"No, no!"
The door slammed shut behind Aleriana, the sheer force of her internal energy warping the metal knobs and handles, twisting them beyond repair.
The gust from the window died instantly as she sealed herself inside, locking out the world.
No one would break in—not without inhuman strength.
Her hand clutched her chest, fingers trembling against the fabric as an inexplicable pain surged through her, like a wound deep in her soul.
She had known this moment would come, had expected it, even planned for it.
And yet, the reality of standing against her mother’s will—of preparing to kill the man she had vowed to spend her life with—was breaking her apart in ways she hadn’t foreseen.
She had wanted this.
Had wished to be tied to a dead husband, free from the chains of a real marriage.
But now… now, she wasn’t sure.
Somehow, without her realizing it, something had changed.
Maybe it was those fleeting conversations, those brief moments where she had let herself exist beside him, speaking to him as more than just a pawn in a game.
Maybe it was her own heart betraying her, clinging to a man she was never supposed to hold dear.
’No. I’m not breaking it. I won’t.’
Her mind screamed at her, trying to crush the emotions clawing their way to the surface.
It was absurd.
She had endured so much—had walked through fire, through schemes, through a childhood drenched in blood and betrayal.
She had survived where grown men had fallen.
And yet, this—this ridiculous thing called love—was the one battle she couldn’t seem to face.
Her mother had been her world. The foundation of her strength.
The one who had shaped her into the warrior she had become, teaching her every technique, every strategy, every cold and calculated step needed to survive.
Her mother’s presence was absolute, her teachings an unshakable law.
And now, here she was, hesitating over a promise that should have meant nothing—because the woman to whom she had made that promise was already dead.
But that promise remained clutched to her until the very end.
And that changed everything.
She knew Kyle’s fate was sealed. Knew he wouldn’t survive long, and found herself stealing every moment she could with him—memorizing the way he spoke, the way he moved, the way his mind worked and that silly genuine compliment of his that warmed her heart.
It all started with the way he had manipulated Olea in their arrival to the capital city, making her curious enough to meet him when she had originally sworn to avoid him until the wedding.
That had been her first mistake.
His knowledge of Mialthara, the way he carried himself, the sharpness of his mind—it had all fascinated her.
Though she had already seen many such smart men, he was special in this case because he was about to become her husband, so for her, his actions were incomparable.
And without realizing it, those little conversations, meaningless to anyone else, had become threads woven into her heart.
She had watched him, observed the way he was always on guard, and the few rare moments when he let something genuine slip past his defenses.
Even a single unfiltered compliment from him had bypassed her mind entirely, embedding itself straight into her heart.
And now, just the thought of losing him sent a pain through her chest that she couldn’t suppress.
’A last chance, please…’
The words were silent, spoken only to herself, but they echoed in her mind like a desperate prayer.
She pulled out a small glass vial from her dimensional storage, her hands steady even as her heart was anything but.
Uncorking it, she tilted her head back and swallowed the liquid in one motion.
Ting.
The empty vial slipped from her fingers, shattering against the cold floor.
A pulse of uncontrollable energy surged through her body before vanishing entirely.
Then—nothing.
Her knees buckled.
Her vision blurred.
Black veins spread beneath her skin, twisting across her arms and chest.
Her dantian locked.
Her internal energy, once a roaring force within her, was now sealed—trapped by a wall formed from her own strength, a prison built from her own power.
Her body collapsed onto the ground, eyes staring blankly at the ceiling as the paralysis set in.
A sharp, electric pain coursed through her nerves, holding her in place.
She couldn’t move.
She couldn’t fight it.
A single tear slid down her cheek.
’I’m sorry, husband… but I fear you.’
Her chest ached, but not from the physical pain.
This was different.
Deeper.
She had never cried for anyone—not since her mother’s death.
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And now, for a man she had barely known for two days, she was breaking.
A love born from a promise was now dying because of that same promise, shackling her, binding her, forcing her to choose between what she had sworn and what her heart wanted.
Her fingers barely twitched as she forced the last of her strength into a single command.
"Activate camouflage."
The room shimmered.
An illusory trap wove itself into the space around her—a last line of defense in case anyone tried to enter without permission.
Anyone with internal energy would be caught in an illusion, giving her a chance to react.
She knew how vulnerable she was now. Knew that if someone wanted to kill her, this was their moment.
But the real danger wasn’t an assassin in the shadows. It was the realization creeping into her mind as her consciousness faded.
If she accepted what she felt—if she let herself love—she would be this vulnerable forever.
Because love meant trust.
And trust meant handing someone the power to break you.
And in the end, wasn’t that what had happened to her mother?
She believed a man whose aim was to become a king; he acted to ask her mother’s permission every time to marry another woman on the pretext of building relations with stronger families for support and slowly forgot about the one who gave him the throne entirely—a love that made her mother, who held the strength to change the king, helpless while putting on that fake smile and hope that the king still loved her.
’I will not make the same mistake as you, mother, I will not—’
Aleriana’s vision darkened.
She let it.