The Wisteria Accond

Chapter Twenty-five

The air in the sanctuary was still, heavy with the weight of what had just happened. The battle had left its scars—on both the land and on us. The walls were scorched, the ground littered with debris from the fight, but it was the silence that felt the loudest.

Ashen sat next to me, his face turned away as he stared at the ground, lost in thought. I could still feel the lingering warmth of his kiss on my lips, a memory that now felt like it existed in a different world—a world without the dangers that loomed over us.

For a long moment, neither of us spoke, the tension between us growing thicker by the second. I couldn't stop replaying the kiss in my mind, the way his lips had felt against mine, the desperate need behind it. It had been raw, unfiltered emotion—something neither of us had been ready for, but something neither of us could deny any longer.

Finally, Ashen broke the silence.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly, his voice barely audible. His eyes remained fixed on the floor, refusing to meet mine. "I didn't mean to... I shouldn't have..."

I frowned, feeling a sudden pang in my chest. "Why are you apologizing?"

He exhaled slowly, his shoulders sagging as if the weight of everything was pressing down on him. "Because it was selfish. Because you almost died, and all I could think about was—" He paused, his voice catching. "I shouldn't have kissed you. Not when everything is falling apart."

His words hung in the air, heavy and full of regret, but they didn't match the way I felt. I hadn't pushed him away when he kissed me. I hadn't wanted to. In that moment, it had felt like the only real thing amidst all the chaos—the only thing that made sense. And now, hearing him apologize for it, a knot tightened in my chest.

"Ashen," I said softly, reaching out to touch his arm. "You don't need to apologize. I wanted it too."

His eyes flickered toward me, uncertain. "But it's dangerous, Kiera. You know that. We can't—" He stopped himself again, shaking his head. "Everything around us is falling apart. Soren is hunting us down. The Void... it's consuming me more every day. How can we even think about... this?"

His voice cracked on the last word, and I could see the pain in his eyes, the fear that had been gnawing at him. He was scared—scared of what we were becoming, scared of what it might cost us both.

I took a deep breath, my heart pounding in my chest as I tried to find the right words. I didn't want to admit it, but part of me was scared too. Scared of the feelings that had been building between us, scared of what they meant. But I couldn't deny them any longer.

"I know it's dangerous," I whispered, my voice shaking slightly. "But that doesn't change how I feel." I shifted closer to him, my hand resting lightly on his. "Ashen, we've been through so much together, and every time I think I've lost you, it feels like a part of me dies too. I can't keep pretending that I don't feel this... this connection between us. I'm falling for you, and I don't know how to stop it."

The words tumbled out of me, raw and vulnerable, and as I said them, I realized just how true they were. Every time I looked at him, every time he fought for me, risked his life for me—it had all chipped away at the walls I had built around my heart.

Ashen's eyes softened, and for a moment, he looked like he wanted to say something, but the fear still lingered in his expression. "Kiera, if anything happens to you because of me... I don't think I could live with that."

I shook my head, my hand tightening on his. "I'm not asking you to protect me from everything, Ashen. I'm asking you to let me stand beside you. We're stronger together, and we're already in this fight. Whether we admit our feelings or not, it won't change what's coming."