Chapter 53 #2
“You don’t have to feel ashamed. It was my fault for losing control. I thought I was stronger, but I ended up getting carried away, and when you came, the partnership bond sent all reason flying out the window.”
I blushed even deeper. Zion studied my cheeks and smiled.
“Are you embarrassed around me?” he asked. The butterflies in my stomach went wild, driven crazy by memories of the night before. Was I embarrassed? I didn’t even know what to say, and the silence seemed answer enough.
“What you feel, I feel too, Kay. Sex is love too, and no one needs to be ashamed of that.”
Zion smoothed my hair back with a gentle caress. I pulled his hand away from my chin—I couldn’t handle the intensity of his gaze. Then I laced our fingers together, aware of how small my palm felt in his.
“The thing is, we can’t do anything that’s even remotely close to...
” I stumbled over the word, which only made him smile wider.
“You know what, Zion. We’re going to have to behave.
We can’t take that kind of risk.” I cleared my throat, pushing past the embarrassment.
“I lose control when you touch me, and your kiss... I can’t handle it. ”
Zion smiled—that crooked smile I loved more and more.
“I seem to recall saying that to you some time ago.” He released my hands, sliding his up my arms, over my shoulders, and finally cradling my face. “But even if we can't do everything, I want to be able to touch you. I think I can handle that. Please, let me have at least this much.”
I raised my hands, running them along his waist, tracing his ribs, and finally reaching his shoulders. I clung to every bit of skin I could touch.
“Only if I get to touch you like this,” I bargained, smiling and relaxing a little in his hands. The sexual tension hung between us, heavy and dangerous, but we'd try to keep things under control. He studied my face as if trying to memorize every freckle on my skin.
“You're so beautiful,” he murmured, caressing my cheek with his thumb. “So beautiful it hurts to look at you sometimes. One day I'm going to kiss every freckle on your body.”
His eyes traced all my little spots. I'd once seen them as flaws, the way the inlanders did, but under his gaze, I'd never felt so grateful to have them on my skin.
“I can't wait for the agreement to end.”
“Just until the test, okay?” he promised, smoothing my hair back and pressing a tender kiss to my forehead. “Two more months and we can touch each other without fear.”
“That's 'if' I pass the test,” I replied, worried. “What if I don't pass?”
My head started spinning—I hadn't even considered that possibility.
“You're going to pass. You're learning from the best.” A smug smile spread across his lips.
“Has anyone ever told you that you're incredibly conceited?” I asked, laughing and poking his chest with my finger.
“It's part of the charm.” He caught my poking hand and planted another kiss there.
With each kiss, I felt myself falling deeper in love.
I brought my hands to his neck and stroked it with my thumb.
Zion shivered at the touch. My chest filled with something vibrant as I traced circles with my fingers on that sensitive spot.
“Kay, I need to ask you something.” He met my eyes, his expression turning serious, then glanced around and stepped back a little. “But let's sit down to eat before I make you actually late.”
I let him guide me from the counter to the kitchen table. We set breakfast on the tablecloth and sat down. This time, we didn't sit on opposite sides of the table—Zion dragged his chair over to my side.
“So, what's the question?” I asked, starting on some cake.
“I'm curious about something.” He set down his fork and looked at me. “But if you don't want to answer, you don't have to. I don't want to pressure you.”
“Ask.”
Zion seemed reluctant, as if carefully choosing his words so he wouldn't scare me.
“Every night you have nightmares,” he said calmly, as if expecting me to understand where this was going. I nodded for him to continue. “Most of the time Kiara wakes you up, but when she can't, I step in. Can you tell me what you dream about?”
I held my necklace, spinning the pendant between my fingers. This wasn't such a hard subject, and I already knew he woke me on some nights. Sometimes I felt his presence in the room, and the shadows usually lingered long after he left.
“Before, I used to dream about what I lived through when I was a slave, but those dreams have faded a lot since you came back. Now I have different dreams, like the ones I told Serguei about.”
Zion seemed to remember what he'd heard at the birthday party, then opened his mouth to speak, but another voice sounded in my mind.
“Finally, we've arrived at the subject I was waiting for.” My eyes widened in surprise, and so did Zion's.
