Henry exhaled deeply, his heart swelling with gratitude. He would thank the king properly later, but for now, he allowed himself a rare moment of peace and hope. The road ahead was still long, and his body still needed time to heal, but for the first time in a long while, the future didn’t feel so daunting. It felt full of promise.
As Henry sat in his hospital bed, the letter from King Markus resting on his lap, an ache settled deep in his chest, not from his physical wounds but from the memories that surfaced. His gaze drifted to the window, though he wasn’t truly seeing the landscape outside. The word “home” lingered in his mind, heavy and bittersweet.
He had never truly had a home before.
Growing up, he lived with his mother in a small, modest room, tucked away from the rest of the p
