The Splinter In Her Mind
1512 Words
The wind had stilled. Even the birds had gone quiet.
Adalyn sagged against him, her weight crumpling into his arms as the pain drove her to her knees. Her breath hitched, shallow and fast, like her body was trying to outrun whatever was clawing through her skull.
Kai tightened his hold, one arm steady at her back as he lowered with her. Gravel bit into his knee, but he barely felt it.
“Adalyn?” His voice dropped instinctively, steady and close. “Hey. What is it? What's wrong?”
She sucked in a breath through her teeth, her hand pressing hard to her temple. The words came tight and thin. “I’m okay. It’s just a headache. It'll pass... give me a second.”
Kai scanned her face. The tension in her jaw. Her eyes screwed tight against the pain. Her skin had gone pale.
“That’s not just a headache,” he said, voice clipped. “Let me get a doctor.”
He shifted, about to lift her, but her hand shot out, palm flat against his chest.
“No!" Her voice cracked, but the force behind it held. “Please don’t. I promise… I’ll be fine in a moment.”
Kai clenched his jaw. Every part of him rebelled at the idea of doing nothing, but the look in her eyes, the sheer determination there stopped him.
So he stayed with her instead. Dropping back to his knee beside her, he kept an arm around her and held her hand, grounding her as she tried to ride it out.
She curled inward, silent except for her breathing. Minutes passed, slow and taut. Eventually, her body began to unwind. Her shoulders lowered. The scrunch in her eyes softened.She pulled away gently from Kai’s arms, rising with slow, deliberate care. As if any sudden movement might invite the pain back. And without a word, she turned and began trying to continue walking up the path.
She was limping. Not enough to make it obvious. But Kai saw it. He knew strength when he saw it. And this? This wasn’t strength. This was survival. A girl held together by willpower and string, pretending her legs weren’t shaking.
Kai blinked in confusion at what he was witnessing, then rose. In two long strides, he caught up to her. He reached out and clasped her hand.
“Are you seriously trying to walk away like nothing just happened?” he asked, voice low but edged. “What was that, Adalyn?”
“I just get headaches sometimes,” Adalyn said, too quickly. “It’s nothing to worry about.”
Kai’s brow furrowed, concern tightening into something more brittle as he searched her face.
“That looked like more than a headache. Has this happened before?”
Adalyn tried to move again, her hand slipping from his grasp as if the question itself burned. But she’d barely taken a step before his fingers closed gently but firmly around hers again.
“Will you stop walking and talk to me?” he said, the quiet edge in his voice making it clear this wasn’t a request.
She stilled. Her gaze dropped to the ground.
“I’m fine,” she said after a beat, the words a little too breezy, a little too fast. “It only happens from time to time.”
Still her wolf said nothing. Not a growl. Not a flicker. Just that quiet, empty space Kai was starting to hate.
Maybe it wasn’t just her hiding things. Maybe her wolf had learned to stay quiet too.
Kai’s eyes stayed locked on her, searching her profile for answers she refused to give. She didn’t turn to face him. She didn’t dare. He read too much from her expression, and she wasn’t ready for him to see what was actually there.
Her voice might’ve sounded calm, but her shoulders were too stiff, her arms too close to her sides. A girl trying very hard not to fold in on herself.
Kai didn’t let go. “How often is ‘time to time’?”
Her shoulders tensed. “Not often, alright?” Her voice was sharper now, veiled with defensiveness.
Kai didn’t back off. His jaw eased, the crease in his brow softening into something quieter. Sadness flickered behind his eyes. Not that of disappointment, but at the ache of someone who was trying to hide the wounds from him in real time.
“Adalyn,” he said more softly, trying to coax the answers from her.
That single word. Her name, said in that tone landed like a stone.
She exhaled hard and pulled her hand free again. “Please,” she snapped, voice brittle. “Just drop it. I don’t want to talk about it.”
She turned away, letting her hair fall between them like a curtain, hiding the truth on her face. She knew how closely he studied her. How one look at her expression would unravel everything she was trying to hold together.
“Don’t worry,” she muttered, voice dipped in sarcasm. “I’m not on death’s door. So you can relax. You’ll be fine even if we are fated mates.”
Kai flinched, the words hitting harder than she probably meant them to. But he didn’t snap back. She was trying to make him angry. To get him to pull away first. That way, when she shoved him, it wouldn’t look like fear. Just distance.
This was her pattern. He could see it now. The minute she felt cornered, she lashed out. Using her sharp words like armour. Like teeth.
He exhaled slowly, grounding himself.
“Don’t do that,” he said gently. “You know I’m not asking because of me.”
Adalyn blinked, the sarcasm evaporating in the space between them as guilt twisted in her chest.
She hadn’t meant to hurt him, not really. But that was how it always went. When she felt too seen, too exposed, her instinct was to throw something hard enough to make the other person look away.
She swallowed, forcing herself to meet his gaze. “I’m okay,” she said, a little softer this time. “I promise.”
But there was a shimmer in her eyes that made the words less than convincing.
Kai didn’t believe her. Not entirely. But he saw how close she was to the edge. A line she wasn’t ready to cross.
So he didn’t push. He didn't want to revert back on the progress they had made in this short time. He just reached for her hand again, holding it like he didn’t expect her to give it back, and was quietly grateful when she did.
They walked a few more paces in silence.
“If you don’t want to explain this to me now, fine,” he said, his voice quieter but still threaded with intent. “I’ll let it go. For now. But if it happens again, I won’t pretend it didn’t. I need to know you’re okay.”
Adalyn didn’t argue. There wasn’t much point. She’d seen doctors. Heard their theories. Trauma. Memory repression. Emotional fragmentation. Maybe even the root of her fractured bond with her wolf. But none of them had been able to fix it. So she did the only thing that made sense. She buried it, deep enough that even her wolf couldn’t find it.
She didn’t feel better for not telling him. Just… hollow. Like she’d taken everything sharp inside her and pushed it back under her ribs again.
As they approached the main house, Tsuna stepped out onto the path to greet them.
“Good morning, Your Highness,” she said with a practiced smile, her eyes briefly noting their joined hands, and the quiet tension humming beneath them.
“I came to meet you and let you know you have guests waiting in the lobby.”
Kai’s posture tensed slightly. “Is Arrow here?”
“Yes, Your Highness. Along with Her Royal Highness Princess Melody… and her attendant.”
Kai groaned quietly under his breath. “Mel is here?”
Shit
How had she known that he was here? His mind jumped immediately to the most likely culprit.
“Elias,” he muttered aloud. That sly bastard. Of course he figured it out. Probably whispered it to her with a smile, knowing exactly what she’d do.
Tsuna glanced up, confused by the sudden name drop. "Are you asking if Prince Elias is here, your Highness?"
Kai waved a hand. “No, nevermind. Was just thinking out loud."
“Did you say Melody?” Adalyn asked, glancing between Tsuna and Kai. “As in the royal princess?”
She sounded calm again. Charming, even. It was like watching a wall slide back into place brick by brick. No trace of the girl who’d nearly collapsed minutes earlier.
But Kai had seen behind it now. And once you see the fracture… it never looks like stone again.
Tsuna opened her mouth to reply, but the heavy double doors behind her flew open with a bang.
- Writer
