"What are you doing?"
Eli couldn't help but ask.
Although he would always be one to entertain her ambushes and enjoy them, this just didn't feel like the time.
She moved on to the next button wordlessly and he held her wrist.
Her actions had been somewhat off tonight, he believed that was because of the state she had seen Kestra arrive in.
It was enough to put anyone in shock. He had never seen Kestra be badly attacked enough to lose her sight.
She had always been capable to handle herself and to know that the threat against his Donna was that strong to put the most powerful witch he knew in such misery, made him worried sick, and agitated.
He believed that had been the same state his Donna was in, but now that she was on her knees, unbuttoning his shirt, something just didn't feel right about her actions.
What was she doing?
She claimed that he needed a massage, he had told her this wasn't the time for anything touchy but she had gotten him to strip nevertheless and found out what she had to.
Eli didn't bare the mark of the Alterer anywhere on his body.
"That is painful." He said, referring to the hand that was now pressed against his shoulder in an unskillful manner.
Belladonna wasn't the best at giving massages, she had only had Aniya and Lytio to practice on, it didn't seem like any of them had ever given her truthful reports though.
Her distracted mind made it even worse.
"How did you get your scales again?"
"They have been there ever since I could remember." He looked up at her, his brown eyes staring into her blue ones, having her full attention. "I was born with them."
Her hands trailed down his muscular shoulders, drawing lines down to his gloves, tracing the tip of the black leather before his hand stopped hers.
"What do you have on your mind, Donna?"
She had a lot of things on her mind and it killed her that she couldn't just tell him.
Each time he felt more like a stranger while her heart battled to keep him closer.
She loved him.
She wanted it to remain like that.
Not have her feelings for him shrouded in doubts and fear that kept popping up in different directions.
It was peaceful to love him.
It was everything to love him.
She loved him.
"Questions."
A small smile played on his lips, and he pulled her to sit on a thigh while her hand played with his brown hair that was now longer than it was before.
"Ask me."
"When did you get those lines on your hands."
His brows furrowed and he looked down at his gloves that he had recently had to make longer because of how reaching the lines were starting to get.
"It was the Bride Thief's curse." Then he looked at her, confusion glinting slightly in his eyes. "You know this Donna."
She knew.
She also knew that the first time she had asked him that question, that had not been his answer.
He had told her he didn't know, that it was just there.
Her mind wanted to justify it that he was merely hiding the fact that it was a curse from her, but having met the so-called dreaded Bride Thief and with everything she now knew, her line of thinking had changed to believe everyone was a suspect.
"You and Kestra must be really close." She smiled. "She is trying to help you find the cure for many things,"
The light in Eli's eyes died slowly, he was feeling guilty again, but that wasn't what she wanted.
His arm that he had looped around her waist tightened.
"I blame myself."
"It's not your fault." That was sincere. "I understand how you feel though, with how close your relationship is with her. I wish I had such a relationship with someone."
"You have a relationship with me." He said, his mind seemed to be far away from him, deep in thought.
"Such friendship, I mean."
He nodded, his fingers tracing lines on her shoulder. It was distracting.
That part of her shoulder had a cut on it, one that was rather deep and she was hiding.
The pain poked her skin like a needle.
"I'm sure you've never fought a day."
His tracing stopped and she let out a low breath of relief for two reasons.
He stopped.
They fought.
The look in his eyes said so.
She hoped it had to do with the Alterer on the people, she hoped that he had not willingly done that to their people and Lady Kestra had him under some threat to bear the weight of the summon with her instead.
Anything would be better than him willingly participating in her evil.
"We fight, but our first fight was the biggest one."
Eli had been reluctant to go further but Belladonna had pressurized him into narrating a tale of how Kestra had killed some girls by the river because they taunted him for his scales, and how he had returned to her due to a crazed need that only her had the antidote to.
It was shameful for him to say and he kept his gaze away from her, fixing it to the ground as he rushed over the details like the words burnt his tongue and lips, summarizing everything he could.
His breathing got louder the closer he got to the end and when it was over, the deafening silence from his Donna as she stared into space made him unsettled.
He needed a reaction from her and he wasn't getting any.
"I wanted to tell you. The night I got my memory back I wanted to tell you everything."
He had left no detail out, even told her about what he had almost done and how terrible he felt about it.
He apologized over and over again, but his Donna remained stoic, giving him nothing to go by.
This was worse.
No reaction was worse.
Belladonna was lost in her own world. Kestra had planned this from the beginning.
That Witch!
She was a really smart woman and the Bride Thief's interference with Eli's family had only made Eli land into her hands.
Just a luck the witch ran into.
She knew how strong he was and knew he would be of use to her one day.
Now, she was making him bear the weight of the Alterer summon, lying to him that it was a curse while he continued to kill him.
Belladonna was seething in fury.
How dare she?!
By Ignas, she would kill that witch.
Whatever was killing Eli was certainly the Alterer and she must have gotten his consent in some cunny ways.
Belladonna could feel the weight to save everyone suddenly dropped heavily on her shoulders.
She must start working on a plan at once.
She gnashed her teeth, stood up, left the room, and went back to get study without looking back.
Without hearing Eli call her name with a voice filled with desperation and uncertainty.
Something seeking clarification.
His face was fixed on the door she had slammed behind her a moment ago, the sound still echoing in his ears, his stomach twisting in different knots and his heart aching with the thoughts that his mind was forcing upon him.
She didn't want him anymore.