Chapter 2

As I stepped out of the room, I pulled the cloak Caspian had draped over me tighter. A faint blush still lingered on my cheeks.

I stood in the evening wind for a moment, and when I looked up, I saw Hayden, finally back from the princess's estate.

"Elara, are you ill? Why is your face so red?"

He smelled of rhododendrons, Coralia's favorite flower. As he got closer, a wave of nausea washed over me.

I sidestepped him. "Even if I were ill, it would be nothing. The princess is a noblewoman. It's more important that she isn't hurt."

Hayden froze for a second, then took my icy hands in his. "Elara, are you jealous?"

"Coralia is royalty. I was only fulfilling my duty as a subject. The only one I want to marry is you!"

My hands grew warm in his. I could feel his heart beating wildly.

But in the next moment, my fingers brushed against a deep scar on his chest.

Caspian had told me that after Coralia was ordered to be married off, Hayden was so devastated that he carved the first letter of her name into his own chest, only to slice it away with a knife later.

In our most intimate moments, Hayden had always said it was just an old injury. He never told me it was the mark of the woman he truly loved.

A cold wind blew over me, extinguishing the last flicker of my foolish fantasies.

I tried to pretend that nothing had happened, returning his embrace weakly. "Hayden, my love, do you still plan to marry me?"

He kissed my forehead without hesitation and swept me into his arms. "Of course, Elara. I told you, we will be together until death."

His sincere tone reminded me of my first night at the temple.

My stepmother despised me. She used the excuse of me breaking my stepsister's jade bracelet to throw me out of the house.

I had nowhere to go. It was a monk in a white robe who brought me a bowl of rice porridge that saved me from starvation.

Every night I spent at the temple after that, Hayden was by my side.

I just never thought all those beautiful memories could be shattered so easily by the name Coralia.

Looking into his hopeful eyes now, I only felt a growing sense of despair.

But Hayden, I have already decided not to marry you.