THE FIRST BETRAYAL
963 Words
The silence in the room was suffocating.
Dorian’s words lingered like a blade hovering over our heads, waiting to drop.
"The curse started with a betrayal. So maybe... it ends with one."
Kael’s grip on my wrist tightened—a subtle tether between us. Maybe he was grounding himself. Maybe he was trying to keep me from slipping away. His silver eyes burned with unspoken questions, but I forced myself to focus on Dorian.
"What do you mean?" My voice was steadier than I felt.
Dorian studied me, his gaze slow, deliberate. Measuring.
"You already know the answer," he murmured. "You just don’t remember it yet."
A sharp pang twisted in my gut.
Fragments of my past lives had started creeping back—flashes of war, pain, the unbearable cycle of being ripped away from Kael just when we thought we’d won. But there were still gaps, still things that refused to take shape.
Dorian was waiting for me to put the pieces together.
I squared my shoulders. "Then tell me. Who betrayed us?"
Dorian exhaled, running a hand through his dark hair. "It wasn’t just one of you, Ava. It was both of you."
I flinched. "That’s not possible."
Kael’s voice was rough. "She would never betray me."
"And you would never betray her," Dorian agreed. "But history tells a different story. You aren’t just cursed lovers—you were cursed because of what you did to each other."
I shook my head. "That doesn’t make sense. If we betrayed each other, why would we keep coming back? Why would we still—"
"Because the curse is your punishment," Dorian interrupted. "You aren’t just bound by love. You’re bound by guilt. And the cycle keeps repeating because neither of you has faced the truth."
I felt like I couldn’t breathe. "Then tell us the truth."
Dorian tilted his head, his expression unreadable. "Alright," he murmured. "Let me show you."
And before I could react, he reached out—his fingertips brushing against my forehead.
---
A Memory Reawakened
The world collapsed.
Kael’s room vanished.
I was somewhere else. Somewhen else.
A castle.
The stone walls loomed high, torches flickering against the dim light. I stood at the edge of a grand hall, my breath shallow, my pulse a frantic drum against my ribs.
I knew this place.
This was where it had all begun.
And across the room, standing beneath an archway lined with ancient runes, was Kael.
But not the Kael I knew now.
This Kael was clad in armor—dark, intricate, etched with symbols I couldn’t yet understand. His silver eyes weren’t just stormy; they were dangerous.
And I—the past me—stood before him, sword in hand.
His voice was quiet, yet it carried through the vast hall. "You shouldn’t have come here."
"Neither should you." My voice was barely above a whisper.
We were enemies.
I felt it in the way my fingers curled around the hilt of my blade, in the rigid set of my shoulders. But beneath the tension, beneath the weight of whatever war had brought us here, something else burned.
Love.
Kael’s gaze flicked to the sword in my hands. "Will you do it?" he asked.
My heart pounded.
"If I don’t, they’ll kill you."
A bitter laugh left his lips. "They’ll kill me anyway, Ava. And you know it."
I did know it.
But it hadn’t stopped me from making a deal with the enemy to save him.
That was my betrayal.
I had agreed to turn against my own people—to end the war—to keep Kael alive.
And in return, Kael betrayed me.
Because even as I stood there, ready to throw everything away for him, he had already made his choice.
His voice softened. "You were never supposed to love me."
I swallowed hard. "It’s too late for that."
Kael’s grip tightened on his own sword. His expression was unreadable, but regret flickered in his gaze.
"I won’t let them take you."
The air shifted.
A door slammed open.
Figures rushed inside—soldiers, cloaked figures, their hands crackling with dark magic.
They had come for us.
Kael turned sharply, stepping in front of me. "Stay behind me."
But I wasn’t the kind of woman who let someone else fight my battles.
I stepped beside him, raised my sword—
And then the world exploded.
---
Back to the Present
I gasped, slamming back into my body as if I’d been thrown from a great height.
The room blurred before coming into focus. My chest rose and fell in frantic bursts, my fingers clawing at the sheets beneath me.
Kael was in front of me, his face pale, his silver eyes wide with recognition.
"You saw it," he murmured.
I swallowed, my throat raw. "We betrayed each other."
Kael exhaled slowly. "Not because we wanted to."
Dorian watched us with unreadable eyes. "And that’s why the curse exists. Not just because of love, but because of the choices you made. The mistakes you keep making."
A shiver ran down my spine. "So how do we stop making them?"
Dorian didn’t answer right away. He just studied me, as if weighing my resolve.
Finally, he spoke. "You have to do what neither of you ever did before."
His voice dropped lower. "You have to trust each other completely. No secrets. No lies. No fear."
Kael’s jaw clenched. "Easier said than done."
Dorian smirked. "Oh, I know."
A tense silence followed.
Then Kael turned to me. His silver eyes burned with something fierce, something unyielding. "Are you willing to do this?"
I met his gaze, my pulse hammering.
"Yes."
Because no matter what happened next—I wasn’t going to let fate win.
Not this time.
- Writer
