Koda;

The room got colder.

My body feels it the moment I step back in with the bowl of food Queen Selthia forced into my hands.

The candles near the windows flicker weakly from the chill in the air, and my jaw tightens as I shut the door behind me.

Elián is lying exactly where I left him. He hasn’t moved an inch, and it almost looks like he’s gotten paler since I last saw him.

I hate this. Light knows I hate it. The feeling of helplessness as I watch him suffer.

My grip tightens slightly around the bowl as I walk toward the bed. The sound of my sandals against the floor is the only thing breaking the silence now, and that knowledge creates a heaviness in my chest.

It’s been two days. Two gruesome days since the garden.

Two days since Asa died in his arms.

Two days since Elián collapsed after losing control of his Primordial powers. And still... he won’t wake up.

Zerana keep saying he’s stable. That he’s breathing fine, and that his mana hasn’t deteriorated. But none of that means anything to me when he still looks like this.

I set the bowl down on the nearby table before moving back to the bed.

The moment I reach him, my heart clenches painfully.

His skin is a pale contrast to the dark blankets wrapped around him. He looks exhausted even in sleep.

Like whatever he saw... whatever happened to and inside him that night... drained something deeper than mana.

I slowly sit beside him again, and the mattress dips beneath my weight... but he doesn’t stir. Not even a little.

My eyes sting, and my breath shudders as I drag it.

"...You’re worrying everyone," I mutter as I reach for his hand under the blankets. They’re Cold. So cold that a fresh wave of panic hits me instantly.

"Fuck," I whisper as I quickly rub warmth back into his fingers.

This has been happening too constantly. His temperature keeps changing.

One moment, he’s freezing cold, and the next, he’s burning so hot that even the healers start panicking.

Zerana says it’s because his powers are unstable, and they are reacting emotionally even while unconscious.

I hate that explanation.

Because it means that even while asleep... He’s still hurting.

I bring his hands closer carefully, rubbing them between both of mine, and blowing warm air onto them.

"You need to wake up now," I whisper, but I get nothing in return.

Not a single reaction.

My chest aches harder, and I lower my head slightly as I let out a breath.

"I’m serious this time, Elián. This isn’t funny anymore." I speak with fear bleeding into my voice, but still, I get nothing.

The silence in the room is unbearable.

I stare at his face quietly for a while before my gaze slowly drifts lower to his stomach beneath the blankets.

...To our child.

Something softens painfully inside my chest.

"We’re worried about you, too, you know," I whisper weakly as I reach out and gently caress the growing bulge.

Light! I’m starting to hate silence.

I brush my thumb gently against his knuckles again before standing up and settling into the chair beside the bed.

"I yelled at Zephan earlier," I confess quietly as I stare down at my hands.

"I think I scared one of the servants, too," I add, and I let out a tired breath.

"They all keep acting like I’m falling apart. Like I’m the one who needs help." I rant as I look up at Elian’s still face.

Maybe I am indeed falling apart.

The realisation stings so badly, I have to look away from Elián again.

The room feels darker than usual tonight.

Or maybe I’m just tired... and exhausted.

My body aches from lack of sleep, and my head feels heavy. Like it might o split open if I don’t get some rest.

But how can I?

Every time I try to sleep... I remember Elián screaming in that garden while everything broke apart around him. I remember the way he looked at me after his power threw me away.

He was terrified. He seemed so broken by everything and scared that he might hurt us. He always cares too deeply about everything around him. If only he cared for himself like that.

I look back at him, and my eyes sting.

Even now, unconscious and hurting, he’s probably still blaming himself for the death of that woman.

I can feel echoes of that misery through our bond. Maybe that’s another reason I feel so miserable.

My knee bounces as I stare at him, and the door behind me opens quietly.

I don’t bother turning around. I already know who it is.

"You still haven’t eaten." Zerana’s voice cuts through the room calmly, though I can hear the irritation beneath it.

I stay silent.

Footsteps approach slowly behind me.

Then stop.

