Princess's Revenge: Slave to the Soulbound King Chapter 79

Thalia

The pain hit me first—a bone-deep ache that felt like countless needles piercing my very soul. My eyes fluttered open to silvery moonlight streaming through the gothic windows, casting intricate shadows across the stone floor of Draven's chamber. Every muscle in my body screamed in protest as the magical backlash from the ritual coursed through me like liquid fire. I couldn't suppress the soft whimper that escaped my lips.

The fireplace in the corner had died to mere embers, their faint red glow barely illuminating the room. But it was the tall, imposing silhouette standing by the window that made my heart stutter. Even in the moonlight, I knew every line of that powerful frame, every angle of those broad shoulders.

"Draven?" His name fell from my lips as barely a whisper, my voice weak and hoarse.

The shadow turned slowly, moonlight revealing the sharp planes of his face—a face that looked as if it had been carved from granite. In his hands, he clutched a rolled parchment, his knuckles white with tension. The expression in his eyes was one I had never seen before: cold, distant, and utterly foreign.

"Did the ritual... succeed?" I managed to ask, trying to keep my voice steady despite the growing dread in my chest.

Draven's footsteps were measured and heavy as he approached the bed, each one seeming to carry an unspoken accusation. "Yes," his voice was low and gravelly, "very successful. Thanks to your use of the High Priest's Divine Summoning arts."

The last words struck me like a blade to the heart. In the moonlight, I could see the pain and betrayal warring in his eyes, and terror began to flood my veins.

"Who are you really, Thalia?" Draven leaned forward, his voice barely above a growl. "Or should I call you Thalia Blackwood, daughter of High Priest Cedric of the Kingdom of Eldoria?"

My breath caught in my throat, tears immediately springing to my eyes. "Draven, I can explain—" I reached out toward him with a trembling hand, but stopped when I saw him flinch away.

"Explain what?" He jerked back as if my touch would burn him. "Explain how you've been playing an innocent girl in front of me? Explain how you made me..." His voice cracked, "...made me love a lie?"

"It wasn't a lie!" I struggled to sit up, tears streaming down my cheeks. "My feelings for you have always been real!"

Draven let out a bitter laugh, raising the parchment in his hand. "Three months ago, Princess Adelaide Valendria of Eldoria and the High Priest's daughter Thalia Blackwood both disappeared simultaneously." His gaze cut through me like a blade. "That human girl who calls herself 'Adelaide'—she's the princess, isn't she?"

My silence was answer enough.

Suddenly, Draven dropped to his knees beside the bed, his powerful hands gripping my shoulders with enough force to make me cry out. His eyes blazed with anger, pain, and disbelief.

"Look me in the eyes and tell me," his voice was almost pleading now, "did you come here to assassinate the Wolf King? To finish the slaughter your people started three hundred years ago?"

"No!" I shook my head frantically, tears blurring my vision. "We never had any such intention!" My trembling hand reached up to touch his tense jaw. "Three months ago, my father foresaw a terrible future... he saw the wolf clan attacking the human kingdom, saw endless blood and fire. We came here seeking a way to find peace, to prevent that potential catastrophe!"

Draven released my shoulders and stood, turning his back to me. The moonlight outlined the rigid tension in his frame. "Do you know what hurts the most?" His voice was low and rough. "It's not that you deceived me about your identity. It's that even after I marked you as my mate, you still chose to hide the truth."

"I wanted to tell you," I choked out through my tears. "Every day, every night, when you held me, when we..." My voice dropped to a whisper. "But I was afraid... afraid of losing you, afraid of seeing the look in your eyes that I see now..."

Draven turned back to face me, his expression having returned to the cold mask of a military commander, though the moisture in his eyes betrayed his inner turmoil. "Do you remember what you once told me? You said you would never deceive me, that you would stay by my side forever." He smiled bitterly. "That was a lie too, wasn't it?"

"It wasn't!" I tried to rise from the bed but collapsed back, too weak to stand. "Draven, please believe me... I love you. That is the absolute truth."

Draven stared at me for a long moment, his gaze holding too much love and too much pain. "I don't know what I can believe anymore." He slowly walked toward the door. "As a Legion Commander, I cannot risk the safety of the entire wolf clan. You will be confined to this room until I decide how to deal with you and your princess friend."

"Draven!" I called out desperately. "Please... don't leave like this..."

He paused at the doorway, his shoulders trembling slightly, but he didn't turn around. "Do you know what the most ironic part is?" His voice was barely audible. "Even now, knowing everything, I still can't bring myself to hate you."

The door slammed shut behind him, the sound of the lock falling like fate's own sigh.

I was left alone in the moonlight, my trembling fingers touching the crescent mark at my throat—the symbol of Draven's love that had now become evidence of my deception. Silent tears fell, landing on my hands and glittering like broken diamonds in the pale light.

"My love," I whispered to the empty room, "I would rather endure a thousand deaths than see that despair in your eyes."

I curled up on the bed, burying my face in the pillow that still carried his scent, weeping soundlessly as my world crumbled around me. The weight of truth had finally fallen between us, and I feared it might be too heavy for our love to bear.

The moonlight continued to stream through the windows, cold and unforgiving, as I lay there drowning in the consequences of my choices. Somewhere beyond these walls, Adelaide faced her own trials, and the fate of two races hung in the balance. But in this moment, all I could feel was the shattering of my heart and the terrible silence where Draven's love used to live.

I pressed my hand to my chest, feeling the steady beat of my heart—a heart that belonged entirely to a man who could no longer trust me. The irony wasn't lost on me: in trying to save both our peoples, I had destroyed the one thing that mattered most.

The night stretched endlessly before me, filled with nothing but regret and the echo of his footsteps walking away.