Chapter 174: Peace

I gave up struggling after a few more futile attempts, recognizing that he was considerably stronger than me and that fighting only made this more undignified. Also, his shoulder was actually comfortable, and I was genuinely exhausted.

We passed two guards stationed in the corridor, and both of them froze, their eyes fixed firmly on the opposite wall as though not seeing the Emperor carrying his future Empress over his shoulder would somehow make this less scandalous.

A trio of maids scattered like frightened birds when we turned the corner, their whispers following us down the hallway.

One unfortunate noble… I didn’t catch who… flattened himself against the wall as we passed, his expression suggesting he was witnessing something he desperately wished he could unsee.

And then, gods help me, we encountered Aldric.

The Emperor’s secretary looked like he’d aged another decade since the feast ended. He was walking toward his own chambers, probably hoping to finally sleep after the most exhausting evening of his professional life, and then he saw us.

His expression didn’t change. He simply stopped walking, closed his eyes, and sighed so deeply I thought he might actually expire from the force of it.

“Don’t,” he said without opening his eyes. “Whatever you’re about to explain, I don’t want to hear it.”

“Good evening, Aldric,” Soren called cheerfully, not slowing his stride.

“I’m glad to see you both thriving,” Aldric replied, still not looking. “I shall pretend I didn’t see this.”

We left him standing there, and I felt almost sorry for him. Almost.

Eventually, I stopped struggling entirely. Too tired. Too warm. And despite the indignity of being carried like luggage, his shoulder really was comfortable.

I noticed we were heading away from the main residential wings, toward sections of the palace I hadn’t explored yet. The corridors grew quieter, less trafficked, the torches spaced further apart.

“Where are you taking me?” I asked, finally admitting curiosity.

“You’ll see.”

We descended stairs… thankfully he adjusted his grip so I didn’t bounce too much… and passed through passages that felt older than the rest of the palace. The stone here was different, more weathered, carrying the weight of centuries rather than decades.

We were heading toward the abandoned sections. The old wing.

“Soren…”

“Trust me.”

And because I was apparently a fool, I did.

We descended further, the air growing cooler… though still not uncomfortable against my skin… and then he stopped before a set of massive doors I hadn’t noticed on any of the palace maps.

He set me down gently, his hands lingering at my waist to steady me, and then pushed the doors open.

The sight beyond stole every coherent thought from my mind.

It was a forest.

An entire forest, somehow existing beneath the palace, enclosed in a cavern so vast I couldn’t see where it ended. But this wasn’t any forest I’d ever seen.

The trees glowed.

Their bark shimmered with bioluminescent light… blues and greens and purples that pulsed gently like heartbeats. Their leaves were translucent, catching and refracting the glow until the entire canopy looked like captured starlight. A stream ran through the center, its water so clear it reflected the glowing trees perfectly, doubling the effect until I couldn’t tell where reality ended and reflection began.

Floating lights drifted through the air like captive stars, moving with no discernible pattern, their glow soft and warm despite their cold color.

It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.

I stepped forward without thinking, drawn by beauty that transcended anything I’d imagined, and felt Soren’s presence behind me… steady, warm, pleased that I was pleased.

“How…” I couldn’t form a complete sentence. “What is this place?”

“The Heart of Nevareth,” he said quietly. “Where the ice magic that built this empire first touched earth. It’s been here since before the palace was constructed… they built around it rather than destroying it.”

I moved further into the forest, my bare feet touching moss that glowed faintly under my steps, and felt something inside me… something that had been tense and coiled for hours… finally relax.

“No one comes here,” Soren continued, following me into the glowing beauty. “It’s been forgotten by most of the court. But I thought…”

He paused, and I turned to look at him, this man who’d somehow seen past my fire to recognize that I needed this. This quiet. This beauty. This moment of peace after an evening of warfare.

“I thought you’d like it,” he finished simply.

I stared at him for a long moment, at this emperor who carried me through his palace like a sack of grain and then brought me to the most beautiful place in his empire, and felt something shift in my chest.

Something dangerous.

Something I absolutely could not afford to feel.

His smile, when it came, was genuine. Unguarded. The expression of someone who’d given a gift and watched it be received exactly as intended.

We walked deeper into the glowing forest without conscious thought, drawn forward by beauty that transcended anything I’d imagined could exist beneath stone and ice.

The trees grew denser here, their bioluminescent bark pulsing with rhythms that felt almost like heartbeats… slow, steady, ancient.

It was the most peaceful place I’d ever been.

And it began to terrify me more than I wanted to admit.

Because standing here, I felt something inside my chest crack open. Something I’d been keeping carefully locked away since the moment I’d agreed to this arrangement.

I was softening toward him.

Not just physical attraction…that had been present from the beginning, undeniable and inconvenient. This was something deeper. More dangerous. The kind of feeling that led to caring, to attachment, to the exact vulnerability I absolutely could not afford.

Not when I had very few time left. Maybe less, depending on how stable the river’s seal proved to be.

Not when falling in love again would mean leaving behind another person to grieve, another heart broken by my inevitable destruction.

Not when I’d already learned, brutally and repeatedly, that love only ever ended in pain.

Near the stream’s edge, where the moss grew thick and soft, pulsing with the same gentle light as everything else in this place, I stopped. Found a relatively flat spot and sank down onto it, the cushioned surface yielding beneath me like the world’s most comfortable seat.

Soren followed, settling beside me with that same unhurried grace he brought to everything. Close enough that our shoulders nearly touched. Far enough that I could still breathe without his proximity overwhelming my already compromised composure.

For a long moment, we sat in silence. Watching the stream flow past. Listening to sounds that weren’t quite sounds… more like the absence of noise, the kind of quiet that existed in places too sacred or too forgotten for the normal chaos of the world to penetrate.

It was Soren who’d given me this. This moment of peace after an evening of warfare. This beauty after hours of calculated cruelty and political maneuvering.

And that generosity, that thoughtfulness, made what I was about to do feel even more necessary.

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