Page 282 of Awakened

“What am I supposed to do?” I expect to see pity on Branwen’s face, but there’s no pity. No fear. She’s calm. Collected. Confident.

She wraps her hands around mine, eyes gleaming with sincerity. When she answers me, her voice is gentle and kind… and full of conviction.

“Stop asking for permission, Idril. Stop asking for permission to use what's already yours. Stop asking for permission to live.”

* * *

After that, we decide on a break. Branwen explores the cavern more on her own, then returns to sifting through bottles and jars of things I didn’t even know could exist until we found this place, humming softly as she worked.

Nothing shakes that Omega. Somehow, she takes everything in stride, staying calm and positive even when things seem their bleakest. I know she saw us escaping, but there’s a little voice in the back of my head that keeps asking if she might be wrong. It keeps telling me to ask her if her visions ever don’t turn out the way she Sees them, but frankly… I don’t want to know.

I can feel the Bonds in my chest, but they feel muted. Constant anxiety comes from Caelan and Soren, and neither Alpha has bothered to block their side of the Bond since the fire cut us off.

Sitting cross-legged next to the lake in the cave, I watch the water lap gently at the edge of the natural shelf in the floor. It’s probably been hours since I first sat down, pulled once more toward the pillar of ice and Earth, and increasingly unable to look away from where it looms across from me.

Every now and then, my palms start to tingle. Like they physically itch to reach out and rub the ash away. More than once, I’ve found myself considering jumping into the water and figuring out a way across. It’s one thing to float down a river with the current and quite another to doggy paddle across a still lake.

And yet… I still have the strange feeling like I’m not ready. How can I possibly free something else, when I can’t even free myself?

Beneath the ice, a faint glow pulses. Something else it’s recently started to do, and only sporadically.

Branwen grins, clapping her hands and wearing one of those smiles I’m starting to understand means she’s planned some new scheme.

“Alright, clearly boiling things alive is where you excel.”

I roll my eyes. “You’re insane.”

“Probably,” she agrees, hands on her hips and a determined glint in her eye. “But I’m who you’ve got, and we’re going to figure this shite out if it’s the last thing we do.”

“Why are you so excited to die?” I groan, rubbing my temples. “I haven’t managed to do anything except accidentally dry our clothes while simultaneously blowing out half the wall.”

“And look what you found! A teaching chamber. Tell me that’s not a coincidence.”

When all I do is stare at her, she huffs, stalks over, grabs my hands, and yanks me to my feet.

I fly forward, barely managing to stop myself from falling into her at the last second.

“Gods, you’re like… weirdly strong,” I mutter.

“So are you,” she replies, voice soft and full of love.

“I don’t know about that,” I argue, falling into step next to her as we make our way back toward the Chamber of Failure.

“Stop saying that shit about yourself,” she snaps, and I stop walking, suddenly frustrated as hell.

“I don’t know if you know this for sure or not, but Dax and Vae are my Scent-Matches.” I don’t know what I expected, but I’m certainly not expecting her to throw back her head and laugh.

“It’s not funny,” I grind out through clenched teeth. She stops laughing, but not before wiping a tear from the corner of her eye.

“You’re right,” she agrees, all levity gone as quickly as it came. “What they did to you is not funny. The fact that you thought you had to tell me is what had me laughing. I’ve known since before we met. I thought you knew that.”

“I assumed, but we’ve never talked about it.”

“I’ve warned Daxen multiple times that he should rethink his actions, but I don’t think he ever took me seriously,” she complains, shaking her head.

Scoffing, I hoist myself up the mound of rubble, picking my way across it and into the chamber. “The only person Daxen takes seriously is himself. Neither of them knows about the Bond. Caelan and Soren do, but I asked them to keep it between us. I know they’re my Scent-Matches as well, but…”

“But his Packmates don’t know about you and Caelan’s Scent-Match Bond,” she finishes for me, heading for one of the shelves. “I thought so. I assumed you guys had just played up the other Bond so they wouldn’t ask.”