Page 63 of Feathers and Scales

“What’s going on in that head of yours?” he asked.

Oh no. Can he tell that I’m talking to a dead man?She took a step back. “N-nothing.”

“Who were you talking to?” Daxton asked.

Her hands shook. “What do you mean?”

“You go distant sometimes, as if you’re talking to someone. And when Simon updated us about the Archfiend, you spoke to someone in the woods.”

Her heart sank to her toes. Did she sense judgment in his words? No. He was gentle and worried. It didn’t matter.The last thing I want is to explain how delusional I am. He’ll probably think it’s a madness that’ll turn me into an Archfiend.

“That’s absurd.” She turned and marched away from him.

Daxton’s steps thudded close behind her. “Izzy, you can talk to me. Stop. Where are you going?”

“To my room.”

“You’re heading in the wrong direction.”

She stopped between two bookshelves with a sigh.

“You were always bad with directions…”Fotios’s unwelcome voice said, the air scented with old parchment—just the way he had smelled.

She clamped her hands over her ears as fear clawed its way up from her stomach, and anger burned hot in her chest, threatening to tear her apart. Every fiber of her being screamed for release, teetering on the edge of an explosive outburst.

A warm hand touched her shoulder. “Izzy?”

She jerked free. “Leave me alone.”

“I can’t leave you.”

She whipped around. The concern in his eyes hardened her resolve to push him away. “You say that as if we’re together. We are nothing.”

“Stop acting like you don’t care when you do.”

The words pierced through her. “I don’t want to.”

“Why?”

“Why?” The floodgate broke. Laughter spilled from her lips. “I allowed myself to care for someone, and when I lost him…” Her breath hitched. “When he left me, I broke. For a week I couldn’t eat, and I slept on the floor in my own tears. On the fourth, he showed up on my doorstep, talking to me and helping me as he always did. It took me a year to piece together why he never showed himself around other people and didn’t teach me new ideas. He wasn’t there. I had dissociated from reality.”

She ran her shaking fingers through her hair. “It’s taken Simon and me so much work to get where I am now, but Istillhear him. How are we supposed to be strong with all these overwhelming emotions? They engulf us, pulling us under, forcing us to make the worst decisions. And I just want the chaos to stop.” She breathed deeply around the pain building inside, the burning in her eyes. “With Simon, I tried not to be attached, but I’m terrified for his safety. I can still feel the Archfiend’s sword piercing me as if the wound hasn’t healed. And I imagine Simon or you and I…I just…”

Daxton enveloped her in his arms. The warmth of his body swept over her, and his spicy and heady scent filled her nostrils. His closeness made her muscles tense.

“It’s okay,” he whispered against her ear. “You’re safe. Simon’s safe. And I’m right here.”

With a jagged breath, she allowed herself to relax against him. Resting her head in the indent of his shoulder, she closed her eyes.

“It’s nothing to be ashamed of,” he said. “Immortality brings many losses. Some devastating. But we have the bad so we can enjoy the good.Sometimes I can hear my Maternal’s voice. She always scolded me for something. She passed before I became an adult.”

“I’m sorry for your loss.” Izzy wrapped her arms around him.

He gave her a tight squeeze. “As I am for yours. When you want to talk about it, I’m here.”

She leaned back. “Thank you. But I can’t…”

“I can feel that…fog.”