Chapter Thirteen The Cabin #2
She stood before a long mirror, with wild hair, bloodshot eyes, bruises, and cuts that were healing. Adan dropped the towel, and pulled at the bandages around her middle. The wound had stitched itself together, and she traced the beginnings of another scar.
With a sigh, she turned away, stepping into the tub and sinking into the warm water. Her body screamed in relief, but her mind was a storm. She closed her eyes, and sank deeper into the tub.
Adan didn't hear when Lennox had re-entered the bedroom. He could see her through the crack in the bathing-room door. He knew he should look away, he should walk right back out his bedroom door. But he stood there, frozen, his heart pounding in his chest.
--
When Adan came back into the bedroom, clean clothes were waiting for her folded on the edge of the bed.
She pulled on the thin shirt, and the wool sweater.
Nox had left her loose pants that she had roll more than once to stop them from falling off her hips.
The clothing was all obviously his as she fixed the sleeves of the soft wool sweater.
She couldn't help herself as she brought the collar of the fabric up to her nose and inhaled.
The knock at the door had her dropping her hands to her sides.
Nox didn't wait for her to open the door this time, "time to go." He made no comment as he eyed his clothes on her. He only handed her a heavy pair of socks.
"Where are we going?" She pulled on the socks he handed her, making her boots feel like a second skin as she laced them up.
"You'll see." Nox's lips twitched in a faint, humorless smile.
She huffed out an air of annoyance, but didn't push him. Her arm was no longer in the sling, but she had rewrapped her ribs. Adan moved towards the front door, but Nox grabbed her arm.
"Wrong way." He winked, heading towards the balcony. "Do you want to fly, or should I?"
Adan pressed her lips into a thin line with her teeth, she knew he was baiting her.
"I haven't flown in a very long time, besides someone might notice."
As a phoenix, her wings are pure fire, it would give them away instantly.
"Besides, my wings would probably singe you."
Only another phoenix could survive being near that heat—or a dragon.
He smirked and shrugged his shoulders, as his black wings unfurling behind him.
They were beautiful, if not deadly. The morning sun glinted off his scale, making them look like feathers.
"No wonder you long to fly. Having the privilege stolen from you."
He gave Adan his back, leading her outside to the patio.
She might have snapped at him if he wasn't right.
It was difficult to suppress the longing now that she was staring at his deadly wings, the pull to soar again.
She let herself be led outside, feeling the fresh air on her face.
She breathed in deeply, "I knew If I ever flew again, I would be dead. Fly and die."
She sighed. For the briefest of moments, she imagined what it would be like to take off from here, to stretch her wings, to feel the clouds under her.
"You could have flown away." He studied her in that intense way of his as she glanced up at him.
"And go where? Nixcader was burned to the ground."
The snow capped mountain city once ruled by the Feure Family.
"I had—have nowhere to go." She looked away from him, out at the city that was just waking up.
The City of Bones had never been her home, not in the ways that mattered.
She didn't know if she knew what the word meant anymore.
Nox took a step closer, the heat of his wings warming the surrounding air. "Maybe it's time to stop running." He held her gaze with quiet determination. "But that means facing everything you've buried. Everything you think you can't control."
Before Adan could snap a retort, Nox scooped her up in his arms.
She couldn't help but yelp as her feet left the ground and the wind swirled in her hair, pulling strands free from her makeshift bun.
Her arms instinctively wrapped around his tattooed neck.
"For a long time I feared the wind." She didn't know why she said it aloud.
Maybe because she could barely hear herself over the beating of Lennox's strong wings.
His eyes dipped to hers, and then back to their surroundings.
"Darius has strong elemental magic, anchored in his ability to control storms, and the wind comes easiest to him."
Adan watched as Nox's dark brows inched towards each other as he listened to her talk.
"You already know what the wind he wields can do."
His fingers clenched protectively around her.
He had been in the throne room when she had been whipped.
He had asked her afterwards if she needed help.
He nodded slightly in recognition, as if he too was remembering those moments.
"He has mind powers are like Cias, but nowhere near as powerful, thank the gods. I don't even want to think what he would do with that particular gift."
She swallowed, as Nox hit an air pocket and dropped a couple of feet.
Her stomach dropping with the movement, and Adan felt Nox pull her closer to his chest.
