Come with me.

Her mind screeched to a halt.

For a moment, she could not comprehend his words. She turned her head to look at Ayden, who was looking at her as if she were the very stars brought to earth, but at the same time, it seemed like he expected her to run to his arms as if the past 6 years had not happened.

"Come with you?" She asked slowly, as if testing the words on her tongue. Her brows furrowed and her face twisted in anger. "Come with you?!"

Samaya strode forward, her pace surer and angrier with every step she took. Ayden seemed to take a step back on reflex, just like he used to back home when she would be angry.

Once she was close enough, she raised her hand and pointed at him, effortlessly switching to French because no way in hell was she going to let that brute listen in on their conversation. "You pop in front of me out of nowhere after all these years, and that is the first thing you tell me?! Where have you been? You clearly knew I was going to be here. You were looking at me through the damn curtain. If you knew, then why did you not show yourself until now? Do you have any idea how long I looked for you? Do you know-"

"I'm sorry," he replied, clearly of the same mind as her. He stepped closer. "I only found out when you entered the Imperial Harem. A painting of you was sent to the King of Rayie. I could not get to you until now."

"A painting of me?"

Ayden nodded. "Yes. You are the mother of the First Imperial Prince, after all." He spat the word 'mother' like it was poison.

She tensed. Ayden clearly did not like the position she was in right now. In fact, she could see the jealousy and resentment simmering right beneath the surface. And if he just put his mind to it, calculated the time when Samaya could have gotten here after him, and compared that with Manu's age, it would not match up. And even without that, Ayden knew her down to her bones. He knew she would not have gotten involved with anyone enough to conceive a child so soon after his disappearance, especially after being thrown smack dab in the middle of another world.

"And why would the King show it to an entertainer?"

Ayden tilted his head in that stupidly smug way of his. "I am not just an entertainer."

Ah. So, he was doing dirty work for the King of Rayie just like she used to for Siwang.

Well, it made sense. They had to survive somehow.

"I'm here now." He stepped forward, reaching out to her. Almost as instinctively, he evaded his hand. "Maya, I'm here now. For you."

She clenched her jaw. Maya. It hurt to hear her codename - the codename he had turned into a damn nickname that he would whisper into her ear when they were sweaty and tangled in bed - from his mouth after all these years.

She exhaled softly. She could not get emotional now.

"Is that all you are here for?"

Ayden blinked. And then paused. After a moment… "Yes."

Samaya felt her suspicion rise. Ayden was good at hiding his true emotions, but Samaya had gotten good at deciphering them. She did not know if he was just as shaken as she was or if his tells had not changed over time, but she had a feeling that it was not the entire reason.

There was silence between them for a long moment. It was uncomfortable and stilted, with tension so thick you could cut through it like a hot knife through butter.

For a moment, she was tempted. She could leave all of this stupid politicking behind, she could travel the world with Ayden and Manu, she could be free.

The part of her that once dreamt of a family with this man almost pushed an answer to her tongue.

And then… "No."

The word felt like knives travelling up and out her throat. She could almost see the gears in his mind grind to a stop. He blinked at her once, as if he could not comprehend the word that came out of her mouth.

"What?"

"I am not going, Ayden."

It pained her to say those words… that name. For the first time in six years.

He was silent, his expression going blank. Almost terrifyingly so.

"I am not going." She repeated, her voice steadier than before.

"Why?" It was clear from his tone that he had not expected her to refuse. Or perhaps, he had not wanted to consider the possibility.

"Ayden, I cannot just up and leave." Her voice was more forceful than she had intended it to be. "What about my son?"

His hand twitched by his side. "And you can't just take him with us?"

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

She looked at him as if the very notion was ridiculous. Which, it was.

"You cannot be serious." She shook her head. "Take away the First Imperial Prince from under the Emperor's protection, after which both the Emperor and his enemies would be after us?"

She did not mention her own enemies.

Ayden stepped forward. "I can protect him." He said, something like desperation bleeding into his voice. "I can protect both of you."

She clenched her jaw. "It's not just about protection," she said. She tried to relax herself. Being this close to Ayden was making her … well, everything … go haywire.

She exhaled and looked into those blue-grey eyes. "I will not take him away from his father. It is the entire reason I agreed to bring him here in the first place."

Ayden did not respond, silence reigning between them as his eyes bored into hers. She resisted the urge to avert her gaze. She needed to let him know that she was serious about this.

Slowly, almost painfully so, she saw burning rage emerge in his eyes.

It was a long moment of silence before he spoke again.

"It's him, isn't it?"

Samaya blinked. "What?"

"It's that bastard Emperor." The words were pushed through gritted teeth. "You don't want to leave because of him."

He sounded so sure.

A sense of unease began to spread through her. The thought that if she left, she might be leaving the Emperor behind did not really occur to her. But that was so, wasn't it? The thought was … unpleasant. She had thought that if push came to shove, she could leave him behind fairly easily.

Could she?

