Chapter 2 #2
Vesperin shook her head, but he took off his coat and draped it over her shoulders anyway. She resisted the urge to bury her face in the collar. His shoulders were broad; beneath the coat, he wore only a plain shirt with laces.
Why was he being so nice? She was merely an object to him—nothing more.
"We expect intelligence on the first of the month, every month. I’ll have an agent go out to the agreed-upon meeting place when the moons are high.
You’ll leave the required trading items there, as well.
The agent will leave a list at every meeting, to be fulfilled by the next, or Vesperin comes back to us," Aliscent stated the demands Vesperin assumed the man already knew well, for he merely dipped his chin sharply.
They said their goodbyes, and Vesperin was led into the carriage first. It was warm inside, and she shivered on the leather bench, staring at her lap so she wouldn’t have to look up at him.
She didn’t even know his name. But now he owned her.
The carriage rocked as they left, and she didn’t look back at the base or Aliscent. She didn’t want to give her godmother the privilege.
"Vesperin," the man said, "I hope this arrangement is something we can both find peace in."
"Peace? When you’ve bought me? The last thing I will ever be for you is a good little companion." She looked up and met his eyes. "I am clearly nothing to you, or else you would have at least told me your name."
Surprise lit up his soft brown eyes. "Apologies. I assumed Aliscent had told you already." He paused, tugging his gloves off. "My name is Kiton Blackfall."
They were quiet the rest of the carriage ride, until they stopped at a lonely cobblestone street on the outskirts of the city. The fog was thicker here. The clouds of steam rose high in the distance. He emerged first, then stood at the small door of the carriage, holding out his hand for her.
"Take my hand. This is a partnership. I will not harm you."
Perhaps it was the way his voice did not falter, or maybe his reminder that this was a partnership—they both benefited from this arrangement; though, the resistance arguably did more than him. He only got her out of it while risking his life to aid the resistance.
For not the first time, Vesperin wondered why her? Why risk so much?
She exhaled, shifting on the leather bench until her iron heels dangled over the drop of the carriage. She met his eyes, then placed her hand in his.
It was instantaneous.
The way everything stopped, right there on the cobblestone drive. She fell from the carriage into his arms, and together they fell to the ground. She was bundled in his chest, quaking sobs falling from her lips as her eyes watered.
He held her and held her there on the ground, two words, said with reverent hunger:
"We’re Soulbonds."
It was their first life together.
That was why everything about it was so precious and slow.
Those first days, they did nothing more than get to know each other—who they were without fighting and the roles they’d been forced to play.
One night, over dinner, while steam curled beyond the fogged windows and a brass bulb flickered on the table between them, Kiton shared with her that the reason he risked everything was because a part of him, somehow, knew that she was his.
Vesperin traced her fingertip over the faint impression of the yellow glow from the bulb. "That’s ridiculous. How can you endeavor to know such a thing? You’re not a Celestial."
"I may not be a Celestial, but the first time I saw you, it was at a gala hosted at one of the regime’s family estates.
I was drinking a glass of briux, imported from Sangreal, and saw you sweet-talking a general," Kiton shared, tone melancholic. "Your eyes met mine while your hand was on his chest, then you looked away so quickly. It made me wonder if you even knew who I was. I wanted you. At the same time, I started to grow… discontent with the way everything was being handled. The people, the torture. I wanted to change. That’s when I sought out the resistance. And when I saw you at a resistance meeting. You didn’t even seem to recognize me. "
Slowly, he reached for her hand, and she let him hold it.
"After some time ingratiating myself within the resistance, Aliscent proposed to some of the men that she wanted to… use you as a bartering chip. A pure Aetherborn, in exchange for intel. One of the men who expressed interest—he would’ve used you until nothing was left.
He was only in with the resistance to play both sides.
He wasn’t loyal. And he wouldn’t be loyal to you.
I did everything I could to make Aliscent understand: it should be me who has you. "
Vesperin drew in a sharp breath.
"I offered the best price. Double the medical supplies, triple the food." Kiton’s eyes were warm pools of burnished sunlight, with the way the bulb flickered between them.
"All for you," he muttered, thumb stroking over the back of her hand. He held her so delicately.
At his words, the last bit of resistance cracked in her chest, and she knew she was so glad that he had done what he had to get her.
