Let Them Kneel Chapter 90

**The collision screamed between them—raw, unrelenting—as their power slammed together in a sustained clash.**

**Kaelani pushed.**

**Not blindly.**

**Forward.**

**Her arms locked, shoulders braced as violet poured from her hands in a relentless stream—burning through his gold inch by inch.**

**Slow.**

**But certain.**

**It advanced.**

**Draevyn didn’t move.**

**One hand extended.**

**Holding her.**

**Containing her.**

**As though this were still nothing more than a nuisance.**

**Arrogant.**

**Of course he was.**

**But the gold began to give.**

**Subtle at first.**

**Then more.**

**Violet pressed deeper, swallowing the edges, eating through the brilliance of his power as it drew closer—**

**Closer—**

**Closer.**

**Something in his expression tightened.**

**Not fear.**

**Irritation.**

**His jaw set.**

**His eyes sharpened.**

**And then—**

**His other hand lifted.**

**Gold surged.**

**A second wave poured from his palm—heavier, denser—driving into the clash with a force that cracked the air like thunder.**

**Kaelani felt it.**

**The impact slammed into her—hard enough to shove her back a fraction, her balance breaking just enough to matter.**

**But she didn’t fall.**

**Didn’t retreat.**

**Her teeth clenched.**

**Her power flared in answer.**

**She held—**

**Then pushed.**

**Harder.**

**Violet surged again, meeting his amplified force head-on, refusing to be swallowed.**

**For a moment—**

**It balanced.**

**Then—**

**Draevyn staggered.**

**Barely.**

**Half a step.**

**But it was there.**

**His control slipped—**

**Just enough.**

**Kaelani seized it.**

**Drove forward.**

**Everything she had behind it.**

**Violet crashed into gold, forcing it back—**

**Driving him—**

**Pushing him—**

**But then—**

**He answered.**

**Not with irritation.**

**With intent.**

**The gold flared—blinding, dense—surging outward in a crushing wave that didn’t just meet her power—**

**It overtook it.**

**The pressure hit her like a wall.**

**Her body jerked as the force drove into her, boots skidding across fractured stone as she was forced back—**

**Grinding—**

**Fighting—**

**Holding—**

**But losing ground.**

**Inches.**

**Then more.**

**The courtyard split beneath her heels as they dragged across the broken foundation, the sound sharp beneath the roar of clashing power.**

**Draevyn’s mouth curved.**

**Not amused.**

**Something darker.**

**“You feel it, don’t you?” he said, voice smooth, edged with something cruel. “The difference between us.”**

**Kaelani’s jaw tightened.**

**Violet surged from her hands—harder now, brighter—but the gold didn’t falter.**

**It advanced.**

**“You can push all you like,” he continued, voice almost thoughtful. “Dress it up as strength… call it defiance…”**

**His gaze dragged over her.**

**“But it doesn’t change what you are.”**

**Her wolf snarled beneath her ribs—low, furious, answering the insult with teeth and instinct.**

**Kaelani pushed harder.**

**Everything she had.**

**But the gold swallowed more of her violet—eating into it as it pressed forward.**

**Draevyn’s eyes gleamed.**

**“You are not my equal, Kaelani.”**

**The words landed like a blade.**

**“You are half of something that could have been absolutely glorious… watered down by something inferior.”**

**His smile sharpened.**

**“And neither side is strong enough to stand on its own.”**

**Her breath hitched.**

**Rage flared—sharp, immediate.**

**Her power surged in answer.**

**But it wasn’t enough.**

**The gold drove forward again.**

**And this time, it didn’t just meet her.**

**It drove her down.**

**Kaelani’s legs buckled as the pressure crushed into her, forcing her to one knee. Stone fractured beneath her with a sharp crack, the impact jarring through her body as she fought to hold the line.**

**Still she pushed.**

**Still she resisted.**

**But it was slipping—**

**Draevyn watched her—calm, unbothered.**

**“Did you really think I needed a touch?” he said, voice low beneath the roar of colliding power. “A kiss? Or that I needed to fuck you to take your power?”**

