Chapter 12
CHAPTER TWELVE
“ W hen did you have this dream?”
He leans against the wall next to the fire and crosses his arms over his chest. “That one was maybe a month ago. Why’s that?”
Although it feels strange opening up so much to someone I don’t know well, deep inside, it feels like I know him. And if me telling him of my experience can help him, then I need to do it.
“I had a similar experience,” I say, studying his face carefully for his reaction.
He drops his arms to his sides, and walks back to sit on the couch next to me.
“I don’t know for certain, but I think she was a goddess.”
He rubs his hands over his eyes and then looks at me. “That sounds so?—”
“Insane?” I interrupt.
He laughs. “Well, yeah. But I guess nothing is all that insane now, is it?”
I place my hand on his knee. “It’ll get easier. But it’s a lot to take in.”
His gaze falls to my hand, and I quickly remove it.
“Sorry.”
“Don’t be. I don’t mind.”
Gods above, there is something so familiar about him. I don’t understand the feeling, but it’s been there since I first laid eyes on him. This sense that I somehow know him. But it’s impossible.
“So we’re supposed to be enemies?” he finally asks, breaking the silence.
I bite the inside of my cheek and fiddle with a lock of my hair. “Ah, yes.”
His expression softens. “You said something earlier about an angel from my Kingdom killing your mother. Is that true?”
I swallow the lump in my throat. I’m well and truly used to thinking about my mother’s murder, but I haven’t really spoken to anyone about it. It still causes an ache in my heart that I don’t know will ever heal.
“That’s what my father told me. But…” My voice trails off as I think about whether to go into detail with Kyle. Should I tell him about the notes I’ve been receiving?
Kyle places his hand on mine, and I immediately relax.
“You can tell me,” he says, “if you want to, that is.”
I let go of my hair and focus on him. “Someone’s been leaving me clues about her. They said her murder was a lie.”
He raises his brows. “Wow. Do you know who it is?”
“No. I’ve had two notes left in my quarters now. But I found this secret hidden room, off my mother’s quarters. There was this chest in there filled with her journals, and I read through some of them. She was afraid. Like, really afraid. She thought her life was in danger.”
Kyle gives my hand a reassuring squeeze. “And she didn’t mention who she was afraid of?”
I shake my head. Saying out loud that it seems she was afraid of my father and Hethenos sounds crazy. I could be way off the mark there, anyway. “There’s one more journal that I haven’t read through. It’s hidden in my quarters back in Silanthia.”
He releases my hand, and I immediately miss his touch. He puts another log on the fire, and as my gaze follows his movements, I can’t help but feel as if there is more to this guardian bond. It’s as if it’s etched into my soul that the two of us need one another. As if it’s fate.
Something occurs to me then. Although I feel as if I comforted Kyle through his loss, it was when my veil was up, so he wasn’t aware of my presence. “I’m sorry about your loss too, Kyle.”
His body tenses at my words, and he stops prodding the logs in the fire.
Shoot, perhaps I shouldn’t have mentioned it.
“You were there, weren’t you? At the hospital?” He turns to me, and his eyes catch the light, his unshed tears glistening.
I nod. “How did you know?”
He lets out a long breath and sits down on the couch, rubbing his fingers over his eyes. “I could sense it. It was like a shift in the air, and a sense of calm came over me. I feel it whenever you’re around. That’s how I know when you’re not. It’s almost as if the air gets cooler or something, like your presence warms it up somehow.”
I smile at his words. “She was important to you.”
He picks at a loose stitch on the back of the couch. “Yeah, she was. She saved my life.”
I draw my brows together at his words.
“She was the one who found me in the field. She brought me to the hospital, and she stayed with me. When they told her they couldn’t find my parents and that I was going to be put into a foster home, she adopted me. She took me into her home and raised me as her own son.”
I reach out and give his hand a squeeze, and he laces his fingers through mine. A sense of calm washes over me at his touch, and I imagine it’s a similar sensation for him.
“Do you know if it exists? Heaven, I mean?” His eyes lock with mine, and I can feel his desperation to know.
“From what I know, when humans pass, their souls shift into another dimension of sorts,” I explain. “We’re not exactly sure where it is, but we know they’re given a choice to return to Earth and live a new life. Those who do not wish to do so remain in the new dimension.”
A tear slides down his cheek, and he quickly wipes it away with the back of his hand. “That sounds like heaven to me.”
“She’ll be okay wherever she is. She’ll be happy,” I assure him. I may not know much about this dimension, but that much I’m sure.
