Offered to the Triplet Alphas

[Xanthea]

Azum stopped at some distance from me. His gaze tried to decipher me while his face remained unreadable.

Then he shut his eyes, his fingers glided in the air as though he were playing an invisible piano. And then his hands moved as though he was conducting an orchestra.

He started humming a beautiful melody.

I stared at him, feeling utterly confused.

"Woah~" Zosha tiptoed beside me. "He's hearing..." she whispered.

I squatted beside her.

"What is he hearing?" I whispered back.

"The melody of your soul. It's the demonic ability of his wolf. He can hear people's souls as songs in his mind. But this ability doesn't activate for everyone. He says he can hear only the souls that exist at a higher rhythm..." "Right. And... what exactly does that mean?" I asked, even more confused now.

Zosha looked me dead in the eyes and shrugged.

"This melody..." He said in a velvety soothing voice. Azum gently placed his hands over his ears. "Moonlight sonata..." he tapped his cheeks gently with his fingers. "Moonlight sonata, intertwined with the delicate harmony of Fur Elise... similar, but unique. The legato, the chorus, the verses..."

He inhaled deeply. His brows drew in feverishly, in what looked like a sad but inspiring expression. As if his muse was before him in his mind, behind his closed eyes.

"L'ho già sentito prima. Ma non è la stessa cosa... no... ma è altrettanto bello..."

"What did he say?" I asked Zosha.

"Most of the time, I have no idea what he says, but it sounds good," Zosha said. "Well, can't argue with that."

I don't know what he said, but it sounded like a musical verse the way he sang it.

"He is very unpredictable. Even he doesn't know what language he'll start speaking in. It depends on his wolf's mood most of the time. Fun fact about him, he knows almost all the languages there are in all the realms." "Woah, he is a language genius and a healer. Awesome!"

"I know, right?!" Zosha said excitedly and Azum's eyes snapped open suddenly.

"You... you are..." his eyes traveled from my hair to my eyes, tracing my facial features.

I gulped, getting up on my feet, feeling the pressure of his scrutiny all over me.

Does he... know me?

I stared at him without blinking when he said...

"You are... a mortal?" He whispered as if he was talking about something taboo. "A mortal roaming freely in Helxton?"

My tense body loosened up. Maybe I sensed it wrong.

He looked at Zosha.

"Zosha, I hope you know this isn't the same as your daily rescues of twittering birds and tailless lizards. She's..." his eyes scanned me again. "She doesn't belong here."

"I... I know. But she is no normal mortal, Azum," she said in a guilt-filled tone.

Azum walked past me.

"I know she isn't a normal mortal..." he said, glancing at me. "But she is still a mortal, and she doesn't belong in this pack."

"She belongs here!" Zosha cut in. "At least, I want her to."

"Her scent is marked, indicating she's in a soul pact with a powerful demon. Otherwise, it's not normal for a mortal to have an aura that shouts, 'touch her if you have a death wish.' And forget about having death as a wish. I wouldn't even want death in my nightmare. I am too young to see a mortal tragedy befall on me. Sorry, Zosha. I can't heal her. Take her back to where you found her."

My scent is marked because of the soul pact?

No wonder I had been sensing the triplets' scent on me all the time.

"But, meow, but. You heal the others I bring to you..."

"Those are stolen lab rats!" Azum looked at her in disbelief.

"What difference does that make?"

"Well, right? Stolen lab rats and a mortal in a soul pact with a demon who could easily kill me. Yeah. What difference does that make? The two are exactly the same thing! Pardon this fool, miss Zosha the great."

Zosha handed him the book that had slipped from his hand earlier. He placed it back on the shelf.

"I know, meow! Everyone in the department was super cautious of her, even Kieth. You should have seen his face. He couldn't even breathe in her presence until I entered the elevator. I wouldn't have dared even breathe in her direction if she didn't begin the conversation with me herself. She is super sweet, I promise..."

"I'm diabetic," Azum remarked, and I almost laughed.

"Since when!?"

"Since now!"

Azum walked to some other bookshelf and began picking out potion bottles that were embraced by the vines and leaves of the plants in the library. He was collecting sap and nectar from those plants. "Meow!"

"Don't meow at me. I am sure she is a sweet lady, but the one who has marked her scent doesn't seem so sweet to me," he said. "But if you still desire something sweet, your favorite candies are on the reception counter." "Azum!" she drawled, jumping on his back and hanging from his neck as he kept fetching out potion bottles from the flowers. "It's just a minor bruise on her lips," Zosha said with an angry pout.

