Fated To Three, Betrayed By All… Until She Rose.-Chapter 77: All my fault.

Kael.

"Ms Blackthorne is out of trouble now that whoever it is that donated so much blood to her, did that." Dr Sebastian drawled as he leaned away from Chalice to bow at us. "Thank goodness you moved as fast as you did. It may have been a different story entirely." He added, and whilst Caelum smiled, I did not.

For some reason, I felt restless. I felt dirty. I felt like I’d just committed a sin grave before the moon goddess and people in general.

My heart raced as I flashed the doctor a polite smile and turned to Caelum. "We need to talk." I said.

Caelum turned to me briefly, and I saw the reluctance in his eyes. But he knew better than to resist me. He knew better than to turn me down, especially when I was in such a mood.

He smiled briskly and turned to the door, his smile fading with each step he took. He said; "Okay, come with me brother. We do not want to disturb Chalice with our scribbles."

I followed after him without saying a word. And I still did not say a word when we stepped out of the ward. He stopped but I didn’t. I continued to walk, forcing him to follow after me as I led him to the rooftop, and it wasn’t until we’d arrived there that I turned to face him.

"Chalice is out of danger." I drawled, my voice feeling tight against my throat. "But that means Leilani isn’t."

Caelum rolled his eyes at me but for some reason, he didn’t seem so surprised that this was why I’d called him over. It felt as though he’d been expecting it. He shrugged; "I know that."

"And we left her there."

Now, he seemed royally pissed. He threw his arms into the air and screamed like a petulant child, his nostrils flaring as he growled; "She asked for it when she struck me!"

"And didn’t we ask for it when we took her against her will?" I asked, causing Caelum to turn to me with surprise written all over his face. I threw my hands up in feigned surrender and continued; "Now, I’m not judging you. I can’t even do that when I’m just as guilty as you are. You and I know how much I hate Leilani, but I think that what we did back there... leaving her after draining so much blood from her is not just insane. It’s downright evil." 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

"Kael—"

"And if our argument is that we did it because she’s not a kind person, then we’re no better than her. If anything, we’re worse."

"We’re not worse!" Caelum snarled, "...have you, like Zevran, suddenly forgotten about what she did to us in the past? Have you forgotten how she almost ruined our lives? How everything crashed because of one stupid lie?"

"I haven’t." I answered gravely, "I haven’t forgotten about all the things she did to us. She hurt us but she never killed us... and that there. That stunt we pulled may kill her for real."

I saw the moment my words sank into his head. Felt the shift in the air when realization dawned on him. I knew just how much my brothers and I claimed to hate Leilani but once upon a time, we’d made a bet on who would end up marrying her. We’d liked her that much, had squealed excitedly when she did as much as glanced a second in our direction.

But she’d always been too quiet.

Too shy.

Very difficult to befriend.

Chalice was easier to become friends with... and through Chalice, we realised that the girl we thought we had a crush on was darker than the night itself. Her innocence had only been a facade. Her smiles, a lie.

And then she hurt us. Terribly.

I shrugged. "Chalice is fine now. And I’m going to check on Leilani. I’m going to see if she’s okay, and if she’s not, I’ll bring her to the hospital."

Caelum didn’t argue. I knew he couldn’t. But he didn’t try to join me when I turned away and walked off.

Maybe he was still stewing from what happened many years ago— I still was— or maybe he was mad that she’d cost him a tooth, but he turned and walked in the other direction, not even bothering to pretend that he was worried about her.

But for once, I didn’t sway. I didn’t try to stay on his side due to my rage and my overwhelming desire to always side with my brothers.

I went for my mate.

—

When I arrived at the worn down warehouse, Leilani was nowhere to be seen. There were no traces of her or of her ever being here besides the patch of Caelum’s blood on the floor which was nothing but a dried splatter now, with his tooth sticking out of it like a sore thumb.

My heart raced. And something like panic instantly settled at the base of my stomach like a bile.

I couldn’t help but worry about the possibilities of her being in danger. Or hurt. Or worse still, dead.

I shook my head, turned towards the back of the warehouse and screamed; "LEILANI!"

But there was no response. No nothing.

The image of her sprawled on the floor, knocked unconscious plagued my mind like a very bad dream. And I know that I shouldn’t be scared, but I was. I definitely was.

"LEILANI!" I called out again, more desperately, and again, when no response came, my heart plummeted.

Goddess, no! If anything happens to her, I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself. I won’t be able to see past how all of this was my fault.

My phone vibrated in my pocket just then and with shaky hands, I fished it out of my pocket to see that I’d just received a text from Zevran.

It read: Something happened to Leilani. Come to NYC Health + Hospital/Bellevue. But to its morgue.

As soon as I read its contents and saw the word ’morgue’ in it, my heart fell, my body trembled violently and my limbs... for the first time in my 27 years of age, my limbs gave way and I crashed to the floor as a loud cry wrenched itself free from my chest.

Leilani was dead. I’d killed her... Me and Caelum. And it was all our fault.