Saved By Your Hot Book Boyfriend

43. The Hot Guy Works Out

43

The Hot Guy Works Out

You

Ziros! Ziros is here!

Somehow, he’s found you!

You feel lighter at just the sight of him, more confident than ever. And strangely…just a little bit like showing-off.

After all, that sword isn’t just a little letter opener anymore. It’s full size, and you’re ready to show this skaddler who’s boss.

You hold the glinting blade at the ready as the rain lets up, adrenaline pounding through your heart as the skaddler advances.

“Take this!” You shout, lunging for its scaly armor as it roars, teeth gnashing.

A flash of blinding light shoots out of your sword, blasting the skaddler—and sending you careening backward.

“ Gotcha ,” growls a familiar voice in your ear, and your heart skips a beat.

Ziros.

Ziros caught you before you hit the ground.

You twist to look at him, your face inches from his. His piercing blue eyes flash as he stares back at you.

Softly, you whisper, “ You found me .”

Ziros snorts.

“Of course I did, human. What do you take me for?”

For a moment, there’s only you and Ziros, a gentle patter of light rain echoing on the wooden boardwalk where he stands.

Ziros leans in closer, his arms warm and strong where he holds you against his chest.

And there’s a strange, deep sadness in his eyes when he looks at you.

An ache.

A longing?

Whatever it is, he brushes a stray lock of hair out of your eyes before pulling back, setting you on your feet.

On the muddy road in front of you, the skaddler picks itself up on all its pinchy, snappy, sharp claws, lowering itself like it’s preparing to lunge again.

You’re half-expecting Ziros to step in front of you and take it out on his own, but maybe he wants to give you a shot, because he just folds his arms and says, “Aim for the backs of the joints.”

You lift your sword again, adrenaline racing as the skaddler rears-up.

Ziros grins encouragingly at you like he’s proud. Like he’s enjoying watching you take it on.

And that just makes you want to show-off more.

“Here goes nothing,” you say, charging toward the skaddler, letting another blazing bolt of magic rip through your sword.

Only…is it your imagination, or was this one a lot weaker?

It kinda…fizzles.

“Chosen One,” Elena calls from where she stands with Eli a few yards back. “Please be careful. You must conserve your energy.”

Maybe it’s because you’re new to this whole having-magical-abilities thing and just kinda winging it, but you must have put too much of your magic into the first attack.

Not to worry.

You can just swing the sword without magic, taking down the skaddler the good old-fashioned way.

Right?

Or…that’s your plan.

Except the skaddler seems to have other ideas.

It lets out a grating, screeching snarl, slashing wildly with its claws. Out of the corner of your eye, you just barely glimpse black scaly claws as something very hard and painful smacks into the side of your head.

You yelp, flying sideways.

“ Human! ” Ziros lunges, sweeping you into his arms.

He sets you down on the boardwalk twenty feet back, just out of the skaddler’s reach. “Don’t move,” he growls, turning back to face the monster himself.

You groan, rubbing your head.

Ouch.

The world spins, darkness tunneling in around your vision.

Is this the end?

Is one sideways hit from a skaddler all it takes to end this town’s so-called Chosen One?

You might laugh if it weren’t so stupidly painful.

If you weren’t about to pass out.

And out of the haze, you barely make out Elena rushing toward you. And a distant flash of light as Ziros cuts down the skaddler in one go.

And then the world goes dark.

Ziros

It’s been hours, and she still hasn’t woken up.

Damn these bastards for kidnapping her.

It’s all their damn fault.

It was easy enough to get rid of the skaddler—and then the several others that took its place—not that the monsters won’t be back.

Just like they are with my human’s magic, they’re attracted to the energy of this place. That old sorceress, Elena, she’s too weak to be much use, and her grandson has enough energy surrounding him to attract demons for miles.

Not that he’s figured out how to access it.

If that kid ever unlocks his power, they’ll be fine. But until then, they need a guardian. Someone like my human. Or me.

But that’s not my problem.

Just as soon as my human wakes up, I’m getting her out of here.

And she’d better wake up.

Otherwise these damn kidnappers will have hell to pay.

“You should really eat something,” says the wizened old woman where she stands in the doorway, holding a bowl of soup.

I grunt in response, turning away.

I’m not interested in food from the person who kidnapped my human.

“You know, old lady, if she died before I got here, it would have been your fault.”

The old woman sighs, and I almost feel bad for her. Almost .

She sounds so damn tired.

