Saving the Stranger Prince (The Stranger Prince Series #2)

Chapter 28: Bring Her Back

"Break me down, then build me up. Again and again, until the pieces of me are so small, you can't find a way to put them together. And all the while, I still won't be able to stop telling you just how much I love you."
- Me. 🖤

♚

When Adela woke up the next morning, she had to think hard to realise that she wasn't exactly in her room. The second realisation was that Sebastian wasn't beside her, because of which she was immediately sitting straight.

But Sebastian was standing there, looking out the window, and she breathed out a sigh of relief. She ran her hand through the tangles, trying to remember exactly when she'd fallen asleep.

She had been in his arms, because he'd asked her to stay like that. She'd stayed like that for hours, waiting for his breathing to become steady, but she knew he was wide awake. He was tense, and she kept drawing circles on the back of his hand, but she'd eventually given in to her exhaustion and had fallen asleep.

The set of his shoulders was still tense when he turned around to look at her, and his eyes were clearly showing he hadn't slept a minute. He still smiled at her.

"You're awake" he said, but his smile didn't stay for long.

"What's wrong?" She realised as soon as she said it, "Is he awake?"

He sighed, closing his eyes. Then he nodded.

"Why didn't you wake me up?" She stepped out of the blankets and shook her head, and she was ready to go towards the door when he called out.

"Wait." His voice was quiet, and she stopped in her tracks. She turned around, and he wasn't looking at her.

"Sebastian," She whispered, and then she walked towards him. She held his chin and forced him to look at her, "What's wrong?"

"I don't know," he trembled, still not looking at her, "I'm just... j-just..."

"Afraid?" She said, and he nodded.

"I don't know what I'll see there." He shook his head, as if trying to remove the thought, "I don't know if I'll be able to cope with it. I don't know if I'll be ready."

"Shhhh." She said, and dropped a kiss on his nose, "You're the bravest person I have ever seen in my life, Sebastian."

"That's not true-"

"It is." She insisted, and now he was looking at her, "You're always underestimating yourself, always saying how you can't cope with things and how you can't face them. Still, you get past every single difficulty. And you come out as even stronger than before. You have to realise that you can actually face things, that you actually have the blood of the strongest of the Emperors this world has had."

He was silent, as if stunned by her words, and she took the opportunity to go on, "You won't find out exactly how much you can bear, until you reach your limit. Will you?"

He just stared at her, his eyes holding hers, before he whispered, "Goddamn Adela." He shook his head again, but this time he was smiling just slightly, "I didn't know my wife could do magic with words."

She just pouted at him, and then she went away to put on a gown and tied her hair up in a bun. She took his hand, and pulled him along.