Adrien.

We kept moving for hours without stopping, our horses galloping endlessly across the rough path as the cold wind lashed against our faces. None of us spoke much during the journey. The exhaustion was obvious, yet no one dared complain. We all had somewhere more important to be, and time was not on our side.

Then suddenly, our horses slowed.

Aidan immediately pulled at the reins, bringing his horse to a sharp halt, and the rest of us stopped behind him almost instantly.

From a distance, I noticed a familiar figure standing in the middle of the road, though he wasn’t alone. Several strange men surrounded him, their posture threatening enough to tell us trouble had already begun.

"Isn’t that Noah?" Aidan asked, narrowing his eyes as he tried to get a clearer look.

I let out a small scoff the moment I recognized him.

Of course it was Noah.

That fool had somehow managed to drag himself into another problem once again.

A smirk tugged at the corner of my lips as I stared at him from afar. The last time he had nearly gotten himself killed, we had stepped in and saved him. We fought for him, protected him, and practically risked our own lives.

And what did we get in return?

Absolutely nothing.

What an ungrateful wench.

Instead of appreciating what we had done for him, he spent his time trying to snatch Maria away from me as though he had any right to her.

Just remembering it made irritation crawl beneath my skin again.

Thank goddess the wedding never happened.

"He clearly is the one, but I don’t think whatever is happening to him now is our business," Davian muttered before coughing lightly into his fist.

I instantly understood the message hidden beneath his words.

Davian was right.

Noah’s problems were no concern of ours anymore.

Not after everything.

"Let’s keep going," Aidan said firmly as he adjusted himself properly on his horse. "We’ll take another route."

His tone carried finality, the kind that made it obvious he had already made up his mind.

The horses beneath us shifted restlessly, hooves scraping lightly against the ground as they prepared to move again.

The tension in the air had already dragged on long enough, and honestly, I was more than ready to leave Noah behind to deal with the consequences of his own stupidity.

If he had gotten himself into trouble, then that was entirely his problem. I had no intention of wasting more time because of him.

I tightened my grip slightly, preparing to move the moment Aidan gave the signal.

But before any of us could continue forward...

"Wait!" Damien suddenly called out.

His voice cut sharply through the air, immediately drawing everyone’s attention toward him.

I slowly turned toward him, raising a brow in faint amusement.

Of course.

There was always one person among us who cared too much and unsurprisingly, it was Damien.

A small scoff almost escaped me as I watched the conflicted expression on his face.

Even now, after everything, he still looked hesitant, still uncertain and still trying to hold onto whatever unnecessary sympathy remained inside him.

Honestly, it was exhausting.

"What now, Damien?" I asked impatiently.

Every second we wasted here felt unbearable to me.

I had already been separated from Maria for far too long, and the distance between us was slowly driving me insane. My mind had not known peace ever since we parted ways, and the only thing keeping me together was the thought of seeing her again.

"Speak, Damien. We are running out of time," Aidan added sharply, his patience clearly thinning.

Damien inhaled deeply before glancing toward Noah once more. His expression tightened slightly, almost like he was struggling internally before finally making up his mind.

"Well... we have principles, brothers," Damien said at last, breaking the heavy silence between us.

His voice was calm, but there was something firm hidden beneath it. The kind of firmness that already told me he had made up his mind long before speaking.

The moment those words left his mouth, I already knew exactly where this conversation was heading.

And honestly?

That was the problem.

I slowly exhaled through my nose, tightening my grip around the reins of my horse as irritation crawled through my chest. Even the cold wind brushing against my face did nothing to cool the anger building inside me.

Of course Damien would bring up principles.

Of course he would.

"We cannot just overlook our principles overnight because of our emotions, right?" Damien asked as his gaze moved across each of us carefully, almost like he was trying to force us to agree with him without saying it directly.

The second he finished speaking, I rolled my eyes in frustration.

Unbelievable.

I honestly could not believe Damien was still standing there talking about principles when those same stupid principles were the exact reason our lives had become a complete mess.

Those principles had cost us everything.

If we had not interfered the last time Noah got himself into trouble, none of this would have happened.

None of it.

We would not be riding endlessly across dangerous territories now, desperately trying to save Maria from whatever nightmare she had been dragged into.

I swallowed hard as her name crossed my mind again. Even thinking about her made my chest tighten painfully.

I should have been with her right now.

Not chasing after danger.

Not arguing about saving the same man who had almost destroyed everything between us.

I should have married her already.

Maybe by now we would have had children running around our home.

Maybe I would wake up beside her every morning instead of carrying this constant emptiness inside me.

Maybe I would not feel like a part of me had been ripped away ever since she left.

But no.

We chose principles.

We chose honor.

We chose to save Noah because it was supposedly the right thing to do.

And what exactly did that decision give us in return?

Pain.

Nothing but pain.

The bitterness inside me only deepened the longer I thought about it.

"Come on, brothers," Damien continued after noticing none of us responded immediately. This time his voice softened slightly, almost pleading with us to understand him. "Our conscience is not dead...and I know what you all are thinking."

A humorless scoff nearly escaped me.

Davian immediately scoffed in annoyance. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

"Since you already know what we are thinking, Damien, then why bother asking us to do the exact opposite?" he asked irritably.

The tension between us thickened instantly, as none of us were in the mood for this conversation.

Not when Maria was somewhere out there waiting for us.

Not when every wasted second felt dangerous.

Damien sighed heavily before glancing toward Noah again. Even from where we stood, it was obvious the situation ahead was getting worse. The strange men surrounding him looked armed and dangerous.

"Do you think Maria would be happy if she found out we could have saved Noah but chose not to?" Damien asked, trying once again to make us see reason.

Aidan immediately shook his head.

"We are not the ones who sent people to assassinate him," he snapped. "If she wants to blame someone, then she should blame whoever hired those men."

His voice carried irritation and exhaustion.

And honestly, I agreed with him.

Why should we risk our lives again because Noah could not stay away from trouble?

"Yes, Damien," I added coldly, my voice sharper this time as frustration slowly crept into my tone. "And how exactly would she even find out we were here?"

As I spoke, I gestured toward the men positioned in the distance, my eyes narrowing carefully as I studied them again. Even from where we stood, it was obvious they were heavily armed and prepared for trouble.

Nothing about the situation looked safe.

"What if one of us ends up dead instead?" I continued, unable to hide the irritation and concern mixing inside me anymore. "Those men are clearly armed, and there are too many of them."

The moment the words left my mouth, silence stretched heavily between us.

For a while, nobody responded.

The only sounds around us were the restless shifting of the horses beneath us and the distant whisper of the wind brushing through the open path ahead. Even the atmosphere itself felt tense, weighed down by uncertainty and unspoken fear.

I watched Damien carefully.

His jaw clenched tightly, so tightly that I could almost tell he was trying hard not to lose his temper completely. The frustration on his face was obvious, but beneath it was something else too—determination.

"We still have to try," he finally said after a long moment, his voice firm and unwavering despite everything. "That is what we always do."

His words hung heavily between us, and slowly, my gaze shifted toward my brothers.

Aidan looked conflicted, and Davian looked beyond irritated.

Damien remained stubbornly determined.

And me?

I simply sat there silently on my horse, gripping the reins tightly as frustration burned through my chest.