Chapter 154: Make the Body Remember

Chapter 154: Chapter 154: Make the Body Remember

Chapter 154: Make the Body Remember

Although Rhea Maddox sounded impatient, her thoughts remained perfectly clear.

From the moment she invited Cyrus Calder home, nearly everything had gone according to plan.

The fake cocktail, the locked front door, the collar, even Cyrus trying to leave had all been possibilities she had considered beforehand. His brief attempt to reach the smart lock had been a little faster than expected, but it had changed nothing.

The only real surprise was discovering that Cyrus was rare-blooded too.

Rhea looked down at the small Frostborn boy sitting in front of her.

She knew perfectly well that this was still Cyrus.

That knowledge did not make the childlike form any easier to look at.

The smaller body, loose clothing, and delicate features made him look far too young for anything she had intended tonight.

Rhea was not willing to cross that line.

Her expression tightened.

"Change back."

Cyrus immediately caught the opening.

"I can change back, but you need to listen to me first."

Rhea seemed calmer than she had a moment ago, so Cyrus kept his childish voice as steady as possible.

"As you can see, you and I are not that different."

"Keep talking."

"You already know about my memory problems."

Cyrus carefully chose every word.

"What I did not explain is that they are connected to my bloodline too. You could call it a curse."

Rhea watched him.

"And then what?"

Cyrus deliberately lowered his voice, trying to make the younger pitch less obvious.

"I do not know when I might forget everything."

That part, at least, was painfully true.

"So if I let things between us become something more, and then one day I suddenly forget you, that would be unfair to you."

Rhea’s expression changed.

Cyrus noticed immediately.

He continued while the opportunity lasted.

"You would remember everything we did together, but I might look at you like a stranger."

His small hands remained restrained, but his tone stayed calm.

"I do not want to do that to you."

Rhea fell silent.

Cyrus swallowed.

This excuse should work.

Nobody could easily prove or disprove the exact details of a rare-blood curse, especially when Rhea herself had only just revealed that she was a Firebird.

More importantly, he was framing the refusal around her feelings.

If she still possessed even a little rational judgment, she should hesitate.

Nobody wanted to invest everything into someone who might wake up one morning and remember none of it.

That would make the entire relationship one-sided.

Cyrus almost admired how solid the explanation sounded.

The temperature in the room seemed to fall slightly.

Good.

Rhea turned away.

She began fastening the buttons of her uniform again.

Then she spoke quietly.

"I am sorry."

Cyrus blinked.

"I am fine. As long as you understand."

Rhea finished straightening her clothes before turning back toward him.

Her expression carried obvious regret.

She extended one hand.

"I really am sorry. I did not think enough about what this might mean for you."

"It is fine."

Cyrus accepted her hand and let her help him stand.

Because of his smaller body, he had to look almost straight upward to meet her eyes.

The change in Rhea had been incredibly fast.

Too fast, perhaps.

Still, Cyrus had no reason to challenge success.

Rhea studied him.

"Are you feeling all right?"

"As long as it does not get that hot again, I should recover."

Rhea nodded.

Her red hair darkened.

The fire-colored eyes returned to black.

The temperature did not drop instantly, but the difference was noticeable.

Cyrus released a quiet breath.

He needed space.

"My clothes do not fit properly like this. Can I use the bathroom for a little while?"

"Of course."

Rhea stepped aside.

Cyrus gathered the loose fabric around himself and hurried toward the bathroom.

The moment he got inside, he locked the door.

He knew a bathroom lock would not stop the owner of the apartment forever, but hearing the latch click still improved his mood.

The room was cooler than the bedroom.

More importantly, Rhea was on the other side of a door.

Cyrus approached the sink.

In his childlike form, even reaching comfortably required him to stretch.

He turned on the cold water and wet his hands.

Then he pressed them against his face, neck, and arms.

The temperature against his skin helped quickly.

He repeated the process several times, letting the remaining effects of Rhea’s heat fade.

He hated this form.

Not because being smaller was inherently unbearable, but because it left him physically vulnerable in ways he could not tolerate.

After what had happened with Daphne, being trapped in the body of a child around someone whose intentions he could not predict had become especially dangerous.

A few minutes passed.

Cyrus felt stable enough to consider changing back.

Before he did, Rhea’s voice came through the door.

"Cyrus."

"Yes?"

"Do you want to take a shower?"

Cyrus frowned.

Rhea continued.

"The drink got on your clothes earlier. I have something clean you can wear afterward."

Cyrus looked down.

Bright red stains marked part of his shirt.

The harmless sweet drink had spilled during the struggle.

He glanced toward the separate shower stall.

For several seconds, he considered the offer.

Then he dismissed it.

He could hide the stains under his coat and wash everything at home.

"No, thank you. I will shower when I get back."

"All right."

Rhea’s shadow shifted beneath the door.

