Page 50 of Nidev and Lyric

Lyric’s insides slowly tensed with the promise of something painful.

“When I was twelve, she… woke me up one night. Crying and hugging me. She had to leave because she’d fallen in loveand our father would never accept him. He wasn’t… wealthy or powerful enough.”

Lyric sat up at hearing the tragic weight in his voice.

“When my father asked what I knew, I told him because… I really didn’t want to be without her.”

“Of course you didn’t,” Lyric barely whispered, her heart aching as she imagined a twelve-year-old version of him. Before the ink and pain of wars got a hold of him.

“My father found her. Offered the love of her life money to disappear.”

Lyric’s heart sped up.

“He took it.”

She gasped, not from the words but from the tragedy she heard in Nidev’s voice.

“As a child, I thought I had caused it. And I tried everything I could to fix it. But nothing I did brought that light back into her eyes. Then... she was arranged to marry into wealth after this. I was fourteen then. And this time, I helped her run away. This was my chance to do something selfless and change her future.”

She sat frozen, listening to him struggle to get through the memory.

“I was nineteen when I saw her again. In Vienna…” His thick voice caught on something that made her stomach twist. “She was… prostituting to… survive. To fucking eat,” he said so quietly she almost didn’t hear him.

His pain hooked into her chest until she couldn’t breathe. Lyric threw the covers off and hurried out of his apartment, his agony pulling her to him till she was half running.

“I was devastated,” he whispered, his voice shaking. “But it wasn’t until I attended the musical performance at the opera that I truly woke up. I watched a... performance about a woman who had been broken just like my sister. The lyrics were... ashattered confession... a beg disguised as a dream and when she sang it, the words bled into the air with a pain that couldn’t be healed.”

“Nidev,” Lyric gasped, her heart a burning rock in her chest.

“Life was ripped from her chest, Doo-nie,” he whispered. “Her soul was a shell of ashes scattered by the world’s cruelty.”

Lyric banged on her apartment door, breathless. “I’m here, I’m at the door, open up,” she gasped. “Right now,” she ordered, using her gift.

The second it opened, she threw herself on him, wrapping her arms around him tight, sobbing when he embraced her, his gasps hot on her ear. After many seconds, he whispered, “My father sold my sister’s heart and soul for two hundred dollars, Doo-nie. And that… bastard took it.”

****

Lyric’s heart jolted as she lunged for her phone on the bedside table and looked at it, fingers trembling as she fought with the screen lock.

Finally she opened the messages.

Nidev:I’ve left something for you in the bathroom.

Put it on. Wear it all day. Do not remove it, no matter what.

As you wear it, be aware of what it feels like—

how it presses against your skin, how it reminds you of me.

Let it connect you to me in every moment.

Her breaths shook out as the night’s events crashed into her body and heart. Where was he?Howwas he? He’d hugged her so tight for so long and then gave her a soul-shattering kiss that stole her heart and the strength in her body.

Of course it would take more than a single painful memory to move him, she of all people should know that. He wasn’t just a rock, he was a mountain of strength and power. But there were still so many questions she wanted to ask. What had become of his sister? His parents? He’d said it had woken him up—to what? And that she reminded him of something that changed his life. But never saidwhat.

Normally she’d never pry into his life, but she was more than a student now. And what happened last night felt kind of huge. At least to her.

She remembered the assignment text and hurried to the bathroom, her sore butt reminding her of that other shocking thing he’d done with her. She couldn’t stop her smile at seeing a simple, sleek silver bracelet resting on the edge of her vanity.

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