Chapter 85 Leave
~ Kael's POV ~
Standing outside Lyra’s door, I hesitated longer than I meant to, my hand hovering inches away from the handle as my thoughts tangled themselves into knots.
I needed to explain why I had not come back to her last night as I promised, and I needed that explanation to make sense. I needed it to sound reasonable. I needed it to be something she could accept without looking at me the way I feared she might.
But every single time I reached the part where I was supposed to give a legitimate reason for my absence, my mind went completely blank. No excuse formed. No believable justification surfaced. No matter how hard I tried to arrange the events of the night into something coherent, nothing fit.
Rudy was no help either. He was just as lost as I was, and more importantly, he refused to lie to our mate. That alone made the situation feel heavier, because if even he could not bend the truth, then there truly was no way to soften it.
In the end, I decided there was no point delaying the inevitable. The truth, as incomplete and ugly as it was, would have to do. Drawing in a steady breath, I opened the door and stepped into the room.
My eyes found Lyra immediately.
She stood by the window with her back partially turned to me, the pale light outlining her figure. Her hair was tied into a low ponytail, simple and neat, and she wore a plain dress that I recognized instantly as not being the one I had given her the night before. Everything about the scene looked normal at first glance.
Yet something was wrong.
I felt it the moment I stepped inside. The air around her felt different, heavier, almost sharp, carrying an energy I had never felt from her before. It was unfamiliar and unsettling, and it stopped me from moving any farther into the room. My instincts screamed that one wrong step would make things worse.
“Lyra,” I called her name carefully, testing the sound of it in the space between us.
“Get out,” she said, her voice low and steady, so controlled that it made my brows knit in confusion.
“Are you all right?” I asked, unsure why those words were the first thing she offered me.
“Get out, Kael,” she repeated. Her tone did not change, but there was something else beneath it this time, something strained and dangerous that set off alarm bells in my head.
“Why are you telling me to get out?” I asked slowly. I took a cautious step forward, careful not to cross whatever invisible line she had drawn.“What is going on?”
“Are you really asking me that question?” she asked as she finally turned around to face me.
My heart clenched painfully at the sight of her face. Her eyes were swollen and red, the kind of red that could only come from hours of crying. Her expression was raw and unguarded, painted with sorrow so deep it made my chest ache. It was the face of someone who had been hurting for a long time without relief.
“Why are your eyes so red?” I asked softly. “Have you been crying?”
“No,” she said, her lips curling with bitter sarcasm. “I have been dancing and smiling all night thanks to you.”
The way she said it made me feel foolish, like I had walked into something I should have seen coming but somehow missed.
“Baby, I am sorry,” I said quickly, the words spilling out of me. “Something came up last night that was beyond my control. That is why I couldn't return here as I promised. Please forgive me. I promise I will make it up to you.” All I wanted in that moment was to see her smile again, even if it was just once.
Instead of relief, she let out a hollow, bitter laugh and shook her head slowly.
“I know I am just a prisoner to you, Kael,” she said, her voice tight with restrained emotion, “but that does not give you the right to treat me like a child who lacks reasoning and understanding. It does not give you the right to play with my feelings.”
My confusion only deepened. None of this was making sense to me.
“What are you talking about?” I asked honestly. “Why would you think I am treating you like a child?”
“Even more insulting,” she continued, her voice rising slightly, “is you standing there and pretending like you don't know what I am talking about. But what do I expect? You already consider me naive and stupid to the point where you go around announcing it to your people.”
Her words hit me like a blow, leaving me stunned and struggling to understand how things had spiraled so far out of my grasp.
“What?” I exclaimed, my shock spilling out of me as I called her name. “Lyra.” I started moving toward her without thinking, driven purely by instinct, but before I could take more than two steps, the bed shifted violently on its own. It scraped loudly across the floor and positioned itself squarely between the two of us, forming a solid barrier that stopped me in my tracks. Around us, other items in the room began to tremble, subtle at first and then unmistakable, as if the very space was reacting to her emotions.
“Dont come close to me,” she said, glaring at me with a level of hostility I had never seen in her eyes before. It was sharp and burning and filled with a fury that made my chest tighten.
“Okay,” I said quickly, lifting both hands in surrender to show I meant no harm. “I know you are angry, and I know I deserve that much, but please try to calm down.” I swallowed hard, forcing myself to stay where I was. “It is already obvious that me standing you up last night is not the real reason you are this upset. So can we please talk about it? Because right now, I honestly don't know what is going on.” I tried to reason with her, but even as the words left my mouth, I could tell they were only making things worse. Her expression darkened further with every sentence.
“If you don't know what is going on, then leave,” she said, her face growing stormy and unreadable.
“What?” I asked, disbelief lacing my voice. I could not process how quickly everything was spiraling beyond my control.
“Go back to the one you love,” she continued, her voice trembling despite her attempt to sound firm, “the one you cannot live without. Go back and continue to drill her like the undertaker she is.”
Her words hit me like a physical blow, and in that moment, something finally clicked into place. My heart sank as realization dawned on me. She knew about Brenda. But how? I was certain Brender had not come this way while leaving that morning, so how had Lyra found out? The questions raced through my mind, colliding with panic.
“Lyra, you are misunderstanding everything,” I said desperately, trying to salvage the situation even though I had no idea how to begin untangling it.
“No,” she shot back immediately. “I am not misunderstanding anything. You two made it very clear. I am sure even the walls understood everything perfectly.” Her voice cracked at the end of the sentence, and tears began to spill from her eyes once more. Seeing her cry like that shattered something inside me. “And here I was, thinking we had something special,” she continued through her tears. “But now I realize you were probably right all along. I must be really naive and stupid to believe there could ever be anything special between us.”
Her words sent a cold wave of fear through me, the kind I had not felt in many years.
“We do have something special between us, Lyra,” I said firmly, even as my heart ached. “Dont let anything make you believe otherwise.”
“Yeah,” she said, nodding slowly, bitterness etched into every movement. “We have something special, yet you had sex with another woman in the room right next to mine after telling me to wait for you. We have something special, yet I am still your prisoner, and my movements are restricted to this room. We have something special, yet you could not mark me even while claiming I am everything you ever wanted.” Her voice rose with every accusation. “If that is your idea of something special, then I don't want any part of it.”
My heart shattered completely at her words, breaking into pieces I didn't know how to gather again.
“You should at least let me explain,” I said quietly, feeling more powerless than I ever had before. The cruel irony was that even if she gave me the chance, I did not know how to explain something I could not fully remember or understand myself.
“I don't want to hear anything you have to say,” she replied, her voice firm despite the tears still falling. “I don't want to hear any more of your lies. Please leave. Your presence is causing me even more heartache.” With that, she turned away from me once again and faced the window, effectively shutting me out.
Knowing there was nothing else I could do, I turned and walked away. Staying would only hurt her more, and that was the last thing I wanted. As I left the room, one thought burned clearly in my mind. I needed to find out exactly what happened last night, because only the truth and undeniable proof could save what was left of this situation.