My breath left me in a rush, guilt curdling in my chest. I turned to look at her, sleeping soundly in the hospital bed. How isolated from me had she felt that she’d kept this part of her hidden?
We’d shared a life, a child-and yet, we’d truly been strangers all these years.
The walls of the room suddenly felt too close, the air too thick. I needed to get out.
I pushed off the stool beside her bed, my muscles stiff from days of barely moving. But as I swung the door open, I froze.
Ethan stood there, fist raised to knock, Celeste hovering behind him.
“Hey,” Ethan exhaled. “Mom called us and said Sera had woken up.”
I nodded, stepping into the hallway and pulling the door shut behind me. “She did. But she’s asleep again.”
His jaw tightened. “How is she?”
“She’s-“
“Kie.” Celeste cut in, catching my hand. “How are you?”
“Fine.”
“No, you’re not.” She shouldered past Ethan, her sky-high heels putting her nearly at my eye level. Her fingers framed my face, her blue eyes roaming all over me. “When was the last time you slept?”
I shrugged. “Someone had to watch over Sera.”
Her grip tightened. “Not you. You don’t owe her anything, Kie.”
A tired sigh escaped me. “She’s Daniel’s mother, Celeste. I won’t let my son grow up without his mother.”
She huffed. “Look at you.” She cupped my cheek, her thumb swiping under my eye. “You’re dead on your feet.”
Ethan patted me on the shoulder. “You should go home, man. Get some rest; we’ll take it from here.”
But my feet stayed rooted to the floor, an instinctive resistance flaring in my chest. Sera and her siblings had never been close-and after everything, I couldn’t shake the need to shield her from the family that had failed her so badly.
Hypocrite, a bitter voice hissed in my head. You hurt her worse than any of them. She hadn’t even trusted me enough to share her writing.
“Kieran.” Celeste drew my attention back to her. “Go home, please. We’ll take care of Sera.”
The weight of exhaustion pressed down on me, undeniable now. “… Yeah. Okay.”
I turned to Ethan. “Don’t leave her alone. We still don’t know if the threat’s passed.”
He gave a grim nod.
Celeste tilted my chin back to her. “Stop worrying. Go.”
This time, I nodded.
It happened in a heartbeat-Celeste smiled, her eyes trained on my lips, but just before she could make contact, I shifted, and her lips pressed against my jaw instead.
I forced a smile, trying to cover up my uneasiness and surprise at what I’d just done. Brief confusion and hurt flashed in Celeste’s eyes, but she covered it up and stepped back, her hands falling from my face.
AIR
“Go on, now,” she murmured, too soft, too careful.
I nodded and forced my legs to move away from Sera’s door.
The phantom warmth of Celeste’s lips still burned against my skin, and I couldn’t explain why I’d moved. Why I’d avoided it.
Celeste and I had been affectionate since she returned-teasing touches, lingering hugs- but we hadn’t kissed. Not once. And now, striding through the parking lot, I realized that it hadn’t been an accident.
It made no fucking sense. I’d spent ten years aching for her. So why did the thought of kissing her now feel… wrong? Like crossing a line I couldn’t uncross. Like if I did, there would be no going back.
But where was this feeling exactly from?
My mind flashed to Sera in the locker room, her palm cracking across my face before I could close the distance between us. I hadn’t hesitated then.
But with Celeste…
The realization sat in my gut like bad sushi as I slid into my car, the metallic tang of Sera’s blood still clinging to the upholstery.
SERAPHINA’S POV)
I’d been wrong.
When I clawed my way back to consciousness, the space beside my bed was empty. No brooding alpha. No Kieran.
Just Ethan and Celeste hovering like vultures over a kill.
What the fuck? My tongue felt oddly weightless, but the bitterness in my chest was lead- heavy.
“Oh, Sera-” Celeste lunged for my hand with performative sympathy. I yanked back before she could touch me.
Ethan’s throat worked as he studied everything in the room-the IV snaking into my arm, the EKG’s steady blips, the starch-white pillows-anything but my face. “How are you feeling?”
“Like I’ve been fucking shot,” I rasped.
A muscle ticked in his jaw. “We’re sorry this happened to you.”
The sarcasm burned on my tongue-Oh, are you? Sorry enough to finally acknowledge I exist?-but the raw guilt in his eyes choked it back. “Thanks,” I muttered instead.
Then, like a masochist, I asked, “Where’s Kieran?”
Celeste went rigid. Ethan answered too quickly. “We made him go home. Get some rest.”
Of course. The logic was sound-he’d earned the break after playing dutiful watch.
Shortly after that, a nurse came in to administer my medication and painkillers. Then she inclined the hospital bed, so I was sitting up slightly. When she was done, she reassured me that I was doing as well as could be expected, and I took a deep breath of relief-then regretted it, thanks to the stabbing pain in my chest.
“Do you need anything?” Ethan asked when she was gone. “Food? Water?”
I was about to remind him that the nurse had just said I couldn’t eat solid foods just yet when Celeste beat me to it. “Could I get a latte, please, Ethan?”
He raised a brow. “We’re at a hospital, Celeste. They have exactly one kind of coffee- instant.”
She rolled her eyes. “Fine. That.”
Ethan turned to me. “What about you?”
I smiled. “I’m good, thanks.”
He nodded. “I’ll be right back.”
As soon as the door closed behind Ethan, I closed my eyes. Things were definitely awkward between Celeste and me, and I knew she probably felt guilty about our last conversation and wouldn’t want to-
“You conniving, manipulative bitch.”
My eyes flew open to see my sister looming over my hospital bed, her perfect face twisted with venom.
“Excuse me?” The words scraped raw against my throat.
“I thought I knew every seductive tactic in the book,” Celeste sneered at me. “But getting yourself shot to get Kieran’s attention?”
She slow-clapped, each mocking clap stinging worse than the gunshot wound. “That’s on another level, Sera.”
I actually laughed-a hoarse, painful sound. “Are you fucking serious?”
“Please.” She leaned in, her designer perfume choking me. “You’ve always been pathetic when it comes to Kieran. But this?” She gestured to my bandages. “This is desperate.”
The heart monitor spiked as I struggled upright. “You think I-” A white-hot bolt of pain silenced me.
Celeste smirked. “Weak. Pathetic. Exactly what he’ll remember when this little stunt fades.”
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