FROST
Chapter 118: Until Then, Seravine.

Chapter 118: Until Then, Seravine.

Meanwhile, Caspian and Asmaros teleported a few meters away from a quiet clearing.

Seravine stood with her back to them, cradling the child in her arms like the world outside didn’t exist. She was humming—a soft, haunting lullaby that drifted through the air like mist.

The moment the melody reached Asmaros’ ears, his playful expression cracked. His eyes narrowed slightly. The song was familiar. Too familiar.

He turned slowly toward her, the smirk fading from his face like smoke in the wind.

Caspian noticed the change. "You okay?" he asked, his voice low, cautious.

Asmaros didn’t answer. Not even a twitch of acknowledgment. He just started walking forward, gaze fixed on Seravine like something buried had surfaced.

Seravine stiffened as he approached. She sensed him instantly. When she turned, her arms tightened slightly around the child, and the surprise on her face made Caspian uneasy.

"So," Asmaros said, his voice devoid of its earlier jest, "you were the cambion friend King Caspian mentioned?"

There was no bite. Just a cold edge sharpened by familiarity.

Caspian, sensing a storm brewing, stepped between them. "Yes. Why?"

But Seravine didn’t respond. She simply stared at Asmaros, her lips slightly parted, eyes wobbling with something unreadable—fear, guilt, or maybe something deeper.

Asmaros took one step forward—and suddenly, his gaze sharpened. "Your mana thread..." he murmured. Without thinking, he reached out and grabbed her wrist.

She almost dropped the baby.

"Hey!" Caspian barked, rushing forward to take the child before anything happened. He was about to swat Asmaros’ hand away—until he saw it.

Her hand.

Transparent.

Clear enough that Asmaros’ fingers could be seen gripping straight through it.

"What did you do?!" Asmaros’ voice cracked with fury. "Who did you sell your remaining life to? You still had weeks! I was going to lift the curse—damn it!"

But before he could finish, Seravine jerked her arm back violently, her claws slicing across his cheek.

A deep red line bloomed, but Asmaros didn’t flinch. He froze.

So did Caspian.

Seravine’s hair shadowed her face as she trembled. Then slowly, she looked up.

Tears stained her cheeks. Real tears. Heavy. Silent.

"You enjoyed watching me suffer..." Her voice wavered like a broken violin string. "And now you’re here? Showing concern?"

Asmaros took a breath, but no words came. He just stood there, wounded not by claws, but by the truth in her voice.

"I got tired," Seravine choked, her voice barely more than a whisper—raw, frayed at the edges. "Tired of being punished for caring. For taking in the children you cast aside like broken toys the moment you learned they were cambions—like me."

Her eyes glistened, lips trembling as she looked at him—not with fear, not with hatred—but with exhaustion so deep it seemed to echo from her bones.

"And still," she added, "even that didn’t matter."

Asmaros stiffened. His jaw clenched, his entire frame taut with the tension of words he’d held back for years. "You know that’s not true," he said, low, like distant thunder.

"I had to send them away. For the sake of peace. For the kingdom’s—"

"For your reputation!" she snapped, cutting him off, voice rising with years of hurt that refused to stay buried. "Don’t feed me that ’peace’ nonsense. You were protecting yourself. Your damn image. You didn’t want the full-pledged demons, or the elves whispering that the mighty Demon Asmaros—the King of Ruin—was raising half-bloods like some bleeding-heart orphan keeper!"

Asmaros’ breath caught in his throat.

"I did what I had to," he said. Quieter now. "You think I didn’t grieve them? Every decision I made was to prevent war. If I kept them, the Council would have rebelled. The elves would have pulled out of our accords. The demons would’ve torn us apart from the inside. I—"

"The hardest thing a king can do," he whispered, "is choose between the lesser evils. I had to sacrifice some... for the sake of many."

He looked at her, eyes suddenly wet. "And I am so—so sorry—"

Caspian gasped when all of a suddenen, a slap echoed across the field like a whip, faster than any attack he had seen.

Seravine’s free hand trembled in the air where it struck Asmaros, and for a heartbeat, even the wind stilled.

"Don’t you dare say sorry," she whispered, trembling. "Not if you never meant it."

Asmaros didn’t move. He didn’t flinch. He only stared at her—eyes wide, pain swimming beneath the surface.

He wanted to speak and yet he didn’t. And just like that, Seravine turned an ran away... again.

But this time, Caspian didn’t hesitate. He adjusted the baby in his arms and chased after her, the long grass parting with each desperate step.

Halfway through, he turned back only to see Asmaros still standing there, motionless. Like a statue carved in sorrow.

"HEY!" Caspian shouted, voice strained. "What the hell are you doing?! She’s fading! I don’t know how any of this works, but if she’s dying—if she’s vanishing or dissolving or whatever it is—then move!"

