Chapter 20

Tenderness radiated from Nathair's chest as he caressed the curve of his claw down behind her ear. His fingers poked through black, straight hair as he tangled himself in its lusciousness.

Her hair was tied into two high pigtails that rested on the top of her head, with two additional braids swirling around the tied bases like buns. Every new hair style brought him joy, each one just as lovely as the last.

Linh's near-black, straight lashes tipped back, and her eyes greeted his orange orbs. The basking sun made the brown of her irises glow amber, and he found them just as mesmerising as the sable of them in the shade.

The round tip of her nose was cute, as were her expressive curved brows. Her rounded, soft cheekbones almost disappeared in the light, but cast in shadows, her jaw sharpened, making its usual gentleness strengthen. Her full pale-pink lips tightened as she looked up at him, but she didn't ask why he was caressing her thusly, nor did she stop him.

Considering she was seated on the folds of his tail, using him as some sort of beach lounge, he thought he should be allowed just a meagre touch. He kept the sand from dirtying her, and would stop the water from touching her once it finally reached them. Which should be quite some time, as they had not been here long.

A singular small shell rested on her lap, and she fingered it as she looked down at it.

This was all she apparently wanted to do today: just sit in the sun.

She probably feels unnerved constantly being in the darkness of my home.Linh asked to be taken to the beach every day since she'd learned of it, and it had become a pattern of theirs.

She would wake long after dawn, they would come here, and then he would find her more food – whether that be him hunting in the water or helping her forage in the forest surrounding his pond. If there was a spare chance, he would teach her Nathair speak; otherwise, that was a nightly lesson.

He'd only forced her to swim one more time to make sure she truly wouldn't drown and absorbed learning it. However, she'd grown unwell, as if the cold and damp of his home finally sunk into her bones.

Nathair learned the hard way that taking a ‘cold' from her rendered him useless. He'd grown so weak he didn't have a single ounce of mental fortitude to keep his fragments at bay.

She sang for me while I was unwell.She had sung twice for him in the few days since they'd discovered she could vanquish the wretched human memories. I still don't feel rested.

A few hours of sleep likely wouldn't soothe the hundreds of years he'd only caught minutes of sleep. It'd take time before he was truly rested, but he did feel... stronger.

We have not been able to speak voice to voice again since that day.Nathair had been hoping they could conversate in this way, but the lapse of will due to the ease of his mind meant he'd instantly been swarmed by trances upon his waking.

It was like they were punishing him for trying to flee from their cruelty.

It mattered little. Although he wanted to use his voice to speak with her, she was learning his hand signs little by little. One day, they would be able to talk freely, and Nathair didn't care how they did so, only that they could.

She has expanded my vocabulary. There were signs he didn't have for certain words or short sentences. Linh would teach him her people's way of saying them and, although that made him grumble, he accepted them. He wouldn't be petty and make his own on the spot like he and Weldir had.

Being brought to real life came with new things to speak of, new things to learn, and this female was on that journey of expansion with him. It, in its own way, made adopting them into his signs special for him. It was becoming Nathair-Linh speak.

Linhair speak,he thought with humour.

He'd never needed the word beach before, or sand, or even rain. He and Weldir had not spoken of these things in Tenebris, nor had he seen any of them. Even if the opportunity may have come about to learn many other signs, Nathair had... turned inward. After so many years within the afterworld, he'd eventually given up speaking with Weldir.

Not because there was no point, but because there was little he could add. Weldir would sit with him, make sure he was lucid, and then explain all that had happened in the world – without him. He was updated, but only asked questions if he wanted something to be expanded on.

Other than that, Weldir knew everything about Nathair. Why have the same conversations repeatedly? It was the definition of insanity, in Nathair's opinion, and he was already half crazed.

But here, with this female, he yearned to know all about her. He wished to tell her about himself, about what he could remember before he died, and the afterworld he'd lingered in. He wanted to tell her of how he picked on his sibling, Aleron, and the male he'd chosen as his bride and was brought back to life with.

He wanted to speak with her about Merikh and the unresolved feelings they both likely had, and would never be able to fix. How Merikh had travelled to another – Elven – world, and left this one behind. How that fucking pissed him off because he'd like to take that bull-headed Mavka by his horns and squeeze the undeserved hate out of him with his tail.

