Chapter11
1044 Words
Kaida’s Pov
The door clicked softly behind me as I stepped out of Willow’s room, the scent of herbs and warm soup was still clinging faintly to my robes. I paused for a breath in the corridor, pressing my palm lightly against the cool stone wall.
She had smiled. Just a little but.. it was real. Fragile and new.
She may not remember her name, or the fire she rose from, but something in her spirit hadn't been touched by the spell, something strong and maybe even.. Divine.
And gods help me… she reminded me too much of myself when I was still hopeful.
I walked the hallways slowly, trailing my fingers along the wall. Aetheria had always felt like bones, old, sharp, aching with history. But tonight it pulsed, alive with something deeper. The ritual had changed more than her. I felt it in my chest like an ache I hadn’t earned.
I reached our door.
Ours.
My heart hesitated before my hand did. I hadn’t spoken to or seen Axel since the ritual. Not like I used to. He’d been quiet, distant. That kind of silence you carried when something was wrong.
The handle turned under my fingers. The door opened.
The fire was still lit. The scent of warmth and smoke hung in the air. Axel stood with his back to me, bare-chested, his muscles were tense as if he’d been standing there for too long, thinking too much. A bottle half-full on the table, unfinished, just like us.
His shoulders didn’t move as I entered, but I felt his awareness shift and his breath tighten.
“I saw her,” I said quietly, closing the door behind me. “She ate, she smiled.”
Still nothing, Silence
I stepped forward, just a little. “Axel…”
He turned then. His jaw was clenched, his eyes was storm-dark and unreadable.
The heat between us, long-buried and bitter, rose again like a wave.
He didn’t say a word. He forced his face away from mine again
“You’re still angry,” I said quietly.
He turned at that, slow and deliberate, his eyes locking with mine. That sharp, stormy grey eyesI’d memorized long ago.
“Angry?” His voice was low, Rough. “That doesn’t quite cover it.”
I swallowed. “You think I crossed a line.”
“I know you did.”
I stepped closer, my arms wrapped around myself, though I didn’t feel cold.
“I did what I had to do. For her. For us.”
“For us? For her? For our enemy? You used magic that nearly hollowed you out,” he snapped, voice tight. “You pushed yourself past every damn warning. And for what, Kaida? So she’d forget her pain? Willow of Verneville? Or so we’d all forget the truth?” he scoffed
“Why would you even agree to her staying here? Huh? She's our enemy! And worst still, you took it upon yourself to wipe her memory? For what? So she can live happily ever after here? in deceit and lies?”
“That’s not fair.”
He turned his back to me again. “No. It’s not.”
The silence stretched again, thick and hard between us. I could feel him cracking though not loudly, but in the quiet way Axel always did.
I stepped behind him, hesitated, then rested my hand lightly on his back. His muscles tensed beneath my palm.
“You stopped trusting me,” I whispered.
He didn’t respond, but he didn’t pull away either.
“You think I chose her over you.”
Still nothing.
I stepped around him, into his line of sight. He met my gaze, reluctantly, but fully. There was something raw in his eyes it definitely wasn't anger anymore, but hurt
“I never stopped choosing you,” I said.
His jaw clenched . “You say that… but you keep so much to yourself. You walk into fire and tell no one. You bear the weight like it’s a badge of honor, Kaida. And then you wonder why I’m always at a distance.”
That cut deeper than I expected.
“I don’t do it to push you away,” I said. “I do it because I don’t want you to bear the pain with me.”
His expression broke, not in his face, but in the air around him. The kind of stillness that trembles just before it breaks.
“I’ve carried worse,” he murmured. “For you.”
“I know,” I whispered. “That’s why it hurts.”
“That’s not how love works.”
The words stunned me.
“I’m here,” he said, softer now. “I’ve always been here. Even when you were bleeding magic into the mountains. Even when you were risking yourself for Kael’s decisions,I stay. But sometimes, Kaida…” His voice broke, just a little. “Sometimes I wonder if you’d even notice if I stopped.”
I reached out and touched his face, my fingers brushing the edge of his jaw, rough with stubble. “I’d notice,” I said, barely above a whisper. “I’d feel it in my bones.”
His eyes searched mine for a long time. And something shifted, A breath
Axel stepped closer. “I hated watching you cast that spell.”
I nodded. “I hated knowing you were watching.”
His hand twitched at his side. I could feel the control in him, like a storm held behind a glass wall.
I crossed the distance slowly, until I was in front of him. I reached up, pressed my fingers lightly to his chest, warm, scarred, and familiar.
He caught my wrist.
His touch wasn’t gentle.
It wasn’t cruel either.
Just… desperate.
“Don’t do that again,” he said. “Don’t shut me out”
I nodded, throat tight. “Don’t make me choose between the duty I was born with and the love I chose.”
His breath caught.
The fire snapped softly behind us. The room smelled like desire, and something deeper, something that belonged to us alone.
His hand slid from my wrist to my waist, pulling me against him.
And just like that, the air changed.
- Writer
