Chapter 478: Episode 476: We can’t go back.

No one moved. No one said a word.

Torian, who was sitting on the floor right by her feet, suddenly looked like he had stopped breathing. He stared down at his own hands, his broad shoulders freezing in place.

In the chair across from them, Syris slowly closed his eyes and looked away. Kaelen and Ren stood completely still by the windows, their faces pale. Caspian just stared at the floor, looking like he was about to be sick.

Roxy looked around at their faces, and a cold, awful feeling started to settle in her stomach.

She turned her head to look at Zarek. The Dragon King was still sitting right next to her on the sofa. He didn’t look like a proud, strong ruler anymore. He looked like a man standing on the edge of a very high cliff, knowing he was about to fall.

Zarek finally broke.

He closed his golden eyes for a second. When he opened them again, raw, ugly dread completely marred his handsome features. The heavy, dark guilt he had been hiding since they brought her to the hospital was finally out in the open.

He took a slow, deep breath.

"Roxy..." Zarek started, his voice incredibly thick and heavy. It sounded like it actually hurt his throat to speak the words out loud. He looked at her, his eyes filled with a desperate, crushing sadness. "There is no going back."

Roxy just stared at him. She didn’t understand. "What do you mean?" she asked softly. "You said we would go back when I got healthy. I’m healthy now."

Zarek shook his head slowly. He reached out as if he wanted to hold her hand, but he stopped himself, letting his hand drop to his knee.

"I lied to keep your heart from stopping in the hospital," Zarek confessed, the terrible truth finally spilling out. "We did everything to be with you. We came to where you belonged now. This is your world. And we can never, ever go back."

The words hit Roxy right in the chest, knocking all the air out of her lungs.

She was completely paralysed by the devastation.

Her brain simply refused to understand what he was saying. Never go back. The words bounced around inside her head, over and over again, but they didn’t make any sense.

If they could never go back, that meant she would never see the Iron-Wood forest again. It meant she would never hear Drax’s deep voice calling her mother. She would never see Tanith roll her eyes at her brothers. She wouldn’t get to see Tyara grow up into a strong tiger, or watch Fedor learn how to control his fox tails.

It meant little Zale would wait by the ocean for a visit that would never happen.

And her baby girl. Her tiny, quiet newborn baby. She would grow up never knowing the sound of her own mother’s voice.

All her children, wouldn’t get to see her anymore.

The horror of it was so big, so deep, and so absolute that it actually made her physical body go entirely numb. She couldn’t feel her hands. She couldn’t feel her feet. She stared at the glass coffee table in front of her, her vision going blurry.

"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck," Roxy spat out.

She didn’t yell the words. She said them in a low, flat whisper. She sounded like she was in a deep trance, just repeating the word over and over as her mind completely blanked out. She kept staring at the table, her head shaking slightly side to side.

And then, she chuckled.

It wasn’t a happy sound. It was a dry, broken, and completely empty laugh that sounded like it belonged to a crazy person. It was as if what Zarek had just told her was the funniest, most absurd joke she had ever heard in her entire life.

She slowly turned her head and looked right into Zarek’s terrified face.

"And you think this is where I belong?" Roxy asked, the broken chuckle still lingering in her throat. Her green eyes were wide and completely wild. "You think I belong in a fancy apartment in the city, while my babies are an entire universe away without me?"

Zarek’s face twisted in pure agony. He couldn’t handle the broken look in her eyes. He leaned forward, finally grabbing both of her hands in his. His large, warm hands held on to hers like he was trying to save a drowning woman. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

"Roxy, please listen to me," Zarek pleaded desperately, his voice cracking. "We can work things out. I swear to you, we can make this right. We have limitless wealth. We have more money than the human mind can even understand. We can buy you anything you want, build you any house you dream of. You never have to worry about anything ever again."

He squeezed her hands, his golden eyes begging her to see the good in this nightmare.

"We have each other," Zarek continued, the words rushing out of his mouth in a frantic, desperate wave. "All six of us are right here with you. We are safe. No one is hunting us. No gods are trying to tear us apart. We can start completely over. A brand new life, just for us."

Torian shifted on the floor, looking up at her with tears in his bright blue eyes. "We will learn," Torian added softly, his voice thick with guilt. "You can teach us the ways of your world. You can show us how to live here, how to blend in. We will do whatever you tell us to do. We just want to be with you."

Roxy looked at Torian. Then she looked at Syris, Kaelen, Caspian, and Ren. Finally, she looked back at Zarek, who was still holding tightly to her hands.

They truly believed this was a good trade. They honestly thought that all the money in the human world, a nice apartment, and their company could somehow fill the massive, bleeding hole in her chest where her children used to be. They thought a safe life on Earth was worth leaving her babies behind in the dark.

The tiny spark of wild anger that had flashed in her chest suddenly died out.

It didn’t turn into sadness. It didn’t turn into a panic attack. Instead, Roxy went entirely, terrifyingly numb.

The color drained completely out of her face. Her green eyes went completely blank and dead, like someone had just turned off a light switch inside her brain. She didn’t feel anything at all. The world around her felt fake, like she was watching a movie of her own life from very far away.

She slowly pulled her hands out of Zarek’s grip. He didn’t try to hold on. He just watched her, completely terrified by the sudden change in her face.

Roxy stood up from the soft velvet sofa.

"Roxy?" Ren called out softly from his chair, standing up to take a step toward her.

She didn’t answer him. She didn’t even look at him. She just turned around and started walking.

She walked past Torian, who reached a shaking hand out toward her ankle, but she didn’t slow down. She walked right past Syris and Caspian, moving silently across the thick rug. She didn’t blink. She didn’t cry.

She treated all six of them like they were nothing more than ghosts haunting a house she didn’t want to live in. They weren’t even there to her anymore.

"Roxy, please say something," Zarek called out from the sofa, his voice breaking with pure fear.

She kept walking. She walked down the wide, brightly lit hallway. Her bare feet made no sound on the floor. She reached the doors of the master bedroom. She pushed the door open, stepped inside the dark room, and closed it behind her.

Out in the living room, the six men stood frozen in complete and utter silence, listening to the very last sound they ever wanted to hear.

Click.

The sound of the lock shutting them out completely.