CHAPTER 62: DESPERATION

And then, in an instant, the room obeyed his silence.

Soren lifted his hand, a simple, elegant motion, as though brushing dust from the air. The Winter Knights, who a heartbeat ago had been coiled springs of violence, froze.

One step back. Two.

Their armor sang softly as they lowered their weapons in perfect synchrony, the movement too graceful, too precise, too rehearsed to belong to mere men.

An emperor’s army.

A predator’s discipline.

The threat lingered anyway, like cold breath fogging glass.

Blood, rich and startlingly red, slipped from the corner of Soren’s mouth. It trailed down the sharp line of his jaw and over his chin, a vivid reminder that he had been struck, that Caelen had dared to lay hands on the Emperor of Nevareth.

And then, he smiled.

It was a smile made for nightmares. Beautiful. Unhinged. A curve of lips that said, this will be remembered.

Every eye followed as his tongue darted out, slow, deliberate, tasting the crimson drop that had dared to mar him. A quiet hum left his throat, one that could have been amusement or promise.

The blood vanished.

The cut sealed.

Frost gathered faintly across his skin and then faded, leaving nothing but flawless perfection.

No trace of the wound.

No sign he’d ever been touched.

Magic, old and terrible, hummed faintly in the air.

"I’m sure you’re wise enough to know," Soren said finally, his tone measured and soft, too soft... "that being a king comes with many responsibilities."

His words rippled outward like frost spreading across glass.

"That involves not acting rashly dear friend."

He let the silence breathe. Let it ache.

"After all," he added, tilting his head slightly, "there would be no point for a king if there was no kingdom left to rule."

It wasn’t shouted. It didn’t need to be.

Every person in that ballroom heard the meaning.

Every priest, every noble, every trembling servant understood what had just been promised beneath that silk voice.

The Ice Emperor had just threatened genocide... and done it smiling.

The Eternal Pyre itself seemed to dim, unwilling to compete with the chill that had taken root in the air.

Eris moved before anyone else could speak.

"Do not forget."

Her heels scraped softly against marble as she took a step forward, posture perfect, chin high, voice ringing through the hall like a blade being drawn.

"I’m still standing here, hearing your every word, Emperor."

It wasn’t loud, but it cut.

A reminder... not a plea.

That she was still Eris, still Fire herself, still the vessel of a god who would not bow to ice.

For a heartbeat, Soren said nothing. Then he turned to her, and the danger melted from his face with effortless grace. The smile softened, polished again into diplomacy.

"Forgive me, Your Majesty," he said, bowing slightly. "I was merely giving my friend a little advice."

But oh, how that word advice dripped with irony.

It wasn’t forgiveness he sought. It wasn’t reconciliation.

It was control.

The silence between them quivered...

a fragile, trembling thing strung tight as a bowstring.

Caelen still had his fists wound in Soren’s collar, knuckles white, jaw tight enough to crack. His entire body was shaking, not from fear, but from something uglier. Something that lived between fury and heartbreak.

"Does our friendship still mean anything to you?"

It was not the voice of a king now.

It was a man’s voice, cracked and desperate.

Even the crowd seemed to recoil at the rawness of it.

They had never heard Caelen sound hurt before, never without that quiet composure, that controlled civility. But here it was, shattered for everyone to see.

And Soren... for the first time, truly looked at him.

Looked past the anger. Past the accusation.

He saw the desperation in those eyes... the confusion, the betrayal.

Something faint and painful flickered in Soren’s expression, just for a heartbeat, before his usual calm returned like ice reforming over a thaw.

His next words slipped out almost absently, soft enough that even those closest strained to hear:

"I thought you had no love for her."

A whisper more than a statement.

Genuine bewilderment beneath the mockery.

If Caelen didn’t love her, if he’d claimed, again and again, to despise her,

then why did he care? Why did his voice sound like that now?

Caelen frowned, not catching the words entirely.

"What did you say?"

He leaned forward, dangerously close, demanding the answer.

But Soren, clever, careful Soren, shifted course instantly, that calculating gleam sliding back into his tone.

"Our friendship does mean a lot to me," he said instead.

"After all, you saved me once."

A quiet concession. A reminder. A debt left unpaid.