Nathair wanted her to be a place he could lay those things on, as he thought she would welcome them with resilience. She may offer an outside opinion that could help him shed his feelings of regret, guilt, and melancholy relating to them.

Especially when she lifted a warm expression to the sun with her eyes closed, and therefore, his very face as well.

He flicked her earlobe, making the red gem dangling from it clink, and she opened her eyes once more.

"How do you smile so freely?"he asked her, only removing his hands from her neck long enough to speak.

A glint of trepidation twitched her features. "What do you mean?"

An annoyed sigh blew from his nose hole. "Don't be c-o-y. Don't make me r-e-p-e-a-t myself."

Her gaze flicked away at that, her lips pouting. Then she drew her knees up so she could plonk an elbow on one, and placed her cheek on her fist.

"If you're asking how I can still be happy despite everything... I don't know." The usual softness in her eyes hardened and then darkened as she stared off at the rolling waves crashing before them. "If anyone else had asked me that, I'd probably lie, but I don't want to with you."

"Then don't?" he signed, tilting his head. When she wouldn't answer, he gently placed his fingers around her pointed chin to tilt her face to him properly. "You don't speak."

"I talk all the time!" she exclaimed, rolling her eyes.

Nathair released a small warning growl. Any other human would have stiffened their back or grown wary. Linh just half-heartedly poked her tongue out at him with the bridge of her nose wrinkling.

"T-o-w-n? Past? Memories?" Nathair wanted to know more about this female.

She had withdrawn from him in the past few days, while still being kind enough to sing for him. The little female no longer wanted to be intimate, and was making him worry that she hadn't truly forgiven him for how he hurt her... and frightened her. Yet, she still desired his squeezing hold nightly, like nothing was the matter.

When she looked away again, this time with her lips tightening with a pensive expression, his sight shifted to blue.

I give up, then.Not on her, just on this subject. He vowed he would not push her to speak of things she did not wish to, and just hoped she would one day do so.

They would remain in their silence, then.

I tire of silence.Beyond his ears was too quiet, while the chattering in his mind seemed to grow louder because of it. He longed for her to fill it with her melodious voice, as it eased that chattering. To soften the voices himself, he often focused on her lovely features, the lulling rhythm of her heart and breaths, her pretty scent.

He caressed the side of her neck again, showing he was exiting the conversation as he looked up.

The blue sky was bright, the sun warmer with each day. Yet, a chilly wind came from the south as storm clouds inched their way closer with every minute. Would she like to sit in the rain?

Nathair loved the rain, even when the drops were icy. The sprinkle of it was nice upon his gills, and it felt like it was cleansing his body, mind, and soul. They were only less than three weeks into spring, from what he gathered, so the rain should be somewhat warm.

"If I smile, no one knows what I'm thinking," Linh eventually admitted softly. "I am at peace here with you, Nathair. My smiles are not false, so please don't think they are, but hidden beneath them... my heart does hurt."

Nathair brought his skull down to face her and observed the pain in her gaze. There were no tears, but her lips were curled downwards, and her chin did wobble slightly. The only parts of her that trembled were her hands as she picked at her nail beds and the sides of her fingers.

"I smile because I was forced to, or I'd be... hit. I wasn't allowed to cry, or scream, or show just how miserable I was. I wasn't allowed to grin, as it came across as snide or spite-filled, so I learned to just... smile. That way, no one knows how much hate I hold, how much I'm hurting, and what I'm planning to do next." She tipped her face up to him. "I don't feel like I have to do that with you. I've cried in front of you, shown anger, and even... kicked you for fun. I smile for me because it's meaning was stolen. I share them with you because you deserve them, because you make me want to, and they feel so good when they touch my heart."

Nathair parted his maw slightly and then spread his lower jaw bones like he was trying to emulate a grin. Her brows drew together, obviously puzzled, only for her to cover her mouth. A giggle sounded behind it.

"If that's a smile, I have to tell you it's creepy," she stated with renewed mirth in her eyes.

Nathair chuckled in return and snapped his maw shut. He'd wanted to ease the hardness in her features.

