I didn't even realize I was crying until a tear slipped off my chin and splashed directly onto our joined hands.
I stared down at the wet droplet clinging to Kael's golden-tinted skin. My chest felt so constricted I could barely draw breath.
How?
My mind kept screaming the same word over and over again.
How could anyone endure that?
How could one person carry so much horror for so long and still be standing here?
Before I could stop it, another tear fell. And another. Within seconds, the quiet forest dissolved into a blur of green and gray as a wave of hot, suffocating grief spilled over my eyelids.
God, my heart hurt so badly it felt like a physical wound beneath my ribs. It wasn't just sympathy—it was a visceral, sickening ache for everything he had lost. The betrayal. The slaughter of his people. The terrifying, lonely darkness of being severed from his own heart.
I hurriedly lifted my free hand, scrubbing at my face with my sleeve, but it was useless. The tears just kept coming, heavy and frantic, choked off by the silent tightness in my throat.
Kael didn't move. He didn't tell me to pull it together. He didn't awkwardly look away or act embarrassed by my outburst. He just sat beside me in the tall grass, his thumb gently caressing my hand, silently letting me mourn for him.
"I..." My breath hitched, a broken sob catching in my throat. I couldn't get enough air into my lungs. "I don't even know what to say, Kael..."
He offered me a small, tired smile—a look so tender and terribly worn that it shattered whatever was left of my composure.
"You needn't say anything, Aiden."
"But..." I shook my head, choking on my own breath, a weak, hysterical laugh escaping my lips through the tears. "Kael... that's... God, that is so fucking awful..."
I wanted to rip the universe apart for doing that to him. I wanted to go back in time and murder the man who had pretended to love him just to tear his heart out.
Kael's golden eyes drifted away, settling on the quiet canopy of trees surrounding the clearing. "It was."
"I can't even begin to imagine—"
"You don't have to," he interrupted softly, his voice dropping to a gentle whisper. "I would never want you to."
A heavy, profound silence settled over us. It wasn't cold; it was thick with the weight of centuries of unspoken grief.
I tightened my fingers around his, gripping his hand like a lifeline, terrified that if I let go, he might turn back into a ghost or slip away into the dark. His skin was warm. Solid. Alive.
My mind spun as I looked at him.
It felt completely surreal. How was it possible that the man sitting right beside me—the prince who had been pettily complaining about rap music and flutes just hours ago—was the same person who had watched his kingdom burn, lost every single person he loved, and sacrificed his own heart to save his family?
I used to wonder how someone could wake up every morning carrying such a heavy, lingering shadow behind his eyes, carefully masked by quick wit and easy charm.
Now I knew. And knowing it made me love him so fiercely it terrified me.
I shifted closer, leaning over until my shoulder pressed firmly against his, needing to feel his reality. "I wish I could go back," I murmured, staring blindly at the grass.
"And do what?"
"I don't know..." I swallowed hard against the burning lump in my throat. "I wish I could have been there. I wish I could have stood beside you. Helped you. Something. Anything so you weren't alone in all that dark."
Kael's thumb stroked slowly across the back of my hand, a subtle tremble in his touch. "I had someone beside me," he said, his voice terribly gentle. "I simply chose the wrong person."
A physical pang shot through my heart. He thought he wasn't worthy of being loved properly.
"You didn't deserve what happened to you, Kael. None of it." My voice shook with absolute conviction. "You were just in love with someone who didn't deserve you or your love."
"No." He smiled sadly, looking back at me. "But I cannot rewrite the past."
Without thinking, I rested my head lightly against his shoulder, burying my face into the soft fabric of his jacket. I closed my eyes, focusing entirely on the rhythmic rise and fall of his chest and the steady, quiet thump of his heart.
For a long while, neither of us said a word. The cool forest breeze stirred the grass around us, carrying the rich scent of pine and damp earth. Somewhere across the lake, a solitary bird called out.
I couldn't stop the relentless tide of thoughts racing through my head. He lived through hell. Absolute hell.
"How do you feel?" I whispered into his shoulder, needing to know what was happening inside his head. "About everything?"
Kael traced the lines of my palm. "I've made peace with most of it."
"Most?"
"The betrayal..." His faint smile vanished completely, replaced by a cold, hollow shadow. "I still haven't made peace with that."
I pressed my forehead harder against his shoulder. How could anyone? "I don't think you ever should," I murmured. "What he did was unforgivable."
