Like a hurricane she exploded against him, her own scream echoing from her throat to split into his ears and head like spikes of ice. It hurt to hold her there, to hurt her, but he had to. He couldn't just let her go, not when he thought she was leaving him for good. The miscommunication may never come to light, but it darkened and soiled his heart with fear and self-hatred in that moment nonetheless. She thrashed against him, and it felt like trying to wrap a storm within his wings, but he was the grounding earthquake to her flighty whirlwind. He held strong, pinching her between his wings, ignoring her desperation.

Teeth found purchase in his flesh, and he grunted with every pinch and pull, only squeezing ever tighter each time to quell her rebellion. Lunged for her mane once more, held her tight and dug his teeth in, gritting them both against her strands and the situation. Prayed that his Lord would show mercy on him and let them make it through this ordeal together, whole. As Cera had always wanted them to be throughout their lives. Having each other's backs, guiding each other true. What had happened to them? Gods, what had happened?

Ranjiri shook against him and his frame responded in kind as he cried into her mane, tears slipping from his cheeks to land among the tangled strands he was clutching so desperately. Though she had never seemed to care much for physical beauty, he found himself in woeful regret for the mess he was making of her, as if it were magnified inside his mind into a metaphor too disastrous for his soul to bear. He was ruining her, dirtying her by not letting her go free. But he couldn't. She was the only good thing he had left in the world, he couldn't simply be expected to give up everything. He had never done anything wrong to deserve such continuous agony.

"Please," he begged. "Whatever it is, please, it's not worth losing you," he cried, wings trembling against her both with the effort of restraining her and his own overwhelming sorrow. Didn't she know how important she was to him? Whatever he had done wrong, whatever had happened, it wasn't worth his sister isolating herself from him. Nothing ever would be.