“Yeah, you think?”
He hums as he pushes from the counter. His attention flicks toward Riven’s door briefly before he clears his throat.
“Chaos is a fragile balance, Thayla. Too much and the realm fractures. Our social structures collapse, minds unravel, and the noise drowns out meaning. Too little and the realm becomes stagnant. Growth halts, innovation dies, and the silence creeps into suffocation.”
“Yeah, well, what do you do when your mind is already unraveling and the silence is already suffocating?”
“You find balance. You find your own harmony.”
He graces me with a tender smile before disappearing in a flash of white.
So much for keeping me company, asshole.
Now that everyone is truly gone, my pacing extends from the fireplace all the way to the kitchen.
The silence is beyond suffocating.
I’m drowning in it.
It’d be one thing if I were observing how this is affecting the guys, but Ifeelthe extreme emotions running through them. It makes it so much harder to separate my own feelings.
They’re falling apart, ripping me wide open right along with them.
It’s both a mercy and absolute misery that I can’t sense Riven.
“Oh gods.”
My breath of a whisper echoes through the kitchen as I splay my palms on the counter.
Flashes of the scars on his back assault my mind along with the scenarios I create about how he got them. His swirling blue and burgundy beg me to reach him.
My slap connects with a mug of cold coffee, and it sails across the kitchen, smashing into the cabinets. I choke back a scream when it doesn’t shatter like Ineededit to.
I don’t understand how this happened.
What happened? I’m the one who tampered with the Binding.
Fuck…all he did was hold the thing.
Amick swears he did nothing, and I believe him.
No questions asked.
The only explanation my rattled mind can come up with is that the Binding itself absorbed his essence because of how much it was in his possession. He spent the most time with it.
Leave it to a creation of the gods to pull some shit like that.
Why did Riven…
Of all the questions I can ask right now, why Riven jumped in front of Amick is the easiest to answer. I don’t have to finish the thought. Despite their constant bickering, Riven loves and would protect Amick with his life.
It’s eating Amick alive that he did that for him.
“Would you like to go be with them? I can give them a heads-up that you’re coming.”
My chest rises as I force air into my lungs. The dark spots gradually fade from my eyes, and I shake my head. I can’t respond mentally to V, though. The thoughts are too loud.
“No. The last thing the Court needs is for me to walk in there. It would undoubtedly start a brawl. I’m going to embrace being alone and attempt to get this shit under control before they get back. I can’t sit here much longer.”
