Damien's POV
Darkness.
That's the first thing I know. Not sleep. Not rest. Just… suffocating, endless darkness.
My chest feels like it's burning, as if someone poured fire into my veins. The air refuses to stay in my lungs, every breath is a war I keep losing. Somewhere far away, I hear voices, Selene's, panicked and breaking, Kael's steady tone trying to hold her together. But they sound muffled, as though they're shouting at me through a wall of water.
I want to reach for her. Tell her I'm here, I'm fighting. But my body doesn't move. My lips don't part. I'm trapped inside myself, and the only thing I have left are my thoughts.
And him.
Adrian.
His name is the first thing that claws its way through the haze. Not Selene, not Kael, not even the physician who I know must be here by now. No, Adrian. My mind drags me back to the way his lips brushed mine. The quiet intensity in his eyes when he thought I wasn't paying attention. The gentleness in the way his hand lingered against my jaw, like he was afraid I'd vanish if he let go.
Gods, I was falling. I was already falling.
But then, Lucien.
Lucien, with his shadowed smirk, his blade of loyalty sharpened to Adrian's will. Lucien, who does nothing without purpose, without Adrian's command.
The poison eats deeper into me, and the thought becomes a scream in my head, Adrian sent him.
My stomach twists violently, though I know it's only my mind now. Betrayal burns hotter than the poison. Did he truly send Lucien, knowing what it would do to me? Knowing how deeply I had begun to feel? Was every smile, every word, every stolen moment just a web to pull me closer, so it would hurt more when he cut me down?
The darkness shifts. Shapes form, not real but vivid. A memory? A hallucination? I can't tell anymore.
Adrian stands before me, cloaked in black, his eyes glowing like embers. He reaches for me, and my heart leaps, stupid, desperate, until his fingers drip with blood. My blood. His lips curve, not into the soft smile I knew, but into something cruel, something cold.
"Did you really think I could love you, Damien?" his voice echoes in the void. "It was always a game. You were always meant to fall."
"No…" My voice doesn't leave my throat, but inside, I scream it. "No, Adrian… you're not like this. You can't be."
But doubt coils tighter. What if he is? What if the warmth in his gaze was nothing more than an illusion, crafted so I'd never see the knife until it was buried deep?
Tears sting, though my eyes remain closed in the real world. I feel them all the same, sliding down the inside of me where no one will ever see.
How could you?
You touched me like I mattered. You kissed me like you were starving, like I was the only thing in the world you wanted. You looked at me like, like I was more than a weapon, more than a prince, more than the weight I carry.
And now I bleed because of you.
The darkness pulls me deeper, dragging me through memories I can't escape.
Selene, younger, laughing as she tugged me into the gardens, her hair catching the sunlight like spun gold. Kael, promising with a fire in his voice that he would always protect me, no matter what. And then, Adrian again, newer but no less potent. His eyes soft in the candlelight. The way he whispered my name, like it meant something.
But memory twists cruelly. Selene fades into tears, Kael into disappointment. And Adrian, he just keeps smiling that same false smile, blood blooming on his lips like a kiss I can never scrub away.
"Was it all a lie?" I whisper to the darkness. "Did you ever feel anything? Or was I just another move in your game, another piece in your plan to take what you wanted?"
I want to hate him. I want anger to burn hotter than this grief. But I can't. Even poisoned, even betrayed, I can't. Because beneath all the doubt, the hurt, the searing ache of betrayal, I remember the way my heart stuttered when he looked at me. The way I felt whole for the first time when he was near.
And that is the cruelest cut of all.
Because love doesn't vanish, even when trust shatters.
My chest convulses, a shudder that ripples through the void. Somewhere, distantly, I hear Selene's voice again, sharper now, breaking. She's begging the physician, refusing to leave my side. My sister. My anchor. Gods, I can almost see her face, streaked with tears.
Don't cry, Selene. I try to push the thought toward her, as if sheer will can cross the gulf between consciousness and this endless night. Don't cry. I'll fight. I'll come back.
But then Lucien's shadow cuts across my mind again, smirking, ever faithful to Adrian. And the betrayal sinks its teeth deeper.
Adrian knew. He had to know. Lucien never moves without him. Which means, this wasn't just an accident. This wasn't fate. It was Adrian's choice.
My heart fractures under the weight of it.
"I was starting to love you," I whisper into the void, my voice shaking, raw. "And you… you destroyed me."
Images assault me, Adrian's lips brushing mine, the taste of warmth and promise. His hand threading into my hair, tugging me close like he couldn't bear to let me go. The softness in his gaze that night, when I thought, no, when I knew that maybe this was real.
And now… was it ever? Or was I just fooling myself?
Was I just another pawn to him?
Tears fall harder in the silence, though my body in the real world lies still. Inside, though, I'm breaking apart.
I want to believe he cared. I want to believe some part of what we shared was real, that I wasn't completely blind, completely stupid. But doubt is poison sharper than the one in my veins.
If I survive this… if I ever open my eyes again… how will I look at him and not see this moment? Not feel this betrayal?
But gods help me, if I don't survive, my last thoughts are of him. The traitor. The man I wanted. The man who may have destroyed me.
And that hurts worst of all.
I sink deeper, caught between shadows and memories, clinging to Selene's voice, Kael's steadiness, and the faint echo of Adrian's kiss wondering if it meant nothing, or if that fleeting softness was the only truth he ever gave me.
Was I worth anything to you, Adrian? Or was I only ever your game?
Darkness swallows me whole before I can find the answer.