Chapter 44 - Us #2
As though reading my thoughts, Kris studies the lake’s surface with worry. “If that frog is flying outside the perimeter, Mack must have spotted something on the cameras. It may be nothing, perhaps a random real animal approaching too close to the fences. It’s happened before.”
He pulls back his hair, staring at the wall, and holds up a finger, kindly asking me to stay quiet for a moment.
“We should go back inside,” he mutters, beckoning me closer.
I do as he asks, also following my gut feeling, which is shouting to run back to the building. “I thought the fences were strong enough to stop anything from breaching the walls.
“They have been because Roden has never managed to locate this place. We don’t know the range of his power…
your power. What he did to my brother, without being physically close to him…
he could do the same to everyone in here that has Harvester blood.
He can’t control Horigeans—but we are his product. ”
To my ears, his explanation is almost perfect, except for one small missing detail.
“That means…I could do the same to him. Hurt him like he did to you. To us. Without being near him.”
His face lights up, and he stops running his fingers nervously through his hair to stare at me instead.
Without notice, he devours the space between us and grabs my hands. “I forgot how good it feels when you say it…”
“What?” I squeak, forgetting I can speak like an adult.
“…us.”
“Oh…”
His skin against mine is more than I can take, more than my mind can endure without coming undone. My hands in his find the perfect fit as an image slowly pushes to the surface. We’ve been here before, many times, by this lake—just the two of us.
A net of light flows from my palms up to my arms and all around us, but Kris doesn’t seem to be scared. It’s warm and comforting, and it speaks to me.
It’s telling me to go ahead and that this is the right thing to do. For me, Kris and the rest of Horigos. I wriggle my fingers until I’m the one holding his hands. Tight. Tighter. And when his eyes widen, staring at me with a hint of dread, I realise I’m harvesting his light.
His soul.
I drop his hands, inhaling sharply, and pulling back, hiding my face in my hands. “No, I don’t want this…” I shake my head, turning my back to him.
A firm but gentle touch weighs down on my shoulders.
“What was that?” I ask, my voice so weak, I struggle to hear myself.
Kris gently spins me around, tilting his head, with a soft smile. “You’ve just relived our last night together. Somehow, you remembered.”
“I was harvesting your soul…” I blink, agape. I was willingly stealing his life, without my vials, no tools—only my bare hands.
I fight the urge to push him away. What if I touch him and take what’s left of his soul by accident? I try to withdraw from his grip, but he remains unfazed.
“July, stop.”
My body responds. I close my eyes, hoping my guilt won’t show anywhere else.
“Look at me.” He brushes my cheek with his knuckles.
“I made you suffer like Roden. Worse than Roden did to you. I…”
My face collides with his chest. His smell reminds me of Galen, but there is something else beneath, something feral that everybody should be frightened of—but me.
His arms are strong around me, but his hand is protective when it dives through my hair, keeping me safe and hidden from the rest of the world.
“I gave it to you. And I would do it again if that’s the only way for you to return to me, a hundred times again.”
I blink furiously, tears running down my face, wetting his shirt. I sob like a child, unable to speak but half words, undefined sounds of pain, joy, relief and fear.
He keeps stroking my hand in silence, letting me take everything in—the deepest meaning of his confession, the worrying realisation of it.
“It’s still in the caves…I’ve never given it back,” I mumble against him, pressing my right cheek against his chest, staring at the lake.
I look up; his sweet, resigned smile breaks my heart instantly.
“It was the only way to convince Roden that you tried, obeyed his orders, and kept yourself safe. This is why you hid my soul in those caves. The idea that you made me suffer was enough for him. And when he found out the shards of soul you brought back to him weren’t mine, he let you continue because he gloated at seeing us trying to work against him. ”
I bite my lower lip, closing my eyes at the image of it.
“But you didn’t.” He pinches my chin lightly, and I find the courage to look at him again. “You could never hurt me. I’m happy for you to take what’s left of my soul because, even when I’m no more, part of me will always breathe, laugh, and love. In here…”
His right hand lowers to my heart, hovering above it, but I pull it against me as he falls silent, studying my movements.
Warm vibrations hum and thrum, flowing inside me from where our bodies connect.
“How have I forgotten about you?” I mumble.
“You didn’t. Not completely. Roden doesn’t have the power to control you like he thinks. I know you could see me. Feel me.” Kris bows his head, a lock of his hair tickling my brow.
“Only when I was sleeping, when my mind wasn’t fighting to keep your memory away. Because if I remembered while in Libera…”
“Roden would have seen it too,” he finishes my sentence.
An uncontrollable feeling of loss spreads through me, and I snap my head up. “How much have you got left?” I break the contact to move back and take his beautiful face in fully.
“Enough to be here with you one last time. To hold you one last time.”
He follows every word with one small step towards me.
“To kiss you one last time.” His lips graze my cheek. His smell overpowers me, sending my mind spiralling into lovely darkness.
“To tell you one last time that I—”
“No, don’t—” I stand on my tiptoes to press a finger on his mouth. “I’m not taking whatever’s left of your soul, even if only to keep it safe. This is madness. There must be another way.”
“Don’t you think we’ve never tried before?”
“We can try again.”
Kris sighs through his nose, gathering my hands and kissing one, then the other.
“July, things are happening faster, and I believe Roden has a plan to strike harder this time. We don’t know how much time we have left, but I don’t want to waste even a minute of our last life together talking about what-ifs. ”
My brain goes blank. Then starts working again. Fast. Spinning.
In the darkness surrounding us, his eyes almost glow, light green and gold, alive, hungry, when he tilts his head, closing the distance between our faces.
And my brain finally finds some peace.
“I’m sorry to interrupt…this, but there’s something you need to see. Someone, actually. She’s outside the fences, shouting for Tabs to come out, and I’m afraid she’ll remain there until her lungs can hold. Also—she holds one of my frogs hostage.”
I wiggle free from Kris’ arms and, patting my face with the back of my hands, I smirk at Mack. In the cold moonlight, the scar above his lip twitches as he looks down at his hands and the grass beneath his feet.
“It’s okay, Mack.” I pat his shoulder. “Do we know what this stranger wants from Tabs? Does she look in danger—or threatening?”
Mack shakes his head, his friendly smile back where it legitimately belongs. “She looks rough, but I swear those orange eyes pierced through the cameras. She scares me and Rary.”
“Rary?”
“My frog.”
“Right,” Kris jumps in, looping his arm around Mack’s shoulders. “Let’s go save Rary from the scary lady.”