𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝕼𝖚𝖊𝖊𝖓'𝖘 𝕷𝖎𝖔𝖓: 𝕮𝖔𝖛𝖊𝖗𝖙

The Manor

Soma awoke from his sleep in a cold sweat. Whatever he was screaming died in his throat as his head shot off of his pillow. "My Prince!" Agni gasped as he rushed over to Soma's bedside. "My Prince, are you well?" Agni wiped the sweat from Soma's forehead with the sleeve of his own shirt, and when Soma leaned into his butler's touch he felt the way Agni trembled.

"Agni," Soma whispered, noticing the pile of papers scattered across the floor before the chair Agni had been sitting in. "Agni, did you feel it too? The cold..."

Agni pulled his hand back for a moment and he looked scared. He too had the shine of the moonlight reflecting off of him as he shivered from a cold sweat. "I-" His voice seemed to die in his throat as he tried to steady his shaking hands, gripping his wrist so tightly it hurt. "I did, my Prince."

"What was it?" Soma's voice was still raspy from the hours he had spent sobbing, and his fear did nothing to help as the Prince gripped onto his bed sheets.

Agni took a moment to try and steady himself before he admitted he didn't know what had caused the sudden cold. "I have felt pure terror before, my Prince," Agni whispered as he brought a hand up to his own forehead, wiping away a few beads of sweat dripping down to his brow. "But never have I felt such pain..." When Agni had been found with West and later when he lost the curry competition, he had been stuck with pure terror that his Prince would never even think of forgiving him. He had cried rivers of blood out of fear, terror and self-loathing. And in every single one of those moments when he had been separated from his Prince, and every time he disappointed Soma, Agni had felt pain. But never had he ever felt a pain like this. This pain was cold, it was desperate, and it was full of betrayal. Agni felt as if he had been stabbed in the heart, betrayed by one of his closest friends. Someone had been forsaken by another who they had once entrusted their life and their love in. Now all they could do was writhe and cry out in pain as their heart was torn from their body by cold, loveless hands.

Tears rolled down Agni's cheeks as he tried to keep his composure, his shoulders and hands trembling against his will. "Agni," Soma whispered, "do you think... Do you think it possible that Y/N is..." The Prince couldn't even say what he was insinuating. He choked back sobs and he too began to cry, falling into Agni's arms as his butler held him close. "Why would someone do this, Agni? Why?" Soma sobbed.

"I do not know, my Prince," Agni told Soma as he tried to shush him, holding Soma tight in his arms. "But we must have hope. Lady Y/N would-"

The door to Agni and Soma's room suddenly burst open with a bang. "Lady Y/N is alive." Sebastian stood in the doorway, his eyes almost seemed to glow in the dark of the night. "The Lady is alive, and I know where she is."

"What?" Soma gasped as he tore himself from Agni's grasp and threw his covers from his body.  "How-Where is she?"

"According to records from a property development, she is mere hours away." That news tore gasps from both the Prince and his butler.

"Then what are we waiting for?" Soma asked as he began to tear his nightshirt off with haste. The prince threw open his trunk and stuffed the shirt inside, pulling out another outfit. "We must hurry if we are to..." Soma looked up, back at his servant to see Agni hadn't moved an inch. "Agni, why are you frozen? We must hurry if we are to rescue Y/N!" But Agni could not look his Prince in the eyes. Instead, the rivers of tears on Agni's face turned red. His steel eyes could not meet Soma's gold ones. "Agni?"

"I am sorry, my Prince." Agni's hands curled once more into fists as they almost tore through the fabric of his trousers. Agni closed his eyes, choking back a sob as he couldn't meet his Prince's gaze.