Heart Of Stone - Episode 27&28

 

HEART OF STONE

Heart Of Stone - Episode 27&28

 (..Sold•To•The•Pit•Of•Hell..)

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No part of this publication may be reproduced, copied, or reposted in any form, or by any means without a written permission from the author.

Copyright © 2025.

By: Naomi Cindy B.

★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★

Even after the unfunny warning and the short time limit, the evil couple still stood there, staring back at Ryker like he just said a language they didn't understand.

Despite the high agonizing cries of Granny Jojo and Pearl, they didn't move, and the threat is far from fake cos as the seconds counted, their bleedings got heavier.

As for Pearl, she might be crying and bleeding like crazy, but somewhere inside her, she's glad that the bullet came from Ryker.

It came from HIM, and she's going to cherish this bullet for the rest of her life. To her, it's his first gift to her.

She could smell him, his dark doom scent with a mixture of wet petals scent from his spring pool.

She could feel him so bad, and even as she bled, she got ar0used.

Now two minutes are gone, and both Jojo and Pearl herself already lost two litres of blood and still pouring.

Ryker stood there, looking like a calamitous foreshadow of death beside the bed. His robe is slightly bloody from all the blood he has spilled tonight, and his eyes are still that shade of unquenchable anger.

The barrel is still with him. He's still not relenting as he glared back at the couple.

Royal guards ran into the room—three of them.

"The twins, they lost consciousness already!" They reported.

"They...did?" Azura gasped.

"Blood! There's blood everywhere!" They said, their fears rubbing off on the couple.

"Zeke! The pass!" Azura said.

"What are you talking about! We're going to bow?" Zeke faced her.

"You heard me, the pass!!" Azura yelled.

Zeke looked at Ryker, and he could feel his own pride getting thwarted as he spread his palm forward.

The pass appeared in form of a black card with a white skull drawing.

Through the air, he sent it to Ryker who caught it and vanished from the chamber immediately.

--

[Land Of The Condemned]

Darkness. Darkness. Darkness.

Nothing else is here except hovering shadows of wraiths 

There's no structure, no form, no water, ground or plants or stones. It's just empty. A void space.

Ryker appeared in the air, his brows curving in a tight knot as he took in his surroundings, trying to get his bearings and have a feel of it.

Shayla was sent here in a coffin, so it's either she's somewhere in the air, or the wraiths got a hold of her.

If it's the second one, then it'd be harder to get back cos the wraiths here are spirits of the people he killed—innocent and guilty, and their resentment against him is so strong that he's already feeling it in his core.

He tried using his ears, but nothing came. She might be unconscious, but at least he should be able to hear her faint heartbeats.

He got nothing, so he moved forward, swirling with the cold air.

"My Lord!" Shayla's small voice alerted him behind

He sharply turned around.

His toe-ring shone bright, providing the needed amount of light.

Shayla stood there in the air, smiling her usual bright smile at him. Her clothes are clean—free of blood, and her hair is well kept—silky.

"My Lord, did you come for me?" She smiled again, her full lips parting as she stretched her arm forward.

"Here, let's go back."

Ryker moved to her, giving the hand a stare before rolling his eyes back to her face, carefully.

"Is there a problem, My Lord?" She talked again, and Ryker decided to answer that one with his dagger.

He pulled it out of nowhere, stabbing her chest with the blade and making sure everything went in.

She shattered to white ashes, giving away the disguise as she disappeared with the air.

It's not her, just her image that's formed by the resentment of this place to fool him.

Ryker looked at the dagger, then forward again. The knot between his brows grew, and the more he moved, the colder he got.

It's like someone is increasing the level of the coldness here, and he's not surprised.

This place hates him, so the wraiths are going to use his greatest weakness against him—the cold.

"My Lord!" Shayla's voice interrupted his search again, and he looked beside him to see her.

She looks same as the first one, but she's not smiling. She's crying.

"Please take me out of here! Please please... it's too cold in here...I want to go home, i—"

That was the end of her sentence cos Ryker threw his dagger to her chest, and she blasted to ashes just like the first image.

Now it's getting annoying.

Whatever game the wraiths are playing here, there has to be a stop to it. He's a patient god, but this is his breaking point.

He grabbed his dagger again, but the wraiths began whispering in his ears.

Misleading, discouraging things.

"You'll never be able to find her."

"You shouldn't have come here."

"How could you enter a land full of resentment from people you've killed."

"You have no idea what you just entered."