I lean forward and catch the next tear that rolls down his cheek as his blue eyes stare into mine. My breath catches at the desire building inside me.
“You can feel that, can’t you?”
I nod.
“We hardly know each other,” he says with confusion.
It’s hard to put into words something that I barely understand myself. How did I have such intense feelings for Kyle already? He’s right—we hardly know one another.
“I think it’s the guardian bond,” I tell him, unsure if he believes it.
He shuffles closer. “But that’s between a guardian and a human, right? I’m not human.”
I furrow my brows, trying to make sense of the situation. He’s right. How can it be the same as a guardian bond?
“I don’t know. I’ve never heard of anything like this happening before.” But then it hits me. I have heard of this before, when an angel finds their mate. The bond between mates is the strongest bond of all. But that can’t be what this is, can it?
“There’s got to be a reason the gods chose me. They bonded us together. They must have known who I was.”
His words pass through my mind as I try to think of an explanation, anything other than what he’s implying, but I can’t. It’s the only thing that makes sense, but why would they bond an angel from Silanthia with one from Zarquon? And then it occurs to me that the gods know everything, and maybe it’s connected to why he ended up on Earth.
“There’s a lot that doesn’t make sense right now. It must be confusing for you, but we’ll figure it out, I promise.”
He sits back against the couch and rubs his face before getting to his feet. “Are you hungry?”
As soon as the words leave his lips, my stomach rumbles, and I try to remember when I last ate.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” he says with a laugh and holds his hand out to me.
He pulls me up off the couch, and I follow him into the kitchen where he pulls out a seat for me at the breakfast bar.
“Something you may not yet know about me is that I’m a chef, which means I know how to cook food. Really well.”
For the next couple of hours, I observe as Kyle skilfully maneuverers his way around the kitchen, dicing and slicing up foods, some of which I have never seen before, and prepares the most delicious meal. We chat and laugh as we get to know one another, and it feels like the most natural thing ever.
He tells me about his life here on Earth, how he works as the head chef at the top restaurant in the city, how his mother, Susan, raised him here in New Zealand on her farm, which is now his, and how he has a big sweet tooth. He whips us up the most magical dessert called a chocolate fondant, a small circular chocolate cake with a gooey chocolate centre.
It’s one of the most incredible things I have ever tasted.
He tells me about the time he got hit by a car while riding his bike to school, and his mum was sure he broke his arm, but he was fine. He healed himself, much like I saw him do with the cut on his arm after the watcher attack. Much like I can do.
I tell Kyle about my father being the King of Silanthia, about my awful stepmother and sister, about my father’s guards and how the twins, Rimel and Yimel, creep me out. I explain what a Zelon is, and how I rode one. And I tell him about my lonely upbringing, missing my mother, but finding comfort in friendships with Lacinda and Demetros, and how Lissian, my mother’s best friend and my father’s first wife, has been like a mother to me.
I don’t miss how Kyle tenses at the mention of Demetros’s name, and I can’t help the smile on my face to see that he, too, gets jealous. After we wash the dishes, which is a new experience for me, we head outside to sit on the porch swing.
“Are you nervous about seeing your family?” I ask.
He hands me a blanket, and I spread it out over my legs, thankful for the warmth.
“Yeah,” he says as he sits down next to me. “I don’t know what to expect, and I don’t want to disappoint them.”
The sadness in his features is hard to miss. I can only imagine what’s been going through his mind after Em and Klara told him about his family in the Zarquon Kingdom.
“You don’t need to be worried about that,” I tell him. “They’ll love you for who you are.”
A cool breeze whips around us, and I shiver. Kyle immediately removes his jumper and holds it out to me as my eyes drop to his markings. There’s some kind of creature that snakes up his left arm mixed with beautifully detailed pictures intertwined together into a gorgeous piece of art, covering his entire arm and disappearing under the sleeve of his shirt. I can’t help but wonder how far up they go.
“Zarla?” he says, snapping me out of my daze.
Heat rises in my cheeks as I shake myself. “I’m okay. You keep it,” I say, but he insists. I slip the jumper over my head and breathe in his sweet scent of cologne and cinnamon. “Thank you.”
His lips curl up at the side as desire fills his eyes, and he slips his arm around the back of the swing behind me. “It suits you.”
We stare at one another for a moment before he breaks the silence. “Those are beautiful,” he says, touching the markings on my fingers. “I saw them earlier. They go up your arms, right?”
