Chapter 64: Confession

“Yes.”

The certainty in his voice still lingered in the air.

Selene swallowed slowly. Her heart was beating faster than before, but it was not panic. It was something warm and something steady.

She looked at him again.

“What if I’m not sure where that place is?” she asked quietly.

Ryzen did not look away from her.

“Then I will make sure you find it,” he said simply.

The wind brushed past them.

Selene blinked.

“You say it so easily,” she whispered. “As if it’s not complicated.”

“It isn’t,” Ryzen replied. “You were hurt. You were betrayed. You were almost killed. Of course you feel lost.”

His voice was calm, but there was something deeper under it.

“You question everything now,” he continued. “You question your home. Your family. Yourself.”

Selene’s fingers tightened around the shawl.

“I do,” she admitted.

“You wonder if they miss you. If they regret it. If they are worried,” he said.

Her eyes widened slightly.

“You…” she started. “You heard that?”

Ryzen nodded slowly.

“I came earlier,” he said. “You didn’t notice.”

Selene’s cheeks warmed.

“So you heard everything?” she asked.

He nodded again.

“I heard you ask what is wrong with you,” he said quietly. “I heard you ask why your heart reacts whenever I am near.”

The world felt like it stopped.

The wind grew softer.

Selene’s face turned red instantly.

“You shouldn’t have listened,” she muttered, embarrassed.

“I wasn’t trying to,” he replied honestly. “But I did.”

There was no teasing in his voice.

No arrogance, just the truth.

Selene looked away, unable to meet his eyes.

“I must sound foolish,” she whispered.

“You don’t,” Ryzen said immediately.

She looked at him again.

“You don’t,” he repeated, slower this time. “You sound honest.”

The moonlight touched his face, showing every detail clearly. His expression was not playful. Not cold nor distant. He was serious.

“And you are not the only one who feels that way,” he added.

Selene’s breath caught.

“What?” she asked softly.

Ryzen took a small step closer.

“It’s not just you,” he said. “It’s also me.”

Her heart skipped.

He inhaled slowly, as if choosing his words carefully.

“The first time I truly noticed you,” he began, “was in the cafeteria.”

Selene’s chest tightened.

“You were sitting between Christopher and Kai,” he continued. “Christopher was being protective. Too protective.”

She remembered that.

His arm slightly behind her chair.

His voice was louder when someone else looked at her.

“You were smiling,” Ryzen said quietly. “But your shoulders were stiff.”

Her throat tightened.

“You kept adjusting yourself,” he added. “Like you didn’t know where to place your hands.”

She looked down.

“You weren’t arguing,” he said softly. “You were enduring.”

The word landed gently but deeply.

“And Kai leaned closer,” he continued, his jaw tightening slightly. “Christopher kept talking to you. You barely spoke.”

Selene felt exposed.

“You looked small between them,” he said. “Not weak. Just… overshadowed.”

The wind moved around them.

“That was the first time I felt something strange,” he admitted. “I didn’t like seeing you like that.”

She blinked away the tears gathering in her eyes.

“After that,” he continued, “I started noticing you more.”

Selene then remembered the second time they met each other.

“In the library?” she asked softly.

He nodded.

“The first time I saw you there, you were searching for something,” he said. “You kept scanning the shelves like you were looking for a specific book.”

She remembered that too.

She had been trying to find a book related to her regression.

“You looked frustrated,” he said. “You kept biting your lower lip.”

Her cheeks warmed slightly.

“I almost helped you,” he admitted. “But I stopped.”

“Why?” she asked.

“Because I wanted to see what you would do.”

A faint softness appeared in his eyes.

“You didn’t give up,” he said. “You kept looking but you never found it.”

She felt something stir in her chest.

“And later,” he continued, “I saw you sitting alone, actually reading. You finally found the book you were looking for and I was happy.”

“You held the book close,” he said. “Like it is something that holds the world’s deadliest secret.”

She remembered how focused she was that day.

“I sat a few tables away,” he admitted. “I watched quietly.”

Her heart beat faster.

“You looked peaceful,” he said. “Not like in the cafeteria.”

He paused slightly.

“And then there was the BloodBound Rite.”

Selene inhaled sharply.