Then it disappeared.

Cyrus waited another minute.

Once he was confident the temperature had settled, he returned to his normal size.

His hair remained white.

That could be corrected later.

He faced the mirror and straightened his rumpled clothes.

The reflection staring back at him looked tired but otherwise normal.

Now came the harder question.

Would Rhea actually let him leave?

Cyrus did not like how quickly she had accepted his explanation.

The apology had been almost immediate.

Someone who had spent days planning tonight should not have abandoned the plan after three sentences.

His phone was not with him either.

He vaguely remembered leaving it somewhere in the living room.

That meant he could not quietly call for help from behind the locked bathroom door.

Cyrus stared at the mirror.

Something still felt wrong.

Then Rhea’s voice returned.

"Cyrus?"

"Yes. What is it?"

This time his normal voice answered.

Silence followed.

Cyrus frowned.

Then he heard metal turning inside the lock.

His entire body went tense.

Outside the bathroom, Rhea stood with a key in her hand.

When Cyrus had entered in his smaller form, she had genuinely paused.

She could not bring herself to continue while he looked like a child.

That did not mean she had accepted his explanation.

Far from it.

If Cyrus lost his memories in the future, then his mind forgetting her did not matter nearly as much as he seemed to think.

Memories could disappear.

Habits could remain.

Instinct could remain.

His body could remember what his mind did not.

Rhea looked at the locked bathroom door.

The fact that Cyrus had locked it bothered her more than she wanted to admit.

He was still protecting himself from her.

Still preparing to escape.

This was her apartment.

Of course she had a key.

Earlier, Cyrus’s phone had started vibrating in the living room.

Rhea had checked the screen only long enough to see that someone was calling.

She had no interest in the identity.

She silenced the phone and pushed it between the couch cushions.

Whoever wanted Cyrus could wait.

Rhea returned to the bathroom door after giving him enough time to recover.

The first time she called, the child’s voice had answered.

So she waited.

The second time, Cyrus sounded like himself again.

Rhea smiled.

Now there was no reason to wait.

Inside the bathroom, Cyrus heard the lock turn.

Every warning instinct he possessed activated at once.

The door opened.

Rhea stepped inside.

Her hair changed from black to red almost immediately.

Heat followed.

Cyrus stared at her.

A terrible realization settled over him.

"I probably should not have changed back."

Rhea closed the door behind herself.

Cyrus backed away.

"You do realize I can yell, right?"

Rhea’s smile barely changed.

She had chosen this apartment partly because the soundproofing was excellent.

Cyrus understood the answer without needing her to say it.

He tried to reach the door.

The temperature rose before he made it halfway there.

Strength began draining from him almost immediately.

Rhea moved faster.

The confrontation that followed was brief.

Cyrus resisted, but the heat undermined every attempt. Within moments, his wrists were restrained behind him again.

When he tried to argue, Rhea silenced him before he could finish.

Then she pushed him farther into the bathroom.

Cold water suddenly poured from the shower overhead.

It should have helped.

Instead, the contrast between the water and the heat radiating from Rhea created a haze across the glass.

Both of them were quickly soaked.

Cyrus’s white hair stuck across his forehead.

Rhea’s red hair darkened beneath the water.

He tried once more to pull away.

The effort failed.

What happened afterward was no longer something Cyrus could talk his way out of.

Rhea had already decided what the night meant to her.

His refusal, his explanations, and his fear of forgetting had only changed the reasoning she used to justify herself.

If his memory could not be trusted, she would leave something deeper.

Something she believed forgetting could not erase.

Cyrus could not agree with that logic.

He could barely keep thinking clearly enough to reject it.

The heat kept climbing.

Time became difficult to follow.

The cold shower continued running, but steam gathered on the glass anyway.

Rhea stayed close, her Firebird nature turning the small room into exactly the environment Cyrus’s Frostborn body could tolerate least.

His strength faded further.

Rhea’s voice reached him through the water.

"If you forget me someday, then forget."

Cyrus barely lifted his head.

Her tone had become quieter.

"But your body will remember."

The words made his stomach turn.

Rhea believed them completely.

Cyrus tried to answer, but exhaustion swallowed the attempt.

The temperature rose again.

That was enough.

His Frostborn body reacted automatically.

His adult frame began shrinking.

The transformation happened faster this time because he had already been pushed near his limit.

His soaked clothes loosened around him.

White hair remained white, but the face beneath it became unmistakably childlike again.

Rhea froze.

The moment his body changed, whatever she had intended stopped.

Cyrus barely noticed.

His consciousness was already slipping.

The Firebird heat, physical exhaustion, and repeated forced transformation had pushed him too far.

The room blurred.

His last clear thought was that trusting beautiful women really did seem to shorten his lifespan.

Then even that disappeared.

Cyrus lost consciousness beneath the cold running water while the overheated room slowly filled with steam.