“You know I was with Guinevere and Typhon at the coliseum,” she often spoke to him in the language of her people when she wanted to soothe him.

  Faye sat next to him and rested her head on his shoulder.

  “I spoke briefly with them about the duel tomorrow,” as they held hands he caressed hers. “Apparently Casspien is intimately familiar with Ursula’s opponent.” He teased.

  “Is that so?” she smiled with an inquisitive look begging for more details.

  He could only share the little he knew, but it was more than enough to grasp Freyja’s attention who added what she knew as well. Like Princess Nanako, Faye was also an avid admirer of royal gossip even though she would never admit it. It was not long before they had both come to the conclusion that the Sword Saint was of course, Casspien's mysterious lover. What that meant offered much speculation and Faye was all too ready to fill in the missing facts with her own blemishes of course. Nevertheless Antares sought to indulge her, at least for a little while longer. Knowing that last night was not the only thing she wanted to talk about. As he always did he would give her time to speak her mind.

  “That reminds me,” Faye looked at him ready to scold him. “However much time you spend with Guinevere is not enough. There is much that weighs on your little sister, my dear king.”

  “Such as my union with Reza I take it?” he chuckled.

  She tucked her hair behind her ear revealing a large golden earring, “She is only concerned for your happiness, we all are.”

  “My love I fear what little concern I have for my happiness was forfeited the day I became king.” He missed how often her cheeks reddened by his words. “Certainly when I lost you.”

  “You have not lost me,” she squeezed his hands in retaliation. “You will never lose me,” there was more confidence in her voice than she intended. “But because we are not… together. It does not mean you cannot be happy, or your union with Reza…”

  “I am still undecided.”

  He knew how foolish it was to admit that out loud, given that all of the action within the castle behind them was in anticipation of his decision tonight. After Reza would be made Crown Princess; at the banquet celebrating her coming of age, he was meant to make a decision. One he still was unsure of. He had toiled over the choice for days before his arrival in the south with his council, to his Lord Regent as well as sister and mother. Still he could not come to a definite answer. However there would be those who would argue that alone was the verdict he was searching for. The consequences behind his decision were growing with importance by the hour. Still as Lady Tereza pleaded with him to take her daughter as a wife or even Typhon's claims. All of it he simply added to the internal scales he had created, none of it enough to push him in any one direction. Save for Nero’s antics the night before. How easy it would be to disparage it all and lay it at the feet of Nero as cause. Yet whenever he sufficiently found reason to do so. Lady Tereza’s tear filled eyes looked back at him in mercy. Had his decision really been made for him long before he had a chance to decide on his own?

  Freyja rose to her feet, choosing to turn her back to him again as she looked to the city.

  “Have I said something to upset you?” he looked on worried.

  “No, it is I who has hurt you.” The Queen of Talterra looked small against the expanse of the open sky. “When I was told that you would be betrothed to Reza, my first thought was unsavory and my second one equally unkind. I would like to say it was because I had not met her yet. However I think that has been an excuse I have used to absolve myself of any responsibility.”

  “You have not-” she raised her hand stopping him and he did so.

  “I do,” she stated matter of fact. “I think I convinced myself that I was indifferent to the announcement. That it was the will of the Gods no matter how much I did not want it to be. That was until I saw you again after so long.” She could not face him now, not as she confessed. “And there I had a third thought, ‘how dare she think she worthy to marry my Antares?’”

  She laughed but there was no joy in it.

  “To think that after she opened to me and sought me for guidance about you, that I could still feel that. Then we danced that first night, and it was magical. I did not want it to end. It is still the last and first thought in my head when I wake. Yet you know what has given me the greatest joys since seeing you again? Being told how badly your time with her went, or listening to Guinevere’s apprehensions about her. You must think me terrible.”

  “Never.”

  She chuckled through tears, “And hearing you talk about the uncertainty of your decision, aware that I already know your answer and it still brings me pleasure, despite the nature of what today will bring. Of what your decision to say ‘no’ will do to Aurum. Because it means that there is still a chance that we can be together again.”

  All Antares could do was remain silent as he watched and listened to Faye speak. The ever growing nature of her Will crashing in against itself as it was unsure of what to do. There were colors within he knew only existed when they were together, he saw as she wrestled with her nature. Who it was she truly desired, against what was expected of someone with her title. He wanted to stand and embrace her, cover her in his warmth and security. But he knew that is not what she wanted, it is why she moved away. So that she could address him exposed and unmoved by being within his grasp. Antares watched as the soul and nature of the woman he loved came together as she better aligned herself.

  “However that is not what is destined for us in this life is it?” she exhaled barely above a whisper, steadying herself with the tree next to her.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  It was at this moment she slowly began to understand why he did not seek her in his exile. How painful it must have been to put duty and responsibility before love. How unfair it was. For him who had lost so much, had given even more, and it not enough to keep them together. Freyja placed a hand on her womb finding a familiar warmth from within. However that was not truly the case, they could not be torn apart, not completely that was. A love like the one they shared was far too powerful to simply disperse, a piece of them would always exist in this world. Together but apart, whole and empty all the same. To embrace love and let it go. To fade away and still be breathed life into. There was still far too much she wanted to tell him but as she begun to understand duty came before love. Perhaps there was some good that came from her Stygian lessons in her youth. And now the same strength that flowed through him, now flowed through her.

  “Antares, do you love me?”

  “With all that I am, and will ever be.”

  “Then I ask you, not as a queen, but as the only title I have ever cared to have. As the woman you love most throughout this cruel world. Please wed her. None of this is her fault, let not the actions of her siblings nor her father stain a kind and sweet girl in your eyes. Do not punish her and yourself for what the Gods and men have decreed. Let her know the joys of being yours and your boundless love that I was so blessed to taste, even if our time together was terribly, unfairly short.”

