Mag-log in"So what happens if she dies again?" Enoch leaned back, staring at him now with a different kind of intensity. It wasn't just anger or disbelief, but it was something more dangerous.He didn't look at me, and he was carefully watching Lucretius. "Do you follow her?" he continued. "Do you end your life too... just to find her again?"I turned my head toward Lucretius because I needed to hear it from him. "Yes," Lucretius replied, without hesitation. I couldn't even see the doubt lingering in his freckled hazel eyes."I see..." But Enoch didn't stop there. "Then explain this," he added, leaning forward, his eyes sharpening. "When she died three years ago... I remember the rumors. You almost left the royal military. You disappeared for days. And I heard you almost ended your life."I turned to Lucretius fully now because I had been confirmed to him that they happened after my death. "How did it not end you?" Enoch asked quietly. "If you were so desperate to follow her... why didn't yo
We told Enoch not everything in detail. Not every life, not every death, not every memory that still lingered like scars we couldn't erase, but enough for him to understand the shape of it.Or at least... we tried. Lucretius was still sitting beside me, his presence steady, his voice occasionally filling in the parts I couldn't bring myself to say. We spoke as we had practised it. Like... we had done this before. Perhaps we had. In another life. In another attempt. And that alone made everything feel more surreal.Enoch didn't interrupt us at first. He just listened, his brows gradually furrowing as he crossed his arms tightly over his chest. His gaze shifted between the two of us, as if searching for the slightest inconsistency in our words and deciding whether we had completely lost our minds.Or if we were trying to make him lose his. When we finished, we were enveloped with heavy and long silence. Lucretius and I were anxious, waiting for Enoch to say something."You expect
The conversation that followed was anything but simple. We told him enough.About the assassination...About the reason Lucretius had taken me away from the capital without informing anyone...About the mate bond...About how everything had happened faster than either of us had planned. Not everything. At least... not yet.But enough for Enoch to sit there in silence, his elbows resting on his knees, his fingers clasped tightly together as if he was stopping himself from standing again and throwing another punch.The parlor room felt smaller than it should have. Even the royal soldiers who stood outside the door had gone still, as if they could feel the weight pressing against the walls.I sat beside Lucretius, though not as close as earlier. Not because I wanted distance, but because Enoch had already glared at us three times whenever our shoulders brushed.Ridiculous.We were already married. But apparently, that didn't matter to him.Enoch was silent for a long while. His gaze wa
By the time we were escorted inside the manor and into the parlor room, the chaos from earlier had already settled at least on the surface.According to Enoch."We'll talk properly," he had said, his voice clipped and restrained, as if forcing himself to hold back everything he wanted to do. "Like adults."I rolled my eyes just remembering it.Adults.Right.Because punching someone twice in front of royal soldiers was definitely how adults behaved.A quiet huff escaped me as I sank into the cushioned chair, crossing my arms loosely over my chest.The room felt too small as if everything that had happened outside was being purposely buried under this forced sense of civility.But it didn't work.Not for me.Not when I could still feel it through the bond.My gaze flickered to Lucretius, which was only this time, he wasn't standing. He was seated beside me on the couch, his posture still straight and composed as if nothing had happened at all.He looked like he hadn't just been punched
"Enoch...!" My voice broke into a shriek as I saw his stance, the way his body lunged forward without hesitation and restraint, driven purely by fury. "Lucretius...!"But Lucretius didn't move or dodge. He didn't even step back; instead, he simply raised a hand.And that terrified me more than anything.Enoch's fist came out of nowhere. A strike fueled by everything he had been holding back since the moment we arrived had landed hard. The crack of impact echoed sharply across the state as Lucretius' head snapped slightly to the side.My breath hitched. "STOP...!"But it was too late. The force of it made him take a step back, but that was all because Lucretius didn't retaliate. He didn't even glare. He simply straightened, looking calm and collected as if he had expected and accepted it.A thin line of blood formed at the corner of his lip, but he still didn't fight back. "Is that enough?" he asked afterwards.That only made everything worse, and I had the silent urge to smack his h
"Lucretius...!" I turned to him, my heart pounding so fast it felt like it might burst out of my chest. My fingers curled tightly against the edge of the seat, nails pressing into the fabric as my breath came out uneven, shallow, as the air inside the carriage had suddenly grown too thin to breathe.Lucretius looked calm and unbothered, as if the line of the royal soldiers waiting outside the manor wasn't enough to provoke even the slightest reaction from him. I reached for his arm as I tugged it gently to gather his attention. "I'll talk to him first," I said quickly, my voice lowering. "I'm serious... He might lunge at you."His gaze lingered on me, softening. "He won't," he said simply. The certainty in his voice didn't soothe me. If anything, it made my stomach twist tighter, because Lucretius never spoke like that unless he had already decided how things would unfold.I frowned. "Lucretius—""If he does," he added, his tone still even, "then I'll let him."That didn't help at a
The taste of him still lingered faintly on my tongue when Lucretius finally carried me back onto his lap, his arm caging me, my face resting on his chest as if I belonged nowhere else. My cheeks were flaring and my lips swollen after that. His praise from earlier softly echoed on my head like a bro
The next few days, I acted like everything was alright. But deep inside, the night I had a deal with Lucretius still lingered on my mind. Or rather, I must say the kiss we shared that had been witnessed by the moon etched and never had once left on my mind.The effect on me lasted for days and even
"Ms. Euphyllia, come and visit us every Friday, please?" Cerys said as she helped me bring my things to my new workplace.Her voice sounded cheerful, but the way she was clinging to my arm made my chest tighten. Even though she already accepted that the records hall wouldn't be my workplace anymore
The faint morning light spilled through the curtains when I stirred awake. My body was heavy, but my thoughts were heavier. My chest felt so tight from crying to exhaustion last night. My last clear memory I had was the cruel laughter, Redmund's cold words, Lilith's malicious acting... and then...







