Lykor’s furious snarl reverberated inside their mindspace as he clawed for control.I FUCKING HATE YOU.
Aesar’s smirk deepened as he relinquished his hold.You can thank me later. Assuming you learn anything from this.
The last thing Lykor saw was Aesar wiggling his fingers at him before he was flung out of the library. The atrium doors crashed shut, echoing in the empty palace halls.
Silently seething, Lykor rapidly blinked, dragging his focus back to the shelter carved from packed snow. Trapped. Jassyn’s steady heartbeat thudded faintly against him, an unwelcome reminder of how tightly he was clutching the elf.
Jassyn stirred, murmuring softly in his sleep. Lykor’s breath hitched, uncertainty knotting in his chest. He needed to untangle himself before the other male woke up.
Slowly, he eased out of Jassyn’s grip, extracting himself inch by inch until the tension bled away and his arm was his own again.
Freed at last, Lykor rolled onto his back, his breath rasping too loud in the stillness. He stared at the iced ceiling, the silent weight of snow pressing down on him, muting the world beyond.
The shelter was no longer a refuge—it was a cage. But to leave, he’d practically have to crawl over Jassyn. That would undoubtedly wake him.
Groping across the ground, his claw scraped against the ice until he found his gauntlet. Lykor jammed the armor back over his talons, the cold metal biting into his skin. He clenched his fist out of habit, the steel screeching in the confined space.
Lykor’s pulse spiked as Jassyn twitched, his fingers raking into the snow as though fending off some unseen torment. A low, broken sound escaped him.
A whimper.
Lykor froze.
Well, Jassyn was probably just fucking cold, like he was. The sooner they got back to the jungle, the sooner—
Another choked cry broke the silence, the helplessness striking a note of discomfort that he tried to ignore. Jassyn’s limbs jerked violently, his body twisting in frantic thrashes.
Warring with himself, Lykor’s hand hovered on the cusp of reaching out. But he was spared from making a decision.
Jassyn bolted upright, gasping for air, his eyes wild and unseeing. He kicked frantically to free himself from his cloak, stumbling toward the small exit with the desperation of a wild animal bolting. Before Lykor fully registered it, Jassyn disappeared.
Cursing under his breath, Lykor surged to his feet and followed. The cold slapped his face as he stepped into the wind, but he ignored it. His focus narrowed on Jassyn’s retreat as he pursued him, slipping between the skeletal trees.
“Jassyn!” The name tore from Lykor’s throat, sounding more like a command than concern.
Jassyn didn’t respond. He staggered a few more paces through the woods before collapsing to his knees beside a tree, his hand braced against the frozen trunk.
The snowstorm had passed, leaving the stripped forest shrouded in an eerie, crystalline stillness. Sunlight speared through bare branches, the ice shimmering with fractured brilliance. Jassyn’s breaths billowed in ragged clouds, his body trembling as his vacant eyes unfocused somewhere far beyond.
Lykor approached cautiously, the crunch of his boots the only sound breaking the brittle quiet. He loomed behind Jassyn,his shadow stretching over the frostbitten ground. The instinct to protect flickered, but he didn’t know what to do with it now.
“Sorry for waking you,” Jassyn mumbled, dragging his fingers through his curls.
Lykor blinked, the apology catching him off guard. Misplaced. Undeserved. He cleared his throat, scraping his skull for something—anything—to say. As if he really had any fucking idea of how to offer comfort.
“Did you…want to talk about it?” The question tumbled out awkwardly, his voice strained as he forced it into unfamiliar territory.
That’s what people did when they were upset. Wasn’t it? Stars, how many times had he listened to Kal spew an endless stream of feelings he couldn’t bring himself to care about.
Jassyn huffed a bitter laugh, hollow as the lifeless forest. He dug his fists into his eyes, shutting out the world.
“No,” he said at last, staring into the distance. Severing the conversation before it could begin. “It’s nothing.”
It sure as fuck seemed like something. The retort nearly launched off of Lykor’s tongue, but he bit it back.He didn’t want to know. Didn’t want to care. This wasn’t his problem. Wasn’t his burden. He had enough shadows haunting him without fighting someone else’s.
When Jassyn lurched unsteadily to his feet, Lykor moved closer before his brain had any hope of halting the motion. His hand shot out, fingers hooking around Jassyn’s wrist.
The reaction was instant. Jassyn flinched, as though Lykor’s touch had flayed his skin.
