~ Ethereal Agony | 23 | Gwi
French: /the petals of love/
Pairing: Gwi x fem! noble! Reader
Summary: A heartless vampire falls in love for the first time in centuries of loneliness. Passion, secrets, betrayal and love drown the royal palace. Will your love for Gwi prevail through time or will it wither away like a fallen rose petal? Maybe love was his punishment, maybe love was your salvation. Or wasn't it a curse to you both? Because, who can beat a race against time? Who can love in the dark? Who can love without truth? After all, even the most beautiful flower will wither away and end in ashes of time, remembered only by the one who cherished her the most.
Warnings: THE WARNINGS CONTAIN SPOILERS!!! MAJOR ANGST!, reference of toxic relationship, longing, feelings of betrayal, allusions to heart disease/illness, fainting, mixed emotions, wounded love, historical! AU, royal! AU?, cannon copilant (let me know if I missed anything!)
Word Count: 3k words
A/N: SURPRISE!!! I know it's been so long since I updated this story but we all can blame work and university atm. I'm trying to make some time for myself and I hope you will like this part.
This scene was also one of the few who I soured this monster of a fic that's now close to 100k words and I enjoyed writing it so much. 🥰🥰
We are taking right where we left Petal and Gwi last time so buckle up for this will be a rollercoaster of emotions, darling. Happy reading, 🫣 I hope you'll enjoy it! 😌😁 .
Tagging: @my-day6 | @yumisventingmachine | @yukihatesreoyo | @anonymous2828 | @solivagant444 | @nitimurinvetitumsposts | @queenjang21 | @ib026 | @emneedshelp | @exo-shohei-perrie | @shylia | @wooahaeuniversexxx | @lovecleastrange | @zaramaliksblog | @xii-anya |🙈❤️*let me know if you'd like to be tagged or if you want me to get you off my taglist!
Please let me know your thoughts in the comments! I'd love to hear from you, loves. Enjoy! 🫶🫶🫶
Your feet ached. Your heart was hollow with the empty sentiment of dead love. You had been walking for hours, days, weeks and months. Lost and forgotten, empty and soulless. Trying to escape your own heart, or trying to find pieces of it left behind.
Your hands were limp as they hung by your sides, the hem of your dress was ripped and dirty from the miles you had navigated on your feet alone. Your skin was paler than the healthy glow your lover had once admired, your lips were colourless, your voice gone.
But it had been your heart that had carried you back to the Imperial City. It was bliss. It was torture. To relive memories that had once been sweet but now they only tasted rotten with the sourness of his dismissal and the bitterness of your pain.
The rain had begun to fall over the city that evening, the streets made puddles of murky water, the shops closed early that day as the heavens were angry or sad. Either way, they were punishing Joseon with their thunder and lightning and torrential waters.
Your dress, that once beautiful burgundy gown had gotten soaked in seconds. Your hair plastered to your cheeks. It was no longer braided down your back, the silken bow you had used to tie it together had been blown by the wind many days ago.
Oh, how it hurt. To walk where he has walked, to exist where he had lived. And to know he could still parade these streets through the night. Your mind was lost to your pain, your heart hardened by loss and pain and a love that had been so beautiful but had been destroyed by secrets. By lies. By words left unsaid and tears left to dry.
The sound of the rain hitting the stone pavement filled your ears, yet it wasn’t louder than the slow rhythm of your own heart. And it was the shroud of the night that embraced you with forgotten loneliness. With cold fingers that wrapped around your shoulders, the darkness swallowed your form as you glided over the empty city.
Your eyes were empty, your steps slow. Lost. You walked past a lamp post with a single flickering candle cradled in a glass cage, your skirts brushed the ones of a tall stranger who walked without destination.
It was a moment that pulled your mind from the drowning thoughts that kept you under a numbness too great for it to manifest. You blinked, water clung to your lashes. Ahead, the road was like a wolf’s mouth. Dark and uncertain. However, your life has been just like that throughout the last year.
