The Blackwood Curse

Chapter 24

Sarah POV

The cold night air bit at my skin as I walked farther from the mansion, each step feeling like a betrayal. The sound of my boots crunching against the dirt path was the only thing anchoring me to reality. Behind me, the mansion loomed in the distance, dark and silent, as if the walls themselves were watching me, waiting for my return.

I couldn't go back. Not yet. Not after everything I had learned.

Eleanor's voice rang in my mind, soft but piercing: "Tell us about yourself. We've heard so much from Eren, but I’d like to hear it from you." Her smile, so carefully crafted, had hid an undercurrent of something sharper, a probing that I had failed to recognize at the time. Now, as I walked further away, the memory twisted in my gut like a knife. I had given her the story I always gave—one that was simple and safe. I had painted the picture of an orphaned girl, a victim of fate, left to navigate the world alone after my parents died.

But Eleanor had been watching me closely, studying me as if she could see beyond the story I’d told. That question—about my parents—hadn’t been casual. She knew something, and it scared me. Her eyes had lingered too long, too knowingly, as if the words I spoke didn’t match the truth she had already uncovered.

"A tragic past, but one that has clearly shaped you into a strong woman. That’s good. Strength is important in this family." I remember her saying.

Strength. The Blackwoods valued it, worshipped it, manipulated it. I had been strong, but I’d never truly been free. The more I thought about it, the more the lies felt like a noose tightening around my neck. They wanted me to play my part, to fit into their world, but I was beginning to see the cracks in the illusion.

I couldn’t stop asking myself the question that had plagued me since I overheard Victor and Eleanor’s conversation: How much did they really know about my family? Their interest in my past had gone deeper than I had realized. It wasn’t just about me. It was about them.

My parents.

The more I turned over the fragments of information, the more I felt the weight of something darker pressing in on me. Something tied to the Blackwoods. I wasn’t just some random stranger Eren had chosen to marry. I had been drawn into this world for a reason thanks to Axel pointing out cryptically—a reason I still couldn’t understand fully.

And in the cold, quiet night, it hit me: my parents’ death hadn’t been an accident. It hadn’t been some random tragedy. It had been tied to the Blackwoods. I didn’t know how, but I could feel it in my bones. My parents had been connected to them in ways I hadn’t yet uncovered, and I was beginning to fear that my entire life had been orchestrated by forces I hadn’t even known existed.

As I walked, the images from the chamber came rushing back. The cold stone walls. The damp air that clung to everything. The faint sound of cries. And the two women, bound in the far corner. Their pale faces. Their eyes wide with terror. They had looked at me with something I couldn’t quite place—fear, yes—but also something else. Recognition.

They knew me. Or they knew someone like me. But how? And why had they been trapped there? Was it possible they were connected to my family? Had they been victims of the same forces that had destroyed my parents?

I couldn’t shake the memory of their eyes, their silent plea. They had been waiting for someone to find them. Maybe Waiting for me even. And that thought sent a chill down my spine, one that didn’t come from the cold night air, but from something deeper. Something dark that stirred in the depths of my soul.

I couldn’t ignore it. I couldn’t run from it. Not when there was a chance to uncover the truth. Not when I was so close.

But even as I thought about going back to the mansion, I couldn't help but feel a wave of hesitation. Eren... the man I had married. The man who had promised me a life of safety, of love. The man who had promised me that everything would be different. That it would be us against the world. But now, with the weight of the past pressing down on me, I realized how hollow those promises had been.

Eren hadn’t been my savior. He had been my captor. He was a part of the darkness that had swallowed my family, and now, I was part of it, too. I had been blind, caught in a web of lies, never suspecting the depth of his involvement. He wasn’t the man I thought he was. And that thought shook me to my core.

But even with all of this weighing heavily on me, I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was more to the story. There had to be. And it wasn’t just the Blackwoods I had to worry about. It was Axel, too.

Axel.

In that chamber, in the moments when Eren and Victor had been so cold, so ruthless, Axel had been different. There had been something in his eyes—something I couldn’t quite place, but I knew it was there. A disturbance. A flicker of regret? I wasn’t sure. But it was clear that Axel, for all his strength, was not fully aligned with the cruelty of his family.

He had been trying to protect me. He had tried to warn me, even when I had been too afraid to listen. But why? Why had Axel been looking out for me from the very beginning? There had to be more to him than I had realized. Could he be the key to unraveling everything?

I stopped walking, the cold wind tugging at my coat. I had to know. I had to return to that chamber. I had to find out if those women were still alive. I had to uncover the truth about my parents, about my connection to the Blackwoods, about why I was here in the first place.

The weight of the decision hung on me like a shroud. Could I really go back? Could I face whatever was waiting for me there? The chamber, with its dark secrets, its tortured souls, its haunting memories... it called to me. It was a place I knew I could never escape unless I confronted it.

And Eren... What if he had already done something unspeakable? What if the women were dead? What if I was too late to save them?

I couldn't think about that. I couldn't let that fear control me. I had already seen enough darkness to last a lifetime, but I couldn’t walk away now—not when I was so close to understanding the truth. If those women were still alive, if there was even a chance to save them, I had to act. I couldn’t leave them behind.

I turned back toward the mansion. The silhouette of the building loomed against the dark sky, like a twisted reminder of everything I was running from—and everything I was about to face.

I didn’t know what would happen when I returned, but I knew one thing: I couldn’t stop now. The truth was waiting. And I was ready to find it.