Vengeance of The Broken Lycan Prince [BL]-Chapter 479: So, I’ll Light A Cigar With My Regrets
[KOSTA]
"Tamiko accepted the task... and then failed. So, the oath still stands. He has a choice, kid. Either he kills me... or he dies," Yilena said in the softest voice she could master, even though her face was unwavering.
She held Kosta’s eyes like a mother to a child who was being stubborn.
Like she was trying to tell him that the answer was right there, and all they had to do was get Tamiko enough strength to complete his mission, and then they would be free.
But what kind of fate lingered so cruelly like that, though?
What kind of fate was haunting so much from beyond the land of the living?
"You’re telling me to choose?" Igor asked, his voice hoarse as the atmosphere changed around them.
The weather had started getting chilly, like the truth that lay before him and his guardian was one that was so heavy for even the kingdom to bear.
This was the kind that no amount of sacrifice would ever do justice to. It was the worst of the worst, and not even the universe would ever have a way around it, or maybe Igor was overturning it?
Maybe Yilena was not telling him to choose?
But what the fuck was there?
If not for a choice that doomed him either way?
"It’s always been a simple choice since the kid came into your life, Konstantin. Since you went after him years ago," Yilena said softly, her voice unaccusing.
She had made her peace with what was coming, and she wanted to tell Igor that all would be well and that the kid had to bring Tamiko to kill her so they could be happy. But then she also understood the dilemma that the man had at the moment.
It was not the easiest of things. It was not the kind of shit that someone embraced with ease. Because that was too heavy for the best people to bear.
The choice between a guardian and a lover was never really the choice that anyone wants to partake in, and yet, Igor was being reminded of her, and now that he had to choose.
He needed to, for the survival of the prince.
"He’s dying, Nana... even then, you still demand this of him? You have seen what it is doing to him... What the ultimatum seeks, and still, you won’t let him be? What does that even mean for me?
"Am I to watch him die slowly because I cannot get myself to choose between you and him? Is this a test for me, or do I have to die for it all to end?" Igor asked desperately.
He was tired of the back and forth.
He had tried everything possible, tried to make it make sense to him, and yet even then, in the middle of the worst season of his life, he was alone. His nana was not even on his side anymore.
Maybe she was, and even if she really was, she was doing a really terrible job of making Igor feel like he was never going to have anyone in his corner anymore.
The Kawai palace was filled with the stench of impending grief, and it haunted Igor even more.
This was his Erasthai that was slowly fading.
This was the boy he had promised to sit beside always and forever.
The one who owned his heart and all that belonged to him.
This was about his Tamiko. His love.
This was about his world that was slowly dimming and his nana, who was not even relenting in the face of the greatest sorrow that Konstantin had ever faced.
Oh, but it was fair because this was about the man who was now doomed because of him. Because the boy had loved him. There had been so many years between them, and Kosta found this to be the creepiest season of all that they had had to deal with.
This is beyond me, too, Konstantin. The ultimatum binds us all. I cannot run away from it, just as you cannot try to make a run for it. It will catch up to you eventually," Yilena said calmly.
You would think she was giving him the best voice of advice and not telling him that he had to choose between the people he loved the most in his world. What the fuck was that even bound to look alike at this moment then?
What hell would we have to face to make it all count for something when the cousin went down?
What was life supposed to be for them?
"This is too cruel, Nana. Even for you," Igor said in defeat.
He was exhausted beyond what he could even form words for.
He was weary, and nothing about the day was making him feel better.
He had been functioning on the sleep he had gotten days ago, and even that didn’t do him any justice. He was getting irritable, and maybe that was the only way to get his nana to undo the ultimatum.
However, as Igor looked at Yilena Sidorova, as he took in her appearance, he couldn’t help but see a woman so tired of living. She looked way worse than Igor, if anyone focused on her.
And it was unsettling because this woman was supposed to be the most powerful woman alive now that all the others had been bested.
She was supposed to be the powerhouse that brought everything to a standstill. Hell, she had to use Igor and Tamiko’s lives for the damn thing, and now there was no way out. What was he to make of the sudden change?
Was he to feel bad for her, or feel bad for himself and Tamiko?
Where the fuck was he to redirect his emotions and rage because Igor was feeling a lot of that at the moment? He would easily smash a volcano into Kawai if he directed his rage inward.
And that was too dangerous.
Gods, he was trying his very best to be stable, to be sane, to be the one who made things easy. But nothing was ever going to be easy, and Igor Kostantin was slowly enlarging that. And it hurts.
Oh, it hurt so very badly.
"No, Konstantin. This is the price we pay for everything. For daring to believe and have something, for daring to try and survive what had become of us, kid. This is it for us.
"The consequence of it all," Yilena said passively, her eyes focused on the balcony that overlooked the space.
It was as if she was trying to remember it all, to make it make sense for herself, even when it didn’t seem to be making much sense to anyone at this moment.
It was a dangerous spot for both of them to be standing in, but life had no manual. And Yilena knew it was the first lesson of what life could take away from them over the years. This was the punishment for it all. The life that didn’t even have a life to hold onto.
"So, I have to choose... between you... and... and Tamiko?" Igor added that he wasn’t even sure that was what he needed to say this time.
And Yilena...
She didn’t say anything.
Not even to encourage Igor and tell him that this too was a season that would pass, a day that they would beat everything that came their way.
They had always been a team from the moment Sahina had left them for each other. But maybe this was the one team that was fucked over already.
The team that had hope for a life that would be better, or even a life that would be worth something.
And it hurt more than either of them could say anything to make it better.
So defeatedly, Igor walked away with slumped shoulders, his defeat evident despite winning the craziest war in the history of wars.
He had won everything today, but he had lost, and now he had to find a way to tell the love of his life that there was no salvation for them.
That the ultimatum was just another ruse in the love that held their fates together and split them apart fearlessly.
What a cursed fate they had.
’I’m sorry,’ Igor thought to himself as he walked away, the realization of his predicament staring right back at him in the form of pitiful stares once again.
He hated them. Those stares.
But they reminded him too of what had happened.
Of the battle he had won, only for it to mean nothing.
They reminded him of a life he tried to save, only for him to come to the haunting realization that nothing he had done would ever be worth that.
This was an unwinnable battle for him. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚
A war that had no positive outcome either way.
And he hated himself for that, because for the first time in his long life, Igor Konstantin was truly scared. For the first time, fear was written on his face for everyone to see.
The Lycan Chief of Kawai...
Was afraid.
And that spoke volumes, even to the important royals who stood in the hallways, lingering next to the prince’s door, because they, too, had no clue what to say to the situation at hand.
They were bested.
Everyone was.
And Tamiko lay unconscious, probably hoping that things would be alright, yet as Igor walked over and pushed the doors open, it took everything in the church not to wail for their lives, and their lives.
Perhaps defeat always looked like this, and they never cared to look harder, right?
