Once Upon a Story [ SLOW UPDATES ]

Unforgivable

These are shorter than my usual texts but it's what I was feeling like today. Play the music for added atmosphere✨

Word count: 898
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Again, I sit in this garden, longing for what I will never have, for something I am forbidden to receive. The air is warm and the sun radiant, but I am unable to see its beauty. The garden is filled with blossoming flowers and pleasant fragrances, melding together harmoniously, but I fail to interpret what makes them so lovely. Even the trees, lusciously green, majestically imposing their shade, bear no more importance to me than the grass at their feet.

Their sight ails me. My eyes hurt to see the sun, all these scents give me dizzying headaches, and the singing birds only add to the ringing in my ears.

I hate this sight. I hate everything about it, everything it was meant to be, and the man standing behind its creation.

Karys Impellux: Emperor of the Lurian Kingdom and Hero of the First War, the man who killed my family and the man I was forced to wed.

Thinking about him made my stomach churn with disgust. To think I married him, the bastard who brought down all the ones I ever loved. My father, mother, my younger brother, my best friend...

Lin.

He would've been 23, barely a few months older than me, running around with his scarlet curls bouncing about. He could've. Had I not begged him to stay with me, had I shut my mouth and let him leave for his trip, he would've escaped. He would've passed the borders before the massacre.

Lin would still be alive if I hadn't been a selfish brat, pleading for her first love to remain by her side.

I choked back a few tears. "How pathetic of me to cry."

"I don't think so."

I held my tongue and turned away, dabbing the tears with a handkerchief. "Why are your here, Your Highness."

"We've been wed for a year. Isn't it about time you call me by name?"

"I do not, nor will I ever recognize that marriage," I replied. "You aren't worth more than a stranger to me."

He sighed, and I felt him stand behind me. His aura was imposing, and it made my body shake with anxiety.

"And when will I ever prove my worth to you?" he asked, softly placing his hand on my shoulder. The touch was light, but I felt something pressing into me. I pushed his hand away, rising to put distance between us.

"Isabella, I don't mean any harm. I'm honest in my intentions," he assured me. "I want to prove myself as your husband."

"You're wasting your time," I quietly replied. My hands were holding my trembling arms. I couldn't tell my fear apart from my rage. Everything was jumbled together, and my afflicted mind failed to make sense of the chaos.

"I don't care if you give me dresses. I don't care if you shower me with jewels every day. The flowers, the estates...No matter what you gift me, it will be for nothing. I will never recognize your hand, for it bathes in blood."

Karys' eyes held a solemn look. "I've apologized for your family. I've gotten on my knees for you, Isabella. What more do you want...Why can't you forgive me?"

I couldn't believe him. He wanted me to forgive him after everything he'd done. After laying waste to my home, after having my family wiped out, after mercilessly killing Lin for defending me.

"After all you've done to me, you dare ask such a question?" I was raging inside, nearing a point of madness. "After forcing me to marry you, the murderer of my family, of my love, you dare ask me why I can't forgive you?"

My eyes were filled with tears as I glared at him. His brow fell, sadness covering his gaze. He looked pitiful. He was pitiful.

"Isabella, I had no choice," he quietly said. "Your father was rising against me. I had to stop him before it was too late."

"Are you giving me excuses?" I stuttered. "Your men went after my mother and her unborn child!"

Karys flinched.

"I found my brother dead in the bushes! He was hiding, scared to death and your. men. killed. him."

He bit his lip, deeply affected by what I was saying, but I didn't care. I was done being nice to him. I had no more patience to let him coerce me into silence.

"Even when I begged you to spare Lin," I cried. "I pleaded that you let him live. Yet you still drove your sword through his chest, eyes locked with mine, blank and uncaring...You killed them all because you had to save your pathetic crown."

He couldn't look me in the eye, leaning his head down. I stood before him, eyes puffy, face caked in tears. The anger in my gaze never settled as I looked at him.

"So ask me again, Karys," I hissed with venom. "Ask me why I can't forgive you."

"I'm sorry," he whispered. I heard the pain and strain in his voice, almost wavering, but my resolve returned as his eyes crossed mine.

The sapphire blue eyes that had stared down at me as he cut down the love of my life.

My glare returned, despite the tears and pounding in my head. "I hate you, Karys...unless you can bring them back, your name will remain dead to me."