---- stills.


    This was my light, Vince said, his voice raw with emotion.


    This was what kept me alive.


    It gave me hope that maybe, one day, I could have that tooa family.


    A home.


    Can you read it for me, little one? He asks, kissing her temple and she stills, her hands holding the worn out edges of the cover tremble.


    ---- Chapter 413 The fragile pages of the storybook trembled slightly as Zariyan turned them, her fingers tracing the worn edges.


    Vinceyed behind her, his chin resting on her shoulder, and his arms wrapped around her waist.


    She could feel his breathing soft and steady on her neck as he prepared to hear the story he had only ever imagined.


    Go on little one.


    I cant wait to hear it.


    He has waited seventeen years of his life for this moment.


    To hear every letter written there.


    To have her voice recite it.


    And now it is happening.


    His heart has never felt so alive, so willing to beat before.


    The Prince of darkness and the Princess of Light.


    Once upon a time, she began, her voice low and steady, there was a princea prince born of ---- Chapter 413 The fragile pages of the storybook trembled slightly as Zariyan turned them, her fingers tracing the worn edges.


    Vinceyed behind her, his chin resting on her shoulder, and his arms wrapped around her waist.


    She could feel his breathing soft and steady on her neck as he prepared to hear the story he had only ever imagined.


    Go on little one.


    I cant wait to hear it.


    He has waited seventeen years of his life for this moment.


    To hear every letter written there.


    To have her voice recite it.


    And now it is happening.


    His heart has never felt so alive, so willing to beat before.


    The Prince of darkness and the Princess of Light.


    Once upon a time, she began, her voice low and steady, there was a princea prince born of ---- shadows, whose heart was cold and hardened by the world he lived in.


    His kingdom was dark, his people lost, and he never knew love.


    All he knew was hunger.


    Not just for food, but for something deeper, something he couldn''t name." Vinces jaw tightened.


    The words stirred something inside him, a familiarity that pulled at the raw edges of his memories He was that Prince That first picture of a boy eating scraps of bread, was him.


    He still remembers that stale breads bitter taste on his lips.


    "One day, hungry and desperate, the prince stole a loaf of bread from the market.


    It wasnt his.


    It wasnt meant for him.


    But he took it.


    The hunger inside him inside his soulwas too much to ignore.


    And as he sat in the alley, tearing into the bread, something fluttered in front of him.


    A bird.


    A little bird, small and fragile.


    The prince, so consumed by his own pain, watched