5. Astraea #2
I open the door and let the girl run past me, but we both slide across the wood floor with slick feet.
I fall into a heap of laughs with her. I think delirium from my lack of sleep and everything that has happened is beginning to set in.
I feel like a child again. I’m blocking out what I know I need to face and instead choosing to ignore the fact that I am broken beyond repair.
I don’t want to look too closely, at least not right now.
“Maisy!” A woman’s shrill cry stops our laughter as Maisy freezes with wide eyes before scrambling to her feet and looking at the mess we have made. “You stupid—”
“This is my fault; there is no need to finish that sentence unless you are aiming your insulting words at me.” I say, standing quickly and spitting the words with more venom than I probably should be giving a woman who has offered Kyros and me shelter, but I can’t help it.
The way that she speaks to the young girl has rubbed me wrong since the moment she opened her wretched mouth.
After everything that I have gone through, both in my life, and in the last few days…
I will not stand for disrespect from anyone any longer.
The woman scoffs, waving her hand in the air between us as her face turns the deepest shade of vermilion.
She steps closer, pointing her long narrow finger at my chest. She’s just beyond touching me when she starts talking.
“You—” She is cut off, and her once red face blanches as the blood drains from it.
“Is there a problem here?” I feel Kyros’ presence at my back before he speaks, the room darkening with his aura, and the woman flounders before she finally snaps her mouth shut in deference.
“Just a mess. Nothing that can’t be taken care of.
My apologies, Lord Kyros.” It’s my turn to scoff now as she bows her head.
I look over my shoulder and shake my head at the man she reveres so much.
His face is stony and unreadable as he looks from the woman to me, and then to the mess surrounding us.
His eyebrow lifts. My face reacts on its own accord, my lip curling and my mouth making a sound of disgust in the back of my throat.
“I—I can clean it up, Madame Darcy.” Maisy sheepishly says as she picks at the hem of her filthy dress.
My eyes burn with rage as the woman, Madame Darcy, keeps her eyes glued to the man who is now standing at my side.
She ignores the girl completely as she continues her mumbling apology.
Kyros has turned away and is having a hushed conversation with Shayd, ignoring everyone else.
Though I do see his gaze flick to me out of the corner of his eye at least a couple of times.
I look down at Maisy as her bottom lip trembles, and the woman just keeps her ogling eyes dancing along Kyros’ body.
Heat wraps around my ribs in a vise. So much like when I am in the clutches of my nightmares.
It surprises me, and I suddenly very much need to get out of this room.
“Could you show me where the bathing area is, beautiful?” I whisper.
The others only give me a fleeting glance.
Maisy looks around as if she is going to ask for permission, and with a slight shake of my head, I convince her not to.
She swallows hard before nodding. I reach my hand out, and she takes it with a tight half-smile before we slip right out while the others are distracted.
I only heard bits of the hushed conversation between Kyros and Shayd.
Another man lingered behind Shayd, wringing his hands in front of him, worry building between his eyes with a heavy brow.
Something about the watch, magick, and travel.
Kyros catches my eye just as we turn the corner; his eyes burning with intensity, but he looks down to the little girl and gives me a slight nod of approval.
Not that I need it or need to acknowledge it, but I give him a slight nod too before leaning down and whisper-shouting for Maisy to run.
We giggle as we quickly make our way to the stairs.
When we reach the top of the tall staircase, I look down and realize that we have littered the path we have followed with bits of mud, and I stifle back a laugh.
I hope Madame Darcy is the one who has to clean it.
A creeping feeling crawls up my spine as I turn away from the stairs, causing me to pause.
I look down again to see a set of deep onyx eyes staring back up at me.
Heat ensnares me; the darkness within his gaze is far from cold—opposite even; the warmth is grounding.
Black like velvety clouds just before the light of dawn.
The look he is giving me now takes me back to the last time we found ourselves in this same position, but the feel of his eyes is entirely different.
