Prologue

They had failed.

The war was lost, and it was all now in ruins.

History might never remember them for who they honestly were, which might be more painful than all they'd given up and sacrificed.

They had used everything they possessed, but it hadn't been enough.

Betrayed, tricked, and in chains.

Death is their fate.

Polus stared at the crack in the cell they'd thrown him in. He knew what was to come. They wouldn't allow him to remain.

They couldn't.

He, like his kin, would never stop fighting them.

Polus had one solace. His daughters were safe. They were both strong, brave, and intelligent girls who would survive.

No matter how long or far they hunted them, his girls would outsmart them.

Through them, at least their bloodline would continue. The others had made similar arrangements for their children.

It was the only way they would win in the end. They had his mate to thank for that idea.

When everything looked hopeless, she was the one who strategized the plan.

It would mean their demise, but their race would live on.

Their descendants would exist long after this era faded.

Perhaps they would have better luck.

It still weighs heavily on his heart.

They'd given up so much, and it hadn't been enough.

In his mind, he thought of his friends, family, and everyone he'd loved.

You are a king now.

The last words his queen had spoken to him before she'd run out to give her life for them.

Her sacrifice bought them the time they needed to save their people but watching her face, that monster burned into his memories.

Her death had thrown the king into madness. For as long as he'd known him, he'd never seen him fight like that.

Now he's gone, too.

They must have known that one wouldn't survive the other. That kind of love was too bright, radiating across everything to create an empire as powerful as they'd enjoyed.

Had it been the reason they'd split the throne into twelve?

He didn't know. He could only use what little time he had to rationalize everything.

It was better than what he truly feared.

His mate.

What had they done to her?

He knew she still lived. He would feel it if she was gone, and perhaps he'd lose his mind just as the king had, but he felt her pain as if it were his own.

Did they think she'd give them anything?

If that was their plan, they'd fail.

She'd never break.

The sound of the gates opening pulls him away from his contemplation.

A familiar hatred coursing through his veins.

"Gabriel." He growls.

The cloaked figure saunters into his cell as if he has all the time in the world.

Perhaps he believes he does, but he's a fool.

The hood falls back, revealing a handsome, illuminating face.

He's so beautiful. You might wonder if he were male or female.

'That is a mask'. Polus thinks to himself. A cover for the actual monster inside.

"Your starlight is becoming frustrating, lord Polus."

Spitting at him, he refuses to answer.

How dare he use his pet name for her!

Gabriel looks at the ground in front of him with disgust.

"I suppose I cannot expect better from animals." He sighs. "You realize that if either of you gives me what I ask for, your lives will be spared."

Liar.

None of them would tell these beasts anything even if it were true.

"Tell me something, child of the void. Do you believe in anything?" He asks the man.

"Do you?" Gabriel retorts.

"Yes."

"Then tell me, what is it you consider to be true?"

"It isn't what I think, Gabriel. It's what I know." He gives him a dark and twisted smile. "I'm going to end your life."

Gabriel smirks, unaffected by the threat.

"If you mean you'll crush my body, feel free to do it. It won't destroy me."

"You don't understand." Polus sneers. "I'll end everything about you, down to the smallest spec of sand."

That seemed to make Gabriel laugh. That anyone, even someone like Polus, could destroy him like that was amusing.

"I shall miss you." He admits. "These conversations of ours make being alive much more entertaining."

"I wasn't aware your kind was capable of something so fundamental as emotions."

"It would surprise you what we're gifted with." Gabriel's expression darkens, and Polus sees his genuine nature for a moment. Something is missing inside Gabriel's eyes, a spark that revealed his people for what they were.

Whatever created them, which Polus could only ever describe as the void, had neglected to give them a soul.

"But do you know what I will miss the most?" Gabriel comes closer. "Is the radiance of her eyes."

Feeling the blood boiling as his anger rises, Polus struggles against his bonds. For all the reasons he hated this creature, this was the thing he could never forgive.