Don’t think,
The thought rang through your head as loud as if someone had spoken the words to you. Thinking about it made you cry, thinking about it made your heart ache and the hatred and sadness and heartbreak to all pour down like a waterfall you couldn’t stop. So you kept walking. You kept going forward to a place you didn’t know, hoping you’d find something you didn’t know you were searching for.
Or perhaps it was a place you didn’t want to admit to yourself you missed terribly. Maybe it was not a place but a person who still kept that safe corner of the world in his arms. But you could no longer walk with him, you could no longer go to him in your distressed hours. You could no longer count on him.
He had abandoned you, left you, broken your heart with his bare hands as if it had meant nothing. The truth didn’t matter anymore. Time had blurred the lines of hatred and love and all it was left behind was an ache so profound your heart hurt every single time you thought about it. About him. His eyes, his voice, his touch. His sweet poems he used to read to you. His name was only whispered in your mind, it had never left your lips and it never will. Doing it would be crueler than stabbing yourself with a dagger and ending it all.
But something halted your steps. A name. A voice. It pierced through your mind like a sword did on ice.
“Petal.”
You swallowed, your eyes filled with tears, the rain kept falling, your hands began trembling but you stopped walking. You stopped yourself from advancing to the unknown as you obeyed the command of the chain in your heart.
Your lips parted and for a heartbeat, you were scared. You knew that voice anywhere, had loved it and cherished it and praised it. For it was the voice of the man who had broken your heart. And it was the word he used to call for you when life had been pink and framed with scented roses.
“(y/n),”
At the sound of your name, you turned around, facing the man who had left you. He, who had discarded you, broken you, lied to you. You faced him again with an iron heart and empty eyes.
The rain fell, hiding the gentle tears that rolled down your cheeks at the sight of him. Gwi. The lord of the palace. The lord of your heart. Whatever words you had once planned to say to him died in your tongue like petals falling from a rose.
His eyes, those dark eyes of his that had once looked at you with softness and tenderness, with love were now filled with surprise and something deeper; something darker you couldn’t see through the blur of your own tears.
“You still wear it.”
Your hand instinctively went up to your hair, fingertips gracing the red flowers of the hairpin he had gifted you what seemed to be a lifetime ago.
“I never took it off.”
Was your response. Hoarse and breathless, a gentle whisper carried away by the wind. He took a step toward you, you took one back. Thunder flashed at the distance, the sky rumbling with its strength and it flashed in his eyes, revealing the hint of hurt in those dark galaxies of his.
“I… I’ve been searching for you.”
You took a deep breath at his words. Taking in the scent of damp stone and the heaviness of a bitter encounter you had long since stopped wishing for.
“I don’t believe you.”
The vampire lord frowned, taking two steps toward you but this time, you didn’t back away. You only titled your chin to keep eye contact with him. To never let him out of your sight. And he released you looking at him as if he were a dream. An illusion. An image in a mirror that did not exist.
Gwi noticed the heartbreak, the longing, the anger in those (e/c) eyes he once loved dearly. But now, those eyes hardened with the weight of all the time apart. Of the cruel words that had been exchanged, the accusations and the pain that had tainted what had been a pure love between a rose and death itself.
“I can’t believe you anymore.”
You lifted your chin slightly. Even now, despite everything, you hold your ground and grace. Your dignity as a lady and noble daughter never left your soul.
“Petal-”
“Don’t.”
His lips pressed together at the finality of that single word. As if you were slapping a book shut and never wanted to read its pages again.
“Don’t talk to me with your sweet poetry. It no longer works, you will not sugar my ear with whatever lies you want to speak now.”
His eyes burned with bitter tears, fists clenching under the long sleeves of his robes.
“You no longer command my heart. You made that pretty clear the last time we saw each other, so please, do not follow me. I can’t go back to that pain…”
The vampire lord moved the second you blinked. You felt his hand, rough and large and strong gripping your shoulders with a ferocity that made your breath hitch. You looked up at him in surprise, in fear and want.
