CHAPTER 366: YOU WERE MY CONSCIENCE

[KAWAI]

[Flashback, A Thousand Years Ago, The Evening The Konstantin Household Had Been Attacked]

"Zaffuto!" Yilena called out in the palace.

She was doing the one thing that her brother had warned her against, for the sake of her safety. But this time, Yilena didn’t need safety. She had lost so much already just because she had let herself be a secret that no one was meant to know existed.

She was the one person that even the ghosts of the Kawai palace had made certain to never talk about, for fear of Zaffuto Hinata. After all, Zaffuto was feared by the living and the dead. And Yilena was the one person he never played about.

Determined, Yilena knew she was screwing her chances up. But she wasn’t about to let the last lingering reminder of the unique bond she had cherished so much fade into nothingness. She was going to fight, even if it was the last thing she did.

"Lena?" Zaffuto asked when he stepped out. His sister’s voice had sounded pained, and when the king came out and saw her standing there covered in blood, Zaffuto almost lost his composure. Who was he kidding?

He had lost his mind already.

He was only trying to restrain himself because he knew Yilena hated violence. His sister was so pure and wanted a happy world, a world that screamed safety, and yet the world her brother was creating was the opposite.

Perhaps that was why it was so easy for them to blend in, right?

"Was it you?" Yilena furiously questioned her brother who was still trying to understand what the fuck was going on there. Zaffuto was half-amused and pissed at the same time, but never because of his sister’s appearance.

He knew that this was starneg as fuck because it didn’t seem like the kind of setting that Yelena Sidorova would always show up in and yet as he looked at his sister, he couldn’t help but feel like his heart as about to lurch off his chest.

This wasn’t how the protection he had been determined to give his sister ended and he would be damned of shit didn’t go the way he wanted them all to. This was not right, and there had to be a good enough reason for it all.

Oh, but that was what Zaffuto hoped for, because if there wasn’t, then Yilena would get a proper scolding for making him worry and for ousting herself from the shadows like that.

"What happened to you?" Zaffuto asked as he stared at his sister, the distance between them closing in. He didn’t know what had happened, he was sure that blood would flow today if someone touched his sister.

"Did you send them after the Konstantins? Was it you who went after the omega? Was that all your doing? Answer me!" Yilena said, and then the king knew what she was talking about.

Of course, he knew what this was about. He was king and no one breathed in Kawai without him knowing eventually.

It was the one thing that he had been known for, so when his little sister stormed the palace, tears in her eyes, blood on her clothes, and a shattered heart in her chest, King Zaffuto knew.

He understood it all too well.

"No. But whoever it was, will wish they hadn’t," Zaffuto said as he pulled Yilena into a hug. He knew that this was hard for his sister, and he was not going to play around. He was sure his sister hadn’t come here for a confrontation.

She had something to ask him, and while he had a feeling of what it was, he was waiting for her to make the ask. He needed her to talk to him because that was the only way they would ever be able to understand each other.

"Igor... he... save him, brother," Yilena whimpered, whispering the last bit ever so slowly like she was even scared of spelling it out. Their lives had changed for some time now, and frankly, she didn’t know if her brother would give her this.

It was the craziest of shits but then Yilena had made Sahina a promise. She would take care of Igor, and the only way to take care of Igor was if the boy was alive. It was nothing that could be negotiated at this point, and Yilena wasn’t about to compromise.

"The omega?" Zaffuto asked, his tone soft like he wanted to be sure.

"Please," Yilena said, and the king just nodded.

"For you, anything. Go find him, I’ll be there as soon as I alert Sadako. Go, Lena. I will save him," Zaffuto said, and Yilena breathed a sigh of relief as she portaled to the free lands.

She knew that there was so much that he would have to explain to Igor.

However, she hoped for the love of the goddess that the bastards hadn’t tried shit with her best friend’s brother because she would kill them and with her brother always on her side, she wouldn’t settle for anything. She would always, always get away with shit.

"Igor..." Yilena whispered when she saw the boy she had promised to save.

"Nana... you shouldn’t be here. These warriors are coming, the rogues will be too much, and the king now knows of an omega. You should leave. I will not be the reason you get hurt, too," Igor had spoken honestly.

He was scared out of his mind about what would happen to him, but he wasn’t about to let the woman be dragged in. Of course, he had known that this wasn’t the strangest thing he was about to do, but he had to try and survive.

And if he had to go down, he would with a fight; not without it.

"I made a promise, and intend to keep it. Besides, I have a message from your sister. She said she is very proud of you and what you will become. Your sister wants you to be happy, no matter what life throws at you.

"Sahina believes that you are destined for the best, and I am here to make sure that you live your life as you should," Yilena said.

Igor stared at his sister’s best friend. He had known the woman was batshit crazy, but right now, it’s like he was seeing her for the first time and he saw someone who he didn’t understand.

He didn’t know what it was about her that had gotten Sahina so stacked but he knew his sister well to understand that Sahina never got on with anyone or even made friends.

"The king is coming, Nana. You should leave," Igor said, and Yilena scoffed.

"I won’t let him get to you. Don’t worry, we are in this together, and if I have to give up my life for yours, then I will do it," Yilena said defiantly as she saw the high guards and her brother approaching.

She knew that it wouldn’t be easy for Zaffuto, but then there wasn’t enough time, and the rogues were already here. Someone had to lose today, and Yilena was determined to see to it that it wasn’t Igor Konstantin.

"You would fight the king, for me?" Igor asked, shocked.

This was high treason, and King Zaffuto was never one to take people to trial. He was the monster that horrified monsters and he had no reason to be kind to Igor. This was their hell, but at least Igor had someone close.

That was the only consolation for the Lycan Chief, because honestly, all of this was confusing as hell.

"Yup. And I would fight him, over the last piece of meat on his plate," Yilena said, and that got Igor wondering what the fuck this meant.

The happenings of that day blurred out as time went by, but for years, Igor never stopped wondering why Yilena had been that confident.

He had tried to ask her about it, but he ever really got answers, until he saw the king with her, right when the king had declared his Erasthai. The truth seemed like a shadow that Konstantin wasn’t supposed to know and for years he acted like he didn’t know.

Well, up until the Kawai prince did the one thing that shattered Igor’s heart and Yilena, the king, and even Lord Sadako hadn’t done shit to stop Tamiko. That was not something that Igor would take lightly, and he wasn’t able to bargain for it.

***

[TODAY]

"Why did you let him do that?" Igor asked as he stared at his guardian.

He hated that he was losing Tamiko because of a truth so fragile and one that would make him combust. He needed to figure out a lot of shit, but he was certain that he didn’t want to live a life without Tamiko.

He couldn’t let himself lean toward that emptiness. He couldn’t let that happen to them.

"Because I swore to protect you, Igor. I swore to Sahina, and I don’t intend to break that promise," Yilena said casually, like she was addressing a kid throwing tantrums. She wasn’t even fazed by the rage on Igor’s face.

She had seen him angry, happy, and through so many emotions, so this didn’t scare her. And it wasn’t even because King Zaffuto would slap Igor’s head off his neck if he so much as touched his little sister, no.

It was because she trusted in the fates and was waiting for shit to get better, but what the fuck was better for them?

This was not making any sense to anyone.

"Protect me? You’re hurting me, Nana. I love him..."