Chapter 25
Movement from the other side of the bed rustled me from my slumber.
As my eyes lifted, Arze’s naked form, hidden by the annoying shield of my bedsheets, came into view and the memory of last night started playing back to me at hyper speed.
A grin glazed my early morning facade, and his eyes were already trained on me affectionately, watching me wake like I was the only thing that mattered to him in the world.
“Good morning.” He beamed, scooting closer to me so that he could allow his finger to run down the length of my side from my current position, facing him and wishing to have this view every single morning for the foreseeable future.
“Morning,” I matched his grin, letting my eyes close again to savor the minuscule touch from him as his finger went up and down my side in a lazy patterned display of tenderness. “How did you sleep?”
“Wonderfully.” His finger continued to lace a pattern down my side. “How about you?”
“Pretty good, considering you snore.”
Arze’s cheeks flared a darker purple, horror flashing in his eyes. “I do not!”
“Oh, you do.” I chuckled, crawling closer to him to force Arze to lay back so I could lay on his chest. A scoff fell between his lips as I draped an arm across his chest, my head finding comfort on the remaining side of his chest. “But it’s okay, it was cute and not enough to keep me up.”
A slap was awarded to my ass cheek, his playful scolding evident.
I couldn’t contain my laughter, turning to hysterics as he tried shoving me off of him.
Soon, we were tangled in the sheets together, wrestling and attempting to get the other off of us.
It was the kind of act that you’d see play out in a movie and the fact that it was happening to me only made my heart soar even closer to Arze’s sun, pulled into his orbit with no chance of leaving.
We calmed down, settling into a storm of kisses to dissolve our laughter, the bed in complete disarray.
I never wanted our moment together to end, and yet, I knew that we would eventually have to leave my bedroom.
Maybe before we did, we could learn a little more about each other.
Because learning more about Arze was going to make leaving Phoebe easier, right?
As far as I was concerned, I wasn’t in Phoebe, I was in denial.
We were sitting up in bed, turned toward one another, still kissing.
It was fascinating to me how we could be kissing but still be even-keel and not letting it turn into a pit of passion.
Not that I couldn’t have gone for another round, but I had to assume that my sister was back at this point, and I didn’t want her to hear us having mind-blowing sex through the poorly insulated walls of the RV.
I pulled away from the kiss, needing a mental distraction before I succumbed to his whims and tried to initiate round two. He wore a look of faux annoyance, a smirk lingering there to meet me.
“So, how long have you lived in Phoebe?” Because surrounding myself with the story of how Arze came to be in Phoebe would definitely distract me from the fact that I was bound to leave it soon. If I convinced myself that it was the truth, I’d start believing it. I could only hope, anyway.
Arze’s eyebrows planted, looking very inquisitive. “Not as long as you might think. I’ve been here a little over a year.”
“Really?” I would have guessed that he’d been here at least a handful of years. I got the impression that he wasn’t a native to the town, but he seemed more accumulated than his one year being here would have suggested. “I figured you’d been here a couple years.”
He shook his head in dismissal of my assumption. “I came to town and immediately started looking for work. I’d long heard rumors that Phoebe was a safe haven for stellymn, ausserknoch, and tythwig, because of the town’s pension for Halloween and all things that would have been shunned elsewhere.”
That made sense. I’d already heard as such about Phoebe being safe for the more abrasive looking Orbs, so of course word would travel for them as much as it would for the humans looking to experience a place that embraced horror and things adjacent to it.
“Where are you from originally?”
“Everywhere and nowhere.” A sourness framed his face, and it seemed that he held a lot of pain related to the past. But he kept it under wraps to answer the question.
“I never knew my parents and I was told they both died shortly after I was born. And being an only child, I didn’t have any other family.
I had a community of tythwig that taught me all about our ways and customs. I believe it was somewhere in Ohio, but I left the first chance I got, trying to find where I belonged. ”
So he’d roamed away from home, just like Myers and I had done with our road trip around the country. I could totally relate. When I didn’t speak, he went on.
