“Give her back to me,” he demanded.
The creature tilted its head.
“I have watched. And I have decided. I no longer need my Bonded. I will tend to my garden as I must. Alone. And you? It seems you have enough to shoulder without tending to a broken thing.”
“Auryn,” Resh—no,Kailorien—called.“Come back to me. Please.”
When she stood still and silent, Kailorien pulled her into his arms.
“I’m sorry,” he breathed against her rain-soaked silver hair. “I was angry. At myself. At everything. You are not a burden. Please, come back.”
Her body shivered.
A voice whispered in his ear—we will both regret this.
He didn’t look down.
Didn’t have the courage.
He simply stood still, hoping.
“Kailorien,” her voice murmured, muffled by the rain. “I’m cold.”
He didn’t know whether he was going to break out laughing or if the burning behind his eyes was an indication of some kind of growing madness—one unique to her and the way only she had agency to rummage in his soul.
His knees gave and he sat with her folded in his arms. Right in the mud, the filth. He couldn’t feel any of it. She was shivering, and he wasn’t far behind, though for a different reason altogether.
The rain pelted down without mercy, as though Elendria itself was furious that he’d taken something from it. Takenher. After what he’d just witnessed, he could deny it no longer. Auryn wasn’t meant to be caged.
Not in his arms.
Not in Krystopolis.
Not anywhere.
“Why d-did you…come after m-me?” she asked, her body shaking.
He would have wrapped her in his cloak, but he was just as soaked and freezing as she was.
“I don’t know. I just—” his arms tightened around her.
Stay with me.
Stay with me.
Please, just stay.
He bit the inside of his lip, tasting blood.
She shifted, and without saying another word, she wrapped her arms around him and pressed his head against her chest. Her heartbeat murmured against his ear. Fast. Chaotic. Like a bird fluttering and fighting to escape a cage. Her fingers stroked through his wet hair, fingernails grazing his scalp.
Her voice was reedy, trembling—
“If your t-thoughts are like my heart n-now, then I understand.”
A breath was ripped from him.
Violently.
