CHAPTER TWENTY

I found myself shifting in and out of reality as consciousness came in short waves. I could feel myself being cradled in warm, strong arms as Elias ran through the forest. I knew he was running because I saw trees blurring past us at intense speeds. But why was he running? Was there still a threat?

He was fast. Unnaturally fast. And yet he wasn’t breathing heavily or showing any signs of fatigue. Perhaps he was walking and it only felt like we were flying through the forest because I was incredibly dizzy. Before I could consider it further, I went unconscious again.

When I awoke, I found myself sitting on the ground with my back against a tree. The sun was just starting to peek through the forest canopy above. It was dawn. When I was at the camp with the bandits, it was nearing dusk. Had Elias run through the entire night with me in his arms, or was that another weird dream caused by my head injury ?

I shifted slightly, noting that there was a small, folded blanket against my back, creating a cushion between me and the tree. Another blanket was draped over my lower half. My blouse was drenched in blood, and the rip down the middle made by Vick revealed the edges of my breasts, also covered in blood.

I heard a noise from my right and quickly turned to find Elias rummaging through his pack. The quick movement of my head created a wave of intense pain, and I finally noticed how my head was absolutely splitting. I groaned slightly.

Elias heard me and immediately turned to find me awake. “Aura,” he spoke my name gently. I looked at him and found grief hidden behind his eyes.

“Elias.” My eyes suddenly widened as I remembered everything that happened. “Elias, there was a beast. They were screaming. The bandits. Did you see it? Did it hurt you?” I leaned forward as if getting ready to stand, but my head had already begun to spin. Elias rushed over with his pack and gently laid me back against the tree.

“Shh,” he hushed me. “You’re alright. There’s no beast. You’re safe now.” He reached into his pack, pulling out a handful of rags, bandages, and elixirs. I recognized them as the medicinal supplies he bought in Monuvia.

“But…” I began, but trailed off. I tried to piece together the sounds I had heard at the bandit camp, and the things I thought I had seen through my heavily blurred vision. I had seen a giant black mass jump onto Vick. Maybe it was only Elias, his size only appearing distorted. Or maybe most of what I saw and heard was all in my head. Just hallucinations brought on by my repeated head injury, like how the wolf at Rebellia River was a dream triggered by me going unconscious.

Hallucination or not, I remembered seeing the black mass head towards me. Then it wasn’t a black mass with glowing yellow eyes. It was Elias. Elias was the one who rescued me. And he brought me…here. Where was here? I looked around, but saw nothing but trees. We were still in the forest, and that’s all I knew.

Elias placed the medical supplies on the ground next to me, then put his hand on mine, energy pulsating through his touch. For a moment, I swore the splitting pain in my head numbed.

“There was no beast. Only me,” he repeated delicately. We maintained eye contact for a moment before he finally pulled his hand away, the pain rushing back to my temple. He picked up a rag and a small, bottled elixir off the ground. He pulled the cork lid from the elixir, then poured some of the liquid onto the rag. Slowly, he brought his hand up and began to dab the wet cloth onto the aching wound on my temple. A stinging pain shot through the injury, and I winced.

“I’m sorry, I know this hurts. But it will help,” Elias said tenderly.

“You…you rescued me,” I breathed.

His eyes darkened. “I should have never left you in the first place.” Anger and guilt revealed themselves through his tone.

“You had every right,” I replied. “I shouldn’t have put you in such an awkward position.”

He put his free hand up to silence me. “You never have to apologize for being honest,” he spoke softly.

I closed my eyes, feeling only relief that he was back. We were only apart for one full day, which was more than enough to have me craving his presence. Or was it more than one day? I realized I wasn’t sure how long I had been unconscious.

While Elias gently pressed the medicine into my wound, I began reliving the last moments again before I had blacked out. The giant mass. The bandits’ screams.

My eyes shot open as a sudden realization hit me. “Did you kill them?” It came out as a hushed whisper .

Elias’s whole body stiffened. He remained silent and still as I waited for his answer. Then he let out a breath.

“Yes.”

My throat tightened for a moment. Elias lowered his hands from my wound and looked me in my eyes. “Does that bother you?” he asked, his voice still gentle, and yet I couldn’t stop the shiver running down my spine.

I held his gaze, getting lost in his honey irises. I couldn’t break away, even if I wanted to. “No,” I whispered.

A look flashed on his face that I could not discern. At first I thought it could have been relief, but it was gone as quickly as it came.

“Good,” was all he said before continuing to tend to my head injury. He pulled away the rag, now covered in splotches of my blood, which seemed to be mostly dried. Then he moved down to my neck and started dabbing away the blood there.

“Most of the blood probably isn’t mine,” I told him, welcoming the chance to change the subject. I remembered Vick’s broken nose and how he grabbed at my neck with his blood-soaked hands. I was probably covered in it, and likely looked much worse off than I actually was. I didn’t want Elias to waste the medicine.

Elias’s brow rose. “You were tied to a tree,” he remarked.

“That doesn’t mean I didn’t give them one hell of a fight.”

He smirked. “I have no doubt.”

