Echoes of a Ruined Heart

It took Draco seven years after my death to finally remember me—and he did it by leveling the Astral Sanctuary to the ground.

All because his fragile childhood sweetheart, Cecilia, had suffered a relapse. She needed my Starblood to survive.

He didn't know that in the Abyssal Dungeons seven years ago, he had personally cut open my chest and drained me dry.

I was already dead.

Now, I was nothing but a fractured soul tethered to the Sanctuary, watching coldly as he dragged his own spirit into eternal damnation for a venomous liar.

...

The pristine white-jade steps of the Sanctuary were now scarred and ruined by pitch-black dragon fire.

I floated suspended in the air, gazing down at the brutal massacre below.

My incorporeal form felt none of the black flames' searing heat, nor could I smell the thick, coppery stench of blood choking the air.

With a deafening crack, the Sanctuary's final starlight ward completely shattered.

Hundreds of heavily armored Black Dragon Knights flooded in like a dark tide, pinning the unarmed Astral Elves into the dirt.

Draco descended from the sky on the back of his massive black dragon.

His dark gold, slitted eyes were entirely devoid of mercy as he looked down from his high vantage point at the blood-soaked girl in the center of the hall.

It was my younger sister, Lilia.

"Where is Eliana?" Draco's voice was a low, oppressive rumble that seemed to freeze the very air.

He swept his gaze across the ruins, a flash of impatient disgust in his eyes. "Tell her to drag herself out here. Hiding behind these completely useless pawns—is that the backbone of your Astral Princess?"

I studied the face I had once loved to my very marrow, yet not a single ripple disturbed the dead waters of my heart.

You're too late, Draco. You demand I come out, but my bones have long since rotted in your dungeons.

Lilia gritted her teeth, using a splintered staff to prop up her swaying body.

Though her face was smeared with ash and blood, her glare was vicious. "Draco! You treacherous monster! You'll never take another step into this Sanctuary!"

"Treacherous?" Draco laughed coldly, leaping down from the dragon's back and stalking toward her.

"Seven years ago, out of sheer jealousy, Eliana poisoned Cecilia's tonic. She triggered an Abyssal flare-up that nearly killed her! I spared Eliana's life and threw her in the dungeons to reflect on her sins. That was already more mercy than your Astral clan deserved!"

Hearing those words, my ethereal form gave a violent shudder.

Seven years ago. Yes, seven years ago.

Back then, I was the revered Astral Princess. I was Draco's lawfully wedded wife.

Cecilia was merely the orphan of a fallen subordinate, yet she leveraged their childhood bond to live entirely under our roof.

That day, Cecilia knowingly drank the Abyss-laced water herself, only to collapse in Draco's arms, vomiting up blood.

Draco cut my words short. Hand tight around my throat, he didn't shout. He just whispered in my ear.

"Your poison, Eliana." He drew his dagger with chilling calm, pressing the point directly over my left breast. "Your heart's blood for the cure."

"Now, Cecilia has relapsed, and only Starblood can suppress the poison."

Jolting back to the present, Draco's gaze darkened ominously. He seized Lilia by the throat, hoisting her entirely off the ground.

"I don't have time for these cowardly games. Tell Eliana that if she isn't kneeling before Cecilia with her heart's blood in half an hour, I will execute ten Astral Elves every fifteen minutes."

Lilia's face turned vividly purple from asphyxiation. Clawing uselessly at his vice-like grip, she let out a broken, ghastly laugh. "Draco... in this lifetime... you will never... see my sister again..."

"Still acting tough?" A flash of sheer brutality crossed Draco's eyes. With a casual flick of his wrist, a whip of black flame instantly swallowed three Elf elders pinned nearby.

"No—!" Lilia unleashed a blood-curdling scream.

I threw myself violently at the inferno, trying to shield them with my own body.

But the scorching fire passed straight through my soul. My fingers grasped nothing. I could only watch helplessly as the elders who had raised me were reduced to ash within seconds.

"Draco! You absolute lunatic!" I screamed at him frantically, but he couldn't hear me.

My voice dissolved into the empty wind, unanswered—just like my agonized begging in that dungeon seven years ago.

Draco tossed Lilia to the ground like a discarded rag. He drew his longsword, dripping with black flames, and pressed the tip directly over her chest. "I'll say this one last time. Where is Eliana? If she doesn't show herself, the next strike goes through your heart."

Lilia coughed up a thick mouthful of blood. She tilted her head up, glaring at him with a hatred so dense it was almost palpable.

She didn't beg. Instead, she offered a ghastly, blood-stained smile—a look of such sheer despair that it sent an inexplicable spark of irritation through Draco.

Draco was demanding I show myself, completely oblivious to the fact that I was already a ghost.

Watching her fragile body seconds away from being pierced, I fell to my knees in front of her, desperately trying to wrap my hands around the blinding blade.

But my fingers grasped nothing; I was left with nothing but unseen tears tracking down my face.

Just as the sword was about to thrust downward, a sudden, violently weak fit of coughing broke the dead silence.