“It’s been two days since my first rotation in the Court, and I thought since yesterday wouldn’t be full of working out and instructing, it’d go by a little slower. It didn’t. It feels like if I’m not working my body out, I’m working out my mind and power. My poor lungs are tired because I haven’t had a chance to breathe right.”
“Now who’s speaking in metaphors.”
“Oh, you know what I mean. Since the second Willow and her men left, the guys and I have had one thing to do right after the other with only hiccups in time to just sit still with each other. Not to mention, no time or energy to—”
“Don’t you dare finish that sentence.”
I snicker under my breath and give him a saucy look that he doesn’t appreciate at all.
“I guess what I’m upset about and what I’m getting to is, I’m not like everyone else in the regard that I can just go, go, go, and remember and process everything that’s happened. My mind…”
I trail off, swallowing down the uncertainty that boils straight to the surface.
“My mind doesn’t feel as sharp as it was prior to that room. I’ve always had an issue with information overload, but now I feel like I really can’t hold onto new information. It goes in one ear and out the other. Or in the case of yesterday, it feels like I reread the same sentences repeatedly and still don’t know what I read.”
“You do. It’s in there. But let me get your timeline straight. Day before yesterday was your first day instructing in the Court, then after lunch, you went to the Athenaeum and began studying your Domains, correct?”
“Right.”
“Then yesterday morning, you returned to the Athenaeum to study, then after lunch, you put what you learned to practice in the meadow.”
“Yep. Like I said, I’ve been working out my body, mind, and power nonstop the last couple of days.”
“I see, and what have you done to relieve yourself?”
“I just told you the guys and me—ah!” I shriek when he bites my damn bun and tugs my hair.
“Nothing in our relationship is considered too much information. Except for that.”
I rub my poor head as I sneer at him. “Fine, you grouchy Veilatara. No sex talks.”
“Thank you, but I do hope they know how to tend to you in more ways than that.”
“Of course they do. They fix all my food, give me foot rubs, wash me in the shower, and cuddle. They constantly check on me and ask me how I’m feeling. The list goes on. I’d say they tend to every need I have.”
“Well, that’s a relief, but you still haven’t told me what you do for yourself.”
“I don’t know what you mean. I have girl time with Yemi and Rose, when we actually have time for it, and I soak in my hot spring or take a shower by myself. Sometimes.”
His nostrils flare with the chuff he gives me.
“Close your eyes and call your Chaos forward.”
“What? Why?”
“Just do as I ask.”
I grumble under my breath, but the sight of the hot spring disappears as I do what he ordered. He’s well aware of what my Chaos can cause, so it’s his own doing if he gets put in a mood after this.
“Now, your Chaos naturally pulls your emotions forward and expels them. So I want you to allow it to do what it does, but before you release it, I want you to sit with it. Sit with everything that’s been on your mind. Then…let it go.”
I rest my hand on my upper belly as my Chaos swirls the second I call it forward. It’s already determined to blast out of me, but I hold it steady and breathe through its restlessness.
For a fleeting second, I feel split in two.
One half of me is trying to steer the Chaos while the other battles my mind and all the emotions and thoughts that instantly surge forward because of the silence in the meadow.
Seismet’s soft purr pierces my ears, and I inhale sharply, then exhale, forcing myself to breathe in sync with him.
