He cried harder, his shoulders trembling, and desperately, he brought the back of my hand up to his cheek and nuzzled forcefully against the knuckles. Like he couldn’t yet believe I was there, as if I were a figment of his grief-stricken imagination and nothing short of melding his skin to mine would settle that torture. It was excruciating to watch, knowing he was so viscerally hurt that he was forced to expose the vulnerability he’d always so persistently bottled up, and I was doing nothing to ease that discomfort. My heart felt as if it were seized in an iron grip. My lungs constricted, releasing no air, and my inaction made it more difficult to bear.

He needed me, and I was crashing. Failing. I had to console him, to convince him that everything was okay, that he could fall apart and I was there to catch him, to reassemble the fragments—as he’d done a million times for me before—but I couldn’t move. I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t breathe.

I couldn’t⁠—

Faint wisps of emerald flame flickered behind him, that same light from earlier, but now rippling and chirping out in the open like a sentient entity, an apparition waning in and out of existence. It should have unnerved me further, but all I felt was confusion and an odd sense of attachment—like it were an acquaintance I hadn’t seen in years. A peculiar source of support that quelled the looming dread.

For mere seconds, I eyed its movements with tunneled vision, and it seemed as though time itself paused to allow me to catch up, everything muted in the background as I regained focus. The fog began to lift, and the bone-deep instinct to soothe my distressed mate finally flared in my gut, provoking me into motion. I shook my head and the stir of the room came rushing back as if I’d surfaced from underwater, the world moving at its natural pace once more.

The green light disappeared for a second time.

I pushed through the pain of lifting my free hand to stroke the loose hair between Cair’s horns, hoping the gesture grounded him. “I’m sorry, my love,” I rasped, throat tight. “Let it out. I’m here. I’ve got you.”

“I thought you were gone,” he sobbed through shaky exhales, leaning into my caresses, desperate for the contact. “I felt your soul leave me. You were dead; I felt the bond snap. I thought I was never going to⁠—”

“I know,” I hushed him softly, only to coax him into taking a full breath. I couldn’t sit up, but I guided him toward me, urging him to bury his nose in the crook of my neck, not realizing until his bulk surrounded me that I yearned for the closeness too. “But you can’t get rid of me that easily.” I kissed his temple. “I promise.”