Chapter 264. I’m Still Your Instructor, Whether You Want Me to Be or Not
For several heartbeats, time itself seemed to congeal. The only sounds were the ragged, wet breathing of Kaela as she sprawled on the ground and the distant, mocking call of a crow somewhere above the academy walls.
William felt like he was watching a train wreck in slow motion, the inevitable collision of two souls who loved each other but had no language left to communicate.
Then, Kaela exploded upward. She didn’t just stand; she launched herself.
Her face was a mask of tear-streaked fury, her eyes bloodshot and wild. When she reached Lia again, there was no hesitation, no attempt at gentleness.
She seized Lia’s collar, her knuckles white against the fabric, shaking her with a desperate, violent strength.
"You don’t get to do this!" Kaela screamed, the sound tearing from her throat like something physical. "You don’t get to just surrender!"
"You don’t get to walk away like none of this mattered, like all those nights we trained until our hands bled, like every secret we shared, like I don’t matter!"
Lia’s composure didn’t just crack; it shattered. The icy dam she had built around her heart burst open, and for the first time since the arena incident, the fire returned to her eyes, but it wasn’t the fire of a warrior.
It was the scorching, self-destructive blaze of someone who had been pushed too far.
"You don’t understand, Kaela!" Lia snapped back, her voice cracking into something raw and guttural.
She wrenched herself free from Kaela’s grip, stepping into her space until they were nose to nose, their breathing hot and erratic. "You think this is about giving up? You think this is cowardice?"
Lia’s hands were shaking now, clawing at the air between them. "You have no idea what it’s like!"
"You’ve never had to fight for the right to simply exist in your own bloodline!"
"You’ve never had to earn love like it’s some fucking debt that keeps compounding. No matter how much of yourself you sacrifice, no matter how much blood you spill, the ledger never balances!"
"Then fight them!" Kaela shrieked back, shoving Lia hard enough that their shoulders collided with an audible thud. "Fight them with the strength you showed yesterday!"
"Don’t let them turn you into their puppet!"
"I DON’T HAVE A CHOICE!" Lia’s roar echoed off the stone corridors, primal and hopeless. "There is no other path, Kaela! There is only the cage or the grave!"
"THAT’S A LIE, AND YOU KNOW IT!" Kaela grabbed Lia’s shoulders again, shaking her mercilessly. "You always have a choice!"
"You’re choosing this, Lia!"
"You’re choosing to die inside because it’s easier than fighting him!"
’Don’t you dare pretend you’re trapped when you’re the one walking through the door!"
"Shut up! Just shut up!" Lia screamed, the words punctuated by a sob she couldn’t suppress. "You don’t know what they’ll do to me if I refuse!"
"You don’t know what they’ll do to you if I stay!"
"Let them come then!" Kaela’s words were venomous, laced with a desperate bravery. "We’ll fight them together like we always have!"
"It’s not that simple!" Lia’s voice descended into a hysterical whisper, her hands flying to her temples as if trying to physically hold her mind together. "It’s never been that simple!"
The argument spiraled into a chaotic vortex of accusations and grief. Years of unspoken rivalry, grudging respect, and the fierce, complicated bond of friendship tangled together, twisting into something ugly and dangerous.
Each girl landed words like poisoned arrows, aimed at the deepest wounds, because neither knew how to reach through the other’s pain without drawing blood.
’Stop it,’ William thought desperately, his own heart hammering against his ribs. ’You’re tearing each other apart.’
Seeing the situation teetering on the edge of genuine violence, seeing Lia’s fingers curl into fists and Kaela’s stance shift into something combative, William finally moved. He surged forward, his large frame cutting between them like a shield.
He caught Kaela by the shoulders, his grip firm and unyielding as he forcibly pulled her back.
"That’s enough!" William commanded, his voice booming with the authority of an instructor, though his eyes betrayed his own anguish. "Kaela, back off!"
"Now!"
