Aeryn’s expression cracked into disbelief, then anger. “What did you do?”
“It was my choice,” I said quickly. I tried for levity. “Besides, Iget to tell everyone what to do now. A dream, right?” I gave a brittle laugh, pulling at the air between us.
His stare didn’t budge. “Just say it, Elli. I’m tired of guessing what my next day is going to look like.”
My throat worked. “Okay. I’m going to be a queen. And with that, we’ll have access to the Etherblooms. They can heal the mind, Aeryn. They’ll help.”
His hands curled into fists on his knees. His voice came rough. “Queen. That means leaving here. Leavingus. You’d walk into Nyxarra and never come back.”
“Aeryn—”
“You want to fix me by abandoning me?” His words trembled, sharp around the edges. “What’s different about that? You go chained instead of me, and I’m still alone.”
“You’d come with me,” I said, the plea tumbling out. “Please—I’ll explain everything. I’ll explain why this is the only way.”
He pressed his fingers to his temples, eyes shuttering. “It’s loud again,” he murmured. “It’s all come back—the noise, the light behind my eyes. I can’t keep it out.” His voice thinned to a whisper. “He said the ceremony would quiet it forever.”
The words clawed at me. Pressure. Noise. I’d felt that same hum in the Veil—the sound the world makes before it breaks.
Aeryn laughed once, a broken sound. “What are you now? You’ve changed. Tell me what you are.”
The question hit like a blow. My chest tightened.
I drew back my lip and let him see the newly sharpened curve of my canines.
For a heartbeat there was nothing but the assault of waves against the cliffs outside the window and the slow, careful thrum of blood in my ears.
“I’m still me,” I told him. “Just… stuck like this. Forever, apparently.”
“You’re a Vampyre,” he said finally, as if naming it steadied him. The word landed like a stone.
Then something else took the shape of his voice. It poured out, layered and wrong, a draft of old language that didn’t belong to his throat. “I am darkness. I was before the light. I am the shadow between breaths… from me comes night.”
Shadows pooled along the far wall, slick and crawling, a slow tide of ink. Aeryn’s shoulders hunched. His breath skittered. His hands clenched so tight at his knees I thought he’d tear his nails.
Before I could move, he lashed out. His fingers closed at my throat. One second he was in my arms, the next I was lifted off the floor, the room pitching as if the world had been tilted on its axis. Panic flared bright and hot. “Aeryn!” I forced his name and shook him. “It’s me—Elli. Look at me.”
He didn’t answer. For a terrible moment, I thought he’d been swallowed whole. Then his body convulsed, and the rasp of those other words snapped off. Color rushed back into his face, and his glacier-blue eyes refocused, rimmed with red.
He collapsed beside me, trembling. “What’s happening to me?” he whispered, small and raw.
I wrapped my arms around his shaking shoulders. My own hands trembled, but my voice didn’t. “I don’t know. But I’ll find a way to make it better.” I made it a vow and let the words carry us through the dark between heartbeats. “It’ll all be ok.”
We sat like that until he asked to be left alone. I closed the door softly behind me.
I made my way to my room. When I entered, Malachi was sitting on the edge of my bed, silhouette softened by the candle I kept on my nightstand. He looked up when I crossed the room. “Everything okay?” he asked.
“No,” I said, and the word evened out on my tongue. “But it will be.”
He patted his lap once. “Come here, little dove.”
Malachi
She crossed the room without a word and stood in front of me, looking down at me like she was weighing what it would cost to let me in.
I reached out, hands bracing behind her thighs, and pulled her into my lap. Her breath caught, but she didn’t pull away. Her knees settled against my hips, her hands resting light against my chest.
“Why do you call me that?” she asked, tilting her head, eyes searching mine.