Chapter 37

By the time they made it to the main bandit camp, the entire day had passed, night had come, and Linh's legs ached.

Barth, the bandit who carried her from the village, had put her bare feet on the ground. She'd been shoved the entire way, and they refused to stop. They never took into consideration that Linh was not made of muscle and didn't have the stamina of a horse.

At least they removed the mouth gag so she could breathe properly.

She'd tried not to be scared, but she'd jumped at every sound in the distance. They'd been attacked multiple times, all the Demons heading straight for her, and they lost a man in the constant brawls.

It worsened when night came. She'd been terrified of the dark, fretful about where they were taking her.

The first time she'd been forced to do this walk, she'd cried for her mum and dad. All she could picture now was the big, sweet serpent Duskwalker.

More than ever, she wanted him here to protect her, to soothe her anxious heart. She needed him to settle her constant tears and help rid her of the horrible memories that incessantly pervaded her thoughts. She needed his waterlily-and-moonflower scent to shroud her in a false sense of comfort, and for his cool body to dull the heat from her sprinting pulse.

As she was led through a particular path, the wooden walls she approached grew taller and more daunting with each step. Her face drained of heat, and ice shards frosted her veins. Yet sweat dotted her as a familiar sickening gut twist made her throat clog.

I never wanted to see this place again.

If someone gave her a torch, she'd burn it to the ground.

Linh fought when they took her through the entrance. Her strength came from utter fear, utter repulsion, and it flooded adrenaline straight into every muscle. Her heartbeat was so fast it thumped in her abdomen.

"No. Please," she begged, before a wall of muscle pushed her through the threshold.

Linh crashed to her hands and knees onto rocky dirt. When she fell to her hip, her long, loose hair swaying over her shoulder, she lost all her will. She would rather sit in the dirt than go any further forward.

A set of black boots stopped just beyond her hands. Then a set of leather-padded knees came into view as he crouched with one elbow rested on his knee.

A rough, meaty hand grabbed her chin, and Linh's face was shoved upwards into a man's. His green eyes were dark, like a poisonous plant, and they somehow came across as delighted in their narrowed glare.

Her lips parted on a silent cry as she was forced to take in his crooked nose, the strong brow and cheek bones, and lips which were partially hidden away by a short beard. His hair was such a light brown that it was almost blonde, and it was tied back in a low ponytail.

"Hey, sugar," Bragg greeted, his muscled shoulders stiffening beneath his stained cream tunic. "I'm glad the lads were able to get you here safe and sound."

"Yeah, but she fucking bitched the whole time," one of her escorts stated as he stepped around them.

Bragg reached down to grab the bottom of her white gown, and the tiny hairs on her body stood on end in worry.

"What kind of dress is this?" Bragg asked, refusing to let go of her face as he looked up at another bandit passing them. "And where's her shoes? She can't travel in this."

Folding his arms behind his head, Barth shrugged. "She was in the hospital. Not much else we could do."

Bragg tsked, and Linh's shoulders turned inwards when he returned his focus to her.

The warmth in his gaze didn't match his next words, even when he spoke them softly. "Run from me again, and I'll let the Demons have you." He stood and then dragged Linh to her feet by her upper arm. Bragg carted her towards the centre of the camp as he shouted, "Make sure you're all ready by first light. The others will meet us at our home base in a few weeks to make sure no one follows us."

Linh stumbled and tripped over her feet, especially as she used them to push off and away from him. Her gaze darted around the camp, and she noticed only a few tents were still erected. Items clattered as they packed their belongings and assisted with lowering fortifications they wished to take with them.

A few horses neighed and whinnied in the background, startled by the noises, whereas others just grunted.

Linh dropped to a crouch when she thought he was taking her to his tent, then screamed and kicked. Bragg dragged her across the ground, only to grab a tight fistful of her hair.

"Shut the fuck up," he sneered. "They already told me you're bleeding, and your screaming will only rile the Demons up even more. We plan to get out of here before your new protector even realises you're gone. Want him to find a dead woman?"

"He'll come for me!"

"I'd like to see him try," Bragg stated with a dry chuckle, hoisting her to her feet by her hair. "We're Demon killers, sugar. If we can't kill him, our iron will trap him for the Demons to take care of. Shit, even the three-metre pits might keep him down."

