Chapter 25 -Caylix-
\-Caylix-
Tears are still sliding silently down Avi’s face when her hand lifts shakily toward me. She is sitting in my lap, wrapped tightly in my arms while she tries to convince herself I am real. Her fingers brush the scar above my eye. So gentle it nearly undoes me.
Her gaze drifts lower then, to my mouth. The hex detonates between us. Heat slams through my body with enough force to make my grip tighten instinctively around her waist. For one catastrophic second, all I can think about is kissing her. Dragging her impossibly closer and kissing her until neither of us can think anymore. The urge feels dangerous now, because I am no longer entirely sure it belongs to the hex. I think some of it belongs to me.
Avi’s breath catches, like she feels it too. She quickly changes the subject, looking at my scar again.
“I remember when you got this,” she whispers softly. “The wolf attack when I was ten.”
A rough laugh escapes me before I can stop it.
“Leave it to you to mistake a wolf for a dog.”
A tiny smile finally breaks across her face. Relief hits me so hard I almost close my eyes. Then the grief returns behind her eyes, drowning the flare almost immediately. The nightmares are still clinging to her. I can feel them through the tether. Without a word, she lowers her head onto my shoulder. I turn and press a slow kiss against her forehead.
She melts closer instantly, curling into me like she belongs there. The fire crackles softly beside us while I hold her tighter, one hand sliding through her hair as the tether hums low and feverish between us.
After a few minutes, I reach toward the discarded shirt near the chair. Her fingers close around my wrist immediately.
“Please, Caylix.”
The softness in her voice nearly kills me.
“I need to feel you.”
Then she looks at me with those eyes, full of honesty and raw emotion, I cannot deny her anything when she looks at me like that. Slowly, I let the shirt fall back to the floor. Relief from her floods the tether.
Avi curls against my bare chest again the second I settle back beside her, one leg sliding over mine while her head rests directly above my heart. My arms close around her automatically. And finally, her breathing begins to slow. Deep sleep eventually pulls her under in my arms, but I remain awake, staring into the darkness.
I force myself to think through everything that has happened. The hex. The nightmares. The woman in the market. The tether. None of it fits together cleanly anymore. At first I thought it was a lust hex meant to compromise Avi or destabilize the alliance. But a lust hex should not evolve. It should not force shared nightmares or make us feel each other’s pain through the tether.
And it definitely should not shatter Avi like this. My jaw tightens. No. This is all connected somehow. Designed for us specifically. The worst part is that it keeps changing, adding. First it was physical, and now it’s emotional, psychological.
The tether itself has become part of it. What does it want? To separate us? That doesn’t make sense. The nightmares punish distance too viciously. To push us together? If so, what would that accomplish? Destroying Avi’s marriage to Rhydon would destabilize the alliance, but there are easier ways to make that happen.
No.
There has to be something I’m missing. My eyes lower to Avi sleeping against my chest, tear tracks still visible against her cheeks. Dawn eventually begins bleeding pale light through the curtains.
Avi stirs softly against me. At first it is only her fingertips sliding absentmindedly across my chest. Then suddenly, panic slams through the tether so violently I feel it before she is even fully awake. Her hand drags frantically across my chest until she finds my heartbeat beneath her palm. Only then does the panic ease slightly.
Alive.
The broken thought hits me, and then another one crashes into me immediately afterward.
He’s still here.
Gods. I tighten my arms around her instantly.
“Avi.”
Tears are already slipping silently down her face. She doesn’t speak, she just presses closer against me beneath the blankets, her fingers twisting tightly into my hand while terror pours through the tether hard enough to make my chest ache.
I…feel…you dying.
The thought is fragmented, but it nearly stops my heart anyway.
“Avi,” I say softly, trying to ground her. “Look at me.”
She barely does. Her eyes look distant, lost somewhere inside the nightmares still clinging to her. I shift slightly, trying to sit up enough to reach for water from the bedside table. Instantly the panic spikes again.
Please don’t leave me.
The fear behind it is so raw it physically hurts to feel. I stop moving immediately. Gods. This is bad. Avi is one of the strongest people I know. She’s always controlled even under pressure, composed even while terrified. I have seen her face down political threats, angry crowds, bloodshed, and grief without breaking apart. Now she can’t even let me move three feet away from her.
I pull her tightly back against my chest, one arm wrapping around her while her hand presses shakily over my heartbeat again. Relief ripples faintly through the tether the second she feels it beneath her palm.
We stay like that for hours.
The room falls silent except for the crackle of the dying fire and Avi’s uneven breathing against my chest. She remains curled tightly beneath the blankets, barely moving, while fragmented pieces of the nightmares drift through the tether in shattered waves.
Every few minutes, tears slip silently down her face like she cannot stop reliving it no matter how hard she tries.
“Avi,” I finally whisper into the silence. “Talk to me.”
She lifts her eyes to mine slowly. Gods. They look hollow as tears fill them again almost immediately. She blinks once, letting them fall soundlessly against my chest before curling closer like she is trying to disappear into me entirely. Something inside me twists painfully.
“Avi,” I say softly, brushing a hand through her hair. “I need to get your father.”
I keep my voice low and steady, even as panic spikes through the tether again. “We have to tell him what’s happening.” I squeeze her hand gently. “I’m not leaving you. I’m only going to the door.”
The fear does not fully ease, but it softens enough that I can carefully pull myself from the bed. The second the distance between us grows, grief and panic ripple sharply through the tether again. Gods. I grab my shirt from the floor and drag it over my head quickly before crossing to her chamber door. Every instinct in me hates putting space between us now. The guards stationed at the end of the corridor straighten immediately when I step outside.
“Get the king,” I order quietly. “Now.”
“Yes, Commander.” They answer immediately.
“And this remains strictly confidential,” I add coldly. “Speak of this to no one.”