The Bigshot's Superstar Wife - Chapter 191

Chapter 191: Familiarity
Athena clutched her head, her pulse racing. The dream had felt too real. Too vivid. And the worst part? She could still feel the weight of the sword in her hand.

She glanced down at her palm. There was nothing there. But her skin tingled as if the weapon had truly been there just moments ago.

A soft rustling sound caught her attention. She turned her head and met Xavier’s gaze.

He was awake, watching her. For a moment, they just stared at each other in silence. Then, Xavier tilted his head slightly. “Bad dream?”

Athena hesitated. She didn’t know how to explain what she had just experienced. How could she? It wasn’t just a dream, it felt like a memory. But that was impossible.

She forced a small nod. “Something like that.”

Xavier didn’t press her. Instead, he leaned back against the cave wall, his expression unreadable. But there was something in his eyes. Something knowing.

Athena didn’t ask. She wasn’t sure she wanted to hear the answer.

She lay back down, staring at the uneven ceiling of the cave. Sleep wouldn’t come again, not after what she had seen. But at least she could rest.

The fire crackled softly, and somewhere in the distance, the wind howled through the mountains.

Athena closed her eyes, trying to silence the lingering echoes of the dream. But the butterflies still danced behind her eyelids, their red glow refusing to fade.

Athena couldn’t shake the images from her dream. The man with long black hair, his blue eyes filled with something unspoken, and the way he looked at her as if he knew her.

Then there was Xavier, sitting in front of her with his usual confident, unreadable gaze. The two of them looked similar, eerily so, but she refused to believe there was any connection.

It was just a dream, a product of exhaustion, her mind playing tricks on her. The apocalypse was enough of a nightmare, there was no need to add mysterious men from other worlds into the mix.

But the dream had felt so real. She clenched her fists. The sword had always been a mystery.

It appeared when she was in danger, yet no one else seemed to notice the strange red butterflies that followed its strikes.

Now, it was giving her visions, illusions, surely. Perhaps it was some kind of advanced technology that played with her mind.

Something beyond her understanding, something that had been left behind in the ruins of the old world.

Interstellar warfare, Zergs, burning bodies, none of that should exist here. They were things out of science fiction, out of a future that humanity had never reached.

But what if…? No. She refused to entertain that thought. It was ridiculous.

Xavier had been watching her this entire time, his sharp eyes narrowing slightly as if he knew she was deep in thought.

He always seemed to notice when her mind wandered, yet he never pushed her for answers. She had to admit, there was something about him that didn’t quite fit with the world either.

He wore a soldier’s uniform, but there were times he carried himself like something else entirely, like a man who had lived through things far beyond what he claimed.

“You’re thinking too much,” he finally said, his voice calm but firm.

Athena glanced at him, shaking her head slightly. “Just trying to make sense of things.”

“You won’t,” he replied simply. “Some things aren’t meant to be understood.”

She frowned at his words. He sounded as if he knew exactly what she was thinking. Did he? Was he playing games with her, or was she just being paranoid?

The apocalypse had turned everyone into a secret keeper, and Xavier was no exception. But if he knew something, she wasn’t going to beg him for answers. She would find them herself.

They had bigger things to focus on. The cave was quiet now, but soon they would have to continue their journey.

The temporary safety they had found in the mountains wouldn’t last. Supplies would run out, and the creatures lurking in the wilderness wouldn’t ignore them forever.

Athena stood up and stretched. “We should move soon.”

Xavier leaned back against the wall, smirking slightly. “Already tired of resting?”

She gave him a pointed look. “This isn’t resting. This is delaying the inevitable.”

“Fair enough,” he said, standing up as well. “Then let’s go before we regret it.”

The others began to wake as they gathered their belongings. The survivors were exhausted but determined.

Every step forward was a step closer to survival, and they all knew there was no going back.

The city was overrun, and their only hope was to keep moving, to find a place where they could rebuild, even if that place felt impossible to reach.

As they trekked through the wilderness, Athena kept her eyes on Xavier.

She watched the way he moved, effortless, confident, like someone who had been fighting for longer than he should have.

It reminded her of the man in her dream, the way he had looked at her, the way he had spoken as if he knew her from another life. But that wasn’t possible. And yet, the thought lingered.

The forest around them was both beautiful and deadly. The plants had grown wild, stretching toward the sky in unnatural ways.

Some pulsed with a faint bioluminescence, while others twisted and curled as if they were alive.

They had already encountered carnivorous plants before, ones that fed on the dead and even the living, but these were different. More intelligent. More dangerous.

At one point, one of the survivors strayed too close to a cluster of vines hanging from an old, crumbling tree.

In an instant, the vines moved, wrapping around the man’s leg and pulling him into the air. He screamed, struggling, but the more he fought, the tighter they became.

Athena reacted immediately, drawing her blade and slicing through the vines with practiced precision.

The moment her sword made contact, the same red butterflies appeared, their glow illuminating the darkness of the forest.

They landed on the severed vines, and within seconds, the plant shriveled and turned to ash.

The man dropped to the ground, gasping for breath, but Athena wasn’t looking at him. She was staring at her sword, at the butterflies that had appeared once again.

It wasn’t an illusion. It wasn’t a trick of the light.

Xavier was watching her.