When he carted her in the opposite direction to his tent, her relief was short-lived. Copying the idea of her people, a central stake kept up a canopy of chains that stopped them from being attacked from above. A set of shackles hung from a curved hook, glinting in the firelight as he pulled her up a small hill.

Bragg secured her to the stake. Her toes barely skimmed the ground as she hung there with her arms stretched above her head.

"Since I can't fucking trust you just yet, why don't you hangout for a while? I've got shit to do before we leave."

Grabbing the chains, Linh lifted herself to swing and kick to get down. Her hair flung around her body, but she quickly stopped when Bragg gave her a mean glare.

"How'd you befriend a Duskwalker, anyway?" he asked, cupping his chin in thought. "Is that what killed three of my best trackers? I was upset when I thought your stupidity had gotten you eaten."

Linh said nothing and just huffed at him. I can't reveal anything. Her lips tightened, before the bottom one trembled. He'll kill me if he finds out the truth. He didn't want to be ‘betrayed,' and would be infuriated if he learned Linh had been intimate with Nathair.

She'd known for a long while that Bragg didn't see any issue with how he treated her. Despite not being truly married, he called her his wife and treated her like she was property. No woman, unless they were unhinged, fearless, or just as deranged as the rest of these people, would choose this life willingly. Deals were made via unfair and forced trades, or women were stolen.

Her gaze slipped to a woman following a bandit, and the light had been lost in her eyes before Linh had even met her. Linh didn't even know her name, but the woman had accepted her wifely role because there was nothing she could do.

Bragg had just been waiting for Linh to break like her.

The idea that there would be a point where she just accepted this man was hollowing. It instantly made tears brim in her eyes, and her brows furrowed even further than they already were.

She wanted to throw all her hate in his face. She wanted to tell Bragg she loved Nathair, that he pleasured her, that he was better in any and every way possible she could think of. Instead, she bit back the small fire she had, only so she didn't increase her own suffering.

He will come.Nathair had to come.

The question was when, and what she'd be forced to endure until then. A tear slipped down her cheek, but she tried to settle her anxiety. She stifled the rest as she looked at Bragg through the strands of her hair that had fallen around her face.

"You know this is all your fault, don't you?" Bragg drawled, shaking his head. "All you had to do was stay put and be good, and I would've treated you well."

Linh was sure that was true. If she just obeyed, there would be no need for harshness. She wasn't willing to do that.

A few men stopped what they'd been doing to come watch their interaction. They always lingered when there was entertainment to be found.

"I don't think she'll stop trying to run, boss." One of the men snickered. "You picked a wildfire. Look at the way she's looking at you now."

What? With fear as she fucking trembled? If they thought it was a glare of hate, then they were poorly mistaken. Although she felt nothing but disgust and spite for the man before her, for all of them, she was too scared to register anything but her fear.

"I thought you kept all your promises," another shouted, which gained the attention of a few carting sacks of food they'd likely stolen.

"Yeah. Weren't you telling us all this morning what you would do once the lads brought her back?" The jeers were pointed and sharp, and they spelled out that Linh was in danger.

For a split second, Linh thought she saw a double glow of red, like two lights, but they darted and faded within the blink of an eye. She searched the edges of the dark – the camp's torches only giving them enough muted light to see where they walked.

Bragg tsked, as he shot his men a sharp glare. "Damnit. I was hoping you all had forgotten."

Linh hadn't forgotten the threats of the past, and she swallowed thickly when he placed a hand on the hilt of his dagger.

"It's safer if she can walk on her own," Bragg argued.

"You're a bitch!" a man shouted from the left, and laughter erupted. "Look at her, she's as light as a sack of flour. Just cart her on your horse. It'll be fine."

From the back, an uck sounded from someone, followed by a thud. A few people checked behind them, but shrugged and turned forward to watch Bragg yank his dagger from its sheath.

"I did promise you that if you ran off again, I'd cut that little heel of yours." Bragg moved to stand behind her and knelt down. Linh kicked when he grabbed her left calf, but he held her still. "Don't worry, you'll still be able to walk – you'll just have a little limp."

Once more, she saw twin red glows and thought a person standing suddenly disappeared. She couldn't see properly as she searched for someone, anyone, to save her. She was given nothing but cruel gawks as a few chuckled.

Linh whimpered when she felt the cold steel pressing against her. "I won't run," she blurted. A complete and utter lie.

He snorted a humourless laugh. "Didn't really believe you the first time, and definitely don't believe you now." Then he shouted, "Someone get me a bandage."

