Chapter 32 Kali
KALI
“So this is you.” The stocky man, who Conall had introduced as Clyde, opened the door to a red-brick house in Conall’s compound. “In my opinion, you got the best one.”
My jaw fell.
The vaulted ceiling rose two stories high, with exposed rafters running across it, resembling parapets I’d seen in books depicting castles erected hundreds of years ago.
Or perhaps thousands. Nobody knew anymore.
The tomes I’d bought on the black market had taught me that calendars had been changed after the cities had walled up, decades before I was born.
Although the house was tiny, as Zion had described it, but compared to Ilasall’s apartments, it was huge. Endless. Mind-scramblingly vast.
With a hand on my lower back, Gedeon gently pushed me to walk deeper into the dwelling. My boots squeaked on the gleaming white wood floors.
“They’re like nature’s hooks.” Zion spun around, his head tilted back as he salivated at the wooden beams above us. “You don’t even need to install anything to hang the chains.” He sniffled. “Can we move here?”
Ignoring his theatrics, I shuffled away from Gedeon. When you hadn’t fully made peace with the person who’d shattered your trust, their touch raised more questions than answers.
“Do we get separate bedrooms?” I asked Clyde, pushing the shiny key into the lock from the inside.
Gedeon stalked toward me, eating up the dozen feet between us in three strides. “You’re not sleeping somewhere else.” His forefinger curled under my chin to prevent me from looking away. “Not now, not ever.” His thumb pulled on my bottom lip. “Am I clear?”
My fists balled up at my sides, yet I batted my eyelashes at him. “My ears are already full of your orders. Can’t accept any new ones. No space left.”
Granted, he hadn’t forced himself on me, hadn’t requested anything at all, not the slightest hint about it. He’d merely declared we were sleeping in one bed since his return. And if I fled to rest in another room, he would carry me back to mine.
All the while, Zion would happily snore in the center of the mattress, spread out like a starfish on his stomach, seemingly oblivious to his surroundings. Key word being “seemingly.” The moment Gedeon would lay me down, Zion would roll on his side and suffocate me in his hold.
And the possessive ass Gedeon was, he would stretch out beside me, eliminating any and all exit options with his bulk. I couldn’t move a toe without alerting one of them.
But they would close me in a bubble of pure safety.
With them, I didn’t have to listen for any creaks of rotten floorboards, like when someone would approach my apartment in Ilasall.
With them, I could ignore the voices floating in through an open window, remain deaf to their intentions.
With them, I could peacefully drift off.
The realization they would protect me served as the sweetest lullaby.
“I can’t help but admire you.” Gedeon brushed my bottom lip to the corner and then back to the center. “You think you have a choice in this.”
He stepped into me, and I instinctively backed away, and away, and away, the faint curve of his mouth a judgment, a sentence, a ruling so cold it coiled in my stomach.
I fizzled with anticipation of whatever was about to transpire.
My thighs collided with the kitchen table, the wood catching part of my weight, and—
No.
Gedeon didn’t deserve this—the effect he had on me.
One deep inhale, and I steeled myself, locking my knees and squaring my shoulders. “It’s my life.”
“Not anymore.” Invading my personal space, he pinched my chin, the grip so brutal the spider web of nerves in the compressed tissue flamed up.
“I asked you once, Kali. To tell me that you were ours, your body, mind and everything else.” The gentle sweep of his lips across my forehead warred with the power rippling from his reminder.
“I will ensure you uphold the promise you gave us.”
“But you broke yours, so why can’t I revoke mine?
” I lifted my right arm, the statement clear despite the long sleeves concealing my tattoo.
“You gave me your trust and took mine in return. And then crushed it.” Gripping his wrist, I yanked his hand away.
“So if you think you can vanish without telling anyone, telling us, I can do the same.”
His eyebrows rose in an assessing manner.
It took the last dregs of my patience to stop myself from punching the smirk off his face. A count from one to ten kept my stomps steady as I stormed to the kitchen counter and leaned against the white surface.
Narrowing in on Clyde, I demanded, “How many rooms does this building have?”
“It’s all open plan. So…one, I guess.” The short man shrugged.
His tumble of graying locks shone in the late evening’s sunlight.
“All houses on this street are like this. There are bigger ones on the other side of the compound, but it’s a long ride from there to where the ceremony will take place.
