Chapter 26 Chapter 26

Chapter 26 Chapter 26
Vivian
The stakes of my current predicament had burrowed under my skin in that damp, incense-choked inn and was now feasting on my resolve.

The mate bond.

The biological tether.

The death sentence that connected me to Adrian.

Because of the message from the fortune teller, I came to a shocking realization that I’d been spending too much time with Adrian.

Even for a person who was planning an escape, it didn’t make sense.

I was certain that this wouldn’t have been if I wasn’t spending too much time with the Duke, and so I came up with an idea.

If spending time with the duke created the mate bond, then spending less time with him might weaken it.

My first step of distance was to move out my things from the room near Adrian’s to another cold, drafty guest chamber in the North wing with the help of Bess, who protested vehemently against it.

If I was able to learn to live without him, to breathe without him, I might be able to weaken the bond enough to let me walk back to my world without making Adrian a dead man.

By the second day, as I moved the remainder of my things to the empty room, Bess’s argument had turned to a plea.

She strongly believed that I had no right to interrupt the system of how things were done under the duke, but I had to assure her again and again that as far as I was concerned, she was safe under me.

By the third day, the air in the North wing grew thin. My lungs felt as if they were filled with wet wool. Every action seemed to draw a ton of strength from my body.

“Miss Vivian,” Bess hushed. “You haven’t touched your broth.” She hovered over my bed, her face a blur of concern.

“I’m… I’m just tired, Bess,” I wheezed. Each word felt like a heave after a 400 meter sprint, something I wasn’t sure this world was used to.

As the next day came, I couldn’t interpret what was going wrong with my body.

My skin felt clammy and cold, and my pulse grew a little frantic, irregular dumbbeat that seemed to be searching for a rhythm that I couldn’t find.

It wasn’t a fever at all.

I could guess what was going on, but I was too scared to admit that it was what it was, because it was the same thing I was fighting against.

My heart was failing because the other half was either three halls away from me, or found it difficult to be close to me by ten meters.

Today, I lay back against the pillows, my eyes following the slow crawl of the afternoon light across the ceiling. If I had the strength, I’d have screamed at the unfairness of it.

In my world, love was a choice and a decision. Here, love was a fundamental law of physics.

I was being pulled towards Adrian by a gravity I couldn’t fight, and every inch of distance I tried to create caused a tear in my soul.

As I lay there, the air in the room shifted, and I caught my breath a little. Then the door creaked open.

I didn’t need to look up to know who was there. I had the facts already, from the shift of the room. For a moment, I closed my eyes.

“Leave us, Bess,” I heard a familiar commanding voice.

Then a scurry of shoes followed. Slow, calculated footsteps followed, echoing in the room before the bed suddenly groaned, the scent of lavender filling my senses, warmth radiating towards me in waves.

“You are killing yourself, Vivian,” he started, his voice a jagged rip. “And in doing so, you are killing me. I can feel the coldness of your limbs. I can feel your heart stuttering in my chest.”

“I have to… I have to learn if I can survive without you,” I whispered, opening my eyes to meet him.

He looked haggard. The silver in his eyes looked dull, unlike what I know it to be, the sharp lines of his face sunk with exhaustion.

He looked like a man starving for weeks.

He reached out, letting his trembling hands brush a damp strand of hair from my forehead.

The moment his skin touched mine, a jolt of pure, electric energy surged through me, like a jumper cable hitting a dead battery.

The grey fog in my brain disappeared, and the agonizing ache in my lungs lifted in huge degrees.

I gasped, arching my back as my body greedily drank in the proximity.

“The bond is not a suggestion, Vivian,” Adrian said. “Tis a fusion. The fortune teller didn’t state metaphors.

He pulled me into his arms, and I let him, grabbing the silk lapels of his jacket and sobbing into his chest, even as more energy surged through me.

“I hate how much I need you,” I whispered into his chest.

“I do hate that my love is a cage, Vivian,” he replied, his arms around me tightening.

He pulled back, his eyes burrowing into my soul as the silver slowly returned to his eyes.

“The ball is a few days away,” he said, voice low. “If you choose to walk throught the light, you will not make it, and I shall drop dead on this floor like a broken thing before the sunrise.”

I stared at him, and I saw the scars on his soul.

The sheer, exhausting loneliness he had endured before I fell through that mirror. A wave of sympathy so profound rushed through me that it overshadowed my fear.

And then it finally dawned on me. All this while, it was Adrian who trapped me. If anything, he was the one protecting me. The universe was responsible for trapping me.

A couple of days ago, I would never have believed that time travel was a possibility, and there was such a thing as cursed objects.

But right now, I was under their siege.

My mind went back to the day when I touched that odd mirror on the other side, and I cursed under my breath. Then a thought hit me.