When her Achilles tendon was sliced cleanly through, her foot became unresponsive, and Linh pelted out a scream.

A loud, deafening, ear-splitting roar answered her.

A monster with a long, continuous limb barrelled into the crowd of men with swiping claws. A white serpent skull dipped down like a wave as he dived, only for Nathair to rise when he'd killed two bandits in one go. He tackled another before the man had even gotten his bearings, and the Duskwalker's fangs lanced his chest as they crashed to the ground.

Linh didn't get the chance to be relieved to see him. She gasped and lifted her head back when a knife was pressed to her throat.

"How the fuck did it get here so fast?" Bragg whispered to himself. "What are the lads doing in the village? They were supposed to keep everyone distracted until we were gone."

Oh my god, he's here.Linh didn't care how he arrived so fast, and a relieved sob broke from her. Nathair.

The leather straps of Bragg's dagger hilt creaked in his white-knuckled grip as he bit out, "Shit! He's killing everyone."

"D-do you really think threatening me is going to help you?" she asked, her eyes never leaving Nathair as he shot through the camp like a cyclone of black scales.

Anything that moved became his target, unless a weapon hit him. Pain made him roar and bare his venomous fangs, and he lunged at his attacker with his claws at the ready. He didn't seem to care that he was forcing steel into his own body as a result, purely focused on destroying and eating the person wielding it. His snarls and hisses mingled with the roars and yells of men as some attacked and others fled momentarily to regroup.

Linh knew Bragg could see what she did: a slaughter.

They'd underestimated Nathair. They were stupid to think that a Duskwalker was anything like a Demon. Then again, Linh had thought them to be no different until she met one.

With how Nathair had briefly and sporadically described the rest of his kin... she knew that even compared to his own, he was different. He had to be the biggest, the longest, and perhaps even the deadliest.

"J-just let me go," Linh pleaded.

"You're my answer to getting out of this alive if he doesn't want to watch me slit your throat," Bragg bit through gritted teeth.

Why take me in the first place if I matter that little?!Then again, Linh would never understand the warped mind of an idiotic brute.

Linh's brows only furrowed when she knew the truth as she watched Nathair decimate the campsite. A tent was on fire from a knocked-over torch, and the thick smoke of it was black and disgusting. The wind suddenly picked up speed and had an icy chill to it, billowing leaves and forest debris around the carnage.

"We're both going to die," she whispered.

He's enraged.She watched as someone shoved their sword into his thick torso, while another cut their axe halfway through the last few feet of his tapered tail. The lights I saw earlier, they were him trying to kill everyone without losing his senses.

Her scream must have set him off, and now her protector didn't see her. She was just another body, another enemy – prey, food.

A droplet splattered against her cheek, and Linh lifted her face to the gathering rain. It'd been threatening them all day, and finally washed over them.

It's cold.She shivered and closed her eyes to it in welcome. It's fine. I'd rather Nathair kill me than be the wife of a cruel man.

She couldn't accept Bragg, but she could accept this.

Even if Nathair never learned of it, he saved her this night and was her salvation, despite the real possibility of it ending in tragedy.

At first, the rain was light, but it quickly grew in power. A roaring shaa landed over them like a blanket, somehow muting everything other than the constant fighting. Minutes passed, and she didn't have the heart to feel sorry for those who screamed. It was all deserved. They brought this upon themselves.

Everything went quiet.

With her hair wet and clinging to her face and neck, Linh finally looked down from the falling drops. Off to the side, in a collapsed tent, she watched Nathair tearing into a man. He tore a limb off, only to swallow it whole, before working on the next one. The moment he was done with the man, his tail curled under himself, and he crawled on his hands to a man bleeding out on the ground.

He made quick work of him, and only turned to those who made noise.

Linh took note of the many bodies. Most were injured, many looked unharmed but frozen as if paralysed. Many men had managed to run, abandoning the camp to save themselves after realising they weren't going to defeat him. At least ten lay envenomed, with many more either decapitated or dying from a fatal claw strike.

"Why isn't he coming over here?" Bragg whispered, lowering his dagger. "He's just... eating everyone."

She stiffened when Nathair, who had been slithering to another body, paused. His skull twitched, distracted by Bragg's voice, only to twist creepily in their direction. Red orbs seemed to zero in on her, and she swallowed at the menacing sight of them. Bragg didn't dare move, and she figured he was mostly hidden behind the stake.