The more sentences he heard, the colder he got. Ice carpets are starting to form on his skin, but that wasn't enough to stop his search.

If anything, he got more adamant.

He's not supposed to get wounded here. If he does, the resentment seeps deeper into him, but he doesn't care about that at the moment.

He used the dagger on himself, cutting his palm and splashing his own blood around.

Sensing his blood, the place took form. Grounds appeared, rivers mountains, trees and forests, skies.

A red glow of light peered from the open sky too.

Ryker landed gently on the ground, concentrating on his ears again.

He heard faint heartbeats, and he traced it to one of the caved mountains.

Entering, the cave, his steps halted.

Sitting pointedly on top of a wooden pike is the coffin, but there are wraiths surrounding it.

He could see their shadows crossing and mingling on the coffin body, and they started talking again.

"Thanks to your sweet blood, we had a meal after centuries of starving, why not give us more?"

"Do you even know what wounding yourself here means?"

Ryker looked at his palm. It's not healing like his other wounds.

"Of course it won't heal, you shouldn't have gotten wounded here, Ryker!" A husky wraith voice said.

"Too noisy!" Ryker snapped, moving with the wind to get to the pike. 

He was attacked by the shadow wraiths, but he fought back heads-on, tumbling and turning. 

His wounded palm seemed to be drawing strength from his chest, and it's exhausting him fast, so he cut himself again.

He didn't splash the blood like the first time. He brought the cut to his lips and sucked on his own blood.

"You're as unbelievable as they say!"

"Using your own blood to fight your exhaustion? You're a stubborn one, Ryker!"

"You might be fine now, but you'll never be able to get out of it when you leave this place! Two wounds means more agony for you!"

"Even your demigod status won't save you! Ryker Morozov!"

The voices of the wraiths got louder as Ryker sucked his own blood till he was content.

His ice grew in insurmountable sizes from the ground. The insane coldness and the ice water sent the wraiths away. Their shadows escaped the cave on their own.

Ryker finally had access to the coffin, but just as he was about to open, someone else popped out of a corner in the cave.

Jude.

"I knew you'd come, and here you are. Thanks for chasing the shadow wraiths away, but she's mine to take home." He muttered, his eyes sheening with both desire and superiority.

He dashed Ryker with a hit, strong and powerful.

Ryker knowingly waited for the hit, allowing it to touch him. He didn't even shake, but he could feel the energy of the FrostOrb in the hit.

"You absorbed power from the FrostOrb." He said, looking up at Jude who threw him a scoff.

"I wanted to take you as a brother even when you aren't really my brother, but you never wanted it. And that's why you gave me headache that night when I was with her at the bleak corridor!" 

"Now that I think about it, I should have killed you. It's less painful than headache." Ryker replied simply, voice running deep.

"What!"

"You Millions Family are never pure or kind. You're either greedy like your parents, hateful like the twins, pretentious like Jojo, or lustful like the blind Pearl. I've been waiting for you to share their sins for long, but I never knew you have your own different sin. Mad Desire for what doesn't belong to you." Ryker listed, his lips and chin so wet with his own deeply red blood.

"Doesn't belong to me?" Jude laughed. "Buying her with your own money means nothing. She belongs to the family, and I am part of the family, so if I say I want her, I'll get her. I am the one who healed the wound you gave her on the tummy. The twins once broke my legs just because they know how I feel about her, and I'm the same person who covered her with my expensive jacket when she slept on the bare ground of the Slaves Hall corridor! Tell me, what have you ever done? You only know how to hurt and kill and shed blood!" Jude snarled, breathing getting heavy.

"That's a pretty long list" Ryker smirked arrogantly. "Do you want me to go on my knees for thanks?"

"Get out of my way, I'm taking her. There are several nonhumans cities apart from Luminaria. I'll take her to one of them and we'll live happily till her heart opens for me." Jude said, and Ryker nearly laughed.

Slowly, he moved out of the way, paving it for him completely.

"All yours." He nodded at him.

Jude threw him a glance as if measuring his sincerity, then he looked at the coffin, knowing Shayla is waiting inside.

He sped there, but before he could even touch it, he was thrown out of that environment.

He rolled down the pike, landing on the cave ground, and from there, he lunged his own attack, but his green flame barely touched Ryker.

Ryker leapt to the air and touched the coffin lid with his leg.

He whipped around as the lid opened, lifting from the coffin and going down the cave to slap Jude's face fatally.

The wood broke on his skin, and two nails got stuck on his head and chin.

