Frowning, I refused to look away from him even when he looked away from me. Even as he ignored me standing in front of him. Even as the skies darkened further, he refused to look at me.
And I refused to back down.
"Who are you to me?" I asked boldly, too tired of these games, of all these questions and the lack of answers. "Who are you, truly?"
I thought he wouldn't answer. I thought he wouldn't say a thing. But as he looked down, I could see his defeat staring back at me. I could see the longing mirroring my own.
Closing his eyes, he took a step closer and pressed his forehead to mine, and whispered against my lips, "A stranger in this life." Those green orbs were visible once more, swallowing me in the shadows living within them. "But once upon a time, I was everything."
My heart roared as I shuddered, feeling the conviction in those words. Feeling everything he felt.
Warm lips pressed against my forehead. "I'm sorry, love. I can't stay. I…" He took a step back. "I can't."
And as if he was never there, the shadows swirling around him swallowed him whole, removing any evidence of the man who shook my world and left me with a gaping hole in the center of my being.
19
KAIRA
"Again!"Elandra roared from the edge of the field. "Get your ass up, Kaira!"
I wanted to tell her to fuck off. I wanted to show her my middle finger, march all the way to the docks and fucking jump into the cold sea and swim back to the mainland. Oh, how I wanted to ignore them all and disappear, but I couldn't.
The moment she found me standing outside in the freezing rain, she dragged me inside the house and demanded I eat something before our training. Training I didn't fucking understand.
She wanted me to train, to show her what I could do, yet she didn't even try to explain the reason behind this entire exercise. I expected her to yell at me, to be disappointed when I started asking questions again, but instead of that, she sat me at the table, placed a plate with omelet and fresh fruit in front of me, and disappeared, leaving me there gaping after her.
I was wet to the bone, dripping all over the floor, but she didn't seem to care. The worst part was, I wasn't even hungry. I was… I felt nothing as I stared at the breakfast in front of me, trying to wrap my mind around the conversation I had with Hades. And when Elandra came back, throwing a pairof leggings at me, a T-shirt that definitely wasn't mine, and sneakers that were exactly my size, I did get angry.
But even through my anger, I could see that she was trying to help me. In her own way, she was trying, promising we would have a talk afterwards.
So here we were, in the middle of the forest, at the meadow, with a man she introduced to me after we left the house.
"Do not help her, Lysander!" she screamed at the blond-haired warrior hovering over my body, keeping his hand directed at me. "She needs to get up on her own."
Blue orbs stared down at me, making me wish I could wipe off that little smile off his face. "She's really hard on you," he said, stepping back just as I pulled myself upright. "I mean, I get it, but I do feel bad for you."
"Don't," I gritted out, holding my stomach where he slammed into me during our last fight. One of many.
I had no idea how many hours had passed, or how many sessions we went through, but Elandra was relentless, urging me to fight, to show her what I had. I had only myself to blame for being too slow, too weak to fight against him. Before the accident I spent most of my days in the gym and the boxing ring, releasing my frustrations out in a much healthier way than most of my peers. But since my family died I could barely function, let alone train.
Which was now biting me in the ass.
"What are you waiting for?" Elandra bellowed, making me narrow my eyes at her. "Get to your positions."
Lysander looked at me, then at her, shaking his head.
When we came to this meadow, I didn't think much of the training she mentioned. She already knew my mother threw me into every sport possible since I was a kid, and she wanted to see what I was capable of. She wanted to test me, and I was fine with it. Well, I was fine with it until I saw Lysander.
Standing at six-foot-two, compared to my measly five-seven, he was a fucking giant. His biceps looked big enough to crush my skull, and if it wasn't for the carefree smile he had on his face from the moment we met, I would've thought he was here to kill me. Hell, I wasn't so sure he wasn't really trying to kill me, and I highly doubted he was using his full strength.
I was also no fool—I knew he wasn't human. Ancient energy hummed beneath his skin, slithering to the surface every now and then, but he couldn't hide the golden aura shining around him, or the graceful way he moved. I fought men before. I won against men before, but this one was on a whole different level.
"Are you sure you're up for this?" he asked, stepping away from me and taking his position. "We can take a break."
"No," I bit out. Taking a break would mean thinking about a certain green-eyed nightmare threatening to take over my mind, and I didn't want that. I didn't want to think about him. About the rejection in his words or the way my heart broke a little more when he disappeared.
I would rather get my ass kicked than try to understand the meaning behind those words.
