Chapter 400: When Love Takes Root 2
Thalia was lost for a moment. If she wanted to be honest with herself, the man was handsome and his words stirred something inside her — something fragile, something she did not feel toward the man she was promised to before she was kidnapped.
But hope was dangerous, and she dared not hope.
Love, even more so. She was afraid to even think about it.
For love was not for the likes of her.
"I am no maiden, Sir Logan," she said, her voice steady. "You’ll hear the stories soon how I was once taken by a man — Hook. How Lara found me broken and saved me. I am not untouched. I am not the kind you dream of."
Logan was still, his expression unreadable. Then, softly—
"I did not ask for your purity."
She blinked.
"I’m not drawn to you because you are unscarred," he said. "I’m drawn to you because you’re standing. Because, despite everything, you carry yourself like someone who refuses to be looked down on. I like you as a person, Thalia. No matter how scarred or how broken you are."
Tears welled in her eyes now, unbidden.
"I don’t need you to be whole," he continued. "I just need you to be real with me. And you are. You are very brave, Thalia. And I admire you for that."
She turned her face away, swallowing hard. Her heart screamed at her to run. But something deeper — quieter — told her to stay.
She sat in silence, the swing beneath her swaying ever so slightly as a breeze stirred the trees. The leaves whispered above like gossiping spirits, but her mind was far louder.
She gripped the ropes until her knuckles whitened.
Why did he have to say that?
Why did he have to look at her like that?
It was easier when men ignored her. When they saw only a helper, a shadow behind Lara or the commanders’ wives, a woman who kept her head down and her sleeves rolled up. She liked that. It was safe.
But Logan had looked at her — really looked — and it made something in her twist. Something that had been buried under years of silence, of pretending, of surviving.
Lara thought that she had healed completely. But only she knew that the scar of that day never healed.
She didn’t know if it was fear or longing. Maybe both. Her heart was a battlefield, and on that day, when the sun was still high in the sky, she didn’t know which side would win.
"I did not ask for your purity," he had said.
She replayed that over and over.
What kind of man said something like that? What kind of man meant it? Was there really a man who would not mind the purity of his woman?
She had met kindness before — Kane, no.. Lara, and the women in the Gabriella Guild.. But affection? Desire? Not like this. Not in a way that felt... tender. That scared her more than cruelty ever could.
Would he still feel the same when he heard the full story?
When he learned what had been taken from her and what she had gone through? When whispers reached his ears about the day she never talked about?
What if he was lying? And he just wanted her as his plaything?
But what if — what if — he wasn’t lying?
What if he could love her as she was?
The possibility felt like a fragile glass in her chest, and the more she thought about it, the more she feared it would shatter.
Logan had given her space and stood a few paces away, hands loosely at his sides, watching her.
He didn’t know what to say now. Her silence was not rejection, but it wasn’t permission either.
And still... he couldn’t leave.
He hadn’t expected this — not today. He hadn’t come to the training grounds looking for anything beyond sweat and discipline. And yet, the moment he saw her struggling with that pot of rice, something he couldn’t understand stirred in him.
It was not pity. Not admiration nor reverence — the one he was sure he felt toward Lara.
It was... recognition of something more profound. There was something in her — a quiet fire that drew her to him.
He’d seen courage in men who held swords and marched into death. He himself has that same courage.
But this woman?
She had the kind of courage that never made it into stories. The type that endured in silence. That survived the unthinkable.
Earlier, he pretended not to know her name. But he heard her story. How the man Hook had taken her for the first time, and how she wanted to end her life after that. How she pleaded with the soldiers to help her. And only Kane Mendel... Lara took that bold step. Though she failed at first, Lara came back and pulled her out of the quagmire she was thrown into.
Now looking at her...Gods, she was beautiful — not just in her face, though that alone had struck him. But in the way she carried herself, the way she survived hell. In the way her eyes softened when she thought no one was watching, and in the edge of steel he heard when she trained with the younger girls.
He wanted to know everything — what made her laugh despite her tragedy. What made her flinch. What she dreamed about when she wasn’t busy being strong for everyone else.
But he also knew she had walls—thick ones.
And breaking them down too fast would only send her running.
So he stepped forward slowly, closing the last bit of space between them.
"I know this isn’t easy," he said gently. "But I’m not asking you for promises. Or answers. Just... allow me to stay a while."
Thalia looked at him, her gaze uncertain.
"Why?" she asked.
He took a breath.
"Because when I see you, I don’t see someone broken. I see someone fighting. And that kind of fire... it’s rare. And I’d be a fool to walk away from it."
She stared at him for a long time, her expression unreadable.
Then she said, almost in a whisper, "You don’t know what you’re asking for. What you see might not be the real me."
He smiled. "Maybe not. But I know I’m asking."
"I’m tired," she whispered. "Of being afraid."
"Then don’t be," Logan said gently. "Not with me."
For a moment, neither moved.
Then the swing creaked gently as she shifted, just enough to make room beside her.
A beginning. Not a promise. But something brave.
In the trees above, the sun began to dip, casting gold and amber dappled shadows on the ground. The swing creaked again as Thalia and Logan slowly pushed off the ground — just once. Not flying, but not standing still either.
Logan stayed. Not to fix her, not to save her, but to be with her.
For now, that was enough.