Wanting her to know that he'd listened intently, he brushed the back of his claw over the corner of her lips, admiring this simple part of her. He felt when it curled, and her expression grew tender.

It dimmed as she lowered her gaze and fiddled with her fingers again.

"And... I have told you something about myself. I told you my mum was an apothecary, herbologist, and doctor, and that my father was the mayor of our village. I come from Springrock Mountain. I think that's west of your pond, since I have no idea where we are right now."

"Your father is a..." He'd never needed to say this word before.

"Leader?" she asked, pressing the tips of two fingers together before pulling away as if she was lining the edges of a triangle.

"Yes, leader," he signed, mimicking the movement. He was thankful she simplified it by giving him a less specific name for those who led humans.

He did it again to make sure he absorbed the new word, then tilted his head at her. He nodded, hoping she'd continue.

"He wasn't voted in. My grandmother on my mum's side was our mayor before this, and when he married my mum, he was taken under her wing. Everyone loves him, so he was forced into the role when my grandmother grew ill. My mum didn't care to lead, but she helped our people in her own way by taking care of the sick." She gave a small laugh. "Half the time, everyone talks to her rather than my dad. You'd be surprised how much patients speak to their doctor about their problems. She was already giving them medicine, so why not?"

The more Linh spoke, the more his sight shifted to yellow and grew in brightness. He was learning new things about her, and he'd been waiting forever to hear this.

When she didn't say anything for a while, he signed, "More?"

She laughed, but in the way that felt like she was calling him greedy. Nathair's insatiable need to learn rumbled within him, and he'd take every bite he could.

"Fine. I'll tell you more, only because you deserve it."

Nathair snickered. I deserve more than that, and we both know it.

"I'll be honest with you, I had it really easy growing up, despite all the Demon attacks," she stated, waving her arms into a small shrug. "Because of the positions my parents had, I was watched, and kind of... it feels weird saying this, but... adored? I did what was expected of me. I made sure I exceeded at my tutoring. I learned how to cook so I could help feed everyone, and went with my mother into the forest to pick herbs since I wanted to follow in her footsteps. She's one of the few doctors in our village. I was kind to everyone and learned to sign because my father told me I needed to be able to communicate with anyone and everyone."

Nathair tilted his head when her warm expression crept away, and darkness entered it instead.

"It was lucky I did. I ended up having to translate for those in my village who are unable to speak, when both my father's hands were injured due to..." Her features pinched and her face grew ashen as she darted her gaze to the side nervously. "He disobeyed the bandits, and they... they bashed them as a way to punish him."

Liquid bubbled in her eyes, but she quickly blinked it away. A blush rose on her cheeks as she peeked at him from the corner of her lids, her lips tightening. Seconds later, she gave him a forced smile.

"I'm the only one my age in the whole village," she said, drawing away from the painful conversation. "Everyone is either years older than me, or at least three years younger. It sucked being the only person who was twenty-one, and I only turned that a few months ago. Instead of getting to play, I just studied hard because there was nothing else to do. I followed mum to work or played by myself."

"Were you l-o-n-e-l-y?" Nathair signed, since he'd asked this of Weldir quite a few times. His father never answered directly.

"Hmm. Not really." Linh shrugged her lean shoulders. "Sometimes the other villagers would sit with me, and I managed to know everyone well, even though there's a few thousand of us. I know everyone's name, who their families are, and where they live. I made friends with everyone, no matter if they were old or just a baby. Everyone in the village was my friend, but the Jolston kids were the ones who followed me everywhere I went."

Nathair purposefully darkened his orbs to ask why.

Then again, she is like a pretty gem.From what she'd said about her past, he imagined she'd always been radiant. If what she was like with him was only a fraction of the loveliness she'd been before, then even Nathair thought he may have been hopeless to chase after her light.

"They are the closest to me in age, both sisters, and they both have hearing loss. So does their father. Not everyone knows how to speak Austlan, so they liked having someone they could speak freely with who wasn't an annoying adult or someone younger. We think the loss of hearing is hereditary. My dad made sure I learned because they grew up next door to him. They had a lot of boy troubles and wanted advice, not that I could give it!"

