Page 53 of Pet: Torment

I meet Ezra’s gaze. “I know what I felt.”

Sky quietly stands behind Ezra, her gaze shifting between us as we speak. But I notice that her eyes linger on me for a moment before widening. An audible gasp escapes her lips when she notices something. She slowly moves across the room, and Ezra watches her as she does but doesn’t stop her as she kneels nextto me on the couch. Her fingers are shaking as they reach for the strap on my dress. She then looks back to Ezra.

“It’s fading,” she whispers.

Ezra’s irritation disappears almost instantly as his eyes follow her fingers to the place where Remus’s symbol was always visible. As I lower my gaze, looking for myself, I have to fight the nausea that hits me.

The symbol that adorned my skin is faint. It pulses, but with each pulse its visibility lessens, like a flickering flame that is going out.

That must be why I feel so empty…so cold and alone. It’s that I can’t feel Remus. I press my fingers over my bare skin, unable to catch my breath.

“‘She’s taking it from me,’” I whisper, looking back at Ezra as the words begin to make more sense.

He shakes his head, pushing his hair away from his face as he moves, pacing.

“This isn’t fucking happening. How is that possible?” he murmurs to himself.

“What did you mean by ‘you saw?’” he asks, referring to my words earlier.

I slowly wrap my arms around myself, unable to hold his gaze. Even though his eyes are much different than his mother’s and Remus’s, just looking into them—seeing the purple, makes me think of her.

“It was her. Your mother. She was…killing me, but something saved me—kept her away. It had to have been Remus,” I say as I think of the other words that fell from my lips.

“Stop her. Protect her.”

I place my hand over my bare skin as the symbol flickers out, leaving me empty. I look at Ezra.

“Could he have embedded it?” I ask.

Ezra’s expression turns grim as he approaches, kneeling next to Sky.

“I don’t sense it,” he says.

I once again stuff down my nausea as I speak.

“Is he—is Remus…” I trail off, unable to finish my sentence. It doesn’t seem possible. Not even for him. His own mother couldn’t do something like that.

“No, stupid girl, of course not,” Ezra says a little too hastily for my comfort.

Silence settles over us as we try to piece together the situation. Obviously, Ezra is as in the dark as I am. And even though he’s trying to hide it, he’s nervous as well about what this could mean. It doesn’t make sense as to why Remus would feel these emotions and why I would see his mother in a vision like that. Then, upon waking up, having the bond stripped from me.

I flinch, clutching my chest as pain washes over me. My arms and legs feel so brittle as if they are about to snap just from sitting here. I feel weak, mentally and physically. I feel Ezra’s hands on me, the warmth of his attempt to heal me settling in my bones.

“Do you know why you said, ‘protect her?’” he asks.

I shake my head, choking on a sob as the possibilities become endless.

“What if…what if she…,” I trail off, unable to finish my sentence as my tears come faster. I want to blame it on having the bond ripped from me, these intense emotions, but I can’t. I feel a heavy sense of dread at the possibility that Remus is gone so suddenly.

“Why would she do this?” I whisper.

Ezra doesn’t respond, and the silence between us only makes the situation even more bleak as we try to understand what this could mean or what we should do from here. Finally, Ezra releases a deep breath, standing.

“I’ll call Xion. She’ll know what to do.”

As the day passes, the emptiness that I feel grows to an unbearable height. The night sky, which I usually adore, hasLlorain its atmosphere. And since the sun is no longer out, the reflection in the calm waters is as clear as it is in the sky. But I can’t bring myself to enjoy the view—not when everything is so uncertain.

I hastily wipe another tear as I stare into the cup of tea given to me. I never expected to feel like this. Especially when so much of my time with Remus was filled with anger directed at him. But since he’s been gone, and since we made a pact that we would be better upon his return, I’ve had the time to think of all the things he’s done since we landed onXyrannis, including helping curb my homesickness with entire rooms dedicated to my home planet.