" LOST IN THE DEPTHS OF AMBITION "

HIS WARMED BREATH pressed helplessly against her scarred skin, the thickened air of the room claiming possession of the hidden bodies of the forgotten royals. The softened hue of the moon pierced through the awaiting window, basking the individuals in the luminous glow of the risen stars. Wearing nothing but the light of midnight, the awaiting couple laid in tranquillity.

The lacerations that ran across Augustina's skin the day before laid in new scars along her porcelain skin, the healing abilities that resided in her golden veins mending her skin with a magical embrace. Her palms held the invisible stains of a million dead men, her fingertips darkened with the stain of guilt.

Augustina found herself wrapped in masculine arms, her cheek pressed against an shifting chest. The victorious thump of a pumping heart filling her eardrums with a tune of lively ambition, for the man's gallant words rested in her mind giving birth to a thousand wonders.

Every aspect of the man who held her was painted with the solitary color grey, from his disheveled hair, to the dreams that he voiced in a murmur. He held scars of man, his calloused hands cut with the hardened work of war. The man knew the woman in his arms far more than most, for his mind swirled with a shared fear as the woman he cradled close to his chest.

"Cato," Augustina whispered, her eyes fluttering open with a flicker of her dark lashes. "You should go." She added with a faltered construction of her voice, her bruised lips parting with a fathomed exhale. The man's arms loosened against her smaller body, his chest vibrating with a deepened rumble of discontent for the troubled words that left the slaves lips. The lips he claimed, the lips he held possession of moments ago.

"Getting rid of me so quick?" A murmur of a voice broke through the air, stirring the raven black hair that rested upon Augustina's head. "And here I thought you missed me, oh you are such a liar." The voice added, the sentence alone causing the woman's exotic eyes to roll in disbelief. A lair? The title made her skin crawl, her tongue growing dry with loathe for the accusation.

Raising upward from his chest, Augustina let her eyes wonder across the features of the man below her. Cato undoubtedly held the bloodline of the King, his hair single handedly speaking volumes of his cherished ancestry. Yet his features stored the mirror of a unknown counterpart, his serrated jawline far more defined than the one of his brother. The warmed hue of blue that rested in his eyes unlike the moss color of both his father and his half-sibling. Cato was far more than his royal bloodline, he was the better of his family. He was the discarded half-prince.

"What are you looking at, oraíos?" Cato whispered with a raise of his dark brow, his teeth deliberately catching his slender bottom lip in a movement of purposeful captivation. The last word that brazenly rolled from his tongue gave way to a honeyed sweetness, the nickname causing the slaves heart to squeeze in bliss.

Cato was more than a pretty face, for the man knew the capabilities of his actions; he was cunning. Augustina's anger for the man wavered as he peered upon her with a wiggle of his brows, his calloused hands raising to cup her awaiting cheeks. "You are far too cocky for your own good, Cato Castel." She mused with a light frown on her lips, her soft cheeks heated with the rough touch of his hands.

"Aww, you really think so?" Cato mused, leaning forward the man of a fathomed passion pressed his lips against the woman's awaiting ones. The movement was made effortless, almost filled with solace as he kissed the slave of his father with a burning passion. In that very moment, the man let his worst of fears dissolve into the background of the cruel world, his thoughts faltering as he focused upon the woman whose lips he plagued.

He wouldn't let his father steal her away in the sight of the crown, the man wouldn't dare imagine a universe without the raven-haired princess. No, if they tried to take her away from him, he'd rip the world apart with his calloused hands. Inch by inch, he would lay waste to the land. And for an unseen reason, the thoughts didn't terrify him but ignited an ember of courage within his soul.

Reluctantly pulling away Augustina broke the passionate kiss, pressing her forehead against his own. Her heated breath escaped her lungs, meeting his own in a swirl of burning admiration. "Yes, I do." Augustina murmured, her eyes intently searching the frosted ones of the man before her. "You were born to break my heart, Augustina." Cato murmured, his hands falling from her cheeks to rest on her bare hips.

With a faint smile, Augustina pulled her forehead away from his, her eyes devouring every inch of his desirable features. "I was born for far more than this," She whispered with a teasing smile, the ironic twist of her words shadowing the sentence like a lost phantom. "I was born to mend your heart, not break it." Raising her index finger the raven-haired beauty intently ran her fingertip across his bottom lip, watching in solace as he remained lethally still beneath her touch.

The moon's rays shifted beyond the window, for the clouds of the blossoming night cradled the luminous orb of light in a hold of longing. The darkness of her room soon surrounded them, leaving the two with the smallest of light. Their naked bodies captured beneath a thin sheet of white, their breath falling even against the world around them.

Pulling her attention toward his frosted eyes, she let her finger fall from his lip her fingertip moving across his chin downward upon the scar that rested upon the center of his chest. "You have to go, Cato." She whispered with a faint frown, hating the idea of being left to her own devices.

The room around her was empty of personality, the white walls blank of design. The marble floor of the room cold with a cleansed shine, the bed alone being her only object in the room continuously touched. It was her cage, the room she was restricted to unless told otherwise.

"Don't break my heart, Oraíos," Cato whispered, his eyes intently searching her grey ones as if they were the only lively thing in the dull world. Raising upward he took hold of her wondering hand, his fingers entwining with her own.

"I won't"

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A/N: Thank you so much for reading! Sorry, it took so long for an update, I couldn't figure out how to start or even where to start this chapter.

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