“I may not command your heart anymore but you do command mine. I have wronged you, you who was the only thing holy in my darkness. Come with me, come to my palace –our palace– I will not let you go again. I cannot lose you again.”
Your eyes locked with his and you shook your head. Despite the tears and the pain in your heart at rejecting him. A pain that had lived in your chest since he first dismissed you from his side. Like a thorn on flesh, you had learned to live with that pain, that anger and disappointment and hurt. You weren’t about to injure your soul again.
Not for the sake of old memories.
Or the sake of the whispers from intimate touches.
The lingering memory of his passionate kisses grazed your lips like silk on glass.
The memory of his eyes, softening as he looked at you crossed the eye of your mind.
Thunder flashed in the distance and those gentle eyes from your memories turned into the pleading and desperate look which he now gave you without a filter whatsoever.
You saw his pain, his longing, his regret. But those weren’t going to heal the scars of his wounding words and dismissive heart. His words would not make your scars go away.
“I loved you.”
He frowned at your confession. His eyes widening under the shadows of his lashes.
“I loved you so much. And you… you broke my heart. You-you broke me! How can you ask me to… how do you expect me to go back, to surrender to you as I did. I trusted you. I wanted you!”
“You do not want me anymore, petal?”
The hurt in his voice made you flinch. The tears came, unbidden and merciless. Rolling down your cheeks as the pain intensifies. You didn’t know that seeing him would be like this. All your hurt and pain and loneliness had been locked in a chest that was hidden in the chambers of your heart and it only took a word from his lips to bring it out into the light, to unlock it and let everything out.
“Petal-”
“NO!”
You took a step back, forcing his hands to leave your shoulders. Putting a distance between you and him that killed you yet let you breathe for a second. A tortuous yet glorious second.
“Please! Listen to me-”
But you shook your head again, the rain kept falling and lightning broke the heavens once more.
“You cannot mend something that’s broken. You cannot fix me! You don’t know what I’ve been through! You don’t know what I had to endure for-”
Your teeth bit your tongue, swallowing the words that were about to be blurted into the welcoming night.
“I have wronged you in a way that should not be forgiven yet I ask you… (y/n) I-”
You let out a shuddering breath, your lips trembled and your eyes closed.
“Don’t. You provided a false heaven. That’s what you are. A garden of dead roses and I was fooled by its lingering perfume. You call me “petal”, you call me “your beloved” but love it’s not supposed to hurt like this!”
The emotions of your words carried your whispered truth. He took a step forward and you just sighed. Tired of his circling words and this eternal ache in your heart that wouldn’t go away.
“I am a prideful man,”
Gwi began, reaching for your hand. His long fingers warped around it and you nearly flinched at how cold his skin was.
“I rule over this kingdom but you could rule it all if you just come with me.”
You stared into his eyes, the rain clouded your vision. The pain intensified, tears couldn’t stop falling.
“I don’t want to rule. I have never wanted that.”
His eyes softened, your breath quickened. Your whispered words pierced his heart with the innocence woven between them.
“You don’t even know what I want.”
Your voice broke like splintering glass. His grip on your hand tightened as he yanked you forward. You collided into his chest, his arms encircling your wait, trapping you against him.
“I do know.”
His voice was deep, the words growled out. Thunder struck the distance and you flinched at how loud it sounded but the vampire lord didn’t even blink at the noise.
“You want to be cradled like a rose, you want to be cherished like a queen. Come with me and I’ll give you everything you ever had and more. (y/n), please…”
Your hands fisted his robe, the wet silk slick under your palms.
“Let me go.”
His grip tightened around you. His heart pounded in his ears. That dead heart that only beats for you.
“I won’t.”
He shook his head. His grip was almost painful. You tried to shove him away, to pry free of his iron grip.
