They stayed together until the sky turned silver — until stars faded, one by one, and the world began to stir again.
But they didn't notice the time.
Wrapped in lanternlight and laughter, they wandered through the quiet woods around the lake, hand in hand, their voices low, their secrets finally spoken aloud. Every story they hadn't dared to tell, every half-memory, every stolen thought — spilled like stardust between them.
He told her how he used to sneak out of meetings just to breathe.She told him how, on nights when no one spoke to her and the halls stayed silent, she used to fall asleep listening to the sounds outside — the rustle of wings, the tiny feet of animals passing by her window, the soft thoughts of birds brushing past her mind.It was the only way she didn't feel completely alone.
Kael didn't say anything for a while after that. He only reached for her hand again, and this time he held it a little tighter.
And when the sun finally rose, neither of them wanted it to.
But duty was a cruel, constant thing. And Kael had to return to the palace.
So they stood once more in front of the carriage, where it had all started.
Seraphina was quiet, her hands tucked beneath her cloak. Kael stood across from her, unsure what to say — unsure how to let go of a night like that and pretend to walk back into reality.
He reached for her hand and held it gently.
"Do we… just go back to normal now?" she asked, almost teasing — but not quite.
He shook his head, smiling faintly. "No. I think normal burned the moment you said yes."
She laughed softly, eyes glimmering, but didn't answer.
He opened the carriage door for her, then hesitated — just a second. Like there was something more he should say. Something heavier. More permanent.
But in the end, all he did was press a kiss to her forehead and whisper,"Soon."
Not goodbye.Not farewell.
Just "Soon."
And then he stepped back, and the carriage rolled away, taking her heart with it.
The ride home felt longer than it should have.
Seraphina didn't speak. Didn't move. She just sat with her hands folded tightly in her lap, the ring on her finger catching every flicker of morning light like it had something to say.
She still smelled like the woods — like smoke and roses and something older, something sacred. Her cloak still held the warmth from Kael's embrace when he'd helped her into the carriage. Her skin still remembered the press of his lips to her forehead, soft and lingering. That single kiss echoed louder in her chest than a thousand words ever could.
But the moment had ended.
And now… there was only the quiet. The heavy kind. The kind that followed something magical and didn't know where to go next.
As the carriage rolled into the Rubienne estate, the sky was soft with early gold. The staff had already begun their morning rounds — lighting lanterns, sweeping the dew from the stone walkways, speaking in hushed tones.
Then they saw her.
They froze.
Not from fear, not anymore. But from something gentler. Like reverence. Like wonder.
No one spoke. They only bowed, respectfully, almost silently, and stepped back as she passed — as if they knew she was returning from somewhere far beyond this place.
And she… she walked in like someone who wasn't quite back yet.
Like a girl who had left as one thing and returned as another.
Like a dream still holding on to its last thread.
Her footsteps barely made a sound across the polished marble floor. The morning sun glinted off the stained-glass windows above, casting soft hues of crimson and gold across the hallway — colors that trailed behind her like light clinging to a ghost.
At the end of the corridor, Celestria stood waiting.
Straight-backed, elegant, composed — but not cold. Never with Seraphina.
She had always known. Somehow, even when the rest of the world turned its face away from her daughter, Celestria had known.
Her eyes softened the moment Seraphina appeared, and her lips curled into that slow, quiet smile — the kind only mothers carried, forged from years of silence and instinct.
She didn't ask a single question.
Not Where have you been?Not Why are you out so late?Not even What did he say?
Instead, she took one step forward and gently brushed a strand of wind-blown hair from her daughter's cheek — just the way she used to when Seraphina was a child and came in from the garden with twigs tangled in her curls and tears she didn't know how to explain.
"You don't have to speak yet," Celestria whispered.
Her voice was calm. Grounded.
"Just breathe."
Seraphina nodded, once.
But something in her face cracked — just slightly. Her lips trembled. Her eyes shimmered. She didn't cry. But she could have.
And that was enough.
She reached for her mother's hand, held it for one breath, then let go.
Without another word, she turned and walked slowly toward the staircase.
The halls were quiet. Too quiet.
Every step echoed with everything she couldn't say — not yet.
She didn't know how to explain that she felt like she'd been reborn and that now, in the soft light of morning, it all felt like a secret too beautiful to speak aloud.
So she didn't.
She reached her bedroom, slipped inside, and gently closed the door behind her.
And for the first time in a long, long while…
She let herself fall onto her bed, still in her cloak, still wrapped in the scent of forest and firelight — and just lay there. Still. Whole. Glowing.
Alone, yes.But not lonely.Not this time.
The gates of the Imperial Palace groaned open behind him.
The sound echoed across the marbled courtyard — sharp, hollow, far too loud for a morning like this.
Kael didn't flinch.
He stepped through the archway without speaking to the guards, without acknowledging the cluster of ministers lingering nearby. The scent of stone, cold steel, and candle wax hit him like a wall.
He had barely left the forest, and already, Eldoria's throne had found a way to wrap its hands around his throat again.
Everything here was polished, orderly, suffocating.And painfully empty without her.
He kept walking.
Not toward his chambers. Not toward the council wing. Just forward, as if momentum alone could keep him from unraveling.
He passed gilded portraits and rows of swords that hadn't been drawn in decades. He passed courtiers whispering behind fans. He passed the same hall where he had once stood, trembling, the day his father told him what he was destined to become.
But this morning, Kael didn't feel like a crown prince.
He felt like a man who had left something vital behind.
He stopped only when he reached the eastern solarium — a quiet room of glass and light where the world still looked soft. The kind of place Seraphina might've liked, if she ever let herself relax.
Kael leaned a hand against the window.
Beyond the frost-laced glass, the sky stretched wide and pale, clouds trailing like silk across the horizon. Somewhere, far beyond those rooftops, she was waking up. Maybe still in her cloak. Maybe still hearing his voice.
He pressed his fingers to the place where her ring had sat hidden in his pocket for weeks.
It was gone now. On her hand.
Right where it belonged.
Still… the silence bit deeper than he expected.
Kael stayed in the solarium long after the sun climbed higher, the light warming the cold stone but never quite reaching the emptiness inside him.
He whispered her name once, then again — not expecting an answer, but needing the sound.
Far away, beneath the same sky, Seraphina touched the ring on her finger.
And somewhere between the palace and the Rubienne estate, a promise lingered — quiet, unspoken, and unbreakable.