Chapter 67 June
JUNE
You saved my life.” The voice came from the night, warm and without danger. “Consider me utterly charmed.”
June froze in the garden. She’d just been throwing up into the shrubs and prayed no one had seen. It was her fault. She shouldn’t have gone back to the fight, witnessed Susenyos rip out Samson’s tongue.
June turned around slowly, wiping her mouth. Taj had placed his headband back on, tightening it. “I knew you were hiding secrets, but this is something else.”
Her limbs were trembling. “I have no secrets.”
Taj smiled, eyes shining. “Do you even know what you’ve done? For sixty years, we’d been unable to share what we know. You’ve freed us.”
Despite her body feeling wrung out, June gave him a small smile. It felt great to use her knowledge for good.
She became aware of how quiet the garden was, how alone they were, and the heat coming off Taj’s body even on this chilly evening. She brushed her skirt, searching for something to say.
Warde spoke into her mind. Tell him to go away.
June smiled, shaking her head.
The estate was surrounded by eight gardens, all of which June loved. Taj sat on the ivy-covered bench, and after a while, she sat too.
Even from here, June could hear faint grunts of pain piercing the night, making her wince. How could Kidan stand it all?
There was a darkness to her sister. Something June had tried very hard not to see.
“Kidan… She’s not coming out, is she?”
“For some people,” Taj said slowly, “they need the violence. After everything that’s been taken from them, it’s the only way to make themselves whole.”
June turned to him, taking in his frame, the smooth planes of his brown face. “You’re out here as well.”
“I have other intentions.” He flashed her a handsome smile and studied her from the corner of his eye. “Rasi wasn’t compelled.”
June fisted the folds of her lilac skirt.
Taj shook his long locs. “One of these days, June, you’ll tell me how the hell you know things you shouldn’t.”
“Maybe I’m just wise,” she said to the ground, voice muffled.
Taj laughed softly. “Maybe. Maybe we’re all fools to underestimate you.”
The side of her face tingled with his lingering gaze.
A dead leaf fell on her lap, and she studied the cracks on it.
“Can I tell you something?” she asked.
“Always.”
“I know what the Nefrasi went through under Lusidio’s command.
I know each of their names. I know why some can’t sleep, eat, or drink.
Why some want to kill or are sensitive to the sun or hunger.
I’ve tried to help them all with the medicines I mix.
Tried to make them forget the torture they went through, but you…
” she said, and he lifted his chin, making her suck in a breath. “I haven’t met a Nefrasi like you.”
He flashed her a smile. “Handsome?”
June’s face ignited, but her voice was weighted with something she couldn’t identify. “Someone who isn’t affected by all the suffering you went through. You don’t need me.”
You don’t need me to be good.
June immediately regretted her words, afraid she’d said too much.
Taj released a slow breath and looked away, which was odd because he never did that.
“Sometimes, I think there’s something seriously wrong with me.
” He spoke to the star-dusted sky, chin tilted up.
“I was there for all of it, the war, Lusidio’s torture, the death, and it was horrible.
” A shudder waved through him. “Most of the Nefrasi think I can’t take anything seriously.
Even in the Farah war, I’d go tent to tent in that awful mud that’d mat my hair together and try to make them laugh.
If even one person laughed that day, I’d feel this…
relief.” He touched his chest. “I need to hear laughter, June. So I guess I do need something from you after all.”
With each word, June’s smile had widened until she was almost grinning. Her chest squeezed again, different than before.
He is different.
June shook her curling braids and a mischievous glint sparked in her eye. “Sorry, that’s asking too much. I’m not a clown.”
Taj raised a brow and drew closer on the bench, making her go still. Their shoulders were touching now, and each stroke ignited a new sensation in her. Like bottled sparks. She wondered if he felt it too.
“You’re right,” he said.
She blinked rapidly. “I am?”
“Of course, I’ll have to earn your laughter.”
“Oh. Are you going to tell a joke?”
“No.”
Taj reached over and took her hands, letting his fingers linger on both her wrists. She stared at their joined hands. Could he feel her pulse racing against the pads of his fingers?
He kept her distracted with the touch, trapping her wrists with his one hand, while the other reached for her stomach, fingers drumming quickly along her ribs in merciless tickling.
June squeaked and tried to jerk back but he held firm. Uncontrollable giggles burst from her lips, her eyes wide.
Taj flashed her a grin. “That sound is delicious. I feel quite healed already.”
He used more pressure, dancing along her slender waist and pulling her closer until her folded knees were nearly on his lap.
June writhed, trying to get free from his unrelenting attack as wave after wave of laughter poured from her.
“Stop—Taj—I—can’t!” Tears bubbled in the corners of her eyes as she begged him between chuckles.
Gradually, he let her calm down. Removed his hands. She wrapped her arms around herself protectively and gave him a stern look. It would have worked better if she wasn’t still smiling.
“Never do that again,” she ordered.
“As you wish.”
He put his hands in his pockets as if to stop himself.
They remained there, letting the fading echoes of her laughter mute the distant sounds of torture on the estate.
June snuck a glance at his angular brown face, staring out into the ground, golden headband ruffling.
For a moment, she let herself wonder if Taj Zuri could really handle her truth.
What he would say if she told him that for the past two years her singular goal had been to make sure the Sage’s artifacts were never found. Never touched by Kidan and June.
Samson had the first artifact.
Adane House held the second artifact.
And June had known where the ring artifact was before she rode her first bike.
But June ignored all those things, shoved them deep down. In her skirt pocket, his expensive watch sat. She had broken it so the minute and hour hands no longer moved. For now, under this sky, she was just a girl sitting next to a boy. They’d stolen some time back together.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
He looked at her in surprise. “I haven’t done anything.”
“You made me laugh. I needed that too.”
Taj grinned, and her pulse gained speed. “Always.”