79. Chapter Seventy-Nine
Chapter Seventy-Nine
Elowen Briar
Four Bags Down. Maybe It’s Time for Some Water.
The puzzle pieces refuse to cooperate. I stare down at the half-finished image spread across the coffee table, my fingers hovering uselessly above the cardboard.
Too many shades of blue that all look the same now.
I know the picture is supposed to become something comforting, but my hands won’t cease their shaking
“Do you want…another bag?” Kai asks for the fourth time in ten minutes.
“No,” I say too quickly.
“She’s fine,” Imani snaps, already sitting closer to me than before. “Stop asking. You’re making it worse.”
“I’m just asking,” Kai mutters. “I’m trying to be helpful.
” I swallow hard and focus on staying calm.
It’s been over twenty-four hours since Beau up and vanished without a trace.
Every sound scrapes against my nerves. The heightened hearing makes everything worse.
I can hear the ticking clock, the hum of the fridge from the kitchen, and both Kai and Imani’s pulses roaring in my ears.
Beau should be here. I wish he’d find his way back.
If Kalevala did take him, how long do I have to wait before they will allow me to go after him?
The thought loops endlessly, tightening in my chest with every pass. Kai said he would come back. Except now I don’t know if I can trust that. Imani slides a piece toward me and gently guides my wrist. “Corner,” she says softly. “You’re looking for corners.”
“I know,” I whisper, though I’m not sure I do.
I can’t focus on this stupid fucking puzzle they have me doing.
They’re trying to distract me like a child.
Kai sits on the floor across from us, legs crossed, watching me like he’s afraid I might bolt.
And I might. He keeps opening his mouth, then closing it again, clearly sitting on a hundred questions he doesn’t want answered or maybe to ask if I want blood for the hundredth fucking time.
“I hate waiting,” I say suddenly. The words slip out sharp and raw. “Just let me go look for him, please.”
Imani nods. “I know, but we have to keep waiting. It’s been one day.
We are all worried just as much as you are, El.
You have to stay here. If he’s not back by tomorrow, we will all go looking for him.
Beau is strong. He’s smart. He’s survived a long enough time to know how to escape from wherever he is.
” I try to fit one piece into another. It doesn’t work so I try again.
Still wrong. Frustration spikes fast and hot, my vision blurring.
I smack my hands down on the table in front of me.
“I can’t sit here and let it eat me from the inside out. Beau is gone.” I shout, swallowing after I finish. I guess my rage is heightened too.
“He’s not gone,” Kai says, attempting reassurance.
“If Beau Drewitt vanished forever, I’d be very surprised.
That guy is a powerhouse. I know you’ve not got to see him in action yet, but I saw him after his run-in with Kalevala.
Seeing how wrecked the loft was, how tired his eyes were after their fight, even I thought he was dangerous.
Yet, he stood there totally unphased. The only thing wearing on him was where you were.
” That almost makes me laugh. Almost. Then it happens.
A rush of a presence so familiar enters my house.
So much so that my body recognizes it before my mind.
The door swings wide, and Beau is suddenly there, standing in the doorframe.
His clothes are tattered and torn. His face is smeared with soot.
I can smell sulphur all over him, even from a distance.
He crosses the room in a blur, faster than thought, and the air seems to bend around him.
Kai jumps up from the floor, startled. “Psycho! Where the hell have you been?” Beau ignores him. His eyes find me at once, dark and unyielding. His shoulders ease when they land on me, like he has been running for lifetimes to get back here.
Kai’s voice rises again. “Where the fuck were you, Beau?”
Beau’s gaze slides toward him briefly, then back to me. “How are you standing to be around them, mi tesoro? Are you okay?”
“Hellooo. Earth to Beau. I am right here. The neighbors are probably freaked that a coal miner from the eighties just zipped in front of their house. Talk. Now.” Why is he ignoring Kai? He’s looking into my eyes like I’m the only person in the room with him.
“Where have you been? Are you okay?” I ask, reintegrating Kai’s question into the conversation.
“I’m fine, mi tesoro.” He glances down. I pull him into a tight embrace, the smell of something dead on his clothes like he’s been dragged through a sewer. Imani gestures to Kai and pulls him back from the room. She mouths to him, let’s go.
“What does that mean? Tell me.” I ask softly, my voice scratchy from the blood still drying on my lips.
He crouches down to sit on the couch. His sitting height has his head level with mine.
His hand lifts to cradle my face, not caring about the smears of red staining my mouth and chin or the soot covering his body.
“My treasure,” he whispers. “It’s one of the sayings I picked up right before I transitioned. The only man I ever looked up to called his wife that. She died from a virus that spread through their village. I’ll never forget them.” The room stills.
Kai groans from the kitchen behind him. “Can you two please get a room? Whatever this is, it’s contagious.” He tosses his arm over Imani.
I can feel Imani roll her eyes and hear her punch him in the arm. “Shut up, Kai.” Beau’s forehead nearly touches mine. His eyes burn into me as though I’m the only thing left in the world.
“I love you just like my god-parents loved each other. Even more,” he says.
His voice trembles but doesn’t break. “Matteo called Itanya mi tesoro and their love is the only reason I know how deeply I’m in love with you.
Almost losing you brought it into perspective.
I would have betrayed your trust to keep you alive if I had to.
I won’t pretend otherwise. The love I feel for you is everything I’ve ever needed.
” He leans closer, planting a kiss on my lips.
When he pulls back, his eyes never leave mine, full of longing and sorrow wound tightly together.
The words still hang between us, sharp and raw.
“I love you too, Beau Drewitt.” It’s the only thing I can muster with him in front of me again.
Beau brushes back the hair from my face.
“You are my forever. You deserve to be punished for ripping my chest open and stealing my heart so easily,” he says simply.
I close my eyes against the sting of tears that threaten to come.
My hands lift weakly, clutching at his wrists, smearing the dirt against his skin.
The silence in the room is thick, but not empty.
For the first time since the change, I don’t feel alone.
Beau remains sitting there, unbothered by the mess, and pulls me back to hold me as though nothing else matters.
The world outside the walls might still be hunting us.
The hunger inside me might never let me rest. But in this moment, with his arms framing me, and his words still hanging in the air, it feels like we can survive anything together.
Imani and Kai come back into the room, Kai shouts. “I don’t know if you remember me, but my name is Kai and we’ve been best friends for a hot minute! Now, tell me where you’ve been. Oh, I don’t know. It’s not like you got up and disappeared for over a day.”
Beau still sits on the couch so I find a place next to him. “Remember Kalevala?” He looks at Kai.