**He pressed harder.**

**Forcing her down to both knees.**

**“I don’t.”**

**His smile deepened.**

**“It’s just funner that way.”**

**The gold flared—**

**And then—it changed.**

**Kaelani felt it first.**

**A pull.**

**Subtle.**

**Wrong.**

**Then she saw it.**

**Her violet—thread by thread—being dragged into the gold.**

**Not just pushing back.**

**Taken.**

**Her breath caught.**

**Her focus wavered—**

**Just for a second.**

**Draevyn’s eyes locked on hers—sharp, deliberate, watching the moment it dawned on her.**

**“Silly girl…”**

**His voice dropped, darker now—satisfied.**

**“I was waiting for you to do that.”**

**His gaze flicked to the stream of violet bleeding into gold—**

**Then back to her.**

**“To come at me with everything you had.”**

**A pause.**

**Then, softer—**

**Certain.**

**“You gave me exactly what I wanted.”**

**She kept fighting.**

**She had to.**

**But it was slipping.**

**The gold surged—no longer just meeting her power, but consuming it.**

**Her violet was dragged toward him, inch by inch, unraveling as it fed into his light.**

**She felt it.**

**Every thread.**

**Every pull.**

**Like something being torn from inside her.**

**Her breath hitched—**

**Not from pressure—**

**From loss.**

**The gold pressed closer.**

**Wrapped around her.**

**Not striking.**

**Enclosing.**

**A cocoon.**

**A dome of light that sealed her in as it bled her power through her skin, drawing it out in slow, relentless pulls.**

**She gasped—**

**Her body weakening as the drain deepened, her strength slipping with it.**

**Her wolf recoiled beneath her ribs.**

**Not gone.**

**But smaller.**

**Fading.**

**Diminishing with every second that passed.**

**Draevyn’s voice echoed in her mind.**

***Neither side is strong enough to stand on its own.***

**Her fingers twitched—**

**Her power flickered—**

**And for a moment—**

**A terrible, quiet realization settled in.**

**In what felt like her final moments…**

**She couldn’t help but think he might have been right.**

**She had spent her entire life turning away from that side of herself.**

**The part tied to a world that had rejected her.**

**Looked down on her.**

**Cast her aside.**

**Made her feel like she was nothing.**

**Less than nothing.**

**So she buried it.**

**Ignored it.**

**Left it in the dark where it couldn’t hurt her anymore.**

**But when the other side awakened—**

**When she stepped into this world, into that power—**

**It was different.**

**It was everything.**

**For the first time, she didn’t feel small.**

**Didn’t feel like the girl they had discarded and forgotten.**

**She felt more.**

**Stronger.**

**Worthy of being seen.**

**And she clung to it.**

**Fed it.**

**Favored it.**

**Let it grow—**

**While the other half of her remained where she had left it.**

**Waiting.**

**Unseen.**

**Unwanted.**

**Until now.**

**Her wolf whimpered.**

**Not soft.**

**Not distant.**

**It vibrated through her.**

**Through bone.**

**Through breath.**

**Through something deeper than flesh.**

**A sound that didn’t come from her throat—**

**But from her soul.**

**As Kaelani’s power crept closer—**

**Draevyn welcomed it.**

**His arms opened, slow and deliberate, as though embracing something already his.**

**His eyes closed.**

**A breath drawn in—**

**Anticipating it.**

**That rush of raw power flooding into him.**

**The hunger for it coiled tight in his chest.**

**Victory already settling into his bones.**

**He could almost feel it.**

**That edge.**

**That high he hadn’t tasted in centuries.**

**A smile curved his mouth.**

**Waiting.**

**For it to hit.**

**For it to pour into him.**

**But it didn’t.**

**A second passed.**

**Then another.**

**The smile faded.**

**Something… off.**

**His brow tightened.**

**Slowly—**

**His eyes opened.**

**The violet—**

**Just inches from him moments ago—**

**Was pulling back.**

**His hand snapped forward, fingers splaying wide as he reached for it—pulled at it—**

**Commanded it.**

**“Come here—”**

**But it didn’t answer.**

**It slipped from his grasp.**

**Flowed away from him—**

**Back.**

**Back to her.**

**The gold around her flickered as the violet surged inward, folding over itself, wrapping around her in tightening layers—**

**Until the two forces collided.**

**Twisted.**

**Merged.**

**A cocoon.**

**No—**

**A sphere.**

**A massive, swirling mass of violet energy churned where Kaelani had been moments before.**

**The gold vanished inside it.**

**Gone.**

**Overwritten.**

**Silenced.**

**He couldn’t see through it.**

**Only the movement—**

**The surge—**

**The power building inside.**

**Draevyn stilled, his head tilting slightly.**

**For the first time—**

**Something unfamiliar crossed his face.**

**Not control.**

**Not amusement.**

**Something else.**

**Something he didn’t name.**

**The sphere pulsed.**

**Once.**

**Twice.**

**The air bent around it.**

**The ground beneath it cracked—spidering outward as the pressure built, the very courtyard groaning under the weight of it.**

**Then—**

**It split.**

**Not gently.**

**Not clean.**

**It tore.**

**A massive wolf tore free from the center of it—**

**Exploding outward in a burst of violet light.**

**It burst from the heart of that storm like something being unleashed after a lifetime of being caged.**

**Its form burned—**

**Not with fire—**

**But with something brighter.**

**Hotter.**

**Alive.**

**Violet energy coursed through its fur like flame, every strand lit from within, its eyes blazing with the same searing glow.**

**Feral.**

**Bloodthirsty.**

**It launched—**

**Straight at him—**

**Wrath and vengeance driving every movement.**