Not for long, not deeply, but it was something. Something I couldn’t ignore because only a few things had changed: re-entering the Dark Realm and… seeing Kane.
Even if it was just briefly, it must’ve… done something.
I showered too, but dressed in the same clothes as yesterday. Tied my hair back up into another bun. Still didn’t look in the mirror, or face the glass walls of the atrium either.
Before I fell asleep, I’d tried to plan. I rehearsed questions in my head, built neat little bullet points of everything I wanted to know.
Ezekial said I could ask questions, so I would—I will.
But all thoughts, all those carefully planned questions, eviscerate when I feel him arrive.
“They’re here,” Kacey murmurs beside me.
Of course, she doesn’t know I already knew that, because I can feel him. She doesn’t know about the slow sliver of cold tracing down my spine like careful fingertips. She doesn’t know how hard it is for me to keep staring at the plant in my hands when all I want is to justseehim.
When I do look up, it’s to watch Kacey as she moves away from me—albeit only a few steps, but she’s done it on her own.
I’m proud of her for that.
“Kacey,” Amon says in a soft rumble.
I seek him out, his beaming grin filling his entire face, the warmth he emits surrounding him in a soft mist of heat. Kacey doesn’t say anything, but the colour in her cheeks blooms as she nervously toys with her gloved fingers.
Go on, be brave, Kace.
Just when I think she’s about to say something, she turns sharply, muttering under her breath about the foxes, and rushes away.
Amon glances at me, his amber gaze darting to Kacey’s leaving form. I feel his uncertainty brew—he’s worried, concerned he’ll push her away.
I shake my head, and his brows furrow, so I tilt my head in Kacey’s direction, twice, indicating he should definitely follow. He smiles again and eagerly chases after her in quick, powerful strides.
And again, just like yesterday, it’s just me and him.
Questions. That’s right. I’m going to ask him questions. Ask him so many that he’ll despise me even more, won’t even be able to stand in this atrium without getting PTSD from the type of personal, invasive, destructive questions I’m going to throw his way—
“Please, don’t ask me to go to the Dark Realm.”
What?
My brows scrunch tightly together. I bite my lip, patting the soil beneath my fingertips a little too hard.
Why… why did he say that?
No. I shake away the strand of hair that falls over my eye. No, that’s not the question I want to ask. That’s not personal enough. That won’t have him glaring at me with those dark eyes that never end.
But…
I remove my fingers from the soil.
But I want to know.
“Why?” I swallow, then clear my throat because I need to sound stronger. Firmer. “Why did you ask me that?”
I’m ready for the avoidance, for the silence that Kane was always so fond of creating, the vacuum he forms with single words and darkness.
“I was trapped there.”
Trapped?
