Chapter 3 – The Edge of the Flame (Kaela)

The moon had risen, low and gold in the sky, by the time I was able to slip from the Hall of Accord.  I told her father that she was going to head home and rest.  But that is not where I was heading, I needed answers and there was only one person I could get them from. 

The mark on my wrist still pulsed faintly beneath my cuff, a heartbeat that didn’t belong to me or my wolf. I could feel the tether, not just to Aeryn, but to something larger. Something ancient. Something watching.  I followed the pull, and I found him where I expected, not in the city, but at its edge, near the ruins of the old watchtower that once marked the border of Lunari lands. Wolves always returned to familiar paths, even in exile.

He didn’t look surprised to see her. Just... tired.  There was something deeper in his eyes, as hard as I tried, I couldn’t read it, but it felt so sad and lonely. 

"You're not very subtle," he said.

"And you're not very hidden." I replied. 

Aeryn glanced over his shoulder, then leaned back against the crumbling stone, moonlight casting sharp angles across his face. “You followed me.” I shook my head. 

I stepped closer. My breath fogged in the cold, though I didn’t feel it. Not with him nearby. “I wanted to know if you were going to disappear again.” I responded without meaning to let the words slip from my lips. 

A pause.

“I thought about it,” he admitted. “Would’ve been easier.”

“Then why didn’t you?” I stepped another step closer; the pull was unbearable almost. 

His eyes lifted to meet mine. “Because running won’t break the bond. And neither will pretending it’s not there.”  He smirked and I nearly collapsed right there. 

I swallowed hard. Her throat felt dry. “I’m not pretending. I’m controlling it.”

“Are you? To me it looks like you are pretending to control it.” He replies to her. 

The challenge in his voice prickled her nerves not anger, but friction. Friction between instinct and logic. Between hunger and hesitation, it was so strong that all I wanted to do was wrap myself around him. 

As soon as I thought that she thought of the war this will cause.

“I didn’t choose this,” I said, more sharply than she meant.

“Neither did I,” he echoed, softer. “I don’t know or understand this anymore than you do right now, but I do feel this is the Moon Goddess and she fated us to be together.”

“If we let this bond stand and strengthen it in anyway, they will take it as an act of war” I stated, feeling and looking terrified.  I didn’t want to admit it to myself, if she decided to take this path it would be her that put a end to the war and slaughter.  But I also knew that there would be a lot of blood spilled because of this.  Silence bloomed between them. Only the wind moved, threading through the broken tower with a sound like distant howling.

Finally, Aeryn broke it. “What are they going to do to you, when they find out?”

I flinched. Not from fear, from how easily he cut through my composure.

“They’ll call me a traitor,” I said. “My father will demand I sever it, if such a thing is even possible.”

“And if it’s not?”  I hesitated. “Then I suppose I’ll have to choose.”

“And will you choose me?” he asked, voice low, unreadable.

My heart stumbled. I looked at him at the scar beneath his jaw, at the quiet storm in his eyes and hated that I didn’t know the answer.  Not yet.

“I didn’t come here to make that choice tonight,” I replied. Stepping another step towards him, there was only inches between them now. 

He leaned into her, close enough that she could feel the heat of him, even in the night chill. The air shifted between them breath, magic, memory. She wanted to lean closer into to him, wanted to….

“Then why did you come?” he cut through my thoughts.

I didn’t answer with words.

Instead, I lifted my wrist, letting the cuff slide down just far enough to reveal the faint silver glow of the Lunar Bond. It shimmered like frost beneath my skin, pulsing in time with the quickened beat of my heart.

Aeryn looked down at his own identical shape, in glow, in ache.

I met his gaze. “To remind you... that this is real. And that neither of us gets to run from it.”

For a moment, he didn’t move.

Then, slowly, he reached out and took her wrist in his hand gently, reverently. His fingers were rough with calluses, warm against my skin. The contact sent a shock through my chest.

“I’m not running,” he said quietly. “I’m just trying to figure out whether fate is a gift… or a curse.”

I stepped closer, so close their breath mingled.  Her wolf purred. Nemphis is revealed in the closeness.    

“Then let’s find out together.” I replied.