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The Alpha’s Borrowed Luna
Chapter 267
The dreamscape was familiar, the cleating by the lake where Frost and I had trained together countless times. He sat on a fallen log, looking exactly as he had in life, his ice blue eyes reflecting the water’s surface.
“Take a picture; it will last longer,” he said without turning, his lips irving into that half–smile I’d missed so desperately.
“Frost, I miss you so much. I moved toward him, unable to believe how real he seemed.
“And so do I, of course. Lay with me.” He patted the space beside him on the log. “The sun is so beautiful today, but not as beautiful as you are.”
The dream felt too real, too vivid. Could this actually be Frost, somehow reaching out to me from beyond death?
“I will bring you back; I’ve found a way,” I told him.
His expression shifted, the smile fading. “But I don’t want that.”
“What I couldn’t have heard him correctly.
“I don’t want you dying for me, not after everything I went through to make sure you escaped and stayed alive. Also, the sorceress told you about the negative consequences, didn’t she?” His tone was firm.
“But that’s only a possibility, not a fact.”
“I don’t want to be remembered as a monster, Elowen. But have in mind that if you go through with this, it is not only your life you would be sacrificing.” His eyes held mine, filled with a wisdom he’d always possessed in life.
“Frost, you never deserved to die.” My voice cracked on the words.
“I wanted to save you, and I’m glad it wasn’t all for nothing, so I want you to do one last thing for me; can you do that?” he asked, squeezing my hand.
“Yes, anything.” I would have promised him the world.
“I want you to let me go.”
The simple request hit me like a physical blow. “Frost…”
“Please, Elowen, this is the only way you could move forward; you need to let me go.” His voice was gentle but insistent.
Tears welled in my eyes, spilling down my cheeks. “I’m sorry.”
“I told you I don’t like seeing you in tears; it only hurts me to watch. He brushed away a tear with his thumb, his touch impossibly real for a dream. “Kaius loves you,” he added, his voice dropping to nearly a whisper.
Kaius. I repeated the name, the pain of loss fresh again.
“Elowen.”
The voice came not from Frost but from somewhere else–somewhere beyond the dream. I blinked, struggling to hold onto the vision of Frost, but it was already fading, dissolving into the waking world.
Elowen, wake up.”
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Chapter 267
I opened my eyes, disoriented by the sudden transition from dream to reality. The room was dark, illuminated only by moonlight streaming through the window. And there, sitting on the edge of the bed, wat Kalus,
For a moment, I thought I was
ill dreaming.
“The sorceress visited a while ago. She told me about the sacrifice you wanted to make to bring Frost back. His voice was rough, his eyes shadowed in the dim light. “Elowen, please don’t do it.
I sat up slowly, Frost’s shirt still clutched in my hand. ‘I thought this was what you wanted.”
‘No. It is not.”
“But you said…”
“I said some really stupid words because I was mad and angry; that didn’t mean I meant them. You wanted to talk, right? Let’s talk. Tell me everything that happened and don’t leave anything out. His amber eyes were tired but clear, without the hatred I’d grown accustomed to seeing.
Hope flickered to life within me, fragile and uncertain. “Okay, I’ll start from the very first time Thalia paid me a visit after her escape from the dungeons.”
He nodded, settling more comfortably on the bed, his face serious but open. For the first time in months, he was truly looking at me, truly listening.
And so I began to talk, pouring out everything.
Kaius listened without interruption, his expression shifting between shock, anger, and something else.
“When I found you in that cell,” I continued, my voice growing hoarse from talking, “I knew I had to make you hate me, had to convince you completely that I’d betrayed you. It was the only way Thalia would let you live.”
“And Frost?” he asked, the name still painful for us both. “How did he…”
“He refused to leave without me. The building was collapsing, and he was injured–too badly to move quickly. He made me promise to find you, to get you out.” The memory still burned, still tore at my heart. “He died saving both of us, Kaius. And I thought… I thought if I could bring him back, you would be happy again.”
Kaius was silent for a long moment, his face unreadable in the moonlight. When he finally spoke, his voice was thick with emotion.
“You were willing to die for me. Again.” He reached out, hesitantly, his fingers brushing my cheek. “After everything I said to you, everything I did…”
“I love you,” I said simply. “I always have.”
He closed his eyes briefly, as if in pain. “I treated you so terribly.”
“You were grieving. You thought I’d betrayed you.” I tentatively covered his hand with mine, expecting him to pull away. He didn’t.
“That’s no excuse. I should have listened. I should have known you would never…” His voice broke.
“How could you hanown?” I asked gently. “Thalia’s performance was convincing. It had to be, or you would have died.”
He moved closer, his free hand coming up to frame my face. “Promise me you won’t go to the sorceress. Promise me you won’t try to bring Frost back.”
“I dreamt of him,” I admitted. “Just now. He told me to let him go. He told me you…” I couldn’t finish, couldn’t voice the hope
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Chapter 267
beginning to bloom in my cu
Tive you, Eaius said, completing the thought. I never stopped. En when I hated you, I loved you. And if terrified me.
The words Id longed to bear for so many months washed over me l a healing balm I thought I’d lost you forever.
Never. His forehead touched mine, his breath warm against my lips I’m so sorry, Elowen. For everything.”
‘I’m sorry too.” And I was sorry for the choices that had led us here sorry for the pain we’d both endured, sorry for Frost who would never return.
When Kaius’s lips finally met mine, it felt like coming home after the longest journey. The kiss was gentle, almost tentative, both of us afraid this moment might shatter like glass. But as it deepened, felt something within me begin to heal–a wound so deep I’d stopped noticing its constant pain.
“We’ll honor him,” Kaius whispered against my lips. “We’ll live the life he died to give us. Together.”
In that moment, I knew Frost had been right. The way forward wasn’t through sacrifice or death–it was through living, through loving, through honoring the gift he’d given us with his last breath.
For the first time since his death, I felt myself truly letting go.
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