For a moment, Iris stared at the scenery before her eyes. The sound of the waterfall was no longer as irritating as before. She let the warmth of the sunlight wash over her.
With so many things that happened, Iris felt like she had gone through a thousand nights, instead of one, which was true for her in some way, since she walked through the first Serafim’s memory lane worth years of her own life.
The lycan shifted back into his human form and knelt beside her. Cane looked so exhausted and pale. Iris had never seen him in such a condition before.
"Cane?" Iris wanted to make sure it was him and not Lu, as she took his hand. It felt warm against her skin and she sighed in relief. "Are you okay?" She caressed his cheek and he leaned into her touch, while closing his eyes, savoring this peaceful moment.
"I think I am in dire need of sleep," Cane said in a small voice, but then his eyes flew open and stared at Iris deeply. "Are you okay?" He straightened his back, feeling odd with the way Iris looked at him.
"Hm." Iris nodded as a reply, but there were tears in her eyes.
"What happened? Are you feeling pain somewhere?" Despite his lethargic state, Cane looked on alert when he saw tears streaming down her cheek. "What happened?" He demanded, as he wiped her tears.
Her skin felt so cold, probably because she had been in the open area in a thin layered dress for a whole afternoon and night. He was afraid she would start to get sick easily again. Recently, her health had improved and she didn’t get sick so often.
"Everything will be fine, it’s over." Cane leaned over and kissed her cold lips. He took off his outer shirt and draped it around her shoulders. It wouldn’t help much, but at the very least, it would add more layers to her thin dress.
Meanwhile, Iris kept staring at him and this was so strange for Cane. He wanted to know whether she was all right, but she wouldn’t say anything.
"Let’s go back," Cane said, he was about to stand up, but Iris pulled him down again and smiled at him. "What is it, Iris?" He wanted to growl when she still didn’t say anything.
He tried to look for injuries, but aside from the blood of that man, he couldn’t smell any blood on her, not even her own. Or was it because of the black magic spell that Lady Cyan attacked her with, it was not something visible? "Iris, I will lose my patience if you don’t say anything."
"I love your voice," Iris blurted out, smiling through her tears. "Please, talk more..." But, instead of talking, Cane went silent upon hearing what she said and this made her pull at his sleeve impatiently. "I want to hear your voice, why don’t you say something?"
Iris didn’t know there was such a comforting sound like Cane’s voice. In Na’s memories, she could hear people talking and how things sounded, and everything was so fascinating and new for her.
If he could, he wanted this moment to freeze, so they could savor each other’s presence a little bit longer and forget about the predicament that would come to them after this.
The King was dead, the Alpha from the Red Claw pack was dead, hundreds of royal warriors were dead. Sir Elijah and Leon as well.
So many deaths happened in such a short period of time and Cane didn’t have the energy to think of the solution for them to come out of this mess unscathed.
The lycan had drained his energy. He felt like he wanted to abandon everything and take Iris with him somewhere else, where no one would ever bother them. Of course, it was only a fleeting thought that would never materialize.
"I can hear now, Cane. I can do something else, you have to know that I have this power..." Iris rambling was cut short when Cane leaned over to kiss her lips and put his hand on the back of her head.
For a moment there, Iris returned to her chattering self and it had been a while since Cane saw this side of her. He should admit, this one was his favorite side of hers.
"Don’t go, Iris. Whoever that man was, don’t go with him..." Cane said softly against her lips.
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