Fated To Three, Betrayed By All… Until She Rose.

Zevran.

I rolled my eyes as I watched her walked over to Caelum, crying as he instinctively wrapped his arms around her. He however, didn’t say anything to her, and for the first time in, like forever, he looked like he wasn’t ready to put up with her right now.

—That and maybe the fact that just like me, he was also wondering why she hadn’t walked over to Kael’s bed yet.

A moment of silence passed between us before she finally spoke up. She cried; "He looks so pale!" But I ignored her. Caelum too didn’t say a word. She continued; "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?!"

It wasn’t until then that I turned to her, and this time I noticed that she had tears streaking her face. Her lips were trembling too with barely concealed fear, and she was pulling at her hair hard as she spat each word that I feared she would lose some strands.

"Caelum... Zevran... do you think he will be fine? Do you think he will wake up soon?"

I do not know why but her voice seemed to grate on my nerves. Her sniffling even made it worse, and while I should be consoling her, I just wanted her to shut up.

It was that bad.

Caelum was the one to answer her. He drawled; "We don’t know."

"You don’t know anything? I thought the doctor was telling you everything when I walked in?" She cried, her voice breaking at the end of her sentence.

When I turned to look at her again, she seemed distraught, and in that moment... in that minute... I felt something akin to pity bloom in my chest. Maybe I’d been too hard on her.

Maybe I’d transferred aggression and made her feel even worse than she was already feeling.

A frown tugged at my face as I stared between her and Caelum who sighed before repeating everything the doctor had told us to her, and by the time he was done speaking, Chalice was already on the floor, sobbing uncontrollably and clutching at her chest as if unable to breathe.

The sight made me feel pity for her, and Caelum, probably sharing the same thought as me, crouched beside her to pull her into a hug.

They remained like that for a while, while I stood watching over them grimly, until—

Someone quickly rushed into the room, and I froze instantly when I saw that it was Leilani. She seemed out of breath and her eyes were wild as she took in Kael’s bad state.

She even didn’t seem to notice our presence in the room as she stumbled over to him, gasped when she saw the extent to which he was hurt and clasped her hand over her mouth as she began to cry.

And goddess, something about her overall demeanor rattled me.

It made me want to pull her into a hug, made me want to whisper reassurances into her ears... and made me my chest ache so much I forgot to breathe for a moment.

Usually, she had this stoic powerful aura about her and this cold aloofness that she had come to possess. But looking at her now, none of those surrounded her at the moment as she took his hand in hers and whispered something under her breath.

But I was too stunned to say a word to her. Too shocked to move.

I watched her quietly, noticing how rumpled her clothes were, how puffy and red her eyes seemed and the bird’s nest which she now wore as hair.

As if suddenly noticing my presence, she then turned to me, asking; "What happened to him?"

Her voice was as cold as ice. It sent a chill down my spine; But shaking it off, I raised my eyes to meet her gaze and muttered; "We don’t know. He didn’t sleep at home last night and got into an accident on his way home this morning."

Upon hearing my words, her face crumpled even more. She nodded once at me, cast one last look at Kael and then stumbled out of the room without a backward glance.

—And to say that I was in shock would be an understatement of the century.

I turned to Caelum just then to find him staring— now at the open door— but from the dismayed look on his face, I immediately knew that he was just as shaken as I was about the whole situation.

However, before we could snap out of our reverie, Chalice shimmied out of Caelum’s arms. She lowered her eyelashes meekly and muttered; "Excuse me for a while, I’ll be right back."

We both nodded immediately and it wasn’t until she had left too that it finally dawned on me that she was going after Leilani.

But why?

My heart raced in anticipation and worry, and without thinking it through, I turned to Caelum and drawled; "I’ll be back, I need some air."

Caelum didn’t think too much about it and nodded , waving me off.

And I... I, the motherfucking overthinker who should be worried about my brother, found myself rummaging through the hospital halls like a maniac, looking for any signs of Chalice or Leilani.

After a while, I finally made my way downstairs to the parking lot, and as soon as I reached there, I stilled because just before me was Chalice and Leilani. They were both sprawled on opposite sides of the floor; and while Chalice was bleeding slightly on the forehead, Leilani had grazed her knee, arm and burst her lip.

I frowned deeply at the sight and growled; "What the fuck are you two doing?" And as soon as I spoke, Chalice jumped. Both girls turned to look at me with wide eyes, but then Chalice quickly recovered. She rushed to my side and cried;

"I just came to ask Leilani if she heard about our wedding and if she’d seen Kael at any point yesterday... but I don’t know why she lost it when I asked her that and started to hit me repeatedly!"

"Chalice...?"

"I don’t know why she hates me so much!"

As she spoke, tears streamed down her face, but I wasn’t looking at her. I was looking at Leilani who seemed lost for words for a moment.

She sighed, dropped her head and turned to Chalice. "You say I hit you?" She asked calmly—too calmly.

"Yes, you did!" Chalice cried. "I know you don’t like me but you don’t always have to—"

*Crack!*

The sound echoed around the empty parking lot and my eyes widened when I realized what had just happened. Leilani had slapped Chalice across the face, and now, the palm of her hand was imprinted on her sister’s face like a painting.

I wanted to be mad but I could not.

Instead, I watched as she blew air on her palm and drawled; "Now, I’ve hit you. Next time, don’t say I did something I didn’t do, because then I’ll really do it."

And with that, she turned and walked away from a stunned me and a raging Chalice.

What the bloody hell?