Page 129 of Psycho Gods

I reached over and grabbed Scorpius’s shoulder so all three of them were touching me.

Instantly, I relaxed.

I was an Ignis taking care of his mates.

I was warming my Revered.

It was a dream that a month ago I’d thought would never come true.

Dr. Palmer scribbled furiously on her clipboard, then glared over her spectacles. “Do you feel like you’ve been processing getting stabbed and almost dying? Have you been thinking about this traumatic event a lot?”

I gnashed my teeth.

Dr. Palmer ignored me.

Arabella pulled out her pipe, inhaled smoke, and said hoarsely, “I feel the same as always.” An opaque crow settled onto her shoulder.

“And how do you normally feel?” Dr. Palmer asked.

Arabella scoffed. “Empty.”

I jolted, Orion made a sad noise, and Scorpius muttered something harshly as all three of us remembered the hollow sensation in her memory.

Did she still feel that way?

I wanted to scream.

Her crow cawed, and my eyes widened; while she’d sobbed on the palace floor, her mother had accused her of setting monstrous birds free from their gilded cages. Was that why she kept the bird as her companion?

I tucked her tighter against my side, and she scooted closer.

My heart soared.

My eyes burned with pressure.

“Could you expand on the emptiness you feel? Try to put it into more words.” Dr. Palmer scribbled aggressively on her clipboard.

“It feels like I’m missing something.”

“And when did this start?”

“I woke up one day at fourteen years old, and the world was colored in shades of dark blue and gray.” Arabella stared off into the distance like she was somewhere else. “It was freezing cold. I remember it vividly because for the first time in my life, living felt like a chore.”

Dr. Palmer furrowed her brow and stopped writing. “You mean you felt like the world was colored in shades of dark blue and gray.”

“No, the colors changed.” Arabella shook her head.

“Well, to start, you need to recognize that you just felt that way.” Dr. Palmer waved her pen. “The colors weren’t actually different.”

“Yes, they were,” Orion whispered.

Everyone turned to him.

“What did you say?” Dr. Palmer asked.

I scoffed. “She said the colors were different, so they were. Ask something else,” I spoke harshly to end the conversation because we couldn’t let Aran know we were in her memories.

She would want to stop the connection.