Moonbound: The Rogue's Second Chance
Chapter 138: DO YOU WANT ME TO LEAVE?

Chapter 138: DO YOU WANT ME TO LEAVE?

Darius didn’t reply right away. He simply watched her, eyes flickering across her face like he was memorizing it in this quiet moment. Then, he shifted, resting on his side and letting his hand drop from her hair to the soft bed between them.

"You were never meant to be bait," he said eventually. "If I had my way, you wouldn’t even be in this den of madness."

Serena tilted her head and gave a soft, dry chuckle. "If I had my way, I’d be somewhere... not in a stone castle."

"Really? Where else?"

Serena took a few seconds to herself and mulled over her answer. "Well, I would choose somewhere quiet but not far off from town, where I can help people."

Serena tapped on her chin before she added, "Like the infirmary but in a smaller town."

Darius hummed in acknowledgement. He remembered their visit to the infirmary. Serena was quick to correct the mistake of a younger healer, even so, she surprised the senior healer that was making rounds with them. She seemed shocked herself.

She’d told him it was something her mother taught her. A tear-jerking story, one he hadn’t let himself linger on at the time. He’d never asked how she knew the old nickname of that herb, one known mostly to experienced healers, passed from mouth to mouth like sacred lore. She said she was born of rogues, lived that life and knew nothing else.

Darius wondered if her parents were wolves who committed grievous offenses and were ousted out of their pack as punishment, or was her family line from a long line of rogue wolves. He made a mental note to ask her some other time.

"Maybe a cabin in the woods?" he suggested.

Serena blinked slowly. The smile that had started to form stalled halfway, and her shoulders sank just a fraction. She looked down at her hands, fingers curling slightly. She had a cabin in the woods once, before this whole complicated but welcome mess she had found herself in at Ironshade.

"Alone? I... I can not do that again," Serena murmured.

She had forgotten herself and slipped back into those lonely days and nights. Even the cat that she had come to find solace in visited her every now and then. It was a maddening loop of waking up and going to sleep. Fear had made her settle down in Lupine Hollow, but life there was still as treacherous as it was when she moved about.

The cabin had felt like a coffin some days. Her only company had been a cat that wandered by now and then, more ghost than pet. Meals were sparse and always the same, her hands red and raw from scraping at frozen earth, begging her herbs to grow. She’d fashioned crude traps, just as her father taught her, but hope was rarely rewarded. Most days she returned to find them sprung and stolen from, the wire gnawed through or yanked apart. Once, she went three days without a real meal, just water and the bitterness of wild roots.

On the verge of collapse, but she trudged on into the forest only to see the foot of a large hare. Serena fell to her knees and stared in shock. She had come out a long way from the little marked space that she deemed safe. Half driven to madness by hunger and loneliness, only to come across a stolen meal. She bit her lips until they bled, and then she cried.

She was never one to believe in luck, but in that moment, she branded herself as cursed. It felt as if unluckiness itself had singled her out. She’d called out for Feyra then, voice ragged and hoarse, but was ultimately met with silence Without her, she could not hunt properly. It was hours before she returned to him, utterly hopeless and disgraced.

"I can not," she repeated again.

Darius perked up at her slow replies. It was almost like she had left her body. He inched closer to her and placed his hand over hers. "No, not alone. Of course not."

Serena blinked rapidly and then stared down at him. It took several seconds before she could muster up a reply. "Oh, sorry. I was assuming again."

She pressed her free hand to her forehead and exhaled slowly. This almost seemed like a dream, getting into this place. Perhaps it was a trap to get her to enjoy here and relish in the comfort before everyone would turn their backs on her again and send her out with wicked frowns.

She looked at Darius properly now. Before she knew it, winter would come and then she would be gone. She would never get to laugh at when he was behaving like a dramatic actor and far from the cruel title they had slapped on him. She would never get to listen to Annamarie and Jack bicker again, and Clara’s letters would stop trickling in.

Serena found it difficult to swallow, and her pupils burned. The issues of Dawnbreak were a welcome distract, but in this moment of being teased she was reminded that there was a cabin in the woods waiting for her. An old, mossy, and creaky cabin waiting to chain her soul again.

She tried to focus on her breathing. She blinked at Darius again. She knew she was being silent for so long. Snap out of it, please. The woman begged herself over and over again until her thoughts were no longer coherent.

Darius watched helplessly as Serena tried but failed to speak. She opened her mouth once and that was it. He racked his brain for what he had said wrong. Of course it was the cabin, but he did not know that thought would bring about such a reaction. He sat up immediately and pulled her to his chest.

She murmured something before he leaned closer to her mouth. "I did not quite hear you, say it again."

Darius heard a sharp inhale from her, and the next words rang loud and clear. "Do you want me to leave Ironshade like Livia?"