16. Lone wolf

[Kian]

Memories often have a malignant tendency to hurt, but her memories never hurt. No matter how painful it was to realize that I could probably never relive them with her again. Nor create new ones.

Yet a few days, a few moments in her mere presence, were enough to flood me with priceless memories that I wanted to relive again and again.

A small touch, a whiff of her scent, the fleeting moments when our eyes met. A few words we exchanged, no matter how hollow and superficial. And everything that remained unsaid in our silence. They were all precious to me.

I peered outside the window of my car as we headed to the private jet hangar. I left the Autumn palace right after Carys walked out of the party.

‘As of tonight, I declare my rogue status…’

I felt someday or the other, she would choose this path — the path of a lone wolf.

‘It’s better to be a lone wolf walking on the right path than walking with a pack without a sense of direction or destiny. It’s dark, it’s lonely, it’s scary.