A sharp pain shot up her arm, making her flinch and wince. Kharta frowned but didn't stop wrapping bandages around her injured arm. "Stay still," he said in a stern voice, giving Hesi no time or energy to argue.

Her knees still didn't quite work enough to support her weight and her gut still felt like it was being filled all the way with sand. Kharta had thrown a thick blanket around her shoulders back in the royal palace, ushering her past the glistening pool, the lush gardens, and into his quarters. Her clothes were brought in a few minutes later but she couldn't muster enough energy to go back into them and pretend that the events inside the prince's quarters didn't happen.

"What was that?" she blurted, turning to Kharta to find his face closer to hers than necessary. From that distance, she could see the faint dark flecks reflecting the light off his brown eyes. It had been a long time since she saw Kharta's irises but she still couldn't tell what specific color they were. "Why did they hurt the prince?"

A sigh heaved off Kharta as he secured her bandage in place and drifted away from her. "Won't you wear your dress first?"

Hesi gripped the hem of the blanket wrapped around her bare body. "In a while," she said, looking to her feet now caked with dried blood which rained from the walls in the royal palace. "Why would they hurt him?"

"That's the only way to keep him in place," Kharta scratched his stubble and pursed his lips.

"So you knew what was happening there," Hesi narrowed her eyes. "Why didn't you tell me?"

He shook his head. "You're my gamble, remember?" he said. "I figured you wouldn't need to know that since before it goes rabid, you would have slipped the poison already and it'd be sound asleep."

Hesi sank her teeth on her tongue. "Yeah, about that..."

"Why didn't you?" Kharta turned to her in a sharp swing. The edge he honed in his tone wasn't what Hesi wanted to hear from him again. "Why did you wait until it was rampaging around? You could have died."

"You're not my father so stop lecturing me," Hesi snapped then averted her eyes, feeling her shoulders wither away under Kharta's expectant gaze. "I didn't slip the poison," she touched the earring miraculously still dangling from her lobe. Had it been ripped free, it would have been a more painful problem. She wrapped the blanket tighter around herself. "I couldn't."

Kharta's nostrils flared when Hesi looked up to see his reaction. Then, he began pacing. "I can't believe it," he breathed, throwing his arms in the air before letting his fingers twine above his hair. "I just can't."

He faced her and jabbed a finger into her direction. "You had your chance! I don't understand why you chose to blow it!" he shoved his fingers into his hair and, with a groan, mussed it violently. Hesi watched the wavy locks floundering in the air and almost fell sorry for them. "You could have died in there! You could have ended up worse than the other brides. What are you thinking?"

"I couldn't, okay?" Hesi's own voice rose up a notch. "He...he looked like he's having a hard time there as well. I just...I couldn't do anything to him knowing he didn't do anything wrong."

Kharta massaged the bridge of his nose. "It hurt your friends," he said. "Remember that? He and his kind hurt a lot of people. They took over Ser-Tehra and Ser-Djare, killed our families for dinner, and uprooted our civilization. Is that still nothing?"

She shook her head. "He didn't have anything to do with that," she said. "As for hurting the other women, there must be some kind of answer there. I didn't get to ask since he's already trying to melt my face off but I'm certain there's more to him than I let on."

"So that's it?" Kharta asked.

Hesi knitted her eyebrows. "That's what?"

"You're giving up just because..." he bit his lip and shook his head like he couldn't believe this was happening. "Because you feel sorry for the prince?"

She scoffed and crossed her arms underneath the blanket. It almost slipped her mind that she was still naked with a man inside a quiet room. "I'm still going to kill him," she said. "I just need more time."

"Sure you do."

Hesi raised her eyes to meet Kharta's from across the room. "Trust me on this," she said. "I'm still going to kill each and every demon in here. I'm going to hand their heads to you on a silver platter if need be. Just..." she paused and ran a hand down her bandaged arm. "Just not now."

"I get that you're shaken up now," Kharta sighed and dropped next to her again. "But please think about the people you'll be able to help the next time you get a chance to kill the demon. Hell, we might be able to save Ser-Methon if we play our sticks right."

Hesi nodded, her gut twisting at the notion of killing a creature for the first time. It could turn out she wasn't, in fact, ready for this. "Yeah," she whispered. "Yeah, we could."

Silence erupted between them for a long time until Hesi took a deep breath and faced Kharta again. "You mentioned your family," she said. He flicked his gaze towards her and she didn't fail to see a glint of sadness in it. "What happened to them? How did you end up here?"

Kharta chuckled and drove his wavy locks out of his forehead in a quick swipe. "Long story short? The Mayaware raided our village in the middle of the night, took all the women and children, and slaughtered all the men who dared to fight right in front of our eyes," he snorted and bobbed his head. "Imagine a child seeing all that carnage. It's bound to set some...thoughts into his head."

