Page 143 of Obsidian and Frost

“Velra,” he choked, suddenly breaking our kiss.

“What are you—”

He put me down and stepped back, and an awful coldness rolled over me again.

“This cannot be.”

“It just was, Cassius.”

“A mistake.”

My gut twisted. “No. It wasn’t. It was far from that.”

“We don’t belong.”

“Don’t. Stop doing this. Every fucking time!” I slammed my hands into his chest and screamed at the top of my lungs, “Stop! Stop! Stop doing this to me!”

He stared at me impassively.

There was nothing there.

I went to scream again, but no sound came out.

I screamed and screamed but it just continued to go unheard.

And then he turned away.

I bolted forward to reach for him, to stop him from leaving yet again.

But a flash of white light swallowed him in a blink.

It was too late.

It was always too late.

As I pulled back,ending the spell, his gaze snapped to mine, a haunted look in his eyes. “Hades,” he uttered. “I didn’t… I didn’t realize.”

“I know you didn’t.”

“How do you not hate me with this being how I made you feel?”

“Because, I get that you don’t have full comprehension of mortal plane emotions, or even of your own because of how deeply you were forced to repress who you are, how you feel, what you need, and what you want.Butwith that being the case, you need to recognize that deficiency and defer to somebody else. You don’t get to take control here, Cassius, especially not when it comes to deciding what’s best for my emotional state.”

“I hear what you’re saying. I just didn’t want you impacted or restricted, nor controlled, by our Soul Brand.”

“Well, I am. And so are you. Very much so. The time has come to look at this a different wayandto approach it a different way as well. How about we stop seeing it as something negative, something that holds us back in this way and that, or through fear? And instead, we see the positives to it?”

“Positives?”

“There’s a safety net here for you with the bond. Me too when I was so scared to connect with anyone. But for you, you can feel what I am, which when used properly can help to bridge the gap with your limited ability to interpret emotions. The Soul Brand offers a safer way and a sort of guiding light to growing closer, which I can tell you actually want. It’s sort of like a protective bubble from which things can grow beyond once you’re more settled with it. And, yes, you can assist me with my power issues if something triggers that in me again or sets back my progress, and I’m unable to find control right away.” I reached out and took his hand. “What we have, this Soul Brand, is a tether to your humanity, Cassius. It’s one of a kind. It’s special. Let’s stop seeing it as a curse.” I smiled. “You’re the first person I connected with and that’s no small thing to me. It actuallyenabled me to try with Lazriel, then Sylas. It helped me. This Brand helped me.”

“It helped you,” he murmured to himself, clearly trying to reconcile that reality.

“Yes,” I assured him, at his sheer disbelief in something positive coming out of it. It was unbelievably sad that he could only see things that way. I gestured to the bloodied state of him. “Now, with that out there, will you let me change you into some non-soiled clothes with a flick of my magic?”

“That’s why you used the wipes?”

“Yes. Given how you’ve been when it comes to me, I figured you wouldn’t want my magic touching you. My… anything… touching you.”