The night crept in slowly, silent and thick with tension. Olivia stood by the window of her small flat in East London, the glass cool beneath her fingertips as she stared out at the city lights, blurred by raindrops that clung to the pane. The rain had started softly an hour ago—her kind of rain, gentle and melancholy, as if the sky was crying with her. She hadn't shed a single tear herself, but the storm outside echoed everything she had buried inside.
Aiden hadn't called. Not since the fight.
He had walked out after accusing her of using him. Maybe he was right. Maybe she had leaned on him too heavily, let him become her safety net while her heart chased after someone who only ever left her burned. But Aiden had always been her lighthouse. Losing him now felt like losing balance.
Her phone buzzed.
KAEL: "I'm outside. Come down."
Olivia's heart stopped. Just his name sent a flush through her body—equal parts dread and desire. She pressed her lips together, then grabbed her coat.
He stood by the lamppost, rain falling steadily around him, but he looked untouched. Kael always had a way of existing just outside the normal world, as if the laws of weather or logic bent to him. His black hoodie clung to his shoulders, soaked, but he didn't seem cold. His eyes locked with hers, intense and unreadable.
"You shouldn't be here," Olivia said, voice tight.
"And yet here I am."
She took a cautious step toward him. "What do you want, Kael?"
He studied her for a long moment. "I want to talk. Somewhere dry."
They ended up at a 24-hour diner on Whitechapel Road, sitting in a booth by the foggy window. The fluorescent lights above cast a pale glow over the Formica table. Olivia kept her coat wrapped tight, trying to keep her shivers under control.
"I thought I told you I was done," she said, not meeting his eyes.
"You did," Kael replied. "But you didn't mean it."
His voice was low, rough. It scraped against her resolve like sandpaper. Every word was a reminder of what they'd been—what they could have been—if only he hadn't pulled away again. If only he hadn't shattered her when she had been already cracked.
"You used me," she said bitterly. "And when you were done, you vanished."
"I left because I was dangerous for you."
"Oh, please." She laughed sharply. "Don't give me the tortured hero act. You left because you could. You left because running is easier than staying and facing what we were becoming."
Kael's eyes softened, his jaw tense. "I left because I love you."
The words fell like thunder.
Olivia blinked. "No. You don't get to say that now."
"You think I haven't wanted to every day?" Kael leaned forward. "Every time it rains, I think of you. Every time I close my eyes, I see your face. You—Olivia—you're in me like fire and rain, burning and drowning me all at once."
Her breath caught.
"Then why did you break me?" she whispered.
"Because I was afraid of loving someone like you." His hand moved across the table, slowly, as though approaching a wild animal. "You're not just a girl, Liv. You're something else. Something powerful. And I didn't think I was strong enough to handle it."
Silence settled between them.
Outside, thunder rolled low in the distance.
"I'm not strong either," she admitted. "I pretend I am. But the truth is—I'm a mess. I cry when no one's looking. I hold on to people who leave. I keep falling for you, even when it hurts."
Kael reached out, fingers brushing hers. "Then let me stay this time."
Olivia looked at him, really looked. The boy with shadows in his eyes. The boy who had both ruined her and made her feel alive.
She could smell the smoke of his magic, faint but real. It danced around his skin, teasing hers.
But her heart was still bleeding.
"You hurt me, Kael. You can't just walk back in like nothing happened."
"I don't want to erase the past," he said softly. "I want to earn your trust again. One day at a time."
She hesitated.
Then nodded. Just once.
Back at her flat, she curled up on the sofa after he left, wrapped in a blanket with the sound of rain tapping the windows. She should have been afraid to let him in again. She should have built walls so high that even fire couldn't melt them. But something in her cracked open.
She touched her cheek. It was wet.
One single tear.
And outside, the storm grew stronger.