Chapter 114: What is said
The thought slipped into her chest before she could stop it. Lucrezia didn’t realize how her gaze lingered too long until his eyes lifted slowly to meet hers.
Lucrezia’s breath caught like a thief caught stealing, and she quickly pulled her gaze away. Her pulse raced violently against her chest, and she fought hard to make it stable.
"There is something you wish to ask," he said.
It wasn’t a question.
Lucrezia hesitated only for a moment. Would she push her luck too far? And when she finally spoke, quiet enough it sounded almost like a whisper, "...does it hurt?" She asked.
For the first time since waking, Vaeron looked almost genuinely caught off guard. Those cold features hardened by years seemed to showcase a single trace of human sentiment intentionally.
His brows lowered slightly at her words.
"The scars," she clarified softly, suddenly nervous. "Do they still hurt?"
An uncomfortable silence followed after her question, the kind that made her immediately wonder if she had crossed a line she should not have touched. At that moment, she regretted ever allowing instinct to take over her rationality but it was already far too late.
Then Vaeron leaned back slightly, "No." he finally said.
The answer came too quickly, almost automatically. It was her turn to be caught off guard.
Lucrezia studied him for a moment, hesitating before murmuring, "That sounded untrue."
His gaze sharpened faintly at that. "You are bold today,"
Her stomach flipped embarrassingly at the look in his eyes. At that moment, it seemed to have reminded her of the line she had crossed and the limit she should’ve taken.
"I-I was only asking," She said, lowering her gaze immediately. "Forgive me if I push too far,"
"And now you are avoiding my eyes," He said instead.
Her heart stumbled. Why wouldn’t she? Because looking at him too long felt dangerous, and every time she did, she forgot herself a little more.
Lucrezia sank slightly deeper into the bath in an attempt to hide her embarrassment, immediately regretting it when the movement pulled painfully through her muscles.
A soft hiss escaped her lips, and Vaeron’s expression hardened instantly. "You should stop doing that. You are still in pain,"
"It is... manageable."
"That was not what your face implied," he countered. "It’ll take a few days before you regain your energy once again,"
Before she could protest, he reached toward her again. Lucrezia froze instinctively when his hand closed gently around her wrist. His thumb brushed lightly against the inside of her arm, where the faint bruising still lingered beneath her skin from the attack.
Something about the touch made her heart begin racing all over again.
Vaeron’s gaze lowered toward the marks. There was this sort of coldness that flickered briefly across his expression. "They should not have touched you,"
The quietness in his voice unsettled her more than anger would have. Or perhaps the sudden admission did, she couldn’t tell.
Lucrezia tried to ignore the strange flutter in her chest. Realizing what he was talking about, "T-They were attacking everyone."
"And yet, I dislike seeing evidence of it," he said quietly, eyes still on the bruises. There was no teasing in the way he looked at them.
Her breath caught. She couldn’t tell if her ears were playing heavy tricks on her. Was that... guilt?
The room suddenly felt far too warm. Vaeron released her wrist slowly, though his fingers lingered a second longer than necessary before pulling away completely.
Lucrezia looked down quickly at the water.
Gods. Why did every small thing he did affect her this much?
Silence settled again, softer this time. Vaeron reached beside the bath, taking hold of a cloth before dipping it into the warm scented water. His movements remained unhurried as he brushed it lightly across her shoulder to remove the faint streaks of dried blood remaining there.
Lucrezia tried very hard not to focus on how gentle he was being but she failed terribly.
"You are staring again," he said, and this time, without looking up.
"I -I am not."
"You nearly stopped breathing,"
Her face burned. She almost forgot what kind of creature he was. It felt even more humiliating at the thought of him listening to the way her pulse raced whenever he leaned too close or when his fingers lingered more than necessary.
Vaeron’s mouth curved faintly at the corner. That tiny almost-smile was somehow more unfair than when he looked completely cold.
Lucrezia glanced toward the steaming water instead. Without thinking, "You are very different from what people say,"
That made him pause.
Vaeron stilled completely, and it was at that moment that Lucrezia realized what she’d done. It was too late to take back her words now.
"And what do people say?"
Her heart skipped. Suddenly, she felt speechless, her brain unable to comprehend anything such that the hesitation answered enough already.
Vaeron returned calmly to cleaning the dried blood from her skin, feigning this nonchalance against every intimidation oozing from him. "Go on."
Should she?
Lucrezia swallowed, clearly hesitating. At the end, she finally spoke. "They say..." She started carefully, "That you are merciless."
"I am."
His immediate response almost took her off-guard. How could one find pride in such an inscription?
"That you are cruel." She added.
"Frequently."
"That you have no heart."
At that, Vaeron finally looked at her fully. Something unreadable passed through his gaze as she stared back with almost the same curiosity as he.
"And what do you think?"
Lucrezia’s breath slowed at once. The answer should have been simple. It should have been easy to fear him. But sitting here now with him carefully making sure the water remained warm enough for her aching body, tending to injuries with impossible patience, he did not feel like the monster everyone described which frightened her far more than if he had.
"I think... that perhaps people only see the parts of you that you allow them to," She said softly.
An awkward silence ensued in the room. Vaeron watched her for so long that her pulse began stumbling again beneath his gaze. It felt close... so close that one could tell how the atmosphere went from silent to almost intimate.
"And what part do you believe you are seeing now, little wolf?" He asked quietly.
The question settled heavily between them. Lucrezia opened her mouth, then closed it again. Because she did not know... or perhaps because she knew too well.
And before she could gather a response, Vaeron leaned forward slightly, brushing damp strands of hair back from her face with slow fingers. The gesture was so unexpectedly tender that it made her chest tighten.
His eyes held hers steadily. "You should stop looking at me like that," he murmured.
Her breath caught. "L-Like what?"
"As though you are trying to understand me," he said. His thumb brushed briefly against her cheek before falling away. "It rarely ends well."
Something about that sounded personal.
Lucrezia was about to open her mouth to speak, only for him to rise to his feet.
The words died in her throat before they could fully form. Her eyes followed him instinctively, tracing the slow, fluid motion as he straightened to his full height. And just like that, the warmth that had settled so quietly between them seemed to shift.
There was a sudden coldness around him again. It cloaked him like a second skin, familiar and distant all at once, and the subtle change in him made something uneasy twist low in her stomach.
Did she say something wrong?
Had she crossed some invisible line without realizing it?
"I’ll leave you to finish," he said, the usual detachment returning to his voice.
The softness from earlier—the strange, almost human gentleness she had glimpsed—was gone so quickly that she almost wondered if she had imagined it entirely.
Vaeron turned slightly away from her, reaching for the dark coat draped across the carved chair nearby. The movement was simple, yet impossibly graceful in a way that made her chest tighten.
Lucrezia lowered her gaze quickly before he could notice her staring again, heart pounding so violently she was convinced he could hear every frantic beat of it. Perhaps he could. The thought alone nearly finished her.
"You should finish before the water cools."
She nodded far too quickly. "Y-Yes."
Vaeron moved toward the doorway afterwards, the shadows seeming to gather naturally around him as though even darkness favored his presence. Yet before he stepped beyond the threshold, he paused.
For a moment, he did not look at her. His gaze remained fixed somewhere ahead, unreadable before he quietly added, "The servants will return once you are done."
Lucrezia blinked. "Oh."
Something about her response must have caught him because his eyes flicked toward her at last, and there was the faintest trace of something colder than amusement resting beneath them.
"You sound disappointed,"
"I-I am not," she replied quickly, swallowing hard against the sudden dryness in her throat. Her fingers tightened slightly beneath the water before she added, far more quietly, "Though... if it would not trouble you, I would rather have a few attendants remain."
The last thing she wanted was to have to endure endless hours of contempt. And now Lucrezia thought about it, she realized Vaeron was... different. Why couldn’t she read his thoughts like the others?
He simply watched her for a moment in silence before giving a single nod.
Then he stepped out, the heavy doors closing behind him with a muted sound that left the chamber suddenly quieter than before.