CHAPTER TWENTY #2
He ignored me. Instead, he grabbed the hem of his shirt and pulled it up.
My breath caught.
His skin was perfect. No burns. No scarring. Nothing. He should’ve been writhing in pain, he should’ve been blistered and raw. But there wasn’t a mark.
“How is this real?” he blurted. “How the fuck is this real, Kera?”
“I don’t know,” I said, shaking my head so hard my vision blurred. “I don’t know what’s happening to me.”
I scrubbed my tears away with the back of my hand, smearing dirt across my cheeks. “How did you even find me? Why did you come?”
“Because I can’t explain this!” he yelled, flinging his arms out. “You burned me. And then I woke up and there’s nothing. How?!”
“I don’t know. I had a nightmare and—”
“That’s all you’ve got?” he bellowed, stepping forward. “You almost kill me, then heal me, and you don’t even know how? Are you cursed or something?” His guess was as good as mine. Maybe I was cursed.
“You and Will just ran off without explaining a thing!” he shouted.
“Should we have brought you?” I shot back, glaring at him. “We’re not friends.”
He opened his mouth, but the voice that answered wasn’t his.
“No. We’re not.”
Will stormed into the clearing, his voice sharp as glass.
“Will, I—” Aran started, lifting his hands.
“Don’t mistake her saving your life for forgiveness,” Will snarled, cutting him off. “Because we won’t forgive you. Ever.”
I flinched at his rage. Will and Aran had always been like brothers. Always laughing. Always reckless. Always together. And Aran had ripped that bond apart. And suddenly I understood. Aran’s betrayal probably hurt Will worse than it hurt me.
Way worse.
He hadn’t just lost a friend. He’d lost a brother. Someone he probably thought he’d go to war with, fighting side by side, like they always had. Not ending up on opposite sides.
I hadn’t thought about it like that before. I hadn’t seen it from his side. But I saw it, clear as day. Aran’s betrayal had broken me, but it had gutted Will.
“Please. Just go,” I told Aran.
I couldn’t bear to look at his face. I couldn’t watch what it was doing to Will.
“Leave,” Will seethed.
Aran squared his shoulders. “Make me.”
The silence shattered, and Will lunged. His fist smashed into Aran’s jaw with a brutal crack. Aran staggered as blood sprayed from his mouth. He didn’t even get his hands up before he crashed into the ground, his skull bouncing off the roots.
And then Will was on him. No pause. No hesitation.
He straddled Aran’s chest and drove his fists down like hammers, over and over.
I’ve never seen him like that. Wild and unforgiving.
I thought it was what I wanted—Aran bleeding, gasping for breath.
But watching it happen… watching him crumple under Will’s fists, choking on blood and pain.
I just wanted it to stop.
All of it.
“Stop!” I screamed, but my voice was swallowed by their fury. Will’s punches grew wilder. Blood smeared across Aran’s face, his neck, Will’s knuckles. He wasn’t aiming anymore. He wasn’t even thinking. He was unraveling.
Aran twisted, trying to shield himself, curling one arm over his face, but he didn’t fight back. He didn’t even try.
Maybe he thought he deserved it.
Maybe he did.
“You fucking traitor!” Will roared, spit flying. “How could you?!”
“I’m sorry!” Aran gasped, blood bubbling at his lips. “I didn’t mean—”
But Will didn’t listen. He hit harder, his voice tearing through the clearing.
“We needed you!” he yelled. “And you betrayed us! Did you tell them our plan?!”
Another blow.
“DID YOU TELL THEM THE PLAN?” he repeated.
“No—fuck—Will—” Aran choked, curling under the hits. “They took Selma!”
That’s what he’d wanted me to know. That he didn’t do it for power.
Or safety. He did it for her. For someone he couldn’t stand to lose.
Not because he was cruel, because he loved her.
And gods, wasn’t that worse somehow? Because if it had been about power, I could’ve hated him easier.
But that? That made it harder. And it didn’t change a damn thing.
Will dropped his fists, but I didn’t have time to process it. Something inside me shattered. I screamed, and the fire answered. It came so fast I didn’t even feel it rise.
“STOP!”
Light exploded from my hands. The clearing blazed like lightning had struck, and heat warped the air, gold light cutting through the trees.
Aran groaned, rolling onto his side, blood gushing from his mouth.
“I didn’t tell them anything,” he coughed. “I didn’t betray you. I swear. They took her. They took Selma. I didn’t have a choice.”
My throat closed.
“You had a choice,” Will said. “And you made it.”
Aran snapped his gaze toward me. “Tell me you wouldn’t have done the same thing for her!”
Will turned too, eyes locking on mine.
I looked between them—Will with blood still dripping from his knuckles, Aran broken in the dirt, and me standing in the middle, flames still flickering across my skin.
“I don’t know what’s happening,” I blurted. “Or how. Or why.”
The fire dimmed, curling back into me, my palms burning from the inside.
“You want forgiveness, Aran? Then earn it,” I said. ”I can’t go back. So, if you two could try not to kill each other, because I need your help.”
Aran spat blood into the dirt, then gave a faint nod.
“We’ll sleep in shifts,” I told them. “No more inns. Not after this. We stay in the woods.”
“You don’t have to,” I said, soft but firm. “But I do.”
He stared at me for a second too long. “What about the horses?”
I shook my head. “I’ll walk.” My throat burned. “I’m not hurting anyone else.”
Aran groaned behind us, clutching his ribs as he tried to sit up straighter. “Can you heal me first?” he asked through gritted teeth. “This really fucking hurts.”
“No.” I didn’t even look at him. He could live with it, and part of me still thought he deserved it.
Will spat onto the dirt, jaw tight. “Serves you right,” he said. Then he turned toward me, and his eyes found mine.
“Why did you run?”
I held his gaze, even though it hurt. “I saw the way you looked at me.”
“It’s a fucking lot to process,” he muttered.
The words barely landed before the world tilted under me.
My knees buckled, the ground giving way beneath me.
I reached out without thinking, fingers grasping for anything to hold on to.
My hand caught Will’s arm, and he steadied me before I collapsed.
His other hand came up, hovering at my elbow like he wasn’t sure if I’d pull away.
I’d burned too hot. Too fast. The fire had taken everything and left me burnt out.
And gods, I was tired.
So tired.