The thorn crown

The cave swallowed us whole.

Kael dragged the stone shut behind him with a grunt, sealing the entrance in darkness.

No torch. No fire.

Just the sound of our breath echoing off cold walls.

We didn't speak.

We didn't have to.

His hand brushed mine once in the dark. .accidentally, I think but I flinched anyway.

Not because I didn't want it.

Because I did.

Too much.

And right now, feeling anything could get us both killed.

"Sit," he muttered. "You're shaking."

"I'm fine."

"You're lying."

I didn't argue.

My spine hit the wall. The stone was damp. Familiar.

Like the inside of a tomb.

Kael slid down beside me. Not close. But not far.

"Do you think they'll follow?" I asked.

He didn't answer right away.

Then: "They can't. Not here."

"How do you know?"

"This cave belonged to the last Crowned. My mother brought me here when I was little."

He didn't say more.

He didn't have to.

I remembered what he told me.

His mother had gone mad before the end.

She carved words into stone and fed him stories of burning gods.

The cave was silent. Too silent.

"Kael…"

"Hm?"

"What happens if I lose control again?"

His breath hitched. Barely.

But I felt it.

"I won't let you."

That wasn't an answer.

It was a promise he had no right to make.

I turned to look at him though I couldn't see his face in the dark.

"I killed people," I whispered. "I felt them die."

"I know."

He didn't flinch.

And that made it worse.

"Why are you still here?" I snapped, bitterness sharp in my throat.

A pause.

Then, quietly....

"Because you're the first thing that's ever scared me... and made me want to live."

I stopped breathing.

For one whole second, I forgot how.

He reached for me slowly like touching something sacred.

His fingers brushed my jaw.

And even in the dark, I could feel the heat of him.

Not magic.

Just Kael.

"I'm not asking you to feel it all now," he said. "Just don't run from it when you do."

I didn't speak.

Couldn't.

So I leaned into him instead.

And we sat there broken, hunted, and too close...

waiting for morning

that might not come.