Her face brightens as she speaks about her family and people.It was obvious she cared about them very much and had deep bonds with them all.

She is so lovely.Her face had gentled, yet the corners of her lids were crinkled with effervescent fondness. It made his chest swell with gooey warmth, and he almost leaned down so he could taste the emotion curling her lips.

Nathair refused to steal this moment with a drive to kiss her. Linh was finally sharing. Every word was important, and each new thing he learned of her and her people was locked away in his mind to be kept forever. The melody of her voice would sing in his memories, as would his nightingale's song.

"Why could you not help?" Nathair signed, since she seemed to be rather witty. He imagined she'd have information to share with other females.

Other males would have tried to catch her.

Too bad for them – Nathair currently had his claws in this female, and he was reluctant to let her go.

Even if she asked to leave, he... may not let her. Just the thought had the heaviness of greed and possessiveness clamouring around in his veins. He'd rather bleed them empty than remove the way her essence clung to each drop. To each scale. Nathair would need to rip himself apart and scrub his entire being to cleanse how she'd burrowed beneath his flesh.

Just as his orbs were about to flicker a dark green, Linh snorted a laugh. "Well... like I said, I didn't really have anyone my age. I'd never dated anyone. My parents were planning to take me to Fayrest Town after my twenty-first birthday to see if I wanted to" – she jerked in his arm, her cheeks turning pink – "date anyone. There are more people my age there."

She turned away from him and scratched at the back of her neck, as if awkward about telling him this. Nathair couldn't care less about who she dated or what she'd done before he met her. He hadn't even been alive for any of it.

He had not existed in the same plane as her.

He could growl, huff, and fold his arms, but what would it change? Nothing. So, he'd rather just discover more about this female, while she was so willing to share.

Nathair placed his foreknuckle under her chin and lifted her face to him, then pulled his hands away so he could sign, "Did you find anyone?"

He'd like to know if he needed to constrict away the lingering of someone in her mind. This was all that mattered: that her heart was empty so he could swim his way inside it.

"No." Once more, her features fell. No, they didn't just fall – her entire body seemed to slump. Her heart sped up, while her lungs quickened in what would only be anxiety. "The bandits came before then, and they didn't allow us to travel between towns freely. None of us were allowed to leave in case we figured out a way to relay hidden messages. We became trapped inside our village walls, and then I was..."

"Taken," Nathair finished for her.

Her eyes lifted away, only to land on the storm clouds above them. "Yeah, I was taken."

Seeing this was likely the end of this conversation, since her eyes had reddened and turned glassy, Nathair lifted his sight to the sky as well. Then he tapped her shoulder to get her attention. "Do you want to sit in the rain?"

She sniffled quietly. "Isn't that dangerous, though?"

Head rearing back, and with jarring and annoyed movements, Nathair waved his hand up and down his body.

She gave a deadened laugh.

"True. You'll just keep them all back, won't you?" Her voice was utterly shaken and weak as she spoke. "Biggest and scariest thing around."

Absolutely,Nathair thought with a sharp nod.

Perhaps other Mavka would be wary, but he was larger, faster, and he had a wall of tail. No harm would come to this female, no matter how many Demons came. He would also take her into the cave and become a wall of aggressive wrath should they try to enter it.

"Y-you really are that strong, aren't you, Nathair?" she asked, her voice wavering even more. "Enough to keep Demons away in the rain, in the night. At... all times. Land or water, it doesn't matter to you, does it?"

Any pride or cheer he'd held was instantly strangled at her tone, the way her bottom lip trembled. The brimming of tears became heavier. Perhaps we talked too much for her.

He didn't know how the conversation of Demons and his ability to thwart them became distressing for her, but he rubbed her back in a comforting gesture. He even massaged his fingers into her shoulders and the back of her neck, trying to remove the tension that had stiffened her.

That only seemed to worsen her state, and she threw her face into her hands as a sob broke.

Since she'd covered her eyes, he prodded his foreknuckle against her cheek to get her attention. He wanted to ask her what was wrong.

She only shook her head, purposefully ignoring him. Except he didn't need to ask, not when the truth spilled from her lips.

