---- Tt was fighting death.


    The boy rushes to get some water for it, his chest heavy with the weight of regret, but when he returns.


    His footsteps stop.


    The sight had him freeze in his tracks.


    "A girl knelt beside the injured bird, her hands gentle as she cradled it.


    She whispered soft words to it as she assessed the creatures wings." Zariyan swallowed hard, before continuing.


    "The prince...


    he couldn''t understand it.


    Why would she? A stranger help something so small, so insignificant and so ugly? He wanted to go away, just leave but something about her made him stay.


    She cared for the bird for days, Zariyan said, ncing up at him briefly before returning her gaze to the book.


    Even though her own hands bled from its ws and wound, she didnt stop.


    She gathered water in her palms, found seeds in the forest, and sang to it every night.


    And slowly, the bird began to heal.


    ---- The boy stayed in the shadows, watching her.


    Day after day, he waited for her to leave so he could see the bird up close, but she never did.


    She stayed, even in the rain, even when the cold crept in.


    And in her kindness, he saw something he had never known all his life...


    Light.


    ---- The boy stayed in the shadows, watching her.


    Day after day, he waited for her to leave so he could see the bird up close, but she never did.


    She stayed, even in the rain, even when the cold crept in.


    And in her kindness, he saw something he had never known all his life...


    Light.


    ---- Chapter 414 The next page showed the girl cupping the bird in her hands, smiling and the boy stood in the shadows, his face hidden behind trees.


    The sun was right behind her head, and it loo! surrounded her face.


    The more he watched her, the bird, her giggles, somet ked like a halo of light her smile, her talking to ing inside him stirreda warmth, something he had never known.


    And he realized, as he watched her wasn''t the bird that needed care for the bird, that it saving.


    It was him." He had be the evil.


    The darkness.


    And if there was something beautiful in the world he had always thought was wanted to protect her.


    But he was scared...


    cruel, it was her.


    And he Scared of his darkness tainting and choking away her light.


    Scared of his darkness engulfing her inside Until that day...