Fated To Three, Betrayed By All… Until She Rose novel Chapter 113

**Healing Slowly But Surely**
By R. Joseph

**Leilani or Chalice?**

Zevran.

As I leaned against the wall, my eyes rolled involuntarily at the sight of her. Chalice approached Caelum, tears streaming down her cheeks. Instinctively, he wrapped his arms around her, a gesture of comfort that felt almost mechanical. Yet, for the first time in what felt like an eternity, he wore an expression that clearly indicated he was not in the mood to deal with her emotional outburst.

Perhaps it was the shared confusion we both felt—why hadn’t she made her way to Kael’s bedside yet?

A heavy silence enveloped the room, stretching out like a taut string, until she finally broke it with a shaky voice. “He looks so pale!” she exclaimed, her words hanging in the air. I chose to ignore her, but Caelum remained silent as well, his eyes fixed on Kael. Chalice continued, her voice rising with desperation, “I didn’t know it was this bad when I heard the news. I thought it was something minor… but… I’m so scared. Why isn’t he waking up?!”

At that moment, I turned my gaze toward her, noticing the tears that painted her cheeks like streaks of sorrow. Her lips quivered, betraying an underlying fear that seemed to gnaw at her, and she tugged at her hair as if trying to pull the anxiety out of her very being. “Caelum… Zevran… do you think he will be fine? Do you think he will wake up soon?”

I couldn’t quite place it, but her voice grated on my nerves like nails on a chalkboard. Each sniffle she let out only deepened my frustration. I knew I should be comforting her, but all I wanted was for her to stop talking.

It was unbearable.

Caelum, however, was the one who finally responded, his voice low and measured. “We don’t know.”

Chalice’s eyes widened, and a fresh wave of panic washed over her. “You don’t know anything? I thought the doctor was telling you everything when I walked in?” Her voice cracked, and I could feel the weight of her despair pressing down on us.

I turned to her again, and for a fleeting moment, I felt a flicker of pity bloom within me. Perhaps I had been too harsh on her. Maybe my own frustrations had been misdirected, and I had only added to her burden.

A frown creased my brow as I watched Caelum sigh deeply, repeating the doctor’s grim updates to her. By the time he finished, Chalice had crumpled to the floor, sobbing uncontrollably, clutching her chest as if she were suffocating.

The sight of her despair tugged at my heart, and Caelum, perhaps feeling the same pang of empathy, knelt beside her, wrapping her in a comforting embrace.

I stood there, a grim sentinel, watching over them until—

Suddenly, the door swung open, and in rushed Leilani. My heart skipped a beat as I froze at the sight of her. She appeared breathless, her wild eyes scanning the room before landing on Kael’s frail form.

She didn’t seem to notice us at all as she stumbled toward him, gasping in horror at his condition. Her hand flew to her mouth, muffling her cries as tears spilled down her cheeks.

Something about her demeanor struck me deeply.

It stirred an instinctual urge within me to pull her close, to whisper words of reassurance that would make everything alright. But instead, I felt a tightening in my chest, a pain so acute I nearly forgot to breathe.

Normally, Leilani exuded a powerful, stoic presence, her cold aloofness a shield against the world. Yet, in this moment, all of that had vanished. She took Kael’s hand in hers, whispering something softly, words I couldn’t hear but felt resonating in the air.

I was too stunned to speak, too shocked to move.

I observed her closely, noting how disheveled her clothes were, how her eyes were puffy and red, and how her hair resembled a bird’s nest, a stark contrast to her usual perfection.

Suddenly, she turned to me, her expression icy. “What happened to him?”

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