Chapter 2 Break The Bond

• Diana’s chest began to feel tight. Her heart that had started to feel heavy pounded mercilessly. The tips of her icy fingers were beginning to grow numb, and so did the back of her head. It was fortunate that she had allowed herself to settle on the chair because she could no longer feel her toes. Her legs were just a few seconds away from melting, and her stomach twisted uncomfortably, making it known to her that it wanted to be emptied.
• She took a desperate inhale, giving her lungs the oxygen it urgently needed.
• ‘Breathe, Diana. Breathe…’
• Diana closed her eyes and placed her trembling hands on her lap. Then she began to mentally count backwards from one hundred as she attempted to regain control over her breathing.
• ‘I am fine… I am fine… I will be fine…’
• Clarity slowly settled over her mind, and she was able to gather back most of her bearings soon after. Her body ceased to feel cold and weak, and her heartbeat settled back into a steady rhythm. And even though her chest remained tight and heavy, Diana counted it as a win that she was able to find a semblance of calmness while being in the midst of a crazy situation.
• When she was sure that the strongest threads of panic no longer had a hold on her, Diana began to look for a pen and paper so she could jot down her thoughts and organize them as coherently and accurately as possible.
• She looked down, trying to find the handles of the desk’s drawers, but she found none. She straightened her back, then proceeded to sift through the things on top of the desk. Apart from the mirror and the box, there were books organized into an upright position, supported by an obelisk-shaped amethyst on both sides. There was also a white clam-shaped bowl on the left side of the desk, but it was only filled with twist wrap candies of varying colors. Beside it was a peculiar round calendar that looked nothing like the calendar of the modern world. Then on a wooden tray was a pile of blank parchment.
• Diana tried her luck with the drawers once again, and as expected, she found no way to open them. So as her last resort, her hands grabbed the wooden box, which she had harshly slammed on the desk earlier. She pulled it towards her, its bottom gliding smoothly against the desk’s surface.
• Carefully, she unlocked the antique hasp latch at the very center of the box’s front side and lifted the engraved lid. A seal bearing the Moonfyre insignia, a ring forged with the same design, a simple white quill, and black inkwell were all that was laid on the thin velvet cushion inside the box.
• “Seriously? A quill and an inkwell?” Diana grumbled softly as she picked up the two writing tools.
• Her penmanship when using pens and pencils was fine. Her penmanship when using quill would totally be a different story. She hadn’t had the experience of using one before. She could only hope that the original Diana Claremont-Blackwell had engraved writing with a quill as a skill, deep enough that she, the impostor one, could tap into it while being in her body.
• Diana then took a piece of parchment and laid it right in front of her. She opened the glass inkwell, slightly dipped the quill into the dark ink, and began to organize her thoughts into writing. She lost count how many times she had to dip the light quill in her hand into the inkwell; her full mind completely focused on remembering information from the novel.
• She tried writing everything down in chronological order, putting much effort in racking her brain for any detail about Diana Claremont-Blackwell’s death and Serena’s arrival in Alistair’s life.
• The quill scratched against the parchment hurriedly, Diana’s hand moving with tangible franticness as though she was afraid an information could slip between the crevices of her brain and be never found again if she didn’t hasten her writing.
• But the more words she wrote down, the more she realized that she didn’t know much about the owner of the face she now had. Diana should’ve really expected this. After all, the other Diana was just a passing character who was used as a plot device.
• It seemed like over an hour had passed before Diana finished her comprehensive summary of the novel, which she had broken down into several bullet points. Because when she glanced at the view outside her window, the sun had already painted the sky orange, announcing its slow departure.
• Diana looked down on the third parchment she had used for her notes and reread the list she had made about what she thought was the most important and relevant details.
• 1. My death will happen in a little less than two months. (If I am reading the weird calendar correctly.)
• 2. A month after I die, Serena will arrive in Moonfyre and meet Alistair. (Love Begins
• 3. Alistair will already be drowning in despair by the time Serena arrives, letting his best friend, Orion Daez, handle most of his alpha pack duties in the meantime. He will basically be as good as incapacitated due to immense alcoholism around that time.
• 4. Serena will snap Alistair out of his misery and encourage him to heal for Diana’s sake. Alistair will then interpret it as him needing to take revenge for Diana’s death my death. Serena will, of course, help him. (Love Grows
• 5. I will die because of a silver dagger that had been potently imbued with wolfsbane. (IMPORTANT: PREVENT THIS FROM EVER HAPPENING!)
• 6. They will not find the murderer or even the motive behind it. (Or maybe they did in the second book???)
• Diana’s eyes moved to the second list written on the parchment.
• SURVIVAL 101
• 1. Stay under the protection of Alistair in the meantime and secretly do my own investigation of who is trying to kill me.
• 2. Ask Alistair to break our bond and go somewhere far and safe
• 3. Confess to Alistair that I am from a different world who suddenly woke up in his mate’s body and that we are, in fact, inside a freaking novel. Then ask for his help in catching who is trying to murder me or the real Diana Claremont-Blackwell.
• 4. Pretend to be Diana Claremont-Blackwell, lay low, be vigilant, and hope for the best.
• 5. DO NOT TRUST ANYONE! (exception: Serena and Alistair) (If I miraculously survive the stabbing, more and more attempts will surely be made to end my life.)
• Immediately, Diana rejects the first and third options.
• The first one was simply too risky. Launching her own investigation was practically synonymous with courting danger. Meanwhile, the third option would just lead her straight to an asylum. Or worse, Alistair would think she had done something nefarious to his mate. That would surely set her for a trial before the Council of Great Elders and send her to the Isle of Vipera to be feasted on by a throng of serpents and vampires.
• But to keep her identity a secret and pretend that she was truly Alistair’s mate would gnaw at her. She didn’t think she could withstand the guilt of being with him and receiving his affections while she knew she wasn't truly who he loved. Alistair didn’t deserve that kind of deception.
• Of course, there was also the possibility that he would notice how vastly different she was from the mate he knew. Sooner or later, he would catch on and recognize her as an impostor. So pretending could still end up with her getting thrown to the Isle of Vipera.
• So the simplest, most straightforward, and safest way to go about her situation was to break his bond with Alistair and disappear like a thief in the night. Surely, if she voluntarily disappeared completely, whoever was out to kill her would no longer chase after her until the ends of the earth. Right?
• Diana hummed to herself, tapping the quill against her cheek and considering the option a little longer.
• ‘I guess if I disappear, Serena and Alistair will then have the chance to fall in love like they did in the novel… And maybe I could also find my own mate and find my own happily ever after.’
• Diana nodded, satisfied and resolute.
• “Alright! I shall ask Alistair to break our bond.”
• “What did you just say?”
• Diana’s heart nearly leapt to her throat. She immediately rose from her chair and whirled around to see the owner of the low voice who just spoke. Her big and hasty movement caused the chair to scrape loudly against the floor and fall down with a noisy thud.
• Tense silence followed right after, and Diana could do nothing but gasp out the man’s name.
• “Alistair…”