Breakthrough.
455 Words
Night fell heavy over the Valerian war camp. Guard shifts changed. Torches dimmed. Horses quieted.
Adrien waited.
His wrists were raw from the rope. His body still ached from Ravenna blades. But his spirit—his spirit was fire.
Seraphina needs me.
That thought alone shattered every fear.
When the guard outside his tent finally yawned and stepped away to relieve himself, Adrien moved. He twisted his bound wrists against the edge of an iron tent spike until blood slicked his hands—
—and the rope snapped.
He stood instantly.
Two more guards approached, but Adrien was a shadow of war—silent, swift, unstoppable. He struck pressure points, disarmed them, and stole a sword and cloak.
The cold night wind greeted him like an omen.
He mounted a horse and whispered:
“Take me to her.”
As he galloped into the darkness, alarms began to ring behind him. The war camp erupted.
But Adrien never looked back.
Whatever punishment awaited him meant nothing.
Only Seraphina mattered.
Only their unborn future—though he did not yet know it—mattered.
He rode toward Ravenna.
Toward danger.
Toward destiny.Seraphina could not sleep.
The moonlight spilling across her chamber floor seemed to pulse with the rhythm of her heartbeat. Her hands trembled as she pressed them once more to her abdomen.
The truth had been whispering to her for days.
Her body felt different.
Warriors recognized their bodies better than any healer.
I am carrying his child…
She curled into herself, breath shaking.
A life conceived in love.
A life that could unite—or destroy—two kingdoms.
Her mother entered quietly, carrying a tray of food Seraphina had barely touched.
Instead of speaking, the queen sat beside her on the bed.
After a long silence, she whispered:
“You’re late.”
Seraphina closed her eyes.
Tears escaped.
Her mother wrapped her arms around her.
“Oh, my brave girl… this changes everything.”
“No,” Seraphina sobbed. “It will change nothing unless Father listens.”
Livia cupped her daughter’s face.
“He will not listen to me… but he will listen to you.”
“Mother—he forbade me from leaving—”
The queen’s expression hardened with fierce maternal resolve.
“Then I will get you out.”
Seraphina stared at her in shock.
“I will not let your child be born into a world forged by hatred,” Livia said. “You and Adrien deserve a future.”
Seraphina clutched her mother tightly, whispering,
“Thank you… thank you.”
Outside, the Ravenna horns began to sound.
War was coming.
And Seraphina felt the weight of two kingdoms and one small, silent heartbeat resting inside her.
- Writer