I roll the sleeves of the jumper up and hold my arms out for him to see. “All guardians get markings at the guardian ceremony. They are unique to us.”
He traces the vines with his fingers, making my skin tingle at his touch. “Do you have any other markings?”
I roll the sleeves back down with a shiver. “No, just these. Do you have any? Other than those, I mean.” I gesture to his arm.
He climbs off the swing and removes his shirt, and my lips part as I stare at him. His tanned skin is gorgeous, and my eyes trace the markings on his arm, which snake up his broad shoulders and across his toned chest. A huge dragon covers his chest, its wings spread out wide, and it’s magnificent. I realise it’s the dragon’s tail that curls around his arm, and I then spot the dark figure with dark wings standing next to the dragon. It reminds me of him.
I swallow hard.
“I have these,” he says, showing me his markings on his arm and across his chest, before slipping his shirt back on. “Humans call them tattoos.”
“They’re amazing,” I say.
He then unbuckles his belt as I stare wide-eyed.
“Um, what are you doing?” I ask, my cheeks flushing.
He laughs and unbuttons his jeans, turning around. “You asked,” he says, pulling them down to reveal a little mark on the top of his ass. Holy toned ass… After I’m done gawking at him, I notice a little blue creature giving a thumbs-up.
I arch a brow at him. “What made you do that to yourself?”
He laughs, pulls his jeans up, and fastens his belt. “I lost a bet with a mate of mine. It’s a Smurf, a cartoon character that I hate.”
“What was the bet?” I question, and then I press my lips together to stifle a laugh.
He runs a hand through his hair, his expression hardening. “That I wouldn’t be able to sit through an entire Smurf movie,” he says, closing his eyes. “I tried, I swear.”
I can’t help the fit of laughter that escapes my lips and shakes my entire body. He reaches down and tickles me until I’m begging for him to stop. But when he does, he doesn’t remove his hands from my waist as we stare at one another. I wonder if he’s going to kiss me, and I find myself wishing he would.
But then he pulls back.
“You can if you want to,” I quietly say. “Kiss me, that is.”
Before I know it, his lips are on mine, and I pull him closer. I curl my arms around his neck, sliding my hands into his hair as he deepens the kiss. His tongue moves with mine in a way that makes my head spin and my heart race. No one has ever kissed me before, and wow. Kyle knows how it’s done.
His hand moves to the back of my neck, and he tugs me against him.
Too soon, he pulls back, leaving us both breathing hard into the night air.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to?—”
“Don’t apologise,” I interrupt, panting, “I liked it. I’ve never tried that before, and I…”
Kyle’s brow creases. “You’ve never kissed anyone before?”
My damn cheeks flush again, and I nod. “There was one time, but it wasn’t by choice, so I don’t think it counts. Have you?” I ask, but I can tell he most likely has.
His expression hardens and he balls his fists. “Someone kissed you against your will?”
Oh no. I shouldn’t have said anything. “It’s nothing.”
He gets to his feet and punches his fist into the side of the house, causing a dent, and I jump, startled by his sudden outburst. He turns to me, his features laced with anger. “No one has the right to touch you unless you want them to. You know that, right?”
I glance down at my fingers, fiddling with my nails. “Yes, I know. And he knows that now, too.”
“Who was it?” he demands.
I lean forward and drop my head into my hands. “You don’t need to know this. Can’t you just forget I said anything?” I ask as I peek at him through my fingers.
He runs a hand through his hair. “No, I can’t. Not until you tell me.”
Sighing, I lean back on the swing and pull the blanket back up. “His name’s Finlay.”
He nods, slipping his hands into his pockets. “Okay, I’ll remember that. Who is he to you?”
I swallow, picking at the edges of the blanket. “He’s my second.”
He steps toward me, his brows creased. “What does that mean?”
I take a lock of my hair and twist it in my fingers. “When I’m not available, he is here, watching over you.”
He closes his eyes for a moment as his features twist with rage. “I look forward to meeting him.”
That was a bad idea. I shouldn’t have said anything. Now when he meets Finlay, he’s probably going to hit him. To be fair, Finlay will deserve it. Sure, I already hit him myself, but he can probably do with another one.
“What’s going on in that pretty little head of yours?” he asks.
I can’t help but laugh. “I’m remembering the time I punched him in the face, actually.”
He raises his brows. “Wow, I’m impressed.”
