Chapter 30
“Are you sure?” Elm’s voice came through the earbud in Sky’s right ear. “Kind of feels like I’m being blown off. Who was that talking about our friendship earlier again?”
They’d made it back to Caelum a little over an hour ago, and Sky had waited for the right moment to slip away to make this call. He hadn’t gone far, knowing that his alpha wouldn’t allow it after what had just taken place in the woods.
Even though Sky was perfectly fine and Kian was the one currently being treated.
They were on the top level of his penthouse, Kian sitting at the end of their bed while a beta doctor who’d been introduced as Noon worked on stitching the wounds closed. A sheet had already been draped over the mattress upon their arrival, and now bloodied tissues and clothes littered the surface.
Not that Kian seemed to notice. He was too busy staring at Sky, so intensely, it was as if the guy didn’t have to blink.
Sky had moved off to the open hallway, the one with all the windows facing the city, and had taken to shielding his mouth as he spoke to Elm, just in case Kian was reading his lips or something.
They were definitely going to have to have a conversation about privacy eventually, but it admittedly wasn’t high on the list of priorities.
“Yeah,” Sky said to his best friend. “Sorry to disappoint you.”
“It’s all good. I’m getting studio space at yours, right?” Elm laughed. “It’s not like we’ll never see each other again. I was planning on partying all weekend anyway, to be honest. Um, hey, actually, now that I have you, I’ve been meaning to ask…”
“What?” The doctor was finishing up with Kian, saying something to the alpha. Sky didn’t have a lot of time left to chat.
“Pike mentioned the Eumia are planning on visiting the South-Lake bonfire for All Hallows’ Eve. Is…Is that still their plan?” Elm tentatively queried.
Pike had been sleeping on the couch in their apartment these past few days, just like he’d promised Kian. During that time, he’d interacted with Elm a bit, but…Had the two of them gotten along better than Sky had realized?
Sky frowned and glanced down at his device, needing to be positive this was really his friend. “That’s the tone you use when you’re asking me to set you up with someone…Fuck. You’ve got to be joking?”
“I didn’t even say anything, damn. Whatever. Have fun being knotted by your alpha—Ew, wait no. That alpha is my brother. I take it back. Go fu—”
“Thanks, bye.” Sky hung up, chuckling.
Until his gaze lifted back to the alpha still staring at him.
He cleared his throat and walked over to the bed.
“He’s all set,” Noon announced, bowing at Sky. “It’s got second-skin on it, so there’s no need to keep out of water. Though I don’t suggest anything…strenuous tonight. Perhaps by morning. You’ll have to gauge that for yourselves.”
Sky guaranteed he turned several shades of red in that instant. “Good Light.”
“He’s shy,” Kian explained for him, and then shooed the doctor away. “Get out.”
“You’re welcome,” Noon stated sarcastically, though it appeared to be good-natured. He didn’t stick around to continue their banter, taking his leave rather quickly now that his job was done.
“Noon is a year older than me and has been with the Eumia all his life. He’s also a beta, which means he can’t give you what you need, little omega,” Kian said, catching Sky’s gaze tracking the doctor for what he clearly deemed too long. “Who were you on the phone with?”
“Elm. How do you feel?” Sky inspected the bandages on his arm and thigh. They were clear, only noticeable when he really looked, the slight rise of material giving it away. Underneath, the holes had been stitched shut. “Did he give you anything for the pain?”
“The pain is bearable,” he replied. “I don’t need any drugs.”
“You were shot twice, Kian.”
“I am aware. I was there.”
He crossed his arms.
“What did you call Elm for?”
“How do you know he didn’t call me?”
“I was watching you,” Kian said. “I’m always watching you, Sky.”
“Creep.”
“Sky.”
Fine, it wasn’t like he’d been planning on keeping it a secret or anything. He dropped his arms and straightened to his full height. “I told Elm I’m moving out of the apartment early.”
Kian tensed. “Why?”
Okay, not the reaction he’d been expecting…
“We only have three days left anyway.” Sky kicked at the edge of the area rug sticking out from under the bed. “I’ll just hand my keys in to the university tomorrow after class.”
“And go?”
Sky frowned, not following. “What?”
“And go where? The studio?”
“Why would I—Oh.” Right. When they’d discussed this weeks ago, Sky had mentioned wanting some space and possibly staying at his studio at the end of the semester. “No, I’m not going there.”
