Bound To Be Mates

19. Soundless

Ciri and Darius found me like that, crying pitifully over my food. Ciri freaked out, crying out words fluently in Spanish. I had no idea what she was saying.  

Darius didn't look pleased, by the subtle frown on his face. He left me in the back of the kitchen with Ciri to cry though, so I think he has at least a shred of humanity inside him, somewhere deep down.  

Deep, deep down.  

"Why are you crying?" Ciri finally starts speaking English again. She pushes the plate away from me and settles in the seat beside mine.  

Why am I crying? 

I don't answer, instead choosing to swipe at my cheeks with my fingers. Hot tears stain my fingertips, and I force myself to stop crying. I have better things to do than cry; there are things I should be figuring out. No more crying. I have to be strong if I want to get back. 

I have to be. 

"I'm fine." I breathe quietly, staring at the table forlornly. My heart flutters, almost painfully.  

Ciri looks at me, her eyes full of the pity I hate seeing. "You miss your mate, no?" 

I glance at her with wide, shocked eyes. How did she know...? My hand reaches up to clamp over Jango's mark. Whenever I touch it, I feel liquid fire shoot through my bones and a shiver run up my spine. I can faintly smell his scent radiating off it. It's comforting.  

I take in a deep breath. "Yeah." I mumble quietly.  

She smiles sadly. "I have not met my mate yet." She sighs, a beat-up look coming to her dark eyes. "I am already twenty-four years, and no mate. Tell me, what is it like?" 

"I don't know if I should be the one to answer that." I say softly, finding Ciri surprisingly easy to talk to, like I did with Kenny. "But Jango, he's..." I sigh, searching for the right word, but I come up with nothing.

"Jango?" She frowns, pronouncing the word carefully, and gestures to my shoulder. "I thought his name is Shiloh." 

I hide a grimace. "It is, b-but he doesn't like it, so e-everyone calls him Jango..." 

"Hmm..." Ciri nods. "Yes, I get that. He treats you right, yes?" 

I nod tentatively, rubbing my arm.  

Ciri grins. "That's good! You were blessed with a perfect mate!" 

Feeling heat rise in my cheeks, I let my hair fall in front of my face. My mind starts racing over her words, but she distracts me before I can think of anything.  

"Now, I want you to eat before the food gets stone cold! I'm going to go find tissues." She demands, before leaving in a swift flurry of clothing, after pulling the plate back in front of me. I wonder how she can manage to stay so cheery all the time. 

Slowly eating, I try not to let the noises my stomach makes interfere with my head. I guess not eating wasn't really the best thing for me. The food tastes nice, just a little on the cold side, but it's still good. 

Ciri comes dashing back into the room a little while later with a box of tissues, chattering about something or other she heard another one of the maids say on the way.

Darius wanted to see me after my little meltdown. It was well past breakfast by the time Ciri finally got me to one of the many meeting rooms. After being firmly seated by Ciri in one of the chairs around a large table, a row of windows behind me, and left me with Darius. 

Again I was nervous. Darius is very intimidating.  

He silently paces in front of the windows across the room. It's like this meeting room is nothing but windows. It lets in a lot of light, and has magnificent views of the surrounding forest and castle wings.