Page 94

32

ZEPHIRAN

Naira is slipping away from me. I can feel it in the way she moves.

Too calculated. Too controlled.

She’s never been controlled. Not by me. Not by the poison. Not by the fucking chains I wrapped around her throat the moment she set foot in my world.

But now—she’s making a choice.

And it isn’t me.

Maybe letting her go is the best choice.

I should let her sit in that fire she’s building under her skin, let her pretend that what happened between us wasn’t real.

But I don’t.

I’m aware what t she does when she feels cornered.

She burns.

She destroys everything in her path—even herself.

And I can’t let her do that.

I feel her gaze at my back as I push away from the fire.

Aereth says nothing.

She doesn’t have to.

She knows exactly why I’m leaving.

And I don’t like that.

I dislike that I let her sit so close, let her press soft, delicate hands against my arm, let her laugh like she’s never been dead, never been ripped from my life in blood and screams.

I let myself believe for even one second that her touch should feel familiar.

I let myself think this should be easy.

How can I deny the truth?

When her fingers grazed my skin, when she whispered my name like she still owned it?—

I felt nothing.

No ache. No longing. No buried love rising from the grave.

Only the slow, sinking lie weighing tons and dragging me down.

I know what I want.

And it isn’t her.

I should have stopped her.