A Crash, A Song, A Wave

Edit to Chapter 5

Hello Everyone! I realized I posted the incorrect version of Chapter 5 to Wattpad. It's missing this part I later added. I'll include it below. This is right when Alberto just left and Luca is returning to the Pescheria that night. So sorry about that. I wanted to make sure you got it so you didn't miss anything since this is important information.

Eshe POV

The wind had a slight chill in the lateness of the night. Eshe didn't know what time it was, only that she had been sitting in the dark for a while. She couldn't leave. Even though Ksenya's voice had long since stopped its song, Eshe was stuck there, leaning against the brick of the Pescheria.

It frustrated her that she wasn't upstairs, holding Ksenya in her arms while Misha curled up with them.

"I'm an idiot." She thought, hitting her fist against the wall.

She then spotted a figure approaching. Her superior night vision meant she saw him long before he spotted her, and Luca jumped at her gaze when he finally noticed.

"You're coming home awfully late." She observed.

Luca nodded, and she could see in his posture something was off.

"What's wrong? Where is Alberto?"

She was already halfway standing when Luca spoke.

"Alberto... left."

"Left? What do you mean he left? Where is he going?"

Luca shook his head.

"I don't know. But he needs this. We both do."

Eshe shot straight up, marched to Luca and grabbed him by the shoulders. She appeared to be holding back an explosion as she spoke between clenched teeth.

"How long will he be gone?" She snarled.

She watched as Luca's eyes went wide in surprise.

"He... he said that he'd return before the first snow."

Eshe released Luca's shoulders and kicked the nearest crate she could find. The wood shattered behind her force and the crate collapsed.

"Eshe what's going on?" Luca asked careful to keep his distance.

"You should have come to be first!" Eshe growled. "I would have told him not to go!"

"But why? I think this will be good for him—"

"You have no idea what you've done. Bonded pairs can't be separated that long." Eshe said.

Luca fell silent and she felt his alarm.

"What?"

"Bonded pairs can't be separated that long Luca. It's... unnatural."

"But the Bond isn't broken, I can still feel it even if I can't talk with Alberto." Luca said as though trying to comfort himself.

"You feel okay right now. But give it time. It'll get bad, for both of you. Alberto's night terrors will worsen. You'll both feel the effects of the distance. It'll... it'll change you."

Luca looked like he might have stopped breathing.

"Change us how?"

"Being Bonded comes with a lot of good things. But also there is a dark side to the Bond. Both you and Alberto are essentially addicts. Addicted to the connection you share. And when you take an addicts supply away, the withdrawal symptoms will set in."

Eshe furrowed her brow, thinking. This was bad.

"A long time ago, when Mer tribes were warring for territory, it was a common practice to capture a single member of a Bonded pair and separate them. It would drive them to madness. Some resolved to starving themselves rather than lose their minds. The longing to be with your mate will drive you to do things you've never imagined doing. The need to... belong... in that way will overtake you. You won't have hardly any control over it. That longing can present itself in many ways, none of them good. You'll cross lines you never even contemplated before."

Luca looked white under the starlit sky.

"How long before I... I start to feel it?"

Eshe shrugged.

"It's different for each pair, but I'll tell you this. By the time the first snow comes you'll be desperate. I told you Luca, its not natural for Bonded pairs to go that long apart. You have to be careful."

"What about Alberto?" Luca asked.

"He'll have to learn how to deal with it on his own. Hopefully the withdrawal will drive him to return earlier."

Luca nodded. They stood in silence for a moment before Luca bid her goodnight and disappeared in the Pescheria.

"This is a mess." Eshe thought.