Chapter Twenty Five

Chapter Twenty Five
The guard didn’t answer my question.
He kept his head bowed, hands behind his back, standing like he was carved from iron.

“My Luna,” he said carefully. “His Majesty did not explain.”

That alone made my stomach twist.

Maximus never summoned me without a reason. He never did in my past life.
And after today… after the attack… after the strange dust, and the bodies that weren’t bodies…
Something told me this wasn’t a casual request.

I followed the guard through the palace hallways.

The usually buzzing corridors were unusually silent.
Servants who normally greeted me with warm smiles now bowed so low I only saw the tops of their heads.
Guards straightened at attention, their eyes alert, hands their weapons.

Word had traveled.
Everyone knew, and everyone was scared.

It felt like the entire palace was watching me.

Or watching for something through me.

As we approached the royal wing, two guards standing outside the king’s chamber bowed. One of which was the guard I thought I could make use of before, I guess I wouldn't need him anymore.

He stepped forward.
“My Luna… before you go in…” He cleared his throat. “The king is… unsettled.”

Unsettled.
A polite word for furious or anxious.

“Is he injured?” I asked.

“No, my lady,” the second guard replied quickly. “He has simply been pacing since he returned. He refused food. He refused counsel.”

That was unlike Maximus.
The king was always composed, he would never refuse food, not in that life or this.

The attack had shaken him.

Or perhaps… something else had.

The first guard continued.
“He kept asking for you.”

I nodded and placed a hand on the heavy wooden door.

Inside, I heard nothing.

No voices.
No movement.
Just a thick, suffocating silence.

I pushed the door open.

Maximus sat on the edge of the table near the window, armor loosened, hair slightly disheveled.
He looked… human.
And strangely tired.

When his eyes lifted and met mine, he looked somehow happy.

“Annabelle.”

His voice was low, steady… but strained underneath.

He crossed the room in three long steps, stopping so close the heat from his body spread across my skin.

His gaze dropped to my bandaged arm.

“What did the royal doctor say?”

I raised it gently. “She said it was only a scratch. The arrow barely grazed me.”

His jaw tightened.
“You were almost killed.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but he raised a hand, not to silence me, but as if he was trying to contain something inside himself.

“You were brave,” he said. “Very brave. Too brave.”

It almost sounded like an accusation.

“I was only protecting the villagers,” I murmured."And myself”.

His eyes softened, but only for a moment.

“You stood in front of a rogue or whatever that was,” he said quietly. “You shouldn’t have. You could have been”

He didn’t finish the sentence.

Maximus rarely showed emotion, but right now, his guards were right
He was unsettled, restless.

He moved to the window, back turned to me.
“I have dealt with war, assassination attempts, betrayals,” he said. “But today… watching that arrow pass you…”

He gripped the window frame.

“It felt different.”

My heart thudded uncomfortably.

I took a slow step forward. “Your Majesty, may I ask why you summoned me”

“Maximus,” he corrected softly without turning.

I froze.

He had never asked me to call him that.

He turned then, facing me fully.

His gaze wasn’t cold.
It wasn’t angry.

It was intense.

“You face danger without fear,” he said softly. “You stand before warriors, before creatures, without hesitation. But you avoid me.”

My breath caught.
“I don’t avoid you.”

“You do.”

He stepped closer.

Too close.

I stepped back instinctively.

His brows lowered in a mixture of confusion and something like frustration.

“Why?” he asked.

I didn’t know how to answer.
I couldn’t tell him I remembered a different world, a different version of him, one that destroyed me, the one that betrayed me for his true mate, the powerless one.

I stepped aside slightly, but he followed, slowly, carefully, as if approaching a frightened animal.

“Annabelle,” he murmured. “Look at me.”

I lifted my eyes.

He moved closer, much slower this time, his hand lifting toward my cheek.

Instinctively, I turned my head away.

His hand fell.

Silence stretched between us,

He studied me, trying to understand something I could never fully explain.

“Why?” he whispered again.

My lips parted.
“I… don’t know.”

It wasn’t a lie.
It wasn’t the whole truth either.

For a long moment, he simply watched me.
Not like a king.
Not like a husband.

Like a man trying to crack a puzzle he didn’t know he had created.

He opened his mouth to say something else then he moved closer again
and this time I stepped back.

Maximus stopped.
His expression shifted instantly.

He looked Jealous, an expression I had never seen before.

“Do you step back only from me,” he asked slowly, “or do you also step back from him?”

“Him?” I frowned.

“Abel.”

I froze.

So he noticed.

His voice deepened, like a dangerous rumble.
“I saw the way he reached for you. Held you. Pulled you onto your horse. As if it were his right.”

“It wasn’t like that”

“And you let him.”
His jaw clenched. “You let him touch you.”

Touch?
It was literally just helping me mount a fucking horse.

But to Maximus, that seemed to be… a lot.

“I’m not comfortable with how familiar he is with you,” he admitted .
“He is a guard. A childhood friend at most. I said, but he didn't give up, “yet he looks at you like…”
He stopped himself.

“Like what?” I asked quietly.

Maximus didn’t answer.

Instead, he stepped even closer than before
his presenceintense.

“You avoid me,” he murmured.
“But not him.”

“That’s not true.”

He didn’t believe me.

“Then why,” he whispered, “do you turn away from me?”

I had no answer.
Not one that wouldn’t burn everything down.

He lifted a hand slowly,
trying to show he wasn’t a threat, that he wouldn't hurt me, but he already did and I wasn't about to fall for it twice.

He reached for my cheek again.

And I instinctively turned my head.

His hand froze midair.

Maximus’s eyes lowered.
He didn't look angry or hurt, instead this time he looked possessive.
A dangerous, cold kind of jealousy.

“You pull away from me,” he said quietly. “Yet you let Abel stand close enough to breathe your air.”

“That’s not”

“Why?” he whispered.
Not a command.
A genuine question, he really wanted to know

I opened my mouth, but nothing came out.

He stepped even closer, moving slowly, almost testing the distance.
He lowered his head slightly
close enough for our breaths to touch
as if testing whether I’d retreat again, our lips were just inches away from each other.

I did.

He studied me with narrowed eyes.

“So it is only me.”

But before he could say more the doors to the chamber opened unexpectedly.

Both Maximus and I turned shocked at who would open the King's door without invitation.

Abel stood in the doorway, breathing hard, his eyes locked on mine, then slowly made its way to the king as if to calculate what we were doing.

“My Luna. Your Majesty.”
He bowed quickly but remained tense.

Maximus’s expression iced over immediately. “This better be important.”

Abel straightened.

“It is. The Unhinged sends a message,” he said, voice low and urgent.
“He wants to see the Luna.
Now.”