Chapter 24
Twenty-Four
Aesira
The terrain evolved from sand, to red rock, to dense woods–something Aesira wasn’t accustomed to but she couldn’t complain about the shade the expansive trees offered. They were lovely and massive, with their thick trunks and spindly green leaves.
“Over here,” Bee called, pointing to a small thicket of trees. “This should give us some coverage for the night.” The four of them discarded their packs before Bee and Birdie set off to look for any food the new terrain might offer.
The air was damp, springing Aesira’s curls tighter than usual.
She struggled to pin them back and eventually gave up, letting the ringlets fall around her face in frizzy clusters.
Her muscles spasmed as she stretched her arms above her head.
Stone settled in across from her, pulling out his maps and a few journals from his pack.
“Anything useful in there?” She nodded to the journals. Kamari had only shown her a few pages, most of them full of nonsense, but she wondered how valuable they must be for Stone to continue to pack them around. The extra weight couldn’t be doing anything good for his back.
“I’m not sure.” Stone opened the map and laid it on the ground. “This, though”— he tapped the map’s center—“is proving extremely valuable. I still can’t believe we have a real map of Ravki.” His voice lit up.
Aesira’s eyes drifted from the map to Stone and she found herself studying him instead.
The curve of his mouth, the way he ran his finger softly against the worn parchment.
Then, as he traced a long line down the map’s center, she tore her eyes away.
The way the veins in his hands worked as he moved them and the softness in which he traced the paper made her cheeks flush.
“Why wouldn’t Desmond take it?” she asked, forcing herself to focus on anything but Stone.
“Take what?” Stone didn’t look up.
“The map.” She stood and peered over his shoulder, getting a closer look. “It’s authentic, right?” she asked.
Stone nodded, running a hand across his jaw.
“And it gives us a direct path to one of the most fabled cities in the world. If Ravki is where Desmond was headed, why wouldn’t he take the map with him?” Adrenaline and exhaustion warred with each other as more and more questions rose in her mind.
Stone frowned and tucked his pencil behind his ear. “Maybe he didn’t know it was authentic. Maybe he was just adding it to his collection.”
“Desmond went so far as to write about Ravki in not one, but several journals,” she said. “He drew pictures of Lunaris moths, of dragons. Things no one alive should have any reference to. It doesn’t make sense. If he thought that this map would lead him to Ravki, he wouldn’t have left it behind.”
Stone sat silent, his eyes still roaming the map, his brows pinched together. “I can’t believe I haven’t thought of that before.”
Pride surged through Aesira’s chest. That she had thought of something Stone hadn’t. “Well, maybe you’re not as smart as you think.”
He laughed. “Definitely not.” Their eyes met and warmth kissed Aesira’s cheeks. The last few rays of sunlight fought through the trees, just enough to highlight Stone’s eyes. The scar running down his cheek. The shape of his lips. “Birdie and Bee will be gone for a while,” he said.
“You don’t know that.”
“I’m willing to bet after last night, they’re more than ready for some time alone.” He shrugged. “You know, after nearly dying and all.”
Aesira didn’t want to think about that.
About the Dreamweavers and how close they came–how close Stone came–to not waking up. She wondered what he dreamt about. What kept him pulled under so long. If it was anything as terrifying as what they showed her.
“Are you hungry?” It seemed like a safe question, a way to steer the conversation away from her thoughts of Stone and his lips and his implications. Until those lips tilted up and his head cocked to the side.
“Starving, actually.”
Her stomach erupted, like a million Lunaris moths fluttering inside of her, trying to get out.
She didn’t know why she’d let him kiss her last night.
Didn’t know why she kissed him back. But as he scooted closer, as he attempted to tuck her untamable hair behind her ear, she found it more and more difficult to care.
Because it felt good to be looked at and it felt good to be wanted and the chances of them even making it back to Vargah seemed less and less likely so what did it matter?
“Commander–” Stone started but she didn’t let him finish, running her fingers through his hair and pulling him in until his mouth was close enough to hers that she could almost taste him.
“Yes?” Her lips brushed his with her question, brief enough to send a wave of anticipation through her.
“What happened to forgetting the night at the Phoenix?”