And Conall prohibited any unnecessary travel as a protection measure against Coriattus attempting anything. ”
I threw my head back. I’d told Gedeon to go fuck himself, but it turned out, the universe had decided to do the same to me.
“Oh, before I go.” Clyde paused in the doorway. “You’re also not supposed to leave the house without one of our teams escorting you. They’ll come pick you up tomorrow morning for the meeting.”
Gedeon gave him a curt nod, and the man disappeared, the door shutting with a click of fate, like the slam of a city’s gates.
While Zion twisted the key back and forth to check if the lock was working, Gedeon plopped on the couch to unfasten his leather backpack—
And stilled.
Holding up a pale blue item of clothing, he glared at the shirt like it had personally insulted him. “What is this?”
“It’s a t-shirt. See? These are the armholes.” Zion tugged on the neckline. “And this is where your head goes.”
“I can recognize a t-shirt, Zion.” Discarding it aside, Gedeon yanked out a heap of fabrics more colorful than the navy upholstery he dropped them on. “Whose backpack is this?”
“Yours, silly. Everything is in your size.” Zion picked out a crimson t-shirt from the pile, and I fought an internal battle against cracking up.
Gedeon blinked, his response to a challenge so familiar I bit my fist, struggling not to make a sound.
“So you mean all I have is a selection of pink, yellow, orange, and bright green t-shirts, or some kind of purple monstrosity,” he sneered at the scattered clothing, took a deep breath, and then expelled the air in a whoosh.
“You will pay for this.” He ripped off the long-sleeved shirt he’d worn during our day-long drive and pulled on… the green option.
Seeing him in one of the Zion-approved outfits broke me. Clutching the kitchen table to keep myself upright, I doubled over as reality set in: the man who I hadn’t seen don any other item than black was wearing color.
Gedeon folded his arms, his biceps bulging as he expelled his irritation through physical means. “You knew.”
I glanced at Zion for help. “I—”
“You mean she knew what was on your mind while you were stripping naked? Then yes, it was me. It’s always me.
” Zion propped himself on the armrest of the couch, one leg bent, foot resting on an indigo cushion, and the other dangling off the edge.
After scrutinizing Gedeon for a minute, he declared, “I like it.”
Gedeon grimaced at the offending t-shirt clinging to his body. “You like it because it’s tight.”
“And it has three buttons at the top that we can rip off,” Zion pointed out. “You should wear this more often.”
“I will give you the punishment you are asking for, Zion,” Gedeon vowed, his tone one with ice, as biting as winter and as heavenly as the stars. “And trust me, you will beg me for it.”
The whole room tracked our trio as we strode toward the three empty seats at the head of the long oak table.
The sea of gazes washed over me like rain, bouncing off of Zion hooking his thumbs in the loops of his ripped-by-time jeans, and lingered on Gedeon. The set of his back, as straight as a rod, betrayed how the attention was bothering him.
The bastard deserved it.
Early morning sunlight swirled in the softly colored space, the walls painted in hues of coffee, the paintbrush strokes as messy as the damp strands tickling Gedeon’s ears.
My nails dug into the meat of my palms, but I barked at the need to run my fingers through his hair to shove it. The arrogant prick loved it when I scratched his scalp, and his pleasure currently held a spot at the bottom of the list of things I longed to do to him.
Gedeon pulled a chair out for me. “Sit.”
“When you ask so nicely.” I plopped down on the cream cushion. “How could I say no?” I sneered to somehow banish the boiling ire from the lie he’d fed me—his supposed death.
Standing at my back, he leaned down to my ear. “Keep it up, and I will put your mouth to better use. I believe I had offered to spread you out on a table on your first night at my compound, but I’m sure Conall would not mind me desecrating his furniture either.”
His hand snaked to rest low on my throat, his pinkie dipping under the high neckline of my knitted sweater.
“I’m a man of actions, Kali, and displays of pettiness are not something I will tolerate in front of our friends.
We are here to discuss the lives and deaths of our people.
” He squeezed, not so much to cut my oxygen off as to issue a warning.
“So do not give me the incentive to turn the offer into an order.”
My toes curled at his threat, and I cursed myself for the physical reaction. Though I’d learned to loathe authority at a young age, Gedeon’s didn’t evoke repulsion.