It was Serguei's voice. “I see my children are more controlled today, and I'm very happy for this small blessing. I wondered all night whether I would have to play chaperone on top of taking care of an entire city.”
I felt my cheeks burn at those words and wrapped myself tighter in my green coat, as if I could hide.
“Were you spying on us?” Zion asked, irritated.
“Yes?” Serguei huffed. “After last night? You can't be too careful. When I asked for this agreement, I thought I was making an excellent deal, but now I see the blessing has become a curse.”
“Then release us and be done with it. Problem solved, everyone's happy,” I retorted.
“No,” he said dryly. “Until you're ready, you're going to stay in line, Kyller. The tests are coming, and I want you to use your time and energy to train. Not to spend days on end tangled up in bed with Zion.”
If I thought my cheeks were flushed before, now they were probably incandescent. Zion growled at Serguei.
“The frenzy of youth. In my day, I was like that too. Hormones are dangerous little things, and I understand you both, but you'll have to wait,” he said, putting an end to the discussion.
Zion and I looked at each other—he was red with anger, and I was red with embarrassment.
“I wanted to continue talking about hormones, as it's a rather amusing subject, but I have a meeting with the king shortly. So, since you mentioned the dream, I'll ask—what did you think of the book?”
I bit my lower lip, looking at Zion. A chill crept over my skin again.
“It’s them, isn’t it? I’ve been dreaming about the archangels.” I remembered everything I’d seen in the book, and the last dream was still vivid in my mind.
“Yes, and it looks like they’re teaching you to fight, just like they taught your mother.”
“What’s your theory about this?” Zion asked.
“My theory is that if celestial divinities are going through the trouble of descending into your dreams to teach you how to fight, then you should, at the very least, learn everything they show you.”
“What do you think ‘granddaughter of the apocalypse’ means?” The description had been haunting me ever since the sonar said it.
“It could have several meanings, Kyller. The Sonar might have been referring to your Drutes genetics, which is governed by the goddess of War, or it could be something beyond that—perhaps your lineage is directly linked to the archangels.”
Zion and I exchanged a troubled look. I was trying to process what he’d just said.
“What do you mean? You think that at some point in history, these archangels—the ones we’ve only heard about in the book—had children?” I shook my head in disbelief. “They’re a legend, Serguei.”
“And how would you explain your dreams, Kyller? Are you going to tell me that’s a legend too? You dreamed about them before you even saw their images in the book.”
I’d never really known about the archangels. Some human religions mentioned angels, but not like this. Not as battle archangels.
“Here in Interion, people don’t worship the Gods as much.
When you think about it, our nation is losing the old customs, just like Vinturis, Yonser, and Ampér.
I think it’s natural, given evolution and the transition to the modern era.
But the Drutes Nation keeps the Gods on pedestals—or at least they used to.
When I lived there, I heard their stories.
In fact, the sonar was one of the church’s faithful.
Before joining the rebellion, he was a hopeless fanatic. ”
“The sonar?” I asked. The man seemed more aligned with darkness than light.
“Yes, the sonar! During the entire journey to Interion, he preached about Gods and angels who descended from their thrones to have relations with the faerics. He kept repeating that primaries and secondaries descend from the Gods, and that’s why their power was greater.
He said that for some reason, the Gods were searching for something among their children—something important to them. ”
“Are you telling me the Gods slept with the faerics from the breeding camps?” I asked, shocked.
“At the time, I thought it was bizarre too. I came to believe the sonar was crazy—he was always strange, and his mind has that damned natural mental block, so I could never get in. I thought it was because he was a bit unhinged, but I don’t see him that way anymore.
The sonar is a different kind of man, one who sees and knows things that are still beyond understanding.
No wonder he considered himself the son of Seijhe, the God of Intelligence. ”
“Is that why you were so interested in what he told me? Are you looking for information?”
Serguei was quiet for a while, leaving Zion and me in silence.
“Is that why you spent your whole life buried in scrolls? Why you turned the apartment into a nest of books? Were you looking for answers?” Zion asked.
“Yes,” Serguei answered, then went quiet again.
“Answers to what questions?” Zion seemed to be choosing his words carefully, as if walking through a minefield.