ARTEMIS' POV
The plan for tonight was to play the part of the perfect son.
The perfect prince.
The perfect fiancé.
To deceive the crowd long enough to think that I'd finally given in, that the marriage was really happening, and then not go along with it in the end.
It was all to buy more time, to convince Sera to run away with me. Everything was going perfectly well until I saw her.
Descending the stairs with Kamila on my arm like a bedazzled accessory, I felt her presence long before our eyes met. I felt it from the fire in my heart, from the wild flames that always came to life whenever she was present.
I knew she was there instinctively, and our eyes met easily amidst the thousands of people waiting for us. She shone the brightest, like a dazzling star.
The world paused for a moment, and I longed to be where she was, standing right next to her instead of her friends, holding her in my arms so no one else could see her perfection the way I did.
I had to hold onto the reigns of control despite how much my wolf yearned to meet her, to touch her, to kiss her.
I played my part, greeting many people just as my father wanted, while still watching her every movement. I knew where she was, who she was talking to, what she was doing at every moment.
I watched when he walked up to her, how long they spoke, when they began to dance.
I held on as long as I could until he kissed her.
He dared to touch her.
I lost my patience, threw everything away because I wouldn't let him have her, wouldn't let him taint one more thing of mine in his obsessive bid to overshadow me and take my life.
I wanted him to bleed enough to never dare look at her or breathe the same air.
I wanted to kill him.
I should have when I had the chance; to put one more obstacle behind us.
Right now, hearing her say words that don't make sense, I want to kill more than just him. Every one of them that pushed her to the point that her perfect eyes are stained with tears, that her skin looks too pale.
"I want to break up, Artemis."
It feels like I've been run over by a truck multiple times and stitched together again.
"W-what?"
"There's no point holding on anymore," she breaks into a full sob, crumbling in front of me.
I don't know what hurts more, watching her cry or knowing she doesn't want me anymore.
"No! No, we're not ending this. I said I can fix it - I will - I swear I will. I can. I just need more time. I need you to trust me," I plead desperately, feeling my heart pounding harder in my chest, on the verge of being ripped out.
She shakes her head again, her eyes telling me she's thought about this over and over again, decided on it, and made up her mind.
"I'm leaving tonight."
The pain in my chest rips through me, and I can physically feel my heart break, every vein in my body burning like lava from her rejection.
My wolf howls in agony, and I barely hold on as well.
I can't let her leave.
I won't.
"No, Sera, please."
"You're getting married. I can't stay and watch you be with someone else. I can't watch everything fall apart and just be okay with it!" she yells, overwhelmed by emotions that are tearing her apart.
I shake my head, denying that I'd ever let it happen, never let her go through any of that alone. But she's resolute.
"You have your whole life ahead of you. You will be an amazing ruler despite what your father thinks. I see your true potential, hidden beneath all that trauma and hurt. Maybe Kamila is the best thing for you too. She's mean, but she's the only one who can give you the strong support you need." A sad smile forms on her lips, saying things that don't make sense, that she clearly doesn't believe.
"No, Sera, I refuse. Regardless of what you think, no one else will ever be good enough for me. The only reason I've gotten better at all is because you challenge me, you make me better. If you're not here, then there's no point in trying to be anything," I argue back, clenching my fists at my sides.
"I won't let this end, Sera. There's nothing you can say or do that will change my mind-"
"I'm an Astria witch," she blurts out before I can say anything more.
It hits me like a wrecking ball, crashing into me without warning.
My ears ring as I experience an out-of-body moment, doubting what I've heard, what she means.
"What?" I mutter, frozen in place.
Her lips quiver with shame, embarrassment, frustration, and anger directed at herself. More tears pour from her eyes, which can no longer meet mine.
"The prophecy was about me. I'm the one destined to end your bloodline and kill everyone," she adds, icing the cake.
I stagger backward, recalling how I ran to her room to tell her about the prophecy, saying so many things without knowing what I was doing to her, that I was driving her away.
"I've been hiding it from you, trying to control the outbursts, but they've gotten worse. I killed a man in the bushes the night of your engagement. He was going to kill me, and I killed him first and felt no remorse afterward. I'm a monster," she says, meeting my eyes again.
So much regret and shame stare back at me, like she truly believes killing one bastard in self-defense makes her a beast unrecognizable to me.
