Chapter 43
The next morning, Tina opened her eyes to the familiar sight of her own bed. One thing was different from before, and it was that she could feel the breath of Rus right beside her, watching her.
“…Rus.”
Tina turned her head and met the bright yellow eyes that must have been fixed on her all along.
As if he’d been waiting for her to wake, Rus nudged his head beneath the crook of her arm.
“Ngh.”
Tina tried to reach out but winced. Her body, battered from the previous night, refused to cooperate.
Rus whimpered anxiously at her small sound of pain, then began licking up her arm.
“Sorry, I’m fine.”
At that gentle behavior, the previous night surfaced unbidden in Tina’s mind, and she pulled her arm away. There was no connection whatsoever, and yet every time she moved her fingers, the dazzlingly white nights Cain had given her came flooding back, and remembering those moments in front of Rus felt deeply inappropriate.
Instead, Tina rolled onto her side and stroked Rus’s fur gently. In truth, she wanted to pull him up onto the bed and hold him close, but the child had grown to the size of her bed by now, wrapping him in one arm was simply impossible.
A peaceful moment passed. Watching Rus’s contented expression, Tina moved her hand lower, lightly scratching where the fur thinned near his neck and Rus shivered faintly with pleasure and closed his eyes.
‘Hm?’
But then her fingertips brushed against something unfamiliar. On the upper right side of his shoulder, there was a shallow, sunken mark different from the surrounding skin. It wasn’t swollen enough to be an insect bite, and the tooth marks were too small and faint to have been left by a beast.
As the question began to bloom quietly in her mind, Tina suddenly recalled the events of the previous night.
How she’d clung to Cain, begging him to stay. How she’d bitten his neck, leaving a mark, to make sure he would.
Those thoughts drifted, link by link, until they reached the spot on Rus’s neck that her hand was touching right now. And when she finally allowed herself the thought… ‘What if?’ She recoiled and withdrew her hand in her shock.
‘Have you lost your mind?’
Tina told herself as much. It was an absurd thought. Of course it was. What on earth was she connecting to what?
When her touch abruptly stopped, Rus looked straight up at Tina with his large eyes. The instant their gazes met, she flinched in spite of herself.
‘That’s impossible. I must be going mad.’
She stared at Rus before her and desperately tried to steady her heart. But a thought, once surfaced, doesn’t easily vanish, no matter how many times she told herself otherwise, the doubt only grew sharper.
Where had Rus been during all those nights she’d spent with Cain? Where had she thought he was? Was she truly certain that assumption was correct?
The deeper her thoughts ran, the more rigid her expression became.
“Rus… were you, last night… where did you—”
She was on the verge of voicing her impossible suspicion for the very first time.
Then, without warning, a commotion erupted outside the window. Voices rose louder and louder. The question was still unresolved in her mind, but now clearly wasn’t the time to pursue it.
‘What’s going on?’
Tina carefully sat up and moved to the window. What she saw made her draw a sharp breath.
Officers in black uniforms stood at the entrance of the estate. Long swords hung at their waists, and they were speaking to the servants beside their tethered horses.
The unexpected sight froze her in place. Her hands trembled where they gripped the windowsill, and her heart began hammering beneath her ribs.
‘Why are there officers here?’
A sense of foreboding slithered down the back of her neck, stealing her breath. The mountain estate was far removed from the village. Whenever something happened, it was always the estate’s people who traveled down to town. Officers coming all the way up here was exceedingly rare.
Their mere arrival was already an omen that something terrible had occurred.
“Rus, stay hidden inside and don’t move. Or if it looks like someone’s coming this way, sneak out like you’re going for a walk. For now… it’s better if no one sees you.”
Tina turned back quickly and spoke to Rus. Once she saw him blink as if he understood, she did something she had almost never done before. She headed for the main house without being summoned.
Something was clearly about to unfold.
Discussion
0 CommentsNo comments yet.