Chapter 263 – Confrontation (3) Translator: Atlas / Editor: Regan Her heart was pounding, but this time it wasn’t because of any forced feelings. When Ishakan extended his hand to her, she froze. Her whole body was paralyzed by what had just happened, and she looked at his hand dumbly, unable to take it. Too nervous to reach out. “Quickly,” Ishakan said, an infinitely gentle command, and when she obeyed, he pulled her hard against him, his arm tight about her waist. “Hurry, hurry.” Her lips trembled. This man was so impatient, he couldn’t wait another moment to hear it, the thing he had been waiting for for so long. “...I love you,” she told him, and watched joy fill his golden eyes, a joy as dazzling as the sun. Her hand lifted to touch his face, wondering. “Did I ever tell you that?” Surely she must have. She must have told it to him dozens of times a day in those memories she had lost, so often that he was exhausted, hearing it. “No,” he said unexpectedly. He bit her lip. “That is the first time.” “Really?” “Yes. You never said it before.” His mouth moved closer to hers and Leah parted her lips to let his tongue move between them, feeling as if her whole body was scorched by that heat. Clinging to him, she forgot everything but Ishakan. “Say it again...” He whispered as he kissed her, filled with passion. “Again, say it again.” She said it again. She would say anything he wanted, but there was no end to his appetite for this. I love you, she whispered, and the more she whispered, the more he told her to say it again, and again. Every time their lips parted, I love you. Every kiss, I love you. Countless kisses and countless times she said the words, I love you, I love you, I love you. This moment was so sweet, it must be an illusion. It could not be real. Leah felt as if she were drifting in a dream, until shouts snapped her out of it. “Leah!” Nearby, Blain staggered to his feet, and shouted again. “Leah! Leah!!!” The sound of his voice was eerie and unhinged as he screamed her name, and only stopped when she finally turned to look at him. Ishakan’s head turned to look at him only when she did. For a long moment, the two men stared at each other, their gazes locked and taut with tension. In his madness and injury, Blain had forgotten to be afraid, and he did not look as if he would back down. Pushing Leah behind him, Ishakan strode toward Blain, whose eyes took on a wild light as the distance between them shrank. “Am I not permitted here?” Ishakan smiled at the other man. “Didn’t you invite me as your guest?” It was Blain who had invited the Kurkans to the wedding. He had been pleased to provoke them. And this was where that pride had led him, to this pathetic end. Even the spell they thought so perfect was breaking apart. But Blain would not admit defeat even when it was staring him in the face. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺 “You act as if you’ve loved her a thousand years when you’ve only just met her, disgusting bastard!” He shouted. His eyes were bloodshot. “You’re just like that bastard, Byun Gyeongbaek! You just want to fuck the Princess of Estia!” Ishakan looked as if he were listening with great interest. “So what’s the difference between you and me?” He inquired. “I’ve been with her all our lives,” Blain answered immediately. Ishakan laughed, loud and long. And then he stopped. The humor drained away and his face hardened, and the air around him crackled with a cold, lethal energy. Leah knew that expression. He had been wearing it as he walked through a dark alley filled with corpses. If he wanted to, he could snap Blain’s neck in an instant. But instead, he turned his golden gaze to Leah, and Blain frowned as he followed Ishakan’s eyes to her belly.