The Prince's Gift

Chapter 93.

Ana's POV

It was finally over. All of the pain and sorrow we'd endured; it was finally behind us. We all watched in silence as Lilith's body was released from the chains and placed onto the stretcher to remove her and take her body down to the furnaces. Her body would be burned to ash until all form of her was completely erased.

As everyone in the room began to exit, I began to feel an overwhelming pressure on my chest, as if I was being suffocated from air I knew I didn't even need. My stomach was churning so harshly that I doubled over in pain before finally being able to straighten to look around for the cause. Zane was not standing beside me and in fact, wasn't even in the room anymore.

"Zane..." I thought and knew instantly what was happening.

I flashed to the door and threw it open and ran out into the hallway leading out of the cellars. As I turned the corner, I nearly ran him over as I came behind him. Zane was kneeling on the grimy cobblestone, hunched over himself as if trying to protect himself from the pain he was feeling.

"Zane. What's wrong? Zane?" I said, trying to settle my emotions as I dropped to the ground beside him.

He gasped loudly as he clutched at his chest. I placed my hand on his back and eased closer, trying to settle him, but he only tensed. "Ana, don't. Don't...help me." He growled out.

"Zane, please. What's wrong? Let me help you." I begged as I wrapped a hand around the side of his face to try and pull his gaze back over to me and out of the dark hole he'd been surrounded by.

He shook his head harshly and let out a ragged breath. "I deserve this. I...I've caused so much pain." He fell to his hands as he struggled for each strangled breath. I pressed my forehead against the side of his as I tried to breath evenly, circling my hand across his back in a matching rhythm. "I allowed that farce of a treaty to happen, and then what happened...to you was more than I could take."

"Zane I'm oka..." I started but he let out a gruff noise to stop my words.

"No Ana. No matter what...you say you're not. That's not ok." He took in another long ragged breath as he began to ease into me. "So many lives have been lost because of me; many of my citizens...so many of yours. And Ehren."

My breath caught as he said Ehren's name. Every loss had been difficult to endure, but Ehren's still felt fresh, the wound still not fully healed.

He sighed sharply and continued. "And then to allow the circumstances leading to my son's...to losing him before ever even knowing him. All because I was too much of a coward to do what I should have done when all this began."

I felt him lean further into me as his body relaxed and his words and emotions all finally hit me. He was grieving at last. He was finally feeling all the pain he'd been pushing back since this all began. The wall was finally falling as the last step had been passed.

"Zane, you did what you thought was right. You did what you had to do to protect your kingdom. None of this is your fault." I whispered as I pushed my fingers into his hair gently.

He shook his head and finally looked up at me, his icy blue gaze piercing directly into mine. "No Ana. This is on me. Every bit of it is my responsibility. And my failure is something I will live with for the rest of my long life. I will spend an eternity trying to make it right again, but I will never stop trying." His words were firm and even, but each one was laced with pain and sorrow.