Chapter 13
We didn’t leave our room for the rest of that night.
More specifically, we didn’t leave the bed.
Inkiri might not have wanted a reward, but I reasoned with him that I deserved one for doing all my Lugarran writing, and he agreed with me when I laid it out for him that his barb would make the perfect reward.
Apart from that day, which left me exhausted as far as the pleasure play went, Inkiri and I settled into a comfortable routine.
He was extremely caring and just the kind of supportive spouse who deserved to be called my greatest cheerleader.
He always tried to get me to spend our evenings in bed together talking, which led to more sometimes, but other times, we just cuddled and fell asleep like that.
“Do you worship a pantheon?” he asked me one evening. We’d been talking for a good hour by then, and he held my wrist in one hand, running his fingers over the friendship bracelet around it absentmindedly while I enjoyed how nice it felt to have him to lean against.
“Huh? You mean, am I religious?”
I hadn’t even considered what religions there might be on Aer or which Inkiri was following, but then, either my mom or dad had said something about a mismatch in religious leanings leading to divorce more often than not.
Well, whichever of the two had said it would’ve had a statistic to back it up, but I hadn’t bothered to remember that.
Suddenly, that thought made me anxious. What if my perfect bagu had a church he went to?
What if it was important to him that I went too?
Then again, if they focused as much on performance art as churches did here, I’d be able to fake my way through it.
“Yes.” He tensed. “Back in Esaka, after the attack, when you were asleep like the Sleeping Beauty from your tales, I talked to you, and I held you. I thought that if you had a pantheon you hold dear, I would’ve tried to say prayers, but I didn’t even know. I know it’s an important thing on Earth.”
Yup, in terms of mates, I’d sure hit the jackpot.
“I don’t do religion. I mean, I like some of the holidays—Christmas is just so cozy, but it was stolen from the pagans first, and now capitalism has stolen it from religion.
I was actually hoping to go to an Equinox party when we went to Ireland, but… ”
He clicked and cuddled me closer. “I’m sorry, sweet thing. We’ll celebrate Christmas, but I warn you, Nokim has made a compelling argument that it should be Santasmas.”
I sniffled. “It’s fine. Santasmas, huh? I can get used to that. How about you? Do bagua have religion?”
“Hmm. I don’t know enough about human religions to compare well enough, but we have nothing like you, where there are so many romance stories written about gods and creatures from myth.”
“Ah. Well…w-we don’t just have, uh, fairy smut—my friend Cat used to call it that, okay?
Not me. I don’t judge anyone by what they read!
—but there’s also Paradise Lost. I mean, it’s basically fanfic, but I can’t let you think that all of humanity is just interested in the gods bumping nasties.
” Although, maybe we were. Zeus had never done anything but bump whatever he could get his hands on, and then there was Loki…
“I have heard about that, but I’ve never read it. Oh, Sadir, you said you’re an actor. We can ask if Kinnek has a copy of that story, and then you can read it to me and act it out.”
“I’m not actually that good.”
“I’ve never seen you act. I’d like to judge for myself.”
I wasn’t so much embarrassed as feeling stage fright. Not that I thought anything I did would make Inkiri tell me I’d better get used to being a server as a main job, but still. I wanted what I did to be something he could be proud of. That was an entirely new and unfamiliar feeling.
“We can at least ask.” There was no need to mention that the book was in the public domain, and that I could get it on my phone anytime. “So what about religions on Aer?”
“Yes. Well, we don’t believe in people that aren’t real and that talk into our heads.
Some of the Houses do worship their ancestors though.
I think very small and remote ones still have the children learn the line of ancestors before them.
It’s a custom that most think comes from when magic was still very normal, when many had it. ”
I leaned into the crook of his arm. “You all were magicians once?”
“I don’t know about all of us, but many more people than have the skill now. It was a long time ago.”
I nodded and let that sink in. “Magic always sounded wonderful, you know? Especially when Gran—my grandma—told me about brownies who clean your house so long as you leave a bowl of cream out for them.” I smiled.
“She also said you could find out your soulmate’s initial by peeling an apple without letting the skin break and then tossing it over your shoulder. ”
“I heard about brownies on the radio before, back on Aer. How would tossing apple peels let you know my initial?”
I chuckled and turned on my side so I could better look at him.
“Well, it would’ve landed in the shape of your initial, but I never did it.
” I bit my lip. “I tried. I was feeling so silly. I was fourteen, and it was the au pair’s day off, and we had those Granny Smith apples sitting on the counter—those green ones? ”
He frowned. “Apples from your granny?”
“No. They’re a type of apple. It’s just a funny name, I guess.”
He clicked. “Like how different tea blends all have names. What were you doing with the apples when you were fourteen, Sadir?”
“Well, I tried peeling them. Don’t be mad, but I was hoping I’d get one to make an M. For Mark. He was my crush in middle school.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Did it work? Did you get an M?”
“Nope. Never managed to get the peel to stay in one piece.” I wiggled my fingers.
“But I got a pretty deep cut in the process. The au pair almost screamed when she came home to the bloody towel in the kitchen.” She’d also found me on the floor, where I’d strategically retreated after bleeding a lot.
The problem had simply been that my parents, despite not cooking often, had still invested in really good, really sharp kitchen knives.
Inkiri clicked, took my hand in his, and pulled it close so he could examine it. “Where?”
“Thumb.”
He looked it over, turning it this way and that. “There’s a little mark left.” His gaze flicked from my thumbpad to my face. “It’s in the shape of an I.”
“Gran never said scars count. But maybe they do?”
He nodded, his massive horns catching the light from the lamp on the nightstand. “I think they should. That way, I can tell myself that this is a human custom, and it doesn’t hurt as much that I wasn’t there to take care of you when you injured yourself.”
“Ink.” I pulled the thumb he was still looking at free so I could cup his cheek. “I’d take care of you too.”
He gave me a very sober look. “I know how to handle knives as well as swords. I’d not have cut myself.” He smiled. “But I’d have sliced the apple for you so you could feed me the slices.”
He was being unfair, really. He could’ve stayed smug for long enough for me to at least pretend I found it annoying.
Then again, maybe he wasn’t smug at all and was just informing me that I—the human who’d never be able to handle one sword, let alone three—was utterly incompetent by bagu standards.
I didn’t even mind, not when he was there to protect me from my own incompetence.
“We can still do that. Not now, but Charles said he has apple trees, right?”
Inkiri nodded, awkward with his horns so close to the wall. “Yes. I think they have some stored as well. I’ll peel your initial off one tomorrow.”
I snorted. “It’s just a superstition.”
“I don’t know, sweet thing. Humans have myths about magic, but they thought it wasn’t real, not until you. Maybe your grandma knew and found a way to tell you.”
“Hah, if she’d known, she should’ve warned me about ever going to Ireland.” I shrugged. “Then again, she left Ireland, so maybe that should’ve told me something.”
Inkiri wrapped me in his arms. “If you hadn’t come to Ireland, I wouldn’t have felt the mate call, and if I hadn’t felt the mate call, then I wouldn’t have come to Earth to find you.
Sadir, I know you suffered, and what happened to the humans who were used for the magic is a terrible wrong, but holding you, knowing you are safe?
Those are good things that came despite it. ”
I nodded. I didn’t dare to say it out loud, but I felt at least a little bit like that. Sometimes. When he was holding me and helping me not think about everything that had changed because of me.
He cuddled me the rest of the night, and we talked more about brownies—the magical creatures and the food. With there not being any monsters here that I had to run away from, I found it easy to fall asleep, especially when I was in Inkiri’s arms.