Chapter 15: The Tethered Heart
641 Words
The night was a deluge. Rain lashed against the small wooden shack where they had taken refuge, turning the world outside into a blur of grey mud and howling wind.
Elara woke to the sound of nothing.
The silence in the room was heavier than the storm.
She reached across the bed, but her hand met only cold, damp linens. Her heart plummeted.
She sat up, her eyes adjusting to the dim moonlight filtering through the cracks in the wall.
A scrap of parchment lay on the pillow.
She picked it up, the ink smeared by a single dark drop of water.
I’m the danger. Forget me.
A sob tore from her throat before she could stifle it.
She scrambled out of bed, not bothering with shoes or a cloak. She threw open the door and sprinted into the freezing downpour.
She didn't need to see him. She could feel him.
The bond between them was a physical weight in her chest, a fraying rope that vibrated with his agony. It was a suffocating cocktail of self-loathing, fear, and a love so intense that it felt like drowning.
She ran until her feet were numb and her lungs burned.
She found him three miles into the woods, curled up in the bottom of a rain-filled ditch.
He was a wreck.
He had clawed at his own chest, his shirt shredded, his skin mapped with bloody furrows. He was shivering, his teeth chattering so hard that they clicked.
"Kael!" she screamed, sliding down the embankment.
He scrambled backward, his eyes wide and wild.
"Get away! I tried to leave, Elara! I swear I tried! But it won't let me go! It pulls me back. I am a prisoner in my own skin, and you are the wall of the cell!"
She lunged forward, ignoring his frantic attempts to push her away. She tackled him into the mud, pinning him down with her own body.
He fought her, his muscles corded and hard, but she held on, wrapping her arms around his neck and pressing her forehead against his wet, matted hair.
"Let me go!" he shrieked, his voice breaking. "I am the blade that is going to end you!"
"Then let it!" she sobbed into his shoulder. "If this is the end, then I’m not spending it alone!"
He stopped.
The fight drained out of him as though she had pulled a plug.
He slumped, his breath hitching in ragged gasps. The rain washed the mud from his face, mixing with the tears he could no longer hold back.
"I love you," he whispered, the words sounding like a curse. "I love you, and it’s the worst, most terrifying thing that has ever happened to me."
Elara let out a wet, hysterical laugh, clutching him closer.
"Same, Kael. Same."
They made the walk back in a silence thick with the weight of the night.
At the threshold of their shelter, Kael stopped.
He looked at her, his eyes searching hers for a shred of doubt.
"If I ever hurt you," he said, his voice barely above a breath, "if the curse takes control and I truly hurt you, promise me you’ll kill me. Don't hesitate."
Elara looked at him, the rain dripping from her lashes.
She saw the absolute terror in his eyes, the fear that he would eventually become the monster he fought against.
"I promise," she said.
It was a lie.
She would burn the world down before she let him die, but for now, it was the only mercy she could offer him.
His gaze found hers in the darkness. "What aren't you telling me?"
Her heart stopped.
Because the moment he learned the truth, he would have to make a choice.
"Kael..."
His jaw tightened.
"If saving me means destroying everything else..."
He took a slow step closer
- Writer
