Chapter 16 I’m running away. No one, not even Daevir, will stop me.
Amarien’s POV
The only thing I heard was the beating of my heart. The only thing I felt was the burning in my feet as I raced out of the banquet hall.
For a moment, I was numb. I didn’t remember leaving the banquet hall. One moment I was standing there, frozen under a thousand watching eyes, and the next I was running—running through the golden doors, through the long corridors, through the marble arches that swallowed my footsteps.
I didn’t care where I went. I didn’t care if anyone saw me. I didn’t care if I collapsed and never woke up again.
I just needed to get away.
Away from the laughter.
Away from the whispers.
Away from him.
My vision blurred, the palace walls melting into streaks of white and gold as I sprinted down an empty hallway. Everyone was still in the banquet hall; no nobles lingered here, no maids hurried with tea trays, no guards patrolled these corridors.
It was just me and my tears.
I was alone.
Utterly, horribly alone.
Just like I was at the village. Just like I was when I learned Grandma ChiChi died. Just like I was on my first night here. With the nightmares that I could get torn apart by the most powerful man in the world, and no one would bat an eyelid.
My feet gave way, and I stumbled so hard I rolled off the dried grassy plain. I tried to get up, but my feet trembled like they were begging me for a break.
I felt my numbness slip off. I couldn't hold it anymore.
I clenched my fist. My chest tightened as a sob tore free. “I’m cursed!” I choked. “Maybe… maybe they’re right. Maybe I always was.”
The words Prince Daevir had spoken echoed in my skull like a curse of their own:
A curse must be kept at a safe distance.
Pretty as it may seem, it is still a curse.
He said it publicly.
Proudly.
Cruelly.
As if I were something unclean.
As if touching me, knowing me, being near me would infect the whole empire.
I rose back to shaky feet and sprinted. I sprinted as if I could escape pain, everything that had caused me tears.
My shoes slapped against the cold marble as I stumbled through another hallway, one of the older wings.
My breath shuddered.
It hurt.
Everything hurt.
Not the thorns.
Not the wounds I had earned fighting through the imperial courts to save him.
Not even the bruises Velmira had left on my skin.
No...this hurt wasn’t skin-deep.
It burned my bones.
“I’m cursed,” I whispered again, voice cracking. “I killed my mother. I shouldn’t have been born. They’re right...everyone is right.”
Tears streamed down my face so freely that they blurred everything into a watery haze. I pressed a hand against the wall just to stay upright.
I remembered the day the emperor bought me, how the Corvin refused to look at me directly because he feared my curse was infectious. I remembered how the villagers covered their children’s eyes as I passed.
If only they all knew how terrified I was.
And yet the palace had been… better. A gilded cage, yes. A lonely place, yes. But at least no one spat at me here. At least no one threw stones at me like the children from the village.
And then… then there was him.
Prince Daevir.
The only person who had ever shielded me. Who stopped Velmira from stripping me naked in the outer courts. He shielded me from the cold in the cave. He whispered soft words in my ears.
He saw me.
His words mould me. They made me feel cured. I felt whole because, for once, a person I cared deeply about didn't see me as a curse.
And today… he tore me apart.
A fresh sob tore through me, cutting like a blade.
“Maybe I am cursed,” I whispered to myself. “Maybe I bring ruin to everything I touch. My mother died because of me. My village hated me because of me. And now even Daevir...my only friend...sees me as a monster.”
A monster!
Far worse than a werewolf, they always said.
Werewolves killed under moonlight.
I killed at birth!
My shoulders shook violently. My legs felt weak; they bucked, and I stumbled to the floor as if grief itself had weight.
“Stupid,” I breathed. “I was stupid to think he saw me as a friend. Stupid to think I mattered even a little bit.”
A small sob escaped me as I pressed both hands to my face. “I don’t belong here. I don’t belong anywhere. I don’t…”
The sound of footsteps shook me up a bit.
I froze.
No… not footsteps.
Running.
Someone was running through the halls behind me.
Panic surged up my throat. I spun around, wiping my wet cheeks with trembling fingers.
And there, at the far end of the corridor, breathless, eyes wide, robes flowing behind him…was Prince Daevir.
He was running toward me.
Not walking.
Not stalking.
Running.
My heart plummeted.
“No,” I whispered. No no no no…
I sprang up. Despite my burning feet, I raced out of the corridor.
I didn’t want him to see me raw and broken like this, tears streaking my face, humiliation still burning on my skin. I didn’t want to hear more of his cruel truths. I couldn’t survive another word from him.
I fled deeper into the palace, past the moon garden, past the jade statue hall, past the rows of silent ancestor portraits. My steps echoed louder here, bouncing off the empty space around me.
Daevir didn't just follow me. He pursued me.
“Amarien!” His growl cracked through the Emperor’s lotus garden.
It cracked.
Not smooth. Not princely.
Cracked open like a wound.
“Amarien, stop!”
But I shook my head violently and pressed my feet harder to the floor. Bolting off. The hot afternoon air burned my face. I didn't look back once.
I was going to run out of here and never return.
And no one, not even Daevir, will stop me.