19. Willow #3
“So am I…” With Nyx’s help, I slowly pull myself off the floor. When I’m upright, I realize for the first time that we’re not in Cin’s workshop any more. I gaze around the walls filled with shelves of trinkets, feel the soft furs beneath me, and know that this is Nyx’s room.
“When did we get here?” I ask. “I don’t remember…”
“You were unconscious,” Nyx explains, his expression twisted in agony at the memory. “If we hadn’t got to you when we did…” He and Dravik share a glance, and a shiver runs down my spine. Cin would have killed me.
I stare at the comb Cin made me, and tears come to my eyes. I can’t understand how such a gentle, considerate creature can also be such a monstrous, cruel beast. It defies all logic, spits in the face of everything I’ve come to know and like about Cin.
At this moment, I really wish my mate was here to hold me.
“Where’s Rhune?” I find myself blurting out. “Why isn’t he here?”
Nyx winces, reaching out to cup my face. I’m too exhausted to be angry, so I let him hold me. “It’s my fault. I sent him to the human realm. When he finds out he wasn’t here to help you, he’s going to lose it…” He shakes his head, wings drooping. “I’m so sorry, Willow…”
“It’s not your fault.” My mind flashes with an image of Cin’s snarling face. “It was him.” A chill runs through my body as I whisper, “I can’t believe Cin really tried to kill me.”
“That thing was not Cin,” Dravik grumbles. “It’s… something other.”
“He sure looked like Cin to me.”
“It’s not really that simple.” Nyx’s brows crease in a deep frown.
“Sometimes, I wonder if Cin was supposed to be split into two separate beings. He never remembers what happens when he’s in this state—almost like the rational part of his brain switches off so the other can take over. The one connected to the source.”
“So… what do we do?” I ask. “How do we get the good Cin back?”
“We can’t,” Dravik says. “We just sit and wait for him to snap out of it.”
“Except there is no ‘snapping out of it.’ His condition does not simply turn on and off like the sun,” Nyx adds.
Dravik scowls, clearly irritated by the interruption. “As I was saying… There’s nothing we can do but wait. He will come back to us when he’s ready. If he ever does.”
“When he does.” Nyx sends a pointed look in Dravik’s direction. “There’s no need for you to worry, Willow.”
“Okay…” I hug my knees to my chest, overcome with a wave of exhaustion. I probably shouldn’t care on account of the fact that he tried to strangle me, but if what Nyx said is true, then that wasn’t really Cin. So… “Is he going to be okay?”
“He has been every time before.” Dravik shrugs. “But there’s a possibility he will not.”
I gasp in horror, and Nyx pinches the bridge of his nose with a groan. “Must you always be so tactless?”
“I don’t know. Must you always use fancy words in a pathetic attempt to showcase your superiority?”
Nyx gasps, drawing a hand to his heart. “That one hurt, brother.”
Dravik rolls his eyes. “That is because you are soft-skinned.” His lips quirk into a tiny smirk. “And because you know I’m right.”
“Wow. Just… wow.” Nyx shakes his head with a dramatic sigh. “How can you be so cruel?”
Despite all that’s happened, I can’t help but let out a small laugh. Nyx and Dravik snap their heads toward me, forgetting about their squabble as they take in my expression with barely restrained awe.
“I love that sound.” Nyx reaches out to tuck my hair behind my ear with a gentle smile.
“I can’t express how happy I am to see you feeling better.
I thought I was going to die when I saw you in that state.
” His thumb brushes over my bottom lip as he stares deep into my eyes, and a blush kisses my cheeks as my body fills with warmth.
“Speaking of which…” Dravik clears his throat, breaking us out of the spell. “I should go check on Cin. Make sure he’s not trying to claw his throat open or anything else ridiculous.” He looks at me then, and I can tell there’s something on the tip of his tongue.
“What is it, Dravik?”
He shakes his head. “Nothing. Just… keep her safe, Nyx. I’ll be back to check on you later, Willow.”
With that, he turns and exits the room, leaving me and Nyx alone in his massive fur bed.
He drags his warm thumb over my cheek, his voice measured and soft as he asks, “Do you want me to stay with you? Or do you want me to keep guard outside?”
I sink deeper into the furs, a familiar wave of tiredness taking over my body and gluing me to the floor. “I’m not ready for cuddles, especially since Rhune is gone, but…” I bite my lip. “Would you mind staying here? I think I’d rest better knowing you’re in the room with me.”
His eyes beam with happiness, but he manages to keep his expression relatively relaxed. “Of course. Anything you want.”
He pulls a fur over my chest, tucking in the sides so I’m nice and warm and snug. Once he’s sure I’m comfy, he leans over me, pressing his lips to my forehead in a chaste kiss.
“Rest, Willow,” he whispers. “I’ll make sure you’re safe.”
And the weird thing is, I think I believe him.