Chapter 25
Osid
The crimson haze was back, along with its bosom companion, pain. In the recesses of my mind, I felt that there was something urgent I was forgetting. But I was so tired.
“Osid!”
I groaned before prying unfocused eyes open. Even through pain and crimson haze, I knew it was my wicked creature. “Blair.”
Her eyes were panicked; she shook my horn and shouted something but sounded too far away.
Blinking, I took in our surroundings. We were suspended on the clock tower, hanging on by a thread.
It wouldn’t hold long, and a weak creature like her would die falling from this height.
If she planned on living, she’d need to shimmy her way back to the center of the clock and climb down.
Why hadn’t she?
“Thank fuck you’re awake! Grab on to the clock hand, I can’t hold you for much longer.”
Hold me?
Her legs trembled around my waist. She squeezed tighter, determination formed a crease in her brow. Her eyes were wild with fear and…something I didn’t recognize. “Please!” she urged.
She could die from a fall this high and is choosing to waste her strength holding on to me? Fascinating.
A laugh escaped me. “You’re saving me again.
What a tenacious thing. To think I ever had the gall to doubt you were mine.
” There was a fire in every Sankado. Be it in the mountains of the arctic or the jungles of Kilith, we were built to survive no matter what, yet suddenly I felt a chill for the first time in my life.
With her body so close to mine, her warmth flooded me, and I leached as much of it as I could because I knew for certain that I’d freeze if she ever let go. “I won’t make that mistake again.”
She gritted her teeth, still trying to support my weight and hang on to the saddle for dear life. “In case you haven’t fucking noticed, we aren’t safe yet. Don’t get ahead of yourself either; I’m not yours and I still hate you.”
Even in the face of death, she spit venom. But I knew her better now, and that quivering lip gave away the wicked thing’s secret.
“Is that right?” I asked, and the grin was impossible to stop.
“Yes! Now wipe that smirk off your mug and help me figure a way out of this. That rope isn’t gonna hold, and I sure as shit can’t hang on forever.”
“Let go,” I dared.
She blinked at me. “How hard did you hit your head?”
“What should it matter to you how hard? That rope can’t support both our weight, but it can hold you long enough for you to climb your way to safety. If you hate me, let go.”
“Wha— Do you want me to drop you?”
“I want to start over. No, that’s not right.
I don’t want to lose what I felt the first time I awoke and saw your face.
As much as it pains you to admit it, there’s something here between us, and it started long before the Biwban shot us with that serum.
Tell me you don’t hate me, and I’ll devote as much time as I need in earning your forgiveness for everything I’ve done. ”
“You are so fucking arrogant! Some of us are just not heartless enough to leave someone to die. Keep pushing your luck, and I will let go.”
“You. Shot. Me. Don’t claim to be a paragon of virtue when we both know you’ll do whatever it takes to survive.”
“I grazed you. And I’m still not entirely sure if that was the right thing to do.”
I held her gaze, raising to the challenge. “Then correct your mistake and save yourself.”
“It’s like you want to die!”
“I want you. There’s no turning away from me now.
I’ll have you in this life as my wife and my queen, or I die here, and my spirit will come back as the air you breathe so you have no choice but to take me into your body.
Run to the ends of this earth, and you will find me a breath away.
You will never be free of me, Wicked Thing. ”
The rope dragged us farther down the clock hand until it caught on the curve of its arrowed end, causing us to lurch to a precarious stop.
Her legs squeezed tighter around my waist; she looked up to see the thread we were literally hanging by fray even further.
“This is not the time for sappy declarations.”
“Then admit you don’t hate me, and we can put an end to this,” I countered.
“I do hate you!”
She could sink her fangs in as many times as she liked.
“S-stop grinning, I do!”
If they couldn’t dig deep enough, I’d hand her a knife. “Prove it.”
“Fuck you!”
She could coat it with her venom and run me through. “Gladly, now say it.”
“I won’t!”
“You’d rather we both fall to our deaths than admit you feel something for me? At the beginning of this trial, that Tamagotchi of yours was at zero, if I pulled it out now, how high do you think it would be?”
“Again, now is not the time for that!”
“I see we’ll have to work on that pride of yours. Not that I have much room to judge you in that respect. Put your arms around my neck.”
“And fall to my death because your concussion made you think you could fly? Fat chance.”
“I imagine it’s too early in this do-over to ask you to trust me?
” Fire rose from my core to heat the air around us in an attempt to ease her shivering.
Cold rarely bothered me, but my wicked thing was human, with no horns or fire to speak of.
Maybe their lack of natural defenses was the root of all her ferocity.
Even the smallest of creatures would bare their teeth when backed into a corner.
