Or maybe just youth.
But I can’t dismiss the coil in my chest. That itch just beneath the surface that says her presence heremeanssomething. Not strategy. Not war. Somethingolder.Instinctual.
Jalshagar.
I swallow hard. My throat is dry. My body knows the word even if I refuse to speak it. The bond—my people’s cruel joke. Fated mates, chosen by the stars, by blood, by whatever ancient cruelty wired our souls to someone else’s.
I don’t believe in fate.
I believe in mistakes. In guilt. In punishment. Things I can count. Can bleed for.
But that moment… when our eyes met across smoke and laser fire…
No.
No.
It means nothing. Ithas to.
I press my hand against the wall, feeling the heartbeat of the planet. A slow, painful throb. Like it understands the weight in my chest.
I didn’t come here to find peace. Or redemption.
I came here tohurt.
To be buried in the silence.
Not to chase shadows of something impossible.
Not to want.
My claws retract with a soft click. I breathe in through my nose. The scent of scorched rock and mineral dust fills me. Sharp. Grounding.
The humans will forget the encounter. They always do. Write it off as a ghost in the dark. Some will think it was nothing. Others will whisper. But they’ll move on.
Except… maybeshewon’t.
That’s the danger.
I lean my head back, horns tapping softly against the tunnel’s roof. The stone here remembers things. Every scar. Every echo. It remembers me.
I don’t deserve anything more than this silence.
But her eyes…
They speak of something else.
Not pity.
Not fear.
Curiosity.
And that is the worst thing of all.
Because curiosity leads to questions.
And questions lead to truth.
