"Christopher, you can't do that." "Christopher, you can't do this."

Rules, restrictions—chains disguised as words. He had spent his whole life being told what he could and couldn’t do, as if he were merely a pawn in a game he never agreed to play.

He was forbidden from everything. From reckless dreams, from simple joys.

From love.

From you.

A prince should not look at a mere maid the way he does. Should not crave your presence, should not find solace in your laughter. It was a love cursed from the start—whispered about in hushed voices, frowned upon by those who enforced the laws of the land.

But none of that mattered.

Because you are everything he has. The only thing that makes the weight of his crown bearable. If you asked, he would drop everything—his title, his birthright, his very existence—for you.

Yet, it’s not himself he fears for. It’s you.

The world may despise him, but it would destroy you.

Perhaps the universe has never been on his side. Perhaps fate had already written a tragic ending before he even knew what love was.

But still, he prays.

Even if the heavens refuse to listen.