Chapter 261: Don’t...
[ Old world - Back at Autumn’s fortress ]
" Kieran..wha...what are you doin...?!"
Autumn barely managed the broken whisper before the world around her tilted.
Kieran’s hand clamped tighter around her wrist.
Then...Yank...
Autumn’s breath broke before she could even gather it.
One moment she was stumbling against him, palms braced on his chest, her heart galloping in wild confusion.
The next...
His arm locked too tight around her waist. A swift, merciless tug.
Autumn gasped...
"Kei...!"
But the sound never finished.
Her lips were caught.
His mouth crushed against hers with a desperate hunger that stole the very air from her lungs. The world fell away, silence collapsed into the single unbearable sound of her heartbeat hammering between them.
Her eyes widened...stunned...every muscle frozen.
She tasted iron...Salt. Heat.
His kiss wasn’t careful. It wasn’t measured. It was shattering. Raw. Like a man who had clawed his way back from the edge of death only to seize what he refused to lose again.
Autumn trembled, her hands twitching against his chest. She wanted to push. To resist. To scream.
But his lips moved deeper, slower, pulling her into that ache she swore she would never feel again.
Her lashes fluttered shut...involuntarily. A strangled sound slipped from her throat, half sob, half breath... half the remnants of her overflowing anger.
"No...no...don’t...stop..."
But her words dissolved the moment his mouth traced harder against hers, demanding more.
His tongue brushed her lower lip...coaxing, commanding. Her body betrayed her, leaning closer, chest pressed fully against the rise and fall of his own.
Her fingers curled into his skin. Not to shove him away...though she told herself that’s what she meant. But they held, clutching, trembling with the memory of every night she had missed him.
The kiss deepened, slow but ruthless. His hand slid up her back, spreading heat, claiming every inch.
Her lungs burned. She broke the surface only for a gasp... "Ki..Kieran... you can’t..."
His lips silenced her again, softer this time, yet still unrelenting.
Each press of his mouth sent her unraveling, piece by piece, until all that remained was the taste of him, the ache of him, the impossible truth of how much she still wanted him.
Autumn’s body trembled harder, her knees weak. She clung to him as though falling...because she was.
In the fragile pause between one kiss and the next... she realized she had already lost... God dammit...
Autumn wrenched herself back, lips tearing away with a wet ’slop’ that left her gasping.
Her chest heaved against his, her throat raw, every nerve screaming at her to push him, strike him, burn him to ash.
But her hands... stayed.
Still fisted in his shirt, still trembling against the heat of him.
Her breath came in ragged stutters.
"You...you bastard..."
The words cracked, nothing but a hoarse whisper.
Kieran didn’t answer.
His eyes...dark, fever bright...searched hers...wild and desperate...but he didn’t try to kiss her again.
He just...held her.
His grip crushed her wrist against his chest like she was the only thing keeping him tethered to the earth.
The silence stretched. Only the pounding of her heart filled the fortress chamber.
Autumn’s lips quivered, swollen, damp, tasting of him. Shame burned her skin. Her body still leaned into his, traitorous...needing.
"I must have lost my mind," she whispered, almost to herself.
Kieran’s chest rose, fell...hard, uneven. His jaw worked like he wanted to say something, but the words wouldn’t come.
Her fingers twitched in his shirt. She pulled once, as if to push him away. But she didn’t. Couldn’t actually.
Her voice fractured, softer now, breaking at the seams. " Get out, Kieran Blackmoon...before I burn you alive..."
For the first time since she could remember, Kieran looked...broken.
His breath trembled against her temple, his silence grew heavier than any confession.His eyes... they kept flickering, trying to read what Autumn was going through... but he couldn’t understand. Nothing at all.
All he could feel was hatred... hurt...Kieran, for the love of the Moon Goddess and everything precious in both worlds, couldn’t wrap his head around the reason why Autumn... his Autumn... would hate him so much.
But still he held her. Still he wouldn’t let go.
Autumn’s eyes burned. Her lashes lowered, but the tears didn’t fall...not yet. She wouldn’t give him that.She wouldn’t stoop any lower than she already had.
But strangely instead, she pressed her forehead to his collarbone...just for a second...just to breathe him in...maybe for the very last time...before she finally shoved him back with all the strength she could muster.
"Get out..." Her voice cracked...so weak...so brittle. "Just...get out of my sight..."
But even as she said it, her fingers wouldn’t unclench.
Autumn’s body coiled like a bowstring...then snapped.
Her palms slammed into Kieran’s chest with a violent force.
The sound echoed through the icy slab. He staggered back, almost colliding with the hard surface under him, his head barely missing the stone edge by inches.
Autumn’s breath tore from her lungs, ragged, trembling. Fury and anguish warred in her chest, choking her.
Her fists clenched, nails biting into her palms. Her feet moved...one step...too sharp...then another...towards the door. Towards escape from this torment... embarrassment...
Her heart pounded, her vision swam. " Autumn, you need to get out!" She slapped herself several times on her cheeks.
But then...
A sudden jolt ripped through her consciousness.
She froze mid step, air seizing completely in her throat.
Her head snapped up, her eyes wide, every vein in her body thrumming with the same unearthly pulse.
"Jasper?!!!!" The name ripped from her lips, breaking, desperate.
At the exact same moment...
Kieran’s body lurched upright, his voice croaked into a raw shout that cracked against the air..."Freya!!!!"
The fortress walls shook with their collective yell, reverberating in the silence that followed.
Autumn’s breath hitched. Her gaze locked with his.
And there it was...utter horror...fear...mirrored in both their eyes.
The world stilled. Their bodies stiffened, frozen, as if the very air refused to move.
The heart beat of a moment.
The silence before a storm.
And then both of them lunged...