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Linh lowered her arms so she could hug her midsection. Cheeks and nose swollen from tears, her wet lips quivered. Her small shoulders shook violently from unhidden sobs as shekeeled forward, her long ponytails slipping over her shoulders to hang in front of her chest.

Despite his heart twisting in pity for her, Nathair did nothing. He didn’t touch her, didn’t try to comfort her, nor did he try to speak.

None of these things would aid her current state.

“I love my parents so much, but I hate them... I hate them for being who they are, for being so important. I hate that the reason I was taken was to control them, and therefore the entire village. And Ihatemyself... I hate myself for wishing I wasn’t their daughter because it meant I wouldn’t have needed saving. That it wasn’tmewho needed to suffer. He told me I was lucky I was beautiful because it meant I would be treated special. But... but that meant...”

Linh shook her head and buried her forehead against her knees.

“I can’t. I can’t say it,” she cried, as a sharp gust of wind brushed around them. As if weak, or subconsciously using it as an excuse, she fell to the side until her body lay against his chest. “I-I’m sorry. I just... thank you so much for caring a-about me. I don’t mean to blame you for something that isn’t your fault, but I just wish, with all my heart, that I had met you sooner.”

Nathair wrapped his arms around her and used a hand to lift her face to his. He nudged the end of his snout against her tear-stained cheek, giving her the affection she obviously sought, and to let her know it was okay.

He, too, wished he could go back in time and prevent the parasites from harming her soul, her heart. To be her shield. But Nathair could not do this – his magic was limited to the constraints of reality. He could bend his own Mavka essence, but there was little more he could do, and everything came with a sacrifice.

He pulled back so she could see him sign. “I am here now.” Her brows waved in distress, as if that wasn’t enough to stop her pain. “I am sorry for you, but I can only protect now.”

“I know,” she cried, shaking her head. “I don’t mean to sound selfish. I know I probably sound–”

Nathair squished her cheeks to quieten her before letting go to talk with both hands. “Stop. I don’t need your sorry.” She gave him a hiccup, but he was thankful her tears seemed to be ebbing. “I cannot protect you from the past, but I can help you.”

“Help how?” Her brows drew together as more liquid brimmed in her eyes. “You can’t erase the past, what’s happened to me.”

“Heal your mind and heart,” he signed.

I cannot change what has happened, but maybe I can help her forget. And, when she remembers, she focuses on me like how I focus on her to keep the fragments at bay.Both their minds were unwell, both difficult battles to face.

Both unlikely to ever be permanently fixed.

But if they could be a support to lean on for each other when their minds rotted in decay, wouldn’t that be... comforting? They may end up hurting each other, but so long as they remembered it came from a place of confusion, disorientation, and pain, and forgave it, then their bond would be strong. They’d need affection and reassurance constantly to battle the darkness they both harboured within, so that any toxicity they brought forth was healed within the warmth of tenderness.

She may be volatile with her emotions, but it would never compare to the life-ending violence he could wield within a second. If she was willing to forgive the craze of his fragments, there would be very little she could do to hurt him, unless she wanted him to destroy every male within a kilometre radius of her.

He didn’t think she’d do that, though. Hurt him with other males, or even females.

“It’s not that easy, Nathair,” Linh argued as she pushed off him to sit up. “You can’t just snap your fingers and make me feel better.”

She folded her legs under her backside and placed her face into her hands again. Seeing her distressed burned a cold hole in his chest. He prodded her on the shoulder again to inform her he wished to speak. She peeked at him over her fingertips.

“I know it will not be e-a-s-y,” he signed, as his sight deepened in its blue hue. “But isn’t it better than thinking you are a-l-o-n-e?”

Linh crawled off him with agitated movements, just as the clouds finally shaded the sunlight. Soon, Demons would come to inspect them, and he’d been hoping to ward them off with her upon his coils.

“What do you even want with me?” Linh half-cried, half-yelled at him. Nathair reared his head back, unsure of what he’d done to deserve being shouted at. “Why are you here, protecting me, caring for me? You make me do all those...thingswith you.”

His sight flared red in anger at what she was insinuating.“I don’t make you do a-n-y-t-h-i-n-g you don’t want to.”

“I don’t know if you’re planning to just eat me when you’re ready or if you’re just pretending to be nice to get me to have sex with you! There’s literally no other reason for anything you do.”

Unable to contain the flare of rage that crushed around his heart, he darted his hand forward. He gripped her cheeks and brought her closer until the rounded end of his snout brushed her nose. He didn’t squeeze her, but his hold was meant to be possessive, demanding, and showing he was no longerpleased.

Her eyes widened as a quiet, waving hiss climbed up the back of his throat. His fangs dropped to rest against his forked tongue, and venom dripped from them slowly.

He shocked her enough into shutting up, her lips snapping closed, but she didn’t smell of fear.Good.He would have been upset if she’d shown that she couldn’t trust him after stating something so callous.

Twisting his head, getting his point across that he wouldn’t tolerate her saying he was so unfeeling, or disgusting, he let her go. He pulled back, his shoulders rolling superiorly, and his reddened glow remaining.

“I can ask you the same.” His fingers were more pointed in his gestures, his movements sharper and harder to show his anger. “Why do you c-r-a-w-l into my arms every night? Why do you desire me? I am Mavka, and you’re a human.”