"The longer I stay here, the more real all of this becomes. I feel this power messing with my head every day, my emotions becoming more unstable. I'm hurting people I love. I need to leave, Artemis. I need to be as far away from you as possible so you and everyone else can be safe," she pauses to sniffle, wiping away her tears, gasping for air, fighting through her emotional turmoil to get through to me.
To tell me what could happen regardless of this forced marriage.
What she deems impossible.
Hurting herself in a bid to make everything right.
Holding back so much of what she wants, she declares her grand sacrifice for the betterment of the world, a world of people that never cared much for her.
She suggests I make my own sacrifice as the future ruler of a Wolfdom carefully constructed over a thousand years.
But damn it all, to hell with it.
"Bullshit," I finally say, given the chance to speak again, stopping her before she can waste more breaths.
"What?" She looks at me with wet eyes, confused.
"Why does that have to change anything?" I ask seriously.
She remains silent for a while, taken aback, speechless, before finding words again.
"Did you hear anything I said? I could kill you-I will kill you."
"Then do it. I'd rather you kill me right now than walk away from me, from us, knowing that you are everything to me, that nothing else will ever make sense without you."
She does a double-take, staring at me as if I've gone completely mad, or maybe I'm not listening to what she's saying. But I am, I heard every single detail, and I swear I couldn't care less about any of it.
Maybe I am mad, after all.
She loses her composure again, growing agitated with my blatant refusal to let her go, fuming to the point that her face turns as red as her puffy eyes.
"I'm a witch! I killed a man! My existence is solely born out of spite for your kind, for you. I can't offer you anything more than pain, agony, and death. I am a monster!" she screams in my face, waving her small hands around, trying to convince me how terrible of an idea it would be.
"You're not a monster, and I don't care if you're the literal devil himself wearing a woman's skin right now. No, Sera, I don't care about anything else," I insist, my voice firm yet laced with a raw, desperate edge. "I refuse to let fear, or fate, or some ancient prophecy dictate our lives. I've seen the real you, the kindness in your actions, the warmth in your heart. You are more than what you fear you might become."
"Might? This is not a joke, Artemis. You don't know the things I can do."
"Well, I've always liked a bit of danger."
"You're mad! You're crazy!" she swings her hands around with extravagant gestures to pass her message.
I smile softly, taking a step closer to her. "I love you."
Her lip trembles, and another round of tears fall from her eyes, sliding down her cheek.
"You're insane! You have no single ounce of care or respect for your own body!"
I almost laugh at the irony of hearing those words from Sera - the one girl without a single sense of self-preservation in her.
"You're wrong," I respond gently, covering the distance between us, grabbing her hand hanging in the air, and bringing it down to her side, intertwining our fingers and never letting go.
"It's not insanity, Sera, it's clarity. The clarity that you, in all your chaos and power, are the one thing that makes sense in my life. I'd rather damn myself to those chances, however slim, short, or chaotic they might be. I want you, Sera - all of you. Even if it means going against my first instinct, against the very nature of our kinds, just to be with you. I can lose the world, hell, I can lose my own life, but Goddess, not you, Sera. Not you." My voice breaks, but my gaze never falters from hers.
I expect to see a shift in her eyes, but somehow, my words seem to drive that resolve in her. She has always been stubborn to a fault, but I'm twice as hardheaded.
Maybe even worse.
"And that's why I must let you go, Artemis - my beautiful Artemis. This love, this reckless longing, it might be the end of you. And I can't let that happen because of me. You're getting married tomorrow... we can't be- can't be together anymore. You can't love me anymore," she whispers, her voice softer now, yet laden with an irrevocable finality.
I take a step closer, and she moves away from me again, constantly denying me, denying what we could be together. Her face looks more furious than ever, with angry tears gushing out.
She hates that I'm not listening.
"I saw you die over and over again. Every possible way I could kill you. You don't expect me to stay and relive all that. You don't expect me to just happily end your life, your world, because we're in love and we want to be together!" she yells, trembling even more, and I realize with every word that I'm losing her.
I can't get through to her; her mind is already completely made up. My heart races, watching her backing away, shaking her head with furious determination.
"I'm not doing this. I can't, I'm sorry."
With that, she turns away from me, stomping towards the door, ready to walk away from everything.