Simultaneously, Olivia moved in from the opposite side. She didn’t shout; she simply acted with a quiet, desperate urgency, stepping close to Lia and wrapping a steadying arm around her.
She held Lia firmly, anchoring her, trying to provide a physical barrier against the storm that was threatening to consume her completely.
"Let go of me!" Kaela shrieked, her voice cracking as she thrashed against William’s iron grip.
She wasn’t fighting like a soldier anymore; she was fighting like a drowning person clawing at the surface. Tears finally spilled freely down her face, hot and shameless, streaking through the dust and dried sweat on her cheeks.
"Let me go, Instructor Wade...! Let... me go!"
William didn’t budge. His muscles burned from the strain of restraining her, but he couldn’t; he wouldn’t let her escalate this into something that would leave them both broken.
"I don’t want to lose her!" Kaela’s voice collapsed into a raw, broken sob that seemed to vibrate in the very bones of everyone watching. "Do you understand that?!"
"Do you understand what she means to me?" Her forehead pressed against William’s forearm, her body shaking with the force of her grief. "She’s the only person who’s ever actually pushed me to be better!"
"Every single spar where she left me bleeding in the dirt, every argument that ended with us both cursing each other out, every time she beat me and made me so furious I couldn’t sleep until I’d trained twice as hard... that was life, Instructor Wade!"
"That was real...! I don’t want to lose that! I don’t want to lose her!"
The confession hung in the air like smoke after an explosion. It was too honest, too vulnerable, too nakedly human for the sterile training grounds.
The students who had been watching with morbid fascination suddenly looked away, unable to bear the weight of such raw devastation.
Beside them, Lia, still held firmly, almost painfully, by Olivia’s protective embrace, went suddenly, completely still. The storm of her fury vanished, replaced by a terrifying, unnatural calm.
She didn’t cry and she didn’t scream. She simply stared at Kaela with an expression William couldn’t decipher; it wasn’t anger, and it wasn’t sadness.
It was something colder: a profound, hollow recognition. It was the look of someone watching their own funeral from a great distance.
For a long moment, the only sound was the ragged, wet breathing of the girls and the distant clatter of training weapons being put away elsewhere. The tension was so thick it felt as though the air itself might shatter.
Then, without warning, Lia moved.
With a strength born of pure desperation, she wrenched herself free from Olivia’s grasp. The motion was so sudden and violent that Olivia stumbled backward, nearly losing her balance.
Lia didn’t look back. She didn’t offer a parting word or a final glance at the wreckage she had left behind.
She simply turned and ran. She ran past the stunned students, past the gaping faculty, and past William, her boots pounding against the stone like a heartbeat running out of time.
William found her nearly an hour later.
He had searched the dormitories, the library, and the gardens, his own chest tight with a growing sense of dread.
Finally, he climbed. He found her at the highest point of the academy grounds, a lonely, crumbling stone outlook that jutted out over the precipice.
Below them, the sprawling city stretched out like a carpet of amber lights, the distant hum of civilization feeling impossibly far away.
Lia was perched on the edge, her legs dangling over the abyss. The wind pulled savagely at her hair, whipping strands across her pale face.
She was staring out at the rooftops, but her eyes were glassy, fixed on something far beyond the horizon. She looked fragile, as if a single strong gust might simply carry her away into the night.
"Lia," William said softly, his voice barely audible over the wind.
"Please go away," she said.
Her voice wasn’t hollow anymore. It was exhausted.
It sounded like something that had been dragged through broken glass and left to die. She didn’t turn around.
She didn’t even flinch at his approach.
"I’m not going to do that." William approached slowly, each step deliberate, careful not to startle her.
He didn’t try to touch her; he knew better than to crowd a wounded animal. Instead, he settled onto the low stone wall at a respectful distance beside her, letting the wind bite at his own face.
"I’m still your instructor, Lia..."
"For at least a few more days, whether you want me to be or not..."
"That means I’m not leaving you up here alone."