My Unchosen Ex Chases Reborn Me (Soren and Fiona) novel Chapter 253

Chapter 253 Haunted By Dreams

Alas, the Fiona Niven who had died in that former lifetime no longer existed.

Soren pulled her close, burying his face in the curve of her neck. After a moment, Fiona felt something warm and damp soak through the silk–his tears.

Fiona could scarcely believe it; never once had she seen him cry. In the previous life, nothing had touched Soren’s composure. War, loss, court intrigue–he faced everything with the same distant calm, as though the world were someone else’s concern.

This time, a half–remembered dream in which she was his bride had softened the ice, but to everyone else, he remained chill and calculating. Duty made him a decent statesman; instinct still made him a ruthless man.

Now, trapped inside that nightmare, he whispered her name again and again, pleading for her to look at him. Each repetition scraped his throat raw, leaving the words low and hoarse.

Fiona stared into the dark for a long, long time. I might have wept at his words the day I awakened in this body, but tonight, the tears refuse to come. Tonight, I feel nothing.

Even his warmth, once a sanctuary, no longer tempted her. After all, she was not the same Fiona he mourned.

Fiona’s smile was polite, almost weightless. “How could you stay away from Broadmoor, my lord? I heard you’ll be departing in only a few days.”

The sound of her voice dragged Soren back to waking. Yet he refused to release her, nuzzling into the hollow of her collarbone and tightening his arms with childish greed.

“Fiona, give us another chance,” he murmured, drunk on her scent and, absurdly, jealous of any memory that placed her in another’s embrace.

“Lord ren, you’re drunk.”

“Then name your terms,” Soren whispered after a thoughtful pause.

“You truly are drunk.” Fiona’s tone stayed even, yet steel rang beneath it. In the past, she had feared offending him, but with Marcus backing her now, the balance had changed.

She had chosen her allegiance, and wavering was no longer an option.

Soren lifted his head, eyes bloodshot, and stared at her. “You know perfectly well that I’m sober.”

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Chapter 253 Haunted By Dreams

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Fiona pushed him away, her voice cool after a moment’s thought. “Your conduct frightens me, Lord Soren. Continue like this, and I’ll have no choice but to marry someone else for shelter.”

Soren’s arms fell still. For one heartbeat, his whole body locked in place.

“All the same, take care in Broadmoor,” she added, remembering that in the previous life, months had passed before word from him reached Jexburgh. He had returned alive then; perhaps disaster would spare him again.

Her concern only deepened his longing. “Fiona, must you truly refuse me?” he asked, voice rough with hope he could not smother.

To keep clawing at a matter even after seeing the final score was to forfeit not only pride but the substance beneath it. For Soren–who had always carried himself above the crowd, chin tilted as if he surveyed the sun–this was the first moment he had ever tasted true humility.

Fiona allowed a slow, almost mischievous smile to blossom across her lips, the lamplight catching on her lashes as she looked up at him. “Lord Soren, do you really believe the title of your future wife is so irresistibly alluring? Think about it. Becoming the Sixth Prince’s consort would place me even higher. One day I might ascend as empress–and in turn, the Niven family would prosper.”

The implication cracked like a whip: she was saying openly that Soren’s influence could not match Zephyr’s rising star.

Men, when cornered on questions of power, bruise faster than fruit.

Of course, Fiona had not spoken idly. She now stood beside Marcus, and any fissure between Soren and Zephyr could serve her purposes–though both men were far too pragmatic to be sundered easily.

Soren’s jaw tightened, a shadow crossing his eyes. “A princess consort is not necessarily more exalted than the woman who stands beside me.”

The vords were perilous–bordering on treason–yet they revealed a future many in the court already whispered about. If the Zonfrillo family kept its stranglehold on power and Zephyr required that power to steady his throne, then the prince, for all his silk and ceremony, could end up dancing on Soren’s strings.

In that light, Soren’s eventual rise to regent no longer seemed impossible. Little wonder the Zonfrillo family watched from the mountainside like a tiger studying another; they feared Zephyr’s strength would one day break their leash.

Fiona also remembered Clearsky Pavilion and the secret dealings between Soren and the Fuller family. The Zonfrillo family itself seemed unsure of those shadows, which meant that

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Chapter 253 Haunted By Dreams

(perhaps the hunger for greater dominion belonged to Soren alone.

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Fiona lowered her gaze, masking the thoughts flickering there. “I’ll find someone to escort you, Lord Soren. You should rest.” Without waiting for his reply, she turned and moved away, skirts brushing the polished floor like trailing clouds.

Left in the hush of her absence, Soren frowned. He had never thought himself so thin- skinned, yet the mere mention of Zephyr unsettled him.

More unsettling still was the memory of the prince’s careless promise–that once the Niven family fell, he would take Fiona as a concubine.