The Bride He Hates-Chapter 104: The Meeting

Lyanna stood in front of the mirror at Valdris, staring at the three dresses laid out on the bed.

The first was one of the grand vampire gowns from Thornfield. It was the kind of dress she had worn to banquets and council meetings. Wearing it would make her look like a vampire queen again, reminding Azrael of what they had been.

The second was a blue dress that Roland had bought her last week. It was a simple cotton dress.

The third dress, a simple white dress, she had bought for herself while living in Valdris. Wearing it would make her look like a simple human girl.

She reached for the white dress. When she put it on, she did look like a human again, almost like the girl she had been before her marriage to Azrael.

But when she looked at herself in the mirror closely, she saw the truth. The dress was human, but she wasn’t. She had changed so much.

Clara appeared in the doorway.

"Your Majesty, are you ready? The carriage is waiting."

Lyanna nodded and looked at herself in the mirror one last time. Today, she wasn’t pretending to be someone she wasn’t. She was just being herself, a human heart in a vampire body.

"I’m ready." She replied.

The ride to the location Azrael had mentioned took three hours. Lyanna tried not think about what she’d say, what she’d feel, and what would happen when she’ll see him after such so long. But she failed miserably.

Her mind kept circling back to their last fight, to the words that had cut her like knives. But she also thought about his letters.

Which version of Azrael would I meet today? The cruel one or the honest one?

Maybe they were the same person and that was the problem. The man who loved me and the man who wished I were different were both real.

The carriage finally stopped. They had reached the location. Lyanna stepped out and looked up. It was an abandoned castle. The stone walls were covered in ivy, and the towers were partially crumbled. But still, it was beautiful in a melancholy way.

There were no guards, no council members and no political observers.

She walked inside and started pacing.

What am I doing here? What am I expecting? That he’ll magically change in a few weeks? Can love alone fix everything?

She was practical enough to understand that people didn’t change overnight. Centuries of being a controlling king didn’t vanish just because he wrote heartfelt letters.

This meeting will probably end up hurting us both even more. We’ll fight again or we’ll be honest and remember why we loved each other, only to realize love isn’t enough.

But she couldn’t leave either. She couldn’t walk away without seeing him one more time.

Mewnwhile, Azrael stood in his chambers at Thornfield, obsessing over details. His hair was perfect. He had spent twenty minutes getting it exactly the way Lyanna liked. His clothes were perfect as well. He looked like he was preparing for a diplomatic summit with a hostile foreign delegation.

Adrian watched him with concern.

"Your Majesty, you look like you’re preparing for a battle." Adrian said.

"Aren’t I?" Azrael said, adjusting his collar for the third time. "It’s the most important battle of my life."

"She is your wife, not your enemy."

"She is the woman I need to convince I’m worth a second chance. Appearance matters. I need to..." He stopped mid-sentence.

His hands were shaking as he tried to fasten his cufflinks. Adrian moved forward, gently taking Azrael’s hands to steady them.

"Your Majesty. Stop."

"I can’t. I need to be perfect. I need to..."

"You need to show her your heart, not your crown."

Azrael laughed bitterly.

"My crown is all I have left. My heart is just broken pieces that failed her."

"Then show her the broken pieces. She doesn’t need the perfect king. She needs the honest man. The one who is scared, flawed and desperately in love with her."

Azrael nodded and took a deep breath. Adrian helped him with the cufflinks.

"Go." Adrian said. "Just be honest with her."

Azrael left his chambers and walked through Thornfield’s halls like a man walking to his own execution.

The ride to the abandoned castle was agony.

His mind raced with what to say, how to say it, how to make her understand that he had changed.

When he reached the abandoned castle and dismounted from his horse, he clenched his fists tightly to calm himself before walking inside.

Lyanna was pacing when she heard footsteps.

She stopped instantly and turned towards the entrance. Azrael appeared in the doorway.

The sight of him took her breath away.

He looked thinner than she remembered. His face had changed, he looked older despite being an immortal. There were dark circles under his eyes. It looked like he hadn’t been eating properly, hadn’t been taking care of himself. She could tell he had been suffering.

But still he was devastatingly handsome. He still had that presence that filled a room the moment he entered it. He still made her heart skip.

He saw her and stopped at the door as if he had been physically struck. Seeing her face-to-face after weeks was overwhelming for him.

"Lyanna."

Her name slipped from his lips like a prayer. It felt as if he had been holding his breath for weeks and could finally exhale.

The distance between them felt like miles. Neither moved. They just looked at each other, burdened by weeks of separation, a catastrophic fight and letters filled with things they couldn’t say face to face.

Lyanna noticed how his hair was perfectly styled but one strand had fallen on his forehead. His clothes were perfect but one cufflink was slightly crooked. He was trying to look controlled and powerful but his eyes were desperate and vulnerable.

The silence stretched on until it became unbearable. Finally, Lyanna spoke.

"You look terrible."

Azrael smiled slightly.

"You look... radiant. Human life suits you."

Lyanna flinched. It reminded her of their last argument when he had called her "too human."

Azrael noticed her reaction immediately.

"I didn’t mean to..."

"Why are we here, Azrael?" Lyanna cut him off. "You said you wanted to meet me once. Tell me, what do you want to say that you couldn’t write?"

The question was direct and brutal. He lifted his one hand like he wanted to reach for her, but then dropped it. And in that moment, Azrael realized Adrian had been right.

If he wanted her back in his life, he had to be the honest, broken, and desperately in love man who had destroyed the best thing in his life and would do anything to get her back. There was no other option.