Bound By Moonlight to My Mates (by Sofange Daye) novel Chapter 75

Tala

The fire eats everything. The roof caves in, and for a heartbeat, Theo’s arms are the only thing keeping me tethered to the world. His voice is lost in the roar, his face a blur of smoke and light.

I cling to his body, knowing that it will consume us both. Theo presses a kiss to my forehead and then stares into my eyes. “I will find you,” he yells over the flames. “In every lifetime, I will find you.”

I don’t understand what he means until the flames lick at our feet. I scream out in agony as they climb the hem of my skirt. All the while, Theo doesn’t let me go. He holds me close, enduring the pain of the fire in silence. He presses his lips to mine one last time before darkness consumes me.

Then there is only heat.

And silence. The heat disappears, and the flames no longer burn my skin. For a moment, I think I have imagined it all, like it was one terrible dream.

When I open my eyes again, the flames are gone. The ground beneath me is made of light, and a silver sky stretches forever above. I know this place, it’s the Moon Goddess’s domain. My mother’s domain.

She sits in front of me, her white robes billowing in the breeze. Her gaze is not one of an adoring mother, but of a goddess who has been betrayed. Her blue eyes narrow in my direction, and a snarl curls her lips.

“Tala.”

I fall to my knees, ash still clinging to my skin, the bond’s faint hum echoing in my blood. “Mother,” I whisper. “Please, let me save him.”

“Silence.”

Her voice ripples through the air like thunder. The Moon Goddess steps forward, her form shifting between brilliance and shadow. Her eyes are cold and unblinking. They cut through me as if she can still see the stain of Theo’s touch on my soul.

“You disobeyed me,” she says. “You bound yourself to what I cast out.”

I bow my head, tears burning down my face. “I love him.”

“Love?” The word drips with disdain. “You have doomed an entire race for love. His curse was meant to end with him, but now it infects all who share his blood. You tethered your divine essence to his corruption. And for that, the wolves will suffer.”

“No….” My hands clutch the fabric of my gown. “Please, don’t punish them. Punish me.”

She raises an eyebrow, studying me with a coldness I have not felt from her before. “You would take the punishment on your own.”

“Yes,” I whimper. “We were only drawn to each other because of the bond. I was not strong enough to defy it. I craved him, Mother. You created the bonds, surely you understand their power.”

A growl rumbles in her chest. “I did not create this one.”

It could be a lie, but I would never know. Her face remains unchanged, daring me to speak out against her again.

“Please,” I beg again. “Don’t make others suffer because of me.”

Her hand lifts, and a blade forms from the light, familiar and cruel. The silver dagger. The same one that drew our blood, that sealed our fates. She places it in my palms. It burns cold, scaring my skin, branding me with its purpose.

“You will walk among them,” she decrees, “again and again, until the debt is paid. Every life you live, you will remember what you’ve done. And in every life, the choice will remain, kill him and end the curse… or continue to damn your kind.”

“No,” I beg. “You know I cannot. I will not. We are bound together.”

She rises from her throne, closing the distance between us. Her fingers brush my cheek, deceptively gentle. “Do what I could not. End him.”

The light vanishes from beneath me, and I fall.

The wind screams past my ears, tearing through my hair, stealing my breath. The dagger clings to my hand like a chain. I try to let it go, to let it fall into the nothingness below me, but I can’t. It is bound to me, just like I am bound to Theo. I plummet through darkness, through centuries, through lifetimes. And each one ends the same.

The blade at my heart.

In one life, I am a peasant girl, clutching the dagger as the sickness spreads through my village. A mate stands at my side, but it isn’t Theo. He loves me and I love him, but it isn’t enough to end the sickness. Theo finds me too late; I press the blade to my chest, whispering his name before the world fades.

In another, I am a huntress in the woods, my bow abandoned beside a fire that won’t warm me. Theo kneels before me, begging, the same desperation in his eyes. “End it, Tala. Please.” But I only kiss him once and drive the blade into myself instead.

Again.

And again.

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