“Gods, twenty days. That’s what she planned. How the fuck was I going to survive that long? What if she gave you to your father? What if she—oh gods.”
Her breath stutters, and we sink to the ground. She rocks back and forth, clinging to me for dear life. I bite my fucking cheek until my teeth cut through the flesh. I hate this more than anything. I hate that we were so fucking stupid and let her walk out of that room away from us.
“I had to stand there and talk and plan and pretend I was okay. I wasdyinginside.”
Her forehead presses into my chest as a broken sound tears out of her. It shreds me to pieces, and my hold on her tightens.
“Riven, please make it better.”
Fuck me.
Please don’t ask that of me, my angel.
My soul fucking thrashes through my heart, pleading for me to let it go to her. My powersbegme to do something, but I can’t. If I allow my Harmony to take all of this away for her, these emotions will just be subdued. She won’t really heal. She won’t actually be better in the long run.
All I can do is hold her.
“Kyzen, Creed, Amick…someone, please.”
Their bodies shudder as they lay their hands against her spine, steady and comforting. Their haunted eyes plead with me. I shake my head, then squeeze mine shut.
“Fuck,” she wails, arching her back like their touch is about to break her. “I missed you so fucking much.”
“We missed you, Thayla. It was hard to breathe without you,” Amick whispers.
She thrashes her head back and forth and shoves against my chest. Not in the way that says she doesn’t want me close.
She needs room.
“You are our eternity, little goddess. We’re here with you,” Kyzen says as he scoots back.
Her foot continues to push against him until she’s satisfied with the distance.
“I’ve got your soul, my endling. Let it all out.”
Creed grips the back of her neck, grounding her. The touch only lasts a second as he and Amick shift away from her.
Her fingers dig into the floor viciously. The flesh beneath her skin turns bone-white, and my hands twitch with the most desperate desire to go to her.
Pull her into my arms.
Get her through the rest of this.
She falls still, and the air around her shifts.
A faint ripple pulses…throughher.
Her powers move in time with it. The subtle vibrations echo each change in her breathing, each shift in her body.
She lets out a piercing scream as utter Chaos rips free from her. Her entire room is lifted and thrown around in pure, unfiltered, beautiful destruction.
My head tilts up, and my eyes widen at all the shit floating above us. Air gets trapped in my lungs as it all freezes.
Then plummets.
My body braces, preparing to be fucking squashed beneath it all, but it never crashes into us.
A bubble, faintly white, surrounds us.
