AVEL
My heart sank to the pit of my stomach as Kai's words resounded inside me like thunder in a hollow room, the kind that rumbled long after the storm had passed. “A cursed love… no place in this world.”
The silence between us was excruciating. Then, without warning, he shifted again, and the golden tail and webbed fingers vanished. In their place, the human version of him stood once more, still otherworldly, and still heartbreakingly beautiful. Just… not mine.
"My brother's here," he said suddenly, moving quickly toward the bed and grabbing his clothes, as if the air had changed and he could barely breathe. I watched him numbly as he pulled on his pants, then his shirt, his movements stiff and tense.
He did not look at me. Not until he was fully dressed, and as he turned to face me
