Chapter 94 Ninety-Four.

Chapter 94 Ninety-Four.
OLIVIA POV.

“Really?” I ask.

“Yes.”

“You approved my entry into the Dance of the Dead and treated me like a toy meant to merely give you a child when I first arrived,” I remind him. “You let this happen. If you hate it so much, why didn’t you stop it? You’re the King! You have the power to stop this madness!”

“You think it’s that simple?" he asks, taking another desperate step until he is completely invading my space. The heat radiating off him is overwhelming. “You think I have absolute power in a court filled with vultures waiting for me to slip up? If I intervened openly to save a prisoner, much less a Fae, they would have executed you on the spot for treason, Olivia! I did what I had to do to keep you alive long enough to at least have a fighting chance.”

“A fighting chance?" I shake my head, a stray tear finally slipping down my cheek. “You gave me a death sentence, Sven, and we both know it. Back at your council room with your gammas, you ordered my death. You left me with no choice but to enter the Dance of the Dead, so don’t you stand here and act like you granted me mercy.”

He says nothing and just stares at me.

“And what hurts the most isn’t even the match,” I continue. “It’s standing here, bound to you by a mate bond that you treat like a curse. It’s Aunt Maggi filling my head with delusions that you actually care, and it’s me stupidly falling for a man I should hate.”

“Olivia, stop,” he begs, his voice cracking. He looks vulnerable, reminiscent of the night he had spoken about his mother for the first time. “Please, don’t do this.”

“No. I won’t stop!” I say, my chest heaving as months of suppressed pain boil over. “I am standing in front of the man bound to my soul, and I am still guessing. I am still breaking into pieces over whispers and possibilities. I don’t want to die tomorrow with a question mark in my heart, Sven. I need the truth.”

He doesn’t answer right away. Instead, his eyes drop back down to the heavy iron cuffs that have marked my skin for days, weeks, and months, biting into my ankles.

His face contorts with a sudden, sharp wave of agony.

“Sit down, Olivia,” he whispers, his voice trembling as he drops to his knees right there on the cold floor.

“Sven, what are you doing?” I ask, frozen in place.

“Please. Just sit,” he begs, looking up at me with eyes so full of sorrow it breaks my heart. “Let me do this. Please.”

Slowly, I lower myself onto the edge of the bed. Sven immediately takes my ankles into his large, warm hands. His touch is incredibly gentle, a stark contrast to the brutal strength he possesses. He examines the thick metal, his thumbs lightly brushing over the raw, red skin where the iron has chafed me ever since I was brought here.

“I let my men put this on you,” he chokes out, a ragged breath escaping him. “I let you walk around my palace bound like a beast. Every single day, I forced myself to look away from what I did to you.”

“Sven, it doesn’t matter anymore. The chains were part of my sentence-”

“It matters to me,” he insists softly, his voice cracking with emotion as he looks up, a single tear slipping down his cheek. “It kills me to see you like this! It kills me that I am the King, yet I have to watch the universe drag you away from me piece by piece simply because you are a Fae and I’m supposed to hate your kind and I hate that I am a part of your kind too.”

He wraps his hands completely around the iron links. His muscles flex, veins bulging against his skin as his internal power flares up. With a sharp groan of pure desperation and rage, he wrenches his hands apart. The thick metal links snap with a deafening CRACK, shattering under his raw strength. The chains fall away, leaving my ankles free for the first time since I entered this palace.

He throws the broken pieces aside, but he doesn’t stand up. He stays right there on his knees at my feet, his hands still holding onto my ankles as if he is afraid I will vanish if he lets go.

“I never wanted this for you,” he whispers, his forehead resting against my knees. His shoulders shake slightly. “I never wanted any of this.”

I look down at him, my heart hammering against my ribs, completely undone by the sight of this powerful king reduced to tears at my feet. “Then tell me,” I whisper, my voice thick with my own tears.

I lean forward, tilting his chin up so he has to look at me.

“Now that I am going to die in tomorrow’s match,” I continue. “it won't hurt for you to tell me if just maybe you ever felt anything for me.”

Sven looks up at me, his green eyes raw, completely stripped of his pride. “I have felt everything for you since the moment I felt your presence in my Kingdom.”