Let Them Kneel (kaelani and Julian) novel Chapter 134

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Chapter 134

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Garrick was on the threshold of sleep–hovering between shallow awareness and the slow descent into dreams.

And Kaelani… was drifting straight toward him.

She stepped into Garrick’s dream.

The transition was seamless–a slow bleed from the dark veil of thought into something heavier, thicker. She expected resistance, some kind of barrier. But his mind opened like a cracked door, already weakened from neglect.

And inside… was misery.

The dream formed around her in muted grays and decaying light. Cold stone walls, damp with age. A narrow cot bolted to the floor. A heavy iron door with no handle on the inside.

A prison.

Not the actual cell where he’d been held—but a twisted echo of it, shaped by his own mind. Loneliness clung to the air like mold Silence stretched too long. He sat on the cot, hunched over, face buried in his hands.

Kaelani stood in the far corner, unseen.

The fae women had followed–silent watchers on the dream’s edge. They didn’t interfere. Not yet. Their forms shimmered faintly in the periphery, shadows waiting, watching, curious to see what she would do.

Garrick shifted slightly, murmuring to himself in a voice dry and cracked. The words were unintelligible, broken. His fingers twitched, digging into his scalp. Shame rolled off him in waves. Regret. Resentment. But mostly… abandonment.

He felt it like a chain around his throat.

Kaelani’s lips pressed into a line. She didn’t feel pity. Only a strange, hollow satisfaction.

Now he feels it.

What it’s like to be forsaken.

To reach for a warmth that never comes.

To wonder if you’re even worth the love you so desperately seek.

Her steps were soundless as she approached. The dream didn’t resist her presence–it bent to her.

And she began to mold it.

The walls stretched taller. The light dimmed further. The door faded entirely, replaced by endless shadows that offered no exit.

She whispered–not aloud, but directly into the fabric of the dream.

“They never even fought for you.”

Garrick flinched.

“Your mate. Your children. They never even showed up to your hearing to defend your name.”

The cot beneath him rusted. The floor cracked.

“Now you understand.”

Her voice curled like smoke through the air. “What it’s like to be alone.”

The shadows deepened.

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The walls pulsed with memory.

Images flickered around him–ghosts of family dinners he wasn’t part of, of his children moving on without him, having children of their own. Birthdays and celebrations where his name was never spoken. His mate severing their bond and mating

another.

He reached for them–desperate–but the images vanished as quickly as they came, dissolving like ash.

Kaelani watched it all, calm and unflinching.

She shaped more, merely using his own fears against him.

The air shimmered like heat rising from a kettle. Garrick’s prison dissolved–not all at once, but in ribbons–until the cold cell gave way to a new setting.

A family room.

Familiar, warm, once. Family portraits lined the mantle. A fire crackled in the hearth, but its warmth didn’t reach Garrick. He stood in the middle of it all, confused, hollow–eyed. The sound of footsteps echoed down the hall.

Christian appeared first, looking older than Garrick remembered–sharper in the jaw, harder in the eyes. He didn’t hesitate.

“You’re a disgrace to our name,” he said, voice low but laced with fury.

“Everything you taught me about honor–about loyalty you spat on it. You don’t belong here.”

Garrick opened his mouth, but no sound came. His hands shook slightly at his sides.

Then came Elara.

She stepped forward from the shadows, elegant and composed her voice cutting, her eyes ablaze.

“You destroyed this family.”

“You crushed my mother’s spirit and left us to pick up the pieces of your selfishness.”

“Do you know what it’s like to watch someone you love fall apart because of you?”

He tried to speak then. His throat moved. “I–I didn’t mean-

“}

“You always meant it,” she hissed. “You just didn’t think we’d survive without you. But we did.”

And finally… Brielle.

She didn’t emerge so much as arrive–as if the room shaped itself around her grief. Her face was pale and tear–streaked, her gaze locked on him like a blade.

“How could you?” she whispered.

“After everything we built–after all the nights I waited, believed, trusted–how could you betray me like that?”

Garrick fell to his knees. “I was tricked,” he gasped. “She came to me in dreams–I didn’t know what was real. I didn’t want her

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“Liar,” Brielle snapped, her voice trembling now with pain.

“You welcomed her. You begged for her touch. You didn’t just bed her—you adored her. Over and over again, you chose her.”

He choked on a sob. The room began to tremble.

Kaelani watched, detached. Not cruel–but resolute. This was the reflection he’d never been forced to see. Until now.

-ak

Shopter 134

The

dream flickered.

And behind

Kaelani, the fae women stirred.

Their

with

mischievous. The air something eyes gleamed

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