I welcomed its clarity and a cold reminder of the world outside those walls.
My footsteps were quiet against the stone path, each step carrying me further from the manor’s oppressive grasp.
And yet?—
The more I walked, the louder my mind rebelled.
The conflict within me reignited a battle of duty and something else.
Something dangerous.
Something that whispered in the voice of a woman who had been alone in a room full of men who had already decided her fate.
“I am here for one reason,” I muttered as if saying it aloud would reinforce my purpose.
As if the words would anchor me back to the mission that had once been everything.
But logic was overruled by the sight of her?—
Standing alone beneath the moonlight, Elizabeth’s sorrow was woven into every delicate line of her frame.
“Damn it all,” I cursed softly, dismissing my orders, dismissing my restraint.
What harm could an offer of solace do?
But as I approached, doubt shadowed my steps.
I was no savior.
I was a monster born of darkness, a man who had built his legacy on destruction.
I had no business offering comfort.
Mortals wept.They suffered.Their lives were fleeting, their sorrows as insignificant as whispers lost to the wind.
And yet?—
Elizabeth.
She was different.
A beacon of innocence in a world that had long since turned cruel.A testament to the last vestiges of goodness that men like me had long since forsaken.
And I—who lurked in the shadows, who dealt only in death and despair—felt the uncharacteristic urge to protect that light.
The very notion was foolish.
I should have walked away.
Lazarus had warned me not to get involved.His words echoed in my mind, his power looming over me now like an unseen specter.
“Stay detached, Amir.It is the only way to survive.”
He had spoken not as a friend but as a Shadow Lord—his voice laced with the weight of centuries of knowledge drawn from a past littered with mistakes I had no intention of repeating.
Nevertheless, I found myself here.
“Am I going to do this?”I muttered into the night, expecting no answer but the rustling of leaves and the distant hoot of a vigilant owl.
