Love was bitter as winter wind and warm as a spring breeze. A soft caress of the heart, an unbearable clench on the soul, and moistened eyes. Beautiful and idle, love came in the most unsuspecting moments, until they took a cruel grasp on life.

  Love. Love. Love.

  Lina believed she had never fallen in love. Not once in her life. But when she looked at Kaden's sincere gaze, she was certain she had fallen head over heels. This man terrified her. She had memories of him tender as the first snow, but violent as a blizzard. He'd sleep tightly with her, declaring his straightforward love, but why did she remember heartbreak and pain?

  "You wanted my love," Lina realized. "But what you did to me left me in the dust."

  "Dove—"

  "It's Lina."

  Kaden was floored. He stared at her blankly. He felt a stir in his chest. Her words were heartbreaking. Was this karma? He could build hundreds of temples dedicated to her, write thousands of poems, and utter his love for her infinite times, but will it ever be enough?

  "I love you," Kaden confessed, each word like stones in a well, barely floating before submerging.

  "Do you know?" Lina returned, each word hurting more than the next. She could feel her heart screaming in disapproval. The world before she knew was falling apart before her.

  Lina threw the blanket off of her. She glanced down to see the same, stained wedding dress. He hadn't ordered someone to change her clothes. No one dared to touch her. She caressed the silky material of the wrinkled wedding gown. Stained in red. The smell permeated her nose, a heavy stench of iron and horror.

  "I had a dream of a bride sobbing before an empty altar, bullets flying past her, blood raining down, and fire in the distance." Lina fingered the lace, sticking one through the holes, hearing a satisfying rip. She hated this dress.

  "Lina."

  "No amount of reasoning would be good enough," Lina decided.

  "No, there is one. You would've lost your mind had you not let me wipe it. You—"

  "I've already lost my mind."

  Kaden clamped his mouth shut. He couldn't deny her words. His actions caused her to be kidnapped to Wraith. His behavior meddled with her memories, her actions, and changed the way her brain worked. Who knew if she would ever recover from his touch? Who knew if her memories would continue to worsen until she was rendered to have the mind of a child?

  "I'm sorry."

  Two words. That was all that Lina wanted to hear. Despite that, there was no satisfaction. No joy. No victory. The words cut her deep in the heart. Pain spread across her chest, bitter thorns taking hold of her entire body.

  Lina clenched her fingers. She slipped out of the bed, her feet touching the cold floor. Her white dress, in all its layers of glory, puffed behind her. She felt like a snow Princess standing in the ashes of her regret. She shouldn't have married Atlantis.

  "I believe I loved you as well," Lina realized. She quietly touched the spot where her heart was. She could feel it bleeding profusely by her words.

  "In the end," Kaden said in a tone that only she could hear. "Our love story has reached a doomed ending."

  Lina disagreed.

  Lina always believed in happy endings where the Prince and Princess will get the future they deserve. Right person, wrong timing.

  "Your Majesty," Lina slowly said, turning to face the King. "I'd like my memories back."

  Elias was momentarily awestruck. He rarely found other women appealing. Never. Who could be more gorgeous than his own wife? But Lina was a different story. Lina was a devastating beauty, the kind that artists wept as they drew, and poets' tears stained the parchment. The tragic woman who's lost everything, brittle shoulders, lovely silhouette, but the world on her back.

  "If that is what you decide," Elias noted, glancing straight at Kaden.

  Kaden remained on the bed, staring blankly at the spot she once laid. In her words, he didn't move. He gave no inclination that he agree or disagree. He was still a tree. There wasn't an ounce of emotion on her face.

  "All of the moments up to now, I want to remember it all," Lina continued. "The coerced marriage. The betrayal of my supposed lover. The treacherous childhood friend. Every pain, every agony, I want it to remain. Let it be a lesson of love for me."

  "Oh, sweetheart…" Adeline softly said, her face crumbling with the realization.

  Kaden swallowed hard. He raised his head to finally look at her. She was no longer watching him. She used to. Her attention was always drawn to him. In a room of people, she was always searching for him. He'd set foot in the room and she was instantly captured by him.

  Now, Lina was cold. She didn't even glance over her shoulders. She didn't even look at him. Her time was set on the King of Wraith. All of a sudden, Kaden regretted not practicing his abilities as Pure-Blood. If only he controlled his powers properly. If only, he could heal her himself.

