Page 69 of Seared Fates

A slam has me jumping, and I twist around to see a hand keeping my door open.

“Hey, Kai.”

My stomach drops at the familiar sweet voice.

“Emma.” I step back. “Listen, if you’ve come here to scare the shit outta me again, can you just do it, then leave?”

Emma pushes back her dark hair, streaked with white, and looks at me with sympathy. She slips in, and the door quietly shuts behind her.

“I’m not here for any of that.” She shows me her hands as if to prove she’s no threat, but it isn’t her hands I’m worried about. “I thought you needed a friend.”

I glare. “I got plenty of them.”

“True.” She nods, tucking her palms into her jeans pockets. “Not a soulmate though, right?”

My gaze drops. I try to stop my lips from trembling, my eyes from watering, but Vidar’s rejection is a fresh wound. “Just piss off, a-alright?”

“What happened, Kai?” she asks gently. But it isn’t real. I know it isn’t.

I rub my face roughly as more tears roll down my cheeks.

“What are you even doing here? I told you I’m not giving you the book! Can’t you supernatural dickheads just leave me alone for one shitting second?” I snap, voice trembling and wet.

Emma doesn’t say anything, just looks at me like I can pour my heart out, and she’ll listen. Like my outburst is justified and understandable. Worse—like she genuinely cares. I hate that a part of me wants to open up for her. I try to sense if she's using blood magic, but I don’t feel any compulsion like last time.

“We had sex, if you must know,” I bite out, too drained to stop my tears from flowing. “But it ended as well as can be expected. So, here I am with a soulmate who doesn’t want me again! AGAIN!” Grabbing hold of my braids, I yell out my frustrations. “So pathetic.”

“Hey, come on, you aren’t pathetic,” Emma says, stern but gentle.

I sniff in disbelief.

Emma lets out a long-suffering sigh, as if we’ve known each other for years, and lays a comforting hand on my shoulder that I’m too spent to brush off. “None of that, okay? Be upset, but you are not pathetic, Kai.”

My lower lip trembles, and I wrap my arms around my middle. “R…really?”

“I’ve known about magic and soulmates all my life, so if my soulmate didn’t want me, the pain would never stop. But you, Kai?” She lets out a whistle. “You’re a baby to all this. The fact that you’re even standing shows your strength. But being that strong takes a lot out of someone.”

My body trembles, and I hug myself tighter. “It’s all been so much…too much…”

“‘Course it has, and you’re dealing with this all alone.”

“I have friends,” I sniffle, the anger draining away to leave me hollow.

Emma wraps an arm around my shoulders. “Your friend Golden?”

I nod.

“But his soulmate loves him, right? Vidar…well, I don’t need to say it.”

A feeble sob breaks from my chest, and Emma wraps me in her arms, shushing me and like an idiot, I rest my head on her shoulder.

“I just wish…” I Mumble.

“That Vidar would love you back?”

“Not that…”

Her hand keeps soothing, her arms around me steady like she has plenty of time.