Chapter 125 A broken heart 2
Ruel's POV
Elric just stands there, looking at me with more sad eyes than anything.
With a shaky breath I slowly lower my hand. Then I grab his shirt and pull him close.
“Why did you fight with me?” My voice trembles. “You shouldn’t have. You should have stood with them. With the alpha king.”
His face tightens. “You think I’d watch them attack you and just stand there? Have I ever once regretted standing beside you?”
A sudden weakness overwhelms me and my forehead falls against his shoulder. I inhale but my chest hurts so badly I can barely breathe.
“Why would she do this to me?” I whisper the very question that has plagued me since she struck me.
Elric goes still. His hand hovers for a moment, then rests awkwardly on my back, like he’s comforting a pup. “She's a sempyr Ruel, they all hate us … they've always hated we werewolves.”
“Maybe she was scared,” Krist says after a while. “Maybe she was forced to do it.” he continues, worsening my headache.
My knees give way and I slide to the floor, Elric carefully going down with me. He sits close, keeping his arms around me while I try to pull myself together.
I close my eyes but then I see her face… her smile, her laughter, her fear…. Where did I miss all the signs?
I fell for her like a dog. She must have laughed about it with that bastard.
Every time I'd confessed my feelings, did she think to herself how gullible I was?
I not only fell for a traitor, I failed my pack, I failed Elric. I failed every werewolf who was killed by her kind. I proved Scarface and the alpha king right. I can't lead the base.
A fool like me doesn't deserve a better fate.
“Can you stop being emotional for a minute? Ruel, she didn't immediately run after you fell,” Krist mutters, pacing about. “I know you remember her attempt to run to you the moment you crashed. Bukasvad was the one who held her back. What if this is all a misunderstanding.”
“Held her back from finishing what she'd already started, you mean?” I think tiredly. “Krist stop being delusional. We were fooled. Maybe this bond was only a spell after all.”
"That's impossible.” Krist denies sharply.
I pull away from Elric and let my head rest on the cold wall.
“Now everyone thinks you’re part of this.” I whisper with regret. “They’ll charge you with treason too if I do nothing. But I’ll get you out, I swear on my life.”
Elric glares at me. “I’m not leaving here without you. And if dying beside you is the price I have to pay, then so be it.” He grips my forearm tight. “But don’t do anything stupid. Ruel, if you throw your life away trying to fix this alone, I’ll never forgive you.”
I nod. The small movement sends pain through my skull making me wince. But I know within me, I cannot let Elric get hurt too.
Our heads turn as heavy footsteps echo down the corridor.
Elric rises to his feet and carefully helps me stand. I school my expression, quickly abandoning the pitiful sorrow I've been so overwhelmed with.
Ensuring there's no trace of crying on my face, I wait for them, my jaw clenched as I glare at the locked cell gate.
A furious looking guard stops at the gate, his keys rattling as he unlocks it and pushes it open, not bothering to step in.
She enters first and I inhale deeply, reminding myself that I should have expected this.
Gestrid is wrapped entirely in black, a long veil framing her face and shadowing her expression, though it doesn't hide the faint curl of satisfaction on her lips.
She walks in confidently, clicking her tongue the moment her gaze finds me.
“I always knew you’d come back to me somehow.” Her boney fingers brush my cheek.
I turn my face away, disgusted.
Her hand snaps to my jaw and yanks my head back, sharp nails digging into my skin.
“Listen, idiot,” she says softly, close enough that I feel her breath. “I’m the only one who can offer you a fate better than what’s waiting outside this cell, so you will behave.” she grips harder until my skin breaks and blood slides out from the wounds.
“Get your hands off him.” Elric says firmly, perhaps forgetting that I deserve this.
Gestrid’s laughter is sharp and mocking as she turns toward him. “I always suspected there was more between you two,” she hisses, her eyes sliding from him to me and back again. “So loyal, so stinkingly devoted. It’s almost touching.” she flicks her nails, releasing my jaw.
That’s when I notice Omar standing at the entrance, a train of armed guards behind him. His face is tight, and his eyes fixed on Elric. They linger there, settling on a dark bruise near Elric’s neck.
Something shifts in his expression and his gaze shifts to me, hard and unreadable.
Gestrid exhales impatiently. “Whatever foolish attachment you shared is over.”
Elric lets out a short, bitter snort.
Her eyes flash and she once again flicks her fingers but this time she mutters a spell under her breath.
I yank at my chains as Elric’s body jerks, a broken sound tears from him as he drops to his knees, clutching his chest like the air has been ripped from his lungs.
My chains crash loudly as I try to reach him before he collapses. “Gestrid stop!” I yell, unable to watch him suffer for my sake.
“Stop!” I surge forward, but the guards rush inside, shoving me back.
Omar steps closer to Gestrid with a calm and even tone. “Don’t waste your strength on him. Leave this one to me. The alpha king said five minutes, I believe you better take commander Ruel to him and allow me handle this.”
She studies him for a moment, mildly annoyed, then gives a careless shrug. The moment she does, Elric goes still on the ground, gasping as sweat runs down his face.
Gestrid turns away.
“Bring him,” she orders, nodding toward me. Then she glances at Omar, her voice turning demonically sweet. “And make that dog lose that sharp tongue of his.”
As she strides out, her black veil sways behind her.
In seconds my chains are unlocked and fall away with a heavy clang. Relief and dread crashing together in my chest.
Relief because when I glance at Elric again, Omar is kneeling beside him. In a subtle way his hand hovers near Elric’s shoulder, not quite touching, but close enough as though he has the intention to help him sit up.
Worry clouds his expression as he watches Elric cough in pain.
And in that small, quiet moment, I understand. Omar won’t hurt Elric, not with that look in his eyes.
Rough hands grab my arms and haul me forward.
I don’t resist, instead I listen to the hollow pounding of my own heart as I’m taken toward whatever waits next.