“I’m not sure if I should be glad he’s nearby or worried,” I say flatly.
“He did tell me something interesting.”
I lean forward, curiosity getting the best of me. “And what’s that, Avyanna?”
Her eyes lock onto me. “That you’re the reason I got away from those sex traffickers when your family sold me off.”
My heart leaps into my throat. “Is that so?”
“Yep.” Then, there’s a long pause before she asks, “Is it true?”
“Do you think that little of me?” I ask, ending with a laugh of disbelief. “Of course it’s true. I couldn’t stand by while they hurt you.Usedyou. What my family did to you was beyond fucked up, and I’ll never forgive them for it. I cut ties with them after that. The biggest reason I didn’t come after you when you escaped was because I wanted to give you space, plus it gave me time to track down the remainder of the sex traffickers and kill them so they’d never hurt another again.”
Emotion flickers through her beautiful eyes. “Well, fuck,” she whispers.
“I could never expect you to forgive me—it never should’ve come to that. The expectation was for me to choose them. To their displeasure, I chose you, so they tried to take that choice away from me. They had you abducted while I was away so that I couldn’t interfere.”
Tears fill her eyes. “You did choose me?”
“Absolutely. I would’ve chosen you one hundred times over, even if it ended the same way. My family never truly cared aboutme, and that whole situation made it clear,” I say, dropping my gaze to the floor.
We sit there in silence for a long while before she asks, “Addie, do you believe in soulmates?”
Her question catches me off guard. I lift my gaze to meet her eyes and raise an eyebrow. “Something of the sort. Griffins speak often of Animae Gemellae—twin souls. They say you know when you find them because you never want to be away from them. You feel complete.”
She purses her lips as her brows draw down. “Did you ever believe they existed?”
“I’ve known very few griffins who say they’ve found their Animae Gemella. I want to believe they’re real—because of the way I feel about you and now Vaelyn after such a short time—but I’ve never been good enough for anyone, especially my own family.”
“That’s not true,” she says, sniffling. “Before your family fucked up our relationship, I was so madly in love with you it made me sick. You made me feel like I finally had somewhere I belonged, someone with whom I belonged. My kind believe in something similar to the griffins: Sielunkumppani. It’s Finnish, meaning soul companions.”
I stare at her for a moment. “Why are you bringing this stuff up now?”
“When I told Alaric that Roxi could look all three of us in the eye, he asked me if I knew the term soulmates. Of course, I told him how I feel about it—the term is over-hyped and overused in the human world—but he said soulmates are a huge deal in the supernatural world. Every species just has its own name for it. He told me gorgons call them Synkairós or Synkai for short.”
“Let me guess, the gorgon could look their Synkairós in the eye.”
She nods. “Exactly. And there have been cases of a gorgon having multiple Synkai.”
“So you think we’re all her Synkai? That we’re all connected somehow?”
She nods again. “I think it’s a possibility. Especially since we all have such strong feelings toward each other in such a short amount of time.”
I sigh. “This feels like something out of one of those books the humans read. They go feral over ‘fated mates’.”
Avyanna laughs—the sound is so beautiful and melodic. I wish she’d do it more often, but I know she’s been through so much in her life, and it’s hard for her to see the good around her sometimes. I love the way her blue eyes light up and her cheeks flush when she’s happy. If she’d let me, I’d make her happy for the rest of our lives.
She catches me staring at her and peers out the window that overlooks the city. “I really wish things hadn’t happened the way they did. Honestly, I would’ve rather had you come after me and explain things, not let me run away and think you’d possibly been part of your family’s plan.”
“I wanted to give you space. You’d just been through a lot because of my family. When I felt like I’d given you enough time, though, you were already gone. I didn’t want to chase you, so I left it alone until we ran into each other,” I explain.
“Well, we can’t change the past, but we can shape the future. Let’s get some rest and pick this conversation back up in the morning, okay?”
A smile creeps across my face. “I’d love that. It sounds like we’ve got a lot to discuss as a whole. Should we go see how Roxi and Vaelyn are doing?”
Chapter seventeen
Vaelyn carries me down the hallway, and I’m perfectly content here. She already makes me feel safe. But I’m sure I look really awkward curled up against her as she carries me. I’m at least a few inches taller than her, not to mention I’m sure I’m a bit heavier than she is.