"Where were you when I needed you?" Linh cried into her palms. "Where were you when my people needed you? I needed protecting from bad people, and then I needed saving, and no one came! No one came to save me, no matter how I waited every day. Every minute I prayed for someone to help me, but I knew... I knew no one would come. I knew everyone was as trapped as I was."

Linh lowered her arms so she could hug her midsection. Cheeks and nose swollen from tears, her wet lips quivered. Her small shoulders shook violently from unhidden sobs as she keeled forward, her long ponytails slipping over her shoulders to hang in front of her chest.

Despite his heart twisting in pity for her, Nathair did nothing. He didn't touch her, didn't try to comfort her, nor did he try to speak.

None of these things would aid her current state.

"I love my parents so much, but I hate them... I hate them for being who they are, for being so important. I hate that the reason I was taken was to control them, and therefore the entire village. And I hate myself... I hate myself for wishing I wasn't their daughter because it meant I wouldn't have needed saving. That it wasn't me who needed to suffer. He told me I was lucky I was beautiful because it meant I would be treated special. But... but that meant..."

Linh shook her head and buried her forehead against her knees.

"I can't. I can't say it," she cried, as a sharp gust of wind brushed around them. As if weak, or subconsciously using it as an excuse, she fell to the side until her body lay against his chest. "I-I'm sorry. I just... thank you so much for caring a-about me. I don't mean to blame you for something that isn't your fault, but I just wish, with all my heart, that I had met you sooner."

Nathair wrapped his arms around her and used a hand to lift her face to his. He nudged the end of his snout against her tear-stained cheek, giving her the affection she obviously sought, and to let her know it was okay.

He, too, wished he could go back in time and prevent the parasites from harming her soul, her heart. To be her shield. But Nathair could not do this – his magic was limited to the constraints of reality. He could bend his own Mavka essence, but there was little more he could do, and everything came with a sacrifice.

He pulled back so she could see him sign. "I am here now." Her brows waved in distress, as if that wasn't enough to stop her pain. "I am sorry for you, but I can only protect now."

"I know," she cried, shaking her head. "I don't mean to sound selfish. I know I probably sound–"

Nathair squished her cheeks to quieten her before letting go to talk with both hands. "Stop. I don't need your sorry." She gave him a hiccup, but he was thankful her tears seemed to be ebbing. "I cannot protect you from the past, but I can help you."

"Help how?" Her brows drew together as more liquid brimmed in her eyes. "You can't erase the past, what's happened to me."

"Heal your mind and heart," he signed.

I cannot change what has happened, but maybe I can help her forget. And, when she remembers, she focuses on me like how I focus on her to keep the fragments at bay.Both their minds were unwell, both difficult battles to face.

Both unlikely to ever be permanently fixed.

But if they could be a support to lean on for each other when their minds rotted in decay, wouldn't that be... comforting? They may end up hurting each other, but so long as they remembered it came from a place of confusion, disorientation, and pain, and forgave it, then their bond would be strong. They'd need affection and reassurance constantly to battle the darkness they both harboured within, so that any toxicity they brought forth was healed within the warmth of tenderness.

She may be volatile with her emotions, but it would never compare to the life-ending violence he could wield within a second. If she was willing to forgive the craze of his fragments, there would be very little she could do to hurt him, unless she wanted him to destroy every male within a kilometre radius of her.

He didn't think she'd do that, though. Hurt him with other males, or even females.

"It's not that easy, Nathair," Linh argued as she pushed off him to sit up. "You can't just snap your fingers and make me feel better."

She folded her legs under her backside and placed her face into her hands again. Seeing her distressed burned a cold hole in his chest. He prodded her on the shoulder again to inform her he wished to speak. She peeked at him over her fingertips.

"I know it will not be e-a-s-y," he signed, as his sight deepened in its blue hue. "But isn't it better than thinking you are a-l-o-n-e?"

Linh crawled off him with agitated movements, just as the clouds finally shaded the sunlight. Soon, Demons would come to inspect them, and he'd been hoping to ward them off with her upon his coils.

"What do you even want with me?" Linh half-cried, half-yelled at him. Nathair reared his head back, unsure of what he'd done to deserve being shouted at. "Why are you here, protecting me, caring for me? You make me do all those... things with you."

