KAEL
Aria walked away.
She left me.
After everything... after begging me to stay away, she still went to him. To him.
I stood there alone in the middle of that cold, sterile hallway, her shadow trailing behind her like it was sealing something permanent. My chest wasn't just tight... it fucking ached. Not the kind of ache you get from exhaustion or pain. This one sat behind my ribs like a damn parasite, like it was feeding off the chaos in my head.
I kept replaying it over and over. The way she looked at me.
Like I was a monster.
That wasn't new. Ivan had looked at me the same way once, back at the base, when I lost control and nearly beat that man to death. That same disgust. That same fear. Like they were watching something they didn't recognize anymore.
And now Aria... Aria. She looked at me like I wasn't someone she could trust anymore. Like I was exactly what Sylas had been calling me from the start.
Fuck.
