The Ex-Rook: A Bridge and Sword Novel by Andrijeski JC

Author:Andrijeski, JC
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: White Sun Press
Published: 2023-05-09T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

Extracting A Toll

Galaith’s light descended over Revik’s.

It happened without preamble, without warning⏤with no way for him to prepare.

It felt like hot mercury being poured over his skin.

It clung there, melding into parts of Revik that hurt from the contact.

Even that confused him, though. The pulls and revulsions and resonances blended into one another until he couldn’t decide if it was the contact itself that hurt, or the absence of it, prior to now. Had he actually missed this, somehow? Had he missed Galaith?

Could anyone sane really miss this?

Sickness washed over him as he struggled with the thought. It pulled at him, pulled at his separation pain, even as he felt grief from the other being’s light, a wanting of him.

It had been so long since any being wanted his light like that.

Revik’s nausea and separation pain worsened.

He fought not to cry out.

He knew they could probably all see it in his face, in his light, even as he felt Balidor and the others let this happen. They opened him up deliberately when he tried to get away. They allowed Galaith to see the information they’d given him, what they’d imprinted on his light before they reached the clearing.

It was Kali, giving birth.

It was markers in her light… markers in her child’s light.

Revik could see Vash and Galaith standing in a Barrier field of some kind. Galaith wore an avatar, like he always did, but Vash looked the same as he did in real life, in his physical body. His long face smiled sadly as he nodded to Galaith’s words.

They shook on that thing, whatever it was.

I was not the one to take her, Galaith told Revik softly before he left. Know that, brother Revik. And know that you are missed greatly here. Whatever you tell yourself, whatever your new friends tell you, you are missed painfully, my friend… and you are loved…

Revik fought back another stab of pain.

He fought to extract himself.

That time, they let him go.

All the hands and arms around him in that space finally let him go.

The Adhipan shield wove back around his light. It blocked out those silver strands.

Revik felt worry there, apology, fear for him⏤

He felt Vash, Tarsi, Balidor, Yumi, Dalejem⏤

But he couldn’t let them in either, not at first.

He couldn’t stand to have any of them there, inside his light, or anywhere near him.

He slammed his own shield down hard over whatever he could protect. He knew it was futile, that his shield lived inside the shield of the Adhipan. He pushed all of them out almost without meaning to do it, or maybe just without being able to help himself from desperately needing the space.

It felt like he couldn’t bear to have any light touching him but his own.

He even forced out Balidor, who stood right next to him. The gray-eyed Adhipan leader practically touched him with his body, even as he surrounded Revik with clear, fast-moving light. Revik didn’t try to move away physically from the other’s protective stance; he just

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