Chapter 269

Emeriel’s tears flowed freely now, impossible to contain. “Please stop. Seeing you like this is tearing me apart.”

A third tear fell, his face contorting in anguish. “I am so sorry-”

“Do not apologize, please.”

“I am so, so, so sorry, Emeriel. This was all my fault. It was all my-”

“Stop blaming yourself!” she hissed fiercely. “Every misfortune that happens is not your fault, do you hear me? It was meant to happen! It was unavoidable! We must try to move past it! We mourn what could have been, but we cannot blame ourselves endlessly.”

Another tear fell, and she wiped it away, her own tears flowing like a river. “We are living beings, Daemon. We are bound to make mistakes, and sometimes… accidents happen. Some things are simply meant to be. Some things cannot be prevented.”

As she spoke, her words resounded deeply within her.

All these years, she had blamed herself. Some nights, in the darkness, she had even blamed him. She had hated them both for what happened.

“Casting blame solves nothing,” she continued in a softer tone. “It only makes the pain worse. How can we heal and move forward when we let guilt take the reins?”

“Riel… it hurts.”

“I know.” She wiped his tears on her sleeve. “It is okay, let it out. I’ve got you, my dearest Beloved. Let it all out.”

She pressed his head to her midriff, her arms encircling him passionately. As his body trembled in her hold, she stroked his hair soothingly, petting him.

“It is okay to release it all. Do not give guilt the power it craves. Guilt peels away the salves on a wound, leaving it raw… scarred… never to heal.”

The wind swept through the meadow, tugging at their clothes, whispering through the grass.

his tears soaking into her dress. “Everyone meant

Yet he held her tighter. “I should not have stopped you from leaving

you, Your Grace, cannot run from me. Because this time, I will chase you to

arms on her contracted, pulling her impossibly closer. The raw emotions radiating from him were like waves crashing against

I hadn’t rejected you the way I did… if I hadn’t sent you away, none of this would have happened.” “You made the right decision.

but you did the right thing sending me away, and I’m so sorry it took so long

that.”

held on, her thumb tracing circles against his skin. “You needed to find yourself! needed to find myself. I was a slave, and you

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Chapter 269

I was thrown at you. Someone you did not choose. Someone from the very species that took your family, who has the potential to replace what

trembled, and he didn’t meet her eyes, but she knew his whole attention was with

pain it brought. But that separation was necessary. It forced us to grow. To understand what we truly wanted. We needed that time apart, Daemon. We

head returned to rest against her middle, and

years began to ebb, taken

him, she found herself

had carried for so long–the self–recrimination and what ifs–they started to dissolve like smoke in the wind.

so much lighter. Freer. The burden she carried

lost track of how

stars, the moon, and the wind bore witness to this vulnerable time. This heartbreaking moment

didn’t

waist ached

hold loosening as

“Do you

asked in a

shining through the pain. “You, Emeriel, are a rare treasure. Thank you

to thank me. Not for

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