Chapter 78 – The Choice That Cannot Be Undone
POV: Liora
The room had grown quieter without noticing when it happened.
At so point, the healers had stopped arguing amongst themselves. The guards standing near the walls had lowered their voices. Even the constant movent around Kael’s bed seed to have slowed into sothing heavier, sothing resigned.
Nobody said it aloud.
They didn’t need to.
Everyone in this room already understood what was happening.
Kael was dying.
I stood beside his bed, staring at him while the reality settled deeper with every passing second. The sight of him still didn’t look real. He had always seed too strong for this. Too stubborn. Too difficult to kill.
Now his face had lost its usual color, and every breath looked harder than the one before it.
The lead healer finally stepped away from the bed.
His shoulders sagged.
That alone told more than any words could.
"My Lady..." he began carefully.
I looked at him.
His expression tightened.
"There is nothing more we can do."
The room beca even quieter.
I wasn’t surprised.
Maybe that was the worst part.
Nobody needed to explain what those words ant because I had known the mont they carried him through the fortress gates. I had seen the blood. I had seen the damage. I had felt his pain through the bond before they even brought him back.
I knew.
The healer swallowed before continuing.
"The injuries are too severe. His body is no longer responding properly to treatnt. dicine will not heal this."
His eyes lowered briefly.
"Even if he survives the night, it will only delay the inevitable."
A muscle in my jaw tightened.
Around us, nobody spoke.
Nobody moved.
Because they knew exactly what he wasn’t saying.
dicine couldn’t save Kael.
Only I could.
My gaze drifted back toward the bed.
Kael looked almost peaceful if soone ignored the blood, ignored the bandages, ignored the way every breath seed to cost him sothing.
I hated that thought.
Nothing about this was peaceful.
He had walked into a trap.
Soone had known exactly how to lure him away from Blackmoor.
Soone had known exactly what would happen once he got there.
The anger should have been stronger.
Instead all I felt was exhaustion.
A deep, bone-weary exhaustion that seed to reach every part of .
I was tired of people dying because of .
Tired of people getting hurt because of things I didn’t understand.
Tired of carrying consequences for powers I never asked for.
Kael had nearly died protecting before.
Elara was still recovering because she had chosen my side.
Alia had spent years hiding from people who wanted her dead.
And now Kael lay in front of bleeding out because sobody had decided removing him was the easiest way to reach .
The realization sat heavily in my chest.
Every person who stood too close to eventually paid for it.
The voice returned before I could stop that thought from spreading.
It wasn’t loud.
It never was.
It simply appeared.
Calm.
Certain.
Present.
You already know what happens if you save him.
My fingers curled slightly.
For once, I didn’t pretend not to hear it.
The voice had beco harder to ignore lately.
Not because it forced itself on .
Because it kept being right.
Alia’s warning surfaced imdiately.
You don’t have two chances left.
You have far less than you think.
At the ti, I hadn’t understood what she ant.
Now I was beginning to.
The scars covering my body weren’t just consequences anymore.
They were a countdown.
Each burn had pushed closer to sothing.
Closer to whatever awakening everyone seed desperate to either find or prevent.
The White Wolf.
The hidden bloodline.
The thing Seraphina had spent years hunting.
I still didn’t fully understand it.
But I understood enough.
Enough to know that I wasn’t finished yet.
Enough to know that the last two burns mattered.
If you do this, the voice continued quietly, you will never complete the awakening.
My stomach tightened.
The words should have frightened .
Instead they felt inevitable.
Because deep down, I already knew.
Saving Kael wasn’t going to cost one healing.
I had seen the damage.
I had felt it through the bond.
One burn wouldn’t be enough.
It would take everything.
Both.
The final two.
The last pieces I had left.
My gaze settled on Kael again.
For a mont, I rembered the first night I t him.
The snow.
The cold.
The wolf who should have died on that mountain.
The man who sohow kept showing up in my life afterward whether I wanted him there or not.
He had lied to .
Hidden things from .
Made decisions that frustrated more tis than I could count.
But he had also protected .
Again and again.
Even when it nearly killed him.
Even when he knew exactly what I was.
Even when he knew exactly what using my power would eventually do to .
The voice remained patient.
Waiting.
Choose.
I closed my eyes briefly.
Survive.
Awaken.
Save him.
At one point I might have believed I could sohow do all three.
Now I understood how foolish that had been.
Life didn’t work that way.
So choices demanded paynt.
And this one was demanding everything.
The strange thing was that once I finally accepted that, the fear started disappearing.
Not completely.
Just enough.
Enough for to think clearly.
Enough for to understand what I was actually choosing.
This wasn’t impulse.
It wasn’t love making the decision for .
It wasn’t panic.
If anything, it was the opposite.
I understood the consequences perfectly.
I understood that saving Kael could destroy any future where I awakened.
I understood that I might never beco whatever Seraphina feared.
I understood that I might be throwing away my only chance to survive.
And I was still standing here.
Still looking at him.
Still unable to walk away.
A soft laugh almost escaped .
After everything, maybe that was my answer.
Because if I truly intended to abandon him, I wouldn’t still be here.
I wouldn’t still be standing beside his bed while every excuse to leave sat neatly in front of .
The voice fell silent.
Perhaps it already knew.
Perhaps it had always known.
I stepped closer.
Nobody tried to stop .
The healers moved aside imdiately.
The guards looked away.
The room seed to understand that this mont belonged to .
My eyes never left Kael’s face.
He looked exhausted.
Even unconscious, he looked exhausted.
My chest tightened painfully.
"You idiot," I whispered.
The words ca out softer than intended.
His breathing remained uneven.
Weak.
Dangerously weak.
I reached for his hand.
His skin felt colder than normal.
That frightened more than the blood.
For several seconds, I simply stood there holding it.
Rembering.
Thinking.
Accepting.
Then I slowly lifted my free hand and placed it above the worst of the damage.
The scars beneath my clothes imdiately reacted.
Heat spread across my skin.
Familiar.
Terrifying.
Final.
The voice spoke one last ti.
You will not survive this path.
I stared at Kael.
At the man who had beco far more important to than I ever intended.
At the future I might never get to see.
At the choice sitting directly in front of .
Then I made it.
Not because I was emotional.
Not because I was desperate.
Not because I didn’t understand.
I chose knowing exactly what it would cost.
My hand settled fully against him.
And as the first spark of power stirred beneath my skin, I closed my eyes and made myself a promise.
Then I’ll find another way to survive.
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