He reached over to pull his pack closer and grab another cloth, when I noticed him wince. My eyes followed his free hand, which he pressed against his ribs. As he pulled his hand away, I saw the bright red blood that covered his fingers.

Fresh blood. His blood.

He stared at his hand with a confused expression.

“Elias!” I shouted, pushing myself forward. “You’re hurt!”

I hadn’t even noticed. And apparently neither did he, by the look of confusion on his face. I looked at where he had pressed his hands. His tunic was dark in color, and his leather vest was a deep brown, so it was hard to see the red of his blood. But as I focused on his torso, I could see the large wet stain on his side that soaked through even the leather. I now knew it was blood, and it was a decent amount.

Elias turned to me. “I’m fine,” he said.

“No, you are not,” I refuted. “You’re still bleeding.”

He looked down at his hand again, as if he couldn’t believe it. I began to stand up, ignoring the lightheaded feeling as I did so.

“Aura, sit down. You’re wounded.”

“ You’re wounded,” I hissed, ignoring his orders.

“You have a head injury. That’s much worse than a flesh wound.”

“Not if you’ve been bleeding for hours, Elias,” I said, nearly shouting. I wasn’t going to back down. “We need to stop the bleeding quickly.”

“Aura—”

“You’re not winning this one.” I glared at him. “My injury is healing. I’m okay. Yours is getting worse.” I looked at his torso and noticed how his wet shirt clung to his skin, his blood acting as an adhesive. “Sit down and take your shirt and vest off.”

He only looked at me.

I rolled my eyes. “Once I know you’re no longer bleeding, you can tend to my head. I promise.”

His eyes narrowed, but he reluctantly complied. He took my place on the ground and began to remove his top.

For the first time, I was seeing Elias’s bare chest and arms. He was as delectable as I could have imagined. With the small shadows defining each and every line of his muscles, he looked like he could have been carved from stone. His body was a work of art and I imagined only the gods could have been the inspiration.

As alluring as he was, I couldn’t help but bring my attention to the scars. His chest, stomach, and sides were just as heavily scarred as I remembered seeing his back. What in the heavens had this man been through?

I brushed the thought aside, and focused on the source of the blood. A huge gash ran diagonally from his chest muscle all the way down to his lower rib. Blood was still dripping from the wound, trickling down his torso.

“Fuck, Elias,” I cursed.

He looked down and observed the wound for the first time himself.

I grabbed a few rags from his pack and placed one after another over the wound, each soaking through with his blood as I applied pressure. I worked in silence, Elias only staring at my face – probably the wound on my temple – as I did my best to stop the bleeding. After a moment, it appeared what I was doing was working, as the blood stopped dripping and each rag came back with a little less of his blood than the last.

“I’ll need to close the wound, or the bleeding won’t stop entirely, and the wound won’t heal,” I told him.

Elias nodded. “In my pack there’s a small wooden case with needles and thread in it,” he said.

“Good. Keep pressure on it,” I ordered. He did so as I felt through his pack until I found said case and pulled it out. I threaded a needle, then looked at Elias. “This isn’t going to be pleasant,” I said sympathetically.

He only nodded, then pulled his hand away to reveal the open gash. I placed my left hand on his chest, noting the tight muscles underneath. I felt Elias shudder as our skin collided and energy pulsed through us. I felt the pain in my temple begin to subside, but I didn’t question it, focused only on stitching Elias’s wound.

I worked quickly and diligently, as I had watched the healers at home do many times when they stitched up the guards after their sparring practice, or tended to the soldiers who came through after a mission. Elias didn’t so much as flinch as I pierced his skin again and again to make a suture over his large, open wound.

“You didn’t even realize you were sliced open?” I asked after a moment, nearly done with my work.

“No,” he answered, his tone unconcerned. “It’s not often that I get wounded.”

“Hm,” I said, completely focused on the last few stitches. “That’s quite arrogant of you.”

He chuckled and I cursed when the movement made the needle almost slip from my fingers.

“And I was more focused on you,” he added. “I thought I was going to lose you.”

My whole body froze and my heart could have stopped. I looked up, meeting his gaze. “Oh,” I whispered, not knowing a damn thing else to say. Our eyes remained locked on one another for a moment more before I forced myself to look away to finish suturing.

It took dozens of stitches, and it was clear only a very sharp weapon could have made such a wound. I realized it must have been Vick, as he had been holding my knife.

Blood quickly drained from my face.

“What is it?” Elias asked, noticing my abrupt anguish.

“My knife… my mother’s knife. I’ve lost it.”

“You mean the one that last man was carrying?” He was referring to Vick.

“Yes,” I answered bitterly.

My mother gave me that knife before she died. It was my most cherished possession. And it was gone.

“I took it back,” Elias said.

“What?” I looked at him, dumbfounded.

“I recognized it and knew it was yours, so I grabbed it off his corpse. It’s in my boot.”

His corpse. I had almost forgotten Elias had just killed three men without a second thought. For me.

Elias began to lean forward and reach for his boot, but I pushed him back down. “I’m not done yet,” I scolded. “Give me a minute.”

Elias put his hands up in defeat.

