Chapter Nine

Kael stands there, his gaze still on the floor. He doesn’t answer immediately, and the silence stretches until I can feel my heartbeat everywhere. He draws a long breath before replying.

“Raya,” he says, quieter now, “you’ve been down for a while now. Tired. You think I haven’t noticed?”

I freeze. My fingers curl into fists at my sides. “It’s nothing. Just fatigue.” I continue.

“You don't have to treat me like I'm a child or something.” I shout.

He shakes his head. “No. It’s more than that.”

His eyes flicker down to my stomach before coming back up to mine. “Tell me I’m wrong.”

I can’t. The words stick in my throat.

He takes a small step closer, searching my face. “You think I wouldn’t feel it? That I wouldn’t sense the change in your scent?”

My lips part, but nothing comes out.

“Raya,” he says softly, “you’re carrying a life.”

It feels like the air’s been punched out of me. I sit back down without meaning to, the ground shifting beneath me. I don’t even know what to say. I just stare at my hands, shaking slightly.

A strange mix of fear and awe flickers inside me, but it’s swallowed up by anger again. “You don’t know that for sure.”

“I do.”

The conviction in his voice breaks something in me. I have been trying to deny it but I think I can't anymore.

I shake my head. “This doesn’t change anything.”

“Doesn’t it?” His tone is sharp now. “You think I’m going to let you walk into Rex’s arms while you’re while you could be” He stops himself before saying the word, but it lingers anyway. Pregnant.

“You don’t get to stop me,” I snap. “I decide what happens to me, Kael.”

He leans over the table, bracing his hands on the edge, his voice low and rough. “You think this is just about revenge? It’s not. They’re using you. They always were. You’re the last living Lunar-blood. This decree it’s not a coincidence. They want to control you, control whatever power comes after you.”

“I don’t care,” I say. My voice trembles, but I don’t stop. “If they want to play gods, then I’ll let them think they’re winning until I burn them all.”

He stares at me like he doesn’t recognize me for a moment. Then he says quietly, “You sound just like him.”

I blink. “Who?”

“Rex. When he first came to power.”

The comparison stings more than I expect it to. I look away, biting my lip hard enough to taste blood.

Kael’s voice softens a little. “You’ve been fighting your whole life, Raya. You deserve peace, not another battlefield.”

“I don’t know peace,” I whisper. “I wouldn’t know what to do with it.”

He exhales and sits beside me, his body still tense but close enough for me to feel his warmth. The silence stretches again, fragile and heavy.

“I can’t let you go,” he says eventually.

“You can’t stop me.”

He turns to look at me, his voice breaking around the edges. “Then at least run away with me. We can disappear, hide beyond their reach. I’ll protect you, both of you. We don’t have to keep fighting wars that aren’t ours.”

I stare at him, heart twisting painfully. “And what happens when they come for us? When they kill everyone who stands in their way just to prove a point?”

His jaw tightens. “Then I’ll die fighting for you.”

“That’s exactly what I’m trying to prevent.”

He laughs bitterly. “And walking into Rex’s bed is your solution?”

“That’s not what this is about and you know it.”

“Then tell me what it’s about, Raya,” he snaps. “Because all I see is you running toward a grave.”

My breath hitches. “It’s about finishing what he started. He took everything from you. From me. From all of us. Don’t you want him to pay?”

“Not like this.”

“Well, I do.”

The tent fills with silence again, thick and unbreathable.

Kael steps back, pacing once, twice, before facing me again. His voice is quieter now, but there’s something raw in it. “I love you, Raya. You know that. I’ve never hidden it.”

I close my eyes. “Don’t.”

“I’m saying it because you need to hear it. Because you keep pretending you don’t already know. I love you. And the thought of losing you again…” He stops himself, shaking his head. “You can’t ask me to just watch you walk into hell.”

I open my eyes, meeting his. There’s a lump in my throat that refuses to go down.

“You think this is easy for me?” I whisper. “You think I don’t feel it too?”

“Then stay.”

“I can’t.”

He looks at me like he’s trying to memorize my face, every scar, every line. “You’re going to break me.”

I reach for his hand, holding it tightly for a second before letting it go. “You’ll survive. You always do.”

His voice is a whisper now. “Please, Raya.”

“I have to go.”

He stands there as I pull away from him, watching as I grab my cloak and slide my knife into its sheath. My hands shake the entire time.

When I reach the tent flap, he says one last thing, voice low and broken.

“If you walk out that door, there’s no coming back from this.”

I pause, my heart thudding painfully. Then I say, without looking back, “There never was.”

The wind hits my face as I step outside, cold and sharp. The camp is quiet now, everyone going about their duties, unaware of the war that’s about to begin all over again.

I walk until the tents disappear behind me. Until it’s just the open hills and the setting sun ahead.

And as I go, one thought burns through the fear, through the sickness, through everything else.

If this is how I have to end Rex, if this is how I make him bleed then so be it.

Even if it means losing everything that ever made me human.