34. I’ll Listen to Every Secret #2
I shot up like a bullet and brushed my face clear with my sleeve. “Damnit, Ptolemy, you are so right! I’m so, SO sorry dude!”
“It’s ok. You forget about our meet ups a lot.”
I frowned at his lackluster tone and hard frown. “That’s not an excuse. I’ve just got so much God stuff going on that I can’t get my priorities straight. I’m seriously such a scatterbrain!”
“I’m not mad, but I am worried about you.” He sat down beside me and slid some copper hair behind his ear. “Is there anything I can do to help you out? You look super busy.”
“Am I ever. I hate translating Latin.”
He spun the journal I was working on over and pushed his glasses up his nose better. “I can do the translations if you want to try and put the pieces together. I’ve always been really good at Latin.”
I shook his arm wildly. “You would really do that for me?”
“I’d do anything for you, Xena,” he said bluntly.
I didn’t really know what he meant by saying that, but I took his offer, and for the next four hour, we combed through every journal on that table.
Each one proved to be useless knowledge, for us at least, as it only pertained to Death Elemental stuff.
It was all about how demons and Shadows, souls and Purgatory, and what the role of Death Elementals was in the world.
It would probably be great for Nick to read, but I was not Nick, nor did I ever want to have the kind of responsibility he had to deal with.
Finally, Ptolemy flipped the page on our thirty-eight journal and boredly read the text. “‘Caelum is a beautiful Realm that holds as many secrets as it does souls. I myself have used Caelum to harbor my own, to keep the world safe from impossible misfortunes…’”
“Whoa, wait! This might be something!”
He perked up when I said this and smacked himself to wake himself up more before peering more closely at the page.
“Realms and protected doors, yada, yada, oh, wait, here we go. ‘For example, a very ancient and special object dwells within the doors of Caelum. It is a bracelet that bestows the power of rebirth to whomever wears it. The owner will experience replenished powers and will be as they were when they were brought into this world. It is one of Endymion’s most prize possessions, and only the strongest of Death Elementals shall ever know where it exists.’ Is this what you were looking for, Xena? ”
“Yes, it is.” I spun the journal over and kept scanning but found that there was no further information about the door leading to this bracelet.
I let out a scream much too loud for a library and smacked my head against the table again.
“All of that just to learn about the same damn thing she told me today! What a waste of fucking time!”
“Do I even want to know what you’re talking about?” Ptolemy popped.
“Not unless you wanna switch places and be a Water God.”
“I’ll pass.”
“Then no, you don’t want to know.”
He tittered adorably before placing his chin on the table, so he was level with me. I knew he couldn’t see me through my hair fully, but he managed to find my eyes in the swarm. “I’m pretty tired, girlie. Can I crash at your place tonight?”
“Is Dez home?”
“She’s in my room with my roommate, hence why I want to crash with you.”
I yacked, which made us both laugh loudly. “Sure, of course you can. Let’s head back to the dorms before my head spins right off my body.”
Ptolemy followed me into my dorm and waited patiently for me to lock the door and flip on the television. I handed him a fresh blanket and pillow from Dez and I’s shared closet before flopping onto my bed and fishing for my phone. “Feel free to make yourself at home, since Dez did so in yours.”
“Man, she’s got a lot of pillows on this bed,” he commented as he tried to find actual bed underneath the swarm.
I patted my bed mindlessly as I scrolled through my messages. “You can sleep with me if you wanna. I got plenty of room.”
Ptolemy turned as red as the cherry earrings hanging on Dez’s nightstand but decided to take the bait. He plopped down beside me and curled up in a ball, hugging his knees to his chest as he stared at the television. He wasn’t really watching it, just staring aimlessly into it.
My yawn made him blink twice and look down to see what I was up to. I shoved my phone into my pocket before wrapping my arms around his leg and pulling it loose so I could snuggle into it. “You make a good pillow,” I sang tiredly.
He puffed a breathy laugh. “Thanks.”
