Chapter 22
Chiron
She breathes so softly, her chest rising and falling almost imperceptibly. When she’s asleep, she isn’t worrying.
It’s nearly dawn, but it is still dark. The coals are all but ashes, and the room is chilled.
The bed is chilled. I look over to the right of the room, where Wren has his back turned to us, facing into the settee.
He has a small fur draped over his legs.
I guess Vonetta did that. I close my eyes and pinch the bridge of my nose.
Her warmth curls into my side, and I squeeze her softly to it.
We could all be sleeping in sanctuary right now if not for whatever is keeping him over there.
How did this all become so tenuous? Likely me. My confession. It broke open all of the things we were holding on to. Maybe the Trinity is tenuous by nature.
That night…was transcendent. We all knew it.
Wren is scared. Scared of the vow, scared of our joining, maybe.
He will settle down. Right now, he’s back to what he knows.
The books, his late-night scribbling in his journal…
the solitude. But it won’t last forever.
Probably. Not if I can help it. Talking to him the other day didn’t go as planned.
I became protective of Netta. Something I didn’t know was inside of me.
Certainly, I didn’t ever expect it to come out against Wren in such a visceral way. Damn. I need to fix this.
I shift on the bed, facing toward Netta. Her skin is creamy and soft. There is a subtle glow where the dim light catches. I close my eyes again and let my mind follow its course.
I think about my confession about my parents and the lost Queen, Adira.
I still don’t understand how they let her go.
Wren, Vonetta, and me? We’ve been together on this path for such a short time.
But already, I care deeply for them. I don’t know if care is the right word, even.
It’s bigger than that. From the moment I saw her kneeling in front of me, fire dancing behind her jet waves of hair?
I was steady. She was the most beautiful stranger I’ve ever encountered.
Wren reminds me of the busy scholars in the city; his adventures happened in his mind long before they pulled him into my world, a mystery.
He’s a different kind of beautiful. A subtly chiseled nose, serious watchful eyes, and thin lips that beg to be touched.
The sensation in my chest is expansive with pride in these two friends and lovers.
My lovers.
I need to fix this. Because there’s no possible outcome of this that ends the way my parents’ Trinity did.
Not if I have anything to say about it.
…