Chapter 39 Consequences
~Lyra’s POV~
I cried in a way I had never cried before. My entire body shook with it, and the sound that left me did not even feel like something I should be able to produce. I was not crying for myself, not for my own safety or fear or confusion. I cried because Taren was in trouble because of me, and the pain of that truth tore through me with a force that felt almost physical.
I knew crying would not fix anything, yet it was all I could do. It was the only action available to me while anger twisted inside me until it felt like a living thing.
The fury I felt toward Kael at that moment was so intense that I could not bring myself to care if something terrible happened to him. I could not understand how he had branded Taren a traitor without bothering to make proper findings or at least search for the truth. The thought alone made fresh tears burn my eyes.
When the door opened again, many long hours had passed. I had lost track of time, drifting between anger, exhaustion, and a numbness that settled heavily on my chest. The person who stepped into the room was a man I had never seen before.
He pushed in the same food trolley that Taren usually brought, and the sight of it made my heart clench painfully.
“Good evening,” he greeted. He tried to sound warm, but the attempt was painfully unconvincing. I could sense the coldness beneath his tone and the disdain he did not bother to conceal for long. “Your dinner is here. Please come and eat,” he said.
The look I gave him should have been enough to tell him that I had no interest in anything he was offering. It should have been enough to make him turn around and wheel the trolley out, but since he was either too dense or too arrogant to understand it, I made my response clear.
“Take your food away. I am not interested in eating anything.”
“There’s no need to be stubborn,” he said, dropping the fake warmth entirely. His real voice was sharp and irritated. “You have already caused enough trouble as it is, so please let us make this easy on both of us. Eat your food so I can leave.”
His words triggered something inside me, something deep and dark and powerful. It was an intense feeling of hatred I did not know I was capable of. It rose so violently that I could feel it in my bones.
“Get out,” I said to him, and my tone came out commanding, sharp, and unrecognizable even to me.
Instead of obeying, he stared at me in shock before a slow, mocking smile curved on his lips. He shook his head with a small chuckle.
“That is not how it works. You do not get to order me. It is the other way around. And you should be careful with me because I will not tolerate…”
He froze mid-threat when he noticed my eyes shift toward the door. The wooden barrier suddenly swung open with a loud creak even though no one touched it.
His eyes widened in disbelief. He looked between the door and me, and before he could form a word, I lifted my hand. I could already feel the crescent mark pulsing beneath my skin like a second heartbeat. With my palm facing him, I pushed the air sharply.
He was flung out of the room instantly. His body soared through the doorway and his back hit the wall opposite the entrance with a thud that echoed down the corridor.
I repeated the same motion with the trolley. It rolled backward with violent force as if it had been struck by an invisible hand. It shot out of my room, and then, with a sharp thought and a flicker of focus, I shut the door again.
The slam of the door snapped me out of my haze, and I realized what I had just done. I stood there breathing rapidly as shock washed over me. I had never done anything like that before. I never even imagined something like that was possible for me, and yet I had done it with ease, with precision, with instinct. How did I even know how to perform such actions?
While I was still trying to make sense of it, I felt something shift inside me. A slow draining sensation spread through my limbs. It felt as though all the strength I possessed was pouring out of my body. My knees buckled, and I staggered backward. I dropped onto the bed because my legs suddenly felt too weak to support my weight.
I lay there on my side, facing away from the door. My heart pounded painfully in my chest as I began to think about my entire life all over again, everything that had led me to this moment, every mistake, every failure, every misplaced trust.
The door opened once more, but I did not bother to turn around. I did not care who had come in. After what I had just done, after the fear and the power and the exhaustion twisting inside me, I felt strangely ready for whatever consequences might come next.
Minutes passed. Silence stretched through the room until it felt suffocating. Eventually, I forced myself to turn and see who stood behind me.
Kael was leaning against the wall. His arms were crossed, and his gaze was locked on me with an expression that I could not read. It was not anger. It was not surprise. It was something sharper, deeper, something that unsettled me more than shouting ever could.
We stared at each other for a long moment before he finally spoke.
“Of all people in the world, the one person you decided to test is me, right?” he asked.
“What is there to test? Why would I test someone who acts merely on impulse without proper investigation?” I asked him, my own audacity startling me. I had no idea where the courage came from or why my mouth insisted on expressing what I felt without hesitation.
His brows rose slightly, clearly surprised, but he held back whatever he wanted to say.
“I told you that using magic one more time here would result in severe consequences, yet you still went ahead and used it on my worker. You have got guts,” he said.
His voice held no softness. It was a statement of fact mixed with irritation, not the confrontation I expected.
I should have kept quiet. I should have swallowed my emotions and let the room fall silent. But the anger had already taken hold of me, and my mouth continued moving under the weight of it.
“Maybe you should ask the worker what he did to deserve my reaction. And if you are not here to tell me that you have freed Taren, then you should leave as well. We have nothing else to discuss.” I dismissed him fully, half expecting him to walk out and half expecting him to finally punish me severely for speaking to him like that.
“As a punishment for your disobedience, I will ensure that Taren is hanged first thing tomorrow morning,” he said.
My heart lunged into my throat. My eyes stretched painfully wide, and I felt my breath stop. I slid off the bed and hit the floor without meaning to. My legs were trembling with weakness, but fear pushed me upright again.
“No, please. I beg you,” I said quickly. “I am sorry for using magic, but it was not my fault. I could not control it. I swear I could not.” My voice trembled, but I forced myself to stay on my feet even though I felt like collapsing.
“Now you are willing to beg, just because of Taren?” His words were stiff and irritated, and he looked annoyed, almost disgusted, but at that moment his expression meant nothing to me. Saving Taren was all that mattered.
“Yes,” I said, nodding without hesitation. I fell to my knees in front of him. He seemed even more irritated by that gesture, but I did not care. “He has done nothing wrong. I swear to you he is innocent of whatever you are accusing him of, except helping me and helping you.”
A sharp scoff left his lips. He said nothing and simply turned toward the door.
“Please, Kael,” I called his name for the very first time. He paused for a heartbeat before stepping out of the room.
“Killing him will be a terrible injustice,” I said loudly as he walked away. “It will bring chaos to Ironfang Pack. If he dies, then everyone will die too. I swear it.” My voice rose into a yell, and tears spilled down my cheeks again when he did not respond.
I sank onto the floor, shaking violently. I needed to save Taren.
But how?