Lahat ng Kabanata ng THE CAPTIVE'S LOVE: Kabanata 111 - Kabanata 120

The moon had moved lower in the sky, its silver falling across the camp where campfires still smoldered low. The naming ceremony was over, but its reverberations persisted—like soothings on the skin, like embers in the lungs.Emereah had gone inside to the inner sanctum with Lunareth sleeping beside her. Peace, for the first time in years, had grazed her brow.Yet peace, Vera knew, was ever temporary.She stood outside the holy tent, hands clasped tight against her chest, observing Vladimir pace in darkness like a wolf tied to its post. He'd not asked to be let in. Hadn't insisted on gazing at the child once more. And that, above all, disturbed her."You believe kneeling will alter what you did?" she said, not attempting to mollify her voice.Vladimir halted. His gaze shifted toward her, eyes still smoldering with the rituals. "No. I don't.""Good," she snapped. "Because it doesn't. You slaughtered her folk. You reduced our cities to ash. You branded a woman you sought to annihilate."

The next morning after the holy ritual was solemn—too still. The cave where Lunareth was born still vibrated with safeguarding magic, but in the open, the camp had changed. A hush coated it like mist, not in peace, but in tension.Vladimir leaned against the birthing room, shoulders squared, but eyes tired. He hadn't slept. He hadn't spoken since the ceremony. Soldiers murmured as they went by him—some with reverence, most with disdain."He doesn't belong here.""He's the cause of half our families being gone.""And yet he has the nerve to stand watch like a guardian."The words were darts. Vladimir endured them all.Inside, Vera crept between Emereah and the baby snuggled beside her. She looked once at the opening of the cave. Her tone was low but laced with threat."He's still out there."Emereah didn't respond initially. Her hand lay lightly upon Lunareth's small chest, feeling the gentle rise and fall of the child's breathing."I know.""He shouldn't come near her," Vera stated ti

He had worked for their scorn. But he bore it silently.Emereah's fingers reached up to her chest, resting across the solid, uncertain beat of something animate—something she had not allowed herself to feel in many months.Pity?No. Something more profound.Her voice broke on a sound she couldn't suppress.".Why am I feeling like this?"Her own face stared back at her in the mirror—strong, crowned, battered in flames.And yet—I feel sorry for him when all eyes regard him with bitter looks and with curses.Her voice was barely a whisper."Am I. in love?"The understanding struck like lightning.She retreated from the window, her heart pounding. Her breathing came quickly."No," she whispered. "Not again. Not after what he has done. My father. my people.".But outside, Vladimir knelt to fix a broken wheel beneath a trader's cart. The trader snarled, "I should've run you through in the war." Vladimir didn't flinch. He simply fixed the wheel. Stood. Bowing.Walked away.And Emereah… watc

Vladimir alone in the courtyard, watering wrists, and flinching as it seeped into cracked skin.The evening was colder than it had been in days.But the sting of not being wanted kept him warm.He hadn't intended to remain this late—but again, no one had sent him away. Because no one recognized him. He was a specter in the camp. A warning in skin. The enemy with mercy nobody sanctioned.And so he worked.He didn't hope for redemption.He didn't hope for forgiveness.But he would serve until his soul didn't blaze any longer.Then he heard it.Soft footsteps.He spun around, heart stopping.Emereah hovered a few feet back, cloak thrown around her, hair braided down her spine, eyes unreadable.He didn't talk.Didn't dare.She walked slowly toward him, eyes on his hands."You're bleeding," she told him.He looked down, shrugged. "It will heal.""Everything does," she whispered, more or less to herself.He held himself still. "I didn't think you'd come.""I shouldn't have," she whispered.

The courtyard was no longer filled with the cries of the past, but the silence bore them still—like specters. Emereah stood at the top of the tall walkway of the outer wall of the sanctuary, her cloak rippling on the wind. Below, workers labored: Red Crescent and Silvermoon together, still cautious of each other, still recovering.And among them—Vladimir.He was slumped over a broken wall, picking up stones with raw hands. His palms were bandaged in linen, their crimson stains from the strain. He did not cease. Not when they muttered. Not when they glared. Not even when one of the elders spat on the ground beside him.Each brick that he placed, he placed without strength. Without authority. Only will.Emereah stood above, her arms crossed over her chest. Vera slipped up beside her, a bowl of herbs cradled in her hands, eyes focused on the same individual below."You're spying on him once more," Vera said begrudgingly."He's constructing the southern barrier all over again. It was neve