Chapter Five – The Truth Revealed
633 Words
The next time they met, it was beneath the crumbling arches of the old temple ruins, a place long forgotten by villagers and half-swallowed by vines. Hadez arrived first, pacing beneath the moss-covered stones, uneasy.
The memory of that cloaked man watching him in the village hadn’t left his mind. He hadn’t told Seraphina — not yet. But he could not shake the feeling that someone was following him.
At last, she appeared, stepping lightly through the shadows, her hood drawn low. But this time, Hadez didn’t greet her with a smile.
“You should stop coming here,” he said, his voice low, tense.
She blinked, startled. “Why?”
“Because if someone finds out who you really are—”
“Who I really am,” she repeated softly, lowering her hood. Emerald eyes met his storm-gray ones. “So you do know.”
He hesitated. “The knight in the square… he called your name. Princess Seraphina.”
For a moment, silence stretched between them, heavy with unspoken truths. Then she sighed and sat on a stone, her cloak pooling around her.
“Yes,” she admitted. “I am the Princess of Elaria.”
Hadez’s jaw clenched. He turned away, fists tightening at his sides. “Then this—whatever this is—has to end.”
Her head snapped up. “End? Why?”
“Because you’re royalty,” he said bitterly. “And I’m… nothing. A blacksmith’s apprentice. If the court even knew I spoke to you, they’d hang me in the square.”
Seraphina rose, fire flashing in her eyes. “Do not call yourself nothing.”
Hadez froze, her words cutting sharper than any blade.
“You think titles make us different?” she demanded. “That crowns make someone more? Hadez, I’d trade every jewel I own to live one day as free as you. To choose my own path instead of having it chained to duty.”
He turned, anger and longing warring in his chest. “You call it freedom, but I’ve never felt free a day in my life. I am bound just as tightly as you—only by poverty instead of gold.”
Seraphina stepped closer, her voice softer now. “Then maybe that is why I come here. Because when I am with you, I forget what binds me. And maybe… you forget what binds you too.”
His breath caught as she stood before him, so close he could feel the warmth of her skin.
“Seraphina…” His voice was rough, his resolve faltering.
Her eyes searched his. “Tell me to leave, and I will.”
Hadez’s heart pounded. Every instinct screamed to push her away, to protect them both. But his hand lifted instead, brushing against her cheek. She leaned into the touch, her eyes fluttering closed for a heartbeat too long.
Then, as if struck by the weight of the moment, she pulled back, her breath shaky.
“We are treading on dangerous ground,” she whispered.
“I know,” Hadez said. His voice was steady now, even as his chest ached. “But danger has already found us.”
Before she could ask, he glanced toward the trees. He hadn’t told her yet, but he could feel it again—the sense of eyes watching from the shadows.
And somewhere in the distance, a figure cloaked in black slipped silently away, a cruel smile on his lips.
- Writer
