Years of separation and years of worry all turned into one thing the moment he saw her. They became the force that carried him toward her.
Up in the sky, Skylar took in all of it—Jared’s wrecked state, the wildness in him, the way he looked like his soul had been torn loose. The smile at his mouth deepened, then deepened again, turning smug and openly mocking. This was exactly the effect he wanted.
He wanted everyone watching to see Jared reduced to this: ragged, humiliated, low as an insect. He wanted to watch Jared suffer. He wanted to watch Jared break. He wanted to watch him lose himself completely because of Josephine. To Skylar, this was the perfect way to torment Jared. Compared to this, killing him outright would have been a thousand times less satisfying.
Skylar slowly turned his head and looked at Josephine beside him. Her face held nothing but confusion. A trace of coldness flashed through his eyes, so faint it was almost impossible to catch, and then it was gone, replaced by gentleness. Josephine’s brows were drawn tight.
Her stunning face was filled with confusion and blank uncertainty. She looked at the figure rushing toward her from below with no regard for anything else. She looked at his reddened eyes, listened to the shake in his voice, and saw the longing and love in his gaze, so thick it wouldn’t dissolve. Something tangled and hard to name rose inside her.
That figure, that face. Those eyes, full of something so deep it hurt to look at. It all felt familiar to her. More than familiar—familiar enough that it seemed carved into the deepest part of her soul, as if she had seen him ten thousand times before. And yet, she could not remember. Not even a little. Josephine searched through her mind with everything she had.
She forced herself to remember, trying to pull up anything at all about this young man. But her mind stayed blank. All that remained was one sharp wave of swelling pain after another. It was as if some unbreakable seal had locked away every last piece of her memory, holding it shut so tightly she could not touch it, much less break through it.
“Do I… know him?” Josephine spoke under her breath. Her voice came out cool, but the question carried a thick, searching uncertainty, and beneath it, a faint ache even she had not noticed. The only thing she remembered was seeing Jared on the Celestial Stairway. Back then, when Jared saw her, he had shown the same kind of agitation.
Skylar did not answer right away. He only watched Jared losing control in midair, taking his time with the pleasure of revenge. Jared rushed into the air, golden light bursting from his body as dragon might spread around him. He was just about to reach Josephine when Darian, already prepared, led several Demon Dragon experts and cut him off in an instant.
“Stop!” Darian’s shout cracked out like thunder. His demonic aura surged, and several Demon Dragons immediately formed a solid line in front of Jared. Their savage dragon heads reared back with furious roars, dragon breath pouring out as they sealed off his path.
Jared acted like he hadn’t heard a thing. His eyes stayed locked on Josephine and didn’t shift even a little. His voice shook as he called to her—raw and pleading, packed with desperate hope. “Josephine! It’s me! I’m Jared! Look at me! Do you really not remember me anymore?! Have you forgotten everything we went through together?!”
Josephine looked at him. She looked at the hope in his eyes, and the pain sitting right behind it. The sting in her chest sharpened, and her brows pulled even tighter together. Remember him? Did I really remember him? Was I supposed to? She didn’t know.
She couldn’t remember anything. But why was it that seeing him like this—like something inside him had already fallen apart, like he was barely holding himself together through the pain—made my chest prickle with that same needle-fine ache? Why did I have to fight the urge to reach out and smooth away the pain in his eyes?
Skylar spoke at last, slow and unhurried. His voice came out flat, edged with mockery, cold as a blade cutting across the sky so every person there could hear it. “Jared, long time no see. I really didn’t expect the great bearer of the Golden Dragon Bloodline to lose himself like this. You’ve opened my eyes.”
That voice yanked Jared out of that uncontrolled rush of longing and slammed him back into the present. At last, Jared’s gaze moved off Josephine and settled on Skylar’s face.
The longing in his eyes, the surge, the wild burst of joy—every bit of it drained away like a falling tide. In place came hatred so thick it seemed to rise without end, a killing intent cold enough to cut, and fury forced down so hard it looked ready to explode through his skin.
“Skylar!” Jared ground the name out through clenched teeth, one word at a time. Every syllable carried enough killing intent to make the air seem ready to freeze. “What did you do to Josephine?! What the hell did you do to her?!”
Jared knew it too well. Josephine would never have forgotten him. She would never have looked at him with eyes that empty, that unfamiliar. This had to be Skylar’s doing! He had to have used some filthy method to seal Josephine’s memories away!
Skylar threw his head back and laughed. That laugh came out full of swagger and mockery, arrogant to the bone. “What did I do?” He leaned forward a little, his tone light and cruel. “I didn’t do anything. I just helped her find her real self. The old her had her mind clouded by a mortal insect like you. She lost sight of who she really was, but now she’s awake. She’s cut herself loose from dead weight like you for good.”
He paused. His gaze swept over Jared’s bloodless face, full of open ridicule, and when he spoke again, the words came out even sharper. “She doesn’t know you anymore, Jared… in her heart, you are just a stranger who means nothing to her, whether you are alive or not… believe it or not, all it would take is one word from me, and she’d draw her sword on you herself.”
Hearing that, it hit Jared like an invisible hand had clamped down around his heart and crushed hard. The pain tore through his whole body in an instant. His face went white as paper. His body swayed before he could stop it.
A hot metallic taste rushed into his throat, and he forced it back down. He refused to accept it. He would not accept it. He looked at Josephine again. What showed in his eyes now was bare hope, a plea, something stripped down and small. On the Dragon Emperor who had once looked down over the world, it was a sight that had never appeared before.
“Josephine… you really don’t remember me? We traveled through the mundane world together. We made promises together… we…” Jared’s voice caught, and nothing after that would come out. Because he could see it clearly: the way Josephine looked at him was still unfamiliar. Still confused. Still missing every trace of the softness and attachment that used to live in her eyes. Those eyes that had once brimmed with love held nothing now but blank confusion.
Josephine gave a small shake of her head. A trace of apology and confusion sat on her stunning face, and when he spoke, her voice came out cool and lost, each word landing clear in Jared’s ears: “I… I don’t know you…”
Just short words. They hit like razor-sharp knives, driving straight into Jared’s heart, punching through his chest, grinding everything inside him to pieces. Every single word tore through him. Jared’s body lurched hard again. The color drained from his face in an instant. Even the golden light around him dimmed, and the light in his eyes went out completely.
Up on the city walls, Roland watched it happen. His grip tightened around the broken sword in his hand, and he could only stand there, stuck with it. Outside the hidden chamber, Luther, Vivian, Evelyn, and Grace had all gone still in shock.
None of them had ever seen Jared like this. This was the Jared who was always steady, always composed, always ruthless when it was time to strike—the Jared no setback had ever managed to crush.