The tension between them softened for half a breath...

then hardened again as Caelen spoke, raw and broken:

"Then why are you doing this to me?"

The question hung heavy, suffocating.

There was no command in it. Only pleading.

The great King of Solmire, begging for sense from the only man he’d ever trusted.

Soren’s answer came slow, deliberate, his tone colder now...

the veneer of patience cracking to reveal the irritation beneath.

"What exactly am I doing, Caelen?" he asked, with infuriating calm.

"What crime have I committed by asking Eris to be my wife?"

He tilted his head slightly, as though genuinely puzzled.

"You’ve always suffered at her hands," he continued, almost gently, like reciting a truth everyone already knew.

"And I... magnanimous as I am... am offering to take her off yours."

It was logic dressed in silk. Cruel, clinical, undeniable logic.

Caelen’s mouth opened, then closed.

No words came.

Because Soren was right.

At least, technically.

By every measure of reason, this should have been a victory.

Freedom, peace, closure, all handed to him in one outrageous proposal.

And yet...

The ache in his chest said otherwise.

He wasn’t relieved.

He wasn’t calm.

He wasn’t anything close to what he should be.

He only knew one thing with brutal, maddening clarity:

He didn’t want Eris to belong to anyone.

Not even the man he once called brother.

For a single heartbeat, the grand ballroom, so gilded, so reverent, so utterly fragile in its beauty felt like it was holding its breath.

Then Soren, ever the puppeteer of tension, chose the perfect moment to twist the knife.

The playful smile was back. That same disarming, infuriating curve of lips that always managed to make sin sound like charm. His voice, smooth as honeyed frost, carried easily through the stunned quiet:

"You almost seem like you don’t want to let go of her majesty."

There it was.

A sentence tossed like a spark into a room made of oil.

The crowd reacted exactly as one might expect,

a chorus of gasps, the rustle of silk and feathers, the delicious scrape of scandal unfurling like wildfire.

"Did you hear that?"

"He doesn’t want to let her go?"

"But he has Lady Ophelia!"

"Could he still have feelings for the Queen?"

"This is scandalous!"

Oh, how quickly admiration turned to amusement, and amusement to mockery. Nobles leaned together like flowers toward the sun, whispering, feeding, devouring. The rumor mill spun so fast the air itself seemed to hum with it.

And poor Ophelia... sweet, docile Ophelia, stood there like a ghost among the living. She had not moved since the chaos began. But now, her composure, the one thing she always held tighter than pride, was slipping.

She saw it all.

Caelen’s trembling hands still clutching Soren’s collar.

His voice breaking, his eyes desperate.

The kind of desperation no man should have for a woman he claims to hate.

Her throat burned.

Not from tears, but from the humiliation of understanding.

She was supposed to be the one he loved.

She had always been the one he chose.

And yet, in this moment... he looked like a man losing something sacred. Something his.

The decision came suddenly. Coldly.

Like glass shattering after too much strain.

Her voice cut through the noise, clear, elegant, merciless:

"I’ve seen enough of your theatrics."

That was all she said.

No one dared to stop her as she turned.

Her gown whispered across the marble, trailing a faint scent of rose and resignation.

She didn’t look back.

Didn’t bow. Didn’t flinch.

The great Queen Eris simply walked away, her departure as sharp and final as a blade’s edge.

But Soren, ah, Soren was not done.

He never was.

"You didn’t give me an answer, your majesty"

he called out, voice carrying effortlessly through the ballroom.

Not a plea. Not even a command.

Just a statement of fact, heavy with challenge.

All eyes turned to Eris.

She paused in the archway, framed by the flickering gold of firelight and shadow. Slowly, she looked over her shoulder.

And what a look it was.

Not fiery, no, fire is too kind, too warm.

This was colder than that. A disdain carved into something divine.

Her gaze found Soren’s with lethal precision, and though she spoke no words, the message was clear as glass:

You’ve overstepped. Don’t test me again.

Then she turned back, the train of her gown catching the light as she strode forward,

out of the ballroom, out of reach, out of their chaos.

The doors closed behind her with a soft, echoing finality.

And there stood Soren, still smiling, faintly, unfazed.

He had not received an answer.

But neither had he received a "no."

And for a man like him,

that meant he could still get what he wanted.