She Was Supposed to Stay Broken, So I Let Her Think She Had novel · Chapter 11 of 40
Chapter 11: No Absolution Owed
Kael sets the carved wooden wolf between us and asks me not to make his admission easier for him.
The little figure stands on the apothecary table beside a mortar stained green from crushed leaves. His fingers leave it facing me. He has brought something private into Dov's workroom, where nothing stays private for long.
'Sera, I expected you to tell me I could still be trusted.'
Amber gathers around his head. His second voice slips beneath the words, raw and close: Tell me I have not lost her completely.
The stove ticks. A jar settles on its shelf. His thought sits apart from the sounds, and I keep my hands on the strip of linen I am folding.
He wants me to make his guilt bearable. I could. I know exactly how little it would cost me to say one kind sentence, and exactly how much he would take from it.
'I did not ask you to confess so I could absolve you.'
The shimmer thins. Kael's eyes stay on mine. His shoulders remain square, but the hand that brought the wolf rests open beside it.
'Can you still trust me?' he asks.
I let the question wait. A bowl of dried fennel sits near my elbow. I sort the stems from the seeds, one small task at a time, while I decide what answer belongs to me.
He watches without interrupting. He is learning that silence does not always ask him to fill it.
'Trust is not a reward for telling me what you should have done,' I say. 'You knew the record could decide my life. You let it.'
His mouth tightens. The amber returns, faint along his temple. Beneath his stillness, I catch the thought he does not speak: I thought the page was enough.
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