Bound To The Ice Dragon King
Chapter 229: Hundred years later (THE END)

Chapter 229: Hundred years later (THE END)

100 Years later.

The earth was covered in white snow, with snowflakes slowly descending from the sky, making a blanket of snow on the ground. Many years had passed and many things had changed in the world, but nothing changed in the life of those who didn’t embrace the changes despite the time that had passed. Nothing changed in the heart of those who made promises to wait.

He had lived his life counting down the day he would meet her again. He had traveled between the realms in search of her, he had died a million times when he couldn’t find her. She was the missing piece in his life, and if he didn’t find her, his life would never be complete: the huge void in his heart would never get filled. Some cracks run so deep, even time hesitates to heal them, but his...only his wife would heal them and not time.

Inside the ballroom of the palace, many people could be seen dancing and mingling among each other. They all looked happy, and the atmosphere was filled with joyous laughter. With soft slow music playing in the background. However, as everyone was having fun, a man stood on the balcony of the grand hall. Despite the years that had passed, there were no changes on his features or physique, but his hair_that had turned silver the day she died, still remained. His blue eyes held no emotions despite the anticipation that ran through his blood. His hands were crossed behind his back as he stared emptily at the entrance of the ball room.

Though he looked calm on the outside, he was silently praying internally and hoping it wouldn’t turn out to be another wrong information again.

For hundred years, he had stalked down every new born female baby for hope that one of them would be her, but he ended up getting disappointed when they grew up. But this time, he had received some news about a young woman who claimed she had been married to El-Dezeus and she would like to see her husband.

Draven had been approached by prince Zachary yesterday about this news. He didn’t want to get his hopes up because he had been disappointed countless times in the past, but this one had been different and he couldn’t help himself from shaking in anticipation of seeing this young lady.

Today was a celebration of the new year in the Dragon realm, and Draven had sent a personal invitation to this young woman praying and hoping that when she would show up, his search would end today and it would be her and not some other woman trying to play him again.

Draven had been informed that the woman had arrived and she was on her way to the ballroom. Thus his blue eyes remained fixed on the entrance, waiting eagerly for her familiar face to come into his view. The air in the ballroom buzzed with excitement, but his heart thumped with anxiety and dread. As the door swung open, he held his breath as a woman entered, she was adorned in an exquisite gown that shimmered like moonlight. Her beauty captivated the room, but to Draven’s dismay, she bore no resemblance to his wife.

He felt his heart twist in his chest, and all his hopes came shattering down again. His eyes that looked unemotional a moment ago, now had a gleam of tears in them as disappointment settled in him. His hands balled up into tight fists as he fought to keep his emotions in check. Another false lead, another heartbreak...

Unable to bear the festivities any longer, Draven turned on his heels and left the ballroom, his strides were long retreating to the solitude of their house which stood as it had always been.

As he walked back with the bitterness that was swelling inside him, he couldn’t help but think that perhaps he had been waiting for nothing and she would never return.

Perhaps the legend about the soulmate bond was a lie: he should never had lived through the lonely misery of this hundred years without her, his life had been darker than he’d anticipated, emptier than he’d expected, in the span of this hundred years, he’d been nothing but a lifeless beast, roaming the earth in search of his only one, yet even after a hundred years, he’d gotten nothing but false hope, everytime wishing the endless darkness would finally come to an end and he would meet her again... It was all hopeless, he should have killed himself a hundred years ago when she died, he shouldn’t have waited for this long only to keep getting disappointed all over again.

As those thoughts ran in Draven’s head, his vision blurred because of the tears of disappointment that swelled his eyes. For a hundred years even on the darkest and loneliest days, he hadn’t allowed himself to shed tears because he had believed she would return to him, but today, the disappointment was stronger than all the ones he’d faced in the past hundred years. He had thought this woman would be her, but she wasn’t the one, she looked nothing like his Rheanna...

Would she really ever come back?

Had he waited for a hundred years for nothing?

Was this how it would end?

The disappointment was too consuming to the extent Draven wanted nothing but to just kill himself and end his miserable life. It seemed there was nothing like fate and destiny. His Rhea was gone, she would never come back...

At those thoughts, Draven clutched tightly to his aching heart.

’I’ve waited for you for a hundred years Rheanna... perhaps this truly is the end.’

Perhaps it was time he also said goodbye to the world of the living. He had no place in a world without her.

With the urge to glimpse her face one last time, the urge to picture her smiling face before he would finally end his misery Draven returned to their house.

Walking into the house that held memories of their short-lived happiness, Draven strolled through the halls, with every step he took inside a memory of his wife appeared in his mind. His gaze went to the dining room, the living room, he could picture her sitting in the couch reading with a peaceful smile on her face. He could picture her going through the halls into the kitchen, turning to him the transparent image of her smiled at him before she disappeared.

Draven continued towards the untouched room, where everything of Rhea was still as it was a hundred years ago. It was a shrine to the love they once shared, frozen in time. He hadn’t allowed anyone lay a hand on any of her things because he had believed she would be back.

As Draven walked up the stairs, he was surprised to find the door to the room left slightly ajar, but he didn’t think much of it. He pushed it open, revealing the room. But the balcony door caught his attention again. He had left it closes the last time he went there, but now it was left opened, with the cold wind stirring the curtains, revealing the silhouette of a person standing out on th balcony.

Draven frowned, he felt anger swelled in him at the thought that someone dared step into the room he’d shared with his wife in his absence. With long angry strides, he walked towards the balcony but suddenly froze at the door, his expression stiffened.

On the balcony, with her back turned to him, stood a woman. She was wearing a beautiful purple gown that looked similar to the one his wife wore on their wedding day.

His breath caught in his lungs. Could it be...

In the dim glow of the moonlight, she stood on the balcony, her gaze lost in the vast expanse of the starlit sky. The gentle rustle of the wind played with the tendrils of her ebony hair, framing a face etched with both grace and beauty. Her black eyes gleamed brightly under the moonlight. She had told her sister to go ahead of her to the ballroom. Her feet had led her to this beautiful house she always saw in her dreams every night.

Ever since she had turned eighteen, she had been seeing memories that didn’t belong to her. And on the day she turned twenty, she had felt like someone else. She had seen her entire life played before her eyes and realized she had a husband, who was probably waiting for her. And she was proven right by the presence in the room.

The atmosphere was still, the only sounds were that of the rustling night breeze.

For that first time in a hundred years, Draven felt his heart stir, first it was one beat, two...then his heart picked up a steady pace beating steadily in anticipation as he approached silently, his presence only revealed by the faint echo of his footsteps on the cool floor. A play of shadows danced across his face, concealing the intensity of his blue eyes. The air crackled with the unspoken tension that lingered between them.

He hadn’t seen her face yet, but he could never mistake his wife’s figure.

Rheanna!

It was her!!!

"I never thought I’d see you again," he murmured, his voice a low, husky whisper that stirred the silence of the night.

She turned, meeting his gaze with no surprise in her eyes as if she had also been expecting to see him. "Fate has a curious way of weaving its threads, doesn’t it, Draven?" She smiled warmly.

Seeing her familiar beautiful face that he had just been seeing in portraits for a hundred years and hearing her pleasant voice he’d only been hearing in his dreams call his name after so many years, Draven froze. He couldn’t will himself to move forward for the fear that she wasn’t real.

Though she was standing right in front of him, the emptiness of her absence for the long years he’d lived without her made the fear in his heart grow, he feared that she was just a figment of his imagination, and if he touched her, she would disappear forever leaving him with that gaping hole and darkness and emptiness he’d had to endure.

"Rheanna..." He murmured softly when she moved forward and touched his hands. From her cold body temperature and aura, he realized she was a dragon, and she was real. She had been reborn as a dragon...

She was back!

He wasn’t dreaming!

His fingers grazed the delicate curve of her cheek, a touch laden with the weight of untold words. "I have waited for so long..." He whispered softly as he used his thumb to wipe away a tear that slid down her cheek.

Rhea leaned closer into his touch like a cat. She had been reborn into a wonderful family that loved and treated her like a princess, she was loved by three of her sisters and an elder brother. She hadn’t remembered Draven completely until the day she turned twenty years old. She was supposed to get married but she had cut off the wedding at the last minute as she remembered her lovely husband, Draven. She had cried to her father about being married before and how she wanted to go to him.

It was her brother who met Prince Zachary and told him about her. And now that she was finally here, she recalled how she had lost her unborn child and how she had died and left Draven. His eyes when she was about to fall into that hole...

Rhea looked up into his blue eyes,"I am sorry for what I did to..."

Before she could complete her words, Draven had wrapped his arms around her waist and closed his mouth against hers. He didn’t care about everything that happened before as long as she was back into his arms. He loved her so much he didn’t hold anything against her for leaving him alone in this lonely world. Now that she was back, he would never let go. Never.

He embraced her tightly, intensifying the kiss as his lips fervently explored hers, eagerly molding them to his own. Rhea, consumed by the indescribable desires, rose onto her tiptoes and yielded to the strong embrace of his arms. She had missed him so much she couldn’t put it in words, thus she poured it out into the kiss they shared.

Fate had torn them apart in the most brutal way, but now that they found each other again, they would finally have the forever that took a hundred years to get.

Time may be a fleeting moment, but love is an everlasting embrace that defies its transient nature.

True love never dies.

THE END!!