"True." She tilts her head, hair falling over one eye. "But you're the one who disappointed me. Kayden… he's chaos. That's what he does. Butyou, the soldier, the knight. You're supposedto save people." Her voice drops to a whisper, venom wrapped in grief. "And you keep failing, don't you? Your soldiers. Tomas. Me."
I meet her gaze for a beat, then lower it. "You've already catalogued my failures. I know them. I own them. I'm still trying to make them right."
I close my eyes.
She laughs, sharp and cruel. "Make them right? By meditating in my dungeon? What's next, enlightenment through boredom? Are you going to whack me with a monk stick if I act out?"
Silence.
"Ah. The silent treatment. Fine. Let's see who lasts longer,husband."
Time blurs. Minutes or hours. I stop tracking. The only sound is her fingers tapping the floor. Slow at first, then faster. Erratic. A rhythm that grates.
I don't move.
"That's your big plan?" she spits finally. "You're going to bore the monster into submission?"
I keep my eyes closed.
The chains rattle. A sharp, metallic snap.
I open my eyes. She's lunging, close enough that I can feel her breath. The chains pull taut just short of me, metal screaming against stone.
Her face is inches from mine, twisted in fury. Beneath it, there is pain. And thirst.
"You bastard!" she hisses, straining again, muscles trembling. The cuffs don't give.
It tears through me to see her like this. To watch what's left of her fighting the thing she's become. I want to stop her, to keep her from breaking herself against the chains, but I can't say anything. She'd turn the compassion into a weapon.
So I stay still and calm, breathing evenly.
She's a creature of chaos now—feral, brilliant, and unpredictable. And me, still a soldier. Using silence, control, and presence as the only weapons I have left, even as something in me fractures a little more each time she screams.
She finally stops straining, whether from exhaustion or acceptance, I can't tell. The chains rattle once more, then go still. She sinks back against the wall.
For a long time, we just look at each other.
Then she speaks, voice low and frayed.
"You know, if I ever came back, if the empathy returned, what then? How would I live with everything I've done? The blood, the screams, the wreckage?" Her eyes flicker in the dim light, something fragile there. "You want your little nymph wife back, the soft one who made flowers bloom when she came apart in your hands, but what happens when she remembers what I did? When she feels it? You'd make me live that pain, Asher. How is that love?"
She leans forward, the shadows cutting her features. "If you really loved me, you'd let me go. You wouldn't force me to crawl back into a body that can't bear itself. I was made to bring life, not take it. How could I ever live with that?" Her voice sharpens, crueler now. "And how could I love you knowing you're the one who dragged me back into it?"
I don't answer. The silence stretches, heavy, suffocating. Every word she said carves through me, but I can't give her the satisfaction of seeing it.
When I finally speak, my voice is calm.
"Maybe you'll hate me for it. Maybe you'll never forgive me. That's fine. I'll carry that weight." I meet her eyes, steady. "Because somewhere inside, there is a part of you that's still fighting. I know you want to come back, you just don't remember what it feels like to want the light."
She exhales, a sound halfway between a laugh and a sob. "Didn't think you had it in you to be that cruel, Colonel."
Her shoulders sag. She leans her head back against the stone. For a heartbeat, she looks almost herself again. "I'm not your redemption project. You can't fix me. You should either let me go or kill me. There's no other ending."
"You won't be alone after," I say quietly. "I'll be there. Kayden will be, too. Even Darius, if you'll have him. And the others, the family you built, they'll stand by your side."
Her gaze flicks up, searching. I press on. "Let go of the darkness, Sage. It's not protecting you. It's only burying what's left of you."
Her expression cracks. Lips trembling. Tears glinting at the corners of her eyes.
