Chapter 298: Video
KAEL
Her lips were warm, wet with liquor, pressing into mine like she was clinging to a life raft.
But I didn’t want it.
Not from her.
Not like this.
The shock burned out fast, leaving only the sharp wrongness of it. Erin wasn’t supposed to touch me like that. She was supposed to be the little sister I never had, the only piece of Ivan I had left to protect. And no matter how much her eyes sometimes echoed his, no matter how many memories she carried, she could never be him.
I pulled back instantly, my hands dropping from her face like her skin had gone molten.
Her eyes widened. "Kael... shit, I’m sorry. I didn’t... " Her words slurred, tumbling over each other.
"It’s fine," I cut in, even though it wasn’t. I caught sight of headlights pulling up, relief sinking into my bones as Niko stepped out. "Come on. Niko’s here."
She swayed when I guided her toward him, muttering another apology that I pretended not to hear. I wasn’t angry. Just... done.
"Get her home," I told Niko, sliding Erin gently into the back seat. She was already half-conscious, her head lolling against the leather.
Niko glanced up at me. "Ash reach out to you?"
My brows pulled together. "No. Why?"
"She called me earlier... asked if I knew where you were."
That made something twist low in my gut. "And you told her?"
"No. I told her I hadn’t seen you." He studied my face. "You want me to find out what that’s about?"
I shook my head. "Don’t worry about it. I’ll figure it out."
He hesitated before nodding and getting behind the wheel. "Be careful, man."
The car rolled away, taking Erin’s quiet form with it, leaving me in the cool, still night.
I went back in for a few more shots. My vision spun so I stepped out one more time.
And that’s when it hit me again... her.
Aria.
Always Aria.
I’d been trying to hold myself back, to give her the space she clearly wanted, but it was driving me insane. I didn’t care if she didn’t want to see me. I didn’t care if she told me to leave.
I just needed... one second. One breath near her.
Before I could overthink it, I was heading to my own car, the decision already made somewhere deep in my bones despite the alcohol dancing in my body. My hands tightened into a fist, my pulse loud in my ears.
I was going to see her. I wanted to. So bad.
Even if it broke me all over again.
I slid into the driver’s seat, the door shutting with a dull thud that seemed too loud for how empty the street felt.
The dash clock glared back at me... 10:32 PM.
Late, but not too late.
I didn’t know exactly where she was. I didn’t have a plan, or even a clear thought beyond find her. My chest felt tight in that way it always did when the silence between us had stretched too long, when I’d gone one day too far without hearing her voice.
I started the engine.
The low rumble filled the cabin, but it didn’t quiet the static in my head.
I’d just pulled away from the curb when my phone buzzed in the console. Unknown number.
I almost ignored it.
Almost.
The preview was a video... grainy, dark, the kind of thing filmed from the shadows.
I tapped it open.
It was short. Just a handful of seconds. But it didn’t need to be longer.
The rooftop lighting was dim, but I’d know those shapes anywhere.
Her dark hair catching the city glow. His broad frame, leaning in.
Aria.
And Sylas.
Kissing.
Not a soft brush, not an accident... his hands on her, her body pulled into his like she belonged there.
The air in my chest turned to glass.
I could tell it wasn’t random. The angle, the timing... someone had wanted me to see this.
And I knew exactly where it was. The building. The rooftop décor was burned into my memory from the handful of times I’d been there... string lights sloping in uneven arcs, the shiny metal railing that caught the wind just enough to sing when the night was quiet.
My fingers tightened around the wheel until the leather creaked.
I wasn’t thinking about who sent it. Not yet.
All I could think was that I needed to see it for myself.
See her.
Even if it killed me.
I dropped the phone into the passenger seat, slammed my foot to the gas, and headed straight to her.
I told myself the video could be fake. Fabricated.
Could be nothing.
Maybe it was a trick of the light. Maybe it wasn’t even her.
I repeated the lies all the way there, knuckles white on the steering wheel, each turn towards that place cutting them thinner.
By the time I pulled up, the string of lights crowning the rooftop was already visible against the dark skyline. That stupid, familiar glow.
I killed the engine, slid out, and shut the door without a sound. My chest felt tight, like if I breathed too deep, I’d lose whatever fragile calm I had left.
I knew the building. Knew the way up.
The stairwell smelled faintly of cigarette smoke and rain-soaked concrete. My footsteps were quiet, but inside, every step felt like a drumbeat counting down to something I didn’t want to face.
I reached the rooftop door, pushed it open just enough to peer through.
Empty... at least at first glance.
But it wasn’t really empty.
A half-empty bottle still sat on the low wall, catching the light. Two sets of glasses rested on the floor nearby, one tipped over like it had been knocked aside in the middle of something.
A shadowed corner where a bench had been in the kind of careless way you only did when you were too caught up in something else.
And there... on the bench... her hair tie.
I knew it instantly. The deep wine-red one she’d worn the last time I saw her. Next to it, a man’s jacket. Not mine. Not anyone else’s I’d mistake it for.
The way it was bunched beside her hair tie told me everything I didn’t want to imagine.
My stomach sank.
The scene was quiet now, but it didn’t have to be alive for me to feel it. Whatever had just happened here was still thick in the air, clinging to every object like static.
I didn’t need to see more.
Didn’t need to wait for them to come back into view.
The truth was already here, threaded into every trace they’d left behind.
I backed away from the door, closed it softly, and walked back down the stairs.
By the time I hit the driver’s seat, my pulse was already pounding in my ears.
I didn’t even remember half the turns I took, just the way my grip tightened on the wheel until my knuckles burned.
The rooftop was still in my head. The hair tie. The jacket. That fucking video.
I didn’t go home. Couldn’t.