The Devil's Warrior Queen
Chapter 287: Fallacies And Fantasies

Chapter 287: Fallacies And Fantasies

Still, the sweet lie you told yourself was easier than the bitter truth others told you, wasn’t it? So yes, he surrendered to the fallacies in his head, they were easier to accept and consoling from the harsh reality.

She didn’t remember him now, so perhaps he could win her heart when she was still trapped in oblivion. He lied to himself, drowning in his fallacies and fantasies.

He was well aware that the moment Draco would awaken from his slumber, it would be undebatably over for him and every effort he put into making his delusions an inconceivable reality would be over.

But hoping even though there was barely a chance seemed better than accepting defeat without a fight, moreover seeing her eyes well up with tears melted his resolve to give her up.

Meanwhile, Rama was torn in a world of confusion at Dalen’s confusing mood. She figured he might still be in a state of shock or at the teetering edge of unconsciousness, but he appeared to be wide awake and fully conscious.

The air suddenly went awash with stillness as they stood facing each other, eyes locked with an extreme intensity that mostly radiated from his gleaming silver eyes as they bore into her confused ones.

In the next heartbeat, as if unable to control his pent up emotions, he pulled her into his embrace, enveloping her small frame into his bigger one as his hand wound around her to rest on the small of her back. She wasn’t aware a place could get any more silent than that until then when he hugged her.

She froze in his embrace, her body stiffened under his hold, her breath paused and if she could make it happen, her heart would stop beating too.

Tensed in his hold, her eyes darted around as if searching for an escape route to break out of his embrace, but rather she stayed stiff as he seemed to be going through some sort of emotional breakdown.

Her eyes twitched when she realized that it was because of her or assumably because of his unspoken feelings for her. If her observatory instincts weren’t wrong, then he was most likely harbouring feelings for her? She pondered within herself, but even she wasn’t quite certain.

There could be a possibility that she was reading everything in the wrong way, but the thought of her theory being valid made her edgy.

If he indeed was harboring feelings for her, then he would certainly be expecting her to reciprocate back his feelings even in the slightest, but how could she when she didn’t feel any slight pinch of romantic interest in her heart for him?

Concluding within herself that it was best to act oblivious and turn a blind eye to his feelings, she kept her lips sealed.

But at the moment, it was only right to lend him a shoulder to lean on, after all he had almost died. The least she could do was treat him as nicely as she possibly could.

Slowly and hesitantly, she wrapped her arms around his torso and gently patted his back, while she rested her head on his chest as she relaxed in his hold. His scent suddenly evaded her nostrils, a mixture of olive and flowers, a weird combination but soothing.

She refrained from telling him that they had been latched in the embrace for a long time now, so she endured even as much as she wanted to escape from the awkward moment, but she couldn’t so she let him be.

After some time, seconds which felt like hours, she felt an expanding, sticky wet liquid beneath her palm which was resting on his back.

Confused, she jerked back, breaking from the embrace as she retracted her hands to look at it. Her brows furrowed tightly as her eyes narrowed to the blood smeared on her palms.

"You’re bleeding out!" She exclaimed as she hastily scurried behind him to see blood seeping through the crimson stained bandages.

"Ahh, I see." He mumbled nonchalantly as he stood in front of a mirror to see his blood seeping into the white bandage.

While Rama’s eyes widened in horror, his expression was rather indifferent as he peeled the thin cloth off his body to reveal a lean, muscular body with a bandage wrapped around his midriff and back.

She darted her eyes away, but she couldn’t leave him in that state when he was bleeding out so much to the extent he could lose his consciousness.

"There’s an ointment that Aurora brewed for your injuries. I can help apply it and I’ll change your dressing." She implied.

"I’ll do it myself." He said in a lazy tone as he slowly removed the bandage.

"Stop being so stubborn and let me help, you can’t do it yourself anyway." She insisted as she gestured for him to sit down.

With a reluctant groan, he nodded as he sat down at the edge of the bed.

Slowly and gently, she peeled off the blood soaked bandage to reveal the gory wound. Her face subconsciously twisted into a grimace and fear suddenly flooded her eyes as she looked at the wound from up close.

She swallowed as her blood curdled, wondering how on earth he had survived the deep laceration that stretched from the right side of his shoulder down to his waist line with a severe slash.

She was certain a human wouldn’t survive the wound, it was too critical, but even a being like him should have been unconscious by now even from the amount of blood he had lost already.

"If you can’t do it, call someone else." His low voice snapped her back to reality as she fluttered her lashes.

"I’ll do it." She said impulsively, biting down her lower lip to prevent it from shaking so much.

Firstly, she cleaned up the wound with hesitation, but he didn’t flinch even though she knew it would be agonizing to merely have such a large wound covering half of his broad back, he was suppressing his suffering in silence.

As gently as she could, she applied the ointment on the deep incision. She closed her eyes partly the moment it would drop into the wound, she couldn’t even imagine the agony he was going through, yet he swallowed the pain without a word, although a few times, he had hissed in pain.

Finally, she wound the bandage around his midriff and back to cover up the wound properly. Throughout, goosebumps manifested on her cold skin, and after she was done cleaning and dressing up his blood curdling wound, she sighed in relief.

She helped him into a loose, silk shirt and then, a moment of silence reigned.

"Thank you." He said with a strained voice, breaking the silence.

"Just have some rest, will you? And don’t move around, I think that’s what caused the bleeding." She pointed and he simply nodded.

She sighed drearily, wondering how badly the injury was at first if the elixir Aurora had brewed barely healed it completely.

"You should get some rest too, I’ll be fine." Dalen said as he struggled to lie on the bed.

"Don’t die in your sleep." She quipped sarcastically even though she was concerned.

"I won’t." He chuckled softly at her dark humor and she bid him goodnight before exiting the room.

She was worried, scared and nervous that something awry might go wrong if she didn’t watch over him, but she knew he was stronger than he appeared to be, still it didn’t subside her concern for him, so she was looking forward to seeing him first thing in the morning. Hopefully, he would be alive.

Sleepily, she moved to the direction of her room when she heard a familiar soothing voice ring from behind her. It didn’t matter how randomly the voice rang, it could never give her a jumpscare, it was always calm.

"Aurora." She called as she turned around to meet her.

"Do you never sleep?" Rama pointed out jokingly and she chuckled lightly.

"Well, it depends." She murmured with a shrug.

"You always hang around in the corridors, is it because of intruders so that the Castle is not taken unaware by them?" Rama queried.

"Intruders are the least of my worries, we are living in a powerful fortress with an unbreakable shield, only a handful have the power to break through it, but luckily they aren’t our foes." Aurora said nonchalantly.

"The Vampires, isn’t it?" Rama remarked.

Rather than giving her a response, she flashed her a knowing smile "Where you off to bed already?"

"Yes, Dalen was awake, his wound is still very severe despite the tonic you brewed for him. He was bleeding out, but he’s fine now." Rama said.

"He should be the least of your worries too, he’ll be perfectly fine before you know it." Aurora said confidently.

"Still, it was very critical, I think my concern is valid and you should be too." Rama remarked.

"Dalen most certainly will not die by a mere sword wound, he’s stronger than you think." Aurora said with a half hearted smile.

"He isn’t just a white witch, is he?"

"He’s also a dark witch." She revealed.