The Luna He Broke To Keep

Chapter 20

Rowan didn't answer her.

The silence stretched between them, thick enough that Kaia could feel it pressing into her chest while the rain dripped steadily from the trees around the clearing. Nobody moved. Not the men near the building. Not Rowan. Even the fight from minutes earlier felt distant now, swallowed by the tension settling heavily over the abandoned structure behind her.

Kaia stood completely still, watching him.

Rain had darkened the shoulders of Rowan's jacket, damp strands of hair falling across his forehead like he'd gotten there too fast to care what he looked like by the time he arrived. His breathing had steadied since stepping out of the tree line, but the strain in his expression remained, buried beneath the control he was clearly fighting to hold onto.

That more than anything unsettled her.

Rowan was never visibly shaken.

Not even when they fought.

Not even the night he forced her to leave.

But he looked shaken now.

"Kaia," he said again, quieter this time, like lowering his voice might somehow make the situation less volatile. "Step away from the building."

The metallic smell drifting from the broken wall behind her sat thick in the air now that she'd noticed it, old blood buried beneath damp wood and concrete. It clung to the back of her throat every time she breathed in.

She didn't move.

Instead, her eyes stayed fixed on him as a realization slowly settled into place beneath the confusion and adrenaline still running through her system.

"You knew," she said softly.

The words landed harder than shouting would have.

Nobody interrupted.

Kaia glanced briefly toward the men surrounding the clearing before looking back at Rowan, watching the slight tightening of his jaw and the exhaustion sitting behind his eyes.

"You knew these people were following me," she continued, her voice steadier now. "You knew before I did."

Rowan exhaled slowly through his nose, like he already understood no version of this conversation ended well. "Kaia-"

"No." Her tone sharpened just enough to stop him. "Don't stand there and try to calm me down now. Not after this."

She gestured toward the damaged building behind her, toward the broken wall and the men guarding it, as if whatever sat inside mattered more than the fight that had just happened outside it.

Because clearly it did.

Kaia felt the pieces from the last few weeks colliding together in her head too fast to separate properly anymore. Rowan is forcing her to leave. The surveillance. The messages. The constant feeling that something was happening around her that nobody would explain.

And now this.

A hidden building in the middle of nowhere that smelled like blood and fear.

Her stomach turned.

"What is this place?" she asked quietly.

For a second, Rowan didn't answer. His gaze drifted past her shoulder toward the opening in the wall, and the expression that crossed his face stopped something cold in Kaia's chest.

Guilt.

Not suspicion.

Not caution.

Guilt.

Real guilt.

The realization hit her hard enough that she almost stepped back without meaning to.

"Oh my God," she whispered before she could stop herself. "Someone died here."

The silence that followed felt suffocating.

Nobody denied it.

Nobody even tried.

Kaia slowly turned toward the opening again, staring into the dark interior beyond the cracked wall. Now that she knew, the building no longer felt abandoned. It felt sealed shut. Preserved. Like the entire structure had been left standing because nobody wanted to disturb whatever had happened inside it.

Rainwater dripped steadily from the edge of the roof, tapping softly against gravel while the forest around them stayed unnaturally quiet.

"Kaia." Rowan's voice came lower behind her this time, rougher somehow. "Come here."

A disbelieving laugh escaped her before she could stop it. "You don't get to say that like this is normal."

"It's not what you think."

She turned back toward him sharply, frustration finally breaking through the shock sitting heavy in her chest. "Then tell me what to think, Rowan."

The words cracked harder than she intended.

For the first time since she met him, Rowan didn't seem to know what to say.

Kaia hated how much that hurt.

Because part of her-some stubborn, stupid part she hadn't managed to kill off yet-had still been holding onto the idea that there was an explanation big enough to make all of this make sense. Something complicated. Something necessary. Something that justified him in tearing her life apart instead of trusting her enough to let her stand beside him through whatever this was.

But standing here now, surrounded by armed men protecting a bloodstained building in the middle of the woods while Rowan looked at her like he was watching everything unravel-

She didn't know what was left to justify anymore.

"You should've trusted me," she said quietly.

Something shifted across Rowan's face at that.

It happened fast, small enough that most people probably wouldn't have noticed it, but Kaia did. The crack in the control. The exhaustion underneath it. The look of someone carrying something for so long had started hollowing him out from the inside.

"I was trying to keep you alive."

The honesty in his voice hit harder than anger would have.

Kaia's chest tightened painfully before she forced herself to push the feeling aside. "By lying to me?"

"Yes."

The answer came immediately.

No hesitation.

No excuse.

Just the truth.

The clearing went still again around them.

Kaia stared at him, anger twisting tightly with confusion until she couldn't separate one from the other anymore. Rowan didn't look away this time. He just stood there in the rain looking more tired than she had ever seen him, like he'd been waiting for this exact moment from the second he forced her out of the packhouse.

"You need to leave," he said again, quieter now. "Right now."

Kaia folded her arms tightly across herself, grounding against the storm building under her skin. "I'm not leaving until someone tells me what happened here."

Nobody spoke.

The rain kept falling softly through the trees.

Then one of the men near the structure shifted uneasily before muttering under his breath, "She deserves to know."

The reaction was immediate.

Every head turned toward him.

Rowan's expression hardened so fast it was almost violent. "Shut up."

The words came too quickly.

Too sharp.

Kaia felt it instantly.

And judging by the way the other man's face tightened, he realized immediately he'd said something he wasn't supposed to.

But it was already too late.

Because now Kaia knew this wasn't just some hidden operation Rowan wanted buried.

Something terrible had happened here.

And whatever Rowan had been trying to protect her from-

It started long before anyone began following her.