Pushing up from the floor, I take myself over to the bed and collapse onto it, choosing to ignore them for the rest of the night. It’s when I can feel the comfort of sleep drifting over me that I hear Will whisper off in his corner, “not until you start making some bloody fucking sense,” followed by quiet shuffles of movement and soft snores.
“Princeling…” My senses flare to life at the voice. “Princeeeelinggggg…” the soft coo sounding in my ear, warmth coasting over my skin.
My eyelids flutter open, and I have to blink a few times before the face matching the voice comes into view.
She lies across from me, her bronzed skin and dark hair a stark contrast to the white sheets she’s sprawled out on. Hercurls are spread around her shoulders, and the sheets are pulled up to her collarbone.
“Nightmare…” I breathe, the pressure that’s been sitting on my chest relieving almost instantly.
“Finally. He wakes. I thought I might have to call a coroner.” She sounds the lightest I’ve ever heard her, those two gold eyes glinting with mirth at her joke.
My hand reaches across the small gap between us, and carefully I brush back a stray curl that’s fallen into her face. “You’re here,” I say, and confusion etches across her face. “You’re okay…” My palm settles against her cold cheek, her lips tipping up at the subtle touch.
“I’m okay. You found me.”
Her body wiggles to me, and nimble fingers find my ribcage. Involuntarily, I shiver under her icy touch, the tip of her pointer finger drawing lazy circles against my skin. I search her face, committing every feature to memory while I melt into her touch.
“How did I find you?” I ask, the memory of it absent. Confusion again crosses her features, and her mouth drops open to answer.
“Uhm–” she starts and quickly stops, lips curving back up into her rare soft smile, “I’m okay, you found me.” She repeats.
The relief I had just been feeling starts to fade, dread taking its place. Her finger stills, and the edges around where she’s curled up start to blur. I rub my eyes, trying to keep her face and that smile clear, but every time I open them back up, she grows a little blurrier.
“You’re not real,” I admit, the words crashing into me at full force, knocking that renewed breath right out of my chest. “I still haven’t found you…”
Eveera
“You have to eat something, Eveera.”
“Fuck you.” I spit, my glare burning a hole into the ground in front of me.
Ezra’s sigh comes from somewhere on my left, and I hunger for the power that used to course through me. In my head, I’ve killed him about a hundred times over already. It’s a beautifully grotesque image – my Wield taking over so intensely that I can’t see where it ends and what’s left of me begins. He ends in a very bloody pile – Iyearnto see the red that will pour out of his veins.
But instead of feeling the pull of my tendrils, instead of seeing my serpents come to life, I get to see how still they’ve become.
I close my eyes and kill him again in my mind just for good measure.
“E… please, I need you to eat.”
A rueful laugh tears out of my hollow chest. The sound is so manic it sends even the hair on my arms straight up. “Youneed?” I snarl, my eyes flashing towards where he looms over in the corner. “Youneed? No – fuck that. I don’t need to hear another thing about whatyouneed.”
“You’re starting to look sick.” He says, his voice hardening.
“Well, that isn’t my fault now, is it?” It takes a considerable amount of energy to push myself up off the ground, my restraints sliding up the post. Despite my not being able to get closer to him, Ezra still takes a step backwards, and I smell – for the first time in however long he’s kept me in this state – the sweetest smell.
Fear.
A smile cracks at my lips. “What did you think would happen? Hm?” I ask, my head cocking to the right. “That you’d whisk me out of Vellar, leave everything behind, and the two of us would… what? Live happily ever after?” The Adam's apple in his throat bobs up and down as he swallows thickly. “Well, you thought wrong,Ez.”
“It wasn’t – itisn’tsafe for you out there right now. You were going to have a high price on your head and I… I couldn’t see them take it. Couldn’t watch you fall.” He murmurs.
“Oh… so sweet. My knight in shining armor.” The words drip sourly off my tongue. I flop back down into the imprint my ass has left in the dirt floor, tugging uselessly against my restraints while I try to get comfortable. “You can wipe the distress off your face every time I move – it’s not like I can do anything to you anyway, you’ve made damn sure of that.”
The sound of his body sliding down the opposite wall is loud in the expansive space, the echo of it grating on my nerves. I do my best to ignore him, willing myself back to the only place thatheisn’t, and when my eyelids open again, I’m back at the forked road.
Bending my knees, I crouch down, staring intently at my options. Silently, I will the black abyss over my way, hoping it will engulf me in its darkness and make the decision for me.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t listen, and I stay rooted in my spot.