"I know," Hesi said. She gave him a small smile as she tilted her head to regard him better. "I happened to have the same experience."

He raised an eyebrow—a clear invitation that he wanted to know more so she told him everything, from where it started until to the point where it felt like it ended. By the time she finished, a huge lump had blocked her throat. "I could have saved them," she said. "But I just...couldn't. Like I couldn't slip the poison into the prince's food."

She met Kharta's gaze and gave a bitter laugh. "It's like I'm set to always ruin everything."

"No," Kharta said. "You didn't ruin anything. You just...how do I put it? Feel more than those demons do."

Hesi didn't stop the small laugh climbing her throat. "What does that mean?"

"It means that the only difference between humans and these demons is our ability to feel," Kharta said. "Compassion, empathy, hell, even grief—these are what makes us what we are. Without those...we'd be better off killing our own kin and dancing on the blood of our enemies."

She nodded. "So I'm not thoroughly broken. Is that what you're saying?"

Kharta smiled at her, albeit a little too sad for it to be called proper. "We're all broken," he said. "Just in all the different ways."

Hesi didn't know what she was thinking but she leaned forward and pressed her lips to his. She expected him to pull back and reprimand her from kissing him. Instead, his hand found her cheek, his skin warm against hers, and he tilted her head just so he could return the favor better. Sweeter.

The blanket slipped off her shoulders and she let it. Hesi closed her eyes and got lost to the motion of everything. The kiss deepened with Hesi opening her mouth so Kharta could slip his tongue into it. She didn't know what happened but soon, her fingers were lost in his hair and his fingers were already brushing past her breasts and stroking her nipples.

Kharta suddenly broke free from the kiss. Before Hesi could ask what's wrong, he lowered his face to her neck and planted his lips down her jaw. A groan rumbled down from her throat, her toes curling inside as she drew her knees closer to her chest. Then, as fast as lightning, Kharta's hand disappeared into what's left of the blanket around her and brushed against her thigh.

Hesi shivered despite the heat building and building in her stomach, her chest, and the space between her legs. Kharta's lips continued massaging her neck, eliciting more moans from her. When he pulled away from her, she wrapped an arm around his neck to prevent him from moving away from her. "Is that it?" she asked.

Kharta's smile was intoxicating. "No."

Before Hesi could open her mouth to spout another stupid remark, Kharta claimed her lips once more. This time, the kiss was far from gentle. Hunger. Thirst. It was all expressed through the connection sealed by their lips. Soon, Kharta's trousers joined the blanket discarded on the floor. Hesi didn't resist when he laid her down on the floor, driving her hair away from her face and left to snake around her head in a wild storm.

"Are you sure about this?" Kharta asked, laying on top of her.

Hesi chuckled. "You don't even need to ask."

Then, he was inside her. All of him. It was paradise and hell at the same time and as he thrust himself deeper into her, she cried out from the sheer pleasure and pain it tore through her. Her nails dug into his shoulders when he did it again. And again. She was reduced to moans when he kissed her again, rolling his tongue over and over inside her mouth. Hesi didn't fight. Welcomed it, even.

If this was the last night of their lives, it sure was the best one. The night wore on. The heat of their bodies continued to burn brighter for each other. Just burn. And burn. Ashes would be cleaned up tomorrow. But tonight, hell, they're going to burn until there's nothing in their broken vessels left.

Through the unfiltered moans, the fierce grunts, and the warm fire flowing down her legs and tearing an unknown trail inside her, Hesi forced her eyes to remain open and settle on those mysterious brown eyes that could have been black or hazel or something otherworldly...like rubies in a dark tunnel down in the point of no return. It was her undoing. Her condemnation. Her salvation in this cruel prison.

For the rest of the night, she wasn't the Mayaware Prince's bride. She wasn't Hesi Renen. She was just an unknown girl living her life inside a dark room and on a cold floor with a man who looked out for her more than she did herself. Maybe this wasn't love or maybe it was but whatever this thread of fire tied around their hearts and pulled them ever so closer, it was something Hesi hoped wouldn't get torn apart like flesh and blood. Forever. She wished this could last forever.

She prayed—to the gods without arms and eyes watching from the heavens and to the darkness of the void people know to be fate. It was all she could do to keep her soul tethered to the ground and to fully bind to the person getting his own fulfillment with her.

For whatever this was to be stronger than steel for it to be lasting like the sea, the sun, and the desert around them and for it to sweep them away into the paradise of their own doing until they disappear completely.

Hesi Renen prayed. She prayed for it to last forever.