Harper blinked her eyes open slowly. Though she was still not entirely conscious, she could tell she was no longer in the filthy small cell and was now lying on a surface that was softer than the damp floor of the dungeon. She realized that she must have been moved to a bed somewhere. There was a subtle discomfort in the area of her throat that threatened to flare into something much worse if she moved.
It took her a long time to settle down and pay attention to the man in front of her. As soon as she realized who she was staring at, her face sank, and she looked incredibly distraught.
"Lucas," she said, her voice soft. She sat up, flinching as she nudged her hand on the mattress. Tears welled up in her eyes almost immediately.
"Hey, it's all right," Lucas said. "You're safe now." He hurriedly took a cup of water from a nearby table and raised it to her lips with care.
Harper choked as the water touched her parched and painful throat, but she swallowed it down gratefully, returning the empty cup to Lucas with a quiet thank you.
Lucas perched on the edge of the bed and gently scooped her into his arms. He could feel her feeble protests before she finally slumped against him, her back against his chest, her head on his shoulder.
"I honestly thought I was going to lose you..."
Harper was deafeningly silent. With her head bent forward and on Lucas' shoulder, she positioned herself so that the sunlight coming through the small window would touch her face. She sighed, her eyes still puffy from the shock of what had happened.
"If the guards had found you unconscious on the floor a second later, you would've been dead," Lucas said, pausing. "And it would have been entirely my fault."
Harper remained quiet, but she gently moved away from Lucas and sat on the bed against the wall. She cried her eyes out as she held her legs up to hug them to her chest.
"Harper, I'm so sorry that this is happening to you..." Lucas spoke to her softly.
Harper's brown hair cascaded down to conceal her features as she buried her face in her knees. Her body trembled as she sobbed uncontrollably. She didn't hold back, thinking that maybe, just maybe, she'd be done crying by now.
"Harper－"
"If you could just leave me alone... please?"
Lucas sighed and looked her in the eyes for a time before letting out another sigh and getting to his feet. Slowly, he made his way across the room and softly closed the door behind him, leaving her alone to process everything that had happened.
Harper wasn't sure how much time had gone before she was able to regain control of her emotions and her eyes had stopped crying. She reasoned that she had enough time till the door cracked open after a few hours.
She sniffled and rubbed the sleeve of her long rag across her cheeks and nose to remove the unattractive tear tracks that had formed.
"Harper…" Lucas' soft voice cut through the still atmosphere of the room as he walked closer to her on the bed.
"H-hey," she murmured, trying to make herself sound okay, though her voice was really strained and cracking.
"How are you feeling?" She let out a small murmur and lowered her head to her knees. "No, not right now, Lucas. Please, just... I really want to be alone right now."
She was still fighting back tears as she tried to speak. She despised the way her voice cracked, and her tone came across as weak.
Following that, there was a deafening silence, broken only by her occasional sniffle. She wished Lucas would just leave her alone.
Of course, he didn't.
Lucas's footsteps began again, and then he crouched in front of her and looked her up. She lifted her head from the inside of her knees and looked him in the eyes. She knew he could see how puffy they were.
It didn't take a genius to figure out what he was up to, and she despised it since she believed that, in the end, he would most likely upset her even more, even if he didn't mean to.
"I understand that all that has been happening, that has happened, is a lot to take in. And right now, you despise me so much." It was not a question, but rather a declarative statement.
And that caused Harper's eyes to well up with tears once more, which was enough of an answer. "Libby is dead…" she stated and avoided looking Lucas in the eyes and instead focused on her hand.
"She might have aided us, Harper, but she's also committed some atrocities." Immediately after recalling what Gillen had told him about what Libby had done, Lucas' teeth clenched tight together in anger. "She wasn't helping you to be with Alex because she believed the two of you should be together. She was up to something else."
Harper shook her head. "No. Clay was the one who turned her in. He had betrayed her. She didn't deserve to die, no matter what she had done."
"It was either Clay's head or hers."
"You sound a lot like Francine." Her heart ached even more as she remembered the vampiress. "Francine despised me so deeply that she wanted to murder me."
"She's in a lot of pain and grief. Her mate just died. If it's any consolation, she hates me even more, and I'm certain she's made a vow to herself to slit my throat with her claws the minute she has the chance."
"Everything is completely messed up. Alex is dead. You killed him." She let out a heartbroken cry.
Then, Lucas got up and sat at Harper's side for several minutes until she finally began to settle down. "I'd like to tell you how much I wish I could go back in time and undo what I did. It's pointless, though. It's done. I killed my brother."
Harper took a long breath and looked at me with a look of utter shock on her face. "Your *brother*?!"
"Alex *was* my brother. His－um－*our* father met my mother before Alex was born. I was born from a one-night stand," he explained, chuckling sarcastically and shaking his head as if he had just delivered an outrageously funny joke.
Harper, on the other hand, was undecided about whether she felt sorry for Lucas. In fact, she was much more enraged after learning that he had just murdered his brother.
"You killed your brother because I rejected you?" she asked loudly between tight lips, looking appalled, but it did not affect Lucas. He recognized that she was completely unaware of the severity of what she had just done, or even the extent of the pain she had inadvertently inflicted on him. He was expecting her to yell, to become enraged.
"I wish there was some way I could make you understand what you've just put me through, Harper. Being rejected is just as terrible, devastating, and heartbreaking as being stabbed in the back by the person you love and have committed your life to. Even now, as I sit here and look at you, knowing that your heart and entire existence no longer belong to me, it's killing me right now," Lucas softly stated, and it impacted both of them harder than they had anticipated.
Harper blinked her eyes shut, and fresh, hot tears flowed down her cheeks. "I'm… I'm sorry, Lucas," she finally replied, her voice barely audible above a whisper. "I'm sorry for everything."
"Please don't be." Lucas drew a deep breath. "It's not your fault in the least. You're just human, after all. Your heart is prone to making mistakes and making the wrong decisions. However, I'm hoping you'll put your faith in me again."
"What? What exactly do you mean?" Harper gazed around the room as if she were seeing it for the first time as she realized what she had realized. "Are you staying here? Gillen let you out."
"Yes, he did. He has offered me a deal that may be able to save your life, keep you alive."
"Save me? How about Francine? What about her?"
"She will be executed as soon as the new sets of slaves and fighters arrive in a few days." Lucas thought that there was simply no diplomatic way to put it. Gillen will hold her up as an example to anyone who plans to rise up against him. She will serve as a reminder of how harsh Gillen's justice is for those who betray him."
Harper let out a gasp and fixed him with a scowl. "What exactly did he offer you? How? How are you planning on keeping me alive, Lucas? What has Gillen offered you?"
"In exchange for my loyalty, he will give me you..."
" I'm not his fucking property to give away!"
"Harper, please listen to me..."
"No!" She flinched and put her arms around herself.
"This is the only way I can keep you alive."
"No－" Harper shook her head, tears streaming down her cheeks.
"－you will be under my protection."
"If you want to keep me alive, Lucas, we have to get out of here!"
"Don't be stupid. You should know by now that there's no getting out of here. It's simply impossible. We don't have much of a choice. Either we play by Gillen's rules, or we die."
Harper closed her eyes and pursed her lips tightly. She sniffed and then opened her eyes again, this time giving Lucas an accusatory glare. "It seems that you have already accepted Gillen's offer."
"Harper...please just listen to me and trust me..."
"Have you?"
"Yes."
"Fuck you, Lucas." She glared at the Lucas, pointing her finger at him. "Fuck you!"