"For now."
Kongar's words echoed over and over in my mind. As my breathing grew faster, I shifted restlessly where I stood.
But...
A sudden cold touch brushed across the center of my chest.
My gaze immediately dropped.
Kongar's fingers were moving slowly over my chest, astonishingly gentle. Yet it felt as though they kept returning to the same spot again and again, lingering there as if he were deliberately caressing it.
My entire body tensed beneath his touch. At first, I tried to pull away from him, but a few seconds later, tiny tingles began to spread beneath the place where his fingers rested.
Just like the feeling I had whenever Arkan touched me.
"T-Take your hands off me," I said, unable to tear my eyes away from the fingers gliding over my skin.
He paused for a brief moment at my words.
Just when I thought he was about to pull his hand away, his fingers began moving again with the same unhurried gentleness.
"You didn't mind Arkan's touch."
What kind of excuse was that?
"Because he was Arkan," I said, meeting his gaze.
His jaw tightened, but his eyes never left me.
"Ah."
Suddenly, he dug his nails into the very spot he had been caressing moments before.
"What are you doing?" I shouted.
"You were so happy with him that night," he said, pressing his nails in even deeper.
"What night?" I asked through a pained hiss.
Tilting his head slightly to the side, he watched me in silence for a moment. Then he drove his nails in a little deeper.
What was he trying to do?
"The night you completed your bond."
"Were you watching us?" I asked. I didn't even try to hide the shock in my voice.
Or had I been bound to the spirit of some perverted witch?
He averted his gaze.
"My heart was beating so fast," he said in that deep, melodic voice of his. Then he looked at me again.
"Would you have felt that way with me too?"
I frowned.
What was that supposed to mean?
"I don't understand."
When he pulled his nails away from my skin, I hissed in pain.
"Who are you?" I shouted. "Kutay?"
At that last word, his entire body went rigid.
"Where did you hear that name?" he asked. His voice was ice-cold. Black smoke began to slowly coil around his body.
Instinctively, I tried to move away, but the chains kept me from going anywhere.
"Who told you that?" he shouted.
As his voice echoed through the chamber, the earthen structure around us trembled.
I squeezed my eyes shut in fear, but opened them again a moment later.
I had to stay calm. After all, this could still be a dream.
Yes...
A dream.
I took a few deep breaths.
The moment he brought his face right in front of mine, I let out a scream. Our faces were so close our noses were almost touching.
He gripped my chin, holding it firmly in place.
"Kutay..." he said slowly, enunciating each syllable. "Where did you hear that name?"
"S-Sarya," I stammered.
"Sarya?" he repeated, pulling back.
"The woman who called you Kutay at the ball."
As though deep in thought, he brought a hand to his chin.
"Did she tell you anything?"
I hesitated, unsure whether I should tell him what I knew.
"Or forget it," he said. "It doesn't matter."
"What are you going to do to me?" I asked, my heart skipping a beat.
Without saying a word, he raised his hand. Black smoke had completely engulfed it.
"I'm going to take what's mine," he said.
What did he mean by what was his?
I frowned.
Could he be talking about... my heart?
My eyes widened in fear. My heart pounded wildly against my ribcage.
He brought his hand down toward my chest.
"If I die, you'll die too," I said immediately.
At my words, his hand stopped directly over my heart.
"You're bound to me," I continued.
He simply smiled.
Just like that.
"Ah, Kayra," he said, gently stroking my head with the hand shrouded in black smoke. "I'm not bound to your soul like Arkan is."
He brought his hand over my heart once more.
"I," he said, pointing at my heart with his finger. "I'm bound to this."
My mind was in complete disarray.
"I need to pull my heart out of you quickly," he said. "Only then will I have what's mine."
He was going to kill me.
"Arkan..." I whispered.
A single tear slipped down my cheek.
If I died, Arkan would die too.
Could that be why...?
"Did you make me bite Arkan on purpose?" I asked.
He gently brushed the tear from my cheek with his fingertip. Then he silently looked at his finger.
"Yes."
Bastard.
"Otherwise, he would've come after me," he continued. "Though he wouldn't have been able to kill someone immortal."
He let out a soft chuckle as he said the last part.
"Why are you doing all of this?" I asked.
He tilted his head ever so slightly.
"To become immortal," he replied.