Samaya exhaled harshly, pushing those thoughts down. "Don't be ridiculous."

"Am I?" He asked, stepping closer, so close she could almost feel the heart radiating off his body. "Am I being ridiculous? Do you think I did not see how he looks at you? How you respond when he calls to you? How you talk to him, smile with him, walk with him?"

Samaya frowned. Was she that obvious? Or was it that he could perceive her more than others?

"What are you talking about, Ayden?" She asked.

He took one more step toward her, and now he was close enough that she could hear him breathe. She felt tingles run down her spine. Even his proximity felt the same as she remembered.

"Do you think I did not see frolicking around with him outside, with no care for the world?"

She frowned, confused. When had she done that? She had never really gone out with the Emperor. The only time was when…

Her eyes widened as realisation dawned on her. She turned her head. "That day at the market. It was you."

She distinctly remembered feeling a gaze on her, a gaze that seemed familiar, on the day that she went out with the Emperor in a peasant's guise after she'd tricked him into playing with his children. It was him? He had known where she was way back then?

"I saw you," he said. "You were so engrossed in talking to him, you barely had a handle on your surroundings."

She clenched her fists. "You are being ridiculous, Ayden. That was before we even had a somewhat amicable relationship." She shook her head. "And you are derailing the conversation. Manu has to stay here. And I have to stay with him. That's it."

"What if the portal opened?" He asked. "Would you say the same?"

Samaya paused. Would she? Would she insist on staying in this place where Manu had his father? Or would she take him away, to her world, which, in her opinion, was a far better place for her child to grow up? Would she leave the Emperor behind?

She found her mind oscillating between two answers, and that… was terrifying.

She finally settled on "That's different."

A loud scoff of disbelief left him. Before she could tell what was happening, he closed the small distance between them and grabbed her by the arms, his large hands tightening around them as he glared at her, brows furrowed in an expression of pure rage that she had rarely seen on him back home.

"You can't even answer properly," he growled, his hands almost painfully tight around her arm, making her grateful for the muscles she'd built. "You've already given in to him. One night and a few lavish gifts, and you folded? He fucked you into submission, Maya. Can't you see that?"

How the fuck did he know about that when he'd just arrived? She felt her suspicions grow, even though she did not let it show. Not that it was hard, considering that all-consuming anger she was feeling.

Smack!

She did not even realise what she was doing until her palm was throbbing and his cheek sported a very red set of fingerprints. He let go of one of her arms and rubbed his cheek, shock clear in his eyes. Samaya was shocked at herself, too. But she did not allow that to stop her as she bulldozed ahead.

"Ayden! What the fuck?! Are you out of your damn mind? This is not about the Emperor. This is about my son!"

"Really? You fucking slapped me for that fucker, and you're telling me it's not about him? Can you say that if Prince Xu weren't in the equation, you would leave him?"

"That is an asinine question, Ayden. If he weren't in the equation, then I would have never met the Emperor to begin with." She brought her hands up and pushed his other arm away harshly. "And my son is my priority. I am not going to take any decision that causes him even the slightest bit of discomfort, let alone put him in danger."

He gritted his teeth. "Why the fuck do you care about the little brat? He's not even your own son!"

Samaya did not even realise she was doing it. In a flash, she reached out and grabbed him by the collar so tight that she was almost choking him. She was surprised to find the violent urge to rip his throat out with her bare fucking hands.

"Don't you dare!" She growled, her fist tightening as she looked up at him with murder in her eyes. "He is my son, mine! Don't you ever speak of him like that again. You won't like the consequences. There is no step too low for me to stoop to when it comes to my son, I promise you."

He went silent for a moment, another bout of surprise clear in his eyes. And then he spoke, slowly.

"You … you are threatening me… for that brat? Is he worth giving up on us?"

She let out a harsh laugh, feeling only a little bad when Ayden tensed, recognizing that she was on the edge of losing control.

"It's because it is you that I have not torn your tongue out yet, Ayden. Us? What even are we anymore, Ayden? What we were once does not give you the right to speak of my son. He is mine in every way that matters. If his protection and happiness come at the expense of the rest of the world," she leaned in, so close she could see the black flecks in his blue-grey pupils, as she punctuated each word she spoke, "then so be it."

She let go of him, exhaling harshly. "This is my final answer, Ayden. I am not going with you. Go back to doing whatever you were doing. If the portal opens again… we will cross that bridge when we get to it."

She stepped back and turned around to leave, refusing to entertain this any longer. As much as it hurt her to refuse Ayden, as much as the young girl in her who fell in love with the typical blonde-haired boy with pretty eyes and a charming smile screamed at her to stop, to run back to him, the mother who had a son to think about resolutely stepped away, putting one foot after another.

"Maya," he called, his voice soft. "You're really doing this?"

Her heart broke a little at the way Ayden sounded so lost, as if he'd lost his purpose.

She stood still for a moment, wondering if she should let the young girl in her win.

And then, she broke off the pieces of her heart that cried for him and walked away.

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