The underground palace stretched out before me—shadowed, silent, forsaken.Every hallway felt endless, every shadow a threat, every breath too loud against the stillness.
My heart hammered, a frantic drumbeat in my chest as I tore through corridor after corridor—room after empty room—shouting her name into the void.
“Elizabeth!”
My voice echoed back at me—hollow, mocking, a cruel mimicry of hope that shattered against the silence.
Desperation clawed at my insides, gripping tighter with every step.She wasn’t here.She was nowhere.
And in that deafening silence, a dreadful truth bled through me?—
I might have lost her.
I roared again, “Elizabeth!”
The sound ripped from my raw throat—a savage, broken plea.
No reply.
Only the oppressive hush of ancient stone, its stillness a tomb for my hope.
My mind reeled.
Had she died?
Had I failed her again?
The venom in my veins still scalded, but it was nothing.
Nothing compared to this.
Her voice.
Her face.
Her glacier-colored eyes—filled with fire and fear—gone.
Elizabeth, forgive me.
I should’ve been there.
I should’ve protected you.
I stumbled forward, each step heavier, burdened by loss and a love that felt doomed from the start.
I stormed through the labyrinth, the echo of my footfalls chasing me like a hound at my heels.Torchlight flickered across the stone walls, casting shadows that danced along the corridors—taunting, fleeting, just beyond reach.
Every corner turned.
Every hall searched.
No closer.
No answer.
The dread inside me coiled tighter, a knot of grief and fury pulling me under—threatening to consume what little strength I had left.
Then—at last—I found him.
