"Don't look up," Alex whispered again, his voice thick, strangled as though every word tore a piece out of him. "I don't want you to see me like this."
But Mira's trembling hands wouldn't listen.
They reached for him anyway. This was the man who had been her light, her shield, the reason for her endless smiling. Her fingertips brushed against his jaw, and she felt it: the trembling. The wet warmth that wasn't sweat, but tears.
"Alex…" her voice cracked, "please… let me see you."
He couldn't.
The great king Alexandria bowed his head, his shoulders shaking as the tears he had held for too long finally broke through. They spilled down his face in silence, dripping onto her hands like rain on parched earth.
"Mira…" he breathed her name like a dying prayer. "Every time I close my eyes, I see you smiling. That's how I want to remember you. Not like this… not walking into death."
Her heart twisted painfully. "You can't stop me, Alex. You know this."
