Hard. Violent. Unstoppable. Everything I believed?—
Everything I held as truth—splinters.
Not fully. Enough.
I do not move. I cannot. If I move now, I do not know what I will do.
For the first time since I saw him again, I am not sure I want to strike. I am not sure I can.
29
LEENA
It happens too fast to stop. One second they’re standing apart, locked in that impossible space between them, then Kael moves.
I don’t even think. I move.
“Kael—”
I grab his arm just as his reaches Drazan, and for one terrifying heartbeat, I think he’s going to hit him. I feel the tension coiling through him. The way his body snaps forward. Everything aligning for impact.
It doesn’t happen.
He closes his hand. Not in a fist. On Drazan’s shoulder.
He pulls Drazan forward. Close enough that their chests nearly collide. Sand shifts under the force of it as Kael drags him half a step closer.
The sound that comes out of Kael isn’t a word. It’s raw. Torn from somewhere deep in his chest.
Drazan doesn’t fight. Doesn’t strike back. More than that, he doesn’t try to break the hold. He lets it happen.
My heart is hammering so hard I hear it in my ears.
“Kael,” I say again, softer this time, closer.
I don’t pull him back. I just stay here, right beside him. Close enough that if he breaks, I’ll feel it.
His grip tightens.
For a second, I think he might shove him. Might finish the motion. Turn it into something violent. Resolve whatever’s tearing through him.
He doesn’t.
His head dips slightly, breath dragging in hard, uneven pulls.
“You…” he manages.
The word fractures. Falls apart before it can become anything else.
Drazan’s gaze doesn’t waver. Up close, I see the cracks in that control. The weight he’s been carrying.
“You should have died,” Kael forces out.
My chest tightens. The words are wrong, but the pain in them isn’t.
Drazan exhales slowly, not dismissing the words.
“Yes.”
