Scene: Blackwood Imperial Medical Center – Midnight Hour, King's Chamber
POV: Amara Blackwood
I didn't leave.
Not when the nurses offered to escort me out.
Not when General Soren messaged me, asking for a response to the growing unrest outside the gates.
Not when the world began to question if Blackwood still had a King.
I sat.
Unmoving.
My hand still wrapped around his. My other arm wrapped around myself, as if holding me together.
The night grew colder. The lights in the corridor dimmed. Yet inside this room, everything remained unchanged.
He lay there. Still.
Not dead.
Not alive in the way I knew him.
And Chris Blackwood was never still.
Even in sleep, he used to twitch, mumble, breathe like someone chasing down their own legend in a dream. But now… nothing.
I studied every inch of his face.
How was it possible he still looked strong?
Even now… unconscious… he looked like a man who could rise at any moment and say, "Bring me the council."
---
But he wasn't speaking.
And that silence?
It was starting to haunt me.
---
I reached up, brushing his hair back from his forehead gently.
> "You remember what you told me before our wedding?"
> "You said, 'The world may fear me, but you… you're the one I fear losing.'"
I smiled bitterly.
> "You liar."
---
My voice dropped.
> "You never feared anything."
> "Not the rebellion. Not Skylar. Not Christiana. Not even death."
I leaned in close, nose nearly brushing his.
> "So what is this? Is this your punishment? Is this your final power play? To leave me here while the world watches… and waits?"
I swallowed.
My throat felt like sand.
> "You want me to take control. To be what you were."
I looked him in the face, finally saying the words I'd never admitted out loud.
> "I don't want to rule without you."
---
I stood suddenly. The chair scraped back hard against the floor.
My fists clenched. My eyes burned.
I turned to the window, looking over the Blackwood skyline in the distance.
The world hadn't stopped for us.
It wouldn't.
And if he wouldn't wake up…
Then I would make sure no one ever forgot who still sat on the throne beside his bed.
---
> "I'll keep your seat warm," I whispered. "But don't take too long, my King. Because even I… have a limit."
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