The campus had been loud that day.

Crowded.

Full of rituals.

“I saw you leave the rite,” he said. “Everyone else was excited and worried but you looked overwhelmed.”

She had been.

The trials, the intensity, and the revelations.

“So you went to Lunaria,” he continued.

At the opposite direction of the field where the bloodbound rite was held.

The huge tree.

“You sat under that big tree,” he said softly. “With a book.”

She nodded slowly.

“That time, just like in the library. You read the book like a scientist who found an answer to how to cure cancer,” he added.

Her chest tightened.

“You were calm there,” he said. “The noise didn’t reach you.”

He exhaled slowly.

“That was the first time I walked toward you.”

She remembered hearing footsteps.

“You asked what I was reading,” she whispered.

“Yes.”

“And I told you it wasn’t your concern.”

A faint smile appeared on his lips.

“You were defensive,” he said gently.

“You were annoying,” she replied softly.

The night felt lighter for a second.

“But you didn’t tell me to leave,” he said.

“No,” she admitted.

“We talked for almost an hour,” he continued and her heart trembled.

“That was the first time I saw you relaxed,” he said. “You spoke honestly.”

He stepped slightly closer.

“That was when something shifted for me,” he admitted.

She looked up at him.

“I didn’t just notice you anymore,” he said. “I wanted to protect that version of you under the tree.”

Her breath trembled.

“I wanted to be the one you felt safe talking to.”

The wind grew softer.

“And then you disappeared,” he continued.

His voice changed. It is now lower and heavier.

“We found you by the river.”

Selene’s chest tightened painfully.

“You weren’t moving,” he said. “Your body was cold. There was blood on your clothes.”

Her tears fell freely now.

“I thought you were dead.”

His hands clenched at his sides.

“I have never felt that kind of anger,” he admitted. “It wasn’t calm. It wasn’t controlled.”

His eyes darkened.

“For a second, I wanted to annihilate the West Pack.”

She inhaled sharply.

“I wanted to destroy everything that led you to that river,” he continued. “I wanted them to pay.”

His voice remained steady, but intense.

“I have never wanted to burn a world before,” he said quietly. “Until that moment.”

The moonlight shone brighter on his face.

“But I didn’t,” he added. “Because I know you.”

She nodded slowly.

“You would not want blood for your pain,” he said.

Tears kept falling down her cheeks.

“I stayed beside you,” he continued softly. “I made sure you were breathing. I kept you warm. I didn’t leave.”

“That warmth…” she whispered. “That was you?”

“Yes.” he said, “I couldn’t lose you.”

Selene felt something inside her finally release.

All the doubts.

All the nights she questioned herself.

All the fear that she did not belong.

“You keep saying I am safe,” she whispered.

“You are.”

“You keep saying I belong where I am safe.”

“Yes.”

“Then… do I belong here?”

Ryzen stepped closer.

Close enough for her to feel his warmth clearly.

“You belong wherever I stand,” he said.

Her breath stopped.

“And I stand here,” he continued.

Her tears fell faster now.

Not from sadness but from something overwhelming.

Loved.

She felt loved. Not because she was powerful. Not because she was needed but because he saw her.

From the cafeteria.

To the library.

To the tree.

To the river.

He saw her.

“I don’t want you to question your worth ever again,” he said softly. “You are not someone left behind.”

His voice grew gentler.

“You are someone I waited for.”

Selene’s heart felt too full.

“I don’t know how to handle this,” she whispered.

“You don’t have to handle it alone,” he replied.

Silence settled between them but it was not empty.

It was full.

She stepped forward then closer again.

“Ryzen,” she whispered.

“Yes?”

Her hands trembled, but she lifted them and grabbed the front of his shirt.

He inhaled sharply.

She looked up at him and she didn’t let herself think. She pulled him down gently and pressed her lips against his. For a second, neither of them moved.

The world disappeared.

The wind stilled.

The moon watched then Ryzen responded.

His hand moved to her waist, holding her gently but firmly, as if afraid she would vanish.

The kiss deepened slightly, tender and slow but filled with everything he had held in since then.

Selene’s heart raced wildly.

But this time —It was not confusion but it was certainty and she did not pull away.