For a moment, it felt like it was just her and this venomous serpent.

The blood washing from his face and open maw sprayed out when he let out deep huffs in the rain. Each one was clearer and clearer of red liquid, and she imagined with her unmoving, he was deeply disorientated.

She was another body among the many. Another victim.

He took away his stare to point his snout up towards the dark clouds. He reared back on his tail until he was upright, then greeted the rain with his palms flat and pointing upwards. His lethal claws were bared, yet he appeared to be welcoming the downpour like she had been earlier.

He became a stoic statue as his orbs blackened.

The water is cleansing him. The rain came down like heaven, and Linh bit her lips in sympathy when she thought, Just look at him.

He had so many gashes on his body that it was difficult to see where one ended and another began. Sputtering fires highlighted the purple blood washing off him in rivulets. Three arrows were embedded into his torso: two in his back and one in his side. Part of his tail was cut to the point it didn't sit right against the ground, and had a sharp, unnatural bend in it.

Nathair had fought fifty men, if not more. The camp wasn't small, and neither was Bragg's bandit army. She was aware that Nathair had eaten at least five men since the fighting had stopped.

His hip bones had disappeared, as well as two bottom ribs. He even looked... longer, bulkier, more frightful. Gosh, she wanted to hug him so badly. Nathair... Her tears gathered – her poor monster. He came for me.

Her precious Duskwalker looked like he was searching for salvation in the rain, and Linh opened her mouth to give it to him. To sing and lull him into tranquillity.

"Stay fucking quiet," Bragg rasped in her ear. He grabbed a fistful of her hair, ripping a cry from her before she could utter a single lyric.

Nathair's head fell to the side to look at them, and crimson orbs suddenly came to life.

Linh held back her squeal when he barrelled towards them in a slither of limbs. Bragg put the knife back to her throat, choosing to use her as a shield once more.

Don't be afraid,Linh pleaded with herself as she shut her eyes. She didn't want to go down screaming, especially if there was a potential that he may remember her doing so.

He'd come here to save her, only to be her demise. She worried Nathair would hate himself for harming her, but she just hoped he found a way to forgive himself. M-maybe we can meet in his afterlife.

What a horrible, saddening thought.

Silence met her. When nothing happened, not even a deep huff of breath, she braved peeking open her eyes. They flung wide when Nathair's snout was less than an inch from her nose, his red orbs seeming to stare into the very pit of her soul.

He parted his maw, and his lowered fangs rested against the floor of his mouth. A quiet, unnerving hiss shook from him, and it instantly had the tiny hairs on her body standing on end.

Her nipples budded despite the situation, and she found herself not holding even an ounce of fear. He wasn't striking her.

New tears bubbled, and her trembling lips parted.

Hey, Nathair.

Staring at the little female whose face was swollen with the evidence of constant tears, the rage that shook Nathair was brimming with quiet malice. Violence pumped into his muscles on every heartbeat, making his entire being swell with the desire to rip apart everyone who made Linh cry.

He also shuddered. Fuck. My stomach hurts.

The souls he'd eaten were burning him from the inside out and felt like they were trying to crawl up his throat. His mind told him to rid himself of them. Hunger gurgled and grumbled, rolling the hot sick in his stomach with a confusing ache.

He was a singular breath away from slipping back into a craze.

Although the blessed rain had cleansed his mouth and nose just enough to give him a break from it, it was the sprinkling cold which woke him from the worst of his murderous stupor.

This was not how he'd planned to rescue her, but it'd been a risk he'd taken all the same.

Nathair had stolen six humans before being noticed. He had not clawed or bitten them, instead using a human means of killing. He'd snapped their weak and feeble necks. No blood to instigate his hunger, and no scream loud enough to alert anyone. He dragged their corpses into the dark.

He'd been hoping he could pick them off one by one in order to protect his little nightingale from himself. Unfortunately, her pain-filled scream dug its nails into his heart. Her blood had already been in the air, and it intensified, causing him to lash out as fury swept through him.

If it wasn't for the rain, I would have attacked her by now.

It did make her white dress nearly see-through. He was angered that anyone else was able to see the volume of her breasts and the cute nipples that dusted their peaks, the curve of her waist, and the vee of her pubic mound.

Not daring to breathe, his gaze slipped up to the male hiding behind her.

"Back up, Duskwalker, or I'll slit her throat," he demanded.

