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I opened my mouth to answer, but he increased the pressure. The pain was sudden and sharp, a small and startled high-pitched sound barely passing my lips.
The force he was adding was becoming more dangerous—any more and he would snap my throat.
“Seven days,” he said, low and slow, his voice so deep and guttural it sounded like a sinister growl. “Sevendays.”
The wind blew in harsh, rapid bursts, howling so loud it resembled a demented demon, its force so strong it shook the trees and blew leaves from their stems. The screeching of startled birds was almost maddening, and for a moment I feared Keia was blown away as well. I had noticed her hiding somewhere safe during my confrontation with the female Spider, but now I was beyond worried.
Not only for my companion but also for myself.
I would have been swept away so easily if he wasn’t holding me down.
“Where have you been?!” he shouted, and I recoiled at the unforgiving volume, turning my head to the side and sealing my eyes shut. The female Spider had messed my ears bad enough for the sound to be slightly muted. Even then, his shout was an added damage. “Why did you not come back to me?!”
My head felt like it had thorns jammed into it, not only because of his voice but also the wind. It blew at my hair so viciously that it felt like it was being ripped from my scalp.
Everything was hurting; his cruel grip on my windpipe, the rough wind on my freezing skin, and the pain in my head pulsing in agonising waves.
“Hu… hurts…” I tightened my hold on his wrist, my voice a strangled whine even to my damaged ears.
“It hurts?” he asked, his words drawn out, his voice bizarrely content. Despite that, I found myself nodding as much as I could—which wasn’t much because of how dizzy I was becoming.
Just as quick as it happened, the wind subsided until it was only a gentle breeze, so gentle it felt like a whisper on my skin.
“Good,” he said, releasing my throat. His fingers remained on my skin, lightly poking on the wounds—the wounds from my fight with the female Spider. “I’ll just sit back and watch you bleed.”
I peeled my eyes open to stare at him. True enough, he was crouching comfortably beside me.
“Don’t worry.” His lips curved up slowly. “I’ll make sure your blood doesn’t go to waste.”
As if to emphasise his point, he lifted a blood-stained finger to his lips and licked it, cleaning the red away with a slow swipe of his tongue.
My eyes watered. “E-Eon—”
No. This wasn’t my Eon.
Thiswas what our Elders warned us about.
Eon wasn’t like that with me.
But this was him, too. It felt like him but at the same time not. Different, like another entity living in Eon’s body.
“I am not Eon,” he confirmed with hard eyes, his lips falling into a thin line. “My name is En.”
“E-En,” I tried again, coughing and wheezing and wincing. In addition to the injuries I’d acquired from the female Spider, he—En—had to add more, ones she didn’t manage to inflict.
He responded with a low hum as he tipped his head to the side.
“Hurts… please…”
I couldn’t move my head because of the damage he’d done to my throat. I couldn’t move my body because of whatever the female Spider had cracked in me. Either way, I couldn’t move any part of me at all. Anything could happen and I wouldn’t be able to so much as defend myself.
“My kindness comes at a price, little Elf.”
I bit the inside of my cheeks. Whatever he would demand, it would be unreasonable and dreadful. This wasn’t Eon.
Slowly, he crawled closer to me until he was leaning over me. “If I heal you,” he rumbled, and it sounded like a… threat? Warning? “You stay with me until midnight.”
I began to shake my head, mindful of the injuries on my neck. “I-I can’t.”
