[ZAIRE]
Zaire had seen it, the moment the prince had shifted to focus on protecting Acrod without getting emotionally attached. The moment that the prince chose general love over something could be his.
A love that was just for him.
Not the love that people showered him with because he was the prince or because he was kinder to them.
Zaire had sworn to be better than Erasthai, and by all scales, he had been a good Erasthai.
But the damage was too serious.
He would have to work through it with Nour.
He would have to be patient one too many times just to get back the boy he had seen running around the place happily, unaware of what the world and the fates had in store for him.
"I'll never leave you, my precious," Zaire swore under his breath. It was the only promise he had made and one that he was forever going to keep forever. He would stay, through the good and the bad, through the storms and the calms.
He would stay even when he got hurt in the process.