Go for it,Nathair thought darkly. I'll just heal her wound and add it to the many of my own.

The human wouldn't be able to kill Linh faster than the quick strike of his own hand touching her.

She gave him a wobbling smile. Her eyes saw into him, saw he was here, aware, and he adored her for seeing that despite his fleshless skull.

Nathair nodded his snout towards the male once, then twice. The movement was subtle, but Linh's shoulders went back despite her arms locked above her head. She nodded.

When he turned his skull towards the male fully, he opened his mouth to let the full strength of his hiss echo.

"Hum," Nathair signed at his own throat while he moved towards her attacker. The male of her tears, her nightmares, and pain. The one he'd been longing to slaughter from the very first moment he observed her parasite-infested soul.

"Stay back!" the male shouted.

What was his name again?Nathair was sure Linh had told him. Bragg. What a hideous name for a hideous male.

Linh hummed for him, and combined with the dullness from the voices of his rage, it gave him what he wanted. Or rather, he hoped it did.

Before Bragg could hurt her, he shoved the male to the left, away from her neck, and he stumbled to his arse from Nathair's strength. His puffed scales vibrated as his hiss grew lower and began to morph into a growl.

Bragg glared up at him, but didn't show an ounce of fear in his green eyes.

"I'm going to show you how it feels to be defiled," Nathair snarled over him.

If this human thought he'd fight fair, then he was about to learn that Nathair liked to give in to all his darkest impulses.

With his hand flat, claws ready and poised to slice deep, Nathair shot forward. He shoved his hand into the male's chest, and Bragg gasped in surprise. Nathair gave a grunt when the dagger's blade was shoved upwards through his neck.

The strangest sensation overcame him.

His orbs felt as though they'd rotated back into his skull when the tip of the blade penetrated his brain. Nathair seized, and yet the euphoria of the voices shutting the fuck up overcame him at the same time. He'd never had anything slice into him like this before and had no ability to stop it as he locked up and quivered.

It was short-lived, as was the quiet, when the male stupidly removed the weapon. Nathair's body compensated for his injury and gave him new ways to function, like what lay beneath his flesh wasn't truly formed, and was a messy blob of needless organs.

A stomach that had nothing beyond it as he absorbed all his food into his very being. A pulse that kept beating even when his heart had gone quiet. Lungs that could go still, only to restart seconds later. He was made of nothing, and yet had everything he needed to be a devastating creature upon the world.

Bragg gave a yell when he stabbed his dagger into Nathair's throat again, but the blade tip came out just below the bottom of his skull.

Pulling back, Nathair took the male's soul as he gathered him up in his tail. Well, the part of his tail that wasn't ruined from the many attempts to sever his lithe weapon of destruction.

He brought the male into the air and slipped around Linh's feet until he circled the wooden pole she was tied to. He hung the male in front of her, and brought his arms forward from behind her to reveal Bragg's soul.

He tucked his snout into her hair until his nose hole was buried in those silky strands. He let out the breath that had been stinging his lungs, and braved taking in a new, singular one. The rain and her pretty aroma were just enough to dampen down the smell of blood pervading the air. Her hum was soothing, and he briefly darkened his orbs to savour it.

"Don't stop watching, no matter what happens," Nathair told her softly, hoping her humming meant she could hear him.

He didn't know what would happen, but he had a good guess from what Weldir had told him. It would be gruesome, but Nathair wanted her to remember this moment. To remember how this vile human died, so she could know he would never, ever, return to haunt her.

Bragg kicked as he shouted obscenities.

Nathair took his orange-and-red fully flaming soul and flipped it upside down. He hated that other than a few physical scars, his soul looked normal; Nathair wanted it to have the evidence of the cruelty that lingered in his heart.

He grabbed its little feet and pulled in opposite directions. It took Nathair a remarkable amount of power to do what he desired, but when it began, it was seamless. The male's arrogant roars turned into screams as he began to split in two, from the groin up. Nathair slowed the tearing of his soul and body, wanting to savour the way he wailed into the night.

Blood saturated his ripping leather breeches as he kicked his legs in a poor attempt to escape.

Only when Linh stopped humming to sob, the sight too much, did Nathair quicken the pace. He tore the male in half evenly down the middle and held the two parts of his soul in the palm of his hand. The flame blackened into charcoal, not even given the chance to turn white like the other humans who died, and both it and the physical male began to disintegrate.

