AVEL
Kai's words hung in the air, and I could feel them soaking into my skin and lodging deep in my chest. “Please don’t leave me.” His voice cracked at the end, and his eyes misted with emotion as he pleaded with me without pride or armor.
I stared at him, my heart racing faster than it had ever been, faster even than when I was drowning, before my body moved on its own and leaned in toward the boy I loved, the one who had left an entire kingdom for me.
Everything fell silent the instant our lips met. The anxiety and the hypothetical thoughts—gone. There was only the warmth of his lips on mine, the soft tremble in his breath, and the desperate way I gripped his collar as if I could melt into him and never come apart.
How could I ever abandon him? How could I have thought I could?
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