"For you."
At the sound of Kiton’s voice, Vesperin turned, head tipping up to stare at him. She sat by the window, staring out at the fog-shrouded night.
In his gloved hands, he held a bouquet of Nightfell roses. The pointed-petaled flowers were wrapped with a strand of black velvet.
"For me?" Her words were breathless. "How did you—"
"I saw you once at one of the estate dinners. There was a small garden outside. You were staring at the flowers with such a wistful look."
"They’re my favorite flower. The darkness has always called to me. Flowers are supposed to be bright…" Vesperin reached forward and drifted the tip of her finger over a dark petal. "But darkness fits this war-torn planet of ours, don’t you agree?"
He extended the bouquet.
She pressed her face to the petals and inhaled the jasmine-like scent. "Thank you."
"Only the best for you."
As the months passed, the fighting grew, bleeding into the shops and housing areas. Kiton was away more and more. Working both sides—for her, he would always say. He would come back to the manor bloody and bruised, eyes haunted, but when he saw her, the tension would flee as he fell into her arms.
When they were with each other, everything was okay.
Until it wasn’t.
After half a year with Kiton, the first time she’d felt loved and safe since her parents’ deaths, Vesperin found herself wanting him. Not out of duty but desire.
"Don’t go." Vesperin held Kiton’s hands as he knelt beside her bed—they slept separately.
They hadn’t done more than kiss, but she wanted him. For the first time, Vesperin wanted to be with a man because she wanted it, not because of an ulterior motive.
He brushed her brown hair away from her face. "I must, Vesperin. If I don’t, it won’t look good. I’ve been staying away more and more. They’re questioning my allegiance. That can’t happen—it puts you and the resistance at risk."
He gathered her hands up and kissed her knuckles. He seemed to love her hands. In a way, she understood—it was what made them realize they were made for each other.
Vesperin shook her head, sitting up as she reached for him. It was wrong to distract him like this.
She grabbed his face, feeling his smooth skin under her palms as she whispered, "Stay—just for tonight. They won’t miss you until morning. You can leave then, and I won’t say a word. I’ll let you go when it’s dawn. But for the night, for now, stay with me?"
Kiton sighed, expression conflicted. "Fine. Only for a few hours, then I have to go."
He lay down by her side, shifting her until she was situated to his liking. She was beneath the sheets, while he lay on top of them. The barrier between them made her chest tight.
The hum of the generators as the gas bulbs burned and water flowed through pipes broke up the silence.
He wore his regime uniform: a dark coat and trousers, a harness with iron plates fused to the chest. The iron was cold beneath her cheek as she pressed her face against him.
"Is it wrong of me…?" she began.
He hummed.
Vesperin’s fingers brushed against his coat. "To want this?"
"No. Never. You’re the best thing in this life. I do not think what I did before I met you could be considered living." His hands tightened on her.
"I think that all the fighting, it—it made me realize what I want isn’t what I thought. I don’t want to be important. I want only this. Stolen moments and your lips."
They’d been hurtling toward each other since they were born, and yet, she felt this moment was wholly their own.
"Kiton, I’m in love with you."
He shifted, forcing her to sit up. He cupped her cheeks, eyes fond. "I love you so much, Vesperin Vox."
His lips met hers. She melted as she found herself beneath him. His leg parted her thighs. Her simple nightgown slipped off her shoulders until it was off entirely. She was bare from the waist up. His harness and chest plates came off, then his coat.
When he rolled down her undergarment and his bare hands pressed between her legs, feeling how wet she was, she gasped, flinching.
Her fingers dug into his bare hip; his clothes had long been discarded.
"Are you a virgin?" he whispered against her temples.
"No," she forced out through pale lips. "M-my godmother, she wanted me to help with intelligence gathering. Men are loose-lipped after they’ve been pleased." She shivered from remembered disgust.
All the hands that had touched her, all the ways she’d used her body.
Vesperin felt Kiton draw away subtly, and her thighs tightened around his hips, keeping him lodged against her. She felt the press of his cock against her entrance. She forced herself to endure it, wanting this too much to let him go.
"I never wanted them to touch me," Vesperin said when he still didn’t speak, "but I thought that I was doing something good by helping."
She tucked her face against his chest, unable to look him in the eyes.