The Meeting
I jerked awake, adrenaline coursing through my body as my heart beat an uneasy rhythm. A distant commotion played out in the temple’s lower levels, but the sound wasn’t what woke me. It was the overwhelming sense that I wasn’t alone. That someone was locked in my room with me.
Fear pulsed through my limbs, and I bit the inside of my mouth to keep silent.
Hreinasta’s temple had protected me for the past ten cycles, but I’d slept alone my entire life.
I knew what solitude felt like. I was intimately acquainted with the presence of every priestess who served me, and the being hovering at the edge of my consciousness wasn’t one I recognized.
It wasn’t someone allowed to be there, and for long and terrifying seconds, I prepared to die.
I prepared for my innocence to be ripped from me, but as I prayed to Hreinasta for salvation, the presence didn’t move.
It didn’t speak. It simply hovered in the shadows.
Gathering my courage, I opened my eyes and scanned the darkness. The hour was well past midnight, but as the commotion receded further into the temple, the feeling persisted. Someone was watching me, and when my sight finally found him, the earth shifted.
A dark shape huddled in the corner, almost invisible inside the shadows.
I might have missed him if I hadn’t committed that entire room to my memory, but I’d memorized every angle, every curve, every imperfection of those chambers, and his mass protruded from the wall like a looming demon.
He was dressed in the darkest black, his raven hair the same inky shade.
Even his eyes were dark, as if he was born and bred of the night, molded to hide within the shadows.
Despite his crouched position, I could tell he was massive, tall and broad and muscled.
I’d never seen a man this close beside my father, but that was cycles ago.
I could gaze upon him and my brothers when they prayed in the temple courtyard, but no man, not even my own flesh and blood, could touch my skin since I was pledged to Hreinasta.
Men were forbidden from entering her inner sanctuary, and as a result, I’d never witnessed the finer details of the masculine features.
I scrambled backward across my mattress at the realization that a man hovered feet from my bed. My back slammed into the wall with a loud slap, and I opened my mouth to scream.
“Please, don’t.” He threw up his hands in a placating gesture, and I froze, my alarm lodging in my throat.
His voice. Its deep rumble, even spoken in a hushed tone, was so fierce, so rough, that it shook the air as he pleaded.
The sound rattled my chest, its gravel vibrating my bones, and my alarm heightened.
It was as if a demon had whispered. It was as if beauty had come to life as words.
I wanted him to speak again, to push that deepness against my skin and shake me to my core.
It was both cruelty and seduction, jagged edges and blooming roses.
I should have screamed. I needed to scream, to escape this intruder, but instead, I hovered on the edge of my mattress, craving the melody of his voice.
“I won’t hurt you.” He emerged from the shadows, and a tear escaped my eye to trail down my face. “I promise you’re safe from me. I just need a place to hide.”
Embarrassment flushed my cheeks, but I couldn’t stop the tears.
I didn’t know how to interact with men, and being forced into one’s presence in the supposed safety of my own room shoved me off kilter.
His closeness was overwhelming. It made it hard to breathe, and I knew I should run.
I should have screamed for help, but I was frozen.
I cried in fear. I cried because his voice was everything.
It reached inside my soul, rewriting my definition of perfection.
It strangled my erratically beating heart and coated my mind with its harshness.
That sound. It could burn the world to ash with its power, and it terrified me how it erased the wariness of men that servitude had engrained in my being.
“I’m sorry.” He moved forward, thought better of his actions, and then recoiled. “It’s all right. I won’t touch you, see.” He sat hard against the wall and threw up his hands in surrender. “Please don’t cry.”
I hated myself for how easily his voice convinced me to obey, but I sank against my pillows anyway, mimicking his posture as I wiped the tears from my cheeks.
From that angle, I realized just how large the young intruder was.
He was a monster in the shadows, and I dreaded seeing him stand to his full height. He would tower over me.
“What are you doing here?” I finally gathered the courage to ask after minutes of tense silence. “Men aren’t allowed in the inner sanctum.”
“I know.” He flashed me a smile, and my heart forgot to beat.
His voice might have been rough and dangerous, but his smile?
It was the sun. It shone with blinding beauty, and I blinked, afraid to look at the inviting curve of his lips.
I was untouched, untainted, unmarred. Even my thoughts were pure, but staring at his smile was an unadulterated sin.
I didn’t realize an expression could hold that much magic.
“I’m pledged to the house of Varas,” he continued.
“God of Thieves,” I whispered.
“Yes.” He smiled. He needed to stop smiling.
“If you belong to the Thief, why are you here?”
“To join his cult, his acolytes train under the masters for cycles. For our final test, we must steal an object from one of the other gods and bring it to his altar. He rejects your offering if you’re caught, but if you are successful, he welcomes you into his guild.”
“You’re here to rob Hreinasta… do you plan to kidnap me?” My panic flooded back tenfold.
He chuckled, and I involuntarily leaned into the sound as if I might capture it whole and save it for eternity.
“I suspect Varas would be highly displeased if I brought you as my offering.” He raised an eyebrow teasingly.
“You were asleep, so I planned to hide here until the guards stopped their search. There was a slight wrinkle in my plan downstairs. The greater the god, the higher the honor the Thief gifts us, so while looting the other temples is a far easier feat, stealing from Hreinasta reaps the greatest reward. No one has ever attempted to plunder her sanctuary. The punishment inflicted on a man caught within her walls is unspeakable, but alas, what good is life without challenge? I intend to be the first to lay an object from the Pure One’s inner sanctum at my god’s feet.
Then I’ll be the greatest thief Varas has ever blessed. ”
“But you’ve been caught.” I gestured to my chest.
“Have I?” The twinkle in his dark eyes lit up his beautiful face. The shadows cloaked him in mystery, but what little I saw convinced me that nothing in this world would ever compare to this intruder.
We drifted back into silence as I studied him. He remained pressed against the furthest wall to assure me he had no intentions of disrespecting my vows, and perhaps it was my naivety, but I trusted him. I was still terrified of breathing the same air as a man, but I knew the thief wouldn’t harm me.
Realizing sleep wasn’t in my future until he completed his mission, I threw my legs off the mattress.
Careful to wrap my robe securely around my body so that my skin remained hidden, I walked to the chest at the foot of the bed.
My anxiety flared at being so close to him, but I pushed down the rising sickness and lifted the lid, removing one of my robes.
All Hreinasta’s priestesses and acolytes wore white to signify their purity, but the potential vessels’ dresses were inlaid with pure gold threads.
White for virtue. Gold for priceless. The fabric was spun luxury, each dress tailored perfectly to the vessel, but their coloring was unmistakable. White and gold. Hreinasta’s chosen.
I turned toward him, careful to keep out of reach, and set the garment on the floor. I retreated slowly, never turning my back to him, and when my calves hit the mattress, I sat, curling my legs beneath me so that not even my feet were on display.
“Offer that to your Thief,” I said with an experimental smile, and as a reward, his entire face lit up.
The room was dark, but his expression was the sun, bathing the winter air with its warmth.
“No one will doubt where it came from.” I shrugged as if it wasn’t the most terrifying yet exhilarating encounter of my life.
“You won’t get in trouble if it goes missing?”