Page 27 of Obsidian Dream
After the bet, once he had the energy to drag himself back to his room, the first thing he had done was pour himself a more than healthy amount of whiskey and left the bottle uncapped next to it.Yet he could not bring himself to drink it—had just stared at it for an hour before he moved to the floor.And he had been there ever since.
Expensive designer black boots moved into his line of sight.Dante.He continued to stare at the inside of his eyelids, hoping the older Atlantean would take the hint.
He wasn’t that lucky.
Dante walked toward the nearest chair and settled in.He picked up the drink and took a sip, nodding in approval, despite the early hour.
“Today is not a good day.”Talik pushed.An understatement if there ever was one.Today was not only a harsh reminder that he’d failed as a father but also failed as a consort when Khalida needed him most.He’d walked away because he couldn’t see past his own pain.
“It never is.”
Talik lifted his arm off his face, pushing himself up on his elbows.Usually, he was too drunk to notice anyone around him.“You know what today is?”
Dante raised an eyebrow, not deigning to answer the question.
Blinking, Talik tried to think about the previous years.And through the alcohol-filled memories, he tried to recall a time when he was truly alone.But nothing came to mind.Dante, Kade, or Idris always found a reason to be around him, despite the sour mood he was in.
“Khalida is your cousin.”
Dante took another sip of the whiskey.“As she likes to remind me, but only when it suits her.”
Talik sighed.Maybe confessing his sins would alleviate some of the emotions he was drowning in.It worked for the humans.He glanced at Dante.But that would normally require the recipient to have some understanding of emotions.Cold and colder wasn’t exactly helpful.“I fucked up.”
The silence between them grew.
Talik swallowed, his throat suddenly dry.If he had been paying more attention to the date, he wouldn’t have suggested the bet.But there was no way he would have predicted what she was going to demand.It had triggered something deep within him, reacting on instinct rather than logic.He stared at the sandstone wall, his room was plain compared to most, focusing on a small imperfection as he gathered his thoughts.It was not something he was proud of or anything he could change.
In the darkness, Dante’s eyes glowed an unnaturally bright green, almost luminescent.Talik shut his eyes, but that didn’t stop Dante’s gaze from searing into him.
“I forgot.Khalida remembered,” Talik said.
The day was burned into his memories and his flesh, and no matter how far he tried to run from it, it was always with him.It was the only day he ever questioned why he’d won the so-called genetic lottery and inherited the Atlantean genes from some forgotten ancestor.
Today was the first time since he’d left, all those centuries before, that he was back in Egypt.On the land where Sidra was buried.A place that he had long been denied entrance to.“I forgot the day and then made a wager I shouldn’t have.”
“And I assume you won?”Dante asked.
What was it like to go through the world without having to feel?Without the ability to experience guilt?But he knew that wasn’t true.Dante, like most Atlantean aristocrats, was an expert at pretending he was ice cold.Even though there were days, even decades, he was positive Dante hadn’t been pretending.Despite Talik’s years around the Atlantean elite, he had never quite learned the skill.He always blamed his human genetics.
“Have you talked to Khalida?”
Talik looked at the ceiling, suddenly interested in everything else.
“No.”And he wasn’t ready to.He was too much of a coward.Over the years, the pain had dulled, but there was still a deep ache within the fading memories when he thought about Sidra.No matter how much he tried to hold on, every passing year he forgot another small part of her.
Talik turned to face Dante.Wallowing in the past and self-pity would not get him anywhere.“But that is not why you are here.And don’t give me thechecking up on meexcuse.”
“It isn’t an excuse.”
Perhaps it wasn’t.But Dante had been distracted lately.A certain Atlantean-human hybrid with flame-like eyes was keeping him preoccupied.And Talik wasn’t so far gone down his rabbit hole that he couldn’t do his job.Work would keep him occupied.That way, he didn’t need to look too closely at himself.He could work with Khalida—they were professionals.He needed to remember to keep his hands off her.Which shouldn’t prove hard, if the last look she gave him was anything to go by.
The digital clock on his wall flashed.They weren’t leaving until tomorrow, and that was plenty of time to rebuild the playboy persona back up and pretend he didn’t have a care in the world.An armor he was well accustomed to wearing, but it was an armor that was beginning to not fit anymore.“Have you interrogated Idris?”
A glimmer of darkness entered Dante’s gaze.“Half riddles and nothing coherent.”
The thought of spending the day in darkness and drinking himself into oblivion had lost its appeal, but the thought of channeling all his self-loathing toward someone else worked well with the mood he found himself in.“I will pay him a visit
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