I pat the seat next to me and hold the blanket up for him to sit, and then I cover us both once he does. “So, there’s no need to worry. I took care of it myself. We’re okay,” I explain. “Now, back to our conversation. You’ve kissed someone before?”
He scratches the back of his neck, and I can tell he was hoping to avoid this conversation.
“Well, yeah. Quite a few times.”
My heart sinks at the thought of him kissing other females. It never occurred to me he would have, but things are different down here on Earth. Although males in my Kingdom are known to kiss a lot of females, so it shouldn’t surprise me. I just hoped Kyle might be different.
He cups my cheek, gently caressing it with his thumb. “Hey, why do you look so upset?”
I shrug. “It’s nothing.”
He drops his hand. “It’s clearly something. Does that bother you?”
I bite my bottom lip, wishing I could just put my veil up and disappear.
“Zarla, I’ve only just met you. I’ve been here on Earth for half my life.”
Gods above, he must think I’m so stupid. This shouldn’t bother me. He isn’t mine , but the thought of him being mine passes through my mind, and I find it sits far too well. I want him to be mine.
But he’s not , I remind myself.
I move the blanket aside and stand. “It’s okay. It’s silly. You are free to do whatever you like. It’s none of my business.”
“Please don’t go,” he says, reaching out and taking my hand.
His thumb circles the skin on my wrist, and I enjoy the sensation. A lot. I can’t go anyway, can I? I mean, sure, I’m supposed to be his guardian and watch over him. But now that I know he’s an angel, do those rules still apply? Knowing he harnesses his own powers makes leaving a possibility.
So then what’s stopping me?
There’s a thud in the yard as Finlay appears. I dart my gaze between Kyle and him, but it’s too late.
Kyle’s gaze snaps toward me. “He’s here, isn’t he?”
“What the fuck, Zarla? You don’t have your veil up? And how does he know about me?”
I storm down the porch steps into the rain, which is pouring down hard, and I’m instantly soaked. “Are you serious? First you leave him alone again, and then you have the nerve to show up and question me?”
Kyle’s footsteps sound as he follows close behind me.
“Show yourself, asshole,” he demands.
Finlay smirks as he lowers the veil, clearly unconcerned at the potential consequences, and locks his gaze onto Kyle. “Now, now, that’s no way to greet your guardian.”
“ Backup guardian,” I correct him.
Before I can stop him, Kyle builds a ball of dark power between his hands, and launches it at Finlay. It crashes into his chest, sending him flying backwards. He fumbles around in the grass and gets to his feet, eyes wide as he brushes off the mud.
“What the fuck? How did he do that?” he demands.
Now I’m the one smirking. “Oh, yeah, he’s an angel.”
He charges back over to us and then stops far too close to Kyle, their chests almost touching. Rainwater drips down his face in rivulets as he glares at Kyle. “You do that ever again, and you’ll see just how powerful I am.”
Kyle laughs and shoves his chest. “Oh yeah? So powerful you’ve got to force yourself onto a woman?”
Finlay glances at me briefly, his expression shifting from aggression to embarrassment as his cheeks redden. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. What bullshit has she fed you?”
I roll my eyes. “No bullshit, just truth.”
Finlay advances on me, but Kyle steps between us.
“Just try it,” he warns.
Finlay grits his teeth. “Just wait until your father hears about this. Hell, wait until mine does. You’ll both be called before The Throne.”
Panic creeps into my chest. “Finlay, please.”
He stares at me through cold eyes. “Here I was, thinking we were past the bullshit. I thought things were good.”
I reach out to him, but Kyle holds his arm across my chest to stop me.
“They are,” I assure him, glaring at Kyle.
“You don’t owe him anything,” Kyle tells me.
Finlay backs up a bit, and I yank myself away from Kyle.
“Finlay, please,” I say. “There’s something going on with the watchers and with Kyle. We need to figure it out together.”
He laughs. “Oh, so you do need me?”
I bite my lip from saying what I really want to say.
Finlay, please. Don’t do this. We’re friends, I say through the mind link.
He laughs again, only this time it’s a sinister sound. “Didn’t hear that, did you, Kyle?” he taunts. “Zarla and I share a mind link. It’s a perk of our bond. We can have a private conversation up here,” he says, tapping his head.
I told you we could be something special, Zarla. It’s not too late. Leave with me. Leave him to fend for himself. He doesn’t need you.
Finlay, you know I can’t do that. We’re friends, that’s all.
He reaches out and strokes my cheek. “You know I want more.”
Before Kyle has a chance to reach him, he’s gone.