Page 39 of Shadows and Flames
“What were you doing there?”
“Looking for you,” I admitted, and this truth had her mouth slamming shut. “I was looking for you, and the boy found us. He asked to be a Shadow, and after receiving consent from his caregivers, we took him to the Well. He is sponsored by the both of us and is now residing there. He is happy.” It was easy to see, what with the eager smiles the little one kept throwing atanything and everything. The Shadows would never be known for tenderness, but acolytes were revered. Protected at all costs.
I told Meline that much, giving soft touches and willing her body and mind to calm. She may accept me keeping my oath to The Shadows, but divesting from all prejudice against us in the name of the young boy she’d once mentored was a different task.
“You had no right to do that,” she gritted her teeth, but she’d also settled back into her seat. Her arm rested resolutely on the tabletop, accepting my touch.
“Yes. I did. The boy knew what he wanted, and Whitley and Lydia attested to that.”
“This life shouldn’t be his, El,” she whispered.
“What life? Coming and going as you please? Killing or guarding or stealing for money? You know better than most the perils this world offers. The horrors. You also know the excitement this work provides, dark as it may be. Should you tell him to forsake his own dreams, of doing whatwedo, because you are worried for him? He will be trained well and only released to take contracts when he is ready. Until then, he will live and work at the Well.”
She was silent, face hard as my words battered her. Until she grumbled, “That might have been the most I’ve ever heard you speak.” She chewed her lip, and I increased the pressure of my touch on her skin.
The sight of her dressed in my clothing was fanning a low burn in my gut, flames churning and waiting to be let out. We’d decided to leave the safehouse this morning, to see the sun and let what was rekindling between us into the light of day.
I’d been lost in my thoughts about what might come next. Waiting for the words to be done, for now, and the need for physical closeness to take over. I did not regret claiming her last night, being brutal so that she could see reason. Now, though, I wanted to relish her in a way we hadn’t ever been able to.
My thoughts had been far away, elsewhere, so I had to ask my queen to repeat her last question. “How long has it been? Since you brought Marco in. I haven’t…I haven’t returned to Nethras at all.”
That had been apparent when I’d entered her stale apartment. The scent of her and, briefly, me, sealed inside. Encapsulated in the dust motes floating through the air. “About two years now.”
Meline rubbed her free hand at her chest, pressing the heel of her palm toward her heart. “And…he’s doing well?”
“Yes. He has made great strides in his training. He has made friends. And he is under Tomas’s and my protection and responsibility as his sponsors.”
“And with you both away from the Well? Who is making sure he’s okay?” The appearance of tears made me lean closer, but she waved off my concern, wiping at her eyes in a familiar movement. Using my sleeve to soak up her worry.
I wanted her in my lap again. In my arms. “Noruh has agreed to stay at the Well until one of us is able to return.”
I felt the cool, dangerous presence of my queen’s power before I saw it. The black vines that transcended the clothing separating her skin from mine. They wrapped around my wrist, reaching toward my elbow.
Meline said she had more control of it. But she didn’t seem to be purposefully letting it out now. Not with her own fire alight in her stare. “And what is your relationship with her? Why would she agree to babe-sitting duty for you?”
There were no clouds in the sky, save for sparse wisps that did nothing to block the heat shining down on us. But it was the sort that made me feel comforted, alive. And with her Death wrapping around me? Claiming me in its own way?
I willed Zoko’s Flames to manifest on my skin. With all light and no heat, I watched the sensation reach her awareness. Veins of Fire meeting those of Darkness.
“Noruh, Tomás, and I trained as acolytes together. I have known them both since I was younger than Marco. She is my sister.”
“So I guess you fuck your sister, then,” Meline shot back, and the venom on her tongue shifted my lips to a quick smirk.
There she was.
“I have been with many over the years, my queen. As I know you have. I’ve lain with them both, yes, as I have with many of my Shadow siblings. Through my travels, I have had no trouble finding release or someone to warm my bed.”
“Why the fuck are you telling me this?” Her power was winding up my shoulder, now. Flowing between my shoulder blades. Barely concealed by the clothes I wore.
And under my tunic wrapped around her body, I tasted her flesh through my Flames. Felt the pounding of her heart on my tongue. “Because I want you to know that none of them,no one, compares to you. That I know with certainty you are who I want.”
Meline licked her lip, swiping her tongue against the plush pillow of her bottom one. I would have it between my teeth before the day was over. Anything less would be unacceptable.
“Were you always this cocksure?”
This time, the smirk, an expression of triumph, settled fully across my face. “Yes.” And, just to emphasize my point and claim, I added a pulse of heat to my power before drawing it back to me. Meline’s gasp, the widening of her pupils, was satisfaction enough to tide me over.
She glared as she released the hold of her power, until the only touch between us was of corporeal form.
