CHAPTER14
1167 Words
Chapter Fourteen: What Remains Between Us
Aria’s POV
The silence after chaos was always the loudest.
I stood on the balcony of the Council Tower, overlooking the fractured courtyard where the rift had split the earth just days ago.
The stone still bore the burn marks of the Hunt’s awakening lines that glowed faintly under moonlight, like scars trying to heal but never closing.
I’d barely slept.
I was thinking of all the incidents, like what Keira said.
Not because of fear, but because every time I closed my eyes, I heard it.
Choose, Aria. Who dies first?
I hated that voice.
Was it manipulating to kill my people or was this keira plan to awaken it; so that I can't control it.
And worse I hated that a part of me wanted to answer.
Behind me, the door opened, the hinges creaking with a sound that had become all too familiar.
I didn’t turn. I didn’t need to.
“Kael,” I said, quietly.
His presence filled the room before his footsteps did. Heavy, uncertain. The kind of weight that wasn’t physical but emotional. Like his soul was dragging chains behind him.
“I didn’t think you’d come,” I added, my fingers tightening around the balcony rail.
“I didn’t think you’d let me,” he said.
Still, I didn’t face him. “That depends. Are you here as my Alpha, or the man who watched me burn and let my sister fan the flames?”
Silence.
Then, softly, “Both.”
That made me laugh. A dry, bitter sound that didn’t reach my eyes.
“You can't be both, Kael. Not anymore.”
Finally, I turned.
He looked older. Not in his face, but in his posture. Like something inside him had folded.
He wasn’t the confident Alpha who used to walk through fire and expect others to follow. He was… tired.
“Do you want to hear it from me?” he asked.
I frowned. “Hear what?”
“The truth. Why I believed Keira. Why didn't I come looking?”
I didn’t answer right away.
Yes, I did want to hear it.
But I also wasn’t sure if it would help… or hurt more.
He stepped closer, but stopped when the golden spiral on my chest began to glow faintly, reacting to his nearness. His eyes flicked to it.
“I felt it, you know,” he murmured. “When it woke up. The Hunt. It was like being dragged underwater, like something ancient had opened its eyes and decided I wasn’t worthy.”
I crossed my arms. “You’re not.”
That hit harder than I expected.
He swallowed. “I know.”
Kael’s POV
I had rehearsed this moment a hundred times. A thousand.
But standing here, in front of her with the glow of the Hunt pulsing at her skin like a second heartbeat I realized none of those words would make this easier.
“I believed Keira because I needed to,” I said, finally. “Because if I didn’t, I would’ve had to accept that I let you die while I was Alpha.”
Aria didn’t even look amazed.
“I told myself you drowned. Maybe you had a moment of regret and fled, but you’d be back. But Keira… She was always so sure.
Always crying when I asked. Always holding the pendant. I thought—I thought she just missed you too much to lie.”
“And so you let her crawl into my place,” Aria spat, her voice suddenly hard. “Into my home. My pack. My bond.”
Shame twisted in my gut.
“I didn’t mark her,” I said.
“No. But you chose her.”
That… was true.
And it had broken something between us that I didn’t know how to repair.
“Aria… I don’t expect forgiveness. But I need you to know I never stopped thinking about you. Even when I thought you were gone.”
“I was dead,” she whispered. “The moment you believed her over me. The moment you let them erase me.”
Aria’s POV
I didn’t want to cry.
Not for him. Not anymore.
But his voice… It sounded real. Like the Kael I used to love. Not the Alpha. Not the pack leader. Just the boy who once promised me the moon and whispered my name like a secret.
“Why are you here, Kael?” I asked, softer now.
He looked at me, eyes shadowed. “Because I think they’re going to try to kill you.”
The breath left my lungs.
He continued. “The Council has split. Elder Renn’s faction wants you detained and transferred to the Dusk Caverns. The others are stalling, but… there’s fear. Real fear.”
“And what about you?” I asked. “What side are you on?”
His answer came without hesitation.
“Yours.”
For a long moment, I just stared at him. The man who had hurt me. Betrayed me. Buried me in silence.
Now standing here, hands shaking, choosing me.
And for the first time since the Hunt awoke, I felt the faintest flicker of warmth in my chest.
“I don’t know if I can be saved,” I whispered.
“Then I’ll stand with you in the fire.”
Kael’s POV
I stepped closer. The spiral on her skin glowed brighter but it didn’t repel me.
Not this time.
“You’re not a monster, Aria,”
I said. “You’re the balance.
The tether. They don’t understand that.”
“I don’t even understand it,” she replied.
“Then we learn together.”
She looked like she wanted to believe me.
But then, her eyes hardened.
“And what if the Hunt decides you’re the threat?”
I hesitated.
And she saw it.
“Would you still stand beside me, Kael?” she asked, her voice dangerously quiet. “Even if it meant choosing me over the Council? Over your pack?”
I don't love you anymore.
That was the real question.
The one I hadn’t dared ask myself.
Because I already knew the answer.
“I would,” I said. “Even if it meant losing everything.”
She blinked, and for a moment, I thought I saw the girl I once knew looking back at me.
And then suddenly—the ground started shaking.
I checked toward the window.
From the north wall of the capital, a burst of fire cracked through the skyline.
Smoke.
And then—howls.
Not wolves.
Kael grabbed my arm. “What is that?!”
I closed my eyes, listening to the voice inside me—the ancient, terrible whisper that had not spoken in days.
This time it said:
“The Sealed Ones are rising. The Hunt was only the first.”
I turned to Kael, voice trembling. “They’re not coming for me…”
“They’re coming for all of us.”
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