Malakai?!
706 Words
This never happened in the novel.
The thought echoed through my head so loudly I barely heard the crowd around us.
Malakai was not supposed to be here.
He wasn’t supposed to catch me before I collapsed.
He wasn’t supposed to look worried.
And he definitely wasn’t supposed to be holding me like I mattered.
Yet his arm stayed firmly around my waist, steadying me against him while the frightened child clung tightly to my dress.
“You’re bleeding.”
His voice was calm, but there was tension beneath it now.
Real tension.
I stared at him blankly for a second before looking down.
Blood stained the side of my red sleeve where my arm had scraped violently across the stone road. My shoulder hurt badly enough that even breathing felt uncomfortable.
Oh.
That explained the dizziness.
The little girl suddenly started crying harder against me.
“I-I’m sorry,” she sobbed. “I couldn’t move—”
“It’s okay,” I said instinctively, forcing my voice softer despite the pain. “You’re safe.”
The child’s mother rushed through the crowd a second later, collapsing beside us as tears streamed down her face.
“Thank the Moon Goddess,” she cried, pulling her daughter into her arms. “Thank you, my lady. Thank you so much.”
My lady.
The words felt strange directed at me.
Or maybe at Seraphina.
Around us, whispers had already started spreading through the crowd.
“That’s the Luna.”
“She saved the child herself?”
“I thought Lady Seraphina hated commoners.”
“She could’ve been killed.”
I stiffened slightly.
Right.
The villainess.
People weren’t shocked because I got hurt.
They were shocked because Seraphina helped someone at all.
Something cold twisted inside my chest at the realization.
Malakai seemed to notice my expression shift.
His gaze lingered on me quietly for a moment before he spoke again.
“You need a physician.”
“I’m fine.”
A lie.
A terrible one.
The second I tried stepping away from him, pain shot through my side sharply enough to make me stumble.
His grip tightened immediately.
“You’re not.”
The words were simple.
Firm.
Not cruel.
That somehow unsettled me more.
Because this wasn’t the Malakai I remembered from the execution.
This version of him looked genuinely concerned.
Which made no sense.
Sheryl finally pushed through the crowd looking horrified.
“My lady!”
The moment she saw the blood, she nearly went pale herself.
“Oh my God—”
“I’m okay,” I tried reassuring her weakly.
Neither of them looked convinced.
Malakai glanced toward the knights now arriving to control the panicked horses before looking back at me again.
“You shouldn’t have run into that alone.”
The comment almost sounded irritated.
But beneath it—
Something else lingered there.
Something closer to fear.
I frowned slightly.
Fear?
For me?
No.
That couldn’t be right.
Nothing about this felt right.
In the novel, the Moon Festival was supposed to be the beginning of Seraphina’s isolation.
Not this.
Not people staring at her with admiration instead of disgust.
Not Malakai kneeling beside her in the middle of the street.
Not his hand tightening around hers every time she nearly lost balance.
This wasn’t how the story went.
Then why did it feel like the story itself had shifted?
Malakai carefully brushed a strand of hair away from my face, his expression tightening slightly at the scrape near my temple.
“You hit your head too.”
My breath caught for the smallest second.
The gesture felt strangely gentle.
Dangerously gentle.
And suddenly I remembered something terrifying.
The original Seraphina loved him.
Completely.
Desperately.
No matter how cold he became.
No matter how badly it ended.
I immediately stepped back from him.
Too fast.
Pain shot through me again, but I ignored it.
Distance.
I needed distance.
Malakai’s eyes narrowed slightly at the movement.
Not angry.
Confused.
Like he couldn’t understand why I kept pulling away from him.
Honestly?
Neither could I.
Because a small, traitorous part of me had already noticed something impossible tonight.
The man standing in front of me looked nothing like the monster from the final chapter.
- Writer
