77
77
Kaya’s POV.
I wake up in a familiar room and scratch the back of my head at a heavy ache.
“What in the heavens…?” My voice trails off as I tighten my eyes shut. They crinkle at the sides as I groan when I roll out of bed.
What happened? The last thing I remember was being inside the woods, but I’m here now. I look around and suddenly understand why this room looks so familiar. It’s because I’ve been here for a long time once, and then my eyes snap to the balcony, where I confirm better.
“Fuck,” my heart feels like it would bleed blood at the way it jumps to the edge of my throat, blocking me from being able to breathe well.
I’m hyperventilating out of the blue while my lenses dilate as I watch around, being careful of my situation.
I hurry to the door and try to open the knob, only to see that it isn’t locked. I’m almost opening the door to try to escape, but then I stop myself. Should I just cast a spell that would stop anyone from being able to enter while I try to reach Olivia?
In the course of my stay with Olivia, in one of the books I read, she once shared with me a necklace of hers, something that she cherishes, so that when we are both far apart, I can use my powers to locate her or make her locate me.
And I might be able to do that this time around, since I’ve never tried it before. I know she’s not my best choice, but who else could get me out of the triplets’ hold?
Finally, I summon all the courage inside me that I can bring out and make my way outside. Shifting my eyes from left to right, I find myself close to the kitchen halls, since that’s where there’s no sound.
Then, something penetrates the walls of my sense of smell-something that I’d fall for any day and any time-and my tongue wets, more like drooling when you think about it.
I didn’t even realize that I was so hungry until the smell of pancakes filled this space, and now I can’t think of something else. A bite won’t hurt, right, will it?Exclusive © material by Nô(/v)elDrama.Org.
I bite my bottom lip, trying to think with my brain and not my heart, but I fail. Oops, I’ve always known how I enter the kitchen to pick foods and get out without being caught, so this time around, I should be able to still do the same thing.
The door is slightly open as usual, and I crawl inside when I can’t see anyone at the entrance, but then I don’t hear any sound. The foods are all prepared and done already without being inside the kitchen.
The skin on my forehead wrinkles as I stand up. I’m bewildered by such strangeness until the door closes behind me and I snap my head there to see Kyle.
“Hello, Kaya.” He has a daunting smile on his face, or so I thought, and when I squint my eyes at him, focusing my lenses through my eyelashes, he quickly raises his hands above his head. “I’m not here to fight you, just like I never meant to last night. We just saw that you won’t see reasons. We are sorry. Very sorry once again for knocking you out, but it was necessary to get you out of there.”
All his words-everything-amount to nothing, or so I’ve made myself believe. Truth be told, a part of my chest is heavy, blaming what the situation has caused between us. There’s a hatred inside that I can’t stop from latching itself to my reasoning whenever I see the triplets.
I want to punish them so much, but at the same time, I want to believe that they could help me create the balance that I need, as every witch needs that. Every witch needs her mate to help her balance the world, just as he would balance her heart. And a witch whose heart is filled with love has all the answers to how to better the world.
My mother had that, and she benefited from it. That’s why she never raised me to be a murderer. It’s this life. It changed my home training through the hands of my very own mates.
“Is this supposed to be another surprise attack where you guys knock me out again?” I raise my voice so that Kieran and Kade can come out.
“They are behind you there. Please, come.” As Kyle walks past me, my eyes are tracked to his frame, because I know better than to spend any seconds believing these cunning creatures.
I walk behind him till we get to a counter, and truly, Kieran and Kade are there, waiting for us. The three of them are seated next to each other, leaving one space left opposite me.
“What do you want?” I go straight to the point, and they all look at each other. “Can’t you just speak for the rest? Or should I pick someone to have a conversation with?”
Sitting here with the three of them is like being in the middle of a straight line whose both sides have an arrow signaling the opposite directions. One can imagine the confusion it’d cause. You won’t know what’s it and what is not.
Kyle clears his throat and speaks, “I was the reason why you existed here in the first place. I’ll hold all blame.”
“Why am I mated to the three of you at once? I don’t understand that.”
He shakes his head, seriousness dripping off of his tongue. Jokes apart, a part of me is brightened by how he’s turned out to be mature over time. “We have no idea either. It’s why we decided to keep you in the first place. We thought we could find a way out.” He shrugs his shoulders, obviously seeming to lack the right answer.
There’s a plate of pancakes right in front of me, and even though I know better to regret it, I can’t help but have eaten two by now. There’s a little hint of humour in Kade’s facial expression, although I pay no attention to it.
“Why did you bring me here, anyway?”
“We can’t convince you, Kaya, that we are sincerely sorry for our mistakes. We were stupid fools of your love. A monster scared to express his feelings. Right from our teenage years, after our mother was captured by witches, we changed. We trained only to hate them, and what happened when we realized one with such an innocent soul was our mate? It was so complicated. There was nothing reasonable to have decided.” He pauses to let his words sink into my brain.
“But look at what we’ve done and what we’ve caused. We can’t continue to use fire to clear out fire.” I raise my gaze to look into their eyes-all three of them-and once again, I see the truth in there. “The kingdom is crumbling down. It’s all crashing, and we know you’re responsible for that, Kaya. Please…” He quickly adds that when I crunch my face at him, as though that was any wrong than what they did to my own world.
“This is your world that I am ruining, just like you ruined mine down to the very poles. You destroyed everything that I have ever loved. Oh, once again, is this a play of when men do damage, no one sees it as bad, but when women who have suffered under them revenge, the whole world goes against them? Is this a sense of overriding?” I tuck my hair to the back of my ears, finding myself getting soaked into this conversation.
“Emilie is gravely sick.” Kade chimes in.
Then, Kieran stomps in too, “the well has dried. There’s no food in the kingdom, and our people are starting to think it’s our curse, affecting them. We are losing everything. The sun hasn’t even come out in days now. And the ocean-it’s a disaster. None of the fishermen can board.”
As they tell me of their suffering, I look around the kitchen. “These foods have been hidden before. They are the ones we could scavenge.”
“But what do you want from me?”
“A second chance. Let us show you that we are ready to do right by you, to nurse that same heart we once crushed.”
“And your reason for this is because your mother is sick under my influence and your kingdom is crashing?”
“No,” they reject in unison. There’s an inconvenience that I sense from the triplets. It’s almost like they don’t know how to spill the words. “We love you, Kaya.” Just as they confess, I tear a piece of pancake into my mouth and smile darkly.
Now, this is interesting, isn’t it?