Chapter 98
Chapter 98
Rhea
Three days pays try in a haze. We’ve been in this cabin. The last time I was in here, I didn’t stay for long. And now, it feels like
fatever
There’s no contact from the outside, from the world. It’s only him. Only me
No one else
1 feel like a prisoner
Tat your food. Rhea”
I glance up at him and then back to the plate that’s on the table. I feel hungry; I really do, but I can’t make myself eat.
It’s not because I’m being stubborn, no, I just don’t feel like eating.
When will you take me back?” My words come out e
t quiet.
“When I’m ready to He doesn’t meet my gaze, doesn’t look at me.
“It has been days…” I trail off.
I know
My eyes na
narrow onto the plate again, and this time, I force myself to eat a little bit of what’s there in front of me. There’s no point in starving myself when the outcome is not going to change.
We will be here till Kael says that we’re leaving. He hasn’t hurt me. Not since the last time, three days back, when I was on the couch and then the ground. He hasn’t done anything after that. Just kept to himself.
When I’m finished eating, I take my plate to the kitchen. It’s a small one, with just the bare necessities that one needs.
I place it on the sink and turn on the faucet for a few moments just to clear my head.
“Leave the dishes,” Kael says, making me startle
When did he enter?
I glance back at him to find him leaning against the door frame. His eyes are on me, and his expression is impassive as he
watches me
I close the water and return to the living room.
It’s getting to me–all of this. I feel like I’m being suffocated here. He’s still him–still Kael. There’s no sign of Aron, and I miss him. I miss him, and 1 can’t do anything
“Are you
going to leave me? Task him, taking a seat on the couch, in the same place that I have been sitting
“Yes
“For how long?” My fingers twist together. He has left me alone for a few hours every I haven’t questioned where he went, but I suppose it’s back to his territory or somewhere.
day, saying he’s got stull to take care of
“For a while. There’s enough food in there for you, don’t worry. He takes his jacket from where it hangs and slips his armi into it. He buttons it before reaching for the key.
“Can’t you leave the door open, just for a little hit?”
“No” His eyes flicker toward me. I don’t need you wandering around
“I just want to shift.”
“You don’t need to, he tells me, his eyes hardening
I clasp my hands together. I want to argue with him, but it won’t be wise.
He leaves after that and locks the door from the outside. All I can do in here is stare out of the window. The forest is pretty, and the sky is clear, but it’s cold, and it gets lonely after a while.
There’s not much to do but wait.
That’s all
I’m exhausted.
I can’t take much more of this–being stuck in this house with Kael, with no Aron in sight, and no one to talk to. At least at the manor, I had someone, and there were things there I could do. But here–nothing.
I know why Kael is doing this, keeping me here. He wants to be sure that I won’t tell anyone about him, about his physical self, that I won’t go to others, to anyone.
That’s the thing.
There’s no one who knows. It was just Kovas all this time, and now me. And Kovas knew it from the beginning, he didn’t dare to tell anyone except for
ΠΡ
I get off the couch after sitting there and pondering for a good hour and head up the stairs. Instead of going into my room, 1 go into Kael’s room that’s just next to mine. Inside, I smell him–everywhere. There’s not much going on here except for the bed, a few paintings, and some of the basic furniture that needs to be here.
But there’s something else that my eyes fall on.
My phone–the spare phone my mother gave me.
It’s on the desk, just sitting there.
My heart skips a beat, and without a second thought, I grab it and power it on. It comes on in a minute or two. I sit down on the edge of the bed, and wait, and watch.
The screen lights up, and 1 immediately call up the last number 1 dialed.
Kowal
He picks up almost instantly; there’s no delay in between. I hear his voice on the other end, a bit of worry and confusion lacing his tone. I tell him, as quickly as I can manage to do so, what’s happening and where I am. It takes a minute for me to
tell it all.
And then I ask him what should be done because I don’t have the answers. I don’t know what I’m doing anymore, and it’s all
a mess
“Where is he now?”
I walk across the room, pacing back and forth. “I don’t know. He goes for hours every day and comes back sometime in the. night. He doesn’t talk much either about anything.”
“Is he still himself?” I don’t miss the meaning behind those words. “Kael”
I stop walking for a second, feeling my chest tightening and my eyes burning. “Yeah, it’s him. There’s nothing changing in him. Nothing at all. My words come off as a whisper.
He curses under his breath, and there’s a slight pause before he continues. “It won’t. Not for a while.”
“Where are you? You should come here. You can help him-”
“No, Rhea. He knows what we’ve been up to all this time. He’ll see this coming. And he won’t like it if he realizes that we’re trying to suppress him.”
Suppress Kael
“I don’t know how long he’s going to keep me here. It’s killing me…”
“I know,” he says quietly. “But let me think about it. There’s something that can be done–it’s a ritual.”
“What?” My brows pull together.
“I have been researching it since Kael banished me, and I’m still not sure about the outcome, whether it works or not.”
“What is it for?”
“It’s for ensuring that Kael doesn’t have any hold over him. Ever again. There’s not much I can tell you about this right now as I’m still looking into it.”
I bite my lip as I sit down on the floor with my back against the wall and my legs outstretched. “Is it possible?”
“Maybe.”
“How long till you’ll know?”
*A few days.*
A silence crawls between us, stretching for the next few seconds until I break it. “Where are you?”
“North. In a town nearby. What I’m looking for is somewhere in this area. If I find it, there’s a good chance that things will change for the better”
There’s a hope, something. It makes me feel better and not so helpless knowing this.
“Just stay put. I’ll check what’s going on in the pack from Liam. The last I heard was they had a victory against the Redhollow wolves that night itself.” He pauses and then speaks again. “Be careful and don’t let Kael know that you’ve spoken to me
“Of course,”
With that, I end the call and draw the phone away from my ear. For now.
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