He studied my face, with its unwavering expression, and because he was so attuned to my every thought and emotion—and my tendency to not budge when I’d put my foot down—he relented. I understood his worries, I truly did. Being tied to someone, body and soul, and feeling their life force so keenly inside you, meant that every fear, no matter how irrational, was so much more visceral. He’d have sensed my panic and helplessness almost as intensely as I’d felt it myself, and all he would’ve seen was the worst possible outcome. He wouldn’t admit it out loud, but what had happened had terrified him, and knowing another being had touched and harmed what was his would be eating away at him, sending his senses into overdrive. I would indulge him all night and all day, give him as long as he needed to be convinced that I was okay, but this was my limit.

I’d had no choice but to give up in the fight; I wouldn’t be doing the same now.

“Alright,” he said, smiling weakly back at me. “But not until you’re better.”

A compromise I could definitely live with. “I suppose a little break won’t hurt.”

He nodded, seemingly pacified, before urging me into bed. I went willingly. The covers were already folded back, so all I had to do was wriggle into position and sigh happily as my head sank into the pillow. I lay there for a moment, staring up at the nondescript ceiling, but the lack of a solid body weighing down the mattress beside me had me confused.

Cair wasn’t joining me. Instead, he rose from his kneeling position to set the supplies on the side table. He was puttering around, busying himself. Creating a distraction. The line of his back was tense, and it didn’t take the skill of a mind reader to know he was wound up tight, teetering on the edge of collapse. He was always so strong for me, rarely showing his vulnerabilities, and even now he was doing his best to hide them, but fuck that noise.

I was well aware of how hypocritical that sounded, considering I was also trying to ignore everything, but not being given the opportunity to wallow helped, and seeing my mate in this state broke my heart.

There was no point in us both getting lost in our heads.

I sat up. “Cair…”

“Hm?”

“Talk to me.”

He paused, and in all honesty, I thought he would refuse, tell me to go to sleep and not worry about it, but he didn’t. He balled his fists at his sides, and through a hint of a snarl, he said, “My duty is to protect you, and I failed.”

“You literally choked two smoke dudes to death because they tried to kill me,” I said dryly. “You protected me.”