His sight flared red in anger at what she was insinuating."I don't make you do a-n-y-t-h-i-n-g you don't want to."

"I don't know if you're planning to just eat me when you're ready or if you're just pretending to be nice to get me to have sex with you! There's literally no other reason for anything you do."

Unable to contain the flare of rage that crushed around his heart, he darted his hand forward. He gripped her cheeks and brought her closer until the rounded end of his snout brushed her nose. He didn't squeeze her, but his hold was meant to be possessive, demanding, and showing he was no longer pleased.

Her eyes widened as a quiet, waving hiss climbed up the back of his throat. His fangs dropped to rest against his forked tongue, and venom dripped from them slowly.

He shocked her enough into shutting up, her lips snapping closed, but she didn't smell of fear. Good. He would have been upset if she'd shown that she couldn't trust him after stating something so callous.

Twisting his head, getting his point across that he wouldn't tolerate her saying he was so unfeeling, or disgusting, he let her go. He pulled back, his shoulders rolling superiorly, and his reddened glow remaining.

"I can ask you the same." His fingers were more pointed in his gestures, his movements sharper and harder to show his anger. "Why do you c-r-a-w-l into my arms every night? Why do you desire me? I am Mavka, and you're a human."

Her features grew ashen, and she attempted to look away. Nathair threw his arm into her view, showing her he wanted answers to his questions.

"I don't know," she mumbled, as shame seem to fall over her features.

"You asked me to touch you." A small growl escaped him. "I did not ask for that. You did."

Linh folded her arms across her torso and rubbed her biceps as if hugging herself. "I know. I'm sorry."

"You are using me to take back your body because I am not a human m-a-l-e," Nathair signed, daring her to say otherwise.

"No. That's not–" She bit her lips, unable to finish the denial. Tears bubbled in her eyes as she began to tremble like a wave of sadness washed over her. Her arms lowered, and she clutched her stomach with sickness. "I promise I care about you. I do."

"I care about you, too," he answered, tipping his head.

She shook her own and gave in to her wobbling legs to kneel before him. "I swear I don't desire you for such a selfish reason."

Nathair sighed, wondering if she truly believed that or not. Of course she desired him. He didn't think her arousal was solely for her own self-pleasure, not with the way she'd bitten her lips in want at his cocks while he stroked them.

He was not normal to her, and that was likely why she considered him safe. He had two cocks, double the trouble as she'd said, and he had more strength than multiple humans combined. If Nathair wanted to, he did not need permission, and there was little this female could do to stop him.

He could take, and take, and not care for her feelings or the state of her body, mind, and heart afterwards. But he cared how she felt about him, what she wanted from him, and what she thought of him.

Nathair would only use his power to protect and adore her.

I only realised what I was beginning to feel recently.It would be unfair of him to pry into her heart when his own was just as confused.

Yes, he desired to protect his little nightingale; he'd wanted this from the beginning. To add her to his treasures, and guard her as he would them. To stare at her like a greedy creature, snickering as he placed her in different lights until she gleamed the way he wanted her to.

Her scent had been pleasing, and instantly wrapped around his mind like a silky cloth. She stole his focus and had lowered the burden of his fragments. Not enough for him to notice the true impact, but enough that it meant he wasn't... insanely lost to them all the time.

Before her, his lethargy had been worse. The headaches, the clogging of his lungs, the sickly twists of his gut – Linh was a balm to them.

But something had shifted in his mind and heart for this delicate female when he figured out what had happened to her. This insatiable need to shield her with his entire body had come upon him violently and with unbreakable force.

He wanted to hunt down those who hurt her and snuff them out – all the way down to their putrid souls.

However, he would have to leave her here. She wouldn't be safe. The moment his presence was gone from his home, Demons would chase down her scent and eat her within a night. She had nowhere to run in the main area of his cave, and everywhere else was filled with darkness.

Nathair could not take her with him. He may turn on her, should he succumb to a rage. He also didn't want her to face her attackers. She wished to forget them, so dragging her back for his own selfish need for retribution was... cruel. Nathair may be selfish enough to hunger for her body, but he would not hurt her heart in this way.

