Fated To Three, Betrayed By All… Until She Rose.-Chapter 359: The jealous one.

Zevran.

Have you ever gone on a ferris wheel while butt drunk?

Yes...?... No?

Well, I haven’t either, but I have heard people say that it was one of the most exhilarating experiences you could ever have in your entire life.

In senior year, I had a Japanese friend named Haiko, who was a goofy guy famous for things like that; and many times, he would describe that feeling with so many strong words, that I only needed to replay them in my head to have a taste of what he felt.

But not anymore.

Because what I felt right now was beyond exhilarating. It was way past beautiful. He’ll, there were no words I could use to quantify how immensely satisfied I felt as I walked into the house, only to halt in my tracks when I felt eyes on me— not one but two.

"I know that Leilani is alive," Kael’s sharp tone snapped me back into focus, forcing me to glance up where I found him looking down at me with a look of indifference.

But beneath the indifference, there was something else...

Something strange.

A small smile, buried under all those layers of stoic muscle.

Then my brain rebooted his words. "What?" 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

"He just said that he knows Leilani is alive. And knowing you, if you didn’t know that already, then that wouldn’t have been your response." Caelum drawled, sounding irritated.

"What wouldn’t have been my response?" I clapped back in annoyance.

"That," Caelum whispered, waving his hands in my face. His nose was scrunched up as he stalked closer to me, and before I had the chance to react, he drew closer, grabbed a fistful of my sweater and inhaled... deeply.

He seethed; "Leilani."

I froze.

"You were with her. You smell just like her. Her scent is all over you! Where is she?!"

His words made the frown on my forehead deepen significantly and to get him out of my face, I stepped back a little from him in annoyance before coming to fold my arms across my chest.

Surprisingly, Kael was still very calm. Too calm. He simply watched us both with keen interest. His eyes gleamed with excitement as they darted from my face to Caleum’s as if waiting for one of us to snap first.

"I do not know where she is right now." I answered slowly. Coldly. "We separated after we talked at length at some small street side bar.

I do not know why I had to explain so much to Caelum, especially since it was beginning to look like all my words were actively flying over his head.

And I say this because why the hell is he still glaring at me with suspicion? Like I was lying— which I was— but even though!

"You met with Leilani?" Kael asked softly, catching my attention with how soft he sounded. I turned to acknowledge him then nodded once.

"Yes."

"How is she?"

"I think she’s great. She’s a bit shaken by the whole incident plus Agnes’ passing; But besides that, she is all—"

"You’ve known where she is all along?!" That was Caelum again, the obnoxious one who barked at me with a tinge of irritation mixed with betrayal.

The way he shouted made the words in my throat die before making their way out. And when I turned to look at him only to see that his eyes were flashing angrily as they raked from the top of my head to my very dirty shoes, I frowned.

"Yes."

And then he hissed; "You shifted?"

I didn’t want to lie. I couldn’t bring myself to so I nodded.

"Yes."

"And...?"

"And what?" I snapped, "...yes, I saw Leilani and yes, I shifted. What else do you want to know?!"

As soon as those words slipped out of my mouth, the room descended into silence. And while Caelum glared at me like I was the devil... an enemy... or something of the sort, Kael wouldn’t stop smiling.

His reaction however didn’t exactly sit right with me, and thinning my eyes into fierce slits, I turned to glare at him then spat; "What?"

"Nothing."

"Why are you smiling?" Caelum barked at him, "...or didn’t you hear what Z just said? Didn’t you hear that he met with Leilani? And that he fucking hid this info from us all along?!"

"Did you stop to ask if it was Leilani who singled him out amongst the three of us? Aren’t you glad that she’s at least safe, rather than being mad that you aren’t the one who had just spent the entire evening outside, frolicking with her?"

"I did not frolic with her!" I snapped, almost rolling my eyes when a sudden heat crept up my face. "We only talked for a while."

"Yes you did." Kael hissed without looking at me. "And you both talked for so long that your lips are now swollen. Am I right?"

It wasn’t until Kael said those words that Caelum turned to stare at me... like really look at me. I heard his breath catch when his eyes landed on my lips, and with an accusatory finger pointing at me, he rasped; "You... you kissed her?"

Was I supposed to say no?

Was I supposed to deny it?

I guess not. So I nodded once again and drawled; "Yes, we kissed briefly."

But nothing about that kiss was brief. Nothing about the way her mouth fit perfectly with mine was ’brief.’ My body thrummed with excitement as memories of her body pressed against mine flooded my head and I instantly shook my head, hoping to rid myself of these insane thoughts, but I was slow. Too slow.

Kael smiled. "Of course, that is brief!"

"Why aren’t you mad that he’s doing all of these things with Leilani behind our backs?!" Caelum snarled in anger. But there was jealousy just underneath all the rage.

Hell, I could swear that all of these were as a result of his jealousy.

I shrugged derisively as I made my way past him,making sure to bump my shoulder into his as I went, and mumbling under my breath, I hissed; "I didn’t do anything behind your back. It was a spur of the moment thing. She was grieving and sad and had just shifted for the first time—"

"You talked her through her first shift?" He snarled, interrupting me, and I nodded.

Goddess, if he was mad before, then it was safe to say that he was now royally pissed.

"Yes. I also helped her with it." I answered.

And then—

BAM.

Yes was the last thing I could say before I felt something insanely hard strike me hard across the face, and it wasn’t until I had stumbled to the floor and fallen with my hand clutching the left side of my face that I realized what this was. That I realized that Calum had punched me squarely in the face.

And now, he was walking away quickly with his back stiff and his steps sharp.

Kael chuckled.

I was stunned.