Page 80 of Infernal Bonds

“You’ve not been the nicest to her, but she still likes you.” I shrugged. “It’d probably confuse me too.”

“Are your eyes working? She does not like me.”

I pushed a curtain of tangled vines out of the way, catching sight of Rae a few feet ahead. “She wouldn’t try to talk to you at all if she didn’t.”

“Since when do you know that?”

“Since I watch her. She didn’t talk to you at first, except when she had to.”

He fell silent.

I’d spent a lot of time watching Rae while we lived in her house and even more so once we returned to Elyrdin. She kept her distance from both Cyn and Ezra in the beginning. They did nothing to make themselves approachable, and she didn’t respond well to it. But things changed. Ezra started doing little things for her once he knew the truth. In his own damaged way, Cyn showed more care than he realized.

He didn’t even realize that she was just like him. He never wasted time on people he hated or didn’t care about. They spent more energy denying their connection than it would take to simply overlook one another.

After walking in silence for several minutes, we stepped over a fallen log into a worn area covered in darkened moss about the size of my bed. Cyn bent forward, resting his hands on his knees.

“Are you okay?” I looked across the tiny clearing, calling out, “Rae, hang on.”

Cyn glanced up at me; his blackened eyes appeared cloudy and unfocused. “Who’s Rae?”

“What? Our Nyrith.”

He scoffed.

“What’s going on?” Rae asked as she came up to us.

“I don’t know. He’s not doing so well.”

Had I misheard him? Why would he ask that? He knew her.

Cyn growled and flexed his claws, glancing from me to Rae. The veins in his neck and temples stood out as he strained, rolling his shoulders.

I stepped back to look him over, noticing purple and black splotches marring his skin.

My stomach dropped as the reality of what his condition meant hit me.

No. Not yet.

“What’s happening to him?”

Cyn licked his lips, his shoulder giving a sudden twitch as his head tilted unnaturally.

I looked around. “Rae,” I whispered. “I need you to find a tree and climb into it. Don’t let Cyn see which one you choose.”

“What?” She looked at me as if I’d lost my mind. “Why?”

“Just trust me.” I smiled at her, thankful my appearance didn’t scare her. “Can you do that?”

She cast a wary glance at Cyn and then looked at me, nodding. When she disappeared around the trees behind me, I turned to Cyn.

“Hey,” I whispered, trying not to provoke him.

His gaze snapped to mine, and he bared his fangs at me.

I swallowed around the invisible obstruction in my throat. I didn’t know if I could do this, but I couldn’t lose him to the dark magic of this place.

All Shyrlivi who stayed in Feranzis for too long succumbed to the curse of the forest, turning into the lesser infernals we fought hard to keep away from the citizens of Elyrdin. But with his injury, Cyn’s open wound likely absorbed the very essence of Feranzis floating in the air, triggering the change in less than a day.