Page 25 of His Realm

I was nodding.

“Yes?”

“Mmmm,” I barely got out.

“I have missed you terribly,” he said matter-of-factly.

It was funny because he stated his feelings honestly, without flourish, and because of that, I felt the words down deep. Hearing them was like being thrown a lifeline. He pulled me out of the cold, dark water where I’d been swimming back to safety and warmth and love.

“Me too,” I managed to choke out.

“And it’s worse for you, and I know that because it’s not merely that you miss me, it’s that you’re unable to thrive without me because I’m your mate.”

I cleared my throat. “I’ve been your mate since you called me your consort after our first night together.”

“In word, yes,” he murmured, and I could hear the smile in his voice.

“Stop thinking about us in bed and finish what you were going to say,” I ordered him.

His chuckle was filthy. “Yes. You’re right. I counted you as mine from the moment I first tasted your blood, but you were made into my mate when I changed your blood.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that without me at your side, you will slowly, at the seams, break apart.”

I had to parse his words. “That makes no sense.”

“I know.”

“That’s not logically possible.”

“What can I tell you?”

“So I’m…what, fraying at the edges?”

“I suspect more than the edges.”

“Be specific,” I demanded, but kept my tone gentle. In person, I would have given it to him with both barrels, but on the phone, I was careful because I wasn’t there to touch him or hold his hand. It was my rule: we only fought in person so we could fix whatever it was before any chasm opened between us. “You’re telling me that being apart from you is slowly killing me?”

“Not killing,” he bit out the words. “You will not⁠—”

“I will die, someday,” I said, because as assured as he was of his own immortality, he never wanted to speak of my mortality. “But not now.”

“No,” he said with a sharp exhale. “Not now.”

“But what is happening to me?”

Quick inhale. “You are breaking down mentally, emotionally, and both are taking a toll on you physically as well.”

“And you did that.”

“Yes,” he whispered.

“Okay.”

Beats of silence went by.

“Okay?” he finally said, sounding stunned.