“Please forgive me,” she says, and the soup tray clinks as she sets it down on a table at the side of the room. I’m waiting for her to leave, but much to my annoyance, she sits down in a rickety old wooden chair beside my human’s bed. “It seems my clairvoyance is not as adept as it once was. I am fading, oh great demigod. Please forgive me for my transgressions. I would never have brought her here if—”

“ Kidnapped her,” I correct. “Not brought .”

She sighs, shaking her wizened, gray-haired head.

“I would never have allowed the Chosen One to be taken in such an abrupt manner if I had realized her life were tied to that of a demigod.”

“ Tch ,” I mutter. “Well, you almost killed her, old woman.”

“And for that, I am deeply sorry.”

I shake my head. Still avoiding the old lady’s gaze.

I just want her to leave me alone already.

Finally, I hear the floorboards creak as she walks slowly back out, shutting the door behind her.

Good riddance.

* * *

It’s already late afternoon, and my human still hasn’t woken up.

I’ve been pacing this damn forsaken room for hours.

The hell am I doing?

This is what I get for letting myself become attached.

Immortality is nothing but a curse in a world made of mortals. It’s a curse that dooms you to be alone.

She’s going to die. Someday, she’ll die, no matter what I do. And then what?

I drop to the creaking old whitewashed floorboards, the familiar rhythm of exercise pulling me in.

I could be anywhere.

I could be back in that damn void all over again as time flows by around me.

I’m vaguely aware of the door opening and closing as that damn old woman comes back in, leaves, and returns again. The light through the window grows deeper orange, then fades, but I don’t stop.

Not even when my muscles burn, sweat drenching my shirt and my back and my hair and dripping down my jaw.

It’s like a trance.

A trance that keeps my mind from wandering, from thinking about what I’ve done. About how attached I’ve let myself become.

In the void, I could keep at this for days, a trance of sleep and work, keeping me from feeling.

Maybe I’m getting weak.

Maybe being tethered to this human has made me weak. Maybe I’ve not yet recovered from the distance, because blackness swims at the edges of my vision.

But I refuse to stop.

I keep going until my arms feel like burning lead, until the drop of my chest toward the ground, the flexing of my biceps as I push back up is the only thing I can remember.

You

It’s dark when you wake up, but there’s a ray of golden light drifting in from the hall.

And a strange, rhythmic creaking noise emanates from the floor just to the side of your bed.

Your head throbs, and you groan, sitting up.

For a moment, you can’t remember where you are.

Then it all slowly, dizzily flows back.

You blink down at the dark shape of toned shoulders, of Ziros face-down on the ground, his muscles taut, dropping lower, then pushing back up.

“ Ziros? ” you ask, “What are you doing?”

If he hears you, he doesn’t stop.

Just keeps doing push-ups, the floorboards creaking with his every move.

“He’s been at it for six hours,” says a wry voice at the door, and there’s Eli, Elena’s grandson. “I’ll let Gram know you’re awake.”

“Hang on,” you say before he can leave. Glancing back at Ziros where he seems to be in some sort of work-out trance, you ask, “Did you say six hours ?”

Elena must have sensed you’d awoken, because she appears on the other side of the door at that moment.

“Good to see you’re finally awake again, dearie,” she says, carrying a mug of steaming tea into the room. “Please, drink this. I promise you’ll feel much better.”

You glance at the steaming mug, then at Ziros. With a grimace, you take a tentative sip.

It’s minty and refreshing.

So maybe she’s not trying to poison you or anything after all. That’s a relief.

“Tell me, now,” she says, sitting slowly on the edge of a creaking, old, wooden chair beside the bed. “How did you come to be tethered to a demigod in the first place?”

Maybe it’s your grogginess, or maybe it’s the tea. Or maybe it’s just that you’ve started to trust her, after all, but you tell her everything.

Meanwhile, Ziros keeps working-out and Eli leans against the inside of the doorframe, listening-in.

When you finish, Elena nods solemnly in the low light.

“I see,” she says. “I see. Now tell me, Chosen One. Why haven’t you simply set him free already, if you’ll forgive me for asking?”

You freeze.

With a glance at Ziros, you swear you see his shoulders twitch, but he keeps his head down. Is he just pretending to be in a workout-trance now? Maybe he’s actually listening.

Just in case, you decide not to mention anything about your conflicted feelings.

Because you’ve been growing strangely attached to him lately.

“It’s not obvious?” You laugh, feeling much better now that you’ve finished the tea. And with a shrug, you say, “I don’t know how.”

“Ah.” Elena leans back in her seat, the old wood creaking. Or maybe that’s her joints. “Then would you like me to tell you?”

“Without…without either of us dying?”

She laughs, a dry, cracking sound. “Yes, dear. Without that.”