Chapter Four – Hidden Bonds
661 Words
The forest became their sanctuary.
Days passed, then weeks, and somehow, Hadez always found her waiting — sometimes by the stream, sometimes near the old stone ruins beyond the village. At first, their meetings were cautious, filled with stolen glances and nervous silences. But soon, words began to flow between them as easily as the water that ran beneath the mossy stones.
On one such afternoon, Seraphina perched on a fallen log, her cloak cast aside as though she no longer cared if the trees saw her. Hadez sat nearby, sharpening a dagger, though his eyes strayed to her far more often than the blade.
“You’re staring again,” she said, smirking without looking up.
“You keep accusing me of that,” Hadez replied, a faint smile tugging at his lips. “Maybe it’s because you’re impossible not to look at.”
Seraphina pretended to gasp. “Flattery, blacksmith? Dangerous ground. What if I grow used to it?”
“Then I’ll have no choice but to keep at it,” he said, surprising even himself with the boldness.
Her laugh rang like chimes through the clearing, but when her gaze returned to him, there was a softness beneath the mischief. “You’re not like anyone at court,” she admitted. “They flatter with polished words, empty of truth. Yours… yours feel real.”
Hadez’s throat tightened. He looked down at the dagger, avoiding her eyes. “Maybe because I don’t know how to lie well.”
“Good,” she said, leaning forward. “Then don’t.”
For a moment, the silence between them was warm, comfortable. Then Seraphina tilted her head curiously.
“Tell me, Hadez,” she said. “What would you do if you were free of this place? If you weren’t bound to Kael’s forge, if the world opened before you?”
The question struck deep. He paused, searching for words.
“I’d travel,” he said finally. “See the mountains in the north, the sea in the east. I’d stand somewhere no one knows my name and breathe without feeling… small.”
Her eyes glimmered. “Then we are the same.”
He frowned. “The same? You’re a princess.”
“Yes,” she said bitterly, “a princess trapped in a gilded cage. Everyone thinks my life is filled with choices, but every choice is made for me. Who I marry. Where I sit. What I say. Sometimes I wish…” She stopped, biting her lip.
“What?” Hadez pressed gently.
She looked away, her voice barely above a whisper. “Sometimes I wish I had been born no one. That I could walk a market without guards, speak without fear, laugh without permission.”
Hadez studied her, the ache in her words pulling at something deep within him. Quietly, he said, “Then maybe we envy the wrong things.”
Their eyes met, and in that moment, the world around them seemed to vanish.
Seraphina smiled faintly. “Careful, Hadez. You’re beginning to sound like a poet.”
He smirked. “Don’t tell anyone. It’ll ruin my reputation as a hammer-swinger.”
She laughed again, but softer this time, and Hadez felt warmth bloom in his chest.
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That night, however, as Hadez walked back through the village, he noticed something unsettling. A cloaked stranger lingered at the edge of the square, watching him with too much interest. When Hadez’s eyes met his, the man turned sharply and disappeared into the shadows.
A chill ran down Hadez’s spine.
Somehow, he knew their secret meetings would not remain secret for long.
- Writer
