Because I Love You✔️

Chapter 40: The Daael Family

This chapter is dedicated solely to butterballporkbun for being such a huge help and inspiration to my work!
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Chapter Thirty-Nine: The Daael Family

Xaphile was floating on his back in a void, long hair billowing around as he stared up into a face that vaguely resembled his own.

Asian-like aquamarine eyes, shoulder-length black hair... curved horns, fangs... a lion's tail. But the nose was different, and there was even something off about the boy's mouth.

It wasn't him... not a reflection of himself, but someone else... someone younger.

It was only at the last second that he realized the boy's hands were clamped around his throat.

A sense of deep and painful betrayal unexpectedly swept through him.

A name, unbidden, ghosted his lips.

"Adariel..." he croaked, gripping the boy's wrists. "Why...?"

Why.

That one word asked so many things.

Why had he awoken as a monster... why had he ended up in a strange world... why this, why that, why the hell was Ella dead on Earth but a terrifying dominatrix on Atlas?

"Come to your senses, Xaphile!" the boy on top of him snapped, tightening his fists. "You cannot fall for that human! If you reveal yourself to her, she will destroy you! Come to your senses, please!"

He no longer had control of his body.

Muscles bulging, he struggled to push the younger boy off of him and eventually succeeded.

Pinning him down on his back, they hovered above a world of nothing.

"My path is my own!" he growled, glaring at the squirming kid beneath him. "I will follow it, even if it leads to my destruction! I refuse to go against my heart!"

"That human is evil!" he cried, hitting Xaphile upside the head. "Don't let her seduction tactics fool you, Xaphile! Resist that temptress, no matter the cost! Do not lose yourself to her, for that in itself will lead to your demise! Remain by my side, please! Don't abandon me!"

"I would never abandon you," he muttered, mouth moving on its own, "but my heart is already hers. It has been hers since I was a child barely able to talk!"

"What do you mean?!"

The world greyed out and grew fuzzy as something frayed.

"Adariel," he whispered softly, "I've... imp---"

"No!" the boy shrieked, cutting him off. "I won't allow it! I won't let her kill you! I refuse!"

He turned his head to see a fist holding a rock coming up to meet his face...

Xaphile's eyes flashed open and he jerked, breathing heavily as a strange, muffled voice filled his throbbing head.

"Big brother... it hurts... help..."

A flash of inexplicable anxiety flooded through him and he clutched the side of his aching head, checking his fingers for blood, but there was nothing... not even an injury.

Once he'd calmed down a bit, his eyes slid closed once again and he just lay there, dazed. He was so tired that he couldn't even move and his mouth was unbearably dry, but there was a smell filling his nose that made him reluctant to fall back asleep.