He went down, his body falling into the cave dust.

Ryker landed again, lowering his lashes to peek at the foolish male.

"Thinking you can tackle me after absorbing power from my FrostOrb was your first mistake. Such weak plans, it's boring to watch." He said as if Jude could hear him.

He looked back at the coffin that's now open, and his coldness nearly slipped from his face when he saw Shayla's condition inside.

Her skin is complete dead purple in color. No whiteness anywhere, and he could clearly see the imprints of her broken bones under her skin.

Her wounded face and forehead. Everything looks bad.

Angrily, he went down the pike and removed the remaining nails from the coffin lid. 

They're much, but that's just what's needed. He sent them all to Jude's body, making sure his bones got pierced to the marrow.

That barely calmed Ryker, but at least it did something.

He brought the coffin down from the pike and carried Shayla's body out of it, settling it down.

According to Cheyenne, Lilith marked her for death, but he's not seeing any mark on Shayla's forehead right now.

Could her warm aura have wiped the mark?

He waved that curiousness away for now, deciding to heal her bones first.

Placing his palm above her body, he began fusing her with his energy, and that made his ice act up more than it's already doing.

Ice carpets are even forming on his fingers, stopping the healing process, but he slammed his hand on the ground, breaking the ice and continuing the healing.

Under his eyes, her bones returned to their original position, and her legs straightened back, then he moved to the bullets on her upper body. 

Cheyenne would have removed them better with her nails, but the journey from here back to Luminaria is long, and the time here is faster, so if anymore time is wasted, Shayla might fall into coma, and it's dangerous with such bullets.

He summoned a sharp ice spike, and thanks to her unconsciousness, she won't feel the intense pain.

He inserted the spike under her chest skin, digging out the bullets.

It was easier than expected.

He moved to the head and facial wounds next. By now, the ice has formed on his whole body.

They're on his lashes, there are shards of it on his lips.

He's shivering internally, and he can't use her warmness right now cos she's unconscious. 

Despite his weakness and freezing iciness, he healed the wounds.

Everything. 

Including the ones on her back and hands.

He swept her up from the ground, into his shaky arms.

He was grunting, growling in a low tone as he walked out of the cave, his legs trembling on the ground.

He needs the warm spring pool right now. NOW.

Actually, even the spring pool won't help this iciness at all.

It has never escalated to this level before, and he knows it's because of his palm wounds.

The shadow wraiths were right about how he'd suffer, and the suffering is already starting even when he hasn't even left this place.

He walked past Jude's body on the ground, and ice were falling off him to the ground as he left the cave.

He held her tight in his arms, throughout.

--

[Luminaria, East Palace]

The moment Ryker vanished some hours ago, the bleedings of everyone stopped, and the palace physicians were called to remove the bullets from everyone of them.

When Pearl's bullet was removed, she collected it from the physician and hid it in her pocket.

She wasn't joking about cherished this bullet. It's hers.

Every member of the family is at the Starr balcony, and there's silence.

Lilith is present, too.

"I have just one question, and this is it. Why is Xena still alive? The moment that bastard shot everyone, you should have cut his sister's lifeline!" Sadie spoke up first.

"Killing his sister means he'd kill us all and leave this palace to wreck more havoc! That can't happen yet, especially now that we're close to finding his partner. He called her his only warmness" Azura replied.

"His partner?" Soren frowned.

"Shayla, it's very obvious." Lilith said from the rails, her hatred for Shayla higher than before.

"What! Shayla? How?" Sadie stood.

"I felt her warmness when she came to take me at the basement, I started suspecting from there." Pearl said.

Granny Jojo stayed silent.

"But she doesn't have the mark. He always checked for marks in his Groove. If she's really the partner, she should bear the mark on her back. It's impossible" Soren said.

"I guess he doesn't know. For once, someone actually kept something from that bastard. He visited the clouds castle, Eternus must have said something, which is why he came back to shoot everyone." Zeke said.

"Then make it quick. He has gone to the land of the condemned to get her, right? Take her and extract her FireStone from her, merge it with his FrostOrb and share it among us, make us become unconquerable demons and kill the two of them. Why wasting time?" Sadie said.

"She doesn't even have the mark yet, so calm down. He went to the land to take her, and he'd be weak by the time he arrives. We attack in the morning, take her and make the mark appear on her first before proceeding with the rest of the process." Azura explained.

"Cool." Sadie nodded.

