Page 214 of Emylia

“Maalik…” I pulled back, just enough to see the devastation swimming in his gaze. “What’s wrong?”

He kissed me again. Slow. Desperate. Aching. Like a man kissing a memory. Almost like a goodbye.

I broke the kiss. “Don’t do that.”

His brows furrowed. “Do what?”

“Whatever it is you’re hiding. Don’t pretend it’s not there. I can feel it. You’re breaking.”

He froze. His throat bobbed, jaw locking like it took effort just to speak.

“You have no idea what this birthmark has seen. The things I’ve done for retribution.”

My heart stuttered. “Because of your parents?”

He nodded—eyes not meeting mine.

“I brought this realm to its knees for what Crixus did to them. And the person I had to become for that...” His voice dropped, raw. “You don’t know what I’ve done.”

“Then tell me.”

“I can’t.” His voice cracked. “If I tell you, you’ll never look at me the same.”

“I already see you, Maalik.”

Silence thickened around us, heavy as ash.

Then, barely audible: “I don’t deserve this. I don’t deserveyou.”

I cupped his face, steadying him. “Then take it anyway. Let this be the one thing you don’t have to earn.”

Something fractured in him—like a string pulled too tight, finally snapping. He didn’t cry. But the sound he made was too raw to be anything but his heart breaking.

He pressed his forehead to mine, clinging to me like I was the last solid thing left in his world.

“If you knew the weight I carry…”

I kissed him then, gently—his lips trembling beneath mine. Like he was trying to memorize the shape of my soul. And when he finally stilled, his mouth pressed to my temple, his voice broken open like a secret:

“I was never supposed to have this. But I swear to the Gods, Emylia—” he exhaled, wrecked, “—I’ll burn the whole fucking world down before I lose you.”

I believed every word.

And I held him tighter. Because deep down, I knew something had broken. Something he could never say. And just for a moment—there, at the edge of ruin—something flickered in his gaze.

A truth.

A secret.

A name he didn’t speak.

But I felt it on his lips. In the weight of his kiss. And I knew then—he wasn’t just mine. He was hiding something that could break me.

But in this moment?

I didn’t care.

Because Gods help me...

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