All Chapters of Let Them Kneel: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

The sun had climbed higher by the time Kaelani finally left the house. The air was warm, the streets busy, the kind of ordinary noise that should’ve drowned out the thoughts still buzzing in her head. But Julian’s voice lingered — that low, careful tone from the morning call replaying like an itch she couldn’t scratch away.Irritation was still humming under her skin when she reached the café — sharp and restless. She spotted Tessa waving her over from a table on the patio, two glasses of iced tea already sweating in the midday sun.“Finally!” Tessa grinned as Kaelani slid into the seat across from her. “I already ordered the appetizers. Mozzarella sticks, garlic knots, and—” She paused mid-sentence, her smile faltering as her eyes zeroed in on Kaelani’s neck. “Oh no. Don’t tell me that rash is back. The one you had a few weeks ago?”Kaelani’s hand went up automatically, brushing her hair forward to hide the bandage that she placed over the mark. “It’s nothing. Probably just an allerg

The next morning came too soon.The bakery was quiet—only the low hum of the ovens and the faint scent of sugar and yeast filling the air. Kaelani stood behind the counter, slipping a fresh tray of pastries into the heat, the soft glow from the oven brushing her skin. She’d been there since before dawn, like always. The first to arrive, the only one awake while the rest of the town still dreamed.Her body moved on autopilot, but her mind was elsewhere—still tangled in yesterday. Julian’s sudden appearance, his voice, his eyes. The way his presence had burrowed under her skin like a splinter she couldn’t pull free. She hadn’t slept at all last night, afraid to close her eyes, afraid to see him.Because in her dreams, she was too weak for him. Too willing.Kaelani rubbed her temple, leaning back in her chair once she’d retreated to her small office. The soft tick of the clock filled the silence. Her eyes were heavy, burning. Just a minute, she thought. The bakery didn’t open for another

The door slammed hard enough to shake the walls.Julian’s head lifted slowly. Elara stood at the doorway, chest rising and falling, fury simmering just beneath her skin. The air in the room shifted—heavy with her scent: anger, fear, and the faint edge of desperation.“Who is she, Julian?” She demanded, voice sharp but trembling at the edges. “I knew it. I knew you were fucking someone else.”Julian didn’t move. He sat back on the leather sofa, jaw working, the muscle in it ticking once before he exhaled through his nose.“You don’t understand what you think you heard,” he said finally—quiet, level, controlled.The words landed between them like a challenge, and for a moment, she simply stared. Then she let out a small, humorless laugh, brushing her hair back from her face. “No, I understand perfectly,” she snapped, stepping closer. “You’ve been acting different lately. But I see it now—the distance, the tension. You’ve been drowning in guilt, that’s all.”He said nothing. That silence

The steady whir of the ceiling fan stirred the warm air, carrying the faint metallic scent of disinfectant as Kaelani wiped down the inside of the oven. The clock above the counter ticked toward closing time, its steady rhythm the only sound between bursts of Tessa’s humming as she swept the front of the shop.“Hey, can I come in early tomorrow to mop? Jeff’s picking me up tonight, and I don’t want him to catch me mid–janitor fantasy.”Kaelani glanced over her shoulder, brow arched. “Two dates in one week? That’s a new streak for you.”Tessa leaned on the broom, flashing a grin. “What can I say? The man knows how to handle a stick shift—and I’m not about to waste that kind of talent.”Kaelani groaned, half laughing, half mortified. “Tessa, please. I bake pastries in here.”“Relax, boss. You make things rise in the oven, I make things rise elsewhere.”Kaelani sighed, “Yeah, and I can always count on my pastries not changing temperature every five minutes.”Tessa slowed her sweeping, th

The streets were nearly empty by the time Kaelani locked the bakery behind her. The heat that had clung to the town all summer was finally breaking; the night air carried a faint chill that slipped beneath her sleeves. Her boots scuffed against the sidewalk, the sound too loud in the quiet.She kept her eyes ahead, the glow of streetlights flickering in patches along the road. Every so often, a gust of wind from a passing car stirred the stray pieces loose from her braid, brushing against her face like a taunt.He can go back to his perfect world, she thought. To his Luna and his rules and all the people who worship the ground he walks on. She didn’t need any of it.A dog barked somewhere down the block, sharp in the stillness. The air smelled faintly of dust and cooling asphalt.She hugged her arms around herself but refused to call it shivering. It was just the cold. That was all.Another gust swept through, carrying a whisper of rain. She tilted her head toward the sky — dark, heav