“Come to my quarters. Now.” I disconnected and raised the temperature in the shared space. It wouldn’t help Caleb like direct heat, but it was better than nothing. I then forced myself to press against him. “Mate, I’m right here.”
I kept whispering reassuring words to Caleb as I traced my fingers over him, but he didn’t react. “Caleb,” I said, unable to keep the broken tone from my voice. The gray had spread to the whole of his body. My Caleb was steadily ripping apart.
“Oh, Mate, I’m sorry,” I told him. I shouldn’t have started courting him or allowed him to remain. I’d failed him. Completely and utterly failed him.
The door opened without permission, and Kalvoxrencol strode inside alone. “Zoltilvoxfyn?”
“Caleb is here and freezing cold. I need you to unleash your inner fire.”
“Where is he?”
I directed Kalvoxrencol to stand behind Caleb, and light pooled under his scales. Heat poured off him in waves, and Caleb didn’t react. I traced my fingers down his arm. He twitched. Placing my mouth near his ear, I whispered, “Caleb.”
He jolted.
I brushed the tip of my nose over his frozen spirit, ignoring the cold that burned my scales. “My Caleb.”
“It hurts,” he whimpered.
My soul clenched. “What? Pest’s light or the cold?”
“Cold. So cold.”
“Am I hurting him?” Kalvoxrencol asked as the burning light dimmed.
“No,” I ordered. “Don’t stop, Pest.”
Sometimes I had a hard time remembering that everyone didn’t see or hear Caleb as I did. From his perspective, he stood a small distance in front of me while I spoke to no one. Though he had to feel the cold coming off Caleb.
“Place your hands on me, Mate,” I said.
Caleb shifted as close as he could without disappearing inside of me. I traced my fingers up and down Caleb’s back as Kalvoxrencol let off a steady heat and light. My chest was frozen by Caleb, but my fingers and face were burning from Kalvoxrencol’s inner fire, both equally uncomfortable, but I remained quiet.
My wings slid out to envelop Caleb and Kalvoxrencol in my embrace. The light burned the delicate membrane of my wings, but I gritted my teeth, ignoring it. Kalvoxrencol glanced at me, and the light dimmed.
I growled at him.
“I’m hurting you,” Kalvoxrencol whispered.
“Caleb needs it.”
Kalvoxrencol’s wings escaped from his shirt and rested under mine, trapping more of the heat with Caleb in the center. Mybreath turned harsh, though Kalvoxrencol did not react. His own inner fire didn’t bother him, no matter how hot he burned.
After a bit, Caleb stopped shivering and relaxed against me. When touching his soul didn’t freeze me, I said, “He’s fine now, Kalvoxrencol.”
The light vanished, and his wings retreated under his shirt. He slipped out of my quarters without a word to give me and Caleb privacy and to, no doubt, tell our brothers of his return.
My fingers continued to move over his back, brushing through the outline of his soul. Whether he perceived my touch or not, I couldn’t stop myself. I needed reassurance of Caleb’s presence. He was here. He was safe.
My eyes flicked down to his slight form, and my soul clenched. Caleb was transparent. He’d always been fuzzy on the edges, but this was different. More extreme. I easily saw the floor through his soul; Caleb was barely here.
“Mate, can you tell me what happened?”
He didn’t respond and continued to huddle against me, almost as if intended to crawl inside of me.
Not speaking, I continued to keep my arms around my mate and pretended to hold him within my embrace, like I could keep him here by sheer force of will.
Everything hurt. I recognized the pain was rather faint, but years had passed since the last time I truly experienced pain, barring that short stint after the last time I’d vanished, and I didn’t know what to do with it or how to cope. My Sunshine kept speaking to me, but his words floated in one ear and out the other. While I didn’t understand what he said, the even timbreof his voice soothed me. Like sunlight, his fingers trailed over my back, and I adored the slight pressure.
