Kaelen's POV
I heard her footsteps before I heard her voice.
Pacing the corridor outside my chambers. Each step sounded like fury—measured, deliberate, and burning.
Then—
Bang. Bang. Bang.
The door shook with the force of her fists.
I didn't move.
Another bang. And then her voice, loud, trembling with rage and something dangerously close to heartbreak.
"If you really don't love me, Kaelen—then open this damn door and look me in the eyes when you say it!"
I exhaled slowly, staring at the wall like it could answer for me. My knuckles were white around the edge of the desk I was gripping. My heart pounded like it wanted to leap out and run straight to her.
She deserved better than this. Better than me.
But gods—she wasn't letting me go.
Her voice cracked.
"Coward."
That one word shattered something inside me.
I stood. My legs moved before my brain could stop them.
The door creaked open.
And there she stood—her hair wild, her face blotchy from crying, her eyes blazing with a storm only she could summon.
I opened my mouth, but she cut me off.
"Say it," she hissed, stepping closer, shoving me backward with her fury. "Say you don't love me, Kaelen. Look me in the eyes and lie to me."
I swallowed hard. My mouth was dry. "Nernia…"
"Say it!"
Her hands balled into fists. Her chest heaved. Her lips trembled.
And I couldn't do it.
I couldn't lie to her anymore.
So I said nothing.
And she saw the truth.
Her expression cracked. She blinked, and the fight slowly left her shoulders. Her voice softened—barely more than a whisper.
"…Then why?"
I closed my eyes for a moment. "Because if I give in… if I let myself love you… everything changes. You become the one thing they can use against me. And I'll burn the world before I let that happen."
A beat of silence.
Then her voice—quiet, but razor-sharp: "You don't get to decide what I can handle. You don't get to walk away and call it protection."
I opened my eyes.
And she was there.
Close.
Too close.
Our breaths mingled.
"You're not my weakness," I said. "You're the only thing that ever made me strong."
We didn't kiss.
We didn't touch.
But the moment stretched between us, thick with the kind of silence that says everything.
She stepped back first. Her eyes glistened. "Then stop running. From me. From yourself."
And before I could answer, she walked away—leaving the scent of wildflowers and war behind her.
And a piece of my heart, still in her hands.