Page 125 of The Princess and Her Grand King

“Happy.” A pause. “Content.”

“I wish for your happiness never to end. I wish for you to keep feeling this way, My Lord.” Aekeira stroked the corded muscles of his arm, feeling whole inside.

“I remember the first day I felt… attraction for you. It was around the forbidden chambers, after I’d checked on Daemonikai’s beast. Never in my life did I think I would feel even the slightest desire for a human.” His fingers trailed through her hair, tone indifferent… his touch was anything but. “I was livid.”

Aekeira smiled faintly, remembering all too well.

Back then, his constant anger, the coldness in his voice, the way he spat his disgust at her kind.How far we have come.

“A lot has changed with us,” he murmured softly, as if he too were reflecting on their journey. “I never thought I’d feel this way again. For anyone, Aekeira.”

“Thank you for telling me. I wish to ask a question.” Clearing her clogged throat, Aekeira ventured, “About your soul…”

His hand in her hair stilled.

“Lord Ottai said your soul is lost, not dead. Is there really no chance to get it back without performing another dark magic ritual?”

“None."

Her shoulders slumped as silence fell between them.

“Even if there were a way, the one person who might know is beyond reach.”

What? There might be a way? Her eyes snapped to him, sharp with sudden hope.

"I'm not saying there is, Princess," Lord Vladya replied, addressing the unspoken question in her gaze. "I’ve searched far and wide for centuries and found nothing. I merely speculate that if anything could be done, the one old enough, wise enough, and knowledgeable enough to hold the answer is beyond reach."

“Who is that?”

“The Oracle,” he told her in a resigned tone. “She’s in deep sleep.”

Aekeira was baffled. But when she tried to ask again, he pulled away from her, stepping back. "Come, let's go for a walk."

The crease in her brow dissolved, replaced with a smile. "As My Lord wishes."

Holding hands, they walked out of her room.

***

Mistress Sinai paced the cramped dungeon, her footsteps stomping from one edge of the space to the other. She was losing her mind.

While the rest of the world slept, Sinai was trapped here, only her thoughts for company.

When she was first thrown into this wretched prison, fear was all she felt.

Every moment, she had braced herself for Daemonikai’s arrival, dreading it, counting the seconds until the inevitable confrontation.

Thinking of all the ways she would lie her way through his anger, disappointment, and punishments.

But as the days stretched into a week, Sinai realized there was something far more terrifying than Daemonikai’s wrath. His silence.

Not a single visit. Not a word sent. Not even the faintest trace of acknowledgment.

She had been thrown into this dark, claustrophobic hole, like discarded trash, left to rot.

There was no contact from anyone, no interrogation, nothing but the oppressive stillness and the sound of her own breathing.

At first, she felt insulted.How dare they ignore me!?

---