Page 41 of Stitches
“Yes?”
Ashmedai looked frozen again, lost. His grip loosened, but he didn’t release Levi. He looked down, gathering his thoughts or maybe his nerve before he met Levi’s gaze again. “If you could dream up a different life, would you? What would you want your life to be if you could haveanything your heart desired?”
For the longest time, the thought that Levi couldchoosehadn’t even entered his mind. He was Braxton’s and would always be Braxton’s, content to stay sequestered in the tower or hide within his cloak when he was asked to venture outside.
Now, given the choice, all he wanted he had before him, because he had either already acquired it or believed it was just within reach.
So, he reached.
Levi shrugged Ashmedai’s hands from his shoulders to grasp the king’s face and kissed him. He didn’t think this was what Ashmedai meant by his question, but it was all Levi wanted. A queer sense of having wanted this before, something similar to this, stirred within him like… like one of his daydreams, a feeling that he had wanted this and not been allowed to take it, not without staying hidden like he had always been hidden. So he had resisted his desires and been so lonely because of it.
It didn’t make sense, but Levi could have sworn that even before he’d been created, he had known want, to be something other than what he was, to have someone he thought he could never have, someone like Ash… and in that moment, claiming Ash was all he could have asked for.
Levi boldly slid his tongue past Ashmedai’s teeth, feeling the barest scratch of their sharp points, and shivered all down his body. He wondered if Ashmedai could feel the prick of stitches at the corners of his mouth, but if he could, he didn’t seem to mind.
Ashmedai kissed back with a force as great as what he had used to pin Levi behind the stall. He kept Levi pinned, pressing into him as a turn of his head guided the path of their tongues and pushed their connection deeper. It was all so warm, heated, almost feverish, and every slow coil of Ashmedai’s tongue made Levi want more.
His hands shook as he lowered them from Ashmedai’s face to slidearound his neck and pull him closer. He felt Ashmedai cling just as tightly, wrapping strong arms around Levi’s waist and pressing their bodies flush. That was how Levi felt—flush—with no desire to lose the building heat in his stomach that made him press into Ashmedai harder and whine between their lips.
Ashmedai smiled like a contented shark when they pulled apart.
“C-can that… be my answer?”
As wide as Ashmedai’s smile had been, the way it sank made him look like he might weep, and Levi wasn’t sure why, because Ashmedai said, “Yes. Yes, it can. Keep taking your draught, Levi, and your daydreams should fade. Nothing else matters.” He cupped Levi’s cheek almost reverently. “Not as long as you are you.”
Levi had thought he would be more curious about Luccite’s findings, especially if Braxton had been consulted in the end too, but hearing Ashmedai say that… he couldn’t imagine a better answer.
Like many times before, Ashmedai walked Levi home. If smoothing stitches felt too intimate in front of the tower, then stealing another kiss there would be impossible. Therefore, Levi snuck one while they were halfway down the path, feeling content enough afterward that parting from Ashmedai wasn’t nearly as bittersweet.
The next day, Levi didn’t even mind that he started his morning by heading into the wood again with Grillo.
Well, he started by taking his draught. He didn’t need daydreams. He didn’t like them anyway and was glad when Braxton said that the new batch of draught should be stronger. Whatever those visions were seemed far less important than the coming festival or when Levi wouldnext see Ashmedai.
This would be their last trek into the wood, Grillo had said, and Levi was surprised to find he felt saddened by that. He wasn’t as wary of the wood or nearing the barrier as he’d been in the beginning and looked around at the surrounding trees in pleasant wonder as he and Grillo traveled to where they would gather lumber.
There were several glider monkeys following them today. Since Levi and Grillo used the same path each time, the monkeys had grown used to them, bolder. Occasionally one would even drop down into the lumber cart. The monkeys stopped following, however, when the first of Levi’s crystals began to flicker.
Clever creatures.
Levi and Grillo turned left. They would be going farther today, having cleared most of the trees in the first area they utilized.
“Would you like to assist with building the final stalls?” Grillo asked, close at Levi’s side. “I also need to add a stage to Klarent’s, as you know. I hear you’ll be up there yourself at some point.”
“I will,” Levi said with a dip of his head. “And I would be honored to assist you. I am sure construction will be far easier than performance.”
Grillo chuckled. “Klarent roped me in too, so you won’t be alone.”
“Really? What is your talent?”
“Poetry reading,” Grillo answered with a wink. “Don’t tell Yen. I wrote it for her.”
The sweet sentiment of romance—still strong in a long-standing marriage between Grillo and Yentriss, the promise of it budding for Dreya and Luccite, and the progress of Levi’s own with Ashmedai—filled him with a warmth almost as blissful as being in Ashmedai’s arms.
Almost.
“You and Yentriss were married before the curse?” Levi asked.
“We were. I was a carpenter. No surprise there, I’m sure. And Yen,naturally, was a soldier. We were peaceful with the other kingdoms, so it was more a precaution against highwaymen. Most days she was a city guard, walking the streets. Since I was often out on the streets myself, working on various projects, well, how could I possibly ignore the seemingly indifferent, statuesque guard?”
