Chapter18
646 Words
Kaida’s POV
I rushed after him.
“Axel…wait!”
But he didn’t. He never did when he was like this, furious, wounded, half-feral with the storm building behind his eyes. His strides were long, his shoulders stiff with rage. I practically had to jog to keep up with him down the corridor.
“Axel!” I called, rushing down the corridor, the echo of his boots a bitter beat in the hall. “Please…stop!”
“Axel, please,” I called again.
He didn't.
He turned the corner sharply, storming into our shared quarters and slamming the door before I could catch up to him. I slipped in after him before he could lock me out. The air inside crackled with tension. His jaw worked back and forth, his hands clenched into fists. Standing with his back to me, his shoulders taut
“You humiliated him,” I said quietly. “At dinner. In front of her.”
Axel scoffed. “He humiliated himself the moment he let her*into Aetheria.”
“She’s not…”
“She’s not what? A threat? A witch? A ticking time bomb?” He spun to face me, eyes wild. “Kaida, you saw her. You’ve felt it. There’s something off about her.”
I crossed my arms, forcing my voice to stay level. “I also saw her flinch when you shouted. I saw the way she tried to defuse the tension. She doesn’t even know who she is.”
“Exactly!” he snapped. “And that’s the problem. She should. She should know what she’s capable of…what she’s done. The fact that she doesn’t makes it worse.”
“She’s not dangerous.”
He laughed bitterly. “You don’t know that.” “I told him this would happen,” he said, his voice raw. “I told him. And now she’s training?”
“She’s harmless,” I said softly.
Axel slammed his palms on his forehead. “She’s not harmless, Kaida. She’s the reason my brother is dead. The reason we buried people we grew up with.”
“That wasn’t her.”
“It was her kingdom. Her bloodline. Her people.”
“She doesn’t remember any of that,” I said. “She barely remembers her own name.”
He laughed bitterly. “And that’s supposed to make me feel better? That she might wake up one day and suddenly remember what she is? What she was trained to do?”
“She’s not that girl anymore.”
He turned away from me, bracing his arms against the window frame. “You don’t know that.”
I walked slowly toward him. My fingers itched to touch him, to draw him out of whatever fire he was burning in. But I didn’t reach for him yet.
“You know Kael wouldn’t have let her stay if he thought she was dangerous.”
Axel’s head dropped.
“That’s exactly the problem,” he whispered. “Kael’s not thinking straight. He’s not seeing her clearly.”
“You think he’s in love with her.”
“I think he’s blinded. And that scares me more.”
I closed the distance between us and placed my hand gently on his back.i felt his heart pounding like a war drum beneath my palm.
“You’ve always trusted him.”
“I trusted him to protect us,” he said. “Not to fall in love with a ghost.”
That hurt. More than it should have. Because I saw how Kael looked at her too. And I couldn’t lie to myself,there was something there. Something dangerous and real and new.
But this wasn’t just about Kael anymore. Or Lylah.
This was about Axel.
And the way he was pulling away from me..again.
I held his face in between my palms.“Don’t shut me out.”
He didn’t move.
- Writer