"Don’t," Asmaros murmured, so softly it was nearly drowned out by the wind. He turned his back to Caspian.

"The last thing a demon wants," he said, "is to be seen falling apart... especially by a Celestial like yourself."

Caspian frowned, breath ragged. "So what?! You’d rather let her die than embarrass her?! You gave her that curse, didn’t you?! Just lift it! Undo it!"

"I can’t!" Asmaros snapped, voice finally breaking. Then, quieter: "I can’t..."

He ran his hand through his long black hair, fingers trembling slightly as they tangled in the strands. His shoulders heaved once before he covered his face with that same hand, rubbing at his eyes.

"Seravine... she’s a gambler demon. Her kind deals in wagers—life, fate, time. And for some reason... some damn reason she wouldn’t tell me, she sold what little life she had left to someone else. Another demon, I assume."

He dropped his hand, eyes now shadowed in anguish.

"I told her I’d find a way to get her days back. I promised her. I just had to give her punishment to prove to my people I do not condone mistakes even from someone... close to me. I promised I’d fix things and yet... she still went and—"

His voice cracked again, and this time, it stayed broken.

Caspian stepped forward slowly, watching him. "You... you really do care about her, don’t you?"

Asmaros didn’t reply.

He didn’t need to.

Caspian saw it all now. The bitterness. The rage. The silence. Every mocking smile and sarcastic quip from earlier—it had been armor. Armor forged from grief.

"Then why are you still standing there?" Caspian’s voice trembled. "She’s not just going to stop and wait for you. She’s running, and she’s taking herself closer to the end."

"I know," Asmaros said, lifting his chin slightly.

His voice steadied. Hardened.

"You don’t need to tell me that."

He turned, just enough to catch a glimpse of Caspian holding the baby—a quiet, wide-eyed child nestled against the beating heart of a man who was never supposed to get involved.

"We’ll talk later."

And then, with a dark shimmer and a blink of light, Asmaros vanished.

Seravine ran.

Faster than the burn in her lungs could stop her, faster than the ache in her bones could matter. The winds howled around her, catching at her cloak like fingers trying to pull her back. Her vision blurred—not from speed, but from tears she refused to shed.

You don’t get to say sorry, she thought, biting her lip until it bled. You don’t get to stand there and act like it’s noble to do nothing.

The woods broke into hills. Then cliffs. Then crumbling, forgotten stone paths between the roots of blackened trees. Still, she ran.

Until—

"Enough."

She skid to a halt, nearly colliding into the man now standing before her.

Asmaros.

Breathing steady. Eyes unreadable. That same haunted calm in his gaze.

"No," she muttered, voice ragged. She turned sharply to the left.

He was there.

Waiting.

She spun on her heel, heart thundering.

Another path. Deeper into the forest.

She took it.

Snap!

Twigs beneath her boots, brambles tearing at her skirt, her heartbeat a drum of fury and desperation.

She turned a corner—only to crash into the wall of his chest.

"No!" she gasped, shoving him with both hands. "Stop—just stop!"

She turned again.

He was already there.

"Why won’t you leave me alone?!" she screamed.

Her hands shook as she pressed them against her temples. "You gave up on me! You gave up on them! Why won’t you let me disappear like they did?! Why—"

"Because I didn’t give up," he said, stepping forward. "Not then. Not now."

Seravine stumbled back.

"I sold everything!" she cried. "Every day I had left, I sold to stop hurting, Asmaros! You don’t get to chase me now—not when it’s already too late!"

"I’ll buy them back," he said without hesitation.

"You can’t!"

"I will."

The certainty in his voice stole the wind from her lungs.

She looked at him—really looked—and for the first time, she saw how hollow he was behind the posture, how every breath was held together by guilt and a desperate thread of hope.

"I was never supposed to care about you," he said softly. "I told myself that every day. You were trouble. You were fire. You were temptation sent to humiliate me."

His voice dropped lower.

"But I did care. And I still do."

"Don’t," she whispered, shaking her head. "Don’t say that now."

"It’s the only truth I have left to offer you."

Her legs gave out beneath her. She dropped to her knees on the cold ground, gasping—either in grief or because something inside her chest had cracked.

"You can’t fix this," she whispered.

He knelt before her, silent. Then he cupped her face—gently, like she might shatter—and leaned in close enough to rest his forehead against hers.

"Then let me burn trying," he whispered.

She blinked, the tears finally falling.

"You’ll lose everything," she said.

"As long as it’s not you," he replied.

Silence.

Then, in that broken clearing where shadows stretched long and stars began to glimmer faintly overhead, Seravine closed her eyes and let herself collapse into his arms.

But the clock inside her still ticked—a time Asmaros had to freeze.

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