Master

Chapter 49

Lincoln's P.O.V

"Ka-"
Kalem disappears before I can finish.

I blink. 

Frozen in this room that had suddenly gone quiet, too quiet with Kalem's absence, but all I can do is stare blankly at the spot he'd held just a second ago.

My body drags itself forward, as if to chance after him but he was already gone.

Gone but somehow, the hurt that had flooded his gaze in that last moment was still here, and so was the raw pain that rode his every word.

"Go, you're always busy..."

I lock my jaws tight to keep my warring emotions inside, but it's useless. In the deafening quiet, all I can feel is the way my guilt battles with my residing anger.

"It's not far that I'm always alone!"

I curse the Gods and myself as Kalem's words loop in my mind, adding to the chaos already living there.

I'd never been one to lose control of my mind, my emotions or my actions, but now, I felt like I was fraying at the seams.

Pacing, I clutch at my hair, then my fingers, then anything at all to put this frantic anxiety to rest.

Things had been a lot before, but now...

What did I deal with first?

Kalem, the clan's defences, the ongoing war efforts, the Nyphilim-

"Dear Gods!" I curse again, the bellow that escapes me painfully broken to my own ears.

Anger, I knew.
Regret, guilt and pain, I knew them all. I'd experienced them before.

But fear...this raw, true fear that was building inside of me was something I'd never experienced before.

I dealt with a vast variety of monstrosities in my life, but I'd never faced a Nyphilim.

A creature that had made the elf, who never dared to show emotions that wavered from confidence, pale when he'd first told us about the Nyphilims and the power they'd once held.

Fear was all I saw then and it was all I felt now.

He'd made it clear that if Kalem was ever to lose his way, we wouldn't survive and neither would he. Despite our greatest efforts, the end result would be unassailable death.

Now, a Nyphilim that wasn't my own was coming here...

It's only when I rest a hand on my chest do I realize how staggered my breaths are now.
My chest heaves, my vision frays while I try to get a logical thought through the chaotic maze my mind was becoming.

There was always a solution, always a way.

We just had to gather our forces, strengthen our borders and be ready to give it our all, even if it wouldn't be enough.

But that was just the thing, it wouldn't be enough.

It would tear through us all, decimate our souls, putting a swift end to all the people I grew to care about, the ones who trusted me with their lives, to my closest friends and... Kalem.

Kalem. Kalem who looked at me like I'd torn his heart apart before he'd run away from me.

I'd hurt him.
That look, those wet, hazel eyes, they'd said it all.

I'd hurt my love.

"Pylen,"

I twist to face the sound that had startled me out of my lawless thoughts.