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Talyn held her for a moment, holding in tears. She wasn’t so bad. He felt a tangled mix of fear and love throbbing from her, but he could deal with that. He felt guilty for having left her on her own for so long. She deserved better.

She pulled back from her crushing embrace and rested a hand against his cheek. “My boy. So grown up. When did you get so big?”

Talyn placed his own hand over hers. “I’ve been this big for a while.”

She shook her head. “It seems like yesterday when you were a tiny thing, running around the house playing with your toy spaceship.”

“I have a real one now.”

Her eyes closed, and a tear trickled down her cheek. “I wish we could go back to those days. Everything was much easier.”

Pain lanced through Talyn’s head, but he fought it. He felt his mom’s lucidness unravel as her head tipped back. He grabbed her shoulders. “Stay with me. You’re doing well. I’m here. Talk to me. Is there anything I can do to make this better?”

His mom slumped in his arms, her body twitching as if she’d been hit with a jolt of electricity.

The stabbing pains in Talyn’s head grew worse. He had no choice but to let her go and grab his head as her emotions grew unstable, and she staggered to the side. She threw everything at him. It wasn’t just her own feelings but those of other peoples’ she’d felt over the decades. She held onto everything, and that was destroying her.

His eyes were wide as he watched her, frozen to the spot, twitching, as trapped emotions slammed into her mind, hitting her again and again with painful reminders of other peoples’ agony and fear.

“Talyn, your heart rate is dangerously elevated,” Booby said over the wrist comm.

“You don’t need to tell me that,” he muttered.

“Are you with your mom?”

“I’m here.”

“I recommend you leave.”

Talyn silenced the wrist comm. He didn’t need Booby interfering. He had to deal with this. He had to find a way to soothe his mom’s fractured mind.

“Mom, please, I know how hard this is but try to stay in control. You don’t have to feel everything. Let it out. There’s no point in holding all those sensations.”

“I can’t breathe.” Her fingers clawed at her throat.

Talyn caught his mom as she collapsed. Their physical contact made the pain in his head intensify. He dragged her to the bed, trying to make her comfortable as she continued to twitch.

“Relax, try to breathe. Use your barriers. You still have them. They’re in your mind somewhere. Raise them and shut out everything.”

“Too difficult,” his mom gasped.

He slid his hands away from her skin, feeling a surge of relief as they cut contact. It only eased the pain a little.

Talyn wiped the back of his hand against his nose, and it came away smeared with his blood. He took a step back, and his mom grabbed his hand and dug her fingers into his flesh. “Stay. I missed you.”

He groaned, his head feeling like it was splitting in two. “I want to. I want to be here for you as often as I can, but you know how difficult this is. Can’t you feel it?”

Her twitching slowed, and her eyes fluttered open. “You’ve found love.”

Talyn’s breath caught in his throat. “You can feel that?”

“I can. She feels beautiful.” A smile lit her face. “Sinead. She’s a joy to be around.”

Talyn let out a slow sigh. “She was, but it’s over.”

“Don’t be so sure. I sensed your calmness when you were with her. That’s a treasure you should never let go of.”

Talyn scowled and scrubbed at his eyes with the back of his hand. “I tried, but Sinead is different to us. She doesn’t understand our ways and won’t accept that we can help each other. We’re wrong together. But I’ve found a way to let her go and allow her to be free, as she desires.”