"I think he knows— or suspects, what I am. One particularly horrible beating, I think I healed myself too quickly, but he has never been able to prove it."
Since the last beating, when he slapped her out of her mental wards, that was new--and disconcerting.
"Darius was always a male living off borrowed time."
Nox seethed. Adan's eyes snapped to him at the words.
They flew in comfortable silence, Adan watched the terrain change from in the clouds.
Coastal waters and sand turned to tall grass and rolling hills.
Just on the outskirts of the City of Bones.
High-ranking families have massive summer homes in the valley.
To get away from the none stop hustle of the city.
Disgusting that they would have two homes, one some don't even have one.
Adan expected some massive, towering home, not the reasonably sized cottage that Nox had landed them in front of.
He held on to her, telling himself it was to make sure she was steady before pulling away.
His fingertips trailed down her arms, and he couldn't help but notice the shiver she made.
"There you are!" Asha boomed, as she bolted out to meet them. He immediately dropped his hands away and Adan stepped back.
Adan took in the small square cabin, with a wrap around porch and a thatched roof. Puffs of smoke bloomed out of the chimney. The rolling green hills, still covered in snow, behind it and the small fence that encapsulated his home. It was like a building out of one of her cozy romance novels.
Adan tried to smile as Asha approached. "Welcome, come inside before you catch a chill."
She waved them in, Nox and Adan followed.
The crackling fire was a welcome reprieve after the cold flight, and slightly crisper cold so far north.
The open room was welcoming, bright and cozy.
A plush red couch was placed in front of the fire place, the wood floors were covered in worn in carpets.
The walls were lined with bookshelves, old leather-bound copies filling the small space with the smell of parchment and leather.
Different plants and knick-knacks were displaced about the room.
To Adan's right was the kitchen, and her left was a wooden staircase. This place was a well lived-in home.
"Would you like a tour?" Asha asked with a bright smile on her face, her slave tattoo crinkling.
"I don't think the cottage is big enough to require one." Lennox dark laugh filled the room.
"Obbie, don't be rude." She chided and Adan beamed.
"I'm okay." Adan clarified as the rumble of her stomach caught Asha's attention.
She quickly ushered her into the kitchen, plunking her down at the small island just big enough for two.
"You too." Asha pointed at Nox, and the chair directly beside Adan.
Asha turned around and started rummaging in cupboards and the icebox.
"How was your flight?" She asked as she placed an iron skillet on one of the burners.
"Uneventful." Nox answered.
"So this is your safe place?" Adan asked, taking in the cottage. It seemed exceptionally ordinary, but warm, lived in—timeless-- at true home.
"No one knows of its existence, except Asha, and now you." His eyes slid towards her, and she felt the brush of his shoulder against hers, and then it was gone.
"Obbie bought this place after the war. Then he had it warded and then warded some more. You're safe here, Adan." Adan's eyes snapped to Nox at the mention of her alias. He hadn't told Asha who Adan truly is, and Adan didn't know what to make of that.
"I apologize for not saying goodbye at the party, and for not properly thanking you for the gift."
"Oh, it was nothing. Just a pendant I was given a long time ago." A pang of sadness hit Adan as she realized that she had left it in her room at the castle. She dipped her head. "I'm glad you liked it." She turned to smile at Adan as she cracked eggs into the hot skillet.
Nox sat silently as he observed the two women in his kitchen.
"It's charming, does the depiction mean anything?"
Adan asked, the swirling and blending of black and red and the perfect balance of it was nothing short of beautiful.
At least to Adan. Even if it felt like it was clearly a depiction of the love between Asha and Nox.
Her jealousy tried to rear its ugly head, but Adan smashed it down with an iron fist.
Even if she couldn't help asking in the first place.
"Not that I know of..." Asha worked with her head down. Nox coughed into his hands, and Asha turned and barked at him. "Do me a favour and grab some plates and cutlery."
Nox sighed as he pushed off the counter, and retrieved the items for her. As he placed plates down, Asha filled them with steaming piles of food. "Has Nox here told you why I call him Obbie yet?" Her voice and eyes filled with laughter and love at the mention of him.
"Asha... Please." Lennox sighed again, looking towards the ceiling. She didn't even bother to spare him a glance as she continued.
"When he was a younger, he was so stubborn. He refused to change his opinion, or his mind on anything. Despite my attempts to persuade him to change his course of action."