“What did you want to talk to me about earlier, anyway?” I asked as I flipped through channels.
His blush returned, and he ducked his head away from me. “It’s… nothing important, really.”
“It was important enough for you to wanna talk to me, so spill the beans.”
He placed his chin on his knees and summoned his courage to speak. “Do you remember, on the cruise ship before Decimus died, when we shared that room together?”
“Yurp,” I popped.
He spoke slower now, lower. “Do you remember when we touched hands?”
The memory had been distant to me for some time but rushed back like a tidal wave when he said this. I felt a rush of adrenaline fill me as the memory did in fact return to me, and all the weird feelings attached to it came with it.
“I… yeah, I do,” I replied, not taking my eyes from the television. My breathing picked up with worry, but I tried to keep it steady enough for the conversation.
“Well, um… I haven’t really been able to shake that off, even though it happened so long ago. I replay it over and over in my head. That feeling… it wasn’t normal, right?”
I gnawed on the edge of my blanket as I thought of how to respond to him. Finally, I came up with, “No, it certainly wasn’t.”
He could sense I was uncomfortable and started to smooth my hair back. Each time his hand connected with my ear a sizzling, electrifying sensation scattered through my body, lighting my nerves up wildly. I wanted to flinch against it, but somehow, it was a homey feeling.
I sat up abruptly, which made him jump a little. “Your book… you think, we, um…?”
“I-I didn’t say all that!” He threw his hands up innocently. “I was just looking into the theory is all!”
I held my hands up to him, which made his shoulders sink. “Well, let’s try it, then.”
“Try?”
“You know, the thing. What does your book say to do?”
He tucked more hair behind his ear before clearing his throat loudly.
“It says that when you connect hands and focus your energy, if you are Particeps Potestatis, that you will feel a shock, like electricity. It will grow more intense as you explore this connection, and when you contract, it will subside with age of the partnership.”
“I see. Well!” I jerked my hands again. “Come put those puppies up here, sugar.”
He giggled at what I said before slowly raising his hands and placing them against mine.
We both closed our eyes, and the moment we did, our fingertips bubbled with electrifying energy.
It shot through my arm and up through my neck and face, flooding my entire body with a breathtaking, exhilarating feeling.
Ptolemy felt it, too, based on how he gasped when it entered his system.
When it was over, we opened our eyes and stared at one another blankly for a moment. He found his voice first, thankfully, as mine was nowhere to be found. “That was, um… wow.”
“Yeah, wow,” I echoed.
His lilac eyes burned with love and excitement. “Does that mean… I mean, I guess it does, huh?”
“Well, fuck!” I declared, which made him jolt with worry.
“What’s wrong?” he moped.
I threw my hands up and slapped them onto my lap. “Guess this means we gotta date now, too!”
“Wait, WHAT?” he roared.
I took his shoulders and shook him hard. “Ptolemy, almost all Particeps Potestatis end up together! That means we probably will, too!”
“Whoa, hold on a second here, we are moving way too fast!”
“Do you like me?” I blurted.
He stammered like a broken record before his lips finally settled. “I mean, yeah.”
“You think I’m hot?”
“Xena, really?”
“Answer me, damnit!”
“Yeah, I do,” he admitted finally.
I pinched his cheek to make him smile for me. “Well, I think the same about you and have for a long time. So, let’s do something about it and see where this crazy trip takes us.”
He flushed pink at my proposal. “You have so much going on with your God stuff… are you sure you can handle having an anxiety-ridden weirdo as a boyfriend, too?”
I took his chin between my fingertips and guided him forward.
When were inches apart, I tilted my head and let a slick smile cross my cheeks.
“I like my anxiety-ridden weirdo just the way he is. You sure you can handle being with a messy God-to-be who’s going to be battling massive monsters and bad guys for the rest of her life? ”
He mimicked my smile and inched even closer. “Sounds like an exciting life.”
“Then let’s start living it, together,” I breathed before closing the space between us.