Page 85 of Xerxes Ascendant
Kyle turned his back on them once more.
“Left,” he said warmly. “That’s it, sweetheart, you’re doing so well. Right.”
He concentrated only on where they were placing their feet, and didn’t look down. Giving instruction was doing Kyle good, too, for it devoted his entire attention to his most sacred duty: keeping his man safe.
Of course, it was when they were almost to the other side, nearly withinreachingdistance of Lower Xerxes, that it happened. The strut shuddered violently beneath their feet, and with nothing to hold onto, they both fell.
Fearing the drop into oblivion, Kyle instinctively threw himself sideways, crying out as his chest and the armpit of his injured arm smacked heavily into the unforgiving, hard metal. He fought through the pain, defying the instinctual need to let go and ease the discomfort, because with that only lay death.
No, by the stars he’d hold on. Kyle hugged the strut, legs kicking uselessly in the air, and hoped the sensation of his fingers beginning to slide sweatily down the metal was all in his head.
But where was Akira? Had he...fallen?
No, please no.
The huff of irritated exertion from beside him was a sweeter sound than Slash’s iconic guitar riff. Sparing a glance over his shoulder, Kyle spotted Akira in a similar predicament to him: knuckles white where they were folded around the edge of their makeshift bridge, legs dangling helplessly over the Earth.
The strut trembled again. Feeling his grip weaken, Kyle gritted his teeth. From this angle and distance, he couldn’t see what Mackenroth’s men were doing, but it didn’t take much of a guess. Either cutting through the strut or attempting to heft it over the edge...either would see them just as surely dead.
Kyle opened his mouth to offer himself as a ladder for Akira to climb to safety, just like he had with the steep, slippery sidesof the sewerage tank. Yet before he could utter the words or prepare a firm rebuttal to the inevitable protest, he was witness to an impossible feat of graceful agility.
Akira tensed his body and pressed his legs together, stiff and straight, and then hefted himself up solely by his hands until he hung parallel to the strut itself. It was an optical illusion where he appeared as though he was merely lying on top of it even though Kyle’s eyes insisted he was beneath, and the amount of strength that clearly lay beneath that ruined suit made him stare. And drool,just a little, but if any saliva dribbled from his open mouth, that was between Kyle and the Earth below.
His boyfriend shouldn’t be able to still surprise him, not after knowing the man for five full years, but Kyle suspected that the wonderment would never stop for as long as they were together. That delighted him even more than getting to shamelessly stare at how Akira bent a graceful leg up and around the strut, pulling himself around until he came to rest straddling it. Because damn, the man looked good with his thighs spread wide, even if Kyle’s view was frustratingly limited from down where he was.
But not for long. Confident, warm hands pried Kyle’s fingers from the metal and took his weight, helping him scramble back up just as everything jolted beneath them again. Facing each other they hugged the bridge tightly, heads pressed together in silent comfort, and grimly waited for the tremors to stop.
To my love,
If you're reading this message, it means the transmitters have held out long enough to send it. I wanted to be brave, the way you always said I was. But all I can do is whisper your name into the failing air and hope the echoes reach you on Vladislav.
I remember your hands. The way you held me when I was shaking. How you said “I’ll look out for you.”
I don’t want you to look. I want you to live.
There is no saving me. The sky has decided Saladin will fall, just as it did Aurelius and all the others. If only I'd accepted your offer to stay with you on your city for a little while.
But I died loving you, completely and without regret. That’s more than most people get.
Forever yours,
Melissa
CHAPTER 25
Akira
It was six seconds – Akira was counting – between the strut finally falling still beneath their panting bodies, and Kyle’s omnipresent grin returning to stretch across his beautiful face. Nothing kept him down for long.
“Looks like they’re having trouble with old reliable here,” he said lightly, slapping the metal they were seated astride with the palm of his hand. “How about you and I hop on off before they figure out a better way to murder us?”
Akira was in full agreement. But Kyle had clambered around to face Lower Xerxes and begun to lead the way in a shuffling, death-grip crawl before it occurred to Akira that earlier his boyfriend had compared the strut tohim...and just now he’d called it old.
Insufferable little pest. Akira would gladly show him hownotold he was when he rode Kyle past the point of exhaustion, demonstrating that when it came to age it was-
He reared back. Kyle had abruptly stopped, and caught in his lifelong fantasies of proving people wrong, Akira hadn’t noticed, only avoiding headbutting his boyfriend’s ass by mere millimetres.
“Sweetheart?” he asked, nuzzling into the seat of Kyle’s pants anyway, because it truly was a delectable view. And with the way the leather stretched tightly around him, his outlined crack formed the perfect trail for Akira’s nose and mouth to follow. “What’s wrong?”
