“Yes.”
The word escaped my lips before I could think twice.
Cross finally allowed his weight to rest against my shoulders.
His head settled beside mine, and for a moment, neither of us spoke.
I couldn’t stop staring at his face.
Even exhausted, he still looked strangely calm.
His breathing was slow, but every now and then, his brows tightened as though his body was fighting the pain he refused to show.
“Cross?” I called out softly.
He hummed in response.
“Are you sure you’re strong enough to journey back to Earth?” I asked, unable to hide the worry in my voice.
His eyes opened.
Our gazes met, and I swallowed hard.
Slowly, he raised one hand.
His fingers brushed against my cheek before he gently moved the loose strand of hair away from my forehead.
He smiled.
“I don’t want you to worry about me Imogen. I hate to see you in such position.” He said and coughed lightly.
His head remained on my shoulder.
I stayed still, afraid that even the smallest movement might hurt him.
“I brought you into this messed up world of mine. I thought you would leave and never come back but instead you stood right beside me till the very end.”
“The night of the war when you took that sword to your heart instead of me. At that moment I knew I would die for you and always protect you.” He said.
My chest tightened.
Princess Imogen had taken a sword for him?
I almost opened my mouth in shock.
That was crazy.
So they had actually been willing to die for each other.
That wasn’t just love.
That was the kind of love people probably spent their entire lives searching for.
I felt guilty.
Cross was looking at me, but he wasn’t seeing the true me, he was seeing her.
Princess Imogen.
Her place, her memories, her love and somehow, I was standing in the middle of all of it.
It felt like I was slowly taking her place without meaning to.
I lowered my eyes and Cross’s voice pulled me back.
“I owe you my life Imogen. So let me be the one to worry.” Cross said.
I nodded.
I wanted to say something, but nothing came out.
I really couldn’t wait to return to Earth and get back to my normal life.
Maybe once I was gone, Cross would finally think clearly and maybe he would find his Princess Imogen.
His bride.
And eventually, he would forget me completely.
The thought should have made me happy.
Instead, something inside my chest ached.
I quickly ignored it.
Soon, I would be gone.
That was all that mattered.
Cross’s fingers were still wrapped around mine, but after a while, his grip slowly loosened and his hand slipped from mine.
I glanced at him.
He wasn’t moving.
I didn’t want to disturb him, he had fallen asleep.
I studied his face quietly and noticed the tiny veins beneath his skin.
Then I saw the goosebumps covering his arms.
My brows pulled together.
Was he cold?
Of course he was.
He had given me his coat.
I looked down at the coat around my body.
He was sitting in the freezing snow without it while I was wrapped in his warmth.
I couldn’t let him freeze to death.
My eyes moved toward the forest.
I could find firewood and start a fire.
I carefully shifted my body, making sure not to wake him.
I slowly lifted his head from my shoulder and placed it against the rock behind him, then I slipped away.
The moment I stood, the cold hit me hard enough to make me gasp.
I glanced back at Cross before taking another step.
He was still leaning against the rock, his eyes closed.
For some reason, leaving him even for a few minutes made me feel uneasy.
“I’ll be back,” I whispered, although he couldn’t hear me.
I hurried toward the nearby forest, glancing over my shoulder once more before the trees swallowed him from my sight.
The forest felt different without Cross beside me.
Every snap of a branch made me turn around, and the falling snow quickly covered my footprints.
I forced myself to focus.
I needed firewood.
Cross needed warmth.
I crouched beneath the enormous red trees and began searching through the ground for dry branches, but firewood wasn’t enough.
The wind was strong, and snow was already beginning to fall harder.
I had to make a shelter.
I looked around, then I spotted a banana tree.
My eyes widened.
“Yes.” I muttered.
I rushed toward it and began tearing away the large leaves.
They were broad enough to block some of the wind.
After several minutes, my arms were full of wood and leaves.
He was still lying against the rock, his eyes closed and his breathing became quiet.
I quickly arranged the wood beneath a rocky section near him and used the large leaves to build a small shelter.
It wasn’t perfect and it looked nothing like the shelters people built in movies, but it was enough.
If the leaves could block the wind and the fire could keep us warm, we might survive the night.
I crouched beside the wood and picked up two hard stones.
“Come on.”
I struck them together, nothing happened.
I did it again and nothing happened.
“Lit up.” I muttered.
I struck them harder and a tiny spark appeared.
I struck again and another spark followed.
Finally, a small flame caught onto the dry material beneath the wood.
I quickly fed it more dry pieces until the fire began to grow.
I smiled.
Cross would be warm.
I held my hands over the flames for a moment before removing my coat, then I wrapped it around Cross.
He needed it more than I did.
I sat beside him.
“What are you doing Selene? This man is not yours.” I muttered to myself and hit my face.
I quickly looked away.
Why was I acting like this?
I lowered my hand slowly.
He wasn’t mine.
He had never called my name, Selene.
Every time he looked at me, he saw Princess Imogen.
Yet I had just built a shelter for him, given him a coat and worried about him freezing to death.
Why did I care this much?
I looked at his sleeping face again.
Maybe because somewhere along the way, I had stopped seeing him as the devil everyone feared.
I was beginning to see the sweet man beneath him and that frightened me more than the Gogos on the rink.
I sighed and rested beside him.
Few minutes later, I closed my eyes for only a moment.
Suddenly, I heard something.
A soft broken voice.
I immediately opened my eyes and turned toward Cross.
He was muttering in his sleep.
I moved closer and lowered my ear toward his mouth.
The words were faint, but I slowly pieced them together.
“Don’t go. Imogen. Don’t leave me alone.”
