Chapter 141. Blood and Shadows

Xerina’s POV

I kept running.

The forest closed in around me, thick and suffocating, like it could feel the chaos inside me. Every tree was a twisted silhouette. The branches overhead looked like claws, stretching to tear me apart. But I didn’t stop. I couldn’t.

Rasmus’s face. His eyes. His words. You loved me once.

It echoed. Every step I took, it echoed. Louder, closer, until it felt like the earth was shaking under the weight of it. His voice, his pain, his blood. I could still feel it on my hands. Sticky. Warm. His blood. The blood of the man who had once been everything to me.

A part of me—the deepest part, the part I’d buried—still screamed. You’re killing him.

But I had to forget. I needed to forget.

I stumbled, my foot catching on something, and fell hard. My knees hit the ground with a sickening crack, but I barely felt it. Everything was numb. All I could hear was Rasmus’s voice. All I could feel was the darknes