SGE His Guarded Heart (Prequel to His Darkened Heart)

Chapter 8 Forbearance of the Heart

"Krushem would save Aric. He'd save Aric from himself."
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Chapter 8 Forbearance of the Heart

"I know your heart may belong to a—another, but I am loyal to you. I'll accept you as you are, Aric. Can your Japeth do that? Can he?"

Staring into the mirror at his reflection, Krushem realized how foolish he sounded. He sighed heavily and watched as he raked his fingers through his hair. His hair had grown longer since his time at the School for Boys and a thick lock of brown hair fell onto his forehead. He blew it out of his face and his fingers clenched into fists.

There was deep, dark bags beneath his red rimmed gaze. The baggy eyes were most likely due to his lack of sleep last night. But his dilated pupils were a result of whatever the heck Balleng had given him at the party.

Krushem had never felt so disoriented yet free. He'd felt that when he'd tasted whatever Balleng had given him. He'd lost himself in the sensations and for a moment, he'd felt no fear—not even love. He'd felt absolutely nothing and everything all at the same time. The feelings had been indescribable, and he didn't know how long he'd stayed at that party, dancing without a damn care in the world.

Krushem had woken up outside Aric's bedroom door in the early hours of the morning. He didn't know how he got there or why he went there in the first place. His drugged state seemed to have driven him there. He couldn't remember what happened most of the night. His memories were blurry like a foggy haze enveloping his mind.

It'd been so early in the morning that nobody was up. The party seemed to have come to an end and the partygoers seemed to have crawled into their beds to sleep.

Krushem had struggled to pick himself up off the floor before stumbling back to his room, his muscles feeling like they were made of sludge. Then, he'd flopped into his bed and fell asleep.

Not long after that, Krushem had awoken to the sounds of yelling. The teachers were screaming at boys to wake up, banging on their bedroom doors to rouse them from their slumbers.

Krushem heard that banging on his own door, and instead of opening it, he snuggled deeper into his bed and pulled the covers over his face.

But then the knocking persisted, even louder than before until Krushem became fed up and stormed out of his bed and flung the door open...only to find Aric standing there.

Aric was clad in black. His sleeveless black shirt hugged his torso, accentuating his muscles. His shirt was partially tucked into the waist of his tight, leather pants and the bottoms of his pants were tucked into his tall  lace up boots. A sheath hung from Aric's hip and poking out of the sheath was the leather hilt of his treasured dagger. Besides that dagger, Aric had his coiled leather whip hanging from his belt too.

For a moment, Krushem couldn't breathe, Not just because Aric looked the best Krushem had ever seen him, but also because Aric looked more imposing and punishing than Krushem had ever seen him. And Krushem wasn't even watching Aric punish boys in the Doom Room right now!

"Sir," Krushem breathed, finding his voice.

Krushem's thoughts jumped to how he'd found himself sleeping outside Aric's bedroom door. Had he done anything to Aric last night that he didn't remember? Had he said anything to Aric or done anything that he would certainly not have done if he wasn't drugged?

But then Krushem watched a smirk crawl across Aric's face, and he relaxed a bit.

"Heard about the little party you all had last night," Aric said, leaning against the door frame. "Too bad I didn't come. I was busy in the Doom Room."