My heart skipped and I stared at him.
“Imogen, don’t go.” He repeated.
It almost sounded as though he knew.
As though somewhere inside that exhausted mind, he could feel that I wanted to leave.
I let out a shaky breath.
“I’m here Cross.” I said and hugged him tightly.
His body was weak and numb beneath my arms.
I held him closer.
For once, I didn’t care that he thought I was someone else.
I didn’t care that I wasn’t his Imogen, I just didn’t want him to wake up alone or leave him in this situation.
Not long after, I heard a rustle in the forest and my head snapped toward it.
Another rustle followed.
I froze.
The fire suddenly seemed too small against the enormous forest.
Someone was out there.
I slowly stood, my eyes fixed on the trees.
“Hello, is anyone there?” I blurted out.
The red branches swayed above me, but the wind had suddenly gone quiet.
Then I heard footsteps.
I knew someone was coming closer.
My heart began pounding.
I moved in front of Cross without thinking, even though I knew I couldn’t fight whoever was coming, then a dark figure slowly emerged between the trees and my fingers curled into fists.
The figure stepped into the firelight.
Immediately I froze.
“Buttins.” I whispered.
What the hell was he doing here?
How did he even get here?
Buttins walked toward us slowly, his eyes fixed on Cross.
“I mean no harm.” He said.
I immediately stepped between him and Cross.
“What do you want with him?”
His eyes dropped to the black blood staining the snow and his expression changed.
“He used his essence didn’t he? How dumb of him and he knew how dangerous it is to use his essence in his condition.” Buttins said.
There was something strange in his voice and facial expressions.
He looked concerned.
I watched him carefully and I thought he hated Cross, but the worry in his eyes didn’t look like hatred.
Immediately, he crouched beside Cross.
“Silly boy.” He muttered.
His fist struck Cross’s chest and instantly, my heart jumped.
For one second, I couldn’t believe what I had just seen.
He hit him again and anger surged through me.
I stepped forward and shoved Buttins’s arm away from Cross.
“What the hell are you doing?” I screamed at him.
My eyes immediately went to his face.
He was still asleep.
“I am not hurting him. I am trying to give him my essence and create a blood flow. If I don’t, he won’t be awake in the next four days.” He said.
My chest ached.
“What?”
“Let me do my thing.” He said.
He struck Cross’s chest again.
“Help me, he has to sit and I want you to hold him.” He said.
I hesitated.
“Help me.” Buttins adjusted Cross’s body and moved him away from the rock until he was sitting properly, with Buttins crouched behind him.
“Hold his hands.” He said.
I quickly moved closer and took Cross’s hands.They were really cold.
Buttins struck Cross’s back and a strange dark energy immediately began flowing from his body into Cross.
He struck him again and more energy transferred between them.
Cross’s face tightened, but he didn’t move.
“Is he okay?” I asked.
Buttins’s eyes began glowing brighter.
He struck Cross again, then suddenly stopped.
He bent forward and spat black blood onto the snow.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“I’m fine.” He said.
“His body is so corrupted even mere giving him a little essence is dangerous.” He added and wiped the blood from his mouth.
I stared at Cross.
“Will he be awake now?” I asked.
Buttins nodded.”Yes.”
He slowly rose.
“Do not tell him I was here.” He said.
I raised my brows.
“Why?”
“It’s more complicated Imogen. I don’t want him to know about this.” He replied.
I looked between him and Cross.
There were clearly things they weren’t telling me, but I didn’t have the strength to question him.
“I won’t let him know.”
Buttins smiled at me.
“Take good care of him.” He said and began to walk away.
“Thank you.” I said.
He stopped and for a moment, he didn’t turn around, then he looked back at me.
“He is so lucky to have a woman like you.” Buttins muttered.
A woman like me?
I slowly turned toward Cross.
The fire crackled beside us, throwing warm light across his sleeping face.
My heart gave a painful little beat and I lowered my eyes.
I didn’t know why Buttins’s words affected me, but one thing was becoming harder to deny.
The thought of leaving Cross no longer felt as easy as it should.
Buttins turned as if he was about to leave.
I watched him disappear between the trees, but then the burning in my arm returned.
I frowned and scratched the wound without thinking.
The skin around it had darkened again and a tiny drop of blood appeared on my fingertip.
I stared at it.
This was the same blood that had awakened the Gogos.
What was so special about me?
I slowly raised my head and realized Buttins had stopped.
He stood several feet away, completely still.
His eyes were fixed on my hand and something in his expression changed.
“What is that?”
I instinctively pulled my arm behind me.
“Nothing.”
His eyes narrowed.
For a moment, he didn’t move.
He simply stared at me as though he had suddenly discovered something that shouldn’t exist.
Then he disappeared.
I barely had time to gasp before he appeared in front of me.
Immediately, he grabbed my neck tightly and lifted me off the ground
“What are you doing?”
I grabbed his wrist, desperately trying to pull his hand away as I struggled for air.
His face was inches from mine and his eyes glowed.
“Who are you?”
“I… I don’t understand what you’re saying.”
His gaze shifted to my arm.
“You have human essence.”
My heart began to pound.
How did he know about that?
Before I could reply, he tightened his grip.
“Why do you have a human essence?”
I clawed at his hand, panic rushing through me.
“Let me go!”
Buttins didn’t move.
He stared at the scratch again, then slowly looked back into my eyes.
His expression had completely changed.
This wasn’t suspicion anymore.
He knew something, maybe he knew I’m not Princess Imogen.
I struggled harder, but my strength was disappearing.
Buttins leaned closer, his voice dropping into a dangerous growl.
“Who are you?”