  The strength she possessed was greater than anything he could muster. Whether it was the strength he had to reshape mountains, move the very ground beneath their feet or make still the oceans. None of it could compare to the power she showed in front of him. The divine strength only she could own. She had every right to hate everyone including him for the pain that was inflicted on her. To have her future stolen from her and still wanting to choose kindness. He did not deserve her, he always knew it, from the first time he saw her. But by the ancestors and the Gods as witness, he gave everything to be worthy of her.

  The thought to ask her for her opinion, for her permission, crossed his mind frequently. However he was too much of a coward to ask, because he knew of them both, he could not handle the reality of her answer. Nevertheless before them it was her who did anyway. The Lords of War had bred impossibility out of him, there was nothing he could be tasked with that would be insurmountable. All could be overcome, it was only a matter of perspective and the measure of the man. He was sure he understood it, but what she asked of him was an impossibility that he had not been trained for. To live this life without her at his side. Like her too, he had held hope that all would resolve itself. Hyperion would return and someway, he would reunite them again. He would fix it all. But as much as he hoped like a human Antares’ big brother was not here, this was another mark for him to bear. Perhaps the greatest of all that was inflicted on him. How many more was he expected to carry? The king did not want to answer, he could not. He did not want to make it a reality.

  “If it is your wish,” it was odd for rain to fall so harshly while the skies remained a vibrant blue. “I will marry her. But I cannot promise that I can love her, I do not know if I have the strength to do so, not again.”

  She exhaled and he could hear her voice breaking, “You will, you may refuse to believe it. But you have so much love to offer.”

  He did not know what to say to comfort her.

  “Please do not think it your fault, but I have only just found this new strength.” She still would not look at him, “So forgive me but I do not think it will be enough for me to attend your wedding.”

  “I…I understand.” He did not think his heart could break anymore than it did.

  “Thank you Antares…For choosing me as someone worthy to love.” She turned to leave, as she raised her hood hiding her face. “I shall give you some time alone, while you think of a brilliant speech for tonight."

  “Faye wait.”

  He grabbed her arm stopping her, still she would not look at him. Was this how it was meant to end? But what could he say? What more needed to be said, that had not been done so? She tried to pull away with little effort. With ease he spun her around and laid her up against the tree. As her hood fell down, Freyja’s eyes overflowed with as much tears as his did.

  “No,” she pleaded. “I do not want this sight of me to be our last memory together.” It had been so long since she had seen him anguished as he was now.

  He caressed the side of her face, committing every inch of perfection to memory. This woman he had spent his youth with, who had stood by him even when he thought himself unworthy. The poise of her words, the sound of her laughter. The ease in which she calmed everyone around her including himself. He recalled saving her from the wild wolves when they were but eight, the first night they shared, he recalled the trek across the Storm Islands they took alone. The countless times they sat by the coast watching the waves while he read to her. The many duties they shared in preparation for their ascendancy to the throne as husband and wife. It all came back to him in excruciating detail, as the past sought to drown him. Today Iliad would lose a queen and the Stygian King would lose his reason for being. However he would fight one last time.

  “Then let it not be,” Antares kissed her.

  The desire had overtaken him, his heart forcing his body to move. He drew back aware of the folly of his mistake, the shock in his eyes mirrored in hers. Before he could find the words to excuse his action, she pulled him back to her, wanting to taste him again. The longing that tugged at their lips finally finding purpose with each other again. He moved his hand to her lower back, remembering the way she liked to be held. In return she would not let go of his face, not even to breathe. All she required to exist was right here, the sweetness of their lips coated with the salty taste of their tears streaming down their faces. Where words failed to convey their feelings they found a worthy alternative.

  The heat from her lips warmed him like an open flame and the coolness of his reminded her of winters in Iliad. Both of them, forgoing all that they were if it meant this moment could be stretched endlessly. They would do all they could to make it so. They did not care to be caught or seen by others, or if this action were to result in all of Aurum turning to ash. They were owed this moment, a meeting that had been carved five years in the past. By this tree overlooking Longshore, Antares Xerxes and Freyja Stormborne, expressed a love envied by all. A boundless and eternal bond that would never die.

  Freyja summoned the last of her strength to release her lips from his, wanting to gaze at his beautiful face again. “I…” She so badly wished she could stop the tears falling.

  “You need not say anything, this foolish action I will bear.” With each wipe away of her weeping eyes, it was replaced with more. The smile on her face was as pure as driven snow.

  She shook her head, “It is not foolish. I will share in this with you, because we both desire it.” Faye chose to kiss him again.

  Not long enough had passed before once again they separated. All things ended, it was one of the absolute truths of the world. This moment here, despite the strength and power that they held, even it was not immune. She kissed him one last time on the cheek and then the forehead, as his mother had done many times before. A loving form of goodbye that was only known to those of House Stormborne. Soon after she left him there and Antares stood as he often was, alone.

  He moved to where she had stayed looking down at Longshore as more and more of the city came alive, the sounds of celebration even reaching him where he was. Millions in jubilation for what the day would bring, while he stood swimming in his thoughts. Each too fast to hold on to. Searching for someone to blame for this growing pain that tore at him with a venomous potency, that he thought he would never feel again. Many names crossed his mind, some even he was too ashamed to acknowledge. However in the end, there was only ever one person truly responsible. He touched his lips, already longing for hers again. Antares sought to rediscover the indifferent air that was expected of monarchs. As the tears dried he suppressed all the pain and suffering as he was taught to do. As he had always done. A familiar numbness returned that had first appeared the days after losing his mother and also accompanied him through his years in exile. The Stygian King reminded himself of his purpose here; of his mission here, his promise to Nykolas and Hyperion. To his father. And as ever he told himself, there was much to do.