Chapter 63 CHAPTER 63
CAEL'S POV
The classroom was airy but I've never been under this much heat before.
I'm a man of very few words and apologies aren't usually a part of it.
It's how I know to ask my brother for an apology because no punishment is greater than that.
Admitting to being wrong, admitting to the humanness of me, accepting that I'm a wreck, a mess;
The reality that I've run from all my life, crashing at my feet.
It's like shooting my chest with a gun, I'll survive it but the pain is immeasurable.
And I must do that now.
I must beg.
I thought to kneel but something told me that would seem pretentious, like I was trying to overwhelm her rather than genuinely apologise.
My feet pulled me closer as I greedily pulled in her scent into my nose.
I've been starving, fuck I've been starving all these while and I didn't know how much. She looked so beautiful, more than ever before.
Her hair cascaded behind her back and her wolf was more present now. Powerful too.
Her body was more defined, and again, her scent was overwhelming.
I had to get myself under control or I'd do something stupid.
I'd already done that and I don't know how to reverse it.
How do you even apologise to somebody for trying and failing to kill them?
And in the same breath expect them to show you romantic emotions?
Wordlessly I got to her and I didn't know when my head fell on her shoulder and I began crying.
Sounds stupid, sounds impossible, it made no sense and I don't know where it was coming from but I've never been this overwhelmed in my life.
But the fact was, I'd tried to kill her.
Planned it, sent Marcus to do it when cowardice set in and at the end of the day, she won over me and she found out. The compulsion didn't hold not because I did a shabby job but because she was powerful.
She also escaped on her own.
I was meant to protect her, to kill anyone who would breathe wrongly in her direction but she had to fight me and she won.
I could smell her strength now, the fruity scent on my tongue tinged with spice.
She wouldn't need to run anymore, she would fight and it made me so damn proud.
When I finally got a hold of myself, I pulled back.
She fisted her hands by her sides and her eyes were shut tightly.
"I'm an asshole," I began, looking for the right words.
Just like I'd been doing since this reality fell upon me.
But then, crying did something really magical, it cleared my head a bit.
"Did you come here to write a biography?" She snapped, her voice icy.
The girl who bickered with me over a math lesson was gone and she was replaced by a warrior who killed three strong vampires all by herself.
I loved both versions.
"No, I came to apologise. But now I realise, sorry will never undo the damage I've done."
"I mean, you can't flog a dead horse, can you?"
Shit.
"But I want to explain, just in hopes you might see where I'm coming from. You don't have to forgive me, just see my view."
"Does it involve you needing to kill me?"
"Kinda," I muttered, scratching a nonexistent itch on my neck.
"And you want me to somehow agree with that?"
"No, no no." Fuck, she's cornered me. "I um.. I don't know what made me actually believe I could go ahead with that. It's been an impossible mission right from the onset."
"Because there's a fated bond between us. Otherwise, I would be rotting in the ground by now."
Fuck, she wasn't holding back, not one bit and I knew I deserved it.
"This thing predates us, Sera. We're all minions in the hands of faith. My brother and I have built this Kingdom from a point of obscurity, madness and doom. It was prophesied that you'll kill us. But we'd solved the blood lust problem and everyone was fine now so there was no reason for the curse to remain. So we thought the Dawnbringer wouldn't be born anymore. Colour me shocked when we got the intel that you were born and I came –"
"To kill me."
The words poked needles into my skin.
"Yes. But then I saw you and I lost my shit, Sera. I don't deserve your forgiveness but I want you to promise me something."
"I can't promise you shit. You don't have any bargaining chip here."
"But I do. The bond I feel, I know you feel it too and it's overpowering and intense. It's why I want you to give me the next two weeks to try and win your forgiveness. That's all I ask. And afterwards, regardless of the results, I'll pack up and leave."
"So why do you want my forgiveness?"
"I'm a mess without you. Knowing you see me as that... person, it's not how I want our last memories to be. We might never see each other again so I'm hoping we can make new ones. And all of this is dependent on you. Because I do want you to promise not to come after us. I'm not the enemy here, you're not either. Just a pawn in the hands of fate but I know you can resist them. We're going to do the same, my brother and I. So I want to use the next few days to earn your forgiveness."
I sighed, knowing I wasn't making a lot of sense but at least she wasn't staring daggers at me any longer.
"I don't know how you're going to do that but I'll think about it. Can I go now?"
"Of course my love."
"Don't call me that," she snapped, walking away.
Well, that went well.
Now that I've got a foot in the door, how do you get a soul mate to forgive you for trying to kill her?