CHAPTER ELEVEN: SHELTER AND STORMS
1016 Words
Elena pov
I woke to gray light filtering through the cave entrance… my body aching in places I didn't know could hurt.
Kael sat near the opening, his back against the stone wall, watching the forest like he'd been there all night.
He probably had been, wolves didn't need sleep the way humans did.
"You should've woken me," I said, my voice coming out rough.
"For a shift or something."
"You needed rest," Kael said without looking at me….his jaw tight.
"Right," I pushed myself up, wincing at the stiffness in my muscles.
"Because I'm the weak human who can't take care of herself."
Kael finally turned to look at me, something flickering in his eyes.
"That's not what I meant."
"Isn't it?" I started to move toward the cave entrance but stopped when I saw the rain…
Thick sheets of water falling so hard I could barely see the trees beyond, and there was
something wrong about it.
The water looked silver in the dim light, unnatural.
"Cursed storm," Kael said, answering my unspoken question.
"Happens sometimes in this part of the forest, we can't travel in it."
"So we're trapped here," I said flatly.
"Until it passes….
Yes."
Great, just what I needed, stuck in a cave with the man who'd been lying to me since the moment we met.
I moved to the far side of the cave and sat down, as far from him as the small space allowed.
The silence stretched between us like a physical thing, heavy and suffocating…..minutes passed, maybe an hour.
I couldn't tell anymore, time felt strange and wrong here
"How many were there before me?" I asked suddenly.
Kael's head turned….
"What?"
"Brides," I said, meeting his gaze, "how many brides did you bring to that castle to feed her?"
"Elara"
"Answer the question." I cut him off, "how many women died because of your obsession with her?"
Kael was silent for so long I thought he wouldn't answer, then he said quietly.
"It's not that simple."
"Yes or no," I insisted, "how many?"
"Twelve," Kael said finally, his voice rough.
"In the last century alone."
The number hit me like a physical blow, twelve women, twelve lives sacrificed to his dead love.
"And I'm just number thirteen," I said, feeling sick.
"You don't understand," Kael stood up, his hands clenched at his sides.
"I wasn't trying to bring her back, I was trying to break the curse."
"Liar," I said, the word sharp as broken glass.
"I saw you in that chamber, I heard you promise to bring her back."
"You saw what you wanted to see." Kael said, frustration bleeding into his voice.
"Don't," I stood up too, anger flooding through me, "don't you dare turn this around on me, I know what I heard."
"No you don't," Kael took a step toward me.
"You heard part of it, you don't know the context, you don't know what happened before."
"Then tell me," I challenged, "stop hiding behind your secrets and just tell me the truth."
"I can't," Kael said, "not until you're ready to hear it."
I laughed, the sound bitter and harsh in the small space.
"Ready?
I'm dying Kael, when exactly will I be ready?"
"When you stop seeing me as the enemy.
" Kael said quietly.
"You made yourself the enemy," I said.
"The moment you sent for me, the moment you let her mark me, the moment you chose her over every single one of us."
"I never chose her," Kael said, something breaking in his voice.
"You did," I said, "you've been choosing her for centuries."
He loved me for centuries, Seraphina's voice whispered in my mind, soft and mocking.
You've known him for days, who do you think he'll choose when the time comes?
"Get out of my head," I muttered.
"I'm not in your head," Kael said, confused.
"Not you," I pressed my hands to my temples.
"Her, she won't shut up."
Kael's expression changed, concern replacing the frustration.
"What's she saying?"
"Nothing that matters," I said, but my voice shook.
"Elara"
"She's right anyway," I said, dropping my hands.
"You loved her for centuries, what am I compared to that? Just another body, another chance to get her back."
"That's not true," Kael said, but I saw something in his eyes, guilt maybe, or doubt.
"Prove it," I said, "look me in the eye and tell me you don't still love her."
Kael opened his mouth, closed it, looked away, that was all the answer I needed.
"Thought so," I said quietly, turning back toward the cave wall.
The rain continued outside, relentless and strange, we sat in hostile silence for what felt like hours.
I tried to ignore Seraphina's whispers, tried to ignore the burning in my arms as the marks spread further…..tried to ignore the way Kael kept glancing at me when he thought I wasn't looking.
Finally the rain stopped, as suddenly as it had started, one moment the world was gray and wet.
The next sunlight broke through the clouds like someone had thrown open a curtain.
"We should go," Kael said, standing up and brushing dirt from his clothes.
I nodded and moved toward the entrance, caught my reflection in a pool of water near the cave mouth, and froze.
The silver marks had spread, covering my neck now, crawling up the side of my face.
I looked like her, more every hour.
"Elara," Kael said softly from behind me.
I caught him staring, his expression unreadable, something twisted in my chest.
"What?" I snapped, "disappointed I don't look enough like her yet?"
"That's not," Kael started.
"Save it," I said, pushing past him toward the forest.
"Let's just get this over with."
We walked in silence, hostile and thick, neither of us willing to break it first.
I focused on putting one foot in front of the other, on not thinking about how I was disappearing, becoming someone else.
Behind us, hidden in the shadows between trees, something moved, silver eyes watching, tracking and waiting.
But we didn't mind…
- Writer
