Broken

.33.

"Did you see who did it?" He asked it quietly and I shook my head. It hurt to think but I knew that much.

"Not well." I swallowed convulsively again and he fed me another ice chip. The coldness soothed my throat. "Grey eyes, sharp face. Just a glimpse." A tiny, tiny glimpse before I was sucked away, to where I didn't know. The heart rate increased as my heart started to beat faster at the thought of what happened.

Ghilesh grasped my arm and squeezed it softly, rubbing my skin in an attempt to get me to calm down. I breathed deeply, focusing on doing just that. "Was it Kher?" He asked it softly and I shrugged slightly. I was at a loss. I was nearly positive it was him deep down in my gut but I didn't see enough to make a formal decision.

"I don't know." I swallowed hard and turned to look at him. "What happened?" I wanted to know. I need to know what the hell had happened to me.

"Someone yanked off your medallion." His eyes darkened slightly in anger but his hand was gentle on my arm as he patted it. "It... it caused your soul to leave your body." I felt myself pale as my stomach rolled. I wanted to heave again. My soul had been disconnected from me, I hadn't gone unconscious like I thought. I had virtually died. "When the chain broke your medallion disintegrated into nothing, the magic it held simply returning to the Source." He moved his hand down and grabbed my own. "Your soul left with it." He looked saddened and I swallowed.

"Why?" Why would my soul simply leave my body. I didn't understand.

"It is what happens when a medallion is broken. Usually we can fix it quickly. The Source holding the souls until we can recreate the broken medallion and then place the soul back within it. You were... difficult." His eyes were almost watery as he said it. I didn't like that look.

"How?" My throat was so scratchy and sore it was nearly unbearable.

"When a mated pair is the subject of a medallion breaking, one soul will return to the other. We would know where it is and where to find it. Your soul got... confused." He swallowed and looked at his lap. "The potion you were taking confused your soul. It was meant to go back to Rhex, your soul would rest within his medallion until we could fix yours but the soul separation potion made your soul believe it had to go back to the Source." Tears burned my eyes. I had gotten lost out in the dark abyss of nothingness? I had been stuck out there alone?

"You were lost in the abyss of darkness, Liviya. And she was mad." Ghilesh shuddered under it as if he could still feel the fury from the person he spoke of. "She was so mad that her fury was felt through every medallion that came close to your body. We had to quarantine you to the lower bays because people were suffering third degree burns from their medallions." I blinked at that, reaching up to grab my medallion as Ghilesh squeezed my hand gently, as if afraid I was going to break.

"She screamed at all of the Soul Makers for days. Over and over again. She would not let us rest until we had your medallion ready and then she screamed at us to find you." He let out a heavy breath and I had a moment of realization that he was talking about the Source. The Source had been upset with my soul being lost. It was a rather disconcerting feeling to think about. "We almost couldn't find you. It took every bit of power we had to reach out towards where your soul had gotten stuck." He looked at me again and the tears finally fell down his face as he attempted to swipe them away.

"You were gone for a month, Liviya." His words made what ever calmness I felt, disappear entirely. My heart rate picked up and I felt my breathing come out in gasps. "Your body was dying and we could not find you. We tried so hard until we felt just a tiny pulse, a tiny call for help and then we realized we had been losing you too. The darkness wanted to consume you entirely." He wiped at his eyes again, as if the motion would stem the flow of tears and I had to look away from him, my mind racing with the information. I hadn't just died, my soul had nearly been extinguished entirely. I swallowed heavily against the bile that crawled into my throat. I hadn't thought I had enough in me to throw anything up again but apparently my body was showing me just how much was left.

"Rhex?" My voice was a hoarse croak as the tears trailed down my face. I just wanted to know if he was okay, that it didn't hurt him.

"He knew. He knew the moment it happened. He said he could not feel you anymore." He heaved out a breath. "They had to sedate him to keep him from going completely mad." My heart jumped into my throat and I squeezed Ghilesh's hand.

"Talk to him." I needed to talk to him. I needed to hear his voice just to assure myself that he was okay and safe. I just wanted to hear his voice because I was scared.

"You cannot right now." He said it gently, as if the tone of his voice could deliver the crushing words softly. I felt like my throat was constricting as it burned with sobs that wanted to escape. I needed to talk to Rhex.

"Talk to him." I watched him stand up and I held his hand as tightly as I could, my arm trembling from the whisper of a grip that I was using. "Ghilesh, please!" I wanted to beg him, to plead with him to help me.

His amber eyes were full of regret as he pull his wrinkled hand from my own. "You need to recover first, Liviya." He pressed a button on my bed and I felt a sudden, foggy warmth slowly start to spread through me.

"No." It came out as a faint, slurred whimper before that warm fog covered me completely, dragging me down, down, down.