Offered to the Triplet Alphas

Chapter-111. Forget me

[Xanthea]

Asher words reverberated in my mind like an eerie echo leeching into my thoughts.

My grave? What the hell does that even mean?

I am right here. Alive-

That's when it hit me, numbing my rage and fear, leaving me empty. My body went limp as the realization sunk deeper.

If my heart didn't slam against my ribs as violently as it did, I would have believed that I was truly dead.

A thought that had never crossed my mind before crashed like a wave, drowning my entire reality within seconds - was I ever truly alive?

"You mercilessly killed yourself every year on your birthday, burying your soul right here..." Asher said with a faint tremble in his voice. He pressed my palm against the cold white marble of the grave.

"Look what you've done to yourself, Xanthea... what you're still doing. You never mourned your mother. You only mourned yourself..."

Goosebumps prickled across my skin as tears welled in my eyes. Not because I was breaking, but somehow his words were making sense in a way that fixed something inside me. Something he never broke. I could feel the haze of my dark thoughts splintering as the moon glowed a little brighter.

His grip on my body turned gentler. Maybe because I had stopped resisting. I still didn't understand what he was doing or why, but it was working. It was slowly burning away my mother from me. Maybe because I finally realized what he wanted me to.

My tears dropped on the forget-me-nots as I peered at the grave.

"Do you want to know what happened to your mother's soul?" He asked grimly.

My breaths turned colder in my lungs as I took a quick gulp.

"Such information is highly confidential. I could get into a lot of trouble for breaking several laws of the universe as I share this with you, but the trouble's going to be so worth it."

He sounded almost like Ezra, his voice edging towards madness.

"Your mother's soul isn't rotting in some hell." Asher's laugh was jagged, like shards of glass. "No - hell would've been a mercy. After losing her immortality, Cadence died as a mortal, and her soul entered the karmic cycle - the cycle of life and death. She will live and die as many times as the lives she destroyed. Her every life will be uglier than the last until she's endured every drop of pain she ever caused."

His thumb brushed over my tear-stained cheek, almost tender like a blade when it cuts the skin.

"You think you can redeem her by punishing yourself?" He chuckled. "The karma is far crueler than you. That's how the universe works: anything you give others returns to you tenfold."

My breath hitched as he sank into my nape, his nose trailing along the curve of my neck.

her soul is probably somewhere in a mortal body, receiving the

and despite his attempt to keep a neutral tone, his

No pain will suffice. There

deep breath, I pursed my quivering lips, shutting my

or 'should,' bear the burden of her karma. Her guilt will follow her through countless excruciating lives for thousands of years

I whimpered. My chest tightened, his words hitting me like a physical

silence that

such a fate on even my worst enemy. But somehow, no matter how harsh his words were or how deeply they cut, a strange relief

with the fact that my mother was gone. I finally accepted the one thing I had been denying all my life: my mother was dead, buried in this grave, and she was never

remain trapped in the endless cycle of life and

was because I had consciously - deliberately - kept her alive within me for all

one who could reclaim my identity. From this grave, she couldn't touch me, let alone control my mind or

mother, from her emotions and her memories. He wanted me to understand that what was hers could never be mine, and she could never steal what

I was safe.

her dreams out of

you here?" Asher's

my jaw, turning my face to the

to ravage your pussy while you rip the forget-me-nots, screaming my name as your holy juices cleanse your mother's unholy

on my

to my knees, using all my strength to push him back as I turned

to the ground, pinning his

cascaded down the side of my face as I leaned in, my face

actions, but he silently remained on the ground,

tears streamed down my face, dripping onto

it taken me so long to realize that it was probably

so deeply. His raw pain had bled into them so subtly that I

I choked, my voice cracking

our eyes remained locked for what felt like

never do anything without a reason. And your reason... it can never be as hollow

off my eyes and cheeks, refusing to let them blur my

my mind there, but because it helped me find us - our memories. And in those memories, I met myself... for the first time.

my dry

"I feel, Asher."

waist, lowering my head so that my hair hid

calm tone, the word 'feel' drifting from his lips

fucking angry." My eyes dropped to his chest. "With myself. But... at the same time...

shifting me gently onto his

- wasn't a mistake. And if you see it as one, then I'm