May Every Wound Be Fatal - Chapter 71.1
He frowned unconsciously, blinking several times in his sleep.
The world around him was tinged with a bluish hue. Pale sunlight filtered through the half-open bed curtains. Morning had arrived.
And within his arms, Reyna was asleep.
Now that Reyna could stand on her own again, she had recently begun practicing walking little by little. Someone still had to stay beside her at all times to catch her if she stumbled, but her lady-in-waiting was shorter than she was and couldn’t properly support her weight.
So these days, Reyna would wait eagerly for Elizer to arrive, and the moment he stepped through the door, she would spread her arms wide toward him.
The previous night, Elizer had helped Reyna as usual. Though she had broken out in a cold sweat, she had managed to take ten whole steps, beaming with delight like a child. He had carried her back to the bed and gently laid her down. He had gathered her tightly into his arms. She had kissed him, and he had kissed her back.
And then he had held her.
Everything felt like a dream.
Yet their bare bodies, still sticky with the traces of the night, and the pleasant exhaustion that made him reluctant to so much as lift a finger proved that it had all been real.
Slowly blinking his heavy eyelids, Elizer stared blankly at Reyna’s sleeping face nestled quietly in his embrace.
Her slightly parted lips had regained their healthy rosy color, and her face, now filled out enough to recover its graceful contours, looked as youthful as it had long ago.
Almost without thinking, he lifted a hand and gently brushed the long lashes resting beneath her pink-tinged eyes with the tip of his finger. Fast asleep, Reyna showed no response.
For an instant, the peaceful stillness of her sleeping form made him flinch—as though she had fallen into an eternal sleep—but he soon felt the slow rise and fall of her chest against his own skin, and the fear subsided. The tension drained from his entire body once more, leaving him pleasantly languid.
Reyna was breathing.
Her whole body was warm.
Reyna was alive.
Still blinking sleepily, his eyes threatening to close at any moment, Elizer suddenly pressed a kiss to the top of her head.
Then another.
And another.
Through it all, Reyna remained fast asleep.
He spent a long while simply gazing at her face before the drowsiness finally overwhelmed him, and he could no longer keep his eyes open.
…I shouldn’t.
The room was growing brighter.
He needed to get up and return to his own quarters.
But somehow, he couldn’t bring himself to move.
He didn’t want to leave.
He wanted to remain in this heaven just a little longer.
It was then—
…What?
Still half asleep, Elizer sensed something strange. He unconsciously opened his eyes again and looked closely at Reyna’s face in his arms.
“…”
At first, because there wasn’t a sound, he thought he must have imagined it.
Then he realized that tears were streaming down Reyna’s face in her sleep.
The drowsiness vanished instantly.
“Reyna.”
He had no idea how long she had been crying.
Was she having a nightmare?
But what kind of nightmare could possibly—
The moment that thought crossed his mind, a terrible possibility flashed through his head.
“…Reyna.”
Gripped by sudden fear, Elizer caught hold of her arm and called to her again.
“Reyna.”
Tears continued to pour from beneath her closed eyelids, but she did not wake.
“Reyna.”
His mind went completely blank.
First… he had to wake her somehow.
He began shaking her desperately.
Please, open your eyes.
As her body rocked beneath his firm grip, Reyna’s brows finally twitched into a faint frown.
At that tiny movement, Elizer froze completely.
Holding his breath, he stared at her.
At last, her lashes, soaked with tears, trembled softly, and her eyelids slowly lifted.
The unfocused green eyes revealed beneath them were dull and vacant.
Even so, tears continued to spill endlessly from the corners of her eyes.
A dreadful premonition settled over Elizer, and he held his breath.
Still dazed, tears streaming silently down her face, Reyna slowly raised her gaze as though entranced.
Their eyes met.
The frightened blue eyes wavered helplessly.
“…”
“…”
A strange silence stretched between them.
To Elizer, it felt as though decades—no, thousands of years—had passed.
Or perhaps it lasted only a single second, as though that was all the time fate had left him.
Then—
After blinking several times, Reyna drew her brows together slightly and parted her dry lips.
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