Chapter 87: Sleeping for ten days

’Am I in hell ? or heaven? No i don’t think i will be in heaven after doing–’

The first thing Dante saw was a wooden ceiling.

He didn’t move. His body felt tired. His stomach was tight, and his right hand was wrapped in cloth from the fingers to the elbow.

[Body integrity: 31%.]

[Power level: 1%.]

Then more notification comes.

[Notice.]

[Notice.]

[Notice.]

’Ahh, i see, even after dying the system didn’t leave me alone? ’ he thinks slowly in his mind as if he can’t believe that he was alive.

’But why did i am feeling like alive?’

He closed notification without reading. Tiny red numbers kept blinking in the corner of his vision, and he ignored them too.

Then He feels Something warm against his arm.

He turned his head slowly. Esabella sat in a wooden chair beside the bed, with her head resting on the edge of the mattress and her arms folded under her cheek. Her hair was loose and tangled. Bandages ran across her chest, under it and shoulder, and one wrapped around her neck. Dark circles sat under her closed eyes. Her mouth was a little open.

She was in her human form. No horns, no wings, no tail. She looked small.

He looked at her for a while. He didn’t know how long. He noticed that her fingers were curled around the corner of his blanket, as if she had been holding on in her sleep, and that her breath caught every few seconds, like she was dreaming something bad.

Across the room, there was a second bed. A small shape lay under a blanket with a black tail hanging off the edge.

’Yenna?!!.’

His shoulders loosened a little.

"No, Dante," Esabella murmured in her sleep. Her fingers tightened on the blanket. And then She woke all at once.

Her head came up. Her eyes were open before they were focused, wide and gold, and they went straight to his face. She stared at him. She didn’t blink.

"You –You’re awake my ki–," she whispered.

"Yes , Esabella..."

"Don’t move." She shot up out of the chair, and a thin sound of pain came out of her. She grabbed her ribs, and bent over, and straightened again, and didn’t care. Her hands flew to his face, his shoulders, his chest. She touched his cheek. Her fingers shook. "You’re warm. Your heart is beating. I’m not dreaming, am I? I’ve dreamed this nine times."

"Nine?"

"Nine times! And every time I woke up, you were still asleep." Her voice cracked. Her eyes filled, and tears ran down her face without her seeming to notice. "Ten days, Dante. Ten days. You were sleeping for ten days."

"Ten days?," he said .

She gripped his sleeve with both hands. "The healer said you might not wake up. I told him if you didn’t wake up, I would burn him. I sat in that chair and watched you. i –"

Dante said nothing. He looked at her wet face, and the circles under her eyes, and the bandage around her neck.

"Don’t ever do that again," she said, and her voice shaking "Don’t ever make me sit there again. If you die, I’ll follow you. I’ll follow you into whatever’s after. I’ll find you there and I’ll be so angry."

"Don’t worry, I’m not going to die that easily."

She stopped. Her hands tightened. She bent her head until her forehead touched his chest, and her shoulders shook.

He let her. He didn’t pull his hand away from the blanket, either, even when she took it and held it against her cheek.

[Notice.]

[Notice.]

[Notice.]

"What is that?" Esabella asked, lifting her head and wiping her eyes. "You keep staring at the air?!"

"Nothing"

He looked at the stack of flashing windows. A dozen of them now. He swiped them all closed in one motion.

"Where are we?" He asked.

"Floor fifty-four." She sat back down and wiped her nose on the back of her wrist. "A little house at the edge of the lower district. The old man found it. It belonged to a guild clerk who died last year, and nobody checks it."

"Gideon?"

"He got out of the holding cells the same night." She said it like it was nothing. "He broke the lock with his staff. He walked out in front of eleven guards. By the time they stopped arguing about who had to arrest him, the arena was gone, and nobody was left to give orders. He came and found us on the stands. He found a healer too, a strong one, from the lower floors."

"The one in the arena?"

