Cassie blinked up at the canopy.Dew dripped in slow, heavy drops from the branches above, landing on her cheek like cold fingertips.For a moment, she didn’t know where she was.Then it all came back.The decision, anger, and the forest.The conviction that she could not sit still another moment waiting for Trik to let her in if it was him blocking her, waiting to matter again.
She didn’t want her heart to believe that he would create such distance between them, but then she’d never thought she’d play second fiddle to a magical book.Her eyes started to tear up and she hastily wiped away the moisture before the tears could fall.Tears wouldn’t improve the situation.They’d give her a headache, a snotty nose, and make the ache in her chest worse.She needed to stay calm for the child growing inside of her.Cassiewouldeventually fall apart.She knew that because the pain was just too great, but it would be on her terms and when she could act ridiculous without an audience.Namely, the magical forest.She didn’t mind wailing in front of Elora.Her bff would threaten all sorts of bodily harm, probably with a hammer, to Trik and that might make Cassie feel a teeny, tiny bit better.Lies,she thought to herself.She wouldn’t be better until she and Trik were right again.She rolled to her side.Elora was already sitting up, elbows braced on her knees, eyes shadowed in a way Cassie rarely saw.
“You look like hell,” Cassie croaked.
Elora huffed a non-laugh.“Feels accurate.”
Cassie pushed herself upright.Her stomach swooped.Not dizziness, worse.A hollow ache right behind her heart, like someone had reached through her ribs and twisted.The damn bond.She and her Chosen, entwined souls that could never be undone, linked so tightly together that their souls cried out to return to one another.In a book, it was romantic.In real life, it was a bitch.She grasped for it instinctively, reaching for Trik, seeking that familiar bright-dark hum that had become a lifeline.And hit a wall.Hard.Cassie inhaled sharply.This was worse.How the hell could itpossiblybe worse?Dumb question, and as soon as she started asking dumb questions, things would most definitely continue in the downhill motion, gaining momentum at a brain-spinning speed.
Elora startled.“What?”
“I ...”Cassie stuttered and swallowed.Her mouth was dry as she struggled.She tried again.Pushed harder.Pain flared behind her eyes like sparks under her skull.“...I can’t feel him.”
Elora froze.Then Cassie watched her eyes unfocus, that little tell she got when she reached inward for Cush.Elora’s face drained of color.“Nothing,” she whispered.“It’s like a damn impenetrable force.”
Cassie’s pulse lurched.“Trik wouldn’t, not like this.He wouldn’t leave me to feel desperate, not on purpose, never.”Maybe she was grasping at straws.Perhaps she’d been completely wrong and the dark elf in him would always be something he fought against, a selfish nature that sought to protect himself first.She shook her head.No, he wouldn’t.Despite all the things they’d recently faced, deep, deep down she knew how Trik felt about her.
“Cush wouldn’t either.”Elora’s voice shook, then sharpened into anger.“He might be an overbearing, territorial, impossible male, but he wouldn’t cut me off.”
The forest rustled overhead seeming to listen.
Cassie swallowed against the rising irrational fear.It had to be irrational as her mind battled her heart.“What if they’re mad at us?What if this was too much?”
“We’ve done stupid stuff before,” Elora snapped.“They’ve never, never, shut us out.”
The ache behind Cassie’s sternum tightened, clawed.Her baby fluttered faintly, so small she almost thought she imagined it.The instinct to get home, to get safe, flared sharp in her chest.But home felt impossibly far.
Elora shoved to her feet, pacing a tight line in the moss.“Okay.Okay.Let’s not panic.Maybe they’re ...distracted.”
“Both of them?At the exact same time?”Cassie’s voice cracked.“We would feel something.Even distance.Even irritation.This is, this is silence.I’ve never felt silence.”
Elora stopped pacing.Her eyes lifted to the trees.
Cassie followed the gaze.
The forest seemed ...closer.Like a crowd leaning in.Shadows shifting where shadows shouldn’t.Every leaf angled toward them.
“Does it feel like,” Cassie hesitated, searching for the right word, “like the forest is anticipating something?”
Elora nodded once, jaw tight.“And watching.”
A breeze whispered through the branches, but the leaves didn’t move.Cassie shivered violently.Elora blew out a sharp breath, her hands running through her hair.“Cass ...this isn’t good.”
Cassie snorted, no humor in the sound, “No kidding.”
The forest seemed to inhale.
Cassie swore the ground vibrated under their feet, not a tremor, but a heartbeat.Slow.Ancient.Wrong.
“We should go,” she said forcefully, as if that would change the whole situation.“Back.Now.Even if they’re pissed, even if they’re ignoring us, we’re not safe out here.We need to fight whatever this is.”
Elora didn’t move.
She tilted her head slightly, expression going soft and strange, like she was listening to something Cassie couldn’t hear.
“Elora.”Cassie grabbed her wrist.“Hey.Stay with me.”
Elora flinched back into herself.“I’m here,” she said.But her voice sounded far away.
