.
"That’s what I learned from the fires about the dicine’s effects," she murmured, covering her face with her hands and turning away from Haiden and Troy. They clearly did not welco the idea of rejecting Clentine.
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