𝐙𝐀𝐍𝐄|✔︎

Chapter Twenty-Eight | Mr. Joker.

She couldn't be this strong when it happened before. She had to be strong now. She had to be strong for that little Azalea who couldn't defend herself years ago.

She had to be okay.

"I am okay, Zane. I promise I am okay," She whimpered under her breath, feeling her inhaling and exhaling become so forced and heavy, an action that needed to happen to let her blood get enough oxygen once the nail marks on her breasts had healed, leaving no scarring.

Zane watched her small, twitching hands on her lap. They looked so weak, they looked frail.

"I won't let anyone in. It's just you and me."

"It's just him and I," She reminisced, making herself remember the instance of her with Zane in his room to comfort Beda, to comfort herself. To be there for her, forgetting all the turmoil between them and just remembering him.

She remembered his face, his touch, his smell. Fuck, his presence. It was heaven. Being with him was heaven she never felt deserved to have. When she was in his bed with him. Back in the castle. Where no one would ever lay a hand on her but him, when he was there during her breakdown and kept her safe. Where he kept his promise to wait for her more.

Zane's eyes softened.

"I am no god without you."

"He's no god without me," She mumbled even softer, her voice almost gone, no longer coherent for the audience that she knew was watching. She clutched her bra tightly, her eyes still closed.

The control room's silence rolled after they heard her sounds, momentarily watching Zane's gaze never halter from the screen.

Zane's grip loosened on the chair he was sitting on. Molly heard his heartbeat slow down.

"You're a strong fucking woman, Azalea. My woman."

"I'm... I'm strong, I'll be strong." She cooed to herself, wiping away possible tears that dared to escape her eyes, bringing in even inhales and exhales after a few seconds. Her body registered her words, his words, his memory. She planted her hand onto her tummy to let her warmth distract her from the burn.

Zane's eyes hardened on her temperature. It was still high.

He saw it, they all saw it.

Nyx handed over the control of the ring to Zane after pausing for his reaction, feeling no right to control it anymore.

Zane looked at the buttons.

He took it.

He pressed it 3 times.

Azalea felt her ring vibrate 3 times. Her cough escaped her throat after she fondled the ring on her fingers for desperate measures, glancing at it with hope in her eyes. With hope being born in her body again. She knew it was him doing this, telling her she was not alone, she'd never be alone.

And with her words, Beda subsided her pain. Her body stopped burning.

She exerted a relieved sigh.

"Good god, Veera," Azalea huffed with fatigue, finding her voice again and getting up from her seat to somewhat walk slowly to the broken mirror in the shed, retracting her arms from the hug. Her headache passed away, with her werewolf healing and strength coming back to her body after the episode of the burn.

She watched her reflection.

Her beautiful hair, all messy. 

Her tight dress, practically gone. 

Her white eyes, back to sky blue.

Her toned, sculpted stomach and chest went up and down from the even breathing she had managed to muster. Her visible abs were contracting from her breathing, but still tough enough to endure harder things than that. Her breasts, bleeding from the impact of Tiras' nails, had a sting to them. But it healed, right in front of her eyes.