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Chapter 13 - BREAKING POINT

Adrian pulled away from the memory, gasping. "We were going to run away. We had a plan."

"We did," Kieran said softly. "We spent the next year preparing. I diverted funds from my father's accounts, gathered supplies, made contact with merchants who could get us passage on a ship. We were going to leave the night before your eighteenth birthday."

"But we didn't make it."

"No."

Adrian could see the pain in Kieran's eyes, the weight of a thousand years of guilt. "What happened?"

"My father. He'd suspected for months. Had me followed." Kieran's voice went hollow. "He caught us in the old mill where we'd been meeting. We were just talking, planning our escape, but the way we looked at each other... he knew."

"Show me," Adrian said, even though part of him didn't want to see. "I need to know."

Kieran's hand tightened on his. "It's not an easy memory."

"I don't care. Show me."

FLASHBACK - 1,007 Years Ago

The Old Mill, Night

"Three more days," Elias said, practically bouncing with excitement. "Three days and we're free."

Kieran laughed, pulling Elias close. At nineteen, he'd grown taller, broader. Elias, at seventeen, fit perfectly against his chest.

"I still can't believe we're doing this," Kieran murmured into Elias's hair. "Leaving everything behind."

"Not everything. We'll have each other." Elias looked up at him. "That's all I need."

Kieran kissed him, slow and sweet, pouring every ounce of love and hope and future into it.

The door exploded inward.

Lord Ashford stood in the entrance, flanked by guards, his face twisted with rage and disgust.

"I knew it," he spat. "I knew you were perverting my son, you filthy peasant."

Elias immediately stepped in front of Kieran. "My lord, please—"

"Silence!" Lord Ashford drew his sword. "You've corrupted him, turned him into a sodomite, made him forget his duty and honor. The punishment for such sin is death."

"Father, no!" Kieran grabbed Elias, trying to shield him. "I love him! This isn't his fault, it's mine—"

"Love?" His father laughed, a cruel sound. "This isn't love. This is perversion. And I will cleanse my bloodline of this shame."

Everything happened too fast.

Lord Ashford lunged forward. Kieran tried to push Elias behind him. But Elias, stubborn, brave, foolish Elias, shoved Kieran aside instead.

The sword went through Elias's chest.

Time stopped.

Elias looked down at the blade protruding from his body, then up at Kieran. His expression wasn't afraid. It was apologetic.

"Sorry," he whispered. "I guess... we don't get our adventure."

"No, no, no—" Kieran caught him as he fell, pressing his hands to the wound even though he knew it was useless. "Stay with me. Please. Don't leave me."

"I'll always find you," Elias said, his voice fading. His hand touched Kieran's cheek. "Even if it takes forever."

Then his eyes went empty.

Kieran screamed.

The sound that came from him wasn't human. It was agony given voice, love and loss and despair all wrapped into one endless howl.

Lord Ashford raised his sword again. "Now to cleanse you—"

The world went white.

A woman appeared—beautiful and terrible, with eyes like starlight. The witch.

"Enough," she said, and her voice froze everyone in place. She looked at Kieran, still cradling Elias's body, still screaming. "Such love. Such devotion. It would be a shame to waste it."

She knelt beside him. "I can give you a choice, child. Die here with him, or live. Become immortal. Wait for his soul to return. It will be painful. Every night, your heart will remind you of what you've lost. But one day—it might be years, centuries, millennia—his soul will be reborn. And you can have him again."

Kieran looked down at Elias's face, peaceful in death.

"How long?" he rasped.

"As long as it takes."

"Then do it. Curse me. I'll wait forever if I have to."

The witch smiled sadly. "Then let it be so."

She touched his chest, and Kieran felt his heart stop. Then restart. Stop. Restart.

Pain unlike anything he'd ever known lanced through him.

When he came back to himself, his father and the guards were dead, torn apart. The witch was gone. And Elias's body had started to fade, dissolving into light.

"No, wait—" Kieran tried to hold on, but the light slipped through his fingers.

All that remained was silence, darkness, and an ache in his chest that would last a thousand years.

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