The cold air bit into Seris's skin as she half-carried, half-dragged Kael through the dark, crumbling corridors of the old tower.
Behind them, the sharp ring of boots striking stone echoed louder with every heartbeat.
The empire's guards were coming.
Seris tightened her grip around Kael's waist, feeling how little strength he had left.
Every step he took was agony, yet he never once begged her to leave him behind.
He simply trusted her, as he always had, and that trust burned in her chest like wildfire.
"Just a little further," she whispered, her breath ghosting against his ear. "Stay with me."
Kael coughed, a low rasp from deep within his battered ribs.But his arm tightened around her shoulders, silent promise.
He wasn't letting go, not again.
They burst through a side door into the night. Snow swirled around them, thick and blinding, erasing their footprints almost as fast as they made them.
Seris scanned the darkness, calculating.
The forest.
If they could reach the woods, they might disappear. But it was half a mile of open ground, and patrols would already be searching. Kael sagged against her again, and for one terrible moment, Seris faltered.
How could she ask this of him? He had already endured so much. Tears stung her eyes, fierce and bitter.
She would not lose him now.
Without hesitation, she shifted her body, lifting him more fully against her side.
"You saved me once," she muttered fiercely. "Now it's my turn."
Memory Flash
Rain hammering down on a battlefield.
Kael standing between her and death, sword flashing, defiant against a dozen enemies.
He had been little more than a boy.
But he fought like a king.
"I won't let them take you," he had snarled, blood running into his eyes.
He hadn't, not then, not now.
They stumbled into the open, the wind tearing at their cloaks.
Torches flickered on the battlements behind them, shouts carried on the wind.
Seris's heart slammed against her ribs, faster, faster.
She gritted her teeth and forced them onward, step by agonizing step. She could feel Kael's body weakening, felt the tremble in his muscles, the way he leaned heavier against her.
But he kept moving, for her, for them.
Halfway to the woods, a horn sounded, closer now.
Seris risked a glance over her shoulder and cursed.
Riders.
Their only chance was the treeline, so close and yet impossibly far. She turned her face into the wind, pressing forward with everything she had.
Every breath was a knife in her lungs. Every step tore at her strength.
But when Kael stumbled, she caught him without hesitation.
"We're almost there," she gasped. "Hold on." His fingers curled weakly into her cloak. A whisper, almost lost to the wind:
"Always."
They crashed into the trees just as the first riders crested the hill behind them. Arrows whistled past, deadly whispers in the night.
Seris ducked low, hauling Kael with her, weaving between the frozen trunks. Branches clawed at them. Roots threatened to trip them.
Still, they pushed on, deeper into the sheltering darkness of the forest. Behind them, the hunters howled like wolves.They didn't stop until Seris found a rocky overhang, half-buried in snow.
She pulled Kael beneath it, both of them collapsing into a heap.
For long moments, there was only the sound of their ragged breathing, the distant shouts of searchers fading into the night.
They were safe, for now.
Seris turned to Kael, her heart cracking open at the sight of him. In the dim light, his face was a pale, bruised mask.
Every inch of him bore the empire's cruelty. Her hands hovered over him, unsure where to touch, where to help.
Tears slipped silently down her cheeks.
"I'm so sorry," she choked out. "I should have come for you sooner." Kael's hand found hers, rough and trembling.
"You came," he whispered. "That's all that matters."
Memory Flash
A hidden grove, long ago.
Moonlight glinting on a river.
Kael pulling her into his arms, laughter in his voice, wonder in his eyes.
"You are the only home I've ever wanted," he had told her.
Seris bowed her head over their joined hands, her tears falling onto his skin.
"I thought I'd lost you," she whispered. "I thought... I'd buried you so deep I'd never find you again."
Kael shifted, wincing, until he could touch her face.
"You never lost me," he said, his voice barely a breath. "Even when you forgot, even when they filled your head with lies, I was there."
Seris leaned into his touch, her heart shattering anew. She wanted to kiss him. Gods, she wanted it so badly her whole body ached with it.
But she was afraid. Afraid that if she touched him, he would break, or worse, that she would.
"Kael," she whispered, her voice breaking. He smiled, and it was like the sun piercing a storm. "I remember," he said. "I remember it all."
His thumb traced the curve of her cheek, so tender it hurt.
"You were mine," he murmured. "And I was yours. Long before the empire, long before the crown."
A sob tore from her throat.
"I still am," she gasped. "I still..."
She couldn't finish.
The words were too big, too heavy, too full of years lost and hearts broken.
But she didn't need to. Kael understood, he always had.
Slowly, carefully, he pulled her down beside him.
Their bodies curled together, fitting as they always had, even through pain and grief and time.
For a long time, they simply lay there, clinging to each other as if the world might shatter around them.
Maybe it already had.
But here, in the dark, beneath the stars and the cold and the weight of a thousand unspoken promises—
They were whole.
Later That Night
Seris woke to find Kael watching her, his gaze steady despite the pain etched into his face.
For a moment, they simply looked at each other.
No words, no empire, no past.
Just them.
Kael reached out, brushing a lock of hair from her forehead.
"You're still the most beautiful thing I've ever seen," he said hoarsely. Seris's throat tightened painfully.
"I'm broken," she whispered. "I'm not who I was."
He smiled, slow and aching.
"Neither am I," he said. "But maybe... maybe together, we can be something new."
Seris closed her eyes, her heart pounding, she wanted to believe him, she needed to.
She leaned forward, her forehead resting against his.
"I don't know how to be anything but yours," she breathed.
Kael's arms wrapped around her, pulling her close, anchoring her to him.
"Then be mine," he whispered into the night.
"And I'll be yours."
Outside, the storm raged, the empire searched. The future loomed dark and uncertain.
But here, in the fragile shelter of their stolen moment, love burned brighter than any crown.