The hurt that remembers
I didn’t know how long I’d been crying.
The luxurious room, all silk and gold and velvet shadows, blurred through my tears. I sat curled on the floor beneath the stained-glass window that bathed me in crimson light. The dress I wore — sapphire silk threaded with starlight — felt like a costume. None of it belonged to me.
Not the crown they whispered about. Not the throne waiting down the hall.
Not the blood in my veins.
I pressed my forehead to my knees, fists trembling as the memory of Rheon’s eyes—his warmth, his fury, hislove—seared into my soul.
He didn’t know. He didn’tknowwhat I was.
The daughter of the Demon Queen.
The daughter of an archangel.
A weapon caught between two realms.
The door creaked open behind me.
“Seori,” came the soft voice — low, velvet, echoing with power and weariness.
I didn’t lift my head.
“Get out,” I whispered.
The Queen didn’t leave.
Her steps were silent as she approached, the scent of jasmine and night blooming with her.
“I’m not your daughter,” I choked out. “You don’t get towantme now.”
“I’ve always wanted you,” she said gently.
“Youleft me,” I snapped, rising to my feet. “You let them take me. You let the Guild raise me like a sword to kill people likeyou.”
Pain flickered across her face.
“I was dying when I gave birth to you,” she said. “I had just enough strength to hide you, to send you away from this cursed place. The King... he would’ve twisted you. You were part angel, Seori. Do you know what he would’ve done to you?”
I shook my head.
“Why not tell me?”
“Because I couldn’t reach you. Because I didn’t know if you’d survive. And when I found out you were alive…” She paused, her voice breaking. “You were already too far gone — trained to hate me.”
“I still do,” I said, but my voice cracked.
The Queen reached out, fingers trembling, and for once, I didn’t flinch.
“I loved your father,” she whispered. “With everything I had. He wasn’t supposed to fall for me. And I wasn’t supposed to survive loving him. But we did. We were happy. For a while.”
I closed my eyes.
“I lost him because the King couldn’t stomach our union. I lost him… because I loved something holy in a place that was anything but.”
She stepped closer.
