Because I Love You✔️

Chapter 70: Removing the Mark

Chapter Seventy: Removing the Mark

Xaphile returned to his body with a jolt.

Blinking rapidly, he pulled back and stared off into space, heart pounding.

He felt nauseous... sick to his stomach.

"Why did you show me that?" he numbly inquired, voice coming out completely dead of emotion. "I don't understand."

"You will, young Vadil, in time... and I showed it to you because it was necessary," Zelphira murmured, then stood up and looked at Ella. "Both of you... follow me. It is time to remove your bond with each other."

Without further ado, she began to walk, gracefully gliding across the clearing. Shaken to his core, he got to his feet and looked at Ella, who stared back at him intently, as if she were waiting for him to tell her what had just happened.

But he didn't.

All he did was look at her.

"Let's go," he finally murmured, tearing his gaze from her own. "We should get this over with."

When he began to follow the Grand Mother, she opened her mouth and slightly raised her hand as if she were going to protest... but then, that hand dropped and she slowly lowered her eyes.

Without a word, she began to follow them, walking alongside the river with her head down.

Zelphira led them straight to a small stone altar set at the edge of the clearing, then stopped and turned around.

Xaphile came to a halt and Ella bumped into his wings, eliciting a pained flinch, but aside from that he didn't move.

"Both of you," Zelphira said, catching their attention, "remove your clothes."

Ella blinked rapidly as she procesed that.

"I beg your pardon?!" she squeaked, face turning bright red; she instantly drew back and covered her chest with both hands. "Why in the nine fires would I do that?!"

"For this ritual to take place, you must both be as you are," the woman quietly assured her, lifting a clawed hand and holding it out. "Release your worldly shackles, your worldly worries, and put your trust in Xaphile. You know well that he will not take advantage of you."

Ella's eye twitched a few times, but then, miraculously, she slowly lowered her arms and closed her eyes, nostrils flared with fury.

Trembling slightly, she lifted her thin fingers and unclasped her cloak from around her throat.

Xaphile looked away when it slid to the ground, but before she began to undo her dress, she cast him a glance.

"Avert your eyes," she told him quietly. "You are a man."

Even though he wasn't looking at her anyway, his long ear flicked.

"The same applies to you," he rasped, turning slightly before he began to undo his pants. She stiffened and turned her back on him, face and ears going red. "I won't look at you as long as you don't look at me. We just have to get through this."