Chapter 8
A stone bridge connected both shores at the opposite end of the park, although the greenery with the hidden lanterns continued across the river. By the time we reached the other side, any traces of my magical awareness had left me, but I realized that Inkiri was right; magic made me giddy.
“Does it?” Inkiri said when I told him. “I was joking. I never heard of magic working like that for a mage. We’ll need to talk to Vergis about it.”
“He wants to drag me to the Raikenga library to see if he can figure out what makes me magical. I’ve gone through life for nearly twenty-four years, and the most magical thing in my life is you, you know. I don’t think there’s anything better in some library.”
“Ah. You mean the Raiken library. Raikengana are the bagua of the Raiken, and a Raikenga is the singular form. I like Vergis’s idea. I think it’s good to research.”
The path we were on was a winding one, and it had brought us close to the river, so I stopped to look out over the water, where three moons rippled across its surface.
“Whoa.” I pointed at the reflections, then looked up to confirm. “There’s three moons!”
“We call them Uma, Tuma, and Ledis. They’re only this close to each other and share the night sky during the first harvest season of the year. After that, it’s only ever two of them.”
“That’s so cool.”
It hit me then, really sank in. Aer was not Earth.
It was a different world, and it could be my home, this place, with its new smells, friendly people, and triplet moons in the sky.
I could leave Earth’s lonely moon to watch over the tides and build something new here.
I’d always be that strange pink guy who had no horns, but I could be happy here.
No one was asking or demanding of me that I leave Earth behind to make it so, but in a way, Earth had abandoned itself, those two years ago at the Stone, when so much of what made us human had just vanished. It was no longer the home I knew.
Cat and Jacob had turned to ash in front of my eyes, all their possible futures obliterated.
In epic stories, their deaths would make me a hero out for vengeance, but this wasn’t that.
It was just my story. I wasn’t a hero. Maybe Vergis would want to be the hero and avenge all of humanity instead.
I could see him doing that, or maybe becoming the antihero who avenged humanity by accident. I wasn’t made for stuff like that.
The only good thing that had ever happened at the magical Stone of Destiny was that it had saved my guys. I was grateful for that, but beyond them being okay, I wanted nothing to do with magic.
I leaned against Inkiri, wanting to be close to him.
“Maybe Vergis can figure out how to make me not magic. Or how to suck the magic back out of me with his knife.” I stared at the river.
The surface rippled, and something surfaced in the dark water, maybe a fish who thought the moon was food.
“You know, maybe what really happened was that the Stone put magic into me. I just want it gone. I don’t need it. ”
Inkiri was so quiet next to me that I might have thought he’d left if it weren’t for his body heat. He put his arm around me.
“Sadir, you don’t mean that. You didn’t just save Nokim that day. Fellisse says Lissir would have bled out, and I was shot. There were too many of them there, and we were unprepared. You saved us all, Rory. All of us are alive because of you. Because of your magic.”
I tore my gaze away from the twinkling river and looked up at Inkiri. “I never wanted magic. I just wanted cat socks. No bullets. No monsters. And before all of this started, I just wanted someone like you. Someone who loves me, because…because I’m me.” I looked away. “Not because of magic.”
“I do love you because you are yourself, Rory. These are not happy tears, are they?”
I shook my head and wiped my eyes, then let him wrap me in his arms.
A traitorous voice inside of me insisted that he was probably right, that whatever magic I’d been able to use had saved the day, but I didn’t want that to be true.
I wanted a stupid, silly, suburban life in which finding the cutest socks ever really was the most exciting thing that happened on any given day.
It wasn’t too much for an apocalyptic twink to ask, was it?
We returned to the hotel after a nice walk that helped me let go of a good chunk of my self-pity.
The entrance to the hotel was through a sliding door.
Beyond that, a desk sat on a raised platform, and two staff members sat on the floor behind it, writing in ledgers and sipping either tea or something stronger.
They stood to greet us, smiled a lot, and talked with Inkiri. I didn’t even feel left out, not with the way he kept holding on to my wrist and gesturing to me, making them smile and bow at me.
When his conversation with the staff seemed to have come to its end, Inkiri said, “Let’s soak first.”
That was mildly disappointing, but I couldn’t really argue with washing up before sex. That would’ve been rude.
