“No. I want to go home. Can you take me, please?” I avoid looking at Kairos, though I feel his eyes searing into me.
He’s pissed and I don’t blame him. Our kiss meant something. It was obvious that I felt it, too, but I made my decision and there’s no going back. I hate myself for hurting him in the process of trying to save him and his people, but I don’t know what else to do. He’d never agree with my plan and it’s too risky for him to come with me. This is something I need to do alone this time.
“Kairos, what’s going on? Talk to me. Are you okay, man?” Mio puts his hand on his shoulder and Kairos immediately shakes it off.
“I’m not okay. Thank you for asking,” he says through clenched teeth, his hands curling into fists at his sides.
“He can’t make me stay. I’m not a prisoner or a hostage. I have free-will.” I cross my arms over my chest, batting my tear-soaked eyelashes up at Mio.
Mio places his palms out in front of his chest, backing away. “Whoa. What the hell did I just walk into? Of course you’re not a prisoner, Nor.” He glares in Kairos’ direction.
Kairos’ eyes widen and his mouth hangs open in shock, but he quickly relaxes his features. “I won’t force you to do anything you don’t want to do or stay where you don’t want to be. You’re free to go. Mio will happily take you home, if that’s what you want.” He nods to his waiting friend and Mio nods back, his eyebrows furrowing deeply as he steps in closer. “Maybe some time away from each other will be good for us both. I realize you’re going through a lot, but you have thoroughly destroyed what hope I had left for us. I think I’d rather be alone tonight, anyway.”
It hurts seeing the light in his normally bright eyes dim and feeling the raging storm suddenly end. People are wrong about storms. It’s not the calm before or the eye of one that’s most frightening. The quiet, indifferent silence Kairos’ storm leaves behind is what steals my breath away and terrifies me. Nothing could ever be worse than this. His gaze lingers on me with words unspoken before he turns and walks away. He’s giving up. He’s letting me go. His emotions are no longer in turmoil; he’s shutting them off. He doesn’t want to force me to stay or force me to choose him. He wants me to make my own decisions so that I’m not angry with him… because he loves me.
He loves me. He fucking loves me. Oh gods, what have I done?
Mio opens a portal and throws his arm over my shoulder as he leads me through. The blinding swirls of blackness and light don’t stop me from turning and looking back, hoping to get one more glimpse of Kairos’ bright green eyes before finding my way to Nyx.
All that remains in his realm is the calm wind, the towering trees surrounded by mountain peaks in the distance, and the heavy emptiness floating in the air. My heart breaks as I walk away, knowing if things were different that we could be happy. This isn’t the end. I’ve fought against my feelings for him every single day because of Ere and because I didn’t want myself to fall as hard as I knew I would for him, but it’s too late. I have officially fallen. One day I’ll have to work my ass off to earn his forgiveness, but I will. Then again, maybe none of this matters. I’ll be in the Underworld soon and maybe I’ll never find my way out of darkness.
I pray to the gods that I will. Though if it’s true that the gods have abandoned the celestials, then most likely they’ve abandoned me, too.
As the portal snaps closed behind us, I close my eyes and take a deep breath, not wanting to see it all without Kairos here beside me. The further we get from him the more broken and alone I feel. I bet he feels it too, the distance I’m forcing between us. I could be wrong. He could feel nothing at all for me anymore.
I hope if nothing else he remembers how it felt to kiss me. How I felt kissing him, too. He has to know I felt everything.
Even in death, I will cherish that moment until the end.
Part Three
CLAIMED
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The Beginning of The End
NORA
Mio has officially overstayed his welcome. He’s worse than Kairos was while he guarded me. I rarely saw him creeping around unless he wanted me to see him, but Mio, on the other hand, his presence is suffocating. I can’t do anything without him lurking or hovering beside me. He’s not one for hiding in the shadows. I’m dying for an excuse to escape his constant presence, patiently waiting on Ere to have some free time to meet up, but he’s been busy the past two days. I’m trying to be patient, but I need to see him. He deserves the truth. Even if he has decided he doesn’t want to be with me, I need to explain what’s been going on and get the truth off my chest. I kissed Kairos. And worse than that, ever since then, kissing him again is all I can seem to think about. It’s driving me crazy.
I lay my book face down and open across my legs, feeling Mio’s eyes burning a hole through my forehead. “What is it?”
He leans forward, smiling wide as he sits his mug of coffee on the table between us. “Kairos misses you. Do you miss him, too?”
“What is this, elementary school?” I groan. “No. I don’t. He kept things from me, and I don’t know how I feel about it.” I clutch my book in my hands, burying my face in it to hide the lies written there, then kick my feet up on the coffee table.
I can’t tell him the truth. If Kairos knows I’m not upset, he’ll come see me himself, and I’m not ready to face him yet. Not after the hurtful things I said and not after that kiss.
Gods, that kiss…
“Someone is lying,” his voice starts low and then goes higher in a sing-song, too chipper way, and I want to throw my book at him. I would if it weren’t a special edition.
He can never be serious. Everything is a joke to him, and though normally those are my favorite type of people, today I’m not in the mood.
“Kairos is the expert at withholding information. Why don’t you ask him if I’m doing a good job of it? He would know.” I smile.
He groans. “Look, Nora. I know you care about that guy?—”
