Shattered Bonds A Second Chance Mate (by Yui) novel Chapter 243

Chapter 243

Mother Severine.

Her face glowed pale and cruel in the dim light, her eyes like coals under ash.

For a heartbeat. I couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe.

Then something inside me snapped.

Turned toward the mirror, fury tearing through my grief.

“Is this what you want?!” I screamed, my voice raw. “To see him suffer? To see me lose him?! WHY?! Why can’t you see he’s different?!”

–

The mirror pulsed once faintly – like it had heard me.

Tears blurred my vision. I didn’t care.

I slammed my hand against the cracked glass. “You think love ends in blood because you let it! But he’s not you! He’s not Totti! And I’m not you!”

The air trembled.

For an instant, the reflection shifted – Severine’s eyes softened, a flicker of something human there – doubt, maybe sorrow – before it hardened again.

‘Foolish girl, her voice hissed, echoing through the room. ‘Love always begins the same. It ends the same.”

“No,” I choked out, shaking my head. “Not this time. Not us.”

Then the mirror splintered completely – a shattering sound like a scream – and the world fell into darkness.

I turn my gaze back to my mate. “No, Francesco… NOOOOO!!!!”

I don’t remember how long I screamed.

It tore from me like something living, something wild — the sound of a heart breaking and refusing to die with it.

barely realized my hands were still pressing on his stomach, trying to stop the bleeding.

His blood was warm against my palms, soaking through my clothes, seeping into my skin.

It can’t be real, please tell me that it was a nightmare. ́

“Francesco! Please!” I sobbed, shaking him. “Open your eyes! Look at me!”

He didn’t move.

His head lolled to the side, lips parted, his dark eyes half–lidded.

“No, no, no-”

Then I heard it – footsteps.

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So many of them.

The door burst open.

“My Luna!” Audrey’s voice cut through the storm in my chest. She was the first to reach me, her face draining of color the instant she saw him. “Goddess-”

Behind her came Alfonso, Marlow, Monica, and Lira.

Blood. There was blood everywhere.

For a heartbeat, no one moved.

–

The shock froze them, turned them into statues all except me.

“He–he did it himself,” I stammered, barely recognizing my own voice. “He said–it won’t stop until one of us dies-”

My breath broke, and I bent over him again, pressing harder, my fingers slipping on the slick red.

“Luna Ellaine,” Audrey whispered, trying to reach me.

“NO….!! Don’t touch him!” I screamed. “Don’t-!”

Lira knelt quickly beside us, her healer’s instincts overriding her shock. “He’s still breathing,” she said, her voice shaking but steady. “Barely.”

“Then heal him!” I begged. “Please, Lira, do something!”

Monica grabbed a cloth from the table and pressed it against the wound, her hands trembling. “We need to stop the bleeding-”

“I am trying,” Lira hissed through clenched teeth, her palms already glowing faint green as she hovered them above Francesco’s wound. “But the curse—it’s tangled in him. It’s fighting me.”

“Then fight harder!” I cried.

Lira’s eyes

flicked up to mine – full of pity. “Luna, listen to me-”

“No!” I refused to hear it. “You don’t stop! You don’t stop! I don’t want to hear anything!”

Audrey tried to pull me back, to give Lira space, but I lashed out, my voice cracking with grief. “Don’t You dare take him

from me!”

“Luna, please—”

“I said don’t touch him!”

My claws half–formed without me realizing.

I shoved at them, half–crazed, every nerve in my body screaming in defiance.

Francesco’s blood slicked my fingers, painted my arms, streaked my face.

But, I didn’t care.

He wasn’t breathing right. I could hear it shallow, wrong, fading.

–

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“Stay with me,” I whispered against his lips. “Please, stay with me, Francesco. Why? Why are you doing this?”

For a moment – just one his eyelids fluttered.

–

hought I heard him say my name.

Then has chest stilled again.

sound escaped me-

Oh God…

small, broken. “No, no, no…”

“Luna..” It was Lira now, voice trembling. “He’s slipping away. We have to move him.”

I shook my head stubbornly “No, I won’t let you take him!” I clutched his body tighter, pressing my forehead to his. “He’s not leaving me! Do you hear me?! He’s not!”

Tears blurred my vision.

The bond between us flickered like a candle about to die, then steadied faint, fragile, but there.

He’s still here.

He’s still here.

“Luna,” Alfonso said softly, stepping forward, his face lined with sorrow. “We need to help him. Please.”

But the sound of their voices was drowning beneath the noise inside my head – my pulse, the whispers, the echo of Francesco’s words.

‘It won’t stop until one of us dies.‘”

I pressed my palms harder against his wound, refusing to feel the truth under my fingers.

He’s warm. He’s still warm. That means he’s alive.

That means I can still save him.

Right?

“Luna,” Lira whispered again. “Let us—”

“No!” My voice broke into a raw cry. “Don’t take him from me!”

And that’s when I felt it – a soft touch at my neck, a familiar hand trembling.

“Forgive me, my Luna,” Lira whispered.

Before I could turn, the air filled with the scent of herbs – lavender and valerian, bitter and sweet.

A calming potion…

“No!” I gasped, trying to push her away. “Don’t-”

But the world already tilted.

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1:05 voucherá-

The edges of the room blurred, melting into light and shadow. The roar in my chest dulled to a soft hum.

Francesco’s face blurred above me, fading in and out of focus – gold eyes, blood, lips still faintly curved into a broken

mile.

“Stay with him,” I mumbled, reaching out weakly. “Don’t let him… go…”

Audrey’s hand caught mine, squeezing tightly. Her voice cracked. “We won’t. I swear, Luna.”

Their faces spun in and out of light as my vision dimmed.

Lira’s voice floated somewhere far away, urgent and faint: “We have to work fast. Get the binding runes ready. I need heat-

now!”

Marlow’s voice answered, low and shaking: “If the curse wakes, it’ll kill him.”

“Then keep it asleep,” Lira hissed.

And then nothing.

The last thing I saw before the dark took me was Francesco’s blood–stained hand twitching faintly against the floor, as if reaching for mine.

I reached back, but the darkness pulled faster.

“Don’t you dare leave me,” I whispered into the void. “Not you too…”

And the world went black.