  "Come forward then," Elias told her in a composed tone.

  Lina did so. She closed the distance between them. She gathered her dress to walk better, but it still dragged behind her. What an irritating deadweight. She stopped before the King.

  Elias's gaze swept over briefly. Seeing her in the wedding gown, he was suddenly reminded of his dear Adeline. The two of them made stunning brides. There was simply nothing to compare between both of them. They were lovely in their own regards.

  "You might faint, you might grow dizzy, the world will spin," Elias warned her. "But it will be worth it. You will remember everything. Because unlike someone… I actually have control."

  Kaden chucked the nearest item at Elias.

  Elias dodged. He dusted off his shoulders, pretending an assassination wasn't just attempted.

  "Quite a violent temper, that one," Elias chided her.

  Lina grimly glanced at him. "I don't think you're any better."

  "Wise girl." Elias placed a hand on her forehead.

  In the corner of his eyes, Kaden tensed. His expression grew dark and dangerous. He resembled a beast ready to pounce should a scratch land on his mate.

  Lina didn't know what happened after Elias touched her. But his warning was useless. She felt a sharp pain on her forehead, like someone had whacked it with a baseball bat. Her knees crumbled and she sank to the ground. Her dress gathered around her like sunken lilies in a pond.

  Lina struggled to gasp. Her head began to pound, her jaws locking with agony, and she choked out a cry.

  "Ugh…"

  Lina suppressed letting out a noise of pain. It was taking every inch of her to do so. But once the struggle was over, relief flooded her body. She let out a shaky breath. Everything was returning back to her.

  Memories of her first life. Memories of a life beyond the first one, of a heavenly realm, and faces in the sky that resembled people on earth. Jumping into a whirlpool to undergo Three Trials. Red string of fate leading to Kaden on her left hand and another on her right hand to Atlantis. Even her hand knew the right choice she should've made. Her horrible high school experience, but wonderful college life. Friendship with Isabelle. Joking with Milo. Her abusive mother and her neglectful father.

  The tragic love story between Lina and Kaden. She remembered everything.

  Everett trampling into the office. Everett cornering her with marriage. Her slandered reputation. The marriage contract. His initial rejection because of her vulnerable state. Kaden begging for her hand in marriage. A ruby ring presented before the temple dedicated to her. His gentle caress on her face, his searing touch on her thighs, his powerful body, the hardness of his thrust, the curl of his tongue, and the teasing of his fingers.

  Everything came back to her.

  "The last thing I remembered," Lina breathed out in shock, touching her forehead. Tears welled in her eyes.

  "You didn't believe me," Lina said.

  "Lina—"

  "You didn't believe me!" Lina shouted at him, her rage resurfacing. She was even more hurt by his mistrust than his actions. How could he? How couldn't he take her word into action?!

  "How could you?" Lina cried out, only to pull away.

  Lina realized he didn't deserve it. He didn't deserve to see her in pain. She refused to let her watering eyes be the reason he felt guilt. She swallowed and gulped down her pain. She held back her tears. She held back everything. Like a flip of a switch, she turned off her emotions.

  "What a selfish man you are," Lina breathed. "You expected me to believe your reasoning, but didn't even listen to my explanation."

  The infertility results. Lina didn't even open it. The expression on Kaden's face told her he realized that too late. He hung his head in defeat.

  "I'm sorry."

  Lina knew Kaden never apologized. The Second King of Ritan was not one to say sorry. The CEO of Dehaven Conglomerate never batted an eye. Yet, here he was, saying it twice in one day. Before an audience too.

  "You don't get to be sorry," Lina murmured. "Not after what you've done to me."

  Lina didn't bother to wait for his response. She roughly stood up and stormed out of the room. She didn't want to hear it. She couldn't stomach it. But she did. Her heart dropped. He followed her. His footsteps were loud and thunderous.

  "Lina, Lina, wait."

  A part of Lina didn't want him to chase her. The other part was screaming. Pain triumphed over happiness. It always did.

  Lina did not wait. Instead, Lina gathered the wedding dress and walked down the hallways, alone. Blood on her dress. Gunpowder feint in the air. A bride, all alone, walking down what could've led to an altar.

  Kaden didn't dare to approach her any further. The only thing he saw was her retreating figure, disappearing into the distance, and never to be seen for years.

  She, who got away…… He, who could've caught her.