Chapter 384: Sweet boy
Things went back to normal after that night.
Or at least, the kind of normal that feels a little hollow at the edges... when you still wake up beside someone you love but the ghosts of everything else hang around the corners of your mind.
Kael was still Kael... steady, deliberate, always half somewhere else. He’d been buried in work, in meetings, in that cold empire he was trying to control before it devoured him. I understood, or at least I told myself I did. We saw each other when we could, and when he was around, it was as if the world smoothed itself out just enough for me to breathe again.
But the quiet hours between those visits... those belonged to the ache.
To the absence.
To Sarah.
Two weeks had passed since the night I’d confronted her. Since I’d seen the look in her eyes... that fractured mix of guilt and something else I still couldn’t name. I’d ignored her calls, left her messages unopened, scrolled past her name whenever it flashed across my screen. And yet she lived at the back of my mind like a wound that refused to heal.
Every day, I wondered what she meant... protecting me.
Every day, I wondered if I’d ever be able to look at her and not feel that sting of betrayal all over again.
The days bled into one another, hours eaten up by end-of-year chaos. Everyone at XE Tower was preparing for the annual gala... a spectacle of wealth, reputation, and fragile smiles. My desk looked like a small storm had passed through it, and I was halfway through signing a stack of documents when a soft knock came at my door.
"Come in," I said, distracted.
The door opened... and the sound of footsteps pulled my attention up.
Ash walked in first, all easy grace and confidence, her newly dyed copper and dark and hair swept up, her lips curved in that effortless smirk that meant she was either bringing good news or chaos. But then another set of steps followed her, slower, heavier... and when I looked up, my heart dropped straight to the pit of my stomach.
Sylas.
For a heartbeat, we just stared at each other. His expression was unreadable... calm, maybe, but his eyes said something else entirely. And all at once, I was back there, sitting on that cold rooftop, remembering the warmth of his mouth against mine, the tremor in his voice when I’d told him no, and the tearful pleas that followed.
Ash’s voice cut through the quiet. "Well, I thought I’d pop in to see my favorite overworked woman in the building," she said lightly, glancing between us. "And, incidentally, I had a passenger who insisted on tagging along."
Her tone was playful, but there was a knowing edge beneath it. I managed a small, polite smile, pretending not to feel my pulse quicken. "You went out of town, didn’t you?" I asked, seizing the distraction.
"Short trip," she said, shrugging before her gaze shifted back to Sylas. Her brows lifted the tiniest bit... a silent, mischievous good luck... and then she turned on her heel. "Well, my work here is done. You two catch up."
And just like that, she was gone.
The silence that followed was heavy. Too full.
I forced a breath and gestured toward the chair across from my desk. "You can sit, you know. I don’t bite."
He smirked faintly, that familiar half-smile I remembered too well. "I’m aware. I just wasn’t sure you wanted me here long enough to get comfortable."
His voice had that same teasing edge, soft but threaded with something careful underneath... like he was testing the air.
I let out a quiet laugh, the sound brittle but real. "You haven’t changed at all."
He sat, leaning back in the chair, eyes flickering over me as if searching for cracks. "And you have," he said softly.
Something in his tone made me look away. My hands fidgeted with a pen. "How have you been?"
He shrugged. "Fine. Busy. You know, pretending to be a functioning adult."
That earned him a small smile. For a second, it almost felt normal... until he turned the question back on me.
"What about you?" he asked. "Are you... happy?"
The question hit harder than I expected. I blinked, a little thrown. "That’s a weird question to ask in the middle of a workday."
He flushed, the tips of his ears going pink, but he didn’t look away. "Maybe. But it’s still a fair one."
I smiled faintly, trying to make it light. "I’ll take that as you trying to flirt your way out of small talk."
He laughed... a quick, nervous sound... and then frowned. "You think I’m joking."
"You usually are," I teased gently.
His gaze softened, but his voice didn’t waver. "I’m not. Not this time."
Something in my chest twisted. He looked so open, so earnest, that for a moment I couldn’t speak. I dropped my eyes to my hands, tracing the edge of the folder in front of me. "Sylas... you should forget about me," I said quietly. "Really. You don’t need someone like me messing up your life. You’re— you’re too good for that. Too kind."
He tilted his head, a small, incredulous smile tugging at his lips. "You think I’ll let you decide that for me?"
The softness in his tone didn’t hide the steel underneath it, and I felt my throat tighten.
"I’m serious," I whispered. "You deserve better than someone who’s... still learning how to breathe without falling apart."
He leaned forward slightly, elbows on his knees, eyes locked on mine. "Maybe I want to be the one who reminds you how."
The air between us went still, heavy with everything neither of us could admit aloud.
I looked at him... really looked... and for a fleeting second, I saw what it might’ve been like if things had been different. If the world had been kinder, if my heart hadn’t already been given to someone else. But reality came back sharp and certain, the way it always did.
I’d choose Kael over and over again, in a million lifetimes.
I smiled, small and sad. "You always were too stubborn for your own good."
He laughed under his breath. "Takes one to know one."
And even though it hurt, I smiled again. Because for the first time in weeks, it felt like I could.