Chapter 7

Elena's POV

I looked at Adrian.

For an instant, I almost thought I'd misheard.

He stood before me, the wound on his shoulder still unhealed.

His face pale, his eyes stubborn to the point of absurdity.

That he could even say such a thing.

I was quiet for a long time before I asked:

"I did say it. And?"

Adrian froze.

I looked at him.

"Because I once said I loved you, I have to stay rooted in place for the rest of my life?"

"Because I once loved you, then even after you knelt before the Council and told everyone I was only your sister, that the one you truly loved was Clara, I should keep waiting for you?"

His face darkened, bit by bit.

"Elena, that isn't what I meant."

"Then what did you mean?"

He pressed his lips tight.

"I just want you to calm down."

"You only ended the engagement a moment ago."

"Marrying someone else immediately does you no good."

I laughed.

"No good for me? Or no good for you?"

Adrian didn't answer right away.

His silence was answer enough.

He had always been like this.

He wanted Clara.

He also wanted me to keep standing in place.

He wanted his freedom.

And he wanted me to keep that promise to love him forever.

He had always been this way, forever wanting every advantage at once, unable to make a clean choice.

And it was precisely this flaw of his that, in my last life, led him to marry me despite his lingering hesitation.

"Haven't you already gotten Clara?"

I asked.

"Didn't you say she's the one you truly love?"

"You ended our engagement for her, in front of the whole Council."

"Now I've set you free."

"What more could you possibly be unhappy about?"

Adrian's eyes flickered, lost for a moment.

"Clara is different from you."

"Of course she's different."

I nodded.

"She's the one you love."

"I'm only the one you saw as a sister."

"You said that yourself."

Adrian's throat moved.

This time, he didn't argue.

He couldn't.

I turned and picked up the bridal veil my maid had left on the table.

Seeing the movement, Adrian suddenly reached out and pressed his hand down on the delicate lace.

"Don't marry him."

My hand went still.

It was as if he could no longer hold his feelings down, and his voice dropped much lower.

"We grew up together all these years."

"Elena, all that affection and shared history can't just be erased with one ended engagement."

"You're only doing this to spite me."

"Once you calm down, you'll regret it."

I looked at his hand pressed to the table.

In my last life, he had rarely tried so hard to keep me.

Back then I stood outside his door, again and again, waiting for him to open it.

Waiting for him to turn back.

Waiting for him to tell me he'd finally understood, that the one he'd loved all along had only ever been me.

But I never got it.

Not until he died in my arms.

And what he said instead was that if there were a next life, he hoped he had never met me.

That line rose up again, suddenly, in my ears.

He'd said it so lightly.

And ground the last hope of my last life into nothing.

I lifted my eyes to Adrian.

The final ripple inside me settled.

"Adrian."

"You and I have ended our engagement. What I do, who I marry, none of it has anything to do with you."

His fingers went slightly rigid.

"What?"

"You said you love Clara, that you can't marry me."

I went on, word by word.

"So I'm giving you back to her."

"So, I don't want you anymore."

Adrian's face went pale.

"I never said you should marry someone else."

I laughed softly.

"Of course you didn't."

"Because it never once occurred to you that I would leave you, that I would ever truly belong to someone else."

As the words landed, a flicker of panic finally surfaced in his eyes.

He reached out to grab me.

"Elena."

But before his hand could touch me, another hand caught it.

The door had been pushed open at some point.

Lucien stood in the doorway, the chill of the night wind clinging to his dark grey coat.

He didn't look at Adrian.

He only looked at me.

"Elena."

"The wedding bells will ring soon."

I nodded.

"I know."

Adrian looked at him coldly.

"This is between Elena and me."

Lucien's voice was very flat.

"She's already made herself clear. This wedding has nothing to do with you."

Anger pressed beneath Adrian's eyes.

"She hasn't married you yet."

Lucien finally looked at him.

"But she's already chosen me."

The room went dreadfully quiet.

Adrian's hand slowly tightened.

If this were my last life, I would surely have been afraid of his anger.

I would have rushed to explain, then gone to him without a second's hesitation.

But this time, I only walked to Lucien's side and took my groom's arm.

Adrian's eyes reddened in an instant, almost splitting with the strain, full of a grief he had no idea how to turn into anything that might keep me.

"Elena."

He said my name.

And this time, at last, there was unease in his voice.

I turned back to look at him.

"Adrian, you're free."

I paused, then said softly:

"And so am I."

Far off, the wedding bells rang out over the old castle.

One toll after another, low and solemn.

At the end of the black gallery, the doors of the wedding hall opened slowly.

I walked forward, step by step.

And the familiar gaze behind me was finally shut out beyond the doors.

I didn't look back.

This time, I truly walked toward a future with no Adrian in it.