Chapter 62 KIERAN'S CONFESSION

Chapter 62 KIERAN'S CONFESSION
CHAPTER 062: KIERAN'S CONFESSION

I've been hiding in the training room for two days and also training, punching the bags until my knuckles bleeds and doing anything to make my mind stop from drifting to the symbol carved into the gate post.

The Covenant sends their regards.

I hit the bag harder. My wrapped knuckles protest but I don't stop.

The door slams open.

Kieran stands at the door post, his amber eyes locked on me with an intensity that makes my breath catch.

"We need to talk," he says.

"I don't want to talk."

"Too bad." He closes the door behind him, leans against it like he's blocking my escape. Which he probably is.

I turn back to the bag, and throw another punch. "I'm busy."

"You've been busy for two days. You've been shutting me out since we got back."

"I've been shutting everyone out."

"Why?"

I hit the bag so hard it swings wildly on its chain. "Because I'm tired, Kieran. Because I'm overwhelmed. Because I don't know how to be normal anymore."

"None of us are normal." He moves closer, his footsteps deliberate. "That's the point."

"You don't understand."

"Then make me understand."

I turn to face him, breathing hard. "How? How do I explain that every time I close my eyes I see that girl at the gate? That symbol? That text message saying the Covenant is already here?"

"You tell me. Like you just did." He's right in front of me now, close enough that I can feel the heat radiating off him. "Instead of avoiding me for two days."

My hands shake. I clench them into fists. "I showed you the text. I told Corvus about the symbol. What else do you want from me?"

"I want you to stop pretending you're okay when you're falling apart."

"I'm not—"

"You are." His voice drops, goes rough. "And I can't help if you won't let me in."

Something in my chest cracks. Again. Dr Miriam would probably say that's progress.

"I don't know how to let people in anymore," I whisper.

Kieran's hand comes up, cups my face. His thumb brushes my cheekbone. "Start with me."

The tears come before I can stop them. I hate crying. Hate feeling weak. But his touch is so gentle and I'm so tired of being strong.

"I'm scared," I admit. "I'm terrified that everything Oracle Mira said is true. That I'm summoning these things. That more people are going to die because of what I am."

"Then we fight." His forehead presses against mine. "Together."

"You say that like it's simple."

"It is simple. You fight, I fight beside you. That's it."

"Kieran—"

"I haven't told you what happened there." His voice goes hollow. "In the Hollow King's realm. What he did to me."

My breath stops. "You don't have to—"

"I do." He pulls back enough to meet my eyes. "Because you need to understand why I've been so protective and so controlling."

"He showed me things," Kieran says finally. "Thousands of many things, different choices. And in every single one, you died."

"He made me watch you die over and over." His hands are shaking now, claws threatening to break through. "Burned alive, stabbed, drowned, torn apart by creatures I didn't recognize. Every possible death. And I couldn't stop any of them."

"Kieran—"

"He broke something in me, Thalira. He made me so terrified of losing you that I've been suffocating you ever since we got back." His amber eyes are wet. I've never seen him cry. "I'm sorry. For being too much. For not giving you space. For treating you like something fragile when you're the strongest person I know."

I grab his face with both hands, forcing him to look at me. "I'm not fragile. But I'm also not invincible."

"I know."

"Do you? Because you act like one wrong move and I'll shatter."

"Because I've seen you shatter." His voice breaks. "A thousand times. In a thousand different ways."

"Those were possible futures. Not this one."

"How do I know that?"

"You don't." I lean up, press my forehead to his again. "But you have to trust me anyway. Trust that I can protect myself. That I'll ask for help when I need it."

"I do trust you."

"Then prove it. Stop trying to control everything. Stop deciding what's too dangerous for me."

He's quiet for a long moment. Then he said, "When you freed me from the bond, I thought I was losing you. Without that connection, you wouldn't need me anymore."

Oh.

"Kieran." I pull back to look at him properly. "I freed you because I wanted you to have a choice. Not because I didn't want you."

"I know that now. But at the time—" He exhales roughly. "I've been tied to you for fifty years. That bond was everything. And then it was gone."

"Do you regret it? Being free?"

"No. Yes. Both." He runs a hand through his hair, frustrated. "I'm grateful for my freedom. But I miss feeling you constantly. Miss knowing you're okay without having to ask."

