CHAPTER 269: NOT MY HOME

[ Old World – Shoreline – Aftermath ( we continue after Autumn’s visit to Orion at the bridge between the worlds) ]

The grey disappeared like a blop!

Autumn staggered.

It was as if the ground had been ripped out from beneath her, as if she had been hurled from the sky. Her lungs collapsed, her knees buckled...

...but she never hit the sand.

Strong arms locked around her, breaking the fall. Her face pressed briefly against comfortable heat...her trembling lashes brushed against rough clothing.

Autumn’s eyes shot open and met Kieran’s.

The shoreline blurred around them, the soldiers, the hiss of cooling fire, even the lingering scent of rot. None of it reached her. Only those eyes. That unwavering golden gaze.

And in the silence between their locked stares, Orion’s voice surged back in her head.

"...we got something wrong."

Her breath stuttered. Her lashes fluttered violently as though trying to blink the memory away, but it only clung harder.

Kieran’s jaw flexed. His throat bobbed. His brows drew just slightly inward, as if the depth of her silent gaze was cutting into him more than her flames ever had.

"You alright?" His voice was low, heavy with concern, almost too careful...as though afraid she might be offended or shatter if he spoke any louder.

The words slipped through her like a tremor.

Autumn gasped softly, pulled herself upright too quickly. His arms fell away, but the heat of his touch lingered on her skin, refusing to leave.

"Yeah..." she whispered, breath uneven. Her hands dusted at her blood stained dress in a restless movement. "Yeah. I am alright. I need to..."

Her words faltered, snagged on the weight of his gaze.

For a moment, neither moved. The world slowed down a little.

Her eyes rose again, hesitant, meeting his.

His pupils dilated, the faintest crack of unguarded softness breaking through his usual steel. Her lips parted but no sound left. A fragile pull throbbed between them...something unspoken, something that had no right to exist between hatred and grief.

Her lashes lowered, then lifted again. Her throat worked.

"I need to go check on Willa..."

The name hung between them like a detonated bomb.

Kieran stilled.

His eyes flickered, widening...just a fraction, but enough. The breath he drew in was sharper, very audible in that small silence.

"Oh."

Kieran’s brows shot up, his face tilted.

Autumn’s gaze stayed locked to his, unblinking, as though testing him, weighing him, daring him to betray what that reaction meant.

Finally...Autumn added...softer...but firm...

"Can you please show me where she is, Kieran?"

The way his name left her lips made his jaw twitch again. He didn’t hear her call his name in a long long time.

He gulped...trying to get a grip on his own emotions...he didn’t answer right away...but his gaze held hers, steady, charged...like a storm of questions colliding with her nonchalance fire.

The silence stretched. Heavy. Lingering.

And then he spared just the faintest nod.

" Yes. Of course. Come with me! "

Kieran stepped forward.Autumn followed.

The air shifted.

The salt,the smoke...now smelled of oil and burnt wires.

Kieran walked just ahead, but never far. He adjusted his pace...always slowing when she faltered...pausing...listening for the drag of her boots.

At one point, when she stumbled slightly on the gravel slope, his hand twitched outward...an instinct to steady her.

But Autumn caught the movement out of the corner of her eye, and she straightened before his fingers could reach her.

She dusted her palms, eyes fixed forward, leaving his hand to fall uselessly at his side.

His jaw flexed. He said nothing.

"Careful here," he murmured anyways, voice low, almost gentle.

Autumn’s head tilted sharply with a nod that was too curt, too brisk. "I am fine ,Kieran.Just lead."

Silence stretched between them.

The further they walked, the more the shoreline bled into stone and torch posts.

And then the walls came into view.

Autumn’s steps faltered. Her breath snagged.

Skarthheim’s ridges...those towering, proud, walls with carved runes, were mere rubbles now...flattened...buried.

Over them grew the Blackmoon’s fragile new walls, clean bricks, sharp edges. Their black flags snapped above in the wind.

Her lips parted soundlessly.

Kieran stopped too.

He turned slightly, his golden eyes scanning her face, the stiffness in her shoulders, the tightening of her jaw.

"You have never seen it since..." His voice was careful, slow. "Since we rebuilt?"

Autumn’s throat scraped as she forced out, "I...only remember the old walls."

Her chin lifted, fighting the quiver in her voice. "But they are gone."

He didn’t answer immediately. His gaze drifted past her, to the horizon, before returning to her with quiet gravity. "Yeah. They are gone...we had to blast them with magic when we invaded the stronghold...I was desperate...I didn’t leave any stone unturned..."

Her eyes dragged upward to the fortress rising behind the walls.

Once jagged, raw, carved into mountain rock...now gleaming with steel supports, wired lamps strung above, banners lined in neat rows. Electric cables buzzed overhead like veins in the air.

Autumn’s chest caved inward. Her lashes fluttered.

"This..." she whispered, each word tasting like ash. "...doesn’t look like home anymore."

Kieran’s gaze lingered on her, steady, unblinking. His hand flexed again, restless.

He wanted to tell her what he went through when she was gone... when he couldn’t find her... when the Skarthheims wouldn’t tell him where she was... he was on the verge of insanity because he missed her so much...

But instead , he let his hand graze the air near her arm...a ghost of closeness...but Autumn stepped slightly to the side, her hand rising to her own heart instead. She pressed hard, grounding herself...may be denying him on purpose.

His throat worked. He swallowed.

Her eyes flicked up at him...sharp...fast...wet with something she refused to let fall. Their gazes clashed, locked, a beat too long.

Autumn blinked first,then she dropped her gaze.Her shoulders trembled once, but she masked it by stepping forward, away from him.

For a moment, Kieran stood rooted, jaw clenched. Then he followed, matching her stride again...close enough to guard her, far enough to feel the gap she forced between them.

And though soldiers moved in the background, though torches hissed and wires hummed above, neither heard a thing.

Their silence was louder.