Kian got to his feet, glowering. “I understand what happened tonight was scary, but that doesn’t mean—”
“Hold on,” Sky cut him off. “Why are you mad at me right now? Are you forgetting? If I hadn’t noticed Pike and gotten his signal to get out of the way, we might not have made it out of there without at least one more bullet wound. I don’t see any reason you should be upset.”
“After the corn maze, you closed off,” Kian said. “I don’t want you shutting me out, Sky. Before Rish interrupted, hadn’t you decided to stop running?”
“I’m not running.” Was that what this was about?
The events of the corn maze had been terrifying, but not for the reasons Kian seemed to believe.
“I was out of it that day because I’d slit a person’s throat, and I didn’t know I had that in me.
Now I do. It won’t happen again, alpha. Besides, you’re forgetting that you’re the one who left the planet shortly after and barely contacted me. ”
“Multi-slates work both ways, Sky.” He blew out a breath. “You stopped speaking to me as soon as we got home from the hospital. I thought space was what you required. Then you were tense when I showed up at your tournament. It wasn’t until I blew you that—”
“I make things out of clay,” Sky stopped him. “I’m not made out of it myself. I won’t break that easily.”
Some of the stiffness in his pose slipped away, but Kian didn’t appear to be entirely convinced yet. “I saw the look in your eyes after the first shot was fired. You were panicky.”
“Yeah, because you’d been shot, idiot.” Sky pinched the bridge of his nose. “Just, sit down, okay? Let’s talk through this.”
“I’m worried you’ll try to make a run for the stairs.”
“Even if I did, would I really make it to the front door before you caught up?” He gave him a droll stare.
Kian considered that and then shook his head. “No.”
“Exactly. Sit down. You’re making me nervous. You shouldn’t be standing on that injured leg.”
“It doesn’t hurt.”
“I don’t care.” That was a lie. Sky cared a lot, actually. “Sit.”
Kian hesitated and then did as he was told, though he perched on the edge of the bed, clearly ready to spring back up at a moment's notice.
Sky sighed. “Alpha. Calm down.”
“I can’t,” Kian admitted, seemingly just as surprised by that revelation as Sky was. “I feel strange.”
“Strange how?” He glanced at the tended injuries. “You just said it didn’t hurt.”
“Not there.” He pressed a palm against his chest. “Here. I think I’m…
anxious. I promised to keep you safe, and then I led you into the woods and straight into danger.
My lack of judgment put you at risk. You must doubt my ability to protect you.
You were already afraid of being involved with the mafia, and now—”
Sky stepped forward and bent down, placing a chaste kiss on Kian’s forehead, effectively shutting him up in the process. “The fear you saw in my eyes in the woods wasn’t for me. It was fear for you. I hated seeing you get shot. I don’t ever want to see you take a bullet for me again.”
“I can’t make that promise,” Kian interrupted. “This is Glyph and things are safer here. There aren’t any other families in the syndicate based on this planet. But that doesn’t mean we’ll always be safe all the time. The Eumia—”
“I didn’t ask you to make any promises,” Sky pointed out. “I’m merely telling you how I feel. Now, will you shut up and listen so I can get to the part about how I’ll be staying here from now on?”
Kian’s hands settled on Sky’s waist, almost as though he were afraid he was going to retreat and say it was a joke. “Here? As in, you’re willing to come home?”
“Why are you so surprised? You said you figured out already that I was ready to submit, remember?”
“Yes, before we were attacked. After—”
“After only solidified things for me,” Sky said.
Seeing the way Kian had tossed himself into harm's way, how he’d literally taken a bullet for him—two even…
It’d be impossible not to feel safe with devotion like that.
But that wasn’t all. Sky’s own reaction had been all the proof he’d needed to finally confess he’d never stood a chance.
Space?
When he’d asked for it before, it’d been because he wasn’t sure he could fall for this version of Kian. Reality ended up being so different from the version in his head, and Sky hadn’t been able to justify or come to terms with that.
But the Kian who’d been shot at in the forest?
That was his Kian.
The same one who’d chased off Sky’s bullies in middle school. The one who’d convinced the other kids to talk to Sky when he’d been a shy, quiet freshman.
Sky had never confronted Kian about it, but he’d known all along why the older kids had suddenly started paying attention to him. All it’d taken were some nice words and a few invites from the upperclassmen, and then the rest of the freshmen had considered Sky cool and worth getting to know.
He used to wonder why Kian had never approached him himself, thought it was because he was Elm’s older brother, and maybe he didn’t want to get too involved with Sky and was simply taking pity on him. Now he thought it was likely the alpha had kept his distance out of necessity, more than desire.