Page 15 of The Princess and Her Grand King

This is bad.Very bad.

"And the grand king?" she managed to ask.

"May I, Your Highness?" the other head soldier spoke this time.

"Go ahead, Wegai." Ottai nodded.

Wegai stepped forward. "My master’s soul is dying."

Aekeira blinked. "Come again."

"Over the years after the eclipse moon night, many who lost their bondmates were so aggrieved they either turned feral… or their soul became so hungry, it started dying," Wegai said, his voice grave. "A bond feeds the soul, Your Highness. We had no idea how badly he was barely keeping it together until Princess Emeriel was removed from his life."

"You mean Em's love has been sustaining his soul, and when she was taken away, it started to wither?”

"Hislove, young princess," Lord Ottai corrected gently.

Aekeira flinched.

That longing rose, so fierce it whipped through her like a storm at sea. Squeezing her heart so tight, Aekeira cried out in anguish.

"Are you alright, young princess?" Lord Ottai's concern was evident as he took a step towards her.

"I'm fine, please don't call me that," she strangled out, one hand pressing against her aching heart, the other raised in a plea for distance. "Please… don't."

"What?" Lord Ottai was confused. "The young princess?"

Memories flooded her.

They dragged her back to all the times her grand lord had called her that.

"No one has the right to be this beautiful, young princess."

"Kiss me, young princess."

Too vivid, too painful.

I miss him so much it feels like a part of me was ripped off and handed to him.

"Yes, please!" she panted, squeezing her eyes shut. "P-please."

"Alright. I apologize, Princess Aekeira."

Desperate to distract her mind from the aching void in her heart, Aekeira forced herself to focus on the conversation.

"Your theory doesn't make sense, Lord Ottai," she said, her voice strained. "The grand king doesn't love my sister. We all know that. He was incapable of it."

"Hecaredfor her," Lord Ottai stated. "He might not have been capable of loving, but he did care for her. When everything else dear to him was taken, she was the only thing he came close to caring about again, and that sustained him."

He paused, his gaze heavy with sorrow. "But when she was removed, the gaping wound that never healed took over and spread. Like Vladya with his feral madness, the grand king hid this from us. But unlike Vladya, he actually fought it from the beginning. But now, he can no longer."

Aekeira swallowed, her throat dry. "What happens when one can no longer fight it? What happened to the others who lost their souls?"

Lord Ottai looked away. "They died. Roughly a month after the symptoms are complete, they either go feral or kill themselves. Every last one of them."

What?"But Lord Vladya doesn't have a soul."

"His is different. Vladya’s soul is not dead, it was lost to dark magic. It's alive in the realm of the spirit. Where? No one knows. Alive, but unattainable."

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