CHAPTER TWO
966 Words
The Man Who Shouldn't Remember
_______________________________________
The cathedral erupted into chaos.
"What do you mean she refused?"
"Is this some kind of joke?"
"The wedding can't simply stop!"
"The future queen has gone mad!"
The nobles whispered frantically while the Archbishop stood frozen before the altar.
King Aldric, Adrian's father, slammed his jeweled cane against the marble floor.
"Seraphina Everhart!"
His thunderous voice echoed throughout the cathedral.
"You will return this instant!"
But Seraphina didn't even slow her steps.
The heavy cathedral doors opened.
Sunlight poured over her white wedding dress as she walked outside.
Each step felt lighter.
For the first time in years...
She could breathe.
---
Behind her—
"Seraphina!"
Adrian's voice.
She stopped.
Slowly turning around, she found him standing several steps away. His royal cloak trailed behind him, his expression a mixture of disbelief and humiliation.
The nobles watched from the cathedral entrance.
None dared interrupt.
"What game are you playing?" Adrian demanded.
Seraphina tilted her head.
Game?
No...
The game hadn't started yet.
"If anyone is playing a game, Adrian..." she replied softly, "...it's not me."
His brows knitted together.
"I don't understand."
"Of course you don't."
Not yet.
"You told me you loved me."
"I did."
"And now?"
She looked into the eyes she had once adored.
"I don't."
The words landed harder than any slap.
Adrian staggered back slightly.
"You can't mean that."
"I do."
"Did someone threaten you?"
"No."
"Then why?"
Seraphina smiled politely.
"Because I finally opened my eyes."
Without waiting for another question, she turned and descended the palace steps.
The wedding guests parted instinctively.
No one dared block her path.
---
Near the palace gates...
A black carriage waited.
Its doors were decorated with a silver wolf crest.
The emblem of House Draven.
Standing beside it was the man who had whispered those impossible words.
Grand Duke Kael Draven.
He was dressed entirely in black, a silver sword hanging at his side.
His sharp silver-gray eyes followed Seraphina as though he'd expected her to come.
She stopped a few feet away.
Neither of them spoke.
The wind carried the scent of white roses through the courtyard.
Finally...
Seraphina broke the silence.
"Who are you?"
Kael raised an eyebrow.
"I believe everyone here knows who I am."
"No."
She stepped closer.
"I know who Grand Duke Kael Draven is."
Her gaze hardened.
"I want to know who *you* are."
For the first time...
A faint smile tugged at the corner of his lips.
"Good."
She narrowed her eyes.
"You've changed."
He chuckled quietly.
"So have you."
Her heart skipped.
"You remember."
It wasn't a question.
It was certainty.
Kael looked toward the palace where Adrian was still surrounded by panicked nobles.
"I remember everything."
The execution.
The betrayal.
The blood.
The storm.
Everything.
Seraphina felt the world tilt beneath her feet.
She had spent the last hour believing she was completely alone.
She wasn't.
There was another survivor.
---
"How?" she whispered.
Kael didn't answer immediately.
Instead, he opened the carriage door.
"Not here."
"They'll be watching."
Seraphina glanced behind her.
From one of the cathedral windows...
Vivienne was staring directly at them.
Even from this distance...
Seraphina recognized that smile.
The smile of a woman who believed she was already victorious.
How ironic.
Vivienne had no idea that history had just changed.
---
"I don't trust you," Seraphina admitted.
Kael nodded.
"You shouldn't."
His honesty caught her off guard.
"But if you stay here," he continued, "your father will convince you to return to the altar."
"King Aldric will force the marriage."
"Vivienne will find another way to get close to Adrian."
"And in three years..."
His silver eyes met hers.
"You'll die exactly as before."
Silence.
Only the breeze answered.
Kael extended one gloved hand.
"So..."
"What will it be, Your Majesty?"
"Will you repeat the past?"
"Or will you rewrite it?"
Seraphina stared at his hand.
In her previous life...
She had reached for Adrian's.
This time...
She reached for the hand of the man she had once considered her greatest enemy.
The moment their hands touched—
A blinding flash exploded before her eyes.
Broken crowns.
A battlefield soaked in crimson.
A child crying.
A black dragon soaring across a burning capital.
Kael kneeling before her...
His armor covered in blood.
And a voice echoed through the vision.
"Only one of you was sent back."
"The other... never left."
The vision shattered.
Seraphina gasped, pulling her hand away.
"What... was that?"
Kael's expression darkened.
"So you saw it too."
"Saw what?"
Before he could answer—
"STOP THEM!"
The roar came from behind.
King Aldric had finally reached the palace courtyard.
Royal guards flooded down the steps, swords drawn.
"By order of the King!"
"Grand Duke Kael Draven, you are forbidden from taking Lady Seraphina Everhart from the palace grounds!"
Kael sighed.
"They're earlier than I expected."
Seraphina looked from the approaching guards to Kael.
"What now?"
Kael opened the carriage door completely.
A confident smile appeared on his face.
"Now..."
"We make our first move."
He looked directly at the commander of the royal guards.
"Tell your king..."
"...that the woman he wanted as his daughter-in-law has chosen another path."
Then Kael turned back to Seraphina.
"Your Majesty..."
"Shall we leave before they realize they can no longer control the board?"
Seraphina looked once toward the palace.
Toward Adrian.
Toward Vivienne.
Toward the life that had once destroyed her.
Then, without hesitation—
She stepped into Kael's carriage.
Behind them, the royal guards surged forward.
The coachman cracked the reins.
The black horses lunged ahead.
As the carriage thundered through the palace gates, Seraphina didn't look back.
Not once.
Because queens who return from the dead don't run from the past.
They ride toward the future.
End of Chapter Two
- Writer
