CHAPTER SIX: Still Burning

The morning light crept through the slits in the curtain, soft and golden, far too gentle for the chaos still storming in her chest.

Eden blinked. The ceiling above her wasn’t the one from the academy bathroom. It was white with faint cracks and a glow-in-the-dark star barely clinging to the plaster. Her breath hitched as she sat up slowly, her fingers trembling as they brushed her chest.

Kael’s shirt clung to her skin.

It smelled like him. That sharp, masculine scent wrapped in something darker. She could still feel the weight of his gaze, the heat of his hands, the ghost of his voice whispering against her ear.

But her dorm room was silent.

No sign of him. No steam. No water pooling at her feet.

Only the relentless pounding in her chest and the taste of him still on her lips.

Her roommate was gone. The other bed remained neatly made, untouched. Eden swung her legs off the mattress and touched her toes to the floor. Cold.

The bathroom. The kiss. The way his mouth had devoured her like he had waited years to taste her. Had she imagined it?

She stood slowly and stepped toward the mirror on her wall. The girl staring back at her wasn’t the same. Her eyes looked too wide. Her lips were swollen. Her skin glowed like something wild had breathed against it all night.

She clutched the collar of his shirt and inhaled deeply.

It had happened. It had to have happened.

Except—he was gone.

No knock on the door. No shadow in the hallway. No explanation.

Just her, standing in Kael Thorn’s shirt, aching everywhere he touched.

Her phone buzzed.

She lunged for it.

No messages.

She opened her inbox, refreshed, scrolled, waited.

Nothing.

Her throat tightened. Her knees went weak. She sat back down, her fingers fisting the hem of the shirt as a hundred questions screamed inside her head.

Why had he left?

Why wasn’t he saying anything?

Why did it feel like he had carved his name into her body and then disappeared?

Eden couldn’t sit still. She needed to do something. Anything.

She showered. She dressed. She didn’t take the shirt off. She just wore it under her hoodie like a secret pressed against her skin.

Classes blurred. Her professors spoke, but the words drifted like fog. Every hallway she walked through felt longer, every face unfamiliar. All she could think about was him.

When the bell rang, she grabbed her bag and rushed outside. The air was sharp, biting at her cheeks. She turned toward the administration building without thinking.

Crestwood Academy’s pride. A tall, old structure with marble steps and tinted windows.

His office was in there.

Her fingers trembled on the door handle.

She pushed inside, heart slamming.

“Can I help you?” the receptionist asked.

Eden swallowed. “Principal Thorn. I… I need to speak with him.”

The woman offered a tight smile. “He’s out for the rest of the day.”

Eden blinked. “Out?”

“Yes. No appointments. No visitors. No messages.”

She nodded stiffly and walked out before the woman could say anything else. Her legs moved on instinct, carrying her to the back of the building, down the side of the gym, into the shadows near the old lockers.

That’s when she saw it.

A piece of paper tucked into the slit of her locker. Folded neatly. No name on the front.

Her stomach dropped.

She opened it with shaking fingers.

“You are not dreaming. Come find me.”

Her breath caught in her throat.

The note was short. The handwriting sharp. Slanted. Confident.

It was his.

Eden pressed it to her chest.

He was watching her.

He knew.

He wanted her to come to him.

And she would.

Her fingers closed around the note. Her heartbeat pounded louder than her thoughts. This wasn’t a game anymore.

This was an invitation.

A warning.

A promise.

She didn’t care which.

She would find him.

And when she did, she wouldn’t ask why he left. She wouldn’t ask if it was real.

She would only ask how long he could resist her this time.

Because if he touched her again, she was not going to let him stop.

~*~*

She didn’t go back to her dorm.

She didn’t go to the library.

She didn’t even stop to think.

Eden walked the long path behind the academy, heart thudding like footsteps on stone. The wind whispered through the trees, brushing her hair across her face as if the night itself knew something had changed.

She still wore his shirt beneath her hoodie.

The note clutched in her palm burned like a brand.

You are not dreaming. Come find me.

He was real. The heat was real. The kiss that stole her breath and the fingers that made her tremble were real.

And he was waiting.

The faculty wing was dark this time of day. Classes had ended. The halls were quiet. Her boots echoed against the polished floors as she turned corner after corner until she reached a door she had no right standing in front of.

Principal Thorn.

She raised her fist and hesitated.

What if someone saw her?

What if he didn’t open?

What if she had misunderstood everything?

She knocked.

Three soft, measured taps.

A pause.

Then footsteps.

The door opened a crack.

Kael stood in the doorway, tall and still, dressed in black. His hair was tousled like he had run his fingers through it too many times. His shirt was unbuttoned at the top, sleeves rolled past his forearms. His jaw was tense. His eyes, wild.

The room behind him was dim, curtains drawn. Lamplight spilled across his desk and the edge of a leather couch.

Eden stepped in without a word.

He closed the door behind her and locked it.

Silence swallowed the space between them.

“You came,” he said, voice low and rough.

“You asked me to.”

His eyes dropped to the edge of her hoodie. “Are you still wearing it?”

She nodded.

His breath hitched. The control he wore like a second skin cracked at the edges.

“I dreamed of you,” she whispered.

“You think that was a dream?” he asked, stepping closer.

“I woke up alone.”

“Because I left before I did something I couldn’t undo.”

“You already did,” she said softly. “You touched me like I belonged to you.”

His jaw clenched. He looked like a man on the edge of something dangerous. And she wanted to push him over.

“Take it off,” he said.

“What?”

“The hoodie. Let me see.”

She hesitated only a second before pulling it over her head. His shirt was still on her body, wrinkled from sleep. Too big. Too intimate.

Kael’s eyes moved over her slowly, as if memorizing the shape she made in his clothes.

He stepped forward. She didn’t step back.

“I shouldn’t have let it happen,” he murmured.

“But you did.”

“I tried to stay away.”

“But you couldn’t.”

His hand lifted, fingers brushing her jaw. “I’m not safe for you, Eden.”

She leaned in. “Then stop pretending you are.”

Something in him snapped.

He backed her up against the wall before she could blink, mouth crashing over hers in a kiss that held no apology. His hands gripped her waist, pulling her closer, pressing every inch of her against him.

He kissed her like a man who had waited lifetimes.

She kissed him like a girl who had finally stopped running.

Her fingers tangled in his shirt. His name was a whisper on her lips between kisses.

Kael.

Kael.

Kael.

He broke the kiss just long enough to speak, his voice raw.

“Tell me to stop.”

She shook her head.

“Tell me you don’t want this.”

“I can’t.”

“Tell me you’re not mine.”