Page 37 of Wings of Betrayal

Oh no. what am I supposed to do? I can’t lie to him, but telling him will break him. It could breakus.

“Zarla, tell him. You’d never kiss him. I know you wouldn’t. You hate him.” Kyle seems so sure that it tears my heart.

I don’t even need to answer him because the look on my face must be answer enough.

Kyle rears back slightly, as if he’s just taken a dagger to the heart. “It’s not true.”

I hurry to his side and take hold of his arm. “Please, you don’t understand. It’s not what you think. It was a long time ago.”

He yanks his arm back. “So it’s true, then?”

Tears flow freely down my cheeks as I try to think of an explanation, anything to make him understand it was nothing. It meant nothing, especially not now after all that I have learned.

“I wasn’t thinking straight. I was confused. You have to believe me. It meant nothing! It meant less than nothing!”

It’s not the situation that kills me. It’s not even Kyle knowing the truth. It’s the way he’s looking at me, as if I’m some kind of stranger.

A sob escapes my lips, and I try to grab onto him, but he pushes past me and punches Amaros hard in the jaw, knocking him to the ground for a second time.

“Kyle, please!” I beg, but without looking back, his black wings spring free, and he flies away into the darkness, leaving me behind.

I fall to my knees as uncontrollable sobs wrack my body, and I struggle to suck in enough air. A pair of arms wrap around my waist and haul me up into an embrace.

“Just breathe, Zarla, breathe,” Amaros instructs, but I shove him away.

“Do not touch me!” I scream, wiping my nose on the back of my hand.

“It’s for the best, Zarla. A healthy relationship doesn’t contain secrets and lies. I told you, you can never be with him.”

Red-hot rage flows through my veins as I level my gaze at him. “Even if I can never be with Kyle, I will never be with you!”

“What the fuck was that?” Harlum demands as he enters the courtyard, followed by Lissian, who pulls me into her arms.

Amaros clears his throat. “I apologise, Harlum. But it needed to be done. I trust you prefer Zarla is with an angel from within her own Kingdom rather than one from Zarquon?”

I glare at Amaros from over Lissian’s shoulder, and Harlum grits his teeth and shoves Amaros.

“You do not get to make such decisions. Look at the pain you have caused my daughter. Have you been making advances on her, Amaros?”

I bet that part didn’t cross Amaros’s mind.

He swallows hard and tugs on his collar. “I am in love with your daughter, Harlum, and I know she feels the same. She’s just confused.”

“No! I do not love you. I could never love you.” Angry tears continue to flow.

“Leave. Now,” Harlum demands, and without further argument, Amaros storms back into the castle.

“Oh, Zarla, it’ll be okay,” Lissian whispers in my ear as I cry into her shoulder.

“I’m gonna kill him,” Harlum says from somewhere behind us.

I pull away from Lissian and wipe my eyes. “Please don’t do anything to him. Just leave it.”

Harlum cracks his knuckles and looks to Lissian, shaking his head. “He has overstepped his place. You know that, right?”

Lissian nods. “He has, but that all depends on whether or not his advances were welcomed.”

Lissian arches a brow at me, and I bite my bottom lip.

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