I managed to tell the staff “lesh,” my new word.
Inkiri clicked and turned to me. “They’re not offended, but it’s better to say ‘al-lesh’ here. It’s more polite.”
“Oh. Al-lesh. Al-lesh.” I did my best to get the stress right.
The reception staff happily accepted that, and one of them walked us through the labyrinthine corridors of the hotel.
“Why do you need different words for ‘thanks’?” I asked as we followed.
We were in a long hallway, decorated with a painting of a landscape dominated by a river. It was really warm here, and pretty humid.
“Why do you need ‘thanks,’ ‘thank you,’ and ‘thank you so much’ in English, Sadir?”
“Okay, got it. The same, but different.”
The reception bagu stopped at what looked like a wall to me and gestured, then stepped away and made to walk back the way he’d come.
“Al-lesh,” I told him once more.
He beamed and clicked at me. The clicks were never the same, and by now, I was sure I’d be able to pick out Ink’s even in a din.
Inkiri opened the wall that was really a sliding door. “This is the bath.”
I had been unconscious when they’d first brought me here, but I remembered this room in the hazy way of dreams. In reality, it was a lot neater, warmer, and cozier. It gave off very expensive hotel vibes, but then, I had married a prince.
To the left were individual sinks with shower nozzles and buckets—a similar setup to how the guys had used the bathroom in the unfinished house back in Ireland.
Behind that, farther into the room and only faintly illuminated by a single lantern, there was a pool. It wasn’t big enough for swimming, not really, but several people of Inkiri’s size would easily fit in there comfortably.
Behind the pool, the wooden walls were painted in blues and greens with a lot of wave motifs, and higher on the walls were glass windows that would let in the sun. I could just about see one of the moons from where I stood.
Right now, the entire bath was empty. I glanced up at Inkiri.
He tilted his head. “I asked them to close it for the night before we left. I didn’t want to be interrupted, and I wanted to make you feel comfortable.”
My grin broke out of me instantly. Not only was this a sweet thing to do, it also made me feel…so grown up. Like, I had a…a husband. Who’d booked a bath for me. A husband. I’d never even considered what that would be like, but the more I thought it, the more right it sounded.
“You did? Just for me?”
“Yes. You look very happy about that, Sadir.”
“I am. That’s super nice, Ink. Thank you. How does this soaking work?”
“I’ll show you.” He motioned for me to go ahead toward the sinks, then slid the door closed after us.
“This is all communal normally?”
He hummed. “Yes. That’s normal, at least for soaking. Everyone can still wash in their rooms.”
“And…” I looked around the room. “No bathing suits?”
He chuckled. “No, Sadir. We don’t need those. We’re not afraid of being naked in front of others here.”
Inkiri’s arms encircled me, and before I knew it, he was wrapped around me, his horns close to my face, his breath tickling my cheek.
“I’m not afraid of being naked in front of you,” I told him.
“That’s good. And are you afraid of seeing me naked?”
I turned as red as a millet bean for no good reason.
“I’m not afraid of you, naked or otherwise.
I mean, I was a little bit afraid of you when we first met, but you can’t possibly blame me for that, not when you came in with your big sword out, handling it like a total sword pro.
” Was there a pun in there? Probably not.
I’d had a little bit to drink and was probably imagining things.
“You know I like your sword, obviously. You’re good with it. And I like seeing you naked. You’re good naked. I’m just not used to you—or me—getting naked in the bath with other people without bathing suits being involved, but that has nothing to do with me being afraid of anything.”
He chuckled. “If you say so, Sadir.” He pulled my pretty new scarf aside and kissed my cheek, his expression turning serious.
“Before just now, you’ve never said you like me naked.
And I appreciate you saying that. But, Sadir, I know I look different, and you don’t have to pretend, especially not if the barb is too painful after all.
” He hugged me. “At the Hill of Tara, I realized how fragile you are. Of course, I knew before, when I saw you huddled there in the women’s changing room and so scared of that beast. But when I carried you in my arms and you didn’t move, I…
You didn’t speak, and it didn’t seem as if you could hear.
You have no idea at all how scared I was for you.
All the things I would have bargained away if I could only hear you say my name again. ”
My throat went tight. “Inkiri.”
He trembled. So did I. “Tell me what you want of me, Rory. I will give you whatever it is.”