It was too fragile.

Nathair desired her. Part of him longed to have such a beautiful, trusting creature belong to him from the first night he saved her. He'd ignored it, as the potential of a bride was a poor decision on his part.

Yet he wanted her soul to protect. He wanted to be the one to help heal it, and teach it that his touches were different from the selfishness of others. He wanted to be able to hold it in his palm, and not have it skittish or backing away from his skull as if it feared he'd consume it without permission.

The only way to obtain this was to capture her heart.

Her heart is locked from me, he thought, as he gazed at her breaking apart before him. It is hidden away from all.

This female may care for him, but everything about her was too guarded. He hoped it didn't matter that he bore a skull, and that he could win her regardless, but he knew what he was for her.

A tool. One which he was dubious enough to wield until he'd picked the lock around her heart's cage and was able to reach into her centre.

If she wanted to learn how to touch and be touched with faith, then she could stroke his scales until she was content. If she wished to learn what it was like to share heat with passion, rather than sweat in fear, he'd scald her with kisses, heavy breaths, and intertwining groans. If she wanted to be intimate in order to take back her body and heal from this, then Nathair would find a way to fuck his way into her heart.

I am... in love with her.At least, he thought he might be, since he'd felt the fragments react intensely in this way. He'd realised just how deeply he was falling for this female when she became his songbird. His nightingale. His damn salvation. A dark obsession.

With one song that gave him the peace he'd sought for centuries, she'd become the most important creature in existence.

Nathair was aware he could discard her at any point and find a different human to become his song. It did not need to be Linh. It did not need to be a human who came with battles just as deep as his own.

Their issues were so vastly different, and yet she constantly tried. For him, for herself. She was strong, passionate, and stubborn, and so innocently sweet he wanted to corrupt her in ways she obviously desperately needed.

Nathair leaned forward and cupped under her chin to lift her sobbing face to him. She did so willingly, even as she continued hugging herself in a position that made her small.

"Use me," he signed before giving her space.

"P-pardon?" she asked, her voice cracking an octave.

"Use me," he repeated. "I am yours to take in any way you want. Use me to take back your body, to heal, to finally feel p-l-e-a-s-u-r-e – pleasure." He repeated the last word to show her the sign for it.

"But why?" she whined. "Is sex really all you want?"

Nathair let out a small rumbling growl at that. "No. I want more."

When she shook her head like she didn't understand, Nathair wanted to roar his words. I have never wanted my voice more than now.

His movements hastened, became more jarring. "I want to f-u-c-k you until all your body knows is the feel of me taking it. Until it only knows the t-a-s-t-e of me within it, and only remembers me. I want to c-l-a-i-m your body like this because you will not give me your heart first."

Her eyes grew wide as her lips parted in disbelief.

"You will be mine."

Her shock gave way to a glare. "I don't belong to anyone. No one owns me."

Her feistiness had his back muscles leaping with a shiver, his orbs daring to flicker to purple. Nathair chuckled.

"For now." Then, within the blink of an eye, Nathair darted around her until she lay on the sand with him creating a circular wall of scaled muscle. He positioned his torso upright in front of her, with less than two feet separating them. She was trapped, caged, and imprisoned. "I am yours, Linh."

He hoped she knew the sincerity of that, even if he didn't think she was ready to hear the depth of it.

"When you are ready, c-l-a-i-m – claim – me and yourself. Then, when I claim you, I will be yours to do what you will. I will follow you anywhere."

"R-really? Anywhere?" she asked, her tone cracked and raspy. The light from the greying clouds reflected in her rich brown eyes. "Will you help my people?"

He should have expected that question.

"Do not do this for such a s-e-l-f-l-e-s-s reason." His heart hurt a little at the idea that she might. "If you do, I will r-e-s-e-n-t you."

"You'll resent me?" She signed it back to him, filling in the word he did not have a gesture for.

He purposefully slowed his gestures, wanting to convey the depth of his next words. "I want more than your body, Linh."

"What do you want?" she asked, sitting back in her kneeling posture. Thankfully, her crying had eased. "You still haven't told me."