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"Not happening. This is my last year at this university and I don't wish to mess with people beyond my ken. I might be broke, but I am too precious to myself," Azum said. "Narcissist!"

"How cute of you to say that..."

"Will you stop panicking? You're giving me a heart attack!" Zosha countered.

Azum took a deep breath and nodded.

"What about all the attacks you gave me by bringing her here?"

"She needed help!"

"Look, Zosha, you can bring as many lab rats as you want and I'll heal them all. But I can't heal her," Azum said, walking to a bookshelf. "Those high rank demons are mad people, mad! Plus, she looks completely fine to me. You don't need help, do you?"

Azum snapped his head towards me.

Before I could reply, Zosha jumped and whacked his head with the book in her hand.

My hands flew to my agape mouth.

"A true healer will never intimate their patient like this!" Zosha pouted angrily.

"First, if she needs help, she should be asking for it," Azum said, and suddenly, the jittery aura that was around him calmed down into a serious tone. "And second, I am not a healer yet and she is not my patient."

"She asked for help from me," Zosha said.

"Then you heal her-" Azum stopped. "No. I didn't mean that-"

Before Azum could complete what he was saying, Zosha hiccuped.

For a few seconds, everything was normal, but then a wave of electricity sparked out of Zosha's hair. The surrounding plants, even the moss beneath her feet, grew in size. It seemed as though I was watching a time lapse video of those plants and mosses.

"You know..." Zosha's voice reverberated dangerously as she hiccuped again and another feral wave of electricity charged out of her hair. "Zosha cannot heal!"

Azum sat on his knees to look Zosha straight in her eyes.

"I am sorry, Zosha. I didn't mean to say that. I know you just want to help. But you are still too young to understand how this world works. And I know what I said has hurt you. I'm sorry. Come here," he stretched out his arms towards her as though beckoning her in an embrace. "I know you are sad and upset. Trust me, it's ok to feel the way you do. The way you feel is what makes you Zosha. Your emotions are a beautiful song."

She was indeed hurt emotionally earlier when Kieth abandoned her as his healing partner, and that was why I wanted to help her. I thought I was helping her by asking her to escape from her feelings, but I wasn't.

The only way to cure emotional wounds is by addressing them. And I was sure she wasn't just abused emotionally.

My heart pulsated in my chest.

"Zosha will hurt Azum," Zosha said in a cracking voice through her tears.

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Azum shook his head, smiling gently.

"No, you can't," Azum said. "You will control yourself. I know you will."

Zosha shut her eyes tightly, but in vain. She seemed to have lost all control over her powers. Every time she hiccuped, a wave of electricity charged out of her hair, causing the plants near her to grow abnormally. "No! Kieth is right! Zosha is useless!" she hiccuped. "Zosha can never heal!" Hiccup. "Zosha shouldn't have been born." Hiccup.

"AHHH!" Zosha screamed in agony. Her powers were causing harm to her own body.

I moved closer, but Azum extended his hand, signaling me to stop.

"No! Don't get closer to her," he warned.

Zosha let out another shriek, this time filled with even more panic and pain.

"No Zosha!" Azum panicked. "Concentrate on yourself, little one-"

"Zosha is scared!" she cried before taking her cat form and zoomed right out of the window.

"Damn it!" Azum grabbed his overcoat in a hurry. "If she stays alone right now, she'll end up hurting herself even more!"

He was about to run out of the library when...

"The plants!" I said.

He looked over his shoulder, "sorry?"

"The plants grew around her."

I glanced at the plants that had grown everywhere Zosha's power landed. They had overgrown, far beyond their normal size and now that Zosha was gone, they were all dying away. The same with the moss she stepped on. "Yes, this happens every time she loses control of her powers."

"Maybe we can use it," I said.

He tensed his brows. "Use... it to track her down? Turns out I was having the same genius idea." He ran out of the library.

Fidgeting with my fingers, I ran after him, mumbling to myself.

"The plants... if we can use the plants to absorb the excess power from her. The plants eventually die away because they probably exceed their growth capacity easily. The abnormal cell growth. Something like a tumor..." I ran after Azum into the backyard of the university, following the overgrown grass and plants.

Azum ran into the forest beyond the university campus. I was about to run after him when I stopped right at the gate. Raven forbade me to leave the university campus.

I peered at the forest and then looked back at the university.

Nibbling on my bottom lips, I fidgeted with my fingers. Curling my fingers into fists, I lifted my leg to step out of the university campus.