"And I need to change his sister's lifeline location. Something tells me the bastard knows it." Zeke stood.

"You have skills in hiding things, how would he ever be able to find out?" Soren frowned.

"It's hightime you all stop underestimating him." Zeke said.

"I'm going back to sleep, it's just 5am." Sadie said, facing Soren.

Soren followed her out.

Zeke left next.

Pearl stood and wanted to walk out on her own, but Lilith held her.

"You are?" Pearl asked.

"Lilith the banshee, a new member of this family." Lilith said.

'New member? Fool' Pearl thought.

She didn't shoo her away though. She allowed her, and Lilith took her.

Sadie and Soren don't like her, Jude dislikes her too, so it's safe to make friends with the blind one.

After they left, Azura went to Jojo wh's still sitting.

"You loved him more than your real grandchildren, but look...he shot you too." She laughed at her face.

"That bastard is as cold-hearted as his ice, so I dunno what you were expecting. He likes no one in this family, stop your delusions, he'll never see you as a friend! You should come back to your senses, return to your family." She touched Jojo's arm.

"Your grandchildren needs you, mother. And I need you more." 

Jojo looked up, and Azura smiled before leaving the balcony.

Meanwhile, inside the twins room, Sadie feels uneasy, and there are questions in her mind.

She's under her bedsheets, and she kept rolling around in bed, unable to get back to sleep.

"Ren." She called.

Soren turned to her on his own bed.

"Yes?"

"After Granny took Pearl away from our room yesterday, did we go somewhere?" Sadie asked.

"No. We went to sleep directly." Soren replied instantly.

"Are you sure? We didn't go breaking into the unoccupied mansion with Mercury?" Sadie asked.

"We did nothing, just sleep." Soren said, pulling the quilt over his head.

"Why do I keep feeling like something happened and I can't remember?" Sadie muttered.

But then... Soren will never lie to her anyways.

She pulled the quilt over herself too, and sleep enveloped her.

--

[Next Morning, Slaves Kitchen]

Old Chef is cooking the family meal in the castle kitchen, but Xena is here, cooking the slaves breakfast with tears in her eyes.

The only moment she stopped crying was when the twins took her to break-in to the unoccupied mansion, but after she escaped, her tears has resumed.

When she was a kid, her only friend was her twin who eventually went missing, but then the heavens sent Shayla as a new one, and now this ruthless family took her too.

Who'd follow her to the next audition now? Who's going to dance with her or talk freely to her?

She was wiping tears with her arms as she washed the serving plates, and she didn't even know when Old Chef entered the kitchen.

"Xena, there's a news!"

She didn't turn.

"It's about Shayla! I heard Ryker returned last night, and he went to that dreadful land to bring her back." He broke the news, and she turned, hope filling her eyes.

"You don't mean that, yeah?"

"I heard he shot every member of the family with a weird gun just to get the pass." Old Chef further explained.

"What!" Xena's eyes popped.

--

[Heartless Tower]

Shayla could feel the sun behind her tight lids, the softness beneath her small body, and the painless state of her flesh and bones.

If this is hell, then hell is not as painful as they say at all. She feels at ease, and her skin feels new on her flesh. Even her lids are eager to open.

This isn't hell, and this isn't paradise either. Is there bed in paradise?

She's definitely in a bed, so...

Her eyes opened so fast, and she sat up to see she's really on a bed.

Soft, large one. She's in the middle like a small kitten, and the room on its own is as spacious.

Jeweled walls, golden grounds, the ceiling tiles are surely sapphire with crystals. The shine from everything is binding, and she had to cover her eyes slightly with her fingers.

This feels like paradise, and she can't even point where exactly it's located, but her own is more shocking.

Apart from her healed body, she's wearing a long but cute pink dress which covered her knees, stopping below it. It's short sleeved, so she can see her fresh arms.

This can't be her own skin, right?

She checked her foot too. It's usually so rough, but now it's like a newborn baby's. Even her palms and fingers.

She smells nice too.

What's going on?

She rushed down from the bed, wearing a fluffy shoe she saw beside it. She rushed out of the room, and surprisingly, the corridor is just like the room. The gold, sapphire, crystals and Jade. Diamonds, too.

She kept blinking in unexplained shock, but she stopped when she saw a mirror by a part of the unending wall. Her eyes widened properly at her own reflection.

No scars on her face, her lips are more luscious and pink than before, and her hair looks treated. Silky.

It looks longer too, and fuller.

What's going on?