"We don't need a magical bond for that." I take his hand, lace our fingers together. "We just need to talk. Like this."

His grip tightens. "I'm not good at talking."

"I noticed."

That pulls a laugh out of him. L

"I love you," he says quietly. "Not because a bond tells me to. Because you're brave and stubborn and you care too much about everyone even when they don't deserve it."

My heart does something complicated in my chest. "I love you too. Because you're loyal and protective and you've waited fifty years for me."

"I'd wait fifty more."

"Let's hope you don't have to."

He kisses me passionately. Not desperate or urgent like every other kiss we've shared. This one is slow, deliberate, like he's memorizing the feel of my lips against his. Like we have time.

I kiss him back, letting myself get lost in the warmth of his mouth, the steadiness of his hands on my waist. The training room fades away until there's nothing but us.

When we finally break apart, my lips were swollen and we're both breathing hard.

"Come here," he murmurs, pulling me down to the mat.

We sit with our backs against the wall, my head on his shoulder, his arm around me. It's quiet except for our breathing.

"I love you," I say again, because it feels important to keep saying it. "But I love them too. Alaric, Cassian, Zev. I don't know how to not love all of you."

His jaw tightens but he doesn't pull away. "I know."

"Are you okay with that?"

"I'm learning to be." He presses a kiss to my hair. "It's not easy. My wolf wants you all to himself. But my human side understands that you're not something to be owned."

"Thank you. For trying."

"Don't thank me yet. I'll probably mess this up a hundred more times."

"Then I'll be patient with you. Like you're being patient with me."

We sit in silence. I placed my head on his chest and count his heartbeats, feel them sync with mine even without the bond. Maybe Dr Miriam was right. Maybe breaking and healing is how this works.

"What kind of future do you want?" I ask suddenly.

"What do you mean?"

"If we survive all this. If the Covenant doesn't kill us and the prophecy doesn't come true and we actually make it out alive. What do you want?"

He's quiet for a long moment. "Somewhere quiet. With you. It doesn't matter where."

"That's it?"

"That's everything."

Something warm spreads through my chest. Not the soul bond, just regular human affection. Which somehow feels more powerful.

"I want that too," I whisper.

“I…”

Then a strong explosion tears through the campus before he can respond.

The training room windows shatter. Alarms start screaming. Kieran's on his feet in seconds, pulling me up with him.

We ran outside.

Half the training building is engulfed in flames. Students pour out of nearby buildings, screaming. The scent of burning wood and something worse, something chemical, fills the air.

And standing in the center of the flames, completely untouched, is a figure I recognize.

Seraphine.

She looks different than she did in the Hollow King's realm. Her eyes burn with an inner fire. Her smile is sharp.

"Hello Phoenix," she calls out, her voice carrying over the chaos. "The Hollow King sends his regards." She pauses, tilts her head. "Oh wait, you killed him. So I guess this is from me."

Kieran snarls beside me, already shifting.

"How are you here?" I shout. "You died when he did."

"Did I?" She spreads her arms wide. "Or did something else resurrect me? Something ancient and hungry and very interested in meeting you."

The Covenant.

"They're coming, Thalira," Seraphine continues. "All of them. And there's nothing you can do to stop it." She laughs, high and cruel. "You summoned them, remember? Just by existing."

Before I can respond, before Kieran can attack, she snaps her fingers.

Students scream as the fire spreads to other buildings. The heat is intense enough that even from here my skin burn.

And then Seraphine is gone, she vanished into the smoke and chaos.

Leaving behind nothing but burning buildings and a message carved into the ground where she stood, still glowing with heat.

Three days until the first arrives. Prepare yourself Phoenix Soul.

Kieran grabs my hand. "We need to get everyone to safety."

But I can't move. Can't breathe.

Three days.

Three days until what? Until the Covenant arrives? Until everything ends?

Through the smoke, I see Corvus running toward us, Alaric and Cassian and Zev right behind him.

"What happened?" Corvus demands.

I point at the message with a shaking hand.

His face goes pale.

"We need to evacuate the academy," he says. "Now."

"And go where?" Alaric asks. "If they're targeting her specifically, running won't help."

"Then what do we do?" Cassian's voice is raw with panic.

I look a
t the burning buildings. At the terrified students. At the message promising something worse is coming.

And I realize.

This is what Oracle Mira warned me about.

I'm not just attracting darkness.

I'm the reason it's here.