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━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🦊 N I K O L A I 🦊 ━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nikolai had prayed to the Saints that the demon wouldn't show when Teuta was around - And he was everything far away from a religious man. Arrangements were usually made so he could excuse himself to leave early from the dinner table, just in case the demon would feel funny on an early evening. They had planned the same for Teuta's visit and Nikolai had never guessed the demon would show on this tragic afternoon. He had felt himself safe because they had still so much time to pass until the critical hour was slowly approaching, but something had triggered the monster to come out on just as the sun was about to set.
Thankfully, Teuta reached Tamar and Tolya just in time, the demon had already made its way down the King's corridor on the lookout for some mischief. They slowed its heart, making it drop to the floor unconscious. After tying the monster to the bed, Nikolai woke up fifteen minutes later in his own skin. But he could remember what had happened. And he still saw the frightened look on Teuta's face when she ran for her life, away from him.
She was with in a meeting room with Genya when he searched her after getting the chains off him to explain her everything. The Grisha had wrapped her in a blanket and forced a cup of tea in her hands that was still full when Nikolai entered the room.
Her eyes grew big in worry when he rushed over to her. "So, it's still in you?"
"I am so sorry, Tea." He dropped to his knees before the chair she was sitting on, slowly grabbing her hand to see if she would refuse his touch. "I can't believe I did that, I am so terribly sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." He tilted his head, but her neck bend looked fine, Genya must have healed her wounds already. "Or hurt you."
She didn't pull away. Instead, she placed the cup of tea onto the table next to her and put her other hand over his. "I'm fine, Nikolai."
"I should take my leave," Genya said. "If you need anything, call for me."
"Thank you, Genya." Both of them said at the same time. The Grisha gave them a sad smile and left them alone to talk about what just happened.
"It's still inside of me, yes, and we're looking for a solution to get rid of it. And we'll find one, I promise you."
Teuta raised her hand to touch his face. Her fingers traced along his features as if she wanted to make sure that it was still him and not a mascaraed the monster used. "Why didn't you say anything?"
"I didn't want to worry you," Nikolai sighed and pulled a chair over to sit on. "I made everybody promise not to tell you when I gathered the Triumvirate for our meeting earlier on. You have already enough on your plate and I don't want you have another problem to think about."
"Nikolai ..." She said sorrowful, making his heart clench in his chest. "You know you can talk to me about anything, right?"
"Yes, of course, but there's so much going on and ... I didn't want to tell you this on your first day here. You came to me with a much bigger problem, and I didn't want to burden you with my personal problem. But I guess you found out sooner and in a different way than I intended ..."
