THE FEAR OF LOVE
The warmth in my chest felt like a lie.
As the door clicked shut behind Esmeralda, the silence of the room rushed back in, but it wasn't the same silence as before. It was heavy. It was loud. I stood in the center of the floor, my hands trembling. For the first time in months, my side didn't ache. My lungs didn't burn when I took a breath.
But as I looked at the maps on my desk, I didn't feel like a King who had been saved. I felt like a man who had just signed a death warrant.
"What have I done?" I whispered to the empty room.
I walked to the window and watched her small figure move through the camp. She looked fragile in the rain. She had given me her strength, and in doing so, she had left herself hollow. I could still taste her kiss, and it tasted like a beginnin
