Chapter 148
Chapter 148
FAYE
I shook my head slowly, the weight of Alexander’s words sinking in. For a moment, I wasn’t even sure I’d heard him right. The air around us felt heavy– too still, too charged. My heart was pounding so loudly I could barely hear my own voice when I asked, “What are you saying, Alexander p>
He was standing across from me, still half in shock himself. But I could tell he was trying- trying to stay composed, trying not to let me see that this scared him too.
He swallowed hard, his eyes flicking briefly toward me before settling on the floor. “I’m saying if you’re seeing something that isn’t happening right now, then maybe–just maybe–you’re not imagining it.” His voice was careful. “Maybe you’re seeing visions. Maybe that’s your dominant gift p>
The world seemed to tilt. My breath caught halfway up my throat, and for a few seconds, I couldn’t move. His words echoed again and again in my head until they started to blur together, forming one terrifying truth.
If that was true… then what I had seen wasn’t a nightmare. It wasn’t some trick of my mind. It
was real. Or at least, it would be.
I took a shaky step backward, my fingers trembling. “No,” I whispered, shaking my head again as if I could physically reject the thought. “No, Alexander. If I was seeing visions, that means
that p>
I stopped. The next words felt too heavy to say out loud. My throat tightened painfully as I looked up at him, the realization clawing its way up from the pit of my stomach.
“That means you’re going to get hurt,” I finished, my voice breaking.
He stared at me for a long moment, and I could see the conflict flicker across his face–the part of him that wanted to believe me and the part that refused to. I could tell which side was winning.
Before I could pull away, he reached out and took my arm gently, guiding me toward the couch. I was too shaken to resist. My body moved, but my mind was somewhere else entirely -still replaying the image that had burned itself into my memory. His blood, the fear…
He made me sit down beside him, his hand still on my arm as if to keep me anchored. “Hey,” he said softly, trying to catch my gaze. “Listen to me, Faye. Maybe I’m wrong, okay? It could be something else. You’ve been through a lot lately–your fever, your energy still balancing
1/4
Claim itself. Maybe what you saw doesn’t mean anything. Maybe your powers are just… acting out in strange ways since the fever stopped p> He said it so casually, like we were talking about hobbies. I stared at him, my mind spinning. “Acting out?” I repeated, almost laughing, though there was nothing funny about any of it. “Alexander, I saw you. You were bleeding. You- ” He cut me off gently, his tone calm. “I know what you think you saw. But Faye, I need you to breathe, alright? We don’t know what it means yet. And panicking over something that might not even happen p> “Might not?” I snapped before I could stop myself. “You’re seriously going to sit there and tell me that this is nothing? That I should just ignore it p> He exhaled slowly, rubbing the bridge of his nose the way he always did when he was trying to stay patient. “I’m telling you that we need to stay level–headed about this. You’re scared, I get it. But we can’t jump to conclusions based on something we don’t understand yet p> That made me want to scream. How could he be so calm? How could he speak so evenly when my entire world had just tilted on its axis? He could be annoying when he was in this mode–composed, controlled, infuriatingly steady even when everything around him was burning. I didn’t know whether to be grateful that he was trying to keep me grounded or furious that he seemed to be downplaying what just happened. “Do you even hear yourself right now?” I said, my voice shaking. “You should be panicking, Alexander. You should be as terrified as I am, because if I’m really seeing the future, then that means p> He looked up at me then, his expression soft. “Then it means we’ll deal with it, okay,” he said quietly. “Together p> Something about the calm certainty in his tone made my anger falter. His eyes met mine. There was something there…something that told me he had thought about it, that he just didn’t want me to drown in the same fear he was probably feeling himself. But I wasn’t convinced. I couldn’t be. The image was too vivid, too real. I pulled away from him slightly, wrapping my arms around myself. “No,” I said under my breath. “I’m not waiting around for this to ‘pass.‘ I can’t p> He frowned. “What do you mean? ” “I mean I’m going to see my parents first thing in the morning,” I said firmly. “Before the 2/4 Chapter 148 Claim summit even begins. They’ll know what’s happening to me–or at least know someone who does. I can’t keep pretending this is nothing, Alexander. This is my ancestral home. Whatever’s wrong with me, whatever’s… changing, it must have its root here p> He watched me carefully, saying nothing. “I can’t keep this from them anymore,” I continued, my voice softening. “They deserve to know. And I need answers. Because if what I saw was a vision…” I trailed off. He sighed, leaning back on the couch. “You think your parents can explain it p> “I think they can try,” I said. “And that’s more than what we’re doing right now p> He didn’t respond. Instead, he reached for my hand, and for a moment I almost let him take it. Almost. But then I pulled back, shaking my head. I couldn’t be soothed. Not this time. The silence that followed was thick and uneasy. I stared into the flames from the fireplace, trying to steady my breathing, but the fear clawed at my chest no matter how hard I tried to suppress it. The image wouldn’t leave me. What if it wasn’t just a possibility? What if it was inevitable? Or could it actually mean nothing? “Maybe you’re right,” I said finally, though my voice didn’t sound like my own. “Maybe it’s nothing. But I can’t take that chance. I won’t wait for what I saw to happen before I start believing it’s real p> Alexander looked at me for a long moment, his jaw tightening just slightly. I could see it now -the flicker of worry he was trying so hard to hide. The faint tension around his eyes. The way his fingers drummed once against his knee before he caught himself. He wasn’t as calm as he wanted me to think. But he still managed a small, reassuring smile. “Then we’ll talk to your parents tomorrow,” he said simply. I blinked at him. “You’ll come with me p> “Of course p> For a second, the knot in my chest loosened just a little. But as he reached over to brush a stray strand of hair from my face, I realized something that made the fear come rushing back. Maybe he wasn’t calm because he didn’t believe it would happen…maybe he was calm because he’d already accepted it. 3/4 He would face it if it came… whatever it was. And that terrified me even more than what I saw. Comments Get Bonus ( Ad) >