Why did she keep fighting to live her life to the fullest when he had long given up on living his?
Dyna pressed a hand to her chest, and those glimmering eyes of hers burrowed through him, seeing past the wall of stone he had built steadily around himself. Through the bond, she was feeling all of his spite and rage. It was infuriating, maddening, and humiliating.
Cassiel wanted to fly away from her. Far away in any unknown direction until he could no longer feel her presence inside of him.
“Anger,” she said, holding his gaze. “Hate. They were with me for a while, but I chose not to let them stay. It was difficult, but I had no use for them.”
Cassiel shook his head, still not seeing how that was possible. “I need them …” The whispered confession slipped from his mouth as though another had spoken them.
Anger kept him alive. Hate made him strong. Without them he had nothing.
“I understand.” Her soft reply burned through him, blurring his vision.
“No. You donot.”
She wasn’t a cursed half-breed. She wasn’t born as the object of disgust and ridicule for others to spit on. How would she ever understand?
Dyna rose and came to kneel beside him. Cassiel searched her face, trying to understand. He tried to perceive something, anything, dark or flawed she had not shown him. The only thing imperfect was the fractures around her heart.
The way she was looking at him was as bizarre as she was. He didn’t want her sympathy. He didn’t need—
Dyna laid a warm hand on his cheek. The breath whooshed out of him. A hum of energy passed through their physical connection and moved throughout him. By her surprised expression, she experienced it too.
For a moment, Cassiel thought she discovered what had happened between them. He had the frantic urge to escape, but it ebbed as the bond filled him with gentle peace. The sensation wrapped around him with a warmth that made his rigid shoulders sag, and he inexplicably leaned into her palm. He was slow to recognize the feeling as comfort.
Why was she comforting him when she was the one in need of it? Her strange nature countered all he believed about humans or was it this human that was different?
Dyna treated him like his lowly existence didn’t bother her, like the thing he was didn’t sicken her. His mind struggled to accept that she didn’t reject him, but he sensed it through the bond. She had no aversion to him, even after the cold way he treated her when she never once deserved it.
Why spare him any kindness? He’d given her more than enough reason to spurn him.
Cassiel’s second sight triggered, and her mesmerizing soul opened to him in a surge of vibrant colors. He didn’t know how such a beautiful thing could exist, or how he had the privilege to see it.
Dyna went very still, having guessed he was Soul Searching. But she didn’t move away. She held his gaze as her soul drew him in. Cassiel closed his eyes and let himself fall. All that he was dissolved. All that troubled him lifted. And he faded into its endless depths.
While he became lost there, he thought he might find himself there too.
Chapter 29
Zev
Fire burned through every facet of Zev’s sanity. A dry cry left his mouth and grew into screams as the searing agony consumed him. The chains were bindings of hot iron, smoke, and steam billowing from where silver touched him. He tried to move, but his naked body was ensnared tightly against the elm tree, heavy shackles clamped around each of his wrists. To become so tangled during the night, the Other must have fought desperately to free itself.
Zev ground his teeth, trying to push the agony out of his mind. Clouds of his ragged breath hovered in the morning chill. The cold did little to ease his burning skin. The chains and his teeth rattled from his uncontrollable trembling. There wasn’t anything else to do but wait for Dyna to release him.
An elm leaf drifted down and landed on the ground by his face. He memorized the vivid orange color, smell, and jagged shape, trying to think of anything but the burning and ringing in his ears. The Madness was whispering to him again, always whispering.
Forget the pain. Forget the past. Forget the chains. Give in.
Zev growled and willed the mad thoughts away, the distraction leaving him vulnerable to the pain again. It consumed him to the point of delirium. His cries rang in the clearing, filling the forest with his agony and grief.
He had to endure it. He deserved the torture.
The chains were a punishment for his greatest sin, and the scars left behind were a testament. A son who murdered his father had no right to anything else.
Zev’s vision distorted and darkened, hovering on the edge. His senses dulled, as he became numb. Dyna had never taken this long to free him, and the tight chains had well burned through his skin. His body has reached its limit.
He was dying.