Fear licked the back of her neck, and she moved forward, breaking into a penguin run. She stepped into the first room she saw after a three minutes sprint, and her shock doubled up when she saw Cheyenne.

The room looks like a kitchen.

It's actually a kitchen, and Cheyenne is cooking. She's with a knife, chopping green cabbages.

Her eyes met Shayla's, and Shayla froze in place.

Yeah, this is hell.

So far wicked Cheyenne is here, then it's definitely hell.

With two long strides, Cheyenne got to her. Shayla pressed her body to the wall trepidly.

With empty, dark eyes, Cheyenne raised the knife to her neck...

"D-don't" Shayla stuttered, her breaths seizing.

Cheyenne's lips curved with intentions only known to her.

She dropped the knife and returned to the cabbages she was slicing.

"Considering what My Lord went through before he could get you out, I should be killing you right now, but you're covered by his grace, so I dare not touch you. Lucky you." She said.

"What he went through? I'm not dead?" Shayla went closer to her, suddenly finding her boldness.

"Don't ask me questions, Tiny. I won't answer you. Take your questions to Sage. He's the nice one." Cheyenne replied without looking at her.

She's so focused on her cabbages.

"Tiny?" Shayla blinked, using her fingers to slip her smooth black hair behind her ear.

"That's what I'll be calling you from now on. I'll never call you by your real name so get used to it." Cheyenne replied, still not looking at her.

"I'm not...tiny." Shayla said.

Cheyenne finally looked at her, and there's a smirk hanging loose under her lips.

"Put your wrists together and give them to me." She ordered.

Shayla did that, and Cheyenne held her two wrists with just one hand.

"I can hold your two wrists with just one hand, and you're not tiny? You should look in the mirror. Your stature is so small, but thankfully, you have a slightly pretty face, so it's all good, Tiny." She said.

"Fine, but where are we?" Shayla asked curiously, shifting her gaze to the cabbages.

"I told you, I won't answer your questions. You don't even know your own identity." Cheyenne replied.

"My own identity?" Shayla asked.

"Do you know Lord Ryker's identity?" Sage asked, strolling into the wealthy, shinny kitchen.

He sat on the kitchen golden island, and Shayla faced him.

"You're...."

"Sage." Sage nodded.

"Oh...Sage. Nice to meet you properly." She smiled.

"You haven't answered my question." Sage said kindly, the sound of Cheyenne's cabbage chopping filling the kitchen. She's doing it so fast like she's really good with the knife.

"Yes. I know Lord Ryker is a demigod who carries the millennial ice inside him, and he owns the FrostOrb. He has the tattoo of a frozen sword in the middle of his back." Shayla said.

"Then do you know you're a demigoddess who carries the millennial fire inside you? And you own a FireStone. You have the tattoo of a burning fire in the middle of your back, but it's not showing yet." Sage explained.

"Me? Demigoddess? Fire sword? What's that?" Shayla said in confusion.

"Stop wasting your energy, Sage. It's useless, she won't understand." Cheyenne said from her side.

"Where are we?" Shayla asked.

"Heartless Tower." Sage asked.

Shayla staggered, eyes coming wide again. Her ears can't even believe.

"What! How come? How am I inside...." She gasped.

"Listen!" Cheyenne dropped her knife, losing all patience.

"The Millions Family threw you into the land of the condemned, a place inhabited by the shadow wraiths of everyone Lord Ryker has killed. I mean their spirits, so the place is full of resentment which could hurt him internally. Still, he went in there to look for you!" She snapped.

Shayla's eyes widened again, her chest thundering too.

"In there, getting wounded would only increase his chances of getting weak, but he cut himself once to search for you, and twice to control his exhaustion. He found you, healed your wounds and broken bones and got rid of your bullets! He brought you here when he was covered in ice!" Cheyenne continued.

Shayla swallowed.

"Yeah... Lord Ryker was covered in ice completely when he arrived here, and his palm wounds has allowed the resentment of that place to get into him, so he's internally wounded. He's currently soaking in his spring pool." Sage said softly.

Shayla shook her head.

"No. Why would he do..."

"He's always cold, you're his warm partner." Sage cut her off.

"Part...ner?" Shayla stuttered, not knowing how to process all these. The info dump is too much.

"Why do you think he allows you to hold him? Are you slow?" Sage asked.

"Of course she's a slow retard, anyone who lived all her life in a cage would be dull." Cheyenne rolled eyes.

"Be kind" Sage nudged her, but she rolled eyes again.

