Nyx places his finger vertically across his lips, shushing. Slowly, carefully, he creeps up behind Cin, raising the chain to the level of his throat.
It’s then that I notice Cin has a collar similar to mine around his neck. Unlike mine, there’s a large circular loop at the back, and Nyx uses this to anchor the end of the chain.
Realizing what’s happening, Cin reels around, his clawed hand slashing the air—but Nyx anticipates his attack. Leaping backward, Nyx uses his wings to keep him aloft as he sails across the room, keeping the opposite end of the chain clenched tightly in his palm.
“Rhune! A hand?”
Rhune whines, gazing from me to Nyx and back again. “I don’t want to leave her alone…”
“Rhune!”
Begrudgingly, Rhune unfurls his wings and lets his arms drop away from my body. After casting a worried glance in my direction, he hurries over to help Nyx with the chain. Together, they’re able to pull Cin out of the room—but only just.
I watch as they pull him down the hallway and into the last bedroom I walked past on my tour. There’s a yanking sensation in my chest that grows more insistent by the moment, and I follow the tether toward the doorway the three of them disappeared behind. The covering has a rune painted in the center, and I pause for a moment to admire the harsh strokes and sharp edges.
I take a deep breath, steeling myself for what’s behind the covering. If the screams and crashing noises are anything to gauge it by, it can’t be good.
As soon as I step into the room, my senses are assaulted with Cin’s masculine scent, and my body responds in a shiver and the sensation of heat rushing to my core.
Attempting to focus on the matter at hand instead of my unexplainable lust, my eyes sweep the room, taking in the chaos. There’s a pile of torn furs in the corner that looks like it servesas a bed, and a small table carved from ice-rock at its side. Apart from that, there is no furniture or adornment to speak of.
It looks like a tornado recently swept through space. There are broken pieces of ice-rock scattered around the floor—remains of what might have been furniture. In addition, there are chunks of floor ripped up, and deep gauges covering the walls, as if Cin has been torturously clawing at them for hours on end.
Tearing my gaze away from the wreckage, I focus on the three demons at the opposite end of the room. Nyx is trying—and failing—to restrain Cin while Rhune works to bolt the chain to the wall.
Adding to the chaos, Cin’s familiar is snapping at Nyx’s ankles, leaving deep, bloody gouges in his flesh.
“I got it!” Rhune shouts over Cin’s snarling. “He’s secure.”
With effortless coordination, Nyx and Rhune jump back from Cin, their wings pumping in tandem as they fly backward toward the exit. Just before he passes through the doorway, Rhune’s upper body twists, snagging me mid-air and bringing me to his chest.
I go flying back with him, watching in horror as Cin starts running toward us, his eyes wide and swirling with madness.
“Mine!” he bellows. “Mine!”
Rhune passes the threshold, and the covering falls over the doorway, cutting us off from Cin. The chains rattle, then crack, and Cin lets out a thunderous roar.
Rhune releases a breath that fans across my neck. “It held. We’re safe.”
A few moments later, Nyx joins us in the tunnel, his expression uncharacteristically grim.
“It’s a bad one,” he says. “Any idea what set him off?”
Rhune shakes his head. “I walked into his workshop and saw him clutching my Willow. When I took her away, he lost his sanity.”
Nyx sighs, dragging a hand over his face. “Let’s go to my room. It’s farthest from Cin’s room, so it will be quieter.”
Just then, a series of screams echo from Cin’s room—piercing and violent and oh so lonesome. My chest aches, as that magic chord wraps around my heart, choking the organ slowly and filling my veins with ice. It wants me to go inthere.To be with Cin.
Just another thing to shove to the depths of my mind, never to think about again.
I let out a small yelp as my feet leave the ground. Rhune squeezes me to his chest, his strong arms holding my body aloft as if I weigh less than nothing. The happy purr rumbling in his chest soothes any worries I may have had.
Rhune follows Nyx to his bedroom, breezing past the doorway and taking a seat in the center of Nyx’s bed like he owns the place. I expect Rhune to put me down now that we’re far away from Cin, but he holds me tight to his chest, right against his thrumming heart.
I gaze around Nyx’s bedroom, my fingers itching to look inside the books lining his shelves. I’m able to read a few of the spines, so I know some of them are in my language, and they look absolutelyancient.
Nyx drops down next to Rhune, drawing my attention away from the books. “You know, you can look at them anytime you want.”
