There’s so much I need to tell you.
A long pause settles between us.
Another moan, just a broken little sound, but it unhinges something in me. I sink my fangs into my shoulder, deep enough to ease the ache pulsing in my gums. I turn away from the wall and inch closer to the bathroom door.
“Lumi—” My voice cracks. “I need you to do something for me. Please.”
The wood creaks softly behind the door. “What is it?” she asks.
“Can you.. block the door for me?” My voice is barely more than a snarl. “With something heavy. Anything.”
“Andrik.”
I smell her fear.
Thrak.
Thrak.
Thrak.
“I won’t hurt you,” I promise. “But I don’t trust myself to stay out of that room another second if you make another sound like that.
The scrape of something sliding across the floor breaks the silence.
“It’s blocked,” she calls softly.
My bones start to shift—my back arches off the door, muscles seizing as they double in size.
“Saelûn…” I rasp.
You have no idea what you do to me.
Something scrapes again.
“Andrik, I’m just going to open?—”
“No!” A snarl rips from my chest. “Do not open the door.Please.”
My claws dig deeper into my thighs until blood stains my white fur. I can’t shift, not when the only thing I’ve ever wanted stands on the other side of this door.
“I want to see you,” she says softly. “So I can understand.”
I need her scent out of my lungs so I can think clearly forjust onesecond.
“I don’t want to scare you,” I whisper. “The thing inside me—the part trying to crawl out—it’s not bad… It’s just starving—for you.”
My tongue laps over the wound on my shoulder in an attempt to distract myself, but it isn’t enough.
“I’m trying so hard to keep it leashed,” I admit. “I’ll explain everything once I can breathe again.” I force the words out. “Even if it sounds impossible, Lumi. Every last word of it will be true.”
Veyr'thalûn ves kaer'vasha nai'mor, Saelûn.(I have never held anything I didn't ache to break soulbond.)
Lumi-
The water is scalding. It burns, but it’s the first thing that’s felt real since I woke up here. The scent of cloves surrounds me as I scrub my skin, and it makes me think of him. I reach to turn the water even hotter when I hear a scraping sound. It sounds like something carving into wood. I poke my head out of the shower and listen… they’re not random noises, they’re rhythmic.
“Andrik?” I call out.
