Loving someone who was supposed to be a villain, your enemy was not the only thing that could ruin one’s life. After all… love was never a guess. It was never a game. And some take a lifetime to realize that.

You were the adopted princess of a kingdom that towered above others, adored by the people, cherished in the public eye… but inside the palace walls, you were nothing more than a charity case.

They adopted you not out of kindness, but to parade their supposed mercy and win the hearts of the people to conquer loyalty. But all they ever cared about was power.

They didn’t know you knew. That the king, your so-called savior was your father’s younger brother, you were never truly an orphan, only the niece they erased.

They pretended to rescue you after your parents’ death, but at a young age, you knew, the same family that pretended to love you were the ones who destroyed yours.

You endured the cage of gold, the daughter’s cruel taunts, the queen’s disgust, the king’s cold indifference. You bore their marks on your skin and their venom in your heart, because deep down, you knew you were better than all of them.

Your life was no different from hell. Your only comfort were your tears and the books you read under the starlight. The only world where you were free.

Until you met him.

That night, when you snuck out of the palace and went to the nearby hills, the moon hung low, the air heavy with quiet. You saw him, a man cloaked in black, his eyes gleaming gold and silver beneath the shadows.

His presence was cold, yet it pulled you closer, like a whisper in the dark.

You trembled under his gaze, expecting cruelty, memories of whips against your back flooding your mind. But when he reached forward, you flinched and instead of striking, he gently wiped the tears from your eyes.

The mark on his cloak made your blood run cold. He was the enemy. The villain. The man your kingdom feared and blamed for every fallen wall and lost battle.

Yet, for reasons you could not name, that night you didn’t fear him. For the first time in your life, someone looked at you and saw you.

After that night, everything changed. Your secret meetings became your only solace and happiness. Stolen hours and kisses under the moonlight, soft laughter between the trees, his rough hands tracing your face like you were something fragile.

You should’ve known it couldn’t last, because life was no fairytale.

Threatened by your growing influence and the whispers that you might one day claim the crown, your family struck first. After their daughter was hurt, they needed someone to blame. You.

They called you a witch, cursed you for everything you did not know.

You screamed, pleaded, cried until your throat went sore, but your words fell useless against their cruelty. They dragged you through the palace halls, whipped and beaten, until you stood at the center of the kingdom, hands tied, heart breaking, the world watching.

Children sobbed. Elders bowed their heads. The sky felt heavy, as if even the heavens refused to see what came next.

And then… you saw him.

Among the soldiers cloaked in black, one pair of golden eyes found yours. You smiled faintly through the tears.

“Forget me not,” you whispered, voice shaking. “As long as your heart beats, so will mine. If today is my end… then I curse them all. May my heart follow you to the end, if that’s what you wish, my love. They are no family of mine.”

His breath hitched and you saw the tear slip down his cheek under the mask, before your eyes began to blur.

You closed your eyes, ready for the blade, and in that moment, something inside him shattered as his hand went to the hilt of his blade.

The man they called a villain finally became the monster they feared.

"The world is none without you in it,” he rasped, voice breaking apart. “Without you, there is no home. Without you… they do not deserve peace, if you leave so will everything."