Page 88 of A Broken Promise

“Who are you?” I finally asked, looking at his still body.

“I used to be Head of the Royal Guard,” he whispered, just loud enough for me to hear.

“As intheRoyal guard?” I asked, not wasting energy to hide the surprise in my tone or my face. “And now you are a Rebel? How did that happen?”

I asked, adjusting my sore arm just a bit to continue holding tight his messed-up neck.

“It’s rather ironic if you think…” He took another heavy breath. “Tobe back in the same dungeons where it all began. To die here. Fate has her humor, doesn’t she?”

I ignored that bit about “dying here.” I had no such plans, but I wouldn’t argue with him, wouldn’t try to prove him wrong. I had been defeated before. No words or stern actions can raise you up from the bottom. Only your own strength, only your own desire.

Nobody can make you want to actually live except yourself.

“You’ve been here before? How did you escape?”

“I didn’t. I was in here, but I was on the other side. My wife was inhere. I was the Head of the Royal Guard when they captured a group of Magic Wielders and brought them here. She was one of them. I knew she was a Creator. I knew because I was the one locking her up and giving her only a few months before the grand execution. I’d come to see them personally, to laugh at them, to see the monsters they were...But instead of monsters or demons, I met her. She was the most beautiful and smart woman I had ever met. I knew it was wrong, I knew I shouldn’t, but I kept coming back every day, at first just under the disguise of security and then before I could admit to anyone, I knew I was done for. There is no magic stronger than love and I was so in love with her. Still am.” He painfully smiled as if remembering her. “So, I made a plan. I freed her and her people and told them to run. But she refused to go without me, telling me that she cared for me, breaking me and making me all within one sentence. That’s a thing they don’t tell you about love. It might be petrifying but it’s the most beautiful thing there is. So, I abandoned everything that day and I left with her. We joined the Rebels. I married her shortly after.”

His voice shattered just a bit. “Gods, my son.” He opened his eyes as if the realization hitting him was more painful than anything he had experienced before. “My son…I won’t be able to see my son... Gods, I will never get to meet him.” Small tears rolled down his cheeks. “She’s only a couple of months away from delivery. Gods, I won’t be there for her either.”

I blinked a few times, hiding away my watery eyes. There were no heart wrenching sobs or loud screams, just silent tears rolling down our cheeks.

I wasn’t sure why I was crying. I knew life was cruel. People died each day; we were just living our lives ignorant of that. A survival mechanism really. Yet stripped of that ignorance, I hurt. My heart broke for his soon to be widow and fatherless son.

Shattered in so many pieces.

I swallowed hard, steadying my voice.

“Why do you do it? Be a Rebel, fight the Royals. Risk your life. Risk everything. Why do any of that?” I asked.

I wanted to know why. Ineededto know why.

I might have agreed with the Rebels. I had seen, no, I had experienced enough of the horrors brought by the Mad Queen and her Royal lackeys, that I recognized that desire to fight it, to stand up for injustice.

Yet was this cost worth it?

Dying on the cold floor in the dungeons far below the castle. Far away from anyone to even hear your plea? Far away from anyone, left only with a stranger to comfort your last dying breaths. Wasthisworth it?

“Because it is the right thing to do.” He shivered now nonstop. “Because I want my son to live free, I want my wife to live free, without a fear of persecution, without the constant threat of death and torture. Because I want the world to be a beautiful thing. A place of comradery and peace, a place of love and unity. And for that I’ve joined the cause. I might have been born a regular human with no magic and no gifts, but I’ve lived my life ignorant enough. My wife was my salvation and with her, we’ve created a new life, our precious son. For that alone, I would live this painful life again and again. For him to live a better life? Yes, all of this was worth it.” He clenched his jaw hard, attempting to stop teeth from chattering.

I wished I had a blanket or a jacket or anything to wrap his now frozen body, to warm him up. I didn’t have any of that, but I did have my body.

“You are freezing. I am going to give you a tight hug,” I stated, as I moved my body closer to him. He didn’t object.

We sat in silence. My thoughts, as if given up, calmed too. Gonewere all the plans and all the strategies, as the dried salt streaks from tears earlier.

“I am dying,” he finally said. “I will be dead soon and... maybe... it's the last gift of Fate to die here and not out there with them. At a place that I called home for so many years.” His voice broke just once, and I sniffled again as a new stream of tears flooded me.

Gods, the thoughts were quiet, yes.

But the feelings? No, the feelings were overtaking me.

“Gera will be so happy.” He smiled through his silent tears. “We will be reunited so soon.”

I bit my lip hard to stop myself from sobbing. Gone was the strong façade I had built up and the cold heart I pretended to have.

Life was just so cruel.

Hell. To hell with all the gods, but let this man live, somehow, please.I begged, desperate. Yet no spirit appeared to save him.

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