Chapter 4

I could feel my life force draining.

An inexplicable weariness settled over me. My sleep lengthened, and even the plants in the lab barely responded to my control anymore.

“I’m tired. I’m heading back.”

“Of course, Doctor.”

Kael was waiting just outside the lab.

He slipped the heating pad he’d been holding for ages into my arms, said nothing, and deliberately walked on the windward side, shielding me from the drifting snow.

“Cough, cough—”

I coughed violently.

The recent experiment had drained a huge amount of energy from me. I could barely stand. As soon as I got home, I started running a fever.

Kael used cold water to wipe my body down, over and over.

“Liam…”

Burning with fever, my vision blurred, my hand lightly brushed Kael’s cheek.

“I love you so much…”

He suddenly grabbed my hand.

“The Liam you called… was it me?”

“Who is this Liam?”

I closed my eyes, drifting into sleep.

Kael kept pressing.

“Don’t ask. You’re Liam, okay? Just stop…”

He let out a shaky breath, the tension visibly draining from his shoulders.

He pulled out the photo he had hidden in his pocket.

He examined it closely. The man’s face was identical to his own, but Kael couldn’t remember ever taking such a picture.

“Maybe I forgot.”

He mumbled to himself.

He pulled up the blanket, only for his attention to be caught by my semi-transparent hand.

Kael’s heart jolted.

He blinked, and my hand looked normal again.

*Ding—*

A notification sound broke his thoughts.

“Brother Kael, you haven’t come to see me in ages…”

Chloe was slurring, clearly wasted.

“If you don’t come soon, I’ll be whisked away…”

Kael threw on his jacket and moved to leave.

I grabbed him.

“Don’t go. Stay and take care of me. I feel awful…”

“I’m going to die…”

He pulled free.

“Don’t talk nonsense.”

“Chloe has an emergency. I have to go to her first.”

His back was resolute. He never lingered for me, not even for a second. He was *my* bodyguard, yet he always left me behind.

He had promised to protect me with his life.

Kael, I believed you again and again.

Chloe’s words were true.

“If the Federation hadn’t forced him, he wouldn’t be your bodyguard.”

“Brother Kael cares about me the most, Anya. Even if you died right in front of him, he wouldn’t feel an ounce of pity.”

“You’re just a burden to him.”

Whether it was during the Creature Uprising three years ago, when he abandoned me in the eye of the storm, or three years later, when I told him I was dying.

Kael never truly cared.

I called my assistant.

“Take out the blood I had stored for Kael’s sustenance.”

“Yes, give it to the North District. Let them use it to grow food.”

I wouldn’t leave him a single thing.