Where there were questions before, I see only a promise in them now.
Even if the questions remain. We share common memories, but we are no less strangers.
Unable to tear myself away, I watch as he ascends the stairs, coming to a stop just before the top. He still has to look slightly up at me where I stand. His head tilts as he wordlessly places his hand on mine where it rests on the railing.
I’m tired. So unbelievably tired, but I’m still terrified about what might await me when I fall asleep.
“Shayd would like you to meet him in the kitchen.” Kyros says, and my brows drop in confusion before Maisy pops out from behind me. I had forgotten all about the girl in the moment, locked in a silent battle of wills with the man in front of me.
“Um, ok. You’re sure?” She asks, looking sad between us.
I lift my lips into what I hope is a reassuring smile, but the nervous chuckle she lets out makes me believe it lacks convincing.
“I hope I’ll see you for supper. Shayd said you will need to sleep in the day, like a vampire!
” She whisper-shouts as she bounds down the stairs and disappears from sight.
I take a step back as Kyros steps forward.
He’s almost eye-level with me now. His eyes darken, shadows gathering beneath his lashes as he drags his gaze down my body.
“I don’t know what room she was leading me to.
I was hoping for a bath and the room she—” I stop mid-sentence.
My voice is low and unsure as I take another step backward.
Kyros watches the movement like a predator, but the look on his face, I can feel, is a reflection of my own.
Regardless of how I feel about the hurt he’s caused me, there is an undeniable pull between the two of us.
I noticed it before, sure, but now? I believe I understand why.
I thought I was starting to piece together before…
Before the world I knew was washed away with terror and violence.
My attention snaps back to the present as Kyros plants his foot at the top of the stairs.
His presence dominates what now feels like a tiny landing at the top of the stairs, and my eyes can’t help but find his.
“It doesn’t matter what room she was leading you to. You will be coming to mine.” His voice is deeper but not angry—more gravelly than usual. Whatever the emotion is, he doesn’t try to hide it as he takes another step in my direction.
My breath hitches as he reaches me and my back bumps against the wall. I open my mouth to refuse, but he leans down, and the dissent never surfaces. His lips hover over mine as I press my back more firmly into the wall.
“Breathe, Shula.” He growls, and the air flutters through my parted lips as I release it from my lungs on his command.
If I were to look down, I wonder if I would see the beat of my heart as the muscle knocks powerfully against the inside of my chest. He brushes loose strands of my ebony hair away from my face with deft fingers.
His touch feather-light but searing on my skin.
“I won’t take no for an answer. I won’t be leaving you alone to sleep.
Not when I know what haunts it. I will be there regardless of what room you are in. ”
My eyes fall closed as his fingertips press into my hair and his palm rests on my jaw and along my neck.
I stay there for what seems like minutes, but I know any time at all is too long.
Taking a deep breath is a bad idea. My senses are filled with Kyros, his touch, his aura, the warm honey, smoke, and earth that is entirely his scent.
My eyes flutter open as I gain enough courage, or maybe it’s just another bad decision.
The mesmerizing darkness staring down at me should be terrifying.
It should send my soul running in the opposite direction, but with Kyros it never has.
I feel it now, through the darkness that surrounds us.
Through the black diamond eyes that seem to cut right into me.
So similar to my nightmares, the fire that has always felt like a lasso around my ribs.
But in this moment that sensation is internal.
A dark flame in the center of my chest. A mirror to the one I see burning in his onyx gaze.
“Kyros,” I feel my knees shaking. My limbs threaten to buckle under the weight of what I am now realizing must be true.
The truth of why I long for him even through the anger I feel.
My vision tunnels; shadows like the magick Kyros wields seem to swallow me whole, just as in my nightmares.
My heart is thundering in my ears. True terror tries to take over as everything slowly fades to black.
My body becomes weightless and warm everywhere. Then I hear his voice.
“I have you, Shula.” His voice is only a whisper as I fall into the dark.