Verum (The Nocte Trilogy 2)

He’s still reserved, yet sweet.

Strong, yet vulnerable.

He’s guarded now, as though he’s waiting for something terrible,

the other shoe to drop.

It makes me uneasy, and even though we’re together night after night, I feel him growing away from me. It’s enough to make me panic.

At dinner, he watches me.

During the day, he walks with me.

He sketches me.

He loves me.

But there’s always something in his eyes, something hidden, something he won’t share.

“It’s not time,” he always says when I ask. “But soon.”

I feel like I should be progressing.

I should be growing.

I should be recovering.

But I’m not.

And the more I think about, the more I’ve decided why.

So in my room, after I’ve sipped at my tea, I know there’s something I have to do. Something I’ve been putting off, something that makes my heart heavy.

“Finn,” I say aloud, and instantly he’s beside me.

He grins at me with his crooked grin, and my heart breaks with what I have to do.

“I can’t see you anymore,” I tell him sadly, and he looks away.

“I know.”

“How am I supposed to be without you?” I ask quietly, picking up his hand. It’s pale, and I know that freckle on his knuckle. He’s had it since we were five.

He shrugs, and he tries to act nonchalant, but this moment is huge and he knows it.

“I don’t know, Cal. What’s anyone to do without me?” He grins and I cry, because I can’t help it.

Because he’s my other half, but I have to be sane.

“Don’t cry,” he says softly and he pats my back. “It’ll be ok. It’ll all be ok.”

“It won’t,” I sniffle through my tears. “There are so many things I don’t understand, and I can’t work through it without you.”

He laughs now and stands up, his brown curls flopping over his eye. “That’s absurd,” he tells me and humor makes his voice thin. “You can do anything, Calla.”

“I can’t keep saying goodbye to you,” I tell him and he’s knows that I’m right. “Every time it rips the band-aid off, and you take a piece of my heart with you.”

“So quit talking to me,” he tells me simply, looking through to my soul. “You’re my sister and you’ll always be my sister. I don’t need to be with you for you to know that.”