“I traveled from forest to forest, seeing which Triad I didn’t mind dealing with until I heard about Phoebe and it’s refugee status for obvious Orbs, so I made my way down here. The Triad here aren’t too bad to deal with, so I decided to stay.”
“When you say you traveled from forest to forest,” The inquiry was sizzling my tongue, so intrigued by the lore I was learning about Arze and tythwig in general.
“Does that mean that tythwig typically just live in the forest? Do they just shift to look like trees when they’re ready for bed or something? ”
“Pretty much.” Arze chortled. “Most tythwig will either become part of the forest, per Triad guidelines, of course, or some will build a community within the forest and not care if hikers or other humans stumble upon them. I, however, prefer to live truly amongst the humans. I have my own apartment across town.”
“If you have your own apartment, then why the hell are we hooking up in this cramped ass RV?” I laughed, only half serious.
He matched my laughter, shaking his head at me. “I’m not opposed to you coming over.” Arze’s lips pressed into my shoulder as he leaned toward me. “What about you? What brought you to Phoebe?”
“When my sister graduated from school, I was at my limit at my insurance job. I’ve always dreamed of being an author, however that looked like, whether it was going the traditional or independent route.
So when she brought up traveling across the country in an RV for a year before buckling down at opening the mortuary she’s always dreamed of having, I decided it was the perfect time to join her and try and give myself the freedom to finally write. ”
“That’s amazing,” Arze nodded, his orange eyes full of sentiment. “What was stopping you from writing while you were at your insurance job?”
I sighed, heavy and needing to be rid of it. “Honestly, I was too stunted by how much I hated my job. I think I was more than a little depressed and never realized how much until I left that place and started traveling with my sister.”
“Well, then I’m glad you got out of it and were able to try your hand at what you really want to do with your life.” He grabbed one of my hands and squeezed it affectionately. “Have you written much?”
“Actually, quite a lot.” I beamed with pride, slightly sticking my chest out absentmindedly. “At least ever since we’ve been here in Phoebe.”
“Wonderful.” Arze smiled again, lifting our intertwined hands and placing a chaste kiss on the back of mine. “You should be very proud.”
“I am,” I nodded, feeling my cheeks blush from the duality of being praised by him and his affection decorating my hands. Arze had a way of keeping me flustered that I didn’t mind at all.
“Good. Was your family okay with you leaving to travel?”
“Oh, definitely. My mom and dad were totally supportive.”
His face turned into a somber caricature of its former glory. “You are very fortunate to have understanding parents.”
“I know.” I agreed. “Myers and I are biological siblings, but we were both adopted. Our birth parents couldn’t take care of us, from what I’ve heard, and when we got adopted, we were so young, so I don’t remember much.”
Truly, I didn’t remember ever not being a Lin.
I was just always Krueger Lin and anything else related to my birth parents had been erased when they’d decided to give us up.
I’m sure they had their reasons, but I had no desire to look for them.
Our parents were incredible and I felt fulfilled in that way that kept me from needing or wanting to look for it elsewhere or to complete my identity.
I knew who I was, and this trip had just revealed more of the me I’d always wanted access to.
“But we got lucky,” I added. “Our parents are the best, and I’m looking forward to seeing them again.”
Great, now I’d brought up the fact that I was ultimately leaving him while we were still naked and in bed together. Guilt and sorrow filled a pit in my stomach, but I refused to focus on it. I wiped the emotions from my face and gave him a smile.
“One last question about you and then I need coffee.”
Arze mirrored my forced happiness. I wondered if he was sad about me leaving as much as I was. “Alright.”
“The Triad,” I was curious about them, since there was nothing that I could think of in the human world that had something similar, other than what I’d seen on TV or read in books. “They make decisions? What’s their purpose and how are they chosen?”
“Ahh, valid. They only make decisions according to the decrees laid out in tythwig culture, which aren’t very many.
They’re more of a guidance system than anything, but they can exile those who break the decrees, and spread the word to other Triads if it’s serious enough.
As far as how a member of the Triad is chosen, I’m not too sure.
From what I understand, members of the Triad have held the positions for centuries, so there’s been no reason to replace them. ”