Page 39 of The Stone Survival
So I wait, dressed in lastonflex, ready to escape into the night. To shift into my goyle for the first time in weeks and fly.
My leg throbs dully. Shifting will hurt. It might damage me further, but I can’t let a little pain hold me back from warning my friends.
The clock finally hits midnight, and with a soft snick and scrape, the locks disengage. He did it. Still, I wait several seconds before trying the door. Benny waits for me in the gloom, the smell of nervous sweat permeating the air.
This is real.
This is happening.
And the vibrant flashes of color blooming in his aura communicate his love for me.
There’s no guile here. He’s risking my father’s wrath to let me out.
I glance up and down the gloomy corridor. “Where is he?”
“Out. He won’t be back till just before dawn.”
“If he finds me gone, he’ll know you let me out.”
“I know, and I don’t care. I’ve stood by idly for long enough while he allowed our secret to consume him. I won’t let it consume you too.”
“Our secret? What do you mean?”
He steers me toward the stairs. “There are certain unions that are forbidden to our kind, Selas. Your father and I share such a union.”
Understanding dawns. “Oh…Benny…”
“I love you,” he says, “as if you were my own, but I’m tired and I’m old. I’m done hiding. If they want to punish me, they can. But you…you must go.” He tugs something from his pocket. The shadowy form looks like a book. He hands it to me. “Take this. It’s your father’s. It holds information that might help you stop the enemy. Now go and save the elite. Save our world.”
He stayed all these years not only for me but for my father. Out of love for us both.
I hug him and kiss the top of his head. “I love you, Benny.”
I limp down the stairs and out into the night.
CHAPTER 19
SHARNIZA
It’s late by the time we retire to my room, and excitement and nerves fizz low in my belly. I’m about to mate with Derek. It feels like a dream, and a few weeks ago, I might have believed myself undeserving of this, but now I know differently.
I deserve to love and have someone love me back. Not just for a moment or for a night, but for a lifetime.
Derek is that person.Myperson, and I’m so fucking honored that he’s chosen me.
He locks the door then opens the drapes to light up the room with starlight before joining me by the bed. He looks larger wreathed in moonlight. Every plane and angle of his body lovingly highlighted by starlight’s kiss, and damn if he isn’t bringing out the poet in me.
“I think this might hurt you,” Derek says. “I don’t want to hurt you…”
“I don’t mind a little pain if it binds us.” I want this. Want him. “I should…should lie down for this.”
“Yes, Mirrowind said you might get dizzy.”
I climb onto the bed and lie on my back. Derek lies beside me and gently brushes his fingers down the side of my face. “Are you sure that you want this, my Shar?”
I’ve never been so sure of anything in my life. “Areyousure that you want me?”
“More than anything in this world,” he says softly. “I want you now and forever.”
