Free Princess of the Damned by Dahlia Lu

supple only hours after she had been pierced. There wasn’t even a scar left behind. He had forgotten about that just now.
    “ Is there an explanation for you to be barefoot?”
    He picked her up into his arms and carried her inside.
    “ I don’t know which one of us is more stubborn.” She got back on her feet as soon as they are reached the door to her room. “You opened your wound, didn’t you?”
    She placed a hand on his shoulder. Unlike her wound, his had just begun to heal. The servant girl jumped at the sight of blood dripping onto the floor and rushed out of the door. “I will fetch the physician!”
    “ I thought you said you were going to your brother’s coronation.” She helped him removes his armor.
    “ I wasn’t invited.”
    She placed the first piece of armor on the table and then the second next to it. “He told you he doesn’t want you there?”
    “ He doesn’t think much of me.” Sayan stared at his hands. “To him, I am nothing more than his father’s killing tool.”
    “ Which one of you has more control of the military?”
    “ Why do you want to know?”
    She chuckled. “Are you suspicious of me?”
    “ He only has control of the royal troops.”
    “ I wouldn’t be surprised if he tried to get rid of you. You are his biggest threat.” She smiled nervously when he looked up at her pale green eyes. “I shouldn’t-”
    “ It’s fine. Even a child can see that. He still needs me to secure his borders for him, so he won’t get rid of me just yet.”
    She removed the last piece of armor and the tunic underneath. Blood from his shoulder wound ran down his chest and onto his abdomen. It was warm at first, but then it became cold almost instantly when exposed to the air.
    The physician and the servant girl rushed into the room. They quickly bowed as required by protocol and then attended to his wound immediately.
    “ Hot water and clean towels,” the physician instructed the servant girl. She hurried.
    The physician examined the arrow wound with his shaking hands. He paid more attention to Sayan’s facial expression than he did to the injury.
    “ He’s not going to kill you if the treatment hurts.” Nala smiled to lighten the mood. “Just treat him as a normal patient.”
    “ Y-yes” The physician pressed on the area next to the wound to examine the tissues. The servant girl returned very quickly with the hot water and clean towels. “The original cut was clean, so the wound will have no problem healing again, as soon as we can stop the bleeding.”
     
    Nala attentively watched to the physician’s treatment.
    It didn’t look hard at all. If she had the tools he used, she could repeat it exactly. Nala flinched when a small fragment of memory entered her mind. She was treating an open wound of a man’s belly. Her hands were entirely covered in blood. There was hot water and towels just like the ones on the table. The memory zoomed into the surface of the water. The reflection wasn’t her own. No, the memory wasn’t her own. It belongs to another.
    But whose did it belong to?
    Her eyes trailed from the wound to other parts of his body. His shoulders were broad. His chest was built, rising and falling with each breath. The muscles lined up tightly at his abdomen. She brought her hands to her cheeks when she felt a slightly burning sensation on her face.
    She quickly turned away when he looked her way. She didn’t understand why she had the impulse to hide her face from him. It was as if looking at the coloring on her face would reveal some sort of deep, dark secret.
    “ Your Highness! Prince Sayan!” A female voice came from the outside. Her footsteps came closer until they stopped at the door. A woman with wavy brown hair and dark brown eyes flung herself at Sayan. “I came as soon as I heard that you’ve returned! I ask that you take care of yourself before you leave, but you always come back with wounds on your body. Is it serious? Does it hurt?”
    “ It’s