Chapter 157. Horrified Echoes

Xerina’s POV

I hadn’t seen him since the ritual. Two days. Two days of silence. No word. No visit. He had vanished as if the earth had swallowed him whole. It was unlike Rasmus. He never disappeared like this. Not without a reason.

But then again, I had given him one, hadn’t I?

You. Killing me.

I could still hear the words echoing in my head. They had slipped out so easily, but I couldn’t take them back now. Maybe I didn’t want to. The vision felt so real. Too real. I tried to brush it off like a nightmare, a cruel trick of the ritual, but the truth lingered. Papa had said I’d remember in pieces. Fragments. Yet, nothing more had come to me. No clarity. No context. Nothing but shadows and whispers in the back of my mind.

Something told me it wasn’t just childhood memories waiting to resurface. This went deeper. Centuries, maybe. A part of me knew I wasn’t just uncovering memories of this life. There was more—something ancient. Something hid