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Chapter Thirty-One: The Edge of Want

Penulis: Key Kirita
last update Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-01-04 10:48:11

I found him in the den.

Ruarc lay on his back, staring up at the ceiling like he was trying to read something in the cracks. There was no sound—not even the heavy rise and fall of breath that used to rattle the stone walls when his heat took hold. Just stillness. Stillness, and the shape of him—human, not half-shifted, not snarling.

The den still smelled like him. Wild and warm. Like smoke that never cleared. The stone beneath my boots held a faint heat, like the room remembered what he’d been.
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  • Bound To Ruin   Chapter Forty-Seven: The Quiet Between

    Later, I went to find Miren.Not to hold him. Not to apologize. Just to pull him into something smaller than the silence he wore like armor.He was sitting alone in the far room, cross-legged on the cold stone, the hem of his sleeves tugged down over his wrists. He was tracing patterns in the dust with one fingertip, slow and methodical, like the act itself was enough to keep the rest of the world out.He didn’t look up when I stepped in, but I felt his awareness shift. Like a change in pressure."I need your help," I said.His eyes flicked to mine—dark, guarded, unreadable. They always seemed to carry more stillness than the room itself."For what?""Dinner."He blinked, slowly. Not in confusion, but in calculation. As if weighing whether it was safe. Whether I meant it.I stepped further in, arms crossed, the corner of my mouth lifting into something that wasn’t quite a smile. "Don’t worry, you can leave the second it’s over."Something in him flinched—not visibly, not fully. Just a

  • Bound To Ruin   Chapter Forty-Six: What You Left With Me

    He didn’t hear me at first.The chamber echoed with the rhythm of his strikes—sharp, punishing, relentless. Fists slammed into the gnarled trunk of the petrified tree, the sound vibrating through the stone like war drums. Magic hissed across his knuckles, flaring each time they met bark that refused to break. Sweat traced the lines of his spine, glistening across his shoulders, darkening the waistband of his pants. His chest heaved with every breath—too fast, too ragged, like he didn’t trust himself to stop.He wasn’t training. He was purging. Trying to excise whatever still lived under his skin—shame, pride, hunger. Maybe something softer he didn’t have a name for. I could see it in every line of his body, in the way his jaw locked and his movements sharpened with something more desperate than anger.When the branch finally cracked beneath his fist, he didn’t wince. He just sagged forward, bracing his forehead against the bark like he needed it to hold him up. His breaths came in une

  • Bound To Ruin   Chapter Forty-Five: The Quiet That Remains

    The silence after Ruarc lingered long after he left. It clung to me like the warmth of his hand still pressed in mine, like the ghost of his mouth on my lips. I didn’t want to speak. Not yet. The quiet felt too sacred to break.So, I wandered.The halls were cool, lit only by the soft flicker of wall sconces and the ever-present pulse of magic deep in the stone. I walked barefoot. Let the stone press against the soles of my feet. I didn’t know where I was going until I reached it.Miren sat in the old reading alcove, his long body folded beneath the high-arched window, bathed in moonlight and shadow. He didn’t look up when I entered. He didn’t need to. His eyes were already open. Watching the sky. Or maybe just listening to the silence.I didn’t speak. I didn’t need to. I simply moved to the bench beside him and sat, knees drawing up to my chest, my shoulder barely brushing his.The moonlight spilled over his hair, catching on the fine silver at his temples. He looked carved from marb

  • Bound To Ruin   Chapter Forty-Four: The One Who Stayed

    I found Ruarc outside the kitchen, pacing. Not with urgency, but with the kind of restless energy that builds when guilt has no place to go. He moved like a caged thing. When he saw me, he froze mid-step, breath catching just slightly. He didn’t speak.His eyes dropped to my bandaged hand, lingered a second too long, then flicked back to my face. The silence between us pulsed with unsaid things. Still, he didn’t ask.I held up the plate in my hand—the one he’d left for me hours earlier, now cold but intact."I didn’t eat it. I wasn’t ready. But I brought it back for you."Ruarc blinked like I’d spoken another language. His shoulders tensed. He didn’t come closer, didn’t soften. But something inside him shifted.I took a breath to steady myself, then set the plate down on the stone counter. The sound was louder than expected, echoing faintly in the quiet hall. "I know you made it. Thank you."Still, silence.So, I stepped forward, closing the distance like it was made of glass and memo

  • Bound To Ruin   Chapter Forty-Three: Bleeding Between Us

    I woke again hours later, limbs heavy, muscles humming with the kind of ache that came only from being unraveled and reassembled by Eirseth’s hands. The sheets tangled around my waist were damp with residual heat, my skin slick in places, flushed in others. Everything smelled faintly of him—earth and iron and the ghost of smoke.When I turned my head, I expected to find the chair empty.But he was still there.Sprawled in that same rigid posture, arms folded, eyes half-lidded but alert. Not asleep. Not relaxed. Just watching. Like if he blinked too long, I might vanish.He hadn’t left.My chest pulled tight. Not with affection—not just that. With awe. With disbelief. With something I didn’t have the vocabulary to name.Then I saw it. The plate.Toast. Eggs. A smear of something dark and sticky—maybe jam. The scent drifted up to meet me: warmth, salt, a whisper of sweetness. The kind of food that felt stolen from another life. Something safe. Something normal."Did you...?" I asked, th

  • Bound To Ruin   Chapter Forty-Two: The Promise Kept

    I woke to warmth and weight I didn’t expect. Ruarc was gone. Calyx, too.It wasn’t their absence that startled me. It was the fact that the only one who remained was Eirseth.The chair he’d claimed was tucked just beside the bed, his frame draped over it like some war-forged relic that didn’t know how to rest. One arm across his midsection, the other across his face. Eyes closed. But I knew better. There was no true sleep in him—just waiting. The kind of stillness that held teeth just beneath the surface.My chest tightened with something I didn’t have the words for. I hadn’t expected him to stay. Had expected Ruarc’s warmth curled at my back, or Calyx’s steady silence in the shadows. But not Eirseth. Never Eirseth.I rubbed at gritty eyes, voice cracking against the hush. "Is there some kind of unspoken rule that everyone has to disappear the second I fall asleep?"His voice drifted up from beneath his arm, dry and sharp as ever. "Does the dog’s absence bother you that much?"I stiff

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