A few hours had passed, and Xenia was starting to feel feverish as the heat began to get to her. She had no idea what was happening anymore, the only thing being that she was in front of her very sexy mate, who was also starting to suffer from the extreme heat.
“This is… not good…” Darius whispered out. “We’re… losing fluids really quickly…”
Xenia wanted to speak, but she couldn’t. She felt so weak. And while she almost wanted to leave the shack and finally taste the sweet relief of the early winter cold, she could barely even move her neck up from her hunched down position.
“You… You okay there?”
She took in a few scalding breaths, her lungs burning from the combination of heat and sulfur wreaking havoc on her body. Weakly, she managed to utter, “Still… fine…”
“Don’t… be afraid to quit…” Darius reminded her, his own breaths becoming more labored with each word. “I can… overrule Osman… if need be…”
Barely managing to look up, Xenia could make out the fact that Darius was panting hard. Her eyes had adjusted to the constant steam, at least, which made it ever more harder for her to ignore her mate’s ravishing physique. Not that it even affected her anymore.
The novelty of being sweaty and alone with him lost its luster after the first hour. Sure, before that, she was honestly getting hot and bothered being alone with him in such a cramped shack with nobody to even see what they could be doing. They could’ve started making love then, but Darius thankfully took his celibacy potion, which probably prevented yet a bigger catastrophy of them being on the verge of dehydration.
“You both okay in there?!”
Hearing Osman call out to them, Xenia knew that yet another hour had just passed. It was something that she managed to call out after the first few checks on them, what with her doing everything that she could to distract herself from the pain of the heat around her.
“We’re… fine…” Darius answered for her. “But we’re starting to reach our limit…”
“Oh? Even you, Your Majesty?” Osman curiously asked from the outside. “I would’ve thought that it’s a relaxing experience.”
“It was… until it wasn’t…” Darius grunted out in annoyance. “Don’t… test me…”
At that, Osman retreated to wherever it was that he stayed at while he was waiting for them. Xenia could only weakly grunt out her own annoyance. She heard that hint of amusement from the admiral’s voice. For sure, this was what he planned to happen in the first place. She didn’t know why, but she could guess that what they were doing was probably a legal form of torture the admiral used against his enemies.
“I’m going… to kill that man… if he keeps gloating…” Darius grunted, his fingers starting to clasp tightly against his own knuckles. “He probably planned this…”
Xenia gave out a glare of her own, hoping that she managed to portray her own annoyance at the man that subjected them to that torture. There was a training, and there was torture, and surely this counted as the latter.
“Heh… Too weak to even speak there, Xen?” Darius weakly scoffed. “Remember, tell me if you can’t take it anymore…”
Xenia barely managed to roll her eyes as she slouched on the bench. She couldn’t care less if she looked as lousy as a drunk at the moment. The only thing that mattered was that she survived this. The smell of sulfur must’ve already stuck to her skin at this point, and she could only hope that any poisonous effects it might have would be survivable enough for her to get it treated with Darius’s blood.
***
“It’s getting dark out here,” Osman chimed in, marking yet another hour of them being cooked alive in this torture box. “One more and you can get out, Princess.”
Xenia let out a small smile. She could barely feel her own body anymore with how weak she felt. She had probably already a lost a ton of fluid, and her throat somehow felt wet and dry at the same time with how thirsty she was.
“Endure… Xen… Endure…”
In front of her, Darius had somehow stuck by her. She knew that he could’ve gone out at any time that he wanted, but he still stayed, commiserating with her as they both roasted in their own sweat.
With her voice utterly failing her, Xenia could only communicate with her eyes as she gave him a pointed stare. She had tried telling him to leave her, but he was stubborn enough to stay, much to her chagrin.
“Don’t… give me that look…” Darius whispered out. “We can do this…”
Blinking, Xenia laid motionless as she waited for time. What seemed like seconds ticked by as she felt herself wasting away. Still, she endured. If not for herself, but for the man that stayed beside her to keep her company.
“And… Time!”
Almost immediately, Darius moved, scooping her out from her bench and practically kicking the door open. She shivered as the cold night air rushed in, her weak body too used to the heat to quickly adapt to the sudden change in temperature.
“Osman! Cover her up!”
Xenia didn’t know what happened after that. She felt so weak, but she managed to gulp as she felt her lips get wet with lukewarm water. The night sky felt so far from her now, all while they moved to what she could only assume to be the cabin. She wanted to speak, but it was no use… She was too parched to speak…
“Stay with me, Xen…”
Another bout of wetness touched her lips. This time, it felt warmer than the water as she greedily drank it anyway. The faraway taste of iron should’ve told her that she was drinking in Darius’s blood, but she didn’t care. She felt too weak to even try and stay awake.
She just wanted to rest.
“It’s okay… You’ve done enough…”
Xenia smiled as she closed her eyes. At least her ears were still working properly…
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