A Warrior Luna's Awakening (Freya and Caelum) novel Chapter 369

Chapter 369

Silas’s POV

“We’re not suited. I can’t trust you completely.”

Those words cut deeper than any blade I’d taken in battle. I told myself she’d calm down, that she just needed time. But when she looked at me again-steady, unflinching-I saw it. The wall. The one she’d built between us.

And then she said it, quiet and merciless: “You really think this island can keep me here?”

That was the moment I realized she knew. She knew about the wards I’d placed on the gates, the guards I’d doubled near the docks. She wasn’t afraid. She was daring me to try.

I laughed, though it came out hoarse. “Complete trust?” I repeated. “Tell me, Freya-who in this world can trust anyone that completely?”

Her eyes didn’t even flicker. “My parents could. They trusted each other without question. I told before-that’s the kind of love I want.”

you

That hit me harder than I expected. I remembered her telling me that years ago, long before everything between us broke. And I had scoffed at it then, too arrogant to believe such a thing existed.

But now, standing before her, all I could think of was how she’d looked that day we first met- steady, composed, carrying that quiet fire inside her that made me want to destroy and worship her at the same time.

“I told you what I wanted from the beginning,” she said. “You knew.”

“Yes,” I said, my voice low, raw. “You did. And I can give it. I can learn to. I can tell you every scheme, every calculation. I’ll strip away every secret I’ve ever had—if that’s what it takes. But must one mistake damn me forever?”

Her lashes trembled, but she didn’t look away. “Silas, what we had is over. I just want you to keep your word. Two days from now, take me back to the mainland. Don’t destroy the last shred of faith I have left in you.”

Then she turned, walking toward her room.

Something inside me snapped.

“Freya,” I said, following her. “Freya, wait.”

She didn’t stop. So I caught up, reached for her, and before I could stop myself, I pulled her

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against me.

“Silas, what are you doing?”

My body moved before reason could interfere. I pressed her down on the bed, caging her there, her heartbeat hammering against mine.

“This isn’t over,” I said, voice rough, half broken. “You and I-we don’t end like this.”

Her eyes widened in shock, her lips parting as I kissed her-desperately, clumsily, greedily— like a man drowning in his own hunger.

Her scent flooded my senses-moonlight and stormfire-and the feel of her skin beneath my hands made every instinct roar to life. I wanted to stop, to breathe, but the thought of her slipping away again drove me half mad.

She struggled beneath me, pushing at my chest with her uninjured arm. “Silas-stop!”

But I couldn’t. Not yet. I needed her to understand-to feel what I felt.

Then pain bloomed across my jaw.

A sharp, echoing crack.

Her hand.

I froze.

Freya was trembling, eyes blazing with fury and something close to heartbreak. “Silas,” she said, her voice shaking, “don’t make me hate you.”

For a moment, I couldn’t breathe.

My hand went to my face where she’d struck me, heat spreading across my skin. No one had ever hit me like that-not since I was a boy. But the slap didn’t hurt half as much as her words did.

Hate.

That word burned through me like silver through flesh.

“Would you stop hating me,” I whispered, “if we had a child?”

Her expression froze.

I could hear my own voice, low and hoarse, saying words I didn’t even recognize as mine. “If we had a child, you’d stay. You’d want to give them a family. You wouldn’t walk away from that,

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would you?”

Because Freya-the woman who spent her life saving others-would never abandon her own blood. I knew her too well.

“Freya,” I said, a spark of madness flickering through the fog, “you care so much about family. You’d never let a child grow up without one. Without a father.”

She stared at me, horror dawning in her eyes. “Do you even hear yourself?”

“Of course I do.” My voice cracked. “If that’s what it takes to keep you here-then yes, I’d do it. I’d give you everything. Even if it meant-”

Even if it meant crossing a line I swore I never would.

She moved before I could finish, shoving at my chest with a force that made my ribs ache. Her eyes burned with tears she refused to let fall.

“Silas,” she said, voice trembling, “you’re not saving us. You’re destroying what’s left.”