Bragg's physical body withered like ash before it, too, disappeared, not leaving a single trace of him in this world, nor the next.

The male was no more.

Nathair looked up when the rain began to die down, and white flickered in his orbs. He'd been hoping it would linger, but it appeared its downpour was harsh, yet fleeting. It would return, but when was not a question he could answer.

Uncoiling from her stake, he brought himself in front of Linh once more. He made sure he was head height with her, with barely an inch parting them. He gave her a moment to decipher what he wanted.

When she didn't give it, he licked at his maw, and she let out a tired, tearful giggle.

She leaned forward and pressed her lips to the tip of his snout. Nathair healed her of her wounds as she did, giving a gift as she gave one. The cut on her ankle, the nick to her neck, and the bruising on her wrists transferred to his own body.

He'd needed this, to know that this female did hold affection for him. It made the next question he had for her less worrisome.

Reaching forward, Nathair pressed his hand into her chest. He tugged her soul out without needing to dive into her, and let it float between them as a question. She knew what he wanted, what he longed for.

He didn't have the time to pull her from her trappings. His lungs already ached to take a new breath, and with the rain disappearing, he knew death awaited her. The ground was wet, muddy, and saturated in blood and entrails. She was covered in it, and in her own.

She may be able to escape him if he let her down, but she was sure to run into the swarm of Demons that would soon be attracted to this area. She had three choices: face his hunger, face the Demons while she smelt delectable, or become his.

It wasn't a question of do this or else, but that there was no other path.

Linh sobbed as she kicked her foot forward. She tried to latch onto his side, brushing over his fish frills as she nodded.

"Please," she rasped. "Please take it. I want you to."

His heart swelled with elation, making all his wounds flare with agony, but he found it all the sweeter. He lunged and snapped his maw around her soul.

Nathair swallowed – and immediately choked. Fuck. It's hot. Hotter than any other he'd ever eaten. It was alive. Halfway down, his paranoia clung to his sternum, his stomach rejecting what he craved, and he almost threw it back up.

No! Go down!He turned his head up and used all his swallowing power.

It slid down. Heat met the coolness of his low body temperature, and it spread all throughout. He shuddered in the blissful euphoria of it, his reddened orbs flickering with black. He quaked as it reached his fingers and tail tip in a curling wave that chased his coolness away.

His hunger dissipated, and Nathair let out a relieved, panted groan.

The scents in the air no longer bothered him, didn't nag him into a craze. He approached his female, his bride, his little nightingale. When she hooked her feet around his waist, Nathair broke her shackles while being careful not to harm her wrists. Then he lifted her into his arms as she buried her face against the crook of his neck.

"I knew you'd come," she whispered.

He backed up to give himself room to spin until his tail had formed rings around them. He settled them into a cuddle by bringing them into a ball, blocking out the world and everything beyond just them.

"N-Nathair?"

I'm gravely injured,he thought, wondering if obtaining her soul healed him of his fragments and she could hear him.

She didn't respond.

It was disappointing that she still couldn't hear him, but Nathair shrugged. The voices did feel a little softer, though.

Since he'd bled out much of his strength, the will to move was weakened by the many wounds he had. Every twitch ached, and he shuddered around her.

She's cold. Why the fuck was she cold when he desperately needed her heat the most? It felt like ice had slipped into his vertebrae, and he had a fucking lot of them.

He grabbed the hem of her dress and pulled it up her body.

"Please," she whimpered. "Not now."

Nathair ignored her, since it was a pointless rejection. He had no intention of rutting her right now.

He removed her soaked gown and shoved the naked female against him. Then he nuzzled his snout into her throat, and forced her to wrap her limbs around his neck and waist. I need warmth, he thought with a shiver.

Brightness shone in the darkness.

He wanted to revel in what that meant – her soul had crested and hung between his hooked horns – but he couldn't. Everything hurts. He closed his orbs so he could focus on her.

Linh eventually softened in his embrace. Her nails dug into him, and she rubbed her cheek across his bony brow.

"I love you," she whispered against his skull.

He retracted an arm so he could do the sign she taught him. "I love you," he said with his right hand by pressing it against the small of her back.

Linh gave a sob that had a strange lightness to it. "Did my dad tell you what it means?"

Nathair answered with a nod.

Little female, I love you more than life itself.

She would never know just how much that meant to a creature who had been dead for most of his own.

My heart beats inside me once more.And it was growing warm.