The reason that however long it took, how many lifetimes, he would find him and destroy him.

Gabriel had always coveted Polus's, beloved mate.

"She will never be yours."

"That's where you're wrong. You may have stolen her affection from me, but I shall make it my mission of existence to get back what was mine."

"She was never yours." He spits, feeling one hand finally loosening from the restraints.

Gabriel's eyes narrow dangerously, but it doesn't matter anymore.

"Of course, you would believe, deluding yourself, that the universe made her so she could be your other half? What do your kind call it?"

'Just a little more.' Polus fidgets with his arm.

"That's right, a soulmate." The disgust in his voice is palpable.

The gates open again, and Polus's intentions of at least getting a single moment of revenge crumble when he sees who they're bringing in.

She's walking tall, even though she must be exhausted. Have they let her sleep, fed her?

Their eyes meet, and her indifference turns to adoration, trust, and faith.

Gabriel could never understand.

It wasn't only that they were made for each other. It was the fact that neither couldn't love anyone else.

There was no other as beautiful to him, and there never would be.

'If I must search for a thousand lifetimes, I will always find you.' Polus hears her sweet voice in his head.

'No matter the body, or race, you will always be mine.'

He watches, helpless, as they chain her on the other side of the wall, so close but too far to touch.

Gabriel's final torment was to make sure his victory was assured.

The air almost sparks with the power of their bond. It doesn't need them to be close.

Gabriel walks over to her, crouching by her face and caressing her affectionately.

Polus growls, again struggling with the other side of his chains.

She doesn't flinch and gives him no reaction but cold, calculating indifference.

"I will give you one last chance to tell me where, and you'll prevent your demise."

She says nothing.

"Are you truly willing to die, to experience death for something so trivial?"

Again, her answer is silence.

"I have died, sweet one. I have felt my flesh ache and the sensation of your last breath. It isn't pleasant." He warns, but she refuses to hand over anything.

With a defeated sigh, he drops his hand from her face.

"Perhaps a new body would do you some service."

"You ask the wind to give you answers, and they have none." she finally speaks. Polus knows she's afraid, but her words radiate confidence. "You cannot have what was never yours."

"Your time is over!" He declared angrily. "Your empire is in rubble, your king defeated, and your queen committed her own death for nothing!"

"You're wrong." she smiles. "And for that, you will never see past your transgressions."

"Tell me where she hid it!" He yells, any pretense now gone.

"Where you and your brothers and sisters can never find it."

Gabriel hits the bars in agitation.

"The two of you are the ones she trusted most, yet you refuse to cooperate."

"You have no honor or loyalty, Gabriel. How could you ever understand?" Polus sneers.

"Aren't you supposed to be rational? Intelligent?" Gabriel accuses.

"There's more to living than those things." He laughs. "That, I'm afraid you will never grasp."

Feeling his wrist give way, Polus keeps his face neutral.

There was no path where he would live to escape.

He'd run it through his head repeatedly, but he could do one thing in his last moments.

When Gabriel rushes forward, intending to take out his anger on him. Polus moves, grabbing the man by the throat and slamming him so hard against the wall that it cracks.

Without hesitation or waiting to see whether he'd killed him, Polus runs across the cell.

With a sob, his mate leans into his touch. The guards scramble to restrain him again, but it doesn't matter. They know it's time, and they won't go on the terms of the enemy.

"I will always love you." He breathes, his lips crushing against hers with a desperation he'd never felt for her before.

To say everything his heart had inside was impossible. They hadn't invented the words yet.

He could taste the salt of her tears and feel the silk softness as she returned his kiss with as much urgency.

Pulling away only far enough to look into her eyes, he watched as they started glowing like his.

"No!" Gabriel screams, peeling himself from the wall.

"I will only be yours." She breathes. "Forever."

Ignoring everything around them. Polus leans back in, tasting his mate's lips for the last time in this life.

'I will always love you.' He repeats his last words to her.

And as quickly as the birth of a star, it's over, and everything that was is no more.