He lifted her up into the darkness although a familiar light had returned, and lowered them both into the brook. She glanced back to see the stone from the night before lying on the ground where they had joined, but the cool water over her raw skin tore her attention away.
They sat in silence within the comforting glow and let the water rush over their skin. Yahiro shifted until her cheek rested against his chest and enjoyed the stolen moment.
It was full dark now and had been for quite some time but she wasn’t afraid. For the first time since she could remember, the night held no sway over her. Quist held her close and leaned back. She was moved with him. A smile graced her lips despite the raw ache between her legs and the friction burns over her skin when wet feathers flowed past her and down the stream in plumes. She picked one up and held it.
“What happens if you don’t find Lusheenn?” Yahiro asked softly. She wanted to remain with Quist but the thought of an endless world hunt didn’t sound appealing to her.I’d join him though. I don’t want to be alone anymore.
“I’ll find him,” he said with conviction.
“How do you know?” Yahiro twirled the wet feather in her hand.
“I was born for it.”
“Your Creator created you to kill him?”Doesn’t make sense.
“Yes. From the moment I rose from the clay and out of the light I knew my purpose. My anger stems from the moment my eyes opened,” he mused as if the memory was a fond one. She didn’t understand it and didn’t try to. She never understood what drove most people to do what they did. “He knew it too.”
Her confusion grew. “He should... if he created you for that purpose?”
“No... it was in the back of his... thoughts?”
“Conscious,” she corrected in English. “Why didn’t he kill you if he knew what he created hated him?” She felt his wings lift and lower behind her, his entire body shrugging.
“He never destroyed any of his creations. Not directly. None of it matters since it all has already come to pass. I feel him, human Yahiro. Last night I felt him more than I ever had during the spans of time. It brought me back to life and brought me to you. He’s close.”
They both tilted their heads and looked at the stone. Her spine stiffened as a shiver coursed through her. She was suddenly cold and unable to breathe. Gingerly, she unthreaded herself away from him and moved back to the shore, picking up her cast about clothes, and carefully put them on, needing, yet hating the feel of the polyester over her skin.
Quist left the brook to follow after her, flinging water from his wings. They banded around her, magically dry, and pressed her back into his hard chest. He lifted her in his arms and tickled her ear with his hot breaths.
She felt vulnerable and protected but wary that he’d strip her naked and take her again without restraint, knowing she was too tired to stop him, knowing she wouldn’t regardless of how she felt. Thinking about it made her body respond with desire.
His voluminous cloth pants were another barrier between them, but as she felt its belted cord dig into her skin, she knew it would only be a moment for him to get naked again.
“Quist,” she squeaked while his wings blanketed her. Yahiro pressed her thighs harder together to relieve the sudden, yawning emptiness that bloomed, and focused on the well-used pain he’d inflicted without knowing.
“Did I hurt you?” he asked, suddenly, as if he’d known her thoughts. “I saw enjoyment on your face before...”
“You didn’t hurt me,” she said and swallowed, her body burning in a blush.
When their eyes locked, the connection burst like wildfire between them again. Yahiro reached out and closed her fingers over the familiar weight of the glowing stone. The luminescence it gave was weak but appeared to grow stronger with each passing second.
Quist placed his hand over hers as she lifted the stone between them, peeling her fingers back. In the low light, its rounded edges were covered in gilded rose-gold. The patterning stemmed throughout the clear parts of the rock like veins which glowed more vibrantly as the minutes passed.
“It came back,” Quist murmured.
“How? I swear I haven’t been carrying it all this time.” Yahiro plucked at her lower lip, allowing Quist to take the stone from her hand and flip it from side to side. Her palm burned from where it had been.
“It vanished at dawn. I watched it do so. Perhaps it doesn’t exist during the day. It makes sense.”
Her eyes met his. “How? That doesn’t make sense at all. Things don’t vanish like that.”Aliens don’t exist. Alien gods definitely didn’t exist. Sunlight that bathes is too good to be true. God killers are only found in fiction books.Yahiro frowned.
“Things vanish all the time in Sonhadra,” he responded sadly.
“Lusheenn might come back