A long sigh follows.

"Koda—"

"I’m not hungry."

"That’s the fourth time you’ve said that today." She retorts, and I shrug weakly.

"I mean it every time."

"That doesn’t make it less stupid." She snaps, and despite everything, a weak snort almost escapes me.

Zerana moves around me then, her red serpent tail sliding quietly across the floor as she approaches Elián’s bedside.

I watch silently as her gaze scans him carefully. Checking, measuring, and worrying.

Her expression hardens slightly when she touches Elián’s forehead.

"He’s cold again," I inform, and she draws a breath.

"I noticed."

"Can’t you do something about it?" I respond. The frustration in my voice comes out harsher than intended.

Zerana, however, doesn’t react to it. She never really does.

Instead, she calmly adjusts the blanket around Elián before finally looking at me properly.

And light... I must look terrible. Because her expression softens almost immediately.

"Koda," she says more gently this time, and I blink at her.

"You need rest."

"I’m fine."

"You look like death."

"I said I’m fine." I retort stubbornly, and she frowns.

"And I said you’re not." She snaps, and silence settles between us heavily.

I look away from her then. Because deep down... I know she’s right.

I haven’t slept properly since the incident in the garden.

Every time I close my eyes, I see Elián screaming while the earth split apart around him... I see Asa bleeding. I see Elián collapsing.

And worst of all— I remember the moment his power threw me away. Not because he wanted to hurt me. But because he lost control.

That memory hunts me more than I want to admit... How afraid he looked afterwards.

Zerana studies me quietly for a moment before speaking again.

"Your omega will wake up and find you collapsing beside him if you continue like this." The words hit like the whip of a cane. And I swallow slowly.

My omega...

The phrase settles warmly and painfully inside my chest all at once.

I look back at Elián immediately, and my vision blurs.

He’s still asleep. Still unmoving. Still too pale.

I know he’d hate to see me like this, but...

"I can’t rest," I admit quietly. Zerana stays silent.

"I can’t," I repeat, and my voice breaks slightly.

"Not while he’s like this," I confess further.

"Koda—"

"It’s my duty to protect him," I add adamantly as I look up at her, and I see thick concern in her equally exhausted brown eyes.

"My omega and my child are lying here unconscious, and everyone keeps telling me to sleep. To rest!" I continue as my hands curl tightly against my knees.

"How am I supposed to do that!?"

Zerana watches me for several seconds. Then finally...she speaks.

"You love him very much." She whispers.

The statement catches me off guard. Not because it’s untrue.

...But because hearing someone else say it aloud feels strangely vulnerable.

I look away from her quietly.

"...Yeah," I answer after a while, and the room falls silent again.

Outside the windows, distant thunder rumbles softly across the night sky, and I sigh.

Storms have become more common since Elián collapsed.

No one says it aloud, but everyone notices. The kingdom itself feels restless lately.

Like something ancient is stirring beneath it.

Zerana eventually exhales softly before slithering toward the door.

"You should at least try to eat." She whispers, and I grunt weakly in response.

She pauses before leaving.

Then quietly she adds...

"He’s fighting very hard to come back."

My chest tightens on hearing those words. And before I can answer, she leaves.

The room falls silent again, and I just sit there beside Elián.

Listening to him breathe. Watching his chest rise and fall.

...Making sure he’s still here.

After a while, I carefully reach for his hand again.

This time, his fingers twitch weakly against mine, and I freeze.

"Elián?" I call hopefully, but I get nothing.

Then suddenly—the mana in the room pulses violently.

The candles flicker out all at once, and a sharp wave of cold explodes out of Elian, hard enough to frost the windows.

My eyes widen in horror.

"Elián!" I call in panic as his body trembles faintly beneath the blankets, and I instinctively move closer.

"Hey—hey, I’m here," I whisper as I gently caress his face.

Another pulse of mana bursts through the room. This one is weaker...But emotional somehow.

Almost desperate. And then I realise something terrifying.

