The King Of Warriors novel (Jared Chance) novel Chapter 6219

Jared still didn't move.

He only looked at Josephine.

Pain sat in his eyes with longing, guilt, and a love that refused to thin out. There wasn't a trace of blame in it. Not a trace of anger either.

When he spoke, his voice came out rough and unsteady, each word dragging up from somewhere deep inside.

"Josephine..."

That one quiet call carried everything he hadn't let go of, all the waiting, all the hurt, all the things he had held onto this whole time.

The tip of the sword stopped dead when it was only an inch from his throat.

Josephine's hand shook around the hilt before she could stop it.

Even the flames on the Worldfire Blade turned unsteady, and the scorching heat coming off it faded by a few degrees.

She stared at the man in front of her.

At the pain and love in his eyes. At that paper-white face that still somehow held a trace of gentleness. At the thing buried deep in his gaze that refused to break.

Something sharp drove through her chest.

It landed harder than any burn from fire, hard enough that her fingers almost lost their hold on the sword.

Why?

Why couldn't she do it?

Why did his wrecked, hopeless look make her chest tighten like this?

Why couldn't she bear it?

"You... why didn't you dodge?"

Josephine's voice stayed cool, but a slight shake slipped through it without her noticing.

The question came out full of confusion.

Jared looked at her, and everything in his eyes softened.

Anyone seeing that look would have thought the woman before him wasn't there to kill him at all, but the one person in his life he treasured most, the one he wanted to shelter with both hands.

Even if she wanted his life, he would still take it without complaint.

"Because it's you."

His voice came out hoarse and soft, carrying that same endless tenderness. "No matter when it is, no matter what you do to me, I'll never raise a hand against you. I'll never dodge you. Josephine... do you really not remember me at all? Not even a little?"

Josephine's hand shook even harder.

The Worldfire Blade almost slipped from her grip, and the flames running along it flickered bright and dim, just as unsteady as she was in that moment.

She stared into Jared's eyes.

The love in them was too thick, too real. It didn't look fake. She forced herself to search through her mind.

She kept digging, trying to pull up something, anything, trying to find even a broken shard of memory tied to this man.

But her mind was still blank. All that stayed behind was a sharp swelling pain, one wave after another, like countless needles driving into her head.

"I... I don't know you."

She spoke again, but the words no longer carried the same firmness as before.

A faint slip had already entered her voice, and the wall she had been holding up inside herself was cracking apart bit by bit.

The words hit Jared again like a blade.

His whole body gave a shudder, but he still didn't stop.

"It's okay."

He spoke softly, his gaze steady and gentle. Even with that darkness hanging over everything, he still didn't let go. "It doesn't matter if you don't remember. I'll wait, little by little. I'll help you remember.

Josephine, we've been through so much together. So much wind and rain. We wandered the mundane world side by side. We faced who knows how many life-and-death dangers together. Under the stars, we made promises to each other. We said we'd stay together for life and never be apart... You have to remember. You can remember..."

He kept talking like that, one line after another.

He spoke of those sealed-up days. He spoke of the memories that belonged only to the two of them. Every word carried him straight to her.

Josephine's brows drew tightly together.

Her head hurt more and more, and that blank space where her memories should have been threw everything inside her into disorder.

But those words, those details, those so-called shared experiences kept striking deeper and deeper.

The stirring in her chest grew stronger, as if something was about to break through its chains and wake up.

She didn't remember any of it.

But the pain rising from deep inside her was real.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify