Chapter 417:

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To listen to his voice all day.

To stay by his side and make do with whatever moment they could have.

The longing she had spent years burying awoke with a violent jerk, rising up, about to swallow her whole.

“I have to leave!” Her voice trembled with desperation.

“No, Aekeira.” Another step forward.

Aekeira turned swiftly and bolted for the entrance.

She didn’t get far.

Lord Vladya was upon her in an instant, pressing her against the wall. Someone was sobbing. It took her a moment to realize it was her. Her emotions, once buried deep, now spilled over—feelings that had been locked away for years, all breaking free.

“Let me go!” she screamed, blindly beating at his chest with her fists.

“Let me go, please!”

“Young princess, I am so sorry.” His voice was the softest she had ever heard it.

“You hurt me. That morning, in your bed… I thought we were finally getting somewhere. But you threw me away like I meant nothing!” she sobbed, her words tumbling out. “Did I mean so little to you? You avoided me for a week, then you tossed me aside!”

“Please, forgive me, dearling.”

“Two years! Two years felt like twenty! Every day I breathed, yet I have never felt so dead. You broke my heart!” she screamed, tears streaming down her face. “You broke me!”

He kissed her.

мσяє υρ∂αтєѕ ιи gαℓиσνєℓѕ.¢σм

Aekeira struggled. Her fists pounded frantically against his chest. But his hands gently restrained hers.

She fought, and fought hard.

Not to feel that kiss.

To deny the sensations.

Not to feel him again.

But it was a lost cause.

His lips on hers, his tongue in her mouth. The kiss seeped deep into her soul. Soothing the pain. Calming the storm.

Like a serum, it relieved the scathing pain from the wounds she had carried for so long.

Her struggles ceased, and Aekeira sobbed against his lips. Crying uncontrollably, her tears mixing with the kiss.

Yet, he didn’t stop.

He kissed her, and kissed her, and kissed her.

Time fell away.

The world around them disappeared.

An eternity later, he broke the kiss and licked away her tears with such rare tenderness. “I apologize with everything in me, for hurting you this way.”

The raw truth, the deep regret, in his voice made her open her eyes.

His face was a mirror of her own pain. “I’m so sorry, my little bird.”

“You hurt me,” she cried helplessly, her breath hitching as the tears continued to flow. “You h-hurt me.”

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