Chapter 563: How do you know?
Chapter 563: How do you know?
"Kace?" Hope approached him. "I have been looking for you because you are not in your room."
Kace was leaning his tall body against the wall, he was standing on the terrace, staring at the distance where the village was located, surrounded by a wall for protection.
"Why? You miss me?" Kace tilted his head and grinned, just like how he used to be.
If Hope didn't know him better, she would have thought, the lycan had returned to his usual easy-going personality.
However, now she realized that he just returned to his fa?ade.
Hope walked towards him and hugged him tightly, feeling his body against hers as she buried her face on his chest.
"What? What happened?" Kace traced her long black hair while watching the sun finally rise behind the mountain.
This was a quiet morning, so calm and serene as if its purity could wash away all the sins that he had done or cleaned any traces of blood off his hands and his memory.
The dead bodies would be buried when the sun set. The bodies of those who lost their life under his claws.
"Nothing," Hope murmured, "I just want to stay like this with you."
Kace looked at the top of her head and nuzzled her hair. "I didn't know that you miss me this much," he teased her again.
"Just now you know that I always miss you?" Hope tilted her head and rested her chin against his broad chest, staring at him adorably.
"I don't know that you are this bold." Kace raised his brows and kissed her temple.
"Really?" Hope mimicked his tone when he teased her. "But, your beast was bolder." Well, his beast kissed her on the lips while he kissed her on her forehead just now as if she was a seven years old girl.
With his beast being mentioned and brought up accidently, Kace's body became stiff. He got the wrong idea with what Hope meant.
Kace's expression turned gloomy, though he tried to mask it with an awkward smile, but his eyes dimmed.
"You don't need to smile if you don't want to," Hope said softly. "You don't need to pretend in front of me."
"I don't."
"Yes, you do," Hope said stubbornly.
Kace sighed, "I always want to smile every time I am with you," He grinned.
Maybe this had become a habit of him to hide what he really felt, because he did it effortlessly, all the time. However, Hope could see the big hole that ready to suck him completely whenever he was alone with his regrets.
"Why did you wake up so early?" Hope resumed to lay his head against his chest, listening to his beating heart.
"I can't sleep. Did you forget that I have been sleeping for two whole days?" Kace reminded her, but the actual reason was because every time he closed his eyes the brutal scene reappeared.
In his mind, he was forced to replay every moment the beast slashed its razor claws against their flesh and how the warm blood bathed his body in that battle.
Though that bloody night was not similar like many wars that he had been through but, the feeling was still the same.
Kace could feel their fear and how their last breath was stolen from them or how their soul left their body.
Every moment.
Every touch.
Every feeling.
Everything about that overwhelmed him and didn't let him fall into another slumber or just to rest his tired mind and heart.
And now, Kace had to meet with the centaurs. The supernatural creatures that they thought had gone extinct because of what they had done—what Kace had done.
He was too young and greedy for recognition from both of his parents and his two older brothers, but in the end. He got nothing. He ripped his own soul when he watched how those creatures wailed in pain and agony, watching their dearest one die before their eyes.
Only by seeing them alone, Kace could see the hell amount of pain that they had to go through.
"When Lana woke up, we will go back home," Kace said.
"No." Hope turned her head and stared at him in disbelief. "We still have to find the priestess and if you forget, Lidya is still missing. We need to look for her too."
Kace knew as soon as he voiced out his idea, Hope would turn down this idea immediately. "I don't need the priestess, somehow, my wounds are getting better, I think it just needs some time to heal."
Hope didn't believe it. Was it because of what Carina had done to him? Her magic healed him? Whatever it was, Hope wouldn't believe him until she saw it with her own eyes.
However, there was another reason why they couldn't go now.
"Lidya is still missing. Do you want to leave her behind?" Hope narrowed her eyes when Kace averted his gaze. "Don't tell me what you are thinking now."
The way Kace pressed his lips into a thin line was the answer that Hope needed.
"No, Kace…" Hope frowned. She let go of his body, diminishing the spark between them. It didn't have much effect on her, but Kace felt that something important was missing. "I can understand your beast side that wants to protect me and why you killed those hunters…" Hope ignored it when Kace flinched with her words. "…but, I can't understand your reason if you want to leave Lidya behind."
"Hope, you don't understand." Kace took a step forward, only for Hope to take one step back, avoiding him.
"Then go on, try to make me understand!" Hope looked at Kace in disappointment and this made Kace become anxious and restless.
"Those creatures," Kace sighed. "The centaurs would hurt you."
That's what he believed, because that's what he would do if he were the centaurs.
Revenge.
Nothing would stop him to make the person, who took the love of his life, writhed in agony before he killed him slowly and painfully.
"Because you killed his mate?" Hope could see the fear that was written all over Kace's face.
"How do you know?"