Chapter 120: Chapter 120 Visions of Truth
Seraphina’s POV
Pain crashed through my skull like thunder, leaving behind the metallic taste of fear on my tongue. My eyelids felt weighted with lead as I forced them open, squinting against the harsh fluorescent lights. The sharp scent of disinfectant filled my nostrils. Another hospital room. Another white-walled prison.
When I attempted to move, warmth anchored me in place. His fingers were wrapped around mine, strong and desperate. I turned toward him slowly.
Julian looked like he’d been through hell. His usually perfect hair stuck up at odd angles, and those piercing eyes that normally commanded every room were now clouded with anguish. He was hunched over my bedside, his thumb drawing endless circles across my knuckles.
"Seraphina." The single word fell from his lips like a prayer answered and a heart breaking simultaneously.
I parted my lips to reassure him, to tell him everything was fine, but the world shattered before I could speak.
The sterile room dissolved into nothing. Reality twisted and snapped.
Cold earth bit into my knees. The metallic stench of blood hung thick in the air, choking me. Through someone else’s eyes, I watched a middle-aged man scramble across the dirt, his face sheet-white and streaming with terror-sweat.
Above him stood death itself. Not just a figure, but a mountain of muscle and barely contained violence. Dark laughter rumbled from this shadow, cold and merciless. Something heavy glinted in the darkness above the cowering man.
"Please, I swear I didn’t do anything! My children, they need me!" The man’s voice cracked like broken glass.
The weapon descended. Once. Twice. Again and again until the wet sounds made my stomach lurch. This wasn’t combat or even murder. This was savage, calculated butchery. Each blow sent phantom pain shooting through my own ribs, stealing my breath. Bone cracked like kindling. Blood painted the ground in grotesque patterns.
"Seraphina! Come back to me! Now!" Julian’s voice sliced through the vision like a blade, his hands shaking my shoulders roughly.
Air rushed back into my lungs as I gasped myself back to consciousness. The hospital room reformed around me, but my head felt like it might split apart at the seams.
Nausea rolled through me in waves. I clamped my eyes shut, fighting it back. When I opened them again, Julian was staring at me with naked terror written across his features.
Something wet and warm trickled down my face. I raised trembling fingers to my mouth. They came away slick with bright red blood streaming from my nose.
The tears came hard and fast, my whole body convulsing with sobs I couldn’t control.
"Julian, there’s something wrong with me!" The words tore from my throat. "I can’t make it stop! These visions just take over completely!"
Without hesitation, he gathered me against his chest, mindful of the IV tube snaking from my arm. His embrace was fierce and protective.
"Easy, sweetheart. I’m right here. You’re safe," he whispered against my hair, his palm rubbing soothing circles on my back.
But his comfort only made the panic worse. I pulled back, fisting his shirt in my hands.
"You don’t understand! This is the third time this has happened! But this one was different, it hurt so much. Like something was tearing through my mind and my very soul. I wasn’t even me anymore!"
His voice stayed level, controlled. "I understand. I know how frightening this must be. But we’ll find answers. I promise you everything will be alright."
Minutes passed before the trembling finally subsided. Julian kept his large hand pressed gently against my forehead until my breathing evened out.
He carefully cleaned the blood from my face, but the horrific images still burned behind my eyelids.
"Someone murdered him brutally," I whispered, my gaze fixed on the ceiling tiles. "Julian, was that man was he from the pack that was destroyed?"
Something shifted in Julian’s expression. The immediate concern hardened into something colder, more calculating. His nod was slow and deliberate.
"You witnessed it," he said, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper.
I nodded, bile rising in my throat.
"It was savage, wasn’t it?" I didn’t pause for his response. "It was absolutely horrifying. Dorian isn’t just trying to harm us. He wants to completely annihilate us. He’ll never stop."
Julian leaned closer, his jaw locked tight. "We’re aware. But we will hunt Dorian down. We will end this."
"This is deeply personal for him," I said, forcing myself to focus on the brutal memory. "And he explained his reasons to me. Honestly, Julian..."
I hesitated, studying my hands that still shook slightly.
"If someone had destroyed my family that way, I might have chosen the same path."
The temperature in the room plummeted.
Julian jerked away from me so violently I thought I’d physically struck him. The horror in his eyes was immediate and absolute, like he was looking at a stranger wearing my face.
"Are you are you actually defending what he’s done? What he continues to do?" His voice had gone arctic, stripped of every trace of warmth.
"No! That’s not what I meant at all!" I shot back, frustrated by his complete misunderstanding. "But that doesn’t change the reality that both our fathers played a role in his father’s death!"
"That justifies nothing, Seraphina!" Julian practically snarled the words.
"I’m not trying to paint Dorian as some innocent victim!" I grabbed his arm desperately. "But eventually we have to face the truth that’s staring us in the face! Our fathers orchestrated the massacre of the Ruined Fang. Thousands of innocent people died, Julian. There’s no excuse for that kind of brutality either. It doesn’t make our fathers any more righteous than Dorian, regardless of what they’ve told us!"
The words poured out of me, driven by the terrible vision still echoing in my mind. I’d never spoken this truth aloud before, and it felt like swallowing broken glass.
"Everyone knows that the sins of the father always come back to haunt the children. We’re living proof of that right now!"
Julian’s face flushed crimson. Fury blazed in his eyes like wildfire.
"What exactly do you think we should do, Seraphina?" he demanded, looming over me with rigid tension. "Should we execute our own fathers to appease Dorian’s revenge? Is that your brilliant solution?"
His defensiveness cut deeper than his anger. It was like he was hiding something crucial from me.
"Of course not, I would never suggest something so extreme!" I hissed, trying to keep my voice low enough that the medical staff wouldn’t overhear. "I’m trying to understand Dorian’s psychological motivation behind all this destruction. I’m trying to comprehend why he lost everyone in that fire..."
Julian exhaled shakily, his voice dripping with raw fury.
"Dorian’s father was a monster who deserved his fate. He orchestrated the deaths of countless innocent people. If he had survived, many more would have perished! Our fathers had no alternative but to take the action they did."
He stared down at me with eyes gone cold as winter steel.
"If you’re still determined to justify Dorian’s actions," he said, each word cutting like a knife, "then you’re not the woman I believed you to be."
