Chapter 144: To Depend On Kindness
Aveline lifted a hand only to adjust the front of her uniform, and all four boys flinched at once.
The reaction was so immediate that it almost made her laugh.
"Go on," she said, rotating her wrists and rolling her shoulders as though she were shaking off the remnants of a difficult exercise. "Be on your way."
She was not accustomed to this kind of exertion. If anything, this had been the most intense workout of her life. Her arms ached. Her palms stung. Her breath still came a little fast. But the boys’ panicked retreat was worth every sore muscle.
She watched them stumble backward, then turn and flee in clumsy haste, clutching at one another like frightened children who had just seen a ghost. The sight of it lifted something in her chest.
She was pleased.
Not because she enjoyed cruelty, but because for once, the fear was not hers.
Only then did she turn back to Aelion.
He was still kneeling where they had left him, his clothes torn in several places where the lightning had struck, his silver hair a disheveled mess across his forehead and cheek. He looked bruised, breathless, and strangely distant, as if he had not yet fully returned from whatever storm had passed through him.
Aveline stepped closer.
"Why aren’t you fighting back?" she asked.
Aelion looked up at her, his expression taut with frustration. "They will hunt you," he snapped. "They are going to tell their friends. They will come after you."
Aveline pressed her lips together.
"No," she said quietly.
The certainty in her voice made him scoff.
He had no idea how to understand her. He knew exactly what kind of people those boys were, what kind of cruelty they carried in their bones, and yet she stood before him with a kind of calm that seemed almost reckless.
"Why?" he demanded. "Because they are scared of you? Ava, they are going to come back for revenge."
Aveline’s mouth curved faintly.
It was not a cheerful smile. It was something softer than that, something older, something touched by memory.
And when she smiled like that, the furrow between Aelion’s brows loosened just slightly.
"They are afraid, yes," she said, her voice quiet but steady. "But not of me, Aelion. People like that are rarely afraid of other people. They are afraid of themselves. Of the weakness they spend their entire lives trying to hide."
Her gaze dropped for a moment, as though she were looking not at him, but at something far away and long ago.
"Those who hurt others often tell themselves it makes them strong," she continued. "But the moment the pain turns back on them, the moment their own fragility is exposed, they grow silent very quickly."
A faint bitterness touched her voice then, subtle but unmistakable.
"Because beneath all the laughter, all the shouting, all the mockery... they know exactly how fragile they are."
Aelion stared at her.
For a brief moment, he forgot the pain in his own body, forgot the blood at his lip, forgot even the ache that still lingered in his shoulders. Her words had struck something deeper than the blows he had taken.
She sounded like someone who knew, and that unsettled him more than the fight itself.
His gaze sharpened on her, his breathing quieting as he studied her face, the set of her mouth, the calm with which she spoke of cruelty as though it were a language she had learned by force.
Then something shifted.
He stood.
So suddenly that Aveline barely had time to react before he stepped forward, bracing one hand against the wall beside her and pressing her back against it once more.
The movement was fast, controlled, and close enough to steal the air from her lungs for a second.
Aveline blinked, startled.
The alley seemed to narrow all at once.
His silver hair had fallen completely loose now. Strands of it brushed against her cheek, carrying the faint scent of rain and smoke and something clean beneath it all. His breathing was uneven, still ragged from the beating, but his eyes...
His eyes looked shaken.
"You..." he whispered, staring at her as though he had just discovered something impossible. His eyes wandered all over her face, as if he was trying to figure her out. "What kind of person says things like that after beating four men half to death?"
Aveline blinked slowly up at him.
"What kind of person lets himself get beaten by four men without fighting back?" she returned immediately.
-----
Up on the rooftop, Theron let out a quiet scoff.
"She is his woman," he said under his breath, as though the words themselves tasted bitter and he had no choice but to swallow them.
But they did not settle the ache in his chest. They did not soothe the uneasy, unfamiliar sting that had risen the moment he saw Aelion so close to her. If anything, saying it aloud only made the feeling worse, sharper, and harder to ignore.
His jaw tightened.
"Let’s leave," he said at last.
Kael, who had been watching him closely, said nothing. He only bowed his head and followed as Theron turned away from the rooftop edge. The two of them vanished into the upper shadows, leaving the alley below behind.
-----
Below, Aelion’s gaze remained fixed on Aveline for a long moment after she had pushed him back.
"Are you worried about me?" he asked softly, his finger trailing lightly along the brick wall beside her cheek. Then he leaned closer, too close, until his breath brushed the curve of her lips.
Aveline’s expression did not change, but something in her eyes sharpened.
There it was again.
That look.
Not affection. Not exactly. Something more dangerous than that. A need so raw it seemed almost instinctive, as though he wanted to mark the first person who had ever shown him even the faintest trace of care.
She recognized that kind of brokenness because she carried it too. She had clung to Theron for the very same reason.
But this was not kindness.
"This is not it," she said firmly, pressing both hands against his chest and pushing him back. "This is not what I mean."
She could already see the shadows around him twisting differently now. Not gone, not pure, but no longer sharp with calculation alone. Something warmer had slipped through the cracks.
That made him more dangerous than before. Because enemies were simple. Kindness was not.
"You should let go now," she murmured, glancing meaningfully at the arm he still had beside her head.
Aelion blinked, and for the first time, he seemed to truly register how close they were. His eyes widened slightly, and he stepped back at once, almost too quickly.
Only then did Aveline let herself breathe.
"Thank you," she said, straightening her clothes with brisk, irritated movements. But after a moment, curiosity pricked through her restraint. "Why do your brothers attack you?"
Aelion’s expression shifted. He looked away for a second, then gave a faint, humorless gesture toward his hair.
"It is because of this," he said.
