When the Land Remembers

When the Land Remembers

Sinbebrow

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In a country that has seen war, famine and oppression Saoirse now in a brighter time, but she feels lost. Until one night she awakes an ancient power, lost to time. As love blooms so does danger. But this time the land won't allow people to fall

Chapter 1 Alone but not

The party was never meant to be anything official. Someone's older brother had brought a crate of stout back from the city. Someone else had pinched a bottle of whiskey from a cupboard they thought wouldn't be checked. Word passed the way it always did in a small town-quietly at first, then all at once.

The forest sat just beyond the last line of houses, where the road gave up pretending it led anywhere important. Everyone knew it. We'd grown up skimming stones along the stream that cut through it, carving initials into bark we swore would last forever. Mothers warned us not to go too far in, but they always said that, about everything.

The wireless crackled with half-caught stations, the sound warping as someone adjusted the dial. Laughter burst and collapsed in uneven waves. Girls in borrowed coats huddled together against the damp cold, cigarette smoke clinging to wool and hair. Boys stood too close or not close enough, all elbows and bravado.

I moved through it easily. That was my talent.

Someone handed me a drink I hadn't asked for. Someone else told me I looked well. I said thank you, smiled, said it back. I was good at that too-fitting into the shape people expected, like a piece from the right puzzle.

But underneath it, something in me kept pulling.

I watched the firelight flicker over familiar faces and felt oddly removed, like I was already remembering the night rather than living it. The music skipped. A girl shrieked with laughter. A lad kissed someone he'd regret kissing come morning.

I edged away before anyone could decide I was meant to stay.

The forest swallowed sound quickly. The music dulled first, then the voices, until all that remained was the soft crush of leaves under my boots and the low murmur of the stream somewhere to my left. The air smelled damp and green and old, the kind of smell that never quite leaves your clothes.

I told myself I was only stepping away for a minute.

The trees stood closer together here, branches tangled like clasped hands. My hair snagged on thorns and twigs, and I muttered under my breath as I freed it, stuffing it into my coat to keep it out of the way. The ground dipped slightly, the land folding inward as if keeping a secret.

That was when I noticed the stones.

At first, I thought they were just part of the hillside-another scatter of rock half-buried by time and moss. But then I saw the curve. Too smooth. Too deliberate.

I knelt, brushing away leaves and dirt with my sleeve. Cold bit through the fabric, but the stone beneath was strangely warm, the contrast sharp enough to make me pause.

The carvings revealed themselves slowly.

They weren't pretty. They weren't decorative. Figures etched deep into the surface, worn by weather but unmistakable in their intent. Bodies caught between shapes. Limbs stretched too far. Mouths opened in silent cries or howls. Around them, smaller figures huddled together-people, I realised-arms raised, heads bowed or turned skyward.

It felt like standing in the middle of a sentence without knowing how it began.

At the centre of the stones was a slab set flat into the earth. A seam ran through it, so fine I might have missed it if the light hadn't struck just right.

A door, my mind supplied, unhelpfully.

I laughed under my breath, the sound thin and nervous.

"This is ridiculous," I said to no one.

Still, I pressed my palm to the stone.

The forest held its breath.

The warmth beneath my skin wasn't imagined. It pulsed faintly, like something sleeping just under the surface. My chest tightened, not with fear exactly, but with recognition-an unearned familiarity that made no sense at all.

I didn't hear footsteps. I felt them.

A shift in the air. The subtle awareness that comes when you're no longer the only person inside your own thoughts.

I turned sharply.

He stood a few paces away, as startled as I was, one hand half-raised as if he'd meant to speak and thought better of it. Dark hair, dark eyes, his coat pulled tight against the cold. Oisín. The boy people pretended not to see during daylight.

We stared at each other, equally caught.

"I didn't know anyone else was out here," he said finally.

Neither had I.

The firelight from the party didn't reach us. Whatever this place was, it belonged to neither of us. Not yet.

And beneath our feet, something old and patient waited to be disturbed.

