Saviour of His Heart (Sequel to Keeper of the Lion's Heart)

Chapter 11 - This time she meant it

Chapter 11 - This time she meant it

The pain was too much to bear. It was a mighty effort on Tehan’s part to get out of the examination hall without making Thejan and Kasthuri panic too much.

He was almost blinded by pain by the time he was finally out. Going lion would’ve eased the roaring anguish a bit at least, but that was not an option under the circumstances. He wanted to go back and finish the exam simply because he didn’t want to go through the hassle of repeating.

When Sayumyi called him he was almost succumbing to the agony… which would force him to go lion first and then lose consciousness, which he loathed because that reminded him of the worst consequences of his conditions than even death.

Tehan turned to Sayumyi’s soothing tone like a man seeing a light after running wildly in a maze of dark torture. He was acting on instinct when he pulled her to him and hugged her so tightly probably knocking the breath out of her.

After the initial shock of being hugged faded, Sayumyi understood that he holding onto her because he was in too much pain and so she prayed with all her mind that he be relieved of it. It hurt me to see him so much anguish. Even though I don’t know what exactly is going on, from his face and the way he held me I could tell that the situation was really, really bad.

It was always hard for Sayumyi’s gentle mind to watch other people’s pain. She felt so bad about not being able to ease their suffering. In Tehan’s case her feelings were more acute. She slipped her own hands around him and rubbed soothing circles to his back, just like he did when she was in panic. Forgotten was the fact that not only the entire university but travelers on road can all see them embracing. Only Tehan existed to her at the moment.

After what felt like a long time Sayumyi felt his tensed muscles relaxing. Tehan buried his face in her hair and sighed. Sayumyi sent her fingers through his hair experimentally. Finally he moved away rather reluctantly and looked at her.

“You okay?”

“Yeah,” he stared at her in wonder. He wanted to know what she did to make him have an instant recover, a miracle even the doctors could never achieve. But then he remembered the exam.

“Oh shit! I already spent fifteen minutes outside!” Tehan checked the watched and cursed.

“Oh, the exam! Yeah, you should hurry up,” even though she had a lot of questions, they would have to wait.  The exam was way more important. If I don’t ask now I probably won’t get to know anything later. The subject will never come up. But no one ever died of curiosity, right?

Tehan took two steps and paused. He looked into her eyes. “Sayumyi, thank you,”

Sayumyi gave him a blank look. Eh? I didn’t do anything.

“My exam is over at twelve. Think you can hang around till then? I think I owe you an explanation,” Tehan said in answer to her look.

Sayumyi nodded. Yay! Answers!

Tehan gave a wave and sprinted off.

All the best, Tehan! Sayumyi went to her own lecture. Afterwards she waited at the front step, a book open in her hand. But her mind was preoccupied with thoughts of Tehan. She was worried about what made him so sick. Was that the reason he seemed to isolate himself from people?

She stood up and hurried forward when students started pouring out after the exam was over. She didn’t want to miss Tehan. But he came to her directly like he knew she was exactly there even before he stepped out. He took hold of her hand and walked off, not bothered for a moment that everyone could see them. Oh well, we were supposed to be boy friend and girl friend anyway.