Page 45 of Shadows Rising

She watches me with an expression I can't quite read, her silver-streaked hair catching the soft glow of the garden's magic. She's not wearing her Guardian armor, but she doesn't need it. There's something about her presence that feels just as commanding without it.

She tilts her head slightly, studying me. "I was hoping we could talk."

I narrow my eyes. "If this is about Kieran, I don't want to hear it."

Her lips twitch slightly, not quite a smile. "It is. And you do."

I cross my arms, biting down my instinct to snap at her. I don't want another lecture on duty or fate or any of the other excuses Kieran is bound to throw at me later.

Revna steps forward, but she doesn't get too close. "I've known Kieran for centuries," she says, her voice even, steady. "I've known him as a warrior. As a leader. As a friend."

I don't answer.

Because I know where this is going, and I don't want to hear it.

She watches me carefully, like she knows exactly what I'm thinking. "And I've known that he's loved you every moment in between."

My breath catches, but I force myself to keep my expression neutral. "Love?" I scoff. "Love isn't forcing a bond. Love isn't taking away someone's choice."

"No," Revna agrees. "It isn't."

That throws me. I expected her to defend him, to tell me why he did what he did, why I should forgive him. Instead, she just watches me with that same measured calm.

I shake my head. "Then why are you here?"

"Because you need to understand something, Kaia." She steps forward again, and this time, I don't move away. "For centuries, Kieran held onto one thing—one belief that kept him going when the rest of the world burned around him."

She tells me anyway.

"He believed it was just the two of you."

The words hit harder than I want them to.

"He thought your bond would be singular, unbreakable. He believed, with everything in him, that it was meant to be just you and him." She exhales softly. "And when he realized it wasn't? That you had others?"

"He couldn't handle it," I finish for her.

Revna doesn't deny it.

I let out a slow breath, shaking my head. "That doesn't change what he did."

"No," she agrees. "It doesn't."

She doesn't try to justify it. Doesn't try to make excuses for him. And somehow, that makes this conversation worse.

Because I wanted to fight.

I wanted to argue.

But she isn't here to fight. She's here to tell me the truth.

I exhale, my hands tightening at my sides. "What am I supposed to do with that?"

Revna watches me for a long moment. Then, softly, she says, "That's up to you."

I look away, my eyes tracing the flowers at my feet, the small pool of still water, the trees stretching above us.

It was supposed to be just the two of us.