Offered to the Triplet Alphas

Chapter- 98. Inheritance

[Xanthea]

'May you find my guilt at the right time and may it save you from your own. May you find answers to all your questions in my memories and I hope you hate me a little less.'

A woman's voice echoed in the back of my mind, weaving through the symphony of shattering glass when my eyes locked with Ezra's through the mist of showering shards and embers.

We were both frozen in time at that moment. And as the wave of an unfamiliar guilt crashed upon me, I knew we'd never be the same again.

The pain in Ezra's eyes blurred everything around me, leaving only the soft whispers of a woman singing in my mind.

Her voice floated like a lullaby, perhaps meant to soothe the child she cradled and caressed in her womb. But instead of gentle words to lull the baby to sleep, her song was forged from heartless, jagged words, each syllable a blade that pierced the child awake - splintering a life that wasn't even born yet.

'Thea, my poor child. You will carry the burden of my existence, inherit every shadow and scar I've left behind. Born from my guilt, my sins, my deepest regrets - you shall be my redemption. You shall be their cure, but there shall be no cure for the accursed fate your mother leaves you with. Forgive me, Thea... my baby...'

The words and the voice kept repeating in my head, but I failed to comprehend anything that was happening within me. At least, not until the chaos vanished, and I regained my consciousness to Asher's whisper. 'Don't worry, wife... I want you to feel this guilt because it's going to get worse.'

It did. The foreign guilt got heavier with every breath, crushing my heart. I didn't know the origin of the guilt or why I felt it so profoundly. All I knew was it belonged to my mother, but now it was mine.

'You have owned your mother's dreams, now it's time for you to own her guilt too...'

A restless, unexplained anxiety bubbled through me at Asher's words. He knew. Not just the guilt, but also my mother.

'You will never become like your mother. I will make sure you don't. But it's a burden you must bear for us. In your heart, in your soul, in your womb.'

How did he know my mother? No, what did she do? What should I do now?

'You have played your part exceptionally well so far, wife. So for now, go to sleep...'

For a second, there was nothing. I was nowhere and then the next; I found myself falling as though someone had pushed me off a cliff. I plunged into a free fall, helpless, plummeting through the thorny branches of the trees that cracked and stabbed through my skin. Pain. There was an unyielding pain.

But before I could grasp what was happening, I was falling through a narrow, suffocating tunnel. The tunnel was alive with memories that closed in from all directions as the light above me faded into darkness.

The openness vanished, and the tunnel squeezed tighter and tighter, pulling me deeper into the abyss, where there was no sound but the echo of my own frantic breaths.

There was no direction, just the feeling of endless falling, deeper and deeper, into something I couldn't escape. The further I fell, the colder the air grew, and my skin prickled with a chill that sank deep into my bones.

Shadows shifted, forming jagged, unyielding shapes, like memories of things I couldn't quite grasp but felt in my soul, each one waiting to drag me further down. They pressed closer, darker, threatening to crush me under the weight of their presence.

walls as though hundreds of red eyes were watching me, following as I fell. Something pounced out of the tunnel wall and shot towards me. Another followed it and then another, but there was only as

dipped in venom, spreading a feverish burn that sent waves

Panicking, I brandished my hands and legs to fight

desperation, tearing, gnawing, each

dreaming, but the pain

neither wake up nor save myself. I had been buried in a grave of my mother's memories in the middle of

I couldn't understand. I was suffocating, but I knew that even death wouldn't come to save me here. It was at that

it might never come for them and

my throat, but it was stifled down into hundreds of bubbles as I found myself drowning in a pitch black swamp being attacked, eaten and chewed apart;

could even open my eyes, I was dragged back into the water. I stretched out my hands out of the water, hoping someone took it and pulled me out of the swamp of my mother's memories even

the crushing weight slowly melted away from my soul. The black water peeled away as if repelled by his touch. I squinted my eyes at the blinding flash of light. There were fluttering white wings, and I

that cast long, dancing shadows over the tunnel

barefoot, with a snowy overcoat that billowed behind him as he unfurled his wings and flew me

radiating from the man,

with raw fear. A

light pulsed through the tunnel, and the

onto the white mist, which surprisingly held my weight. The glowing white hand released mine, its touch fading as the light surrounding his form softened, becoming

had tainted my soul. There were no wounds on my body, but

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face, and instantly, I was drawn into a trance that felt timeless - an eternity leading to this moment. Consumed by his intense presence, I couldn't look

illuminating from within. His golden orbs held the brilliance of the sun. His wings rose behind him, vast and shimmering. Each feather spun from pure

around him was electrified with an energy that felt both alien and deeply

as I thoughtlessly crashed

to be here. Please take me out of here," I

he embraced

expected her to be gentler with you. Maybe because you are her daughter. But some people don't change until the very end..." Asher's voice

wake me up," I

how your mother's experiments have always been. The only way to get out of them was to complete them. She wants you to feel

my head, tears streaming

memory forever. The horrors I had already witnessed

truth that had always lingered

keep looking at me, so that I could

a dream. Just a dream. It can't be real. I don't want it to be real. Please say it's just a

lifted his hand,

dream, Xanthea, and I'm just a figment of your imagination. But who said dreams aren't real?" Asher said, and I shut my eyes, clenching my jaws as I