Verveville's Curse

Chapter6

Kael’s Pov

Wipe her memory

The words echoed in my head like a curse, staying long after Thorne had left my castle, arrogant and satisfied, as if he had just offered me a gift.

But what he offered wasn’t strategy, It was violation

I stood in the center of the room, the stone walls closing in like the pressure of the decision I had to take. Outside seemed serene with the moon hearing my every thought. I didn’t move. I barely breathed.

What was I doing?

I was Alpha, I led armies,I buried kingdoms. I did not flinch at hard decisions. And yet…Her face wouldn’t leave me.

Bloodied, Silent, Proud, even in defeat.

Willow of Verneville.

She was supposed to die on that battlefield, just another death in a war her people brought upon themselves. I should have slit her throat like the others. I should have watched the fire devour her being. But instead, I lifted her from the ash and carried her into my own territory.

Why?

I didn’t know.

That’s what frightened me.

There was something in her silence. Something in the way her fingers clenched even in unconsciousness like she was still fighting. Something ancient… like a call I hadn’t realized I’d been listening for.

And now Thorne wants me to erase her.

“Make her yours,” he said.

“Wipe her mind, Shape her future, Break her without lifting a blade”

I clenched my jaw, feeling heat rise in my chest.

No.

Even if she was a threat, even if she was the daughter of Lilith herself, this wasn't the way.

She deserved her truth, even if it burned.

And yet… a whisper at the back of my mind persisted.

She’s powerful, Kael. More than even Lilith. What happens if she remembers everything and turns it against you?

I turned my head sharply, as if I could shut it up by force.

No.

I wouldn’t become what I swore I never would.

I wouldn't become it

But then… What was I going to do with Willow?

A knock came soft, Only one person ever knocked like that in this castle.

“Come in,” I said, voice low.

Kaida stepped into the room, her long silver hair pulled into a braid, the tip of her nails, stained with herbs from making concoctions. She walked with a quiet grace that misrepresented the fire within her.

“I thought I might find you here,” she said, pausing near the fireplace but not sitting.

“I needed silence,” I replied.

“But You’re not silent,” she said, looking at me. “You’re loud in here, Kael.” She tapped her temple. “Even the air feels heavier when your thoughts storm like this.”

I didn’t respond. She always had a way of seeing through the shield I never took off.

“You’ve been thinking about what Thorne said.” It wasn’t a question. I turned to face the fire, letting the heat brush over my skin.

“He wants to erase her. Mold her into something convenient. Something his.”

“And what do you want?” she asked, her voice steady. I didn’t answer. “You don’t want her dead,” Kaida continued. “You had every chance, and yet you carried her through the ash yourself. Even when you told Axel it was Thorne’s idea, you knew that wasn’t the whole truth.”

I exhaled sharply. “What are you trying to say?”

“I’m saying you’ve already chosen, Kael. You just don’t like what that choice is making you feel.”

I met her gaze, hard. “You think I’m going soft?”

She smiled faintly. “I think something about her unsettles you. And I don’t think it’s softness. I think it’s recognition.”

I looked away.

“I’ve watched her in her sleep,” Kaida said, walking closer. “She fights even there. Whatever binds her, pain, loss, memory, it clings to her like a plague. She won’t wake up quietly. And when she does, she’ll remember everything. The blood, Her people, You.

“She’ll hate me,” I murmured.

“Yes,” Kaida said softly. “At first. Maybe always. But that doesn’t make her your enemy.”

“She was raised to destroy my kind,” I said through clenched teeth. “And now she sleeps under my roof. Do you know what that makes me, Kaida?”

She stepped closer, placing a hand against my chest. “It makes you someone who saw more in her than death. And now you have to live with what that choice means.”

I looked away, jaw tight.

“You’re trying to save her,” she said gently, “but you're also trying to save yourself. That’s not weakness, Kael. That’s survival. The only way to keep her from becoming your enemy… is to take away the part of her that still thinks you are.”

“And that part is everything she’s ever known,” I said bitterly.

Kaida nodded. “Which is why you can’t let her wake up to it.”

I looked into her eyes and saw no malice. Only understanding.

“This isn’t about turning her into a weapon,” she added. “It’s about giving her a chance to live without being crushed by everything she’s lost. She deserves peace, even if it’s borrowed. And you… you deserve time. Time to decide what she really is to you.”

Silence pressed in again, but this time it wasn’t heavy. It was final.

I turned back toward the door, where she lay unconscious, the weight of two kingdoms in her blood.

I had made my choice the day I carried her out of the fire.

Now I just had to live with it.