Upon their return to the cottage, they shared a quiet dinner. Afterward, Eilika made her rounds, checking on Roman and the other boys. Seeing them tucked away in peaceful slumber eased some of the tension in her chest. When she finally retreated to the master bedroom, she found it empty.

"Is he planning to stay out again?" she murmured to the shadows. The exhaustion of the day finally took its toll. As she slipped beneath the heavy duvet, the warmth of the bed pulled her into a deep sleep within minutes.

When Damian eventually entered the room, the only sound was Eilika’s steady breathing. He stood by the edge of the bed for a long moment.

"How long has she been forced to endure such words?" he whispered to himself.

He moved quietly to the washroom to freshen up. Stepping back out, he extinguished the lights and descended the stairs, where Maurice sat waiting in the dim glow of the hearth.

"Stay seated," Damian commanded as Maurice began to rise.

The Duke settled into a high-backed upholstered chair. He didn’t waste time with pleasantries. "I want the Mayor of Netham replaced. Immediately."

Maurice blinked, caught off guard by the suddenness of the decree. "What? Why so abruptly, Your Grace?"

"His daughter insulted the Duchess in a public boutique," Damian stated. "She mocked her beauty, using the scar on her cheek as a weapon for her own vanity. I have already drafted the decree." He reached for the side table, picking up the scroll he had been preparing after he had dinner.

Maurice hesitated, looking from the scroll to the Duke’s stony expression. "Your Grace, I understand the gravity of the insult, but if we replace the Mayor overnight, whispers will turn into an outcry. Netham is a small place; such a sudden ripple will alert our enemies. They will know the Duke and Duchess are here, and our cover will be blown. We have yet to rescue dozens of children from the traffickers. Is this the right time to invite such scrutiny?"

Damian’s grip tightened on the scroll. The logic was sound, yet the memory of Eilika’s trembling hand on his arm and her crestfallen face in the mirror burned in his mind.

"I don’t care," Damian pronounced. "We will rescue the children regardless. Eilika and I will simply avoid the market. I cannot, and will not, allow that woman to continue enjoying the luxuries of her father’s rank while she had spewed such nonsense at my wife’s face."

He leaned forward. "I could have ordered you to drag them to the dungeons or sent them to the gallows, but I am showing restraint. Maurice, I loathe it when those who are kind and pure of heart are trampled upon by the arrogant. I simply cannot stand it. Process the order." 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

Maurice remained silent for a moment, stunned. It had been years since he had seen that particular spark in Damian’s eyes. It was a fierce, protective fire that had been absent since the passing of the Duke’s first wife. It was as if the ice around Damian’s heart hadn’t just cracked, but was being melted away by a new sense of purpose.

Recognizing that further argument was futile, Maurice took the scroll and stood up. "I will ensure this reaches the Mayor’s residence first thing in the morning, Your Grace. Will that suffice?"

"Great," Damian said as he dismissed the matter. "You may retire for the night."

"Good night, Your Grace," Maurice replied, bowing low before disappearing into the darkness of the hallway.

Left alone in the quiet of the hearth, Damian stared into the dying embers. He had acted on impulse, a rarity for a man of his calculated nature, but the thought of Eilika’s disrespect was a thought he couldn’t endure.

Damian sat frozen in the high-backed chair, the air in the room suddenly turning deathly cold. His heart, which had been racing with protective fury for Eilika just moments ago, now felt like a block of ice in his chest.

"But why did she kiss me? Is she forgetting that I can’t love her?" he murmured into the silence.

"You’re right, Damian. You’ve allowed another woman to get close to you."

The voice was like a haunting melody from a forgotten dream. Damian lifted his head, his breath hitching. Sitting across from him was Liliana. She looked exactly as she had in her final days, beautiful, fragile, and now, profoundly hurt.

"Didn’t you promise that our love would be eternal?" she asked, her voice trembling with accusation. "Then why are you allowing her to get close to you? Are you going to kick me out of your life?"

Damian went rigid, his eyes wide and unblinking. It had been years since her phantom had spoken to him with such clarity. The guilt he had buried deep beneath his duties as a Duke came rushing to the surface, suffocating him. Liliana stood up as she moved toward him.

"Say something, Damian," she demanded, standing directly in front of him. Her eyes, once full of warmth, now burned with a chilling reproach. "You promised me you would love me until your last breath. Did you forget it so easily?"

"I haven’t forgotten," Damian rasped, his voice cracking under the weight of a decade of grief. "I could never forget you, Liliana. But it hurts me... it destroys me to see you like this. You are no longer alive. You are a ghost I carry."

"I am in your heart and in your mind," Liliana replied that seemed to vibrate in his very bones. She reached out, her pale, translucent hand coming to rest against his cheek. Though he felt no warmth, a shiver raced down his spine.

"You are supposed to wait for me until your last breath, Damian. Don’t let any woman get close to you. What if she dies, too? I died after loving you. My love was your curse."

Damian’s eyes brimmed with tears. "I won’t love her. I have promised myself that," he choked out, his shoulders heaving. "Just... don’t come to me like this. I want to be at peace, Liliana. I cannot undergo that same agony again. I don’t have the strength to lose anyone else. Not again. Never again."

"Then keep your heart as cold as the stone in our vault," Liliana whispered, her image beginning to flicker and fade like a dying candle. "Or I will never truly leave you."

She vanished into the shadows. Damian sat in the darkness, gasping for air, his face wet with tears.