Chapter 488: Never Let Go

(Adelaide)

Adelaide frowned, concentrating harder.

Again. This time, she caught more. A flicker of emotion brushing her awareness, slipping away before she could seize it.

Frustration. No, not only that. Determination. A relentless, sovereign refusal to stop searching.

Her breath tangled in her throat.

He was there. Somewhere. Reaching for her, just as she reached for him. But the distance between them was thick with something neither could burn through.

She reached again, gentler, terrified that pressing too hard would shatter the fragile thread and leave her with nothing.

Apollo...

The name was not spoken. It was deeper than thought, carried by the invisible thread that still bound them. She followed it with all the gentleness she possessed, afraid that any force might snap it forever.

Another pulse answered, so faint she nearly missed it. Heat. So achingly familiar. It spread through the bond for a single heartbeat before dissolving beneath the wall that kept them apart.

She squeezed her eyes shut, clinging to the sensation.

"I know you're there," she whispered into the empty room.

The words fell flat against the stillness. She wasn't even sure why she'd spoken them. Perhaps because if she said them aloud, somewhere impossibly far away he might somehow feel the certainty behind them, even if the words themselves never reached him.

Adelaide stopped trying to listen. Instead... She tried to speak. Not with her voice. With the bond. With that piece of soul that tied them together.

Apollo... I miss you.

She held the thought as firmly as she could, wrapping herself around it before letting it drift into the fractured connection. It felt foolish. Like placing a letter into a river and hoping the current somehow carried it to the right shore.

Nothing came back. She tried again immediately, holding the thought more firmly this time, willing it to travel further than the last.

I'm safe.

She lingered on those two words, hoping that if nothing else survived the distance, perhaps they would.

Cael got me out. He kept me safe.

Her brow furrowed, concentration carving lines across her skin.

I'm at...

She hesitated, lost. She did not even know where she truly was.

The old palace. That was all she had.

I'm at the old palace.

She begged the broken bond in silence, desperate for it to carry her words.

Please don't worry.

She drew another long, trembling breath.

I'll come back.

Her throat constricted, aching with the weight of everything unsaid.

I promise I'll come back to you.

She did not know if promises could survive a broken bond any better than words, only that she was compelled to try.

Again she reached, wrapping herself around every thought, gently pushing them into the fractured bond, refusing to let go.

Please wait for me. Don't give up on me. Please... just wait.

She squeezed her eyes shut until pain bloomed behind her lids.

"I miss you." The whisper escaped before she realised she'd spoken aloud.

She tried once more, not knowing whether the bond carried words at all anymore, or whether all that reached him were loose pieces of emotion stripped away from their meaning before they crossed the impossible distance between them.

Perhaps he would feel only the ache in her chest. Perhaps only the love. Perhaps only the fear that gnawed at her bones.

Or perhaps... Nothing at all.

Adelaide swallowed, fighting the sting that gathered behind her eyes, refusing to let it claim her.

I hope you're all right.

This thought slipped out more easily than the rest.

Please... Please be alive. Please be healing. Please don't be lying somewhere alone wondering where I'd gone.

The bond quivered. Just once. A ripple so faint she almost convinced herself she had imagined it.

Then nothing.

She stayed, reaching, refusing to surrender. Minutes slipped past, or perhaps hours. Time lost all meaning. The harder she pressed, the more the ache behind her eyes grew, spreading from her temples until it circled her skull like a crown of thorns. Every attempt to push through the damaged bond demanded a price, draining her until even breathing felt like a battle.

She pressed her palms to her eyes. The pressure offered no relief. The silence pressed back, heavy and unyielding. A single tear slipped free before she realised she was crying. Then another followed. She let her hands fall, surrendering to the flood.

"I miss you," she whispered, the confession barely louder than her breathing.

The room, immaculate and silent around her, offered no answer.

The tears came faster, relentless. She curled onto her side, instinctively folding into herself, one hand pressed over the mark on her neck as if her touch alone could hold the bond together.

Everything she had managed to keep neatly contained throughout the day finally began slipping loose. She missed him. Not because he wasn't there. Because somewhere between the cross, the fighting pits, the crystal cavern and the mountain, the Devil she had feared had quietly become the Devil she searched for whenever she entered a room. She missed the impossible contradictions that somehow only Apollo seemed capable of carrying. The terrifying creature who could level armies without hesitation, yet brushed strands of hair away from her face as though she might break beneath too much pressure.

The possessiveness that had made her roll her eyes more times than she could count. The way he seemed physically incapable of allowing another demon to stand too close without inserting himself between them. The growled warnings. The jealous glances. The constant, unrelenting certainty that she belonged beside him.

Now the empty space beside her yawned, vast and unbearable.

She had never needed to wonder how Apollo felt. Never. Even in hatred, she had known. Even in want. Even as love crept in, unbidden. He had never hidden himself from her.

A fresh sob clawed at her throat, sharp and raw.

Was he angry now? Did he believe she had chosen Cael over him? Did he think she had walked away from him willingly?

The storm of thoughts hurt more than she could have imagined.

He had stood on the battlefield, believing every wound was a step closer to coming home to her. Instead, she had vanished.

She squeezed her eyes shut, as if darkness could shield her from regret.

"I'm sorry..." The apology dissolved into another sob.