Chapter 107 She is Alone again
I can do this every time for her!" Ezra roared, standing his ground, his hands still trembling with the need to protect. "I would die for her a thousand times over!"
He looked like a true King in that moment—raw, bleeding with devotion, and ready to sacrifice everything just to keep her safe from Orion’s "blood-bond."
Orion didn’t blink. He stood perfectly still, his eyes like two cold moons. "No," he said, his voice cutting through Ezra’s heat like a winter frost. "You cannot. Death is easy, Ezra. But you cannot be the map. You cannot heal what is written in the soul with just a sword and a heartbeat. You are her shield, but I am her blood."
She stepped firmly between them, her hands coming up to push against both of their chests—feeling the thundering, hot heart of the King on one side and the strange, rhythmic hum of the Psychic Demon on the other.
"Stop it! Both of you!" she cried out, her voice echoing off the walls with a power that made the candles flicker.
The irritation was rolling off her in waves. "I am standing right here! I am not a wound to be healed, and I am not a castle to be guarded. I am the one who decide who bleeds for me, and I am the one who decides where I go!"
Esperanza looks from Ezra’s pained face to Orion’s calculating one. The silence is heavy, but the "Golden Dragon" within her is finally waking up.
"Now," she said, her voice dropping to a dangerous, low vibrato. "Orion, you will explain exactly what this 'blood-bond' means without insulting Ezra again. And Ezra... you will let go of my arms and listen, or you can leave the room. I am choosing the path today."
Ezra’s voice was strained, a mix of disbelief and desperate love. "How do you say so? How could I not?" he demanded, his hands still hovering near Esperanza as if he could shield her from the very air Orion breathed. "I would give everything for her. My life, my crown everything."
Orion didn't just speak; he spat the words, his eyes flashing with a dark, rhythmic fire.
"Because you are a King," Orion hissed, his voice trembling with a rare, raw anger. "And a King never burns his kingdom for his love. You have Responsibilities King. You have people, laws, and a throne that anchors you to the earth. You have too much to lose to truly be reckless."
He stepped closer, his shadow overlapping Ezra’s.
"But an evil demon?" Orion let out a jagged, hollow laugh. "A demon has nothing. I have no kingdom to protect, no people to answer to. I would burn the entire world to ashes just to keep her heart beating. I would tear down the heavens and walk through the fire because I have nowhere else to go. Do not compare us. Your love is a responsibility. Mine is a catastrophe."
Esperanza looked at both of them, her breath catching. She saw the truth in Orion’s eyes—a terrifying, bottomless devotion that didn't care about "right" or "wrong."
Then she looked at Ezra, whose love was noble and heavy with the weight of his crown.
One offered her a Throne. The other offered her the End of the World.
"Is that what you think I want?" Esperanza asked, her voice dangerously quiet. "To be the reason a kingdom burns or a soul is lost?"
"The only thing I want is my family," Esperanza whispered, her voice cracking as she looked from Ezra to Orion. "I can hear my mother... I can feel her presence, but I can never reach her."
She clutched her chest, as if she could physically hold the connection together. "She is breathing under flames and oceans that were never meant for them. My whole kingdom has vanished, swallowed by the dark and you two are standing here fighting over who loves me more?"
Her eyes, bright with unshed tears, searched theirs. "Do you not see my pain?"
"But we have lost our mothers too," Ezra said, his voice quiet, trying to anchor her in a shared history.
Esperanza froze. The words felt like ice water in her veins. "Your mothers are dead," she hissed, her eyes flashing with a sudden, outrageous fire. "Not like mine. She is living like the dead trapped in the flames, breathing the ocean. You have a grave to visit. I have a haunting."
Before either could speak, she turned and fled the room. The heavy oak doors groaned as she threw them open, her footsteps echoing until she reached the Ancient Balcony.
There, under the cold stars of a world that felt too big and too cruel, she collapsed against the stone railing, her sobs breaking the silence of the night.
"You do not know how to handle the situation," Orion said, his voice like a serrated blade. "Even I am called the heartless one, but look at you. You just compared a funeral to a cage."
Ezra stood paralyzed, his face pale as the realization of his blunder sank in. He looked toward the balcony, his heart splintering with every sob he heard drifting through the air.
Orion leaned in, the old mockery returning, though it was darker now. "Oh... I forgot the King’s blood," he teased, his eyes glowing. "So noble. So wise. And yet, you just broke the only thing that mattered."
But this time, the tease didn't make Ezra's blood boil. It made it freeze. He didn't care about the insult; he only cared about the sound of Esperanza’s heart breaking outside
Orion stepped toward the balcony, his shadow lengthening. "I am going to her. I don't need 'noble' words to walk through her darkness. I am the darkness."
Ezra finally looked up, his eyes bloodshot. "I didn't mean... I only wanted her to know she wasn't alone."
"You succeeded," Orion spat. "Now she knows she’s alone even when she’s standing right next to you."