Page 32 of Veiled Fate
“I can’t believe you,” I said, running a hand through my hair as it bounced wildly into my face.
My now veryshorthair. I jerked when the strands suddenly ended far short of where they should have. That would take some getting used to.
“Jada …”
“No,” I said, lifting a finger. “Just shut up. Let’s get this over with.”
I plunked myself back down on the rock and lay back, with my head nearly hanging off the edge, the rough angles digging into the bare skin of my back. “Do it.”
Kiel started to protest, thought better of it, then slipped into the water. He reached out and grabbed the fresh branch we’d snapped off one of the mightyfilmoretrees we’d spotted a few miles back. Gripping it tightly in both hands, he turned the branch tightly until the thick black sap poured from within the breaks of the flexible fibers.
He brushed the sap against my head until he was satisfied that enough was tangled in my hair. Then, with hands and fingers that had no right being as gentle as they were, he started to wet the sap, diluting it, and mixing it through my hair all the way to the base.
“Why bother faking your interest in me?” I asked coldly, trying to distract myself from his tender touches. “If all you needed me for was to break the stones, why fake it? I was already on board to try. You didn’t need that.”
Kiel’s snarl cracked out across the flat plain on either side of the stream.
“I fakednothing,” he growled, his fingers still kneading my hair with a gentleness someone of his size should not be able to possess.
Why did he have to be so tendernowwhen I wanted nothing to remind me of the things that had passed between us?
“No?” I challenged.
“If you’ll recall,” he said, teeth clenching as he sucked in a breath, “I was the one who pushed you away at first. Tried to keep some distance between us when you were trying to do the opposite. If I was faking it, why bother with the charade of trying to keep my feelings for you from manifesting? What point would there be in that?”
“That’s a good question,” I said. “Maybe you should answer it.”
Kiel laughed, but it wasn’t a joyful thing. “You want to know why I hold back from getting close to someone or making friends?” he asked, finishing with my hair and rinsing his hands. “This is why. Because I always end up losing everyone. A person can only take so much hurt, and I reached that limit a long time ago.”
“Did you ever stop to think that maybe you’re the problem?”
He stiffened, staring at me for several long seconds, before sagging. Something left him at that moment.
“Yes,” he whispered. “Every damn day.”
I swallowed some regret as the agony of his struggle poured out of him. It was his choice, though. He was dealing with the consequences. That wasn’t my fault.
Which wasn’t totally fair to Kiel. I was stabbing my point home a little too freely.
“Why keep using people, then?” I asked. “If it hurts to lose them, then why don’t you stop?”
“Because,” he said in the ghost of a whisper, “some mistakes must be undone. No matter the cost.”
No matter the cost meaning no matter how many had to die.
“All those people and you’re still here,” I observed. “Are you not willing to be the one to pay the price?”
Kiel looked away, staring at something only he could see. “I’m not so lucky.”
I opened my mouth to ask him what the hell that meant, but before I could, a wave of agony locked my body up, turning the first word into a terrifying scream that split the morning silence.
Chapter Sixteen
“Jada?”
Kiel was at my side in a nanosecond, hovering over me, eyes wide as he looked me over.
“What’s going on? What’s happening?”
