Page 173 of The Wishing Game

"If you did, can you please forget that happened?"

He suddenly stabs his sword into the ground, his upper lip lifting to reveal sharp teeth bared at me.

"No," he rasps out, and a wave of purple energy blasts from his sword toward me, making me lose my balance and fall on my back. I blink slowly, confused about what's happening. Yet before I can say anything, he's by my side, lifting me up.

His lips are compressed in a hard line, his muscles bulging in his forearms.

He grips my shoulders tightly as he stares at me with a hardened expression the likes of which I have never seen before.

"Why him?" he demands in a barely subdued tone.

"What?" My lashes flutter in confusion.

His fingers dig into my skin. He clenches his jaw as veins protrude up his neck.

A rush of adrenaline goes down my back, my limbs suddenly weak in the face of danger.

"I don't understand you, Ze," I mumble weakly, pushing at his hands.

"Why him, human? Why does it have to be him?"

THIRTY-SEVEN

"You're scaring me, Ze," I whisper, blinking back tears. Fear courses through me as I take in his crazed expression. His nostrils flare as his eyes zero in on me.

A lone tear falls down my cheek, and it seems to snap him out of it. Muttering a string of foreign curses, he lets go of me and takes a few steps back.

I sway in the wind, my legs made of jelly.

After a few deep breaths, my heart is still beating like crazy in my chest, my whole body trembling. I wrap my arms around myself, stealing a glance at him.

He's pacing around like a madman, stomping his feet into the ground with a force that makes the entire earth quake.

"Ze?" I probe gently, both afraid of him and for him. Just what prompted this display?

"Why would you risk yourself for that male?" he asks on a ragged breath, a hint of purple staring my way.

"I don't understand. He's my husband. Of course I'd risk everything for him," I answer weakly.

"But why?" he repeats. "What is so special about him?"

I bite my lip as I look at his savage manner, and it suddenly strikes me that he may be confused about emotions—about what prompts someone to sacrifice themselves for another.

"Because I love him," I say, my tone more confident than before. "He might not be special to anyone else, but he's special to me."

He narrows his eyes at me.

"You wouldn't understand." I give him a small smile. "All my life I've been told how insignificant I was, how little I mattered as a person. But Nikki... He treated me like I waseverythingto him."

"Is that so?" He raises a brow, coming toward me. Instinctively, I take a step back. He stops right in front of me, his expression twisted. "Then are you doing this out of a sense of duty to him?"

My lashes flutter in shock.

"What—"

"Is that not so? Was he not an escape for you out of your living situation?"

I stare at him, unable to recognize this Ze in front of me. There's a vicious edge to his tone, a sharpness in his features that wasn't there before. The corner of his mouth twitches up in a cruel smirk, and for the first time, I find myself at a loss for words.

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