“Let me go!”
“I am not letting you go!”
You sobbed, why must he hurt you like this? Is he trying to tear your soul apart once more? To kill you this time with his cruel games? One of his hands came up to cup the back of your head, his fingers tangling in your soaked locks. He forced you to meet his eyes, those intense dark eyes that had once burned your soul now only scared you in those painful nightmares you were still trying to run from.
Gwi frowned. His hand resting on the back of your neck. The tip of his fingers rested on your pulse point and he felt the erratic beating of your mortal heart and the unbearable heat of your skin.
It wasn’t that you felt his skin cold but that yours was burning.
“You’re sick.”
He whispered. His deep voice mixing with the distant thunder and furious rain. His eyes ran all over your race, from the redness in your eyes due to your tears to the sickening tint of your skin, your lips had no colour and you trembled against him.
“Let me go… please, just let me–”
A gasp parted your lips, your eyes screwed shut as an unbearable pain in your heart stole your breath like a thief at night. Your knees buckled and his hold on your tightened.
“Petal!”
The vampire shook you, his hand cradling your cheek as you sagged against him. Your eyes opened, your vision blurry with rain and tears and pain. You saw his face, carved of marble and with eyes as dark as obsidian. There was worry in those eyes. Fear.
“I’m taking you back to the palace, you need care.”
Your hand weakly clutched his robe once more, just where his heart was hidden as you shook your head.
“I don’t want to go back… please, I dont-”
“I’m not asking you.”
He gritted out. The hand that cradled your cheek pressed your head against his shoulder before he bent down, his arm sliding behind your knees before he hauled you up into his strong embrace. You whimpered, the pain in your chest intensified, your hand slipped from where it gripped his robe, hanging loosely at your side.
The vampire lord clutched you tighter against him, his silk robes clinging to your trembling flame as if the storm itself sought to peel you from his arms. The rain drummed against his gat, against your hair, against his shoulders; like the beating of war drums chasing him through the night.
“Petal, stay awake.”
His voice, usually silken and mocking to others, now cracked like porcelain strained under heat. It not only commanded you but pleaded for you to obey him.
“Don’t close your eyes, I have you now.”
Your lashes fluttered, heavy with rain and tears. Each breath you took rattled, shallow, like it hurt you to even exist.
“You… you will only cage me once more…”
You whispered, your voice so faint he had to bend his ear to your lips to catch the words the wind threatened to carry away.
His jaw tightened. The words stung worse than any blade or poison or ray of sun on his pale skin. He walked, moving as fast as he could, boots splashing through the muddy puddles for every step was a violent oath against fate.
“Then I will build you a cage of gold, a cage of silk and petals—anything but the grave that calls you now.”
You stirred weakly as he adjusted you in his hold, your head lolling against his shoulder.
“I don’t… want your palace. I don’t want your throne… I just wanted… you.”
Those words stopped him, his steps haltered, his dead heart seized within him. For centuries he had bent kings and destroyed dynasties, he had ruled through the shadows of the night a kingdom that should have fallen ages ago. And yet it was your confession, so simple and innocent in its nature that brought him to his knees before your throne of dead petals.
His body trembled under the weight of your spoken truth, of your deepest longing and forgotten desire. His eyes softened as he looked down at you and for a moment, a heartbeat, a second he forgot the storm, the kingdome, his immortality—everything.
“I am yours,”
Gwi whispered to you. His confession a sin, his hold on you as heavy as iron chains. But you didn’t hear him anymore. Your head had slumped against his shoulder, your body limp in his hold and though your chest still rose and fell faintly, though he could still hear your shallow breaths and weak heartbeat, fear clawed through him like fire.
A flash of light broke the sky once more and his grip tightened on you, grounding you to him. As if his strength alone could keep you with him. His lips pressed against your damp hair as if the kiss could anchor your soul to his.
“Always yours, my flower. My precious petal.”
September/06/2025
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~ Masterpost
