Verveville's Curse

Chapter28

Willow’s Pov

I stormed into Kaida’s chambers furious and started pacing, my hands in the air demonstrating.

“He’s avoiding me. He looks at me like I don’t exist…like I’m some..some mistake he regrets touching. Do you know what that feels like, Kaida? To be wanted one moment, then discarded the next? To be kissed until you can’t breathe, then treated like you’re… nothing?”

Kaida was watching carefully, hiding her knowing smile

“So. He kissed you.”

I freezed, my cheeks burning, but my voice sharpened.

“Yes. And it wasn’t just a kiss. It was…” I faltered, swallowing “It was real. I know it was. The way he looked at me… the way he touched me… Don’t you dare tell me I imagined it.”

My voice cracked, fury and heartbreak tangling.

I said quieter and raw this time.

“But now he avoids me. He wouldn’t even look at me, Kaida. He made me want him…made me believe he wanted me too. And now I feel… used.”

My chest heaved as I stood before Kaida, arms wrapped tightly across myself, as though I was holding in everything that threatened to spill out.

Kaida rose from her seat, her sharp gaze softening as she studied my flushed, angry face.

Kaida said gently, but strong underneath.

“My brother is a fool. A stubborn fool. But make no mistake Lylah, he wants you. I’ve seen the way he looks at you when he thinks you’re not watching. The way his hands twitch like he’s restraining himself. That is not indifference. That is hunger.”

I turned away sharply, my throat tight.

“Then why avoid me? Why make me feel like I’m nothing?” I said bitterly

Kaida stepped closer, tilting my chin until our eyes met.

“Because he is afraid. Afraid of what he feels, Afraid of losing control. Afraid of you.”

The words struck me like an arrow. My heart twisted with something fierce, an ache mixed with fire.

“If you want him, don’t let him run. Don’t let his silence or his constraint break you. Push back. Make him see that you are not someone to cast aside. Make him choose you even if he’s too blind to admit he already has.” Kaida said, lowering her voice, almost conspirational

My lips parted, my anger slowly shifting into a dangerous kind of conclusion.

“So I fight for him?” I said, my voice trembling but with determination

“Fight. Chase. Seduce. Whatever it takes. He is yours already, Lylah. He just needs to learn it.” Kaida said, smirking with a knowing glint.

My heart thundered. The anger, the longing, the hunger,it all sharpened into determination.

“Then I’ll make him.” I said, whispering more to myself than Kaida.

I had rehearsed the words a hundred times in my head, but when I finally stood outside his door, my pulse thundering against my ribs, all I felt was fire. My hand trembled as I knocked. For a long moment there was no answer, and I almost turned back. Then the door creaked open, and Kael stood there, shadow spilling across his bare chest, his hair damp like he had just come from training.

His eyes flicked to mine once before turning away. “What is it, Lylah?” His voice was flat, stripped of warmth.

That tone…that cold, dismissal ignited the storm inside me.

I stepped past him before he could stop me, forcing him to shut the door behind us. His chambers smelled of leather, iron, and faint smoke, a space both thin and heavy with him.

“You’re not going to keep ignoring me,” I said, my voice shaking but louder than I meant it to be.

Kael ran a hand down his face, exhaling sharply as though weary. “I’m not ignoring you. I’m doing what’s best.”

The words rubbed raw. I spun toward him, the anger spilling out before I could contain it. “Best for who? Because it isn’t for me.”

He stiffened but didn’t answer, didn’t even look at me, and that silence snapped something inside me.

“You kissed me,” I said, the words tearing out. “You kissed me and then you acted like it never happened. You don’t get to do that, Kael. You don’t get to take something from me, leave me burning, and then treat me like I’m no one, like it meant nothing.”

Still nothing. He just stood there, arms tense at his sides, his jaw clenched.

“Do you even care?” I demanded, my voice breaking now. “Or was I just… a mistake to you?”

That finally made him move. His head whipped toward me, his eyes dark and dangerous, like a storm barely held.

“Don’t,” he said, low and sharp.

“Don’t what?” My chest rose and fell, breath unsteady. “Don’t speak the truth? Don’t admit that you kissed me and then discarded me like I was nothing? Because that’s what it feels like, Kael. Used. That’s what you’ve made me feel.”

His eyes burned into mine, and for a heartbeat we just stood there, locked in a silence so thick it hurt. Then he crossed the space between us in a stride. His hands slammed against the wall on either side of me, caging me in, his body pressing closer but not quite touching.

“You think I don’t care?” His voice was rough, ragged. “You think I kissed you because you mean nothing?”

“Then what was it?” My voice was a whisper, desperate and angry all at once. I was looking up at him, straining my head.

He was so tall

His hand gripped my jaw, tilting my face up, and before I could breathe, his mouth was on mine.

The kiss was nothing like the first. It was hard, bruising, filled with everything he had been holding back. His lips crushed against mine, his body pressing me into the wall, his fingers digging into my hip as though he could anchor himself to me and drown at the same time.

I gasped against him, heat flooding through me, my anger twisting into something sharper, more dangerous. My hands fisted in his shirt, pulling him closer, daring him to stop running. For a moment, the world vanished and there was only Kael, only the taste of him, the weight of his need, the truth of what he had been denying.

But just as suddenly, he tore himself away.

His chest heaved, his forehead pressed to mine, his breath ragged. “I can’t,” he whispered, voice hoarse.

The sting of it hit harder than a slap. My hands fell from him, my whole body trembling with fury and want. “You can’t? Or you won’t?”

Kael stepped back, running a hand through his hair, pacing like a man at war with himself. “If I let this happen… if I let you happen… it will destroy everything.”

“Everything?” My laugh cracked. “Or just you? Because I’m already destroyed, Kael. You did that. You kissed me, you made me feel like I mattered, and now you stand here saying you can’t.”

His head snapped toward me, his expression pained. “You matter too much. That’s the problem.”

The words knocked the air from me, but anger rose fast to fill the hollow. “Don’t you dare twist this into some noble excuse. You don’t get to decide for both of us. If you want me, then stop pretending you don’t. If you don’t, then say it. But stop…” my voice cracked, tears threatening “….stop breaking me in pieces like this.”

The silence stretched again, unbearable, his face caught in torment

I sniffed

Finally, he said, almost brokenly, “You should go.”

It was the last thing I wanted to hear. My fists clenched, nails biting into my palms. “Coward,” I whispered.

His jaw flexed, but he didn’t argue. He didn’t move. He just stood there, every line of him straining and that made me want to scream.

I shoved past him, my shoulder brushing his, and yanked the door open. The corridor outside felt colder, emptier. As I stepped out, I heard his voice behind me, low, almost inaudible.

“Forgive me.”

But I didn’t look back. I couldn’t.

Because if I did, I knew I would never leave his room.