So why couldn’t he seem to do it?
Like before on Earth, where he’d been going back and forth, weighing all his options in their shared cave, he had no idea how to move forward without losing her.
I don’t know what to do,he thought, his chest swelling with pain he didn’t understand. Whatever affection he had for her wasparalysinghim, and he didn’t know how to fix it.
With his thoughts wildly spiralling into a pit of despair, he didn’t know how long he waited for Zylah to settle. When her growls receded and were replaced with whimpers, he peeked over the edge of his seat so he could look down at her.
Limping and refusing to settle her right foot on the ground, she stumbled. Her arms caved in, and she fell to the side and released a horrible yelp when she landed on her wounds, the broken bits of rock on the ground likely inflicting more pain.
Jabez’s stomach gave a horrible twist, and he teleported to her. Crouching beside her, he gently brushed his fingers into the fur around her neck.
“Jabez,”she whimpered, weakly reaching an arm out to wrap around his hips and tug him closer.
He sat and let her curl herself around his body. He helped her to lift her head onto his crossed legs, and she whimpered as she used the last of her strength to get her knees behind his backside. She trembled, her entire body shaking and refusing to settle even with him there.
“It hurts.”
“I know it does,” he stated softly, stroking her neck where it was uninjured in an attempt to soothe her.
Now that she’d laid her front on top of him a little more, he inspected the multiple puncture wounds between her shoulderblades. There were at least a dozen of them, each of them still bleeding; her constant moving had likely reopened them.
Her right leg had been bitten into multiple times, clearly from someone trying to eat her on the sly while covering it up as their attempt to stop her from fighting back. There were gashes all over her back, sides, and thighs from them grabbing her and pulling her back so she couldn’t escape. The front of her throat didn’t appear to be fairing any better, as if they’d attempted to slit it open to stop her from moving.
All their attempts had done nothing to stop her, and only ensured she’d suffered and continued to do so.
He hated the way her body shuddered deeply on each breath that ended in a curt whine, and that her legs kicked in aversion to it every time. He hated that she held him so loosely, as if she didn’t have the strength to cling to him like usual.
Hedespisedthat the female who had stolen a piece of him as she giggled through whispering wisps now lay covered in her own blood, which oozed to puddle beneath her.
Fuck. It’s all my fault,he thought, covering his face as shame prickled the back of his neck.
“I’m so sorry, Zylah,” he rasped out, hoping she could hear the utter sincerity in his voice.
“Are you... hurt?”she whispered, reaching up to touch the back of his knuckles.
“Don’t you dare,” he warned, lowering his palm just enough so she could feel the weight of his harsh glare. “My wounds are healing.”
She gave the most pathetic chitter, her white orbs flickering with reddish pink at being caught. Thankfully she didn’t try to take his wounds, and he lowered his hand so he could gently stroke his fingertips over her snout.
“Just sleep, Zylah.” Her orbs were dim, threatening to turn black, and he knew she must be exhausted. “We’re safe now, and I’ll watch over you.”
As if all she needed was to feel secure and be in his arms, her head went limp and her orbs darkened into black. Her form began to shift into her more humanoid version, and her red dress lifted to the surface to immediately be soaked in purple pungent blood.
He removed her bag so it wouldn’t press on any of her wounds and hurt her further.
It took a long while for her bleeding to finally stop, but the hissing of her strained and shallow breaths never ceased. They only grew softer in sleep, and he wished he had the ability to induce a coma until a day had passed and she healed on her own.
In essence, he could do that by removing her skull from her body and letting it reset within a day, but the idea of doing so sickened him. Although it would spare her from this pain, he completely lacked the desire to be callous or cruel towards her with his own claws.
Watching over her as he stroked her with trembling hands only made him feel worse with every damn slow minute that passed.
He bent forward until his forehead rested against her bony brow.Fuck. My damn chest hurts so much.It kept tugging, kept twisting, and he knew it wouldn’t stop for a long time – long after she healed.
The guilt of this was killing him, and he held her as he let his eyes wander to the right to look at where they were.
This hidden, ruined library had given him many spells. The knowledge here withered away with every year and turned to dust. Much of it had already been eaten away by time or crumbled in his very hands at just the merest disturbance.
To his left was a door that had the image of a three bronze suns on it. It was slightly ajar from when he first discovered this place. Going through the secret passageway led to the main part of the library that had been decimated by Demons, and many of the books were gone. He imagined the scholars had likely fled with countless books in their arms, trying to preserve as much knowledge as they could.
