Chapter 391: I’ll Die
As he spoke, Aria could not help the faint hint of a smile that lingered at the corner of her lips.
The pain she currently felt was unreal, sharp and deep, and she knew that she could instantly wash it away if she allowed her ability to flow over her instead of holding it back.
Something she wouldn’t have known was possible until she felt it straining inside her, pushing gently, almost desperately, to return.
It was funny to Aria, in a distant and hollow way, especially since she no longer needed it anymore.
"We both know you never cared about the baby. Not once did you care about it," she said, her voice low but audible despite its weakness.
"You almost sounded like you were scared of it. You wanted me to..."
"I care about you, so of course I cared about the—"
But Aria didn’t let him finish as she snapped, her voice rising as she yelled at him in anger.
"If you cared about me, you wouldn’t have cut me open!" she cried, hating the hot tears that instantly began to stream down her face.
"I was trying to save your life!" he said quickly, about to say more, only to pause when Aria suddenly began to cough.
A deep frown appeared on his face when he noticed the dark specks of blood she coughed out, staining her lips.
That meant she was internally bleeding.
She coughed again as new pain wracked her body, jerking upright as she tried to fight the cough back, her fingers tightening weakly against the sheets, only for it to worsen.
"...so your suffering is the best way to go?" Zyren asked, genuine confusion and curiosity on his face.
"How does this help anyone?" he asked, taken aback, when a slow smile began to spread across her face.
There was something slightly crazed in her expression now, her eyes bright with pain and something darker.
"Who loves someone but lies to them? Then goes ahead and cuts them open?" she asked.
Zyren responded calmly, doing his best to reason with her, understanding—at least from his perspective—that it was nothing more than grief clouding whatever else she could feel.
He hated how muted his own emotions were, and how even now he was simply processing the best way to get her to heal herself and all the proper things he had to say.
Isn’t this love? he wondered.
He was aware that the previous him would simply have dragged Rymora in and ordered Aria to heal herself—or he would have sliced her and the baby open without hesitation.
I have improved. I’ve gotten better, he told himself, almost firmly.
But it soon became clear that Aria didn’t feel the same way about him.
"You... you don’t know what love is!" she told him coldly.
She ignored the flicker of hurt that slid into Zyren’s eyes as she spoke. She didn’t stop, even as her breathing became more uneven and labored.
"You can never know what it means! You just see me as something you own! Something that belongs to you!"
A broken, humorless sound escaped her, something close to a laugh, a strange kind of mirth in her voice as tears continued to slide down her face, anger and sadness tangling together.
"...the only thing you care about is your possession not being stolen away from you. Well, good news..." she said, coughing lightly and ignoring the metallic taste of blood spreading across her tongue.
"I have no intention of healing myself. You can sit here all you want... you can say whatever..."
She ground her teeth as she spoke, forcing the words out through pain.
"...but it won’t change my mind. Maybe before you cut me open without my permission, you should have asked if I wanted to live!"
Her voice became more hysterical, strained and uneven, but Zyren knew he was damned if he dared point it out.
Instead, he stepped closer with a severe expression and sat beside her bed. He lowered his gaze and tried to slide his hands into hers, his movements careful.
She jerked her hands away immediately, a look of scorn flashing across her face.
It was the most resistance she could muster without revealing how hard she was forcing herself to stay awake.
"...I will die," she declared, saying it like a fact she had already accepted.
"I will die, and maybe—just maybe—you will know some kind of pain!"
Even speaking was becoming too much. Each breath hurt, each word dragging against her throat as the pain worsened, heavy exhaustion pressing down on her, tempting her to simply close her eyes.
It didn’t help that Savira refused to give her anything stronger for the pain in case it worsened her condition—especially since she clearly had no intention of healing herself.
"...I doubt you can even shed a tear," Aria whispered, her voice barely audible, so faint that only Zyren’s heightened senses allowed him to hear it.
"You won’t die," Zyren replied, his gaze fixed on her in that calm, steady manner that always angered her.
This time, she was beyond anger.
"...well, this time it pleases me greatly that you won’t get what you want," she said, smiling wider than before.
The smile revealed blood along her teeth and lips.
Zyren immediately jumped to his feet and called for Savira.
Savira hurried in, a worried expression already on her face.
Whatever was happening, it was clearly bad—and she could already feel that she was caught right in the middle of it.
"She’s bleeding!" Zyren said sharply, pointing out what Savira had already seen the moment she entered.
Savira quickly pulled a potion bottle from her bag and moved to Aria’s side, carefully lifting her head and feeding it to her.
Aria didn’t resist.
She swallowed it easily, more than aware that the potion was only a temporary measure.
Soon after taking it, her eyelids grew heavy.
Her breathing slowed.
She drifted toward sleep.
Savira let out a quiet breath of relief, glancing toward the drawn curtains to make sure no sunlight slipped through before she began to speak.
"There’s only so much the potions can do. Aria healing herself is still the best possible solution in all of this," she said carefully.
She knew Zyren was already aware of that, but she still felt the need to say it aloud.
Zyren’s gaze, however, was anything but gentle.
His eyes remained fixed on Aria’s pale face, on the rise and fall of her chest, watching for any change.
Then, without looking at Savira, he gestured toward the door.
Savira didn’t hesitate.
She followed him out immediately.