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"Let's get married," Mia declares, her voice trembling despite her defiant gaze into Stefan's guarded brown eyes. She needs this, even if he seems untouchable. Stefan raises a skeptical brow. "And why would I do that?" His voice was low, like a warning, and it made her shiver even though she tried not to show it. "We both have one thing in common," Mia continues, her gaze unwavering. "Shitty fathers. They want to take what's ours and give it to who they think deserves it." A pointed pause hangs in the air. "The only difference between us is that you're an illegitimate child, and I'm not." Stefan studies her, the heiress in her designer armor, the fire in her eyes that matches the burn of his own rage. "That's your solution? A wedding band as a weapon?" He said ignoring the part where she just referred to him as an illegitimate child. "The only weapon they won't see coming." She steps closer, close enough for him to catch the scent of her perfume, gunpowder and jasmine. "Our fathers stole our birthrights. The sole reason they betrayed us. We join forces, create our own empire that'll bring down theirs." A beat of silence. Then, Stefan's mouth curves into something sharp. "One condition," he murmurs, closing the distance. "No divorces. No surrenders. If we're doing this, it's for life" "Deal" Mia said without missing a beat. Her father wants to destroy her life. She wouldn't give him the pleasure, she would destroy her life as she seems fit. ................ Two shattered heirs. One deadly vow. A marriage built on revenge. Mia Meyers was born to rule her father's empire (so she thought), until he named his bastard son heir instead. Stefan Sterling knows the sting of betrayal too. His father discarded him like trash. Now the rivals' disgraced children have a poisonous proposal: Marry for vengeance. Crush their fathers' legacies. Never speak of divorce. Whoever cracks first loses everything. Can these two rivals, united by their vengeful hearts, pull off a marriage of convenience to reclaim what they believe is rightfully theirs? Or will their fathers' animosity, and their own complicated pasts tear their fragile alliance apart?

Chapters
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When the Land Remembers
1

Chapter 1 Alone but not

16/01/2026

2

Chapter 2 The outcast

16/01/2026

3

Chapter 3 The Awakening

16/01/2026

4

Chapter 4 Daylight Lies

16/01/2026

5

Chapter 5 Shared Ground

16/01/2026

6

Chapter 6 The Stirring

16/01/2026

7

Chapter 7 The Guardian Instinct

16/01/2026

8

Chapter 8 Others

16/01/2026

9

Chapter 9 The Pull

16/01/2026

10

Chapter 10 The Bond

16/01/2026

11

Chapter 11 The Shop

16/01/2026

12

Chapter 12 Blood memory

16/01/2026

13

Chapter 13 Ancient Memory

16/01/2026

14

Chapter 14 After the Remembering

16/01/2026

15

Chapter 15 Together

16/01/2026

16

Chapter 16 Quiet Bloom

16/01/2026

17

Chapter 17 The North

16/01/2026

18

Chapter 18 Shared Sight

16/01/2026

19

Chapter 19 Remembering and Forgetting

16/01/2026

20

Chapter 20 Echoes

16/01/2026

21

Chapter 21 The Unready

16/01/2026

22

Chapter 22 Anything's possible with you

16/01/2026

23

Chapter 23 The Shift

16/01/2026

24

Chapter 24 Steady Silence

16/01/2026

25

Chapter 25 Breaking Point

16/01/2026

26

Chapter 26 Together

16/01/2026

27

Chapter 27 Drawn lines

16/01/2026

28

Chapter 28 The Watcher

16/01/2026

29

Chapter 29 The Opening

16/01/2026

30

Chapter 30 The Remembered Ones

16/01/2026

31

Chapter 31 The Gathering

16/01/2026

32

Chapter 32 Fault Lines

21/01/2026

33

Chapter 33 Balance

21/01/2026

34

Chapter 34 Quiet Things

21/01/2026

35

Chapter 35 The Weight of Being Seen

21/01/2026

36

Chapter 36 Across the Line

21/01/2026

37

Chapter 37 The Divided Ground

21/01/2026

38

Chapter 38 The Watcher Moves

Today at 19:33

39

Chapter 39 The Road Between

Today at 19:46

40

Chapter 40 When Silence Breaks

Today at 19:58