He said it as though I should have already known.
"But," he continued, his voice growing even deeper, "I have to take my heart from you first."
He still called it his heart.
I lowered my gaze.
Was I really going to die here? And because of me, Arkan would die too.
My heart tightened painfully.
Kongar's fingers began gliding over my heart once again.
"It'll all be over soon," he said.
Strangely enough, his touch was calming me.
The touch of the man who had just told me he was going to kill me...
Ridiculous.
He raised the hand shrouded in black smoke. Then he pressed his fingers together like the blade of a knife.
"Goodbye," he said.
For the briefest moment, I thought I saw his eyes turn yellow.
Kongar...
Then he brought his hand down toward my heart.
I squeezed my eyes shut in fear and turned my head away. I couldn't bear to watch.
I didn't know how long I remained like that, but the blow I had been waiting for never came.
Slowly, I opened my eyes.
I was still inside the earthen chamber.
"Damn it."
At the sound of Kongar's quiet curse, I turned toward him.
With a speed too fast for me to follow, he raised his hand again and tried to drive it into my heart. But the instant his nails reached my skin, they stopped.
"Why isn't it working?" he said, trying to plunge his hand into my heart again.
I simply watched him for a while. There was nothing else I could do anyway. He kept cursing like a madman, trying over and over again to drive his hand into my heart.
I couldn't help but wonder why he hadn't killed me until now. He was trying with such desperation that...
For some reason, seeing him like this made my heart ache. It didn't make any sense. I should've cursed him—maybe even hated him. But instead, I couldn't bear to watch him like this any longer.
"Kongar," I called.
He didn't respond.
His not hearing me—or simply not caring—irritated me. But I should've been afraid. After all, I didn't even know what kind of being I was dealing with.
"Kongar!" I shouted. "Look at me!"
His hand suddenly froze in midair. Then he slowly turned his head toward me. Yellow tears tinged with black streamed down his face.
Was he... crying?
Why?
Could it be... because he couldn't kill me?
Yes, that made more sense.
When I looked at his hand suspended in midair, I noticed it trembling slightly. Then his whole body began to shake.
Kongar suddenly appeared beside me. He cupped my head in both hands and brought his face close to mine.
"Who are you?" he asked.
His eyes kept shifting between yellow and black.
"Why can't I do it?"
As he spoke, his cold breath brushed against my lips. Strangely, I felt the butterflies in my stomach begin to stir.
He buried his nose in my hair and took a deep breath.
What was he doing?
I tried to pull my head away, but his grip only tightened.
"No… you're not," he said sharply.
Not what?
"What are you talking abou—"
Before I could finish my question, his lips crashed against mine.
He really was a pervert.
But maybe there was something wrong with me too. Because I couldn't bring myself to resist those cold lips. Instead, I parted my own, allowing him to deepen the kiss.
Just as our kiss began to deepen, Kongar pulled away.
"This isn't right," he said.
He looked at me with those black eyes for a long moment, then suddenly vanished.
Then he appeared beside the small earthen table in the corner. He wrenched it from the ground and hurled it at the opposite wall. The table slammed into the earthen wall, crumbling on impact and sending papers flying across the floor.
I could only watch him in fear and disbelief.
In the next instant, he appeared beside me again. He cupped my face with both hands and rested his forehead against mine.
"Why?" he said. "Why did you open the chest?"
"I don't know why," I whispered.
I should never have gone to that camp.
"Sarya was supposed to open it," he said, stepping back.
Then he slammed his fist into the wall behind me. The wall shook with a loud crash, and clumps of earth began falling from the ceiling onto me.
Terrified and helpless, I quickly turned my head to the side.
I waited for the earth to collapse on top of me.
But nothing happened.
When I looked up at the ceiling again, I saw the chunks of earth that had been about to fall on me suspended in midair by black smoke.
When I turned my gaze to Kongar, I caught a brief flicker of fear in his eyes.
Was he afraid for me...
Or for my heart?
Of course. It had to be for my heart.
As he swept his arm to the left, the black smoke swept the chunks of earth above my head into a corner of the chamber.
He stared at me for a long moment.
Then he clenched his teeth.
As black smoke engulfed his body, he vanished from sight.
He was really gone.
He had left me alone in that pit-like chamber, still bound in chains.