Within another minute or two, I finally finished closing his wound, satisfied with my work. I could already tell that it was going to become a deep scar, added to the many that already covered his torso. Elias then leaned forward and slid my mother’s dagger from his boot and handed it to me. I took it, thumbing over the intricate details carved into its hilt. I noted the dried blood on the blade, which clearly belonged to Elias. Somehow, I felt guilty that my own knife was used to hurt him.

“Thank you,” I said. “Truly. This means more to me than you know.”

“What is it made of? The knife, I mean,” Elias asked.

“Silver,” I replied softly. “It’s pure silver.”

“I see.” A look of clarity reached Elias’s features when I looked up at him.

“Does that…mean something to you?” I asked.

Elias only shook his head. “I was just curious.” He looked down at his suture then smirked. “Are you a healer in your spare time?”

I smiled, then began to do as Elias had done earlier, and dripped some of the medicinal elixir onto a clean rag. “When you’re locked away in a castle for over a decade, there’s not much else to do other than hang out with the cooks, the healers, the gardeners… I spent a lot of time observing.” I began dabbing the rag on his now closed wound, hoping the medicine would fight any infection and speed up the healing for him. I looked up to find him staring at me.

“What is it?” I asked.

“You still want to heal me. After I left you.” His eyes stared into my soul.

“You also saved me,” I reminded him .

Elias began to stand up before I could finish putting the medicine on his wound, but I didn’t stop him. “You wouldn’t have needed to be saved if I hadn’t left.”

I stood up as well, my head swirling. “Don’t blame yourself. I knew the dangers of this journey, and I accepted the risks.”

“They could have killed you.” His eyes darkened to something lethal. “They nearly did.”

“But they didn’t. And now they’re…dead.” I gulped.

Elias took a step towards me, closing the small gap that was between us. I felt my heart flutter as the heat from his shirtless body tickled my senses.

“Does it bother you? That I killed them?”

“You already asked me that.”

“I’m asking again.”

I paused so I could rethink the question. I had already assumed Elias was some sort of criminal, maybe even a killer. It didn’t completely surprise me that the three bandits suffered that fate by his hands.

“No,” I responded truthfully. “The answer is still no, it doesn’t bother me.”

His stare was intense, filled with so much heat. “And I would do it again,” he said, his voice a deep growl. “I would kill a thousand men if it meant saving you.”

I found it hard to breathe after hearing his words, as my heart thrashed wildly and my throat tightened. “What are you saying?” I was barely able to mutter out.

“I think you know.”

My body began to tremble. “Then why…” I had to gasp in a small breath. “Then why did you leave?”

Elias reached up to gently press his hand against my cheek, a thrilling energy pouring into my skin through his touch. Guilt resurfaced behind his eyes .

“I didn’t leave because I don’t have feelings for you, Princess. I left because they’re too strong. And knowing you feel the same way…I don’t deserve your love. I’ll never deserve your love.”

“Elias, I—”

“Every time you are in danger, Aura, my heart stops. I’m terrified. Not only of losing you, but of what I might do to the world if it takes you away from me.”

I couldn’t speak, couldn’t breathe as we locked eyes, his mouth only inches from mine. Slowly, his eyes trailed down to my lips, lingering on them just long enough for heat to flood my core.

His eyes made their way back up to mine, something hungry in them.

“Fuck,” he whispered, his breath hot and sweet. So much so that I wanted to taste it.

As if reading my mind, Elias leaned in and pulled my face towards his until our mouths met with passionate force.

Nothing could have prepared me for the sheer ecstasy I felt as our lips touched. Nothing. Every vein in my body ignited with hot energy that coursed through me in pulsating waves. I wanted more of it. I wanted it to fill me to my bones. I let my lips part slightly, welcoming in his tongue to tangle with my own. He accepted the subtle invitation, and I tasted even more of him, creating additional waves of energy and pleasure. I moved in closer, placing my hands on his bare chest. Elias reached his hands around my waist and pulled me even closer until I was pressed up against him.

We all but devoured each other, his hands exploring over my hips and lower back. I couldn’t help but moan into his mouth, making him tremble beneath me.

“Aura,” he whispered my name, a plea on his tongue. Or a curse. I slid my hands up, weaving them through his dark hair so I could pull him closer. So I could have more of him. All of him.

Slowly, he pulled away. “Aura,” he said again, nearly out of breath. “We need to slow down.” He spoke the words, but they didn’t seem at all convincing.

“Why?” I panted, opening my eyes and wanting to devour him all over again.

He paused. “Because you have a head injury and I would prefer not to open these stitches just for you to have to do them all over again.”

I pouted. “Oh. Right.”

Elias let out a low laugh, which brought me nothing but pleasure. He pressed his forehead to mine, his hands resting on the small of my back. I closed my eyes once more, breathing in the scent of him. Breathing through the fiery energy that pulsated into me.

“I will never let anyone hurt you again,” Elias whispered. “I promise.”

I forced myself to open my eyes, and looked up to meet his gaze. I saw a small hint of a glow in his eyes, like our first night in Monuvia.

“Then don’t you dare leave me alone in these woods again,” I demanded, a joking smile on my lips.

Elias grinned a sultry smile in return. “Never.”