Chapter 91: A Demon’s Warning

Noctis lay a few steps from the bed, beside the broken wardrobe door.

Some of his blue hair clung to his face. Blood had trickled from the corner of his mouth down to his chin, and dark bruises marked his swelling cheek. One arm lay motionless beside his body. The unnatural bend below his elbow made it clear that the bone was broken.

Ron ran his thumb across his cheek as he looked down at his brother.

Blood stained the tip of his thumb.

The cut on his face was small. Just a thin scratch. But the warmth lingering on his skin made him angrier every time he remembered who had caused it.

His little brother, who didn’t even have a Nexus…

Had injured him.

“Fucking freak!”

He kicked Noctis in the stomach. The impact pushed his body sideways, dragging his broken arm across the floor as his head struck the edge of the wardrobe door.

Noctis’s eyes didn’t open.

Perhaps Ron had been waiting for a reaction: a scream, an apology, a few pleas as Noctis struggled to breathe. But the lack of any response from the body on the floor didn’t stop him.

“How dare you attack me?”

He kicked him again.

This time, the fabric of Noctis’s T-shirt stretched beneath the toe of his shoe. His limp hand shifted across the floor, his fingers brushing the torn edge of the wedding dress he had gathered into his lap earlier.

Ron raised his foot again.

At that moment, he felt an unsettling chill at the back of his neck.

His foot stopped in midair. The sensation spread from his shoulders down his arms, making his hair stand on end. Something in the room had changed. The silence he hadn’t noticed a few seconds earlier now had him listening for danger approaching from behind.

He turned his head.

A pair of red eyes stared at him from beyond the doorway.

Rose stood in the dim hallway, watching him. Curved horns rose through her short black hair. Her gaze moved from Ron’s face to Noctis, who lay at his feet.

Ron slowly lowered his foot.

“Rose…”

The anger remained on his face as her name slipped from his lips, but some of his earlier ease was gone. He ran a hand through his hair, brushing it back. When he noticed the blood on his thumb, he wiped his hand on his pants.

“What are you doing here?”

Rose didn’t answer immediately.

She watched Noctis’s chest move. He was breathing. It wasn’t steady, but he was breathing.

Her jaw tightened slightly when her gaze shifted to his broken arm.

Then she looked up at Ron again.

“I think I should be the one asking you that.” The corners of her lips lifted. “Why is there a little rabid cat in my boyfriend’s home?”

Ron gave a short laugh.

He wanted to lean a shoulder against the doorframe to hide his discomfort from the aura filling the room and pressing against his chest. But Rose was standing there, so he abandoned the idea.

“Sharp-tongued as always. You haven’t changed at all, even after leaving the Academy.”

Rose showed no surprise that he recognized her. Seeing that, Ron widened his grin.

“Your little boyfriend, huh? Since when have you been into femboys?” He gestured toward Noctis with his chin. “Or is that why you rejected me? Because that was your type all along?”

Rose’s gaze dropped to his shoe.

There was blood on the toe.

Ron didn’t notice. Or perhaps he chose to pretend he hadn’t.

“He’s my little brother,” he said. “As his older brother, I had to teach him a lesson.”

“His older brother?”

Rose repeated the words slowly. The mocking expression had vanished from her face.

“Can you still call yourself that after kicking him out?”

Ron’s eyebrow twitched.

“Look, this doesn’t concern you.”

His voice hardened. Even so, he felt the need to slip a hand into his pocket while meeting Rose’s eyes. He didn’t want her to see the tiny sparks of electricity forming around his fingers.

“This is a family matter. Why don’t you leave? I’ll be gone once I’m finished with this idiot.”

Rose didn’t move.

Ron watched her as she remained silent. For a few seconds, the only sound was Noctis’s labored breathing. It seemed to fill every corner of the room.

Ron smiled without showing his teeth.

“Don’t worry. I’ll leave his little thing intact so he can satisfy you.”

Rose’s red eyes fixed on his face.

Ron opened his mouth to say something else.

But the girl in front of him was no longer there.

His eyes lingered on the empty doorway as a voice from behind made his entire body tense.

“Believe me, his is bigger than that worm of yours.”

Rose stood behind Ron with her back to him.

He hadn’t seen her cross the distance between them. He hadn’t noticed her shoulder move or her first step. The girl who had stood in front of him a moment ago was now right behind his unguarded back.

Ron’s fingers clenched inside his pocket.

It took him a second to stop staring at the place Rose had vanished from and turn around. Throughout that second, he couldn’t stop thinking about what it would mean if a hand touched the back of his neck.

But Rose wasn’t looking at him.

She had crouched beside Noctis.

As she lowered one knee to the floor, she took care not to touch his broken arm. First, she moved a lock of blue hair away from his face. Blood had stuck several strands together. She tried to separate them, then gave up and brought her hand to his cheek.

Noctis’s skin was warm beneath her fingers.

Rose’s thumb rested just beside the bruised area. The casual manner she had shown Ron was gone. Now she was only trying to keep her voice under control.

“If you don’t want the world to lose another Evernight… leave.”

Ron stood silently behind her.

Rose hadn’t even raised her head.

That was worse than if she had raised her voice. As Ron watched her, he wondered why he had received only a single warning after what he had just said. She hadn’t attacked him. Yet.

He was about to nudge a piece of the black crown aside with his foot, but stopped.

Rose’s hand was still on Noctis’s cheek.

A few seconds later, Ron shrugged.

“I suppose that’s enough.”

Hearing the forced ease in his own voice, he kept the smile on his face. He gave his brother on the floor one last look.

“It wouldn’t be good if my little brother ended up crippled.”

Rose didn’t answer.

Ron didn’t hurry as he left the room. He walked down the hallway and past the living room. The belongings he had destroyed by himself a short while ago had now become obstacles he needed to watch out for on his way to the door.

He stopped when he reached the front door.

“Oh, by the way…”

He glanced over his shoulder. The bedroom door was ajar. He couldn’t see Rose, but he was certain she could hear him.

“Some people are looking for you. I assume you know who they are.”

Rose’s hand stopped.

The lock of hair between her fingers slowly slipped free and fell onto Noctis’s forehead.

When no answer came from the room, Ron smiled.

“Try not to die.”

His footsteps faded down the apartment hallway.

Rose sat without raising her head for a while. Once the last sound outside had faded, the tension in her shoulders slowly eased, but her expression didn’t soften.

She looked toward the door.

Then she turned her eyes back to Noctis.

The last time they had spoken, the young man hadn’t known where to look. He had raised his voice when he protested, and the more he had tried to hide his embarrassment, the more obvious it had become. Now his face was covered in blood, and he didn’t even know Rose was touching him.

Rose wanted to wipe the dried blood from the corner of his mouth with her thumb. Realizing it might start bleeding again if she touched it, she stopped her hand.

She clenched her jaw.

A few words she hadn’t said to Ron remained caught in her throat.

The people looking for her…

Rose lowered her head slightly. She knew this wasn’t the time to worry about her own problems, but those few words wouldn’t leave her mind.

She stroked Noctis’s cheek again, more carefully this time.

A small smile appeared on her lips. If the young man had been able to see her, he might have noticed how different it was from her usual smile.

“I guess we’re both in trouble, honey.”