52. Healing

52. Healing

Ruth

“Mar, I can take over.Go get something to eat.”

Warrose leans against the open cage door, arms crossed over his chest, nodding at Marilynn. She gives me a gentle pat on the shoulder, uncrossing her legs, and gives Warrose a smile as she leaves.

“You don’t have to babysit me,” I say with a dry throat.

“I’m only here because I like being around you.”

“Oh.”

Warrose smirks, lowering himself to sit on my right side. “I brought you soup.”

My stomach gurgles at the smell of hot chicken broth. I nod, lifting my head to see the metal cup next to his thigh.

“Can I help you sit up?”

“Okay.”

Pain floods down my legs as Warrose positions his hands on the back of my neck and the base of my spine. He angles me against the cold bars, using Skylenna’s leftover blankets to cushion my back.

“We haven’t had much time to talk lately,” Warrose says.

“I don’t want to talk about my legs,” I respond bitterly, bringing the steaming soup to my lips to blow on.

Warrose looks down. “It killed me to see you kiss him.”

Oh. Initially, I’m relieved to hear a change of topic. But the memory of my lips on Kaspias’s mouth and the look on Warrose’s face as he watched it all burn down in front of him—it stabs me in the gut.

“It killed me, too.” Especially after our kiss. My god, that kiss. I close my eyes, remembering the way he clawed at the bars to get closer to my face.

“It made me think the night before was all a trick,” he adds.

I swallow my first spoonful of soup. “I know.”

“I’m sorry I believed the lie.” Warrose glances down at the thick veins on the tops of his hands, trailing up his massive forearms. “I was blinded by jealousy.”

My eyes raise to meet his over the steam.

“Do you hate me for it?” he asks.

“You were jealous?”

His bright hazel eyes shudder at the memory. “Insanely jealous.”

For the first time in…I don’t know how long, a smile creeps up my cheeks.

“What?” He narrows his gaze.

I shrug, my smile growing deeper.

“Does my jealous rage amuse you, Ruth?”

A blush blooms across my entire face, smearing down my neck. The thought of Warrose being jealous does warm my heart. Why? I really don’t know. For a moment after the kiss, I did get insecure wondering if it meant as much to him as it did to me. Wondering if I’m even a good kisser. Did he think so? My thoughts completely spiraled out of control.

“Yes,” I say.

Warrose smiles back, enthralled by the look on my face. However, he swiftly goes still, serious in expression. With one giant hand, he slides his fingers around my waist, stroking my uniform slowly.

“I never want to see your lips on another man again,” he finally says.

My heated smile falls. I set the mug down. “No?”

“No.”

His jaw tightens, and his hand stops moving on my side. It feels like he’s holding his breath, waiting for me to reject him again. I hold his eye contact fiercely, because even if it’s temporary, he probably doesn’t realize how powerful, how womanly this conversation makes me feel. I don’t have to obsess about how my body looks after the axe. I don’t have to wonder if he finds me attractive anymore.

It’s in that flaming stare that he undoubtedly does.

“Okay,” I answer breathlessly. “Then you won’t.”

His Adam’s apple bobs over the length of his throat. With a tight nod, Warrose leans over me, hovering like a tree blocking the sun. I meet his eyes, watching as he struggles to find the right words.

“I want to be the only man that you give your lips to.”

I exhale and close my eyes, letting this single sentence slay the depression feasting on my soul, even if it’s for this moment only. That sentence loops in my mind repeatedly.

And all I can do is nod to keep from crying.

I breathe in his scent that’s buried under the aroma of this prison. His chest moves up and down erratically, and he’s so close that I can see the light dusting of black hair on the center of his chest. Warrose dips his head, placing a light kiss on my forehead, then lowering his lips to graze mine until I feel his soft breath mingling with my own.

I hold my breath.

And he moves like he’s lost his self-control. Two large and overpowering hands slide up the sides of my face as he brushes his lips to mine. The movement is hesitant and sweet, making butterflies run wild in my stomach. Tilting my chin up, I give him access to deepen the kiss, and so he does. It’s just one kiss, but the base of his throat grumbles with a ravenous groan.

It’s the desperation that reminds me why I can’t move any further with him. The agony radiating down my thighs. The phantom pains in my ankles. The loss of all hope.

I break the kiss, touching his elbow so that he moves back to look into my eyes.

“Will you promise me something?” I ask.

Warrose nods.

“If you can’t break me out of this prison…if it’s too hard to escape with me…”

“No.” He doesn’t let me finish. His back straightens, and his angular chin lifts stubbornly.

“Make sure I’m dead before you find freedom again. Don’t let me rot in this prison.” My hands start to shake aggressively at the idea of being left behind.

“It isn’t an option,” he says low enough to sound like a growl.

“Warrose, please. I need to know you’ll do what must be done!”

“How can you fucking ask me this?!”

Angry tears swell over my vision, and my face wrinkles with the cry that comes spilling out of my lungs.

Ever since this happened, I’ve had this constant nightmare of watching my friends run out of this prison without me. And no matter how hard I try, I can never crawl fast enough. I’m left behind, cold, and dying a slow death in this cage.

“I’d rather die than end up here all alone!”

His face contorts into a look of anguish as he gazes over the details of my face as I cry out, as I shake from debilitating fear. In a flash of movement, Warrose snatches my feeble hands, bringing them to his chest.

“Oh, baby girl. Don’t you know? I’d never leave you. I’d cover your body with my own to protect you from a storm. I’d stay in hell for the rest of my life if it means I’d get more time to make you smile. Baby girl. Don’t you get it? I’d die before I ever left you behind.”

I gasp before letting my cry unleash from my chest.

And this beautiful man doesn’t waste another moment. He curls his body around mine, careful not to hurt me. His giant hands cradle my head to his chest, spreading his body heat over me like a thick blanket.

“You won’t leave me behind,” I sob.

Warrose nuzzles his face in my curly hair, sighing softly against my scalp. “I’ll never leave you behind.”