A thought that had been quietly tormenting me since he started his story finally pushed its way to the surface. I pulled back slightly, looking up at his sharp profile. I hesitated, terrified of hurting him, but I had to ask.
"Do you think... do you think your family is still alive?"
Kael's golden eyes drifted toward the far horizon. "I do."
"You really think so?"
"My core created that sanctuary," he said, a quiet, immovable conviction settling into his tone. "It was forged from the collective mana of great kings before me. It was made to preserve life at all costs." He took a slow breath. "If such power existed... then its strong enough to protect its people."
A sudden wave of fierce, unadulterated hope flared in my chest, burning away the dark haze of tears. They could be alive.
"So they're out there somewhere? Right now?"
"They are."
"Can you find them?"
"I believe so." His brow furrowed slightly. "Now that i can get my core back... finding the sanctuary should be possible. It will not be easy. But it is possible."
A genuine smile finally broke through the ache in my chest. "That's enough. A chance is all we need."
He looked down at me, his golden eyes softening. "It is."
I squeezed his hand again, desperate to understand the rest of his journey. "What about... after?"
He frowned slightly, genuinely confused. "After?"
"How did you end up trapped in that painting?"
Kael shook his head slowly, looking distant. "As strange as it sounds... I do not entirely know. I remember losing consciousness as my core was severed. I remember waking again... but there was nothing. No ground. No sky. No light. Just an absolute, suffocating stillness. And darkness."
A cold, horrifying shiver ran down my spine. The thought of it—of Kael, vibrant and alive, trapped in endless nothingness—made my stomach turn inside out.
"I could not move," he whispered. "I had no body. I could not even tell if my eyes were open or closed."
"What was that like?" I asked softly, almost afraid of the answer.
"Suffocating and very lonely."
The word hit me like a physical blow.
"So unbearably lonely," he repeated quietly. "I screamed. I don't know for how long. Days, weeks... maybe years. But there was no voice, and there was no one to hear me." He let out a low, humorless laugh that sounded like cracking glass. "Eventually... I stopped."
God, Kael... My throat burned. The mental image of him screaming into an endless, dark void broke my heart all over again.
"You just... accepted it?"
"I had little choice." His thumb continued its absentminded tracing across my knuckles. "I lost all understanding of time. Sometimes I thought only a few hours had passed. Other times... it felt as though centuries were drifting by. I had no way to tell."
I listened, unable to comprehend the psychological horror of being a conscious soul trapped in absolute isolation.
"There was no hunger," he continued softly. "No sleep. No sunrise. No sunset. There was only... my own thoughts. Over and over again."
"Were you completely alone the whole time?"
"Not entirely." I lifted my head, startled.
"Occasionally... I could hear voices. People outside the painting. They sounded so distant... as though I were submerged at the bottom of a deep lake. I could never answer. But I heard them." He let out a tiny, bittersweet chuckle. "Sometimes I would hear people argue over where to hang the canvas. One family was convinced I looked terrifying and kept me locked in an attic."
A tiny, choked laugh escaped me through my drying tears.
"One time, I heard a child insist to his mother that I looked lonely."
The faint smile vanished from Kael's face, leaving behind a raw, devastating truth.
"He was right."
I couldn't handle the distance between us for another second. I reached up with my free hand and softly cupped his jawline, my thumb resting against his cheek. I wanted him to feel my warmth, to know with absolute certainty that he was no longer trapped in that dark, terrible room.
"I'm so sorry, Kael," I whispered, pouring every drop of my soul into the words. "I'm so, so sorry you had to suffer that."
Kael closed his eyes and leaned into my palm without a second's hesitation, resting his face against my hand as if my touch was the anchor keeping him tethered to the real world.
"So am I," he murmured softly.
I drew his face to mine, touching our lips together lightly in a quick kiss, then resting our foreheads together. We stayed like that for a long, quiet moment. I stared at his face, feeling the warmth of his skin against my palm, silently promising myself that I would never let him be lonely again.
Finally, Kael opened his eyes. The soft, sorrowful air around him dissolved, replaced by a sharp, dangerous focus. His jaw set into hard line—the regal, protective prince returning to the surface.
"We should summon Arith," Kael said, his voice turning firm as stone. "If the man after my core has truly tracked me down... he will not stop until he finishes what he started."
I wiped the last traces of tears from my face, my hand still holding his tightly, a fierce determination taking root in my chest.
"Then we won't stop either."
Thank you so much for reading so far
Hope you're enjoying it