It's been a couple of days since the conversation with Rex, I am bored out of my mind. It's a cold morning and the weather feels nice, I want to get get some training done, use it to get my mind off Rex.
I hop on one feet, switching to the other, I fake trying to throw the dagger as I practice the motion of the stances. I am keeping into the right rhythm, I release the blade and it piecre through the air, it strike the wooden target post. Good, I take another swing and another till I strike the target with lesser thing.
Then I feel it. That scent.
It's faint at first earth, pine, the wild musk of home. The air stills in my lungs before I even turn.
"Kael," I whisper, and the word tastes like memory.
Out of the shadow in one of the human shaped target post, he walks out, wearing a dark attire and a cloak. These a strange look in his eyes, wild like a preparation for battle.
"What the hell are you doing here?" I breathe, backing up before my heart can betray me.
He doesn't answer right away. His chest rises and falls, heavy with anger he's holding in check.
"You weren't supposed to stay," he says finally. His voice is rough, low, threaded with disbelief. "You were supposed to come back."
I shake my head, wiping the sweat off my brow with the back of my hand. "You shouldn't be here. If they find you…"
"I don't care." His tone cracks, jagged. "I don't care what they do. I came for you."
The words hit something inside me that's been aching for weeks. I turn away before he can see it. "It's not that simple."
"It's always been that simple with us," he fires back. He takes a step closer, his shadow merging with mine.
"We fight, we run, we survive. You and me, Raya. That's how it's always been."
I look at him then, really look at him. The familiar scar on his jaw. The burn mark on his arm from that night in the woods. The eyes that used to hold every promise I believed in.
"I can't," I say softly. "Not anymore."
He lets out a bitter laugh. "So that's it? You're giving up? Letting them chain you to him? To Rex?"
I flinch at the name. "You don't understand…"
"Then make me," he growls, closing the space between us. "Because from where I stand, it looks like you forgot who you are."
The dagger I threw earlier still trembles in the post. I walk toward it, more to steady myself than to retrieve it.
"You think I wanted any of this?" My voice trembles despite how hard I try to hold it steady. "You think I don't wake up every night wanting to run? But where would I go, Kael? How many people would die if I did?"
He grabs my arm not hard, just desperate.
"We could go anywhere. I told you that before. The High Council can't touch us both if we keep moving. You and me, Raya. We were never meant to bow to anyone."
I look down at his hand. The warmth of it burns through the chill under my skin. My throat tightens. "You don't understand what's happening here. What's happening to me."
His grip softens. "Then tell me."
I wish I could. I wish I could pour out all the confusion, the bond, the pull I feel every time Rex is near how my body betrays me, how my thoughts blur when his energy touches mine. But how do you explain something that feels like fire and grief at once?
Instead, I whisper, "You wouldn't believe me."
Kael's eyes darken. "Try me."
I pull away and walk a few steps, the wind stirring dust between us. "I came here for revenge, Kael. I came here to destroy him. But every time I look at him, something shifts. It's like I'm standing on the edge of something I can't see, and if I move too close, I'll fall."
He laughs under his breath, disbelief sharp in it. "So that's it? You're falling for him?"
My chest clenches. "No. I don't even know what it is."
"Raya." His voice breaks around my name. "He's the enemy. He's the reason my father…"
"I know!" I snap, louder than I mean to. The word echoes across the empty field. I lower my voice, almost whispering now. "I know what he did. I haven't forgotten, Kael. But… something's different. He's not who I thought he was."
Kael's expression twists. "You sound like them. Like you've been tamed."
That word lands like a blade. I take a breath, forcing my hands to stay by my sides even though every part of me wants to shake him. "You think I'm tamed because I'm not screaming? Because I'm trying to understand before I destroy everything we've built?"
He looks away, jaw tight. "He's changing you."
"Maybe," I admit quietly. "But maybe I'm letting him."
For a moment, neither of us says anything. The only sound is the wind moving through the tall grass and the faint tremor of my pulse in my ears.
Kael's voice lowers, softer now. "You used to look at me like I was your home."
I meet his eyes. "You were my home." My voice catches on the word *were*. "But home isn't always where you stay. Sometimes it's what pushes you to move forward."
His mouth tightens, his voice breaking into something raw. "So this is it? You're choosing him?"
"I'm choosing to understand what this all means," I whisper. "If I walk away now, we will lose everything. The Council wins. The prophecy goes unchecked. And maybe I'll never forgive myself for not knowing the truth."
He shakes his head slowly. "You've changed."
"Maybe I had to."
Kael takes a few steps back, the distance between us stretching wider than the field itself. He looks at me like he's memorizing me for the last time the way I used to look at him before every battle.
"Whatever happens to you here, remember this," he says. "You weren't meant to kneel, Raya. You were born to burn."
I swallow hard, the sting behind my eyes sharp. "Then maybe I'll burn my way through this too."
He opens his mouth to say something, but it dies before it leaves his lips. Then he turns and starts walking away.
"Kael."
He stops, shoulders tense, not turning around.
"Be careful," I say softly.
He nods once and keeps walking until he disappears into the trees, leaving only the faint scent of pine behind the last trace of the life I had before this one.
I stand there for a long time, my dagger still buried in the wooden post, the echo of his voice mixing with the low hum of the bond I can't escape.
And for the first time, I wonder if revenge was ever the point.