The Villainess Wants To Retire-Chapter 522: Hidden wish

"That sounds like surveillance," I said, my voice dry, testing the boundaries.

"It is," he replied, offering no apology.

I gave him my most dangerous look, the one that usually made magistrates tremble. He didn’t flinch.

"I don’t care," he said, meeting the look head-on. "You can be as angry with me as you want. You will be attended to. I won’t lose you to a silent room because no one was there to catch the fire."

Then, the authority left him again. His voice dropped to a jagged whisper. "I watched you out there. Protecting me. While I was..." He stopped, unable to voice the shame of his temporary unconsciousness.

"You were unconscious," I said matter-of-factly. "Someone had to keep the wolves back."

"Eris." It was a warning. Stop deflecting.

I went silent, letting the weight of his gaze settle over me.

"Every crack, I counted them," he whispered. "On you. While I couldn’t move. While I couldn’t reach you. I can’t..." He stopped himself, the emotion clearly becoming too much for him to manage.

He had seen it all. Every fracture I’d tried to hide, every gasp of pain I’d tried to swallow.

And in that moment, looking at this broken, blonde-haired man who had fought the world just to stand beside me, it hit me with the force of a landslide.

I had fallen in love with the right man.

I felt a small, secret smile touch my lips.

This was what I had wanted in the second life I was granted.

My hidden wish, buried under layers of vengeance and political maneuvering, was simply to know what it felt like to be loved.

Truly loved. Not for my utility, not for my crown, but for the messy, volatile soul underneath.

This story, for all its cruelty, had granted that wish. I was a lucky woman. It was more than enough for me to leave this world happily, if that was what the fates demanded.

I turned toward him fully and reached out, my hand finding his where it rested between us. I took it, my fingers lacing through his.

He went very still, his breath hitching as if he hadn’t expected me to be the one to bridge the gap.

"Go fix your empire," I told him, my voice steady. "Come back. And when you do... we’ll figure out the rest. Together."

His expression was complex, a knot of longing and fear that I didn’t have a name for. "And if I’m gone longer than—" He couldn’t finish the thought. The fear of returning to a grave was written in the tremor of his jaw.

"I’ll still be here," I promised, my voice firm.

"You don’t know that," he countered, the harsh truth of our reality bleeding through.

"No," I admitted. "But I intend to be. And you know how stubborn I am."

Soren leaned forward, his forehead dropping to rest against mine. We stayed like that for an eternity, just breathing each other’s air, the world outside the door forgotten. The contact was a prayer, a silent pact made in the ruins.

"I love you," he whispered, his voice vibrating against my skin. "I really do, Eris. So much that it hurts."

Something happened in my chest, not the violent, soul-searing heat of Pyronox, but a soft, radiant warmth that was entirely my own. My heart felt like it was expanding, pressing against the cracks in my ribs.

I froze. My tongue felt like lead.

Should I say it back? Was it a kindness to let him leave with those words in his ears, or was it a punishment to give him something else to lose?

Fear, cold and sharp, paralyzed me. I opened my mouth, but the words wouldn’t come. I was terrified of the finality of it.

Before I could find my voice, he pulled back just enough to look at me. "You don’t have to say it back," he said, his voice thick with a forced understanding. "I don’t expect you to. I just needed to let you know now... before I regret not saying it sooner."

I felt the distinct, crystalline sound of my heart breaking. I didn’t know what expression I was making, but it was enough to make him smile weakly. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

He reached up, cupping my face in his hands, his thumbs stroking the fractures on my cheekbones. He saw my hesitation and chose to spare me from it.

His breath was warm against my forehead as he exhaled slowly, the weight of his confession received and settled. We sat in the silence that followed, neither of us moving, until a soft, apologetic knock sounded at the door.

Aldric.

Soren didn’t move immediately. He took one more moment, one last breath of me.

"The horses are ready," Aldric’s voice came through the wood. "When you are, Your Majesty."

Soren lifted his head. He looked at me one last time, his eyes wide and drinking in the image of me, as if he were trying to paint it onto the inside of his eyelids.

He stood up, still holding my hand, his fingers clinging to mine until the very last possible second. The letting go was slow, deliberate, and excruciating.

He turned and began to walk toward the door, his back to me.

"Soren!" I called out.

He stopped and turned, his hand on the latch. "What?"

"Don’t be careless," I said, my voice flat, masking the scream behind my teeth.

He read the subtext instantly. He understood that don’t be careless meant stay alive because I am not ready to be without you.

"I never am," he said. It was the last thing he told me before the door closed and he was gone.

The room fell into an oppressive quiet. I sat alone with the maps and the dying candles, the distant sounds of the palace being mended feeling like a mockery.

My lap felt cold where his hand had been.

The cracks were still there, pulsing faintly with a golden light.