Don't Touch My Thorn (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 18

I checked Idrish’s face to see if he showed any sign of dislike. His face was bright with sunlight, and his hair shimmered like liquid silver. It must have been unbearably hot.

Yet Idrish didn’t move a muscle in response to my question—only breathing slowly and steadily. His eyelashes rested comfortably, and beneath them, his lips parted slightly, utterly defenseless.

Up close, Idrish looked like a masterpiece painted in one inspired stroke by an artist. The lines forming his face were bold and clean, without a single unnecessary detail. Yet every feature harmonized artistically.

If Ozar was a man of refined beauty, Idrish was a man of wild, untamed handsomeness.

I stared at his face for a long while. It was the first time I’d ever observed someone so intently for so long.

I turned my head toward the window. My heart beat just a little faster.

Was it because of the heat?

For some reason, my chest felt tight and queasy. I had the urge to open the window and let in a cool breeze. Even inside my head, sweat clung damply.

“I need to finish quickly and go.”

I refocused on the black mark.

Having touched the black mark every day, I’d learned a few things.

Whenever I made physical contact with him like this, the black mark visibly shrank.

But during the time we were apart, it gradually returned close to its original state. The more recklessly Idrish moved, the faster it grew. When the mark expanded, his pain worsened; when it shrank, his suffering seemed to lessen.

Sometimes the black mark reacted intensely to my touch, other times sluggishly. Today, its movements were particularly strong.

“What on earth is the rule here?”

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