Yet despite all her bluster, I knew the truth.
“Yes, you psycho!”
Humans weren’t venomous.
I shifted my weight to pull a knife from my belt. “Add this to the list of grievances I’ll need to atone for.”
Blair
“What are you—”
Osid cut the rope, sending us into a free fall. I latched on to him and welded my eyes shut, screaming bloody murder. He held both palms downward and shot fire from his palms until the force of it slowed our fall. We landed gently at the base of the clock tower in a puddle of melted snow.
I stayed there, frozen. My arms and legs wrapped so tightly around him that my muscles strained. Adrenaline and something else I wasn’t ready to admit had my heart beating at my chest like a drum. Slowly, I opened one eye and peeked around to find that, yes, we were safely on the ground. “…Oh.”
His legs shook beneath us, and he fell to the ground with his back against the tower.
My hands flew to the sides of his face, inspecting his injuries.
There was a nasty cut just above his temple; when I ran my fingers over the back of his head, they fell across a bump that made him hiss out a breath.
I cursed under my breath. “This looks bad, we need to get you to a healing pod immediately.”
A smile curved at his full lips, and when I met his eyes, the heat in them made my breath turn hollow.
Warm hands came to my hips, and I felt his little finger slip beneath my shirt to stroke the skin on my back.
I knew the moment his flesh met mine by the way his eyes fluttered shut, as if he couldn’t deny himself this small touch.
“This is the second time I’ve gotten to see my queen fuss over me.
If this is what it takes to finally have you in my arms, I may have to take up billjaw wrestling. ”
“You are awfully affectionate when concussed. Can you stand? I don’t think I can carry you all the way to the entrance. If we show them how injured you are, they’ll have to let us out. Or at least send in a doctor for you.”
“Did you know I thought you were a goddess of death?”
“What?” I asked, taken aback.
His hand grew bolder, slipping completely beneath my shirt to press at the small of my back, bringing me closer to him.
“When we first met. You pulled me from the river, and I thought I was back on Sankatul, drowning in the flood of Tynfo. You wrapped your arms around me, and I sank into you, longing for death if it meant you didn’t let go. ”
My brow furrowed. “Osid, wh—”
Remorse clouded his strong features. “I should have told you that sooner.” A humorless laugh. “I should have done a lot of things differently. A queen is meant to be courted and admired, and I locked you away merely for my own selfish desire to keep you close.”
“Didn’t you lock me up because you thought I was working with Dory’s man?” I bit out.
“A convenient excuse. You left and took my sanity with you. I would have rationalized any justification to keep you.” He ran a hand over my cheek and let his palm settle on the back of my neck. And the pleasant heat of it caused gooseflesh to pebble my skin. “Why did you leave?”
I raised a brow at him, smiling in spite of myself as I replied, “Because you’re insane, Osid. I doubt your sanity was ever there before I came along.”
He chuckled. “I suppose I deserve that.”
“And more,” I quipped, unable to stop myself from ribbing him.
It was a habit at this point. Each of us threw mental barbs and the occasional projectile weapon at each other until we were too angry to even speak.
But this time was different. This time Osid kept smiling at me in that way that made my insides melt into goo.
It was startling, this sudden change in our dynamic. I shifted to pull away.
“If I kissed you now, would you strike me?”
The question came in a soft murmur, holding a sense of insecurity no king should possess.
My mouth went dry; I felt my face flush in a way it hadn’t since I was young and foolish.
It must have been the cold messing with my head.
Yet when he drew closer, I didn’t pull away.
My hands fisted against his cloak as if they’d fall off if they lost his heat. “Osid—”
“Just once,” he pleaded, and god, the longing in his eyes.
This close, the smell of tobacco and amber engulfed me until I grew lightheaded. I leaned into him, wanting to finally taste those soft lips.
Trumpets blared, shocking us apart. Confetti burst from the ceiling.
I noticed Osid looking past me, and I followed his gaze to see Rudolph happily flying circles around the tree, his bright red nose flashing like a strobe light at a rave.
Soon after, the room dissolved into a sea of pixels, and we were left in a barren room once again.
“Trial four completed. Due to a medical emergency, trial five will be postponed until Subject S 52 is recovered.”
A team of Biwban flew in and snatched Osid out of my arms before either of us could react.
“Wait!” I screamed. I rolled to my feet and tried to chase after them, but in seconds, they had him strapped to that flying chair and whisked him out of the room.
When the metal doors shut behind them, I slowed to a stop, and slumped to the ground.
It was then I noticed the Tamagotchi singing against my chest. I pulled it out and inspected it, not bothering to hide my laugh at its reading.
“Three bars, huh?”