She pulled away enough to see his face. “Maybe something has changed.” She nipped at Stone’s bottom lip, coaxing a groan from him while his hands found their way to her waist. “Or maybe we have cheated death twice and I need a distraction.”
His lips brushed against her jaw. “I could do that,” he said against the soft skin of her neck. “If that’s what you wanted.” His hands ran up her spine, then back down again.
There was no future for Aesira Zeliath and Stone Odega and before, she was fine with that. But now, they were friends, weren’t they? She hadn’t considered what their friendship might look like if they took things further. Truthfully she hadn’t considered their friendship past this journey to Ravki.
Perhaps she should have thought about it before kissing him again, but she’d never had a partner who lasted more than a few lust-filled nights.
Never bothered to know someone on a level as deep as she now knew Stone.
Her thoughts must have played across her face because Stone bumped her arm with his shoulder.
“What did I say? Did I mess this up?”
Aesira stood and grabbed his arm, pulling him up. “No. I’m just not good at this even though I try to be.” She let out a nervous laugh in an attempt to cover up all the things she didn’t want to say outloud.
My job would never allow me to be with you, she wanted to say. My family would never allow it.
I would never allow it.
His blush deepened, bringing out all the hues of his eyes.
“What did I tell you about trying so hard?” His hands found her waist again, pulling her flush with his body.
“Out here, you’re not Commander Zeliath.
” His fingers twisted around a loose curl.
“I’m not an Odega.” His breath ghosted across her skin.
“We could be anyone.” His hand wrapped around her waist, pulling her flush to his chest.
The sun was mostly dappled out behind the trees, but her body felt like she was in the training pit. Hot and achy and needing a release. “What do you say?” He pressed a soft kiss to her jaw. “Should we pretend? Like we did at Vic’s?”
Yes, she wanted to say.
That’s exactly it. Pretend. Be someone else with me.
One hand snaked up the back of her neck, getting lost in her hair, while the other cupped her jaw so her mouth was angled perfectly to his. “Tell me what you want.”
Her throat was tight when she swallowed. All the places Stone and her body connected, a blaze of heat and want. “I want to pretend.”
A quick smile slashed across his mouth, then he kissed her.
It wasn’t gentle like last night, but firm.
Like it was the most sure thing he’d ever done.
Her hands grabbed at him, greedy for more and he kissed her deeper, his teeth grazing her bottom lip.
His mouth was hot against her neck, one hand still tangled in her hair and the other holding firm at her waist.
He whispered her name between kisses, alternating from sweet to demanding and she wanted to get lost in that feeling.
The feeling of being someone else, just for a little while.
Keep doing that, she almost said out loud.
Keep kissing me and touching me and making me forget who I am and what I’ve done.
His tongue slid up her throat making her moan until a twig broke under his foot and they both jumped.
Stone laughed first, then Aesira. “Sorry,” he said.
Aesira’s mind was still racing. Stuck on a loop of Stone’s hands and mouth and–
“We found water!” Bee’s voice doused the fire between her and Stone, chilling her down to her toes. It took a moment for her heart to slow and her lungs to even out but when they did, her eyes shot to Bee.
“Water?” She smoothed her shirt, pushing her curls from her face.
“Can you believe it? There’s a small spring just around the corner.” Bee was either oblivious to the state of them or she was decent enough to pretend she saw nothing.
Birdie on the other hand. “Looks like you two found something to kill the time.” A slick grin split across Birdie's sharp face. Her hand hung loosely at her sides, dripping wet.
“You really found water?” Aesira asked again, hope and something darker swirling in her gut. “Like a pool from the rain?”
Birdie shook her head. “This is more than collected rainfall. It’s a whole fucking spring.”
Aesira’s mind wavered between amazement and disbelief. If Piscis Spring wasn’t the only natural water source in the country…the war had been for nothing. The treaty had been for nothing. Celestria’s demands of sacrifice...
They would have to tell the kingdoms. Would have to find a way to transport the water back to Vargah. Her militant brain switched on, silencing the part of her that for only a moment could pretend she was something else, anyone else.
“A miracle isn’t it,” Bee said. “It’s small, but it’s clean.” Beads of water dripped down her dark brows, landing on her full lips.
“How is that possible?” Stone pushed his glasses up, the Ravki map already out and flattened against the ground. “There’s no mention of a spring.”