Chapter 13
Ren cautiously approached Yuta's bedside, his face creased with worry but his eyes never leaving the snake. "Let me tend to your wounds," he said, though his voice trembled slightly.
As Ren began cleaning the blood from Yuta's back with strips of wet cloth, he noticed something that made his heart clench with sympathy. Beneath the fresh lash marks were older scars—faded but unmistakable evidence of years of abuse.
Those scars… Elrien's serpentine vision was different from his human sight, but he could sense the pain embedded in those old wounds. Who dared to hurt him repeatedly? Who left these marks on him?
"Yuta," Ren whispered, his fingers hovering over a particularly old scar. "Who did this to you? These marks… they're not from today."
Yuta's shoulders tensed, but he didn't answer. He couldn't bear to voice the truth about his family's cruelty, not when Ren was being so kind.
Tell him, Elrien found himself thinking. Tell him so I know who needs to die slowly.
