The Event

Chapter Twenty.

Silence wrapped us up in the stairwell as Kayne leaned back in, pressing his forehead against mine. We stayed that way for a while, my hands on the center of his chest while his hands sat on my waist.

Finally, he sighed, looking down into my eyes. "Rowan," He whispered my name before leaning his head away a little so that I could see his whole face now. "I don't want to keep things from you, but I can't tell you everything either."

I fisted my hands in the front of his shirt. "If you want me to trust you, I need to know it. I need you to trust me with the truth."

His eyes bore into mine, the furrow between his brows deepening. "After everything, you still don't trust me yet? After everything I've done to show you that you can?" He sounded genuinely hurt. He looked away, then back with a new intensity in his eyes. "You are the one and only person I know I can trust."

"What about KaRayna?" I wanted to roll my own eyes at myself for sounding so childishly jealous still, but Kayne didn't waiver.

"The one and only person I trust." He repeated. "I've trusted you from the moment I met you"

I looked him in the eyes, but I didn't see any deception there. "That doesn't make any sense though. How can you trust someone you just met?"

He just shook his head a little. "Does it have to?" He asked. "I questioned it at first, but I feel it in my bones. I saw enough from you in those first few moments when we met to know I could trust you." He smiled then. "I wanted to trust you, and so I did. And now I know you well enough to know that you'll back me, and you should know by now that I will always back you and your people."

"I do." I snapped. "Fine, of course, I do trust you." I conceded, but then looked up into his eyes and tried to make him see the desperation for how much I needed more. I feel like I trust him blindly, and though he's done so much to prove himself, he's still one of them. One of the people who knows why this all happened. He is the only person who can answer all the questions running through my head, but he won't. And that's an issue for me. "I need more, Kayne. I have to know the truth if I'm going to keep doing this with you. I need the whole truth if we are going to continue doing this."

I try to hide my disappointment when he drops his hands from me and takes a stair back. "Rowan..." He sighed again, and my heart ached at the torturous sound of it. "You don't want to know."

I'm so stunned at first, I'd been so sure that if I asked nicely, he might just tell me the truth finally, especially after a kiss like that. Surely all kisses aren't like that. Apparently it wasn't enough to break down his guard though. So I guess if the nice way doesn't work, that only leaves one other route.

"You don't get to tell me what I want, Kayne." I hold my head high. "My family is dead, and I need to know why. What's left of my friends and family are here, standing by you and the Mundi, trying to do the right thing when the whole world is full of wrong now. I need the answers." I took a step down, getting closer to him again so that I can look into his eyes. "And even more than that, I want to know about you. Where you came from, how you ended up here. Just trust me and tell me the truth. It can stay between the two of us."

He shook his head even after my plea. "I'm telling you, I will let you know what you and your people need to know, but I don't want to tell you the rest. You don't want to know, as much as you say you do, you don't. Once you knew it, I think the part of you that I love so much would be gone. I think it would hurt you all too much to know the truth."

I wanted to be angry, hit him or demand he tell me anyway, but I've come to know Kayne enough to know that when he doesn't want to talk about something, there is no forcing him. But maybe I can persuade him. "Do you want to kiss me again?" I ask, peaking up under my eye lashes.