Chapter 14
IT WAS ANOTHER DAY at work, another day of struggling to remember to be thankful that she had a job...even if it meant working with her ex—
“Buy me coffee from Joe’s, will you?”
—whose only seeming goal in life at present was to torture her.
“Of course, Mr. Wallace.”
She stood at the side of his desk a moment too long, because she’d only been on this floor for a day and a half and she still didn’t know which Joe’s he meant, the one in the lobby or the one across the street, and she’d already learned that asking the wrong question was worse than getting the wrong coffee.
“What?”
“Where would I...” She saw Cyrus raise a brow at her question, and she forced a smile. “What I mean is—I’ll be right back.”
“Good girl.”
He slapped her butt as she turned around, and the worst thing about it was how everyone had seen what he’d done...and they’d all just laughed.
I can’t do this anymore.
She did her best to blink back tears as they started making jokes about her, and Kyara kept walking because she was afraid if she stopped, her knees would not start again.
I don’t know what to do.
She walked out of the office. Took the stairs to avoid people seeing her because—
I need...help.
She couldn’t...she really couldn’t take this anymore. She was trying so, so hard to protect Lyrius, but she just couldn’t take it anymore—
She got to the landing between forty-six and forty-seven and her legs gave out.
She sat down hard against the cinderblock wall, the metal handrail cold against the back of her arm, and she pressed both hands over her mouth because she’d taught herself a long time ago how to sob without sound but she hadn’t trusted herself to remember how today, and the sob came out half-laugh, half-something-else, because—
The truth shall set you free.
She started to laugh, and then she realized she was also crying.
Of course she had to remember that verse of all things. The one verse she had to insist that she and Shayla have to agree to disagree on because every time she heard this verse, she would remember her mother insisting that what she was doing was okay because she was just being true to her feelings.
It had her thinking her whole life that truth was a selfish luxury, and that was why she would lie and lie and lie—
But no more.
I’m so, so sorry, God.
I’m done lying.
Done trying to solve things on my own.
So please.
Please help me.
Please.
And even before she finished praying, she’d already heard the doors swing open, the footsteps coming closer, and when she opened her eyes—
A choked sob escaped her lips as hands that had only ever touched her once before, but whose touch she would never ever forget—
Lyrius.
She could only stare at him, unable to believe her eyes. After what happened last night, she had thought he would have completely given up on her, but instead—
Was this really happening?
Lyrius was in front of her. Cupping her face with shaking hands while endless tears ran down her cheeks.
Was it really him? Or had she lost her mind? It couldn’t really be him, could it?
Lyrius could read her every thought now. That was just how love and truth worked together, and that was why it killed him...how it fucking killed him to know just how much she was suffering.
“I’m sorry,” he said hoarsely. “I’m sorry for not knowing...I’m sorry—”
“W-Why are you apologizing?” she asked shakily. “There’s nothing—”
“I love you, Kyara.”
The words stole her breath, her heart, and her soul.
“I’ve always loved you—”
And she wished, oh she wished she could give him the words, but she just couldn’t speak. Her heart was aching so, so much that all she could do was cry as he pulled her in his arms. Oh, Lyrius. Oh, Lyrius, I love you too. Please, please know I love you, too, but I just...can’t.
Because nothing had changed, and while she knew she had prayed for this, she still didn’t know how to protect him, and so for now...
Lyrius was no longer surprised when Kyara suddenly jerked against him. This was what happened last night. Kyara finding refuge in him...before remembering that evil existed. It had caught him off guard then. But not now. Not again. And that was why—
When she tried pulling away just like last night, he didn’t let her go.
When she begged him to free her, he only tightened his arms.
“Please,” she was saying against his shirt, “please, you don’t understand, he’ll—Lyrius, please, you don’t know what he’ll do, he’ll call his father, he’ll—”
“I know.”
W-What did he mean?
“I know everything, Kyara, and that’s why I need you to look at me...”
A part of her wanted to deny this, believing that all of this was pointless, and that they were just torturing themselves for nothing. But because she remembered to pray for this, and she had to believe that Cyrus couldn’t possibly be more powerful than God—
Kyara slowly mustered the courage to meet his gaze, and oh, what she saw—
“And now I need you to promise me you’ll trust me.”
It made her start crying again.
Because what she saw in his eyes was every answer to her prayer.