Kevin’s POV
“Ella!” I shouted, holding her close to me as tears fell from my eyes.
The war had ended. Like I had told the mouthy group leader of the Rogues hours earlier, I had ended up killing him. His corpse lay by my side, his eyes open in shock as if he couldn’t believe that he could die.
I snorted, thinking of him as an idiot. How could he think that he couldn’t die? Was anyone that immortal? Even if anyone was meant to have the gift of immortality, it was definitely not the rogues with their loss of a good personality and a love of violence.
If people like the rogues got to live long and have the gift of immortality, I was worried that I would hate the deity that was in charge of that and hate the moon goddess more than I hated her at the moment.
Had we not suffered enough? I wondered what she was doing wherever she was, watching as we jumped from one dilemma into another trouble.
I glanced away from the rogue, not caring about him as a corpse or his journey into the afterlife. He could get lost on the way for all I cared or get to hell with his fellow rogues whose corpses were scattered all across the field and some of them looking as shocked as he was.
Arrogant bastards.
I focused my attention on Ella, scooping her in my hand as I stood up.
“Don’t leave me, Ella.” I cried as I made my way to the tent.
She was bleeding and her breathing was getting shallow I was afraid I would lose her even though I knew her body was healing her. The rogue had thrown a knife at her at the last moment and it had buried itself into her chest, directly into her heart.
I wanted to turn back to hit the dead rogue for having a good aim but Ella was more important. The knife had been removed and her wound was closing up but she was still bleeding because it was a heart wound and organs always took forever to heal. I was grateful the knife hadn’t gone in too deep or I would have gone mad with grief and loss at the moment.
I guessed I had something to thank the moon goddess for but her healing was too slow to my liking.
“Let’s get to a bed so you can rest comfortably and heal faster.” I said.
I saw her father looking at her in my arms with his eyes strained and his lips thinned and hoped that he wouldn’t ask me to give her to him because I wasn’t going to release her. In as much as I respected him and didn’t want to argue with him, I wasn’t going to let him take his daughter off my hands.
I exhaled in relief when he kept on looking and didn’t move forward till I found a bed for Ella.
Ella’s POV
I shifted in my bed, trying to avoid the bright light shining adamantly on my face.
“Don’t move.”
I heard a voice say loudly in panic as strong arms held me down.
Kevin? I frowned, recognizing his voice and wondered what he was doing by my side early in the morning and why he sounded so worried. I thought we had agreed that we wouldn’t stay together on a bed out of respect for my dad.
I opened my eyes and was more confused. It was getting dark outside and I wondered where the bright light that had shone into my eyes and woken me up had come from. Had I been having a nightmare? I thought. I didn’t even know. I couldn’t tell what I had been dreaming of but I knew I felt like shit.
I tried to sit up but Kevin was faster, beating me to it and helped me up.
I frowned, wondering why he was acting like an overprotective mother hen. “What are you doing?”
“Helping you sit.” He said as he sat down on the bed beside me where he had been all along. “Are you okay?” He asked, his eyes peering deeply into mine.
“Why won’t I be?” I frowned.
He looked surprised. “Don’t you remember? You took a knife to the heart. I had to wait two days for you to be healed completely.”
Two days? I was shocked but I believed him. He looked unkempt and I knew he probably hadn’t left my side for those two days. His stubble had grown out and I wanted to run my hands all over his face and caress it.
Damn it, Ella. I snapped at myself in a rebuke. Was that what I should be thinking of in a situation like this? I was unbelievable.
“What of the rogues?” I finally asked what I was meant to ask.
A smile crossed Kevin’s features, the first I have seen since I woke up. “They are all dead.”
“As they should.” I nodded.
He looked like he was about to say something else but couldn’t as my dad chose that moment to come in.
“Is she awake?” He asked, peering into the tent.
“Dad.” I rasped.
“Ella.” He called back, ran towards me and folded me into an embrace. I was shocked. As if him calling me by my name wasn’t shocking enough, he had to add an embrace to it. I sighed, knowing I must have scared them than they were letting on.
“I’m sorry.” I said, my eyes shifting to the both of them.
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Dad said. “It wasn’t like you asked to die.”
Kevin nodded. “It’s the bastard who threw a knife at you who should apologize.”
“Maybe he would have gotten to that if you hadn’t killed him.” I smiled, teasing him.
“I doubt that.” Kevin snorted.
“At least, he would join his kinsmen begging my mother to forgive their miserable souls.”
“Your mother wouldn’t be where those losers could find her.”
I felt uncomfortable at the sudden chill in the air. I had said to make the men smile because of how serious they looked but it was obvious that was a bad joke.
We all sat there in silence, with nothing else to say and I had no clue what I could say to break the ice. I was afraid of making the environment frosty again.
“Your training starts tomorrow.” Dad said and made to leave, getting up on his feet.
Kevin’s head snapped to him, his jaw ticking and I sighed as I realized what was coming next.
“She isn’t training so soon. She almost died.” Kevin said.
Dad shook his head at him. “From what I can see, she is healed. Tomorrow is enough for her to eat, rest more and get her strength back. The men are eager to continue on the journey we’ve paused for two days. If she can travel, she can train.”
“She is not strong enough. I will tell my men that.” Kevin glanced at me and then back at my dad, his eyes hard. “I almost lost her.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, son.” Dad hissed, his anger boiling as well. “I almost lost her too. She is your mate but also my daughter. I love her as much as you do so don’t act like I don’t care about her.”
I sighed as I looked at the two of them and listened to them but unable to look away. I didn’t want them fighting because of me and wished I was still sleeping so I wouldn’t be a witness to this.
“I’m sorry.” Kevin sighed at dad’s words. “I didn’t mean it that way. She was tired because of the training or she would have avoided the knife before it hit her and her healing wouldn’t have been slow if her body wasn’t exhausted already.”
“No,” dad shook his head. “She couldn’t avoid the knife because she lacked the proper flexibility. She took a long time to heal because her body was weak. She needs to train harder to make it stronger so she wouldn’t have issues handling herself in a battle no matter how long she had trained.”
“What do you say, Ella?” Kevin asked, turning to me. “You know how you feel and should decide what you want.”
Right. I didn’t want them to involve me in this and force me to make a choice while they were both staring at me but Kevin was right. I knew how I felt and what I wanted.
I felt horrible and not because I had been bedridden for two days but because I could have let that not happen to me. What did I want? I wanted Kevin to stop worrying about me everytime. Part of me blamed myself for not listening to him when he had said I shouldn’t fight that day but I couldn’t keep doing that.
The men had also trained and sparred with one another and yet they had fought without sustaining injuries. Some of them had even been on night watch duties and hadn’t been able to sleep till they fight.
Dad was right. My body was weaker compared to them and we were closer to the city where there were more possibilities of running into rogue groups.
I had to be stronger to be of more help to any of them. It wouldn’t be good if Kevin was always distracted in battles, worrying of me. I had to be stronger for him and myself too.
“I will go with dad.” I said, my voice a whisper.
“Good choice, daughter.” Dad said and walked out.
I risked a glance at Kevin but he wasn’t looking at me. He looked crestfallen. I hoped he didn’t think that I discarded his worries and chose my dad over him.
I sighed, hoping he would forgive me soon.