This started when Zerana told me to leave. My breath catches.

"...You sensed that?"

I stare at Elián in disbelief.

Even unconscious... He reacted to the thought of me leaving him.

Something inside my chest breaks softly at that realisation. I quickly grab his hand tighter between mine.

"I’m not going anywhere," I whisper immediately, and the freezing mana around the room slows.

The frost on the windows stops spreading, and for the first time in hours, Elián’s trembling eases.

********

King Wilhelm;

I stare at the door before me, and draw the deepest breath I can.

I arrived at Nagari three days ago. Just a hair too late. I arrived after the chaos. After a member of the sect almost got Elian.

After my sons were endangered. I arrived too late and would have been left in mourning if the slightest thing shifted.

For three days now, I have chosen to wait. To wait for Elian to recover on his own, but I can not keep letting Koda do this to himself.

He hardly leaves this room, hardly eats, hardly takes care of himself. I have to intervene.

Especially now that I know Elian is not an ordinary omega. He’s a primordial... Like me. He’s not weak. I can trust him—at this point, I need to.

I push the door open, and the heavy sense of dread and helpless waiting greets me.

Koda is sitting beside the bed like a guard dog that has forgotten how to rest. His shoulders are tense, his eyes are shadowed heavily from exhaustion, and one of his hands remains wrapped tightly around Elián’s fingers as though he believes letting go would make the boy disappear.

For a moment, I simply stand there. Watching.

It’s been three days since Nagari shook from the grief of a Primordial, and still... the boy sleeps. He needs someone to shake him awake, and that someone certainly isn’t Koda, or Selthia’s physician.

I close the doors quietly behind me, and Koda’s head immediately lifts. The relief in his eyes upon seeing me lasts only a second before concern replaces it.

"Father." He greets suspiciously, with his voice rough and heavy from the obvious exhaustion.

My gaze drifts to Elian, and my heart quakes a bit. The boy somehow looks even smaller, unconscious. Pale with exhaustion, resting on his face like a cursed veil.

He is too fragile-looking for something capable of shaking kingdoms apart. But then... here we are.

"You should rest," I say calmly, as I look back at my son, and his jaw clenches in defiance.

"I’m fine."

"I was asking, Koda." I scold, but he hold me gaze.

"I said I’m fine." The irritation in his voice is clear as day, but I have indulged this stubbornness long enough.

There is enough chaos around me; I do not need my sons falling sick or weak at times like these.

I walk further into the room and stop just at the foot of the bed.

"Koda. Leave the room." I order, and silence follows.

His fingers tighten around Elián’s hand instantly, and I grit my teeth on seeing it.

Defiance. Something I hate so viciously.

"No." He refuses sharply, and I stare pointedly at him.

This isn’t something Koda would usually do. He may have always had his reservations about things, but not once has Koda so outrightly told me no.

Is he just too exhausted to attempt diplomacy, or has his love for Elian really changed him so much?

"You are disobeying your king."

"I’m protecting my omega." He snaps back, and that makes me raise a brow.

Ah...

So that is where his courage is coming from.

Love.

What a dangerous thing it is.

It makes even sensible men irrational. I, more than anyone else, should understand that.

I glance once more toward Elián before exhaling quietly.

"Koda."

"No."

That one is harsher. More desperate. Like he hates to disobey me, but would do it a thousand times over if it means he gets to remain by Elian’s side.

"He becomes frightened every time I try to leave." He speaks, and the misery in his voice touches me. I don’t know if that’s true or if he’s so tired that his mind has started making things up... But he cannot remain here. He needs rest.

So finally, I let a bit of my pheromones flood the room. The room adjusts instantly, and a deep silence than what already was, floods the room.

Koda freezes immediately on instinct. He recognises it.

The Primordial command is not something other beings can simply ignore. He knows that, and I will not at any point apologise for using it now. I had to.

I look directly at him, and his eyes widen a fraction as hurt and defeat flood his eyes.

"Go get some rest, Koda."

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!

Report chapter

Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter