Warrior At Sixteen

Night fell, Seraphina sat by the small fire Kael had built, her body stiff, her mind still reeling from everything that had happened that day.

They had ridden through the ruins of her homeland, where silence carried the weight of everything that had been lost.

She had seen it all, the broken homes, the scorched fields, the shattered remnants of a life that could never be rebuilt. She had seen what his war had done. What he had taken from her.

And yet, here she was, sitting by the fire, its warmth doing little to melt the ice-cold anger settling deep into her bones. She was sharing this moment, this silence, with the man responsible for the death it all. Her enemy.

Kael sat across from her, one leg stretched out, the other bent as he leaned against a boulder. The firelight flickered across his face, casting shadows that made it impossible to read his expression. His sword lay within easy reach, a reminder of the power he still held—over the battlefield, over this night, and, whether she liked it or not, over her fate.

Seraphina refused to look at him. She kept her gaze locked on the fire, watching the flames twist and flicker, eating away at the dry wood. The heat brushed against her skin, but it couldn't reach the cold sinking deep into her bones.

She knew exactly what he was doing.

Every question, every lingering glance—it was all calculated, a test to see how much she could take before she cracked. But Seraphina had spent her life among liars and schemers, learning how to keep her feelings hidden, her thoughts hidden. She had grown up in a court where words were weapons and trust was a luxury no one could afford.

If Kael Draeven thought she would break, he didn't know her at all.

He had taken her home and shattered her world, but he hadn't taken her will. And as long as she was still breathing, she wouldn't let him turn her into something she wasn't.

Kael's voice cut through the quiet. "You're awfully quiet, Princess. I almost miss your sharp tongue."

Seraphina didn't take the bait. She didn't roll her eyes or scoff like she might have before. Instead, she kept her tone even. "Thinking."

Kael smirked. "About?"

She finally lifted her gaze, meeting his across the fire. His face was cast in flickering light, sharp and unreadable. "How a man like you became king."

Kael let out a low chuckle, shaking his head. "Ah. And what have you decided?"

Seraphina tilted her head slightly, studying him. "That you're either very clever or very lucky."

Kael's smirk deepened, a glint of amusement in his eyes. "You think luck builds empires?"

Her fingers curled into the fabric of her cloak, gripping it tightly. The night air was cold, but that wasn't why she felt the chill. "No," she said quietly. "But cruelty does."

For a moment, there was only the sound of the fire crackling between them.

Kael didn't flinch. His expression didn't shift, but something in his gaze flickered.

"Cruelty?" He exhaled, turning his attention to the fire as if it might hold the answer. "Is that what they told you in Valaris?"

Seraphina's jaw tightened. "I don't need anyone to tell me. I've seen the destruction with my own eyes."

Kael leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees, watching her closely. "And what about your father? Your kingdom? Do you believe Valaris was innocent in this war?"

Seraphina opened her mouth, then closed it.

She had been ready to argue, to throw back all the ways he had wronged her people. But the words caught in her throat.

Because deep down, she knew the truth.

Valaris had not been innocent.

Her father had waged war just as fiercely as Kael. He had ordered villages burned and sent soldiers to slaughter Draeven's people. She had spent years justifying it, telling herself that Valaris was only defending itself. That her father's hands weren't truly stained with blood, that he was a righteous king fighting for his people.

But war never had clean hands.

And now, as the firelight cast shifting shadows across Kael's face, she realized something unsettling.

The man she had been raised to hate was staring at her as if he already knew exactly what she was thinking.

Seraphina hated that.

Hated the way he saw too much.

Hated the way, for the first time, she wasn't entirely sure who the villain was.

 ***

Kael exhaled, dragging a hand through his hair. The firelight cast flickering shadows across his face, softening the hard angles, but it couldn't hide the weight he carried the exhaustion that settled deep in his bones. "Let me tell you something, Princess". His voice was quieter now, stripped of its usual sharp edge.

"The first time I went to war, I was sixteen."

Seraphina's grip tightened around the edges of her cloak

Sixteen?

The same age she had been when her father started preparing her for a different kind of battlefield—one fought with words instead of weapons, deception instead of steel. While she had been learning how to navigate the treacherous halls of court, Kael had been learning how to survive a battlefield soaked in blood.

He didn't pause, didn't wait to see how she would react. "I had never killed before. Never seen what war truly looked like. But my father— he let out a slow breath, gaze distant as if reliving a moment he had long since buried, "he believed that a king had to earn his crown through war, not birthright."

Seraphina tightened her grip.

Kael continued, his voice steady, but something in it wavered, something just beneath the surface. "I watched men I had trained with fall beside me. I lost friends. Brothers. But in the end, I won. And that's all that mattered."

Seraphina swallowed.

He spoke of it without pride, without the arrogance of a man boasting of his victories. It was simply the truth. A truth he had been forced to accept.

She forced herself to look at him. "And do you regret it?"

Kael's eyes met hers without hesitation. "No."

The word was quiet, but it landed like a stone between them, heavy and unmoving.

Seraphina inhaled sharply. "You don't regret killing? Conquering? Destroying?"

He didn't answer right away. Instead, he studied her, his expression unreadable, as if weighing his words carefully. The silence stretched between them, filled only by the crackling of the fire and the wind rustling through the trees.

Then, in a voice so low she almost missed it, he said—

" I regret that it was necessary."

Seraphina wasn't sure why those words unsettled her more than if he had simply said no again.

Because that was the thing about war, wasn't it?

No one ever believed they had a choice.

The golden glow of fire cast shadows on Kael's face. In the silence, Seraphina studied him, not as a warlord, not as the man who had torn her world apart, but simply as he was in this moment.

And for the first time, she saw something different.

Something tired. Something worn.

His shoulders, always squared with the weight of command, seemed less rigid in the fire's warmth. The sharp lines of his face, hardened by war, softened just enough for her to glimpse something beneath them.

She clenched her hands in her lap, her fingers curling into the fabric of her cloak.

This does not change anything.

Kael Draeven was still her enemy.

Still, the man who had burned her homeland, shattered her kingdom, and taken everything she had ever known.

And yet, sitting here, away from the battlefield and the burden of their titles, she couldn't ignore the thought creeping into her mind, one that unsettled her far more than hatred ever could.

Kael was not a monster.

She had always believed he was. It was easier that way.

Monsters were mindless, soulless creatures of destruction. They had no reasons, no regrets. They killed because it was in their nature because they could.

But Kael Draeven was something far worse.

He was a man who believed, with every part of himself, that what he had done was necessary.

And men like that, men who justified every battle, every conquest, every loss —were the hardest to destroy.

The realization sat heavy in her chest, pressing against something she didn't want to acknowledge.

Seraphina pushed herself to her feet, brushing the dust from her cloak with more force than necessary. "I'm going to sleep."

Kael leaned back against the boulder, watching her with an unreadable expression. Then, he smirked. "Afraid you might start seeing me differently, Princess?"

Seraphina scoffed, turning away before he could see the trace of hesitation in her eyes. "Not in this lifetime."

She settled onto the cold ground, wrapping her cloak tightly around her. Above her, the stars stretched endlessly across the sky, offering no answers, no comfort.

But even in the silence, she could feel Kael's gaze lingering on her.

And for the first time since this misery began, She wasn't sure if she was afraid of him.

Or of what might happen if she started to understand him.