Chapter 4

“What did you call me? “I asked, too busy trying not to moan from the pain in my open wounds to try to sound less aggressive.

The man got up from his knees, and again I felt that lethal power around, that time disturbing me, leaving my mind inverted. Maybe I was suffering from a shock with so much blood running between my hands that I brought it to my abdomen, or maybe it was really because of him. That somehow that feeling of increasing danger in my blood was caused by his presence.

Maybe he noticed this, because he made an effort to smile, made an effort to look pleasant and not very threatening. Perfectly white Teeth appeared between the beautiful lips, and I found myself almost opening a smile also by pure instinct or obeying a command that he didn't even have to verbalize. I ended up stopping in the middle of the action with a wide eye, and I realized that there was power exhaling from that man. Enough power to convince me that he was not dangerous and this seemed to awaken each of my senses.

“Majesty “he repeated slowly, although his eyes ran quickly through my body, semi-seating when he noticed my injured stomach. “Why isn't it healing?”

It took me a while to understand.

“Why should I be healing?”

The man blinked, inspired by the smell “my smell -, momentarily widening his eyes. I was on alert the moment he knelt again, leveling our height. I kept sitting on the floor, my legs stretched out and my arms in front of my belly, even with my knees shaking and an absurd feeling of urgency asking me to stand up before all that power seduced me for good.

That was it then, I realized.

I was being seduced in some very immediate way. By the words, the beautiful face, and that false feeling that he wouldn't hurt me. Deep down, I believed in all that theater. He was holding back, whether not to scare me or because he thought it was fun to play with his victims, I still didn't know.

I didn't like the way he approached me, touching me without asking for any permission to do so. But I couldn't help but pull the hem of my shirt and reveal the grooves of claws that opened the skin with protruding folds on my belly.

He cursed and I swore I felt my leg shudder in a new earthquake, or maybe I shuddered because he was dangerously close and my body dangerously stretched below him. It was something about him that made me truly uncomfortable.

“If you're some kind of doctor, you can keep touching me... “I grunted, trying to sound threatening, but I failed. “If not, I suggest you stop. “Something was making me too light, too sleepy.”

“As arrogant as the last time we saw each other, “he said, and a fascinating glow colored his dark eyes, but that quickly disappeared as the man got up and stretched out his hand. “Let's go. Everyone is waiting for you.”

I watched my hand and cast a debauched look at the man, wondering if he expected me to be able to get up. When he just waited, with his wide hand a few centimeters from my face, I hit his fist and shouted:

“And how the hell do you expect me to go anywhere to meet someone after having suffered an accident, and being attacked by a horrible animal? I don't even know if you exist or if this is not a hallucination because of the accident. “Your face showed no sign of confusion, so I added: “I'm bleeding, creature!”

“And it shouldn't be, “he said harshly as if it were obvious. “Use your cure, and let's leave before another Furshay appears. This human blood of yours is stirring and converting even my power. Imagine what you can't do with monsters so desperate to prove it.”

All right. Nothing else made any sense, so I made an effort to breathe and not scream.

“Young man... I mean... sir... “I started stumbling over the words, as he stared at me and that discomfort threatened to shake me again. It had something to do with his look, I realized, those dark eyes that seemed to demand a supreme truth. “I have no idea what's going on. I had an accident on the road just behind the forest, found a break in a rock, and crossed it, so I ended up stopping here with that creature behind me. I don't know who I am, I don't know how I got to have that accident, and I swear by Go... I swear by Go... Shit. I swear I have no idea who you and the others are. And I'm bleeding and I need a doctor because I can't heal myself, if that's what you and the others who expect me know how to do. And as strange as my calm seems, I swear by... I swear I'm not calm and I'm one step away from crying and screaming, mainly because of this wound, “I indicated my belly. “It hurts like hell.”

The man rubbed a point between his eyebrows, seeming to contain some pain.

“So you managed to return, but you can't remember where you stopped.”

I blinked, trying to decipher between the lines, to understand if it could be a question. I searched in some corner of my mind, in some corner of that soul in pieces that had conjured him up there, begging a prince of hell to save me. Although I knew what to call him, I couldn't say why. I couldn't remember how I even knew him. And pain “a sentimental and old pain “pierced those black eyes.

I made an effort to get up and ignore the shiver on the back of my neck when I noticed those black eyes moving to accompany me, I made an effort so that that tremor below us did not overwork me and that he did not realize that I knew, but did not understand why all that was happening. All because I didn't remember. I didn't feel any feeling that it had ever been my reality. That monsters like Furshay were part of any world I inhabited. And this conclusion was enough for me to decide to put it out.

“Right, this is getting weirder and weirder. “I took a deep breath to regain control, and that weird tingling sensation in my body disappeared. I waved my hand dirty with blood before I started moving away to the opposite side of the man. “You know what? Enough. Nice to meet you, but I'm going out.”

I didn't take more than three steps through the green grass until I heard the man following in my footsteps. All that steel of the armor popped as he walked behind me. I was sure I would have nightmares about that sound. And with that terrible smell of the dead creature that still hovered in the air.

“I can't let you go back to the human world, Your Majesty.”