Page 234 of Seer Prophet

I was still studying his face when he leaned back on the couch, resting his head on the cushion. He motioned towards me expressively with his hands.

“Hurry up, wife. I have big plans for tonight.” A smile ghosted his lips, despite his deadpan expression. “By my calculation you owe me a birthday present. Several, in fact. I fully intend to collect.”

I couldn’t help laughing.

And yeah, I was pretty sure he didn’t mean the painting.

Chapter41

Prophet’s Fumes

Iwrapped myself around him in sleep. I did it even when I woke up hot, confused about where I was, my limbs numb from his weight.

He did the same to me, which both reassured me and made it worse.

We hadn’t only been having sex. We’d been talking for a lot, too.

I think the talking part was more exhausting than the sex part.

We had a lot of sex.

I finally asked him, point blank, about Dalejem. I asked him why things still felt unresolved between them, why it still felt like there was something there.

Revik, as had been his tendency since everything went down between us that night, was honest. Maybe too honest.

He told me he’d been in love with Dalejem. He told me he loved him still.

When I reacted to that, he clicked at me, exasperated.

“You know what I mean,” he said.

“Not really, no.”

“I mean, when you love someone––when youreallylove them––you always kind of love them.” Studying my light in the dark, he switched to Prexci. “Romantically, I’ve only felt that way about three people. My first wife was one. Dalejem was one. You are the third.”

Pausing, he watched my face.

“Allie, I have known you the longest. I have loved you the longest. I have loved you the most intensely––and in the most real, most mature ways I have ever loved anyone in my life. I feel our connection the most deeply, and Ichoseit. I have sacrificed for it. Saying I love Dalejem does not make him a threat to you. It does not make him a threat to anything we have. I have entwined my life with yours, Allie. I choseusover me. I never did that with him. I never did that with my first wife.”

I’d nodded, not saying anything at first.

He’d never said those things to me before, but they resonated somewhere high up in my light. I had felt similar things about him, although I’d never articulated them to myself.

I’d chosen us over me, too.

When we left the tank with Lily the first time, everyone held their breath.

Revik was terrified for Lily. I know he was more terrified than he tried to show. He held her hand so hard she kept wincing and complaining, and of course his fear and doubt brought up the same in me. I panicked, questioning myself, wondering if I’d just killed them both.

Then we were all three just standing there, in the security station, holding hands.

I was a little bewildered by the crowd waiting for us by the time we came out.

Balidor stood behind the console.

So did the four seers running the security station: Neela, Torek, Declan, and Jorag.

On the other side of the security area, in the open area near the tank, Wreg waited for us along with Jon, Tarsi, Yumi, Chandre, Varlan, Kali, and Uye.