Linh flinched when he reached his arm out. He sighed at her reaction, but used his magic to dip his claw tips into the rippling well of her chest. They both watched her soul emerge, floating just behind his fingers.

Since he didn't touch it, her soul didn't awaken from its slumber. It hugged its midsection, digging its nails into its back. A back he had not seen before that was blackened like coal with the evidence of mental decay. Her little soul was in a worse state than he'd realised.

Still beautiful, just like her.

He signed the word soul with his right hand – his fingertips together before he drew his thumb down his palm with his fingers flicking forward flat and together – and gestured at it so she understood the new word he was teaching her. The most important word to him. Linh stared at it floating between them, before darting her horrified gaze between it and his skull repeatedly.

"You want my soul?!" Grasping it with both hands, she retreated until her back met the wall of his tail. She held it tight, and he winced when he feared she'd crush it.

He just hoped she couldn't destroy it, since she was human. It didn't even seem to notice her, as it never woke.

Her features fell when realisation dawned. "You said you were a soul eater! I knew you were trying to eat me," she said, but she didn't sound very convincing, as if she didn't truly believe what utter crap she'd just spilled.

With the way she was cowering, despite not even having a single drop of fear tangling in her sweet peach-and-vanilla scent, he knew she wasn't ready. She didn't know what she wanted, what she was doing – she just wanted to feel safe while she nurtured herself through her trauma.

Nathair sighed and dipped his head to the side until his skull rested on his shoulder. "I want you to give it to me w-i-l-l-i-n-g-l-y."

"Why willingly?" She looked down at her slumbering flame. "Is it like the devil of old? You must bargain for it?"

The snicker that escaped him was an accident. It immediately made her back stiffen.

"It will make you my b-r-i-d-e – bride. We will be b-o-n-d-e-d – bonded – forever. Where you go, I go. Where I go, you will go. I will protect you with all my might. We will be... one."

"What...?" She bit her lip and lowered her gaze as she looked off to the side. "I just fled from one person, but what you're saying sounds permanent. I-I, Nathair... I don't know if I'm in the right place to make such a large commitment. I feel like I barely know you, or myself anymore."

Nathair slipped into her view. "I will wait."

"What if I never want that?" She shrunk under his gaze with her knees to her chest, clutching her soul tight like her life depended on it. "That sounds too important, too heavy. What if I'm the wrong person for you? There are other people... those who aren't... broken."

"You are not broken, Linh," Nathair signed, tilting his head. "Just hurt."

She pressed her lips together tightly. "You didn't answer me."

"I will do whatever you want, and h-o-p-e it is enough. You do not have to give me your soul. I am not expecting it in e-x-c-h-a-n-g-e for anything. I will not try to c-o-n-v-i-n-c-e you, or take it by force."

Her brows drew together in deep puzzlement. "You won't convince me?"

"You now know what I want. My goal is you. If all you will allow is a t-a-s-t-e – taste – then so be it." Despite what Nathair said, he still let out a chuckle. "But I will not play fair if you claim me, Linh."

Her cheeks heated, and she shrunk under his gaze for a different reason. Her eyes darted everywhere, as if looking for an escape, before relaxing. "B-but I have a choice?"

His heart swelled, and he nodded. "Always."

When she loosened her hold on her delicate, wounded soul, Nathair pushed at her hands until she was forced to let it go. He squished it back inside her chest, where it currently belonged, but he vowed he would win this female. He would feel her flame tied to his horns one day, no matter how long that took.

That, or he would pine for her for an eternity, and wait for someone else willing to sing for him instead. They would have to be special to erode the way her essence clung to his own. I doubt anyone would be able to compare.

Droplets splattered against his scales, the yellow sand, and her hair. Linh appeared a little lost as she stared at the sand, as if she was struggling to absorb all this.

When he spoke again, she gave him her attention so she could see. "Inside, or play in the rain?"

She lifted her face to the dark sky and flinched when a raindrop splattered on her cheek. Then she closed her eyes and let more land on her face, and the swollen redness in her cheeks and nose appeared to cool.

Nathair enclosed them with his tail, while digging it underneath Linh until she was seated upon him once more. She didn't try to flee, nor did she react as she kept her face pointed upwards.

The rain it is.