"I'm not slow. I just don't know much, but I promise you don't have to tell me twice. I'm a fast learner so I grasp things fast." Shayla said slowly.

"Great" Cheyenne shrugged, pushing a plate of salad to her.

"Eat, and we can talk about what's next." She said, handing her a fork.

Sage gave her a stool, and Shayla sat, still looking so out of it.

She took the fork though, but she was only able to eat one forkful out of the rich salad.

She can't even taste what she's eating on her palate and buds.

"Can I...see him?" She asked, looking up at the two knights above her.

Cheyenne's reply was curt "No."

"Yes." Sage said.

"We left Eternus at the sky castle, and Lord Ryker's order was to hold him down. We need to go back to the sky castle." Cheyenne explained.

"But he needs her to calm down his ice that's acting up." Sage said.

"The spring pool is enough for that. We can't take her to the Groove without his permission, and he's not conscious enough to give it." Cheyenne said.

"He has been in the pool since 6, and this is 8. Has he ever soaked for two hours before? I've changed the hot water close to twenty times, but his ice kept freezing it. He's still shivering, Cheyenne. If the Millions Family decide to attack like this, then we're cooked." Sage said.

Cheyenne looked at Shayla, and Shayla stood.

"Please... If he's in that condition cos of me, I should at least help. Please, please." She said.

"So bothersome, follow up." Cheyenne scowled and led the way out of the kitchen.

"Let's go." Sage smiled at Shayla, and her face brightened up.

She followed them.

There's a path to the Bamboo Groove behind the tower, so they just walked that way.

Cheyenne and Sage didn't get there with her though. They left her at the entrance, and she entered by herself.

This is a place she once nearly got killed when Lilith tricked her to enter. Now she's entering for a different purpose, and this entry is authorized.

She found the spring pool fast, thanks to the fact that she has entered before.

Ryker sat beside the pool wall, eyes closed and chest bare.

His arms are inside the water with him, not spread like the other time.

She can't see the frozen sword tattoo behind him cos the ice covered it, and it covered every visible part of his bare upper body too.

He looks frozen completely just like Sage said. A blue halo covered the spot he sat in.

"Moy Vladika" Shayla mouthed with urgency, lifting her legs. She rushed to the pool entrance.

She slipped her fluffy shoes away and dropped herself into the water. 

It's madly cold at first, but it didn't last a second.

She moved forward, walking in the pool. It reached her chest as she's not so tall.

The water did large swirls, reacting to her intrusion. It made loud rumbling noises and popped blue bubbles as she moved close.

The blue halo thickened, but Ryker never moved, till she got to him.

At first, she didn't even know where to touch or start from.

A simple touch won't solve this problem. He's far too frozen that it's scary to her.

She lifted her hand to touch his pretty face.

The coldness she felt made her gulp. 

How's he holding all that in?

There's only one way, and she didn't even think twice before going for it.

She slid her hands under her dress, lifting it up above her waist.

Slowly, she peeled the dress away from her body, leaving her in a thin white underwear and lace p+nties.

Their skins will be closer this way.

She moved closer again, taking his head and gently bringing it to her shoulder. She wrapped her arms around his body.

She wrapped her legs on him underwater too, rubbing her fingers on his skin, dragging it slow and steady. She rested her lips on his neck and placed her chin on his shoulder.

Her eyes went shut, too.

"Moy Vladika...can you feel me?" She whispered in a hush, moving her lips up to his right ear.

"Hmm? Can you? I'm here for you. I won't leave till you stir. Give me a sign." She whispered again.

Her arms went tighter around his body, and her fingers caressed slower, gentler.

The water went silent around them, just the sound of her soft whisperings and her fast breathings.

"Please... Cheyenne will hate me again if I leave this place without you waking up. Lord Ryker..."

He's getting warm. She could feel the change in his skin temperature.

She pressed her thumb to the back of his neck, drawing the rest of her fingers down his smooth face.

"Open your eyes... open up. Please."

Her lips moved back to his neck, then it pressed down his skin again, warm and tender.

"Wake up... Pretty demigod." She added to her soft whisperings, and at that same moment, she felt a slight stir from him. 

It was almost nonexistent, but she felt it. It was there, and she felt his lashes stirring, too.

His breath fanned her skin suddenly, and before she knew it, his large arms curled wholly around her body.

A cold gasp spilled from her mouth.

"You're always so loud, Firefly." His deep voice echoed through the waters.

TBC.

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