Chapter 35: What breaks, what heals
The color drained from Caelan’s face. He turned immediately to Rhys, and seeing the blood still oozing from his shoulder, his hands shook.
"Shit!" Caelan whispered, unbuckling his belt without thinking. "Shit, shit! Jae, give me some room."
Jae nodded silently and stepped back just enough to be out of the way. Eun-woo didn’t move. He still held Rhys’s head in his lap, gently stroking his hair.
Caelan knelt beside Rhys and wrapped the belt around him above the wound, pulling hard to make a makeshift tourniquet. The buckle creaked as it tightened, and the leather stretched taut, stained with blood. Rhys moaned softly, still unconscious.
"Eun-woo, please. Look at me," Jae said. "Don’t listen to Rong Ye. He can say whatever he wants, but that doesn’t mean it’s true."
Eun-woo breathed heavily, his eyes fixed on Rhys’s face. He felt distant, as if his life were unraveling in his grasp. The world around him seemed like a whirlwind, but Jae’s voice kept him afloat.
"You can save him too," Jae continued. "You don’t need a Guide. You just need to focus."
Rong Ye snorted behind them, but Jae ignored him completely.
"Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and don’t think about the pain. Don’t think about the loss or the anger. Help Rhys from what you feel for him... from love."
Eun-woo closed his eyes, trembling.
"Rhys said you weren’t here to destroy... but to rebuild. To repair what the world broke. And I believe him. I believe in you."