"He Dead." Esabella looked away. "He gave everything. His heart stopped on the fourth bench. We couldn’t wake him."

Dante was silent for a moment.

"Is Yenna okay?" he asked.

"There." She nodded at the second bed. "She’s alive. She’s okay."

"Okay."

"She woke up three days ago. She was crying and asking for you. I said you were sleeping. She ate some soup and fell asleep again. She’s only resting now."

Dante let out a slow breath. He looked at the Yenna.

"Her–Her legs ?," he said. His voice was lower now. Esabella’s face changed. The wildness went out of it. She looked at her hands.

"The healer looked at her for two days," she said. "She said the damage was too deep. The cuts, the old injury, the nerves. It was already too late when we got her out. She said she could close the wounds, but she couldn’t..." She stopped. "She can’t walk. Not unless somebody finds something much stronger to heal her."

Dante didn’t say anything. His face didn’t move. But he stared at the blanket for a very long time.

"I–I did that, it was all my fault. I left her behind"

"You didn’t. Elena did that to her, it wasn’t your fault. Please don’t blame yourself"

He didn’t answer. His jaw tightened.

Esabella watched him. She wanted to say more, and couldn’t find the words, so she reached out and put her hand over his bandaged one, and left it there.

"What about you?" Dante asked after a while.

She blinked. "Me?"

"What about Your injuries."

For a second, she just stared at him. Then her whole face lit up. It wasn’t the wide, manic grin he knew. It was smaller, as if somebody had turned on a lamp behind her eyes. Her mouth wobbled. She tried to hold it down, and failed.

"My king You’re asking about me? You–you care about me !"

"I–"

"You care!" She pressed both hands over her cheeks. "Oh. Oh, I might cry again." She took a breath and sat up straight, like a schoolgirl called to the front of a class. "It’s nothing. Three ribs broken. A lung that was crushed, but it’s mostly fixed now. My back is bruised, and there’s a cut on my neck from the dagger. And the core was cracked."

"Yeah, Cracked."

"A little. It’ll heal. It takes time." She tugged the neck of her bandage down a little, showing a long white line. "See? It’s closing. I’m fine. I’m strong. I heal quickly."

"You’ve been awake the whole time?"

"No–No–I–I slept."

"Really? How much?"

She said nothing.

"Esabella."

He looked at her face again. At the shadows under her eyes, and the way her hand shook where it rested on the blanket.

"As long as you’re fine," she said softly, smiling, "I’m fine."

It was a different smile from the others. It was tired, honest, and a little shy.

Dante looked away and feel the tiredness in his body.

"I’m thirsty–," he said to himself.

She was out of the chair before he finished.

"Water! Yes! Of course! Right away! My King needs water, I’ll bring it, stay there, don’t move..."

She took two steps, and her face went like in pain. She stopped. Her hand flew to her side, and her whole body folded. A small breath whistled between her teeth.

"Esabella.you ar–" Dante said.

"I–I’m fine. It’s nothing. It only hurts when I..." She straightened with a shudder and kept moving toward the door.

"Be careful.you are not in good condition. Sit down and rest"

"I can’t, you’re thirsty." She pulled the door open. A guard stood in the hallway, and she snapped at him. "You! Bring water! Quickly! If it takes more than a minute, I’ll throw you off the roof!"

"Y-yes, ma’am!" The guard ran.

Esabella stayed in the doorway, holding the frame. Her shoulders rose and fell. Dante watched her back.

’She hasn’t slept in days. She’s been holding herself up on her own.’

"Come here," he said.

"The Water’s is coming my king"

"Come back and sit."

She turned, and for a second, she looked like she might argue. Then she walked back and lowered herself into the chair with a hiss.

"The old man wanted me to tell you," she said, trying to talk before he could say anything else. "He has been running everything. He set up the guards, found the healer, hid us. He said to tell him the second you woke. He found something. A secret, about Marcus. He wouldn’t say what."

"About Marcus?!."

"He said he wanted to tell you himself."