“Rest, Cassie. I’ll come visit again soon. Without him.” She jabbed S’samph in the side. S’samph barely even grunted. He hoisted Eleri over his shoulder and moved to the door. “Put me down, you scaly bastard!”
Örim saw them out with a quiet farewell. It was just the two of them again.
He watched her with quiet vigilance. Cassie tucked her knees to her chest.Are you angry with me?she finally asked.
“I’m not sure.” His voice was low. “I am angry but mostly with myself. I’m angry that you would harm yourself so severely. I’m angry that you didn’t feel like you could tell me what youneeded. I’m angry that we have to keep you trapped in here even though I know it’s the last thing you need right now.” He rubbed his wrist nodes. “I’m sorry, aöseria. We’ll keep trying.”
Cassie stared up at him from her pillow nest.Even if it’s too hard?Örim crossed the room and sat next to her again. This time, she offered her hand.Stay with me, please.
He obliged, slipping into the pillows beside her and offering space for her to lean against him. “I don’t believe in too hard, Cassie. It simply means we haven’t found the right solution. I’m here. I’m staying. As long as you stay, I will too.” His arms came around her. “You’re my universe, aöseria. I need you to stay with me.”
Cassie sat with him, letting him hold her, letting him remind her that she was loved and that at least one of them was certain of her safety. Maybe once this was over, she’d find a way to make it up to him.
CHAPTER 45
Örim
Despite his vigilance to the cell booster injections, Cassie’s wound healed slowly. But a few days’ distance from the incident left her acting more like herself. Her dexterity improved, so she could feed herself, and she started folding flowers out of paper since wire was no longer an option. At least she had moved on from staring listlessly at nothing on her datapad. After Cassie had breakfast, Örim took a moment to regroup. He needed to reseed himself. His outer layer was depleted from nearly a week without a proper session.
He peered out his doorway into the main room and found Cassie occupied with writing something on her own datapad. He’d warned her not to contact anyone because it might give away their locations to the Aviarist. Satisfied that Cassie was busy and he had a holofeed of her he could watch to make sure she wasn’t a danger to herself, he turned off all the lights, filled his seeding pool, removed his clothes, and stepped in.
The cool water brushed up in bubbles against his skin while the seeding solution did its work of restoring his outer shell.For the first time, the physical exhaustion of keeping up with everything hit him. Even if teösians didn’t sleep, they did still fatigue. They only had a limited amount of energy, after all. He would likely feel more rejuvenated after a longer reseeding session, but even with the holofeed he was unwilling to leave Cassie unattended for so long.
He watched her as he sat in the pool. The image of Cassie in the other room glowed dimly from his wrist interface as he monitored her for any signs of harm. A pause too long. Hands reaching for her arms. A fresh round of tears. If this was what the future held, he would do it. He knew deep in his core that he would spend the rest of his life trying to keep her alive, even if she tried her hardest to leave. Because keeping her alive meant more time to love her and more time to convince her she was worthy of it.
As his body repaired itself, he recognized hers wouldn’t. The scars would be there. On her wrist. Her arms. Her throat. Reminders of all the ways he had failed her. His only goal now was to prevent more damage.
Örim stayed in the pool longer than he intended, rubbing his wrists as he emerged and stepped onto the hydrovac, waiting for it to suck away the remaining moisture from his body. Without bothering to dress, he checked the holofeed again to see Cassie had moved to the workbench and was tinkering with something there. Still safe. Still unharmed. He allowed himself to retreat, not wanting to disturb her fragile peace.
Instead, he decided to check on his active search agents that were busy scouring forum threads for information about the Aviarist. It seemed pointless now, but any information was good information. Örim froze as he explored the interface. Raptor had pinged his account again. He’d been monitoring all the darkwave boards for more information about the Aviarist, butnow that he was here in Laurus, a direct message was the last thing he expected.Unless.
Örim was a fool. All the merit in the world couldn’t save him from his own damn pride. The message was brief.
[Raptor]: Tell Cassowary if she doesn’t come to me, I’ll kill the rest of her friends. I already know where Piper and Swift are. She can find me in the smallest building in this dump of a town.
He stood abruptly from his worktable, clasping his hands tightly around his wrists. “Sökt.” Örim cursed aloud, only pulling back from his obsessive haze when he took a step back to realize Cassie was standing right behind him, holding a tiny creature she’d made from paper. And Cassie could read now. He’d taught her. He’d given her that power, but in this very specific moment, he wished he hadn’t.
He stared at her staring at the screen, the only source of light in the room, eyes wide, pulse elevated. Cassie’s hands flurried.
I have to go to him.
“Are you cracked?” Örim asked and immediately regretted his choice of words. Cassie flinched, clasping her hands tighter around the creature, which he realized was some sort of bird. It had long legs and a bustle of feathers around its body.
Pichari. She held the paper creature closer to her chest.Rhea is dead. Piper and Swift will die too if I don’t go. Have to protect them.
“No.” His arms came up around her as he rose from his seat. “Cassie, he will kill you. Going to him won’t save your friends! You have to listen to me.”
But they’ll die. I’ll be careful. I’m going to kill him.
“You are not a soldier! You can barely use a pulsar gun!”
This caused another flinch, and she stepped away from his embrace.Have to try.
Örim scoured furiously at his wrist node. “We need to tell S’samph about this message and let him handle it. I’m sending a ping now. We’ll finish this conversation in a minute.”
His aöseria stared at him, and for once the clarity in her vision terrified him more than her glassy-eyed dissociation. Then she dropped her pichari and ran for the door.
Örim cursed again. His new seeding layer hadn’t had a chance to fully set, and Cassie was fast. Especially now that she’d been running with the rest of the security team, she was even faster. And teösians weren’t built for speed.
