They stood beneath the white trees, the mist still heavy around them, but something colder than fog filled the air now.
Words left unsaid.
Regret not yet spoken.
Aelia turned away, hugging her arms to her chest. Her throat ached from shouting. Her heart throbbed with something that felt dangerously close to shame.
But then Kael spoke — low, bitter.
> "Besides," he said, "I never told you I loved you."
The words cut sharper than any dagger.
She turned, stunned.
"What?"
He met her eyes, unflinching. "You said you regret the kiss. So do I. It was a mistake."
Aelia blinked, her breath catching. "You—"
"You think this is some kind of story?" he asked, voice harder now, clipped. "You think this was ever about love?"
She couldn't move.
Couldn't breathe.
"You're here because the realm is dying," he went on. "You were chosen because the magic in your blood echoes hers. You're not my bride. You're the key to keeping this world from collapsing."
Aelia flinched.
"But—" her voice cracked, "you looked at me like—"
"I looked at you like a king looks at a soldier," he said. "Valuable. Necessary. Temporary."
That did it.
Her face crumpled.
She tried to hold her head high, but the tears came anyway — silent, bitter, and hot.
She turned her face away.
"Say what you want," she whispered. "But I won't go back to that palace."
He scoffed softly. "You don't have a choice."
Her spine straightened. "You can't force me."
"I don't have to," he said. "The realm will."
---
Aelia took a step back, voice trembling.
"Why are you doing this?"
"Because feelings complicate things," Kael snapped. "And I can't afford complications."
"And I'm just… what? A threat to your precious control?"
"Yes," he said. "Exactly."
Silence.
His own words echoed like thunder in the clearing.
---
Aelia shook her head, laughing once — broken and breathless.
"You're not afraid of losing me," she whispered. "You're afraid of needing me."
He didn't answer.
She looked up, her eyes full of water, her body trembling.
"I was starting to believe there was something real here," she said. "But all I am to you is a tool. A shadow. A ghost of someone you buried but still follow like a chain."
Kael's jaw clenched.
"I gave up everything to be here," she said. "My home. My family. My identity. And all I ever asked for was honesty."
He said nothing.
Not a single word.
And that silence hurt more than anything else.
---
She turned away, her voice dull now, cold.
"I'm not going back."
"Yes, you are," Kael said, stepping closer. "Because the realm is watching. Because if you don't return, the flames will rise again. And we'll all burn."
"I don't care."
"You will."
---
Something flickered in his voice then — not anger.
Fear.
But it was buried so deep in cruelty she couldn't see it anymore.
She swallowed hard.
"Then drag me back in chains, Your Majesty."
She started to walk.
He didn't follow.
He didn't stop her.
He just stood there — crownless, broken, bitter.
And the last thing she heard him whisper was:
> "You weren't supposed to matter."
---