Damon wiped the sweat from my forehead with his sleeve, his movents uncharacteristically gentle. "You fool," he muttered under his breath. "What if it didn’t work? What if you’d died right in front of just to prove a point?"
The healer stood slowly, packing his tools. "She’ll rest now. The worst is over."
Damon didn’t respond. He just stared down at like he couldn’t decide whether to be angry or relieved.
"I’ll stay nearby," the healer said. "But for now, she’s safe. Her body is doing the rest."
Damon nodded once, never looking away from .
As the door closed behind the healer, silence filled the room again. Damon let out a quiet breath and whispered, "You stupid little pet... don’t you dare do that again."
Their words turned into a muffled noise, and my eyes fluttered closed, embracing the darkness.
...
My eyes fluttered open. I was lying on my stomach. I sat up, stretching my arms and cracking my neck.
I looked around, and I almost gasped. ’What the hell is he doing here?’
My eyes almost bugged out of their sockets, and I still couldn’t bring myself to believe it. Damon was sleeping with his head on the side of the bed.
I pinched my cheeks to see if I was dreaming, but the sting that followed said otherwise.
’But why was he here sleeping beside ? Should I wake him up?’ I bit my lower lip.
I froze in my spot. This was the first ti that I had seen him look so peaceful. There was no frown or stern look on his face. His raven-black hair fell over his face, its soft locs made him look so serene.
’How can a man have such long eyelashes?’ I stared at him in admiration. He was beautiful. His reddish-pink lips were so enticing that I wanted to feel his lips on mine.
My hand inched closer to his face, my fingers lightly brushing through his hair, as if they were scared to touch him.
My hand moved further down to the bridge of his nose, but before I could touch him, his hand grabbed mine, and his eyes snapped open. My trance-like state broke like a shattered mirror.
I pulled my hand to my side, my face burning in embarrassnt. He stared at before a smirk ford on his lips.
"Soone has been busy gawking at my beauty," he mused.
I shut my eyes in exasperation. "I must have hit my head, master," I muttered.
His gaze swept over my fra. "I can see that you are okay now." He stood to his feet and flexed his strained muscles.
’Okay? Do I look okay?’ That was when it dawned on that my pain was gone. There was no longer pain in my back.
’Unbelievable.’ I stretched my arms, moving my torso, but there was no pain.
"I can’t feel any pain... I’m healed, master!" I jumped down from the bed. I stumbled forward, but I was able to gain my footing.
"I know. That’s how powerful my blood is," he said in a matter-of-fact tone.
Then, he took a step closer to , his eyes turning serious, with an unreadable glint flickering through them. "Tell , Ember. Why did you drink it? When you knew that it was poisoned."
I swallowed. I didn’t know if I should tell him the truth or not. But one thing was certain—his trust in Alpha Allison was broken.
"I didn’t know, master. I was just tasty," I said without batting an eye at him.
’It was not ti for to tell him... yet. He needed to know it for himself. Furthermore, I didn’t drink the wine to protect him; I drank it to protect myself, as I would be the one at the end of the sword when he forgets everything about .’
His jaw tightened. It looked like he wanted to probe further, but for so strange reason, he didn’t. "If you say so," he leaned closer to , his hands behind his back. "Who injured you?"
I t his calm eyes, but I knew it was just the calm before the storm. "I don’t know. I couldn’t see his face." anwhile, the mory of Alpha Allison clawing my back flashed through my mind.
He closed his eyes, his tongue clicked in annoyance. "You won’t say anything? I know you are lying, Ember. You must have found sothing you weren’t supposed to find that night. But why won’t you let know? That bastard hurt you when I haven’t laid a finger on you. Don’t you think that’s unfair?" A sinister glint crossed through his eyes as he pulled away from .
I remained quiet. My hands clenched at my side. "I didn’t find anything, master. I just wanted to find evidence to prove myself innocent..."
"I know you were innocent."
"What? You an you knew all this while that I didn’t take your locket? Why did you punish then?" I snapped, my blood boiling in my veins.
"At first, I thought it was you. But after you left for the dungeon, I knew it wasn’t you. I only played along to draw the culprit out... but you... you thought you were smart, and you ruined everything." Although his voice was stern, his gaze softened.
I looked at him in disbelief. "So it was all your plan?"
"If it wasn’t, you would have already been missing so limbs and so fingers. But you snuck out—even your scent was undetectable..." A displeased growl rumbled from his chest. "You got injured so badly, and you drank the wine that was ant for , which happened to be poisoned. These are not re coincidences, Ember."
I looked away, realizing I was nothing but a pawn in his little ga. I didn’t even have the sa amount of importance as the locket to him.
"You ntioned a na before you passed out in the prison—Al... Who is that?" His eyes narrowed, his fist clenched.
I sighed. "If I tell you the na, what would you do?"
"I’ll rip their arms off!" A guttural growl reverberated from his chest, and his eyes flickered between grey and black.
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