That malice was excuse enough for me to take her by the throat and rip her soul from her body in one quick motion that tore the air from her lungs before she had a chance to scream. My fingers shredded her soul as I leaned forward, siphoning outthe Vitality from the silentohof her lips before her body had a chance to hit the ground.
I didn’t have time to wait. I could feel Cole’s agony, his pain and desperation tearing along the thread connecting us.
It was the same emotion I’d felt last night—the pain that nearly made me ignore the obvious boundary he'd put up between us, that left me pressing my forehead against the door to my bedroom and silently suffering with him.
It was the first night since I’d met him that I hadn’t gone to make sure he slept well… the first night I hadn’t been there to calm his dreams.
And I hadn’t actually realized until then how much me being therehelped.
I thought the action was as selfish as it was kind, that I was there for my benefit just as much as his.
I didn’t realize the nightmares had been lurking on the edge of his mind, greedy and waiting to break him down at the first opportunity.
Cole wasn’t in the living room when I got back to the apartment, but I could tell he hadn’t gone far.
Agony lanced through my chest, vicious enough I nearly fell to my knees. I meant to stay away, meant totryto give him what he asked for… but I knew it was useless. I didn’t think I could handle another night of listening to the sound of his pain, the feel of it washing over both of us in waves that threatened to rend and tear. I lasted for all of ten minutes before my resolve completely broke and I half stumbled toward my bedroom.
I came up short when I realized… Cole had left the door open.
Something in my stomach clenched, an emotion too powerful for me to put into words. I pushed silently into the room and wondered if he’d be waiting for me.
He was curled up in my bed with his eyes closed. I couldn’t tell if he was asleep or simply drifting in and out fromexhaustion, but I could see the way the red thread between us was starting to dull. It wasn’t just the thread, though—in the dark of the room, I could see something else drifting along that crimson line.
He was already starting to pull the Vitality from me, though I knew proximity would make it faster… but it wasn’t just Vitality he was taking. It was flecked with little bits of black—the essence that flowed through my veins.
He wasn’t just taking the life I stole, he was taking bits and pieces ofme—fractured shards of Death’s essence. It was pouring through him and spilling back out to me in an endless cycle, making my stomach clench with worry. I didn’t knowwhatsomething like that would do to a human. I wasn’t even sure how human Colewasnow.
When a low moan tore from his chest and his brows came together, I followed the sound forward. I didn’tcareif he was human… I just cared that he was in pain.
“I’m sorry,” I murmured, though I wasn’t sure what I was apologizing for. Was it because I’d failed to realize how much he needed my strength, or that I was here without his permission? Now that he knew I was real, it meant something different from all the nights I’d come to him before.
Now that he knew I was here, he could look me in the eye in the morning and ask me what I thought I was doing.
The answer was simple, though. I was doing the only thing I could do.
It was going to him, like I always would. I was Icarus, and he was the sun… but I’d happily let my wings melt and meet the cold waters of the ocean if it meant I could brush my fingers against his warmth.
I just wasn’t sure how to touch him in a way that meant he’d forgive me when he realized what had happened.
I sat behind him on the bed and carefully ran my fingers along the length of his spine. Cole shivered, but he didn’t pull away when I slid my hand around him and pressed my palm to his chest, searching out the beat of his heart. It was soft, steadier now that the Vitality I’d killed to get was flowing into him. But it wasn’t enough…
I neededmore.
The only way I knew how to let him feel me was in dreams—it was the only place we’d ever existed where he didn’t push me away. In dreams and on the edge of death.
I dropped my head to his shoulder and carefully breathed him in.
When I opened my eyes, shock gently rippled through me. We were in the field of red flowers again, though the stars in the sky were a soft blue this time.
The color of Caiden’s eyes.
“You aren’t supposed to be here.”
The voice came from behind me, and the soft tickle of his hands trailing down my arms until he could link our fingers together made me shudder. He pressed his shoulders back to mine, and I felt him relax as he leaned against me.
“Where are we?”
There was a soft sigh, followed by the feel of his head falling back to land on my shoulder. “I don’t know. It’s a place I’ve dreamed about since I was small.”
