I scanned the interactions around the room as I sat in one of the rigid metal chairs with Evira to my left and Zayn to my right. Neither of them had taken their hands off me since before we’d arrived.
Zayn currently had his fingers clamped down around my thigh, and I’d had to keep my hand on his as he kept sliding higher, which wasn’t exactly conducive to me maintaining concentration. He wasn’t doing it on purpose. He was on edge and reacting how he needed to in order to alleviate whatever little bit of that he possibly could, given the circumstances.
Evira had her arm draped over my shoulders rather possessively. They’d missed me after I’d been unconscious for days on end. And with Winter gone, it dug far too deep for them to experience any further separation amongst our unit. For my part, as I kept Zayn’s touch… contained… I was stroking Evira’s hair with my free hand.
There was a lot transpiring.
Many people involved.
Remnant was perched on the actual table at its head as he talked with a deeply stressed Lazriel who was pacing up and down in front of him, while his father kept encouraging him to continue to sip at his scotch glass filled with blood.
Cassius was sitting opposite us beside Ambrose and Ketheron, the three of them talking quietly, displaying calm—at least on the surface. Racing heartbeats had been registered all too clearly by me, however.
Velra was late to this discussion, as she was mediating a meeting remotely between King Darethor and Ryker Morgan, regarding the counteroffensive the latter had mobilized without Guardian Movement authorization, which had caused a great deal of issues, namely, bringing the Dark Fae Realm to the brink of war with the Light Fae Realm.
And Sylas had left the room to see to the amber gemstone we’d shown him, to view whatever message Winter had embedded in it privately.
While I, of course, understood the need to disseminate information carefully and shrewdly, it did also bother me. Well,I suppose the root cause of that irritation was what had come to my attention through the magical recording that Velra had played us—a recording sent by Winter, and something he had pre-recorded before his abduction.
I ground my jaw as I played it over in my head.
“Mom, if you’re getting this message, time ran out for me. I’m recording this as I’m sitting in a Ruminat hut where I’ve been coming to do this investigative research. And because Ruxnoth has been pulling me into dreamscapes in a bid to manipulate me. Don’t worry, he failed. I’m my mother’s son. Listen, I need you to get this to an expert spellwriter—Ketheron or Kai. I was close to cracking this, but the warped Celestial magic is proving exceedingly difficult to unweave. If they can find a way to do that, I can end this. And, yes, it needs to be me. Only the person who connects with Sanctus and feeds it holds that power. I’ve also found a way to eliminate Ruxnoth. I’m afraid it will mean delivering death, but I’m willing to see to it, as this fucker is irredeemable. Dad can’t take point on this, can’t do it in my place. If he does, he’ll die. I can’t die. It’s simple logic, and I need you with me on this, to see past me being your son. I need you to convince him. I’ve done the work. All my research about the living equation is contained in that grimoire. There’s some stuff in there that you won’t like. And, just so you know, I begged my loves to keep it between our foursome, so please don’t put it on them. I love you, Mom. Tell Pops, Father, and Dad the same. Please send my love to Vax, Evira, and Z. Tell them I’ll be okay. I promise.”
A nudge from Zayn pulled me from recalling it all.
I turned to him, arching an eyebrow.
“You’re gonna break it if you’re not careful.”
“What’s that?”
“Your jaw.” He leaned in and brushed his lips over it, eyes sparkling with mischief. “Although, it’s clearly Grade A Prime Basilisk Prince toughness, so maybe not.”
Evira chuckled. “Hellion, take it down.”
“Come on, icicle, you know very well thisisme toning it down.”
“Without a doubt,” I agreed, and Evira and I exchanged an amused look.
Then I beamed out at Zayn.
“What?” he asked.
“Thank you.”
His lips quirked. “No idea what you’re thanking me for, Vax.”
I smiled. Darling little Ifrit indeed. He’d not only managed to ease my agitation, but also invoke humor while he’d been at it. And taken no credit whatsoever.
Evira gave my bicep a squeeze. Well, over my leather blazer. I’d slipped it on before we’d left our home, as the two of them had been exhibiting some intense… need toward me—a reaction clearly to me being immersed inself-immobilizationfor days on end—so I’d tried to tone down the temptation. Not that I was above it myself.
“Hearing that recording was a lot. Without a doubt.” She smiled. “Except the part of getting to hear Winter’s voice.” That was undeniably true, yes. “But knowing he was shouldering all that—the research, being tormented in those dreamscapes, trying to take so much on himself, even not believing that you’d be able to find a solution for him to ease the destabilization that Ruxnoth caused to his death-cold state—was hard to stomach. But he has also opened up to us in ways that he saw as a risk. Because of his nature. Because of his fear that what he is could be detrimental to others. He told us about the feeding issues, even when he was so afraid to, and ashamed. It was still himconnecting, trying to bring us in on it.” She winced. “Just not all the way.”
“He would have,” Zayn cut in. “After he’d completed the research, he would have brought us in.”
“I think so, too,” Evira said.
Zayn sighed. “Yeah, it’s just… Win was already feeling like a burden, Vax. With you risking yourself using your vibrational resonance to find him that day and outing yourself to your awful parents. And Evira, with you abdicating. Then for me, with him needing to feed so much. He was coming around, though, to sharing those issues, that worry. But then things just kept… piling up… getting worse and fucking worse. As fast as he was trying to readjust and let us in, he just kept getting fucking slammed—as we know with the message and also seeing the grimoire baked into it that Velra passed around earlier of all the research Win had done.”
