To Love A Villain

Chapter 219: My Punishment

>>Enya (Current Timeline)

I stood at the threshold of Einar’s room, the edges of my boots brushing against the worn wood grain, worn from pacing—mine, his, ours. Light bled through the narrow windowpanes in soft ribbons, illuminating the sharp planes of my brother’s face as he rested on the bed, pale as bone beneath the linen sheets. Even in sleep, he looked like he was keeping secrets.

Hael leaned against the far wall, his arms crossed, silver robes pooling at his feet like smoke. His expression was unreadable, but I knew him well enough by now to sense the hesitation threading through his silence.

"I want you to restore Ahin’s memories," I said, my voice too loud in the quiet.

Hael didn’t move. His eyes flicked to me, half-lidded, faintly amused.

"Do you?" he said at last. "And what do I get in return for such an inconvenient request?"

I stiffened. "It’s not about what you get. Ahin—he’s lost, Hael. Without his memories, he’s... not whole."

"He’s not lost, the memories you want restored don’t belong to him in this timeline." Hael tilted his head, almost curious. "Restoring past lives is no parlor trick. You think this is something I can just summon up with a muttered incantation and a flick of the wrist? It’s complicated. Dangerous. The mana required alone could burn out a lesser mage."

"But you’re not a lesser mage," I said.

He smiled faintly, as if that amused him. "Even for me, it’s not so simple. And you’ve offered me nothing."

The bitterness hit the back of my throat before I could swallow it down. "So that’s it, then? You won’t help because it’s not convenient for you?"

"I won’t help because it’s foolish," he replied coolly. "And because foolishness has a price."

From the bed, a quiet rustle.

Einar’s voice was soft—softer than I’d heard in weeks—but it cut through everything else like wind over ice. "Hael."

Hael turned slightly, not enough to show deference, but enough to acknowledge him.

Einar pushed himself up slowly on his elbows, his breathing ragged but steady. He looked weaker than he did in the original timeline—his skin pallid, shadows clinging beneath his eyes—but there was a steadiness there too. The kind of calm that always made people underestimate him.

"Do it," Einar said. "Please."

Just two words. ’Please, Hael.’

And something in Hael shifted.

Not visibly. Not loudly. But I felt it. The subtle drop in the temperature of the room, the twitch of his jaw, the flicker in his gaze. The silence stretched between them, and then—

"...Very well," Hael said, almost to himself. "I’ll do it."

I stared at him, uncertain I’d heard right. "You will?"

He gave me a sidelong glance. "Don’t mistake me. I still think it’s a terrible idea. But I have... a weakness for your brother’s politeness."

Einar sank back onto the bed, his breath easing. I could feel the tension drain from him like water pouring from a cracked bowl. He didn’t say anything more. He didn’t need to.

"Thank you," I said quietly.

I stood there for a long moment, trying to process the weight of what Hael had just said. The room felt too still, too silent as I waited for some sort of reassurance, some sign that this wouldn’t be as terrible as it sounded. But when I looked over at Einar, I saw he was just as frozen, just as uncertain. His eyes, usually sharp and knowing, were clouded now, still heavy with the exhaustion of recent days, yet alert to every movement.

"How exactly... will you do it?" I asked, voice barely above a whisper.

Hael’s expression barely shifted. "I don’t have the time or the patience for dramatics," he said, his tone bored, as if the very idea of convincing us somehow insulted him. "I’m not here to play hero or make things pretty. It’s simple." He raised his hand, fingertips flicking lazily through the air as though he were conducting an invisible orchestra.

"I’ll take Ahin," he continued, his voice smooth and detached. "I’ll put him in the extractor, then drain the past memories straight out of him using a series of spells. After that, I’ll just feed them back to him. Straightforward."

There was a brief, sharp silence.

"The extractor?" Einar’s voice was thick, as if he had to force the words through a throat gone tight with dread.

I could feel my heart lurch in my chest at the thought. The extractor wasn’t something to be taken lightly. But Hael wasn’t like other mages. He could get it done, no matter the cost. He always could.

I swallowed thickly, trying to suppress the gnawing anxiety that rose within me. "That sounds... awful," I murmured.

"I really don’t care what you think," Hael replied, his voice flat. "I’m doing the work for you. You should be satisfied with that.."

Einar shifted uncomfortably, sitting up a little straighter, as if considering the consequences of both his own thoughts and mine. His jaw clenched. "And there’s no other way?"

Hael’s lips quirked slightly, the faintest hint of a smirk curving one side of his mouth. "You want to waste more time, trying something else? Or do you want results?"

I knew the answer to that. Einar knew it too.

Einar lowered his gaze, his shoulders slumping slightly. There wasn’t any choice, not really. We had to trust Hael. He could do this. And whatever price we’d have to pay—whatever price Ahin would have to pay—was a gamble we were already too far into to back out of.

"Fine," Einar said, his voice just above a murmur. "Just... just do it."

Hael’s smirk deepened, and for a moment, I could have sworn there was something darker in his eyes—something that made the air feel heavier, thicker, as though the very space around us had become charged with tension.

Without another word, he turned toward the window, his attention now focused outside. I followed his gaze, my breath catching in my throat as I saw Ahin standing alone in the courtyard, looking lost beneath the fading daylight.

Hael’s gaze hardened, just a flicker of something savage passing through his expression. Then he raised a hand, his fingers twisting in the air in a practiced, precise motion.

Before I could even think to speak, a crackling pulse of magic erupted in the room, sharp and suffocating, and Ahin vanished from the courtyard.

I barely had time to react.

"Wha—"

A single breath later, Hael and Ahin were gone.

They’d both disappeared in a single, violent flash of light, the air still vibrating with the energy left behind.

Einar and I were left in the dim room, alone with the growing silence, the weight of what had just happened pressing down on us like a thousand tons.

"You think I’m being rash?" I asked Einar and he shook his head

"I think this is a good decision." He replied

There was a knock on the door and we both looked there as Emrys entered the room.

"What are you both doing?" He asked as he came inside.

We both smiled at him.

"Nothing much," I answered, "Just talking,"

When I chose to turn back time with Hael’s help. I received my punishment.

With all my memories intact, I went further back into the past than everyone else.

I had to live with it alone.

I had to see my beloved court someone else.

I had to go through him never even learning about me and the North. If I ever tried to approach him, something deadly would happen. Something that would push Ahin towards his death and I always had to back away.

I didn’t get to approach him properly, not till the timeline began to change. Even then, my contact with him was very subtle. Something that made no impact on him.

But meeting him would always tear me apart. Knowing I love him and he had no idea who I was.

I was someone he hadn’t even acknowledged existed.

And though it was painful. And I would watch him from the sidelines, dressed as a commoner, I was happy too.

In this timeline, Ahin and Rika didn’t get exposed.

Rika had more control over her werewolf genes, although it did slip out once in a while and hiding it with medicine would cause her to get rashes and had breathing trouble, they both managed.

Ahin was more cheerful in this timeline too.

Because he didn’t have to go through torture and abuse. He got to live his days with the friends he made in the royal guards and enjoy a decent life with his sister who got to play around with kids her age.

And I got to do one other thing differently.

I watched as Emrys came and sat down beside Einar. There was concern filled in his gaze

Since I went back in time when we were kids, I got Emrys to behave like a decent man. Where he didn’t get me in trouble and actually let me go outside and do things the way I wanted.

I built trust between us.

Although my father didn’t change. Emrys was an entirely different person.