Behind His Weary Eyes (Novella) ✔️

20 ✙ Tribal Instincts

He was like her shadow, coming out only when the sun began to set on her world.

Asa peered behind her shoulder. In her peripheral vision, she could make out his outline. Ludis had been following her since the medic left Zienna's office. He knew she'd be there, and he had waited for her. She clenched her fists.

She didn't understand the fire inside her belly or prickling of her scales underneath his gaze. He'd only done his duty. She shouldn't have slept with Renvir. Now she had broken the trust of the one Celest she revered the most.

Asa took a left towards the residential wing, the number of beings around them lessening. A shine of Ludis' red scales reminded her of his presence. The last night he approached her ran through her mind, bringing with it the feeling of crusted tears and Renvir's smooth-shelled egg.

What would happen to the Celest if the medication stopped working? Would Ludis keep up with his treatment? A shiver ran down her spine. She remembered the fires behind the Core Center. The medic, for the most part, ignored the rising smoke and the scent of the burnt corpses of the mutated. Yet now it brought with it a stinging pain.

If she had eradicated him when he first showed symptoms, she wouldn't have found medicine to reduce his symptoms. She hadn't cured him, but progress was something, right? Were they doing good by killing them?

After she entered a secluded hallway, the footsteps echoing behind her grew louder. Each of her classmate's steps hit in an offbeat rhythm, growing closer and closer. Asa clenched her teeth. It wasn't that she'd lost her chance at a future here, that's not what made the anger spread like the burning of the dead across her scales.

She spun around to face him. His slightly hunched shoulders rolled back into a confident posture. He stopped a meter or so away.

"What do you want, Ludis?"

A smirk slapped across his filthy lips.

"Now that distractions are out of the way, I believe we have some unfinished business," he said, gleaming with the unbridled passion she felt in his rough kisses and demanding touch nights prior. His eyes seemed to bore through her clothes. Her entire world had just been turned upside down to the point she couldn't make sense of it, and he had the gall to ask for sex.

"I have no business with you."

Ludis sauntered toward her.

"You're still so wrapped up with him, aren't you? You need to let him go, Asa. He'll do nothing but weigh you down."

Her stomach churned, whether from his words or the liquid she didn't know. She flicked her forked tongue at him.

"Weigh me down? You were the one who stopped me from seeing his file!"

"You're accusing me of all beings? If anything, you should be thanking me. I saved your sorry tail before you completely ruined your chance at a future here!"

"Maybe it wasn't a future I wanted anymore!"

Grief filled her chest as she yearned for what she had lost-a family with the one she loved. Her classmate shook his head.

"Of course you want it. You trained Celestial four months for it. It was your new start. I-your classmates and I-were your new tribe."

Tribe, the word rattled in her ears. Asa's fangs descended. Unafraid, she closed the gap between them, pressing her finger onto his chest. Her sharp nail punched a hole in his shirt.

"No. Finnley and Evrel perhaps, but you." Her breathing trembled. "You took away the one being who was my tribe.

"A shock passed through her body as she processed what she had said. Ludis, however, didn't stop. His face contorted into a scowl.