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Yet Aias seemed to do it with ease.
“You first.”
“Your complicated interactions are causing my head to spin!” I shouted, throwing my arms in the river’s direction and then towards the two battling morons, drowning them with a heavy wave. The plants retreated while the two males coughed and gasped for air.
“Aias.” I pointed at him. “Go to your place. Now.”
Drenched, he blinked at me, hurrying to his feet and muttering a quickyes, then agoodnightto both Ayen and me before disappearing.
I breathed a sigh of relief, allowing my shoulders to loosen. When I looked at Ayen then, I found him watching me with sad eyes.
“What?” I folded my arms in front of me.
“You’re leaving tonight.”
Of course he knew. He wouldn’t have thrown me into my element. He wouldn’t have been so harsh with Aias, wanting him to leave as quickly as possible.
Aside from my siblings, Ayen was my closest friend from the moment I’d opened my eyes.
He extended his hand to me, palm up and waiting. I took it and held it tight, our fingers fitting together like they always had.
“That dove looks scared to go there,” he said, slowly walking us to the portals.
Smiling, I glanced behind me, seeing Keia and Vyrin on Yen's spine. He approached us after Aias had left, my two companions already resting on his large body. The tiger looked content with it.
“He caught her and offered her to me in the first place.”
Ayen's hand tightened around mine. “He continues to surprise me. I thought they don’t offer what they catch to anyone… not even their mates.”
“He threatened me,” I clarified. “Said that I can’t free her or give her to anyone else.”
“But he’s mild with you! I saw it!”
I shrugged. “It’s complicated.”
“Of course it is,” he said with a snort. “Your mate is a… Spider.”
He spoke quietly in case anyone happened to pick up on our conversation. It made something in me stutter that he still worried about me; he still worried about me even as he walked me to the place that he, as one of our Elders, shouldn’t.
“How can you survive in that place?” He hesitated with his words. “It’s so cold, colder than anything I’ve ever felt, and I’ve only been there twice.”
Cold? I didn’t think it was cold. I couldn’t remember if I’d ever been cold there.
My feet had slowed down ever since the portals came within sight. They dragged on the ground, shuffling dirt and sand as the grass thinned in this area. My heart weighed heavier with each step, pulsing painfully within my chest.
Too soon, we were facing each other in front of the portal that would take me away from this world, never to be seen or heard from again.
When I imagined leaving my family for my mate, it was never like this. Empty-handed. Alone. Knowing I’d never come back or see them again.
Ayen’s green eyes, usually bright and pretty, were subdued and glistening. His chest moved with difficulty, strained rises and falls, composed but stiff. His shaky grip on my hand gave a squeeze—a warm, gentle squeeze that lasted for a few flutters of my eyes before he let go.
The air grew colder.
He smiled, wobbly and weak and not like Ayen at all.
And then, he turned his back to me.
“This is as far as I can go with you,” he whispered.
