Pearl’s POV
“Stay back,” Demyan warned again, but his voice was breaking, fragile and frayed.
He had fallen to the floor, body trembling, skin flushed, his breaths coming in desperate gasps. The black cloak pooled around him like spilled shadows, and for a moment, he looked like a fallen warrior battling a war inside his own flesh.
But I couldn’t stay back. Not anymore.
I crawled closer, slowly, until my knees touched the edge of his cloak. He tried to shift away, but his limbs gave out, and he slumped with a strangled groan. That was when I reached out my fingers brushing against his cheek.
His skin was burning.
“Pearl,” he rasped, “please…”
“I’m not afraid of you,” I whispered.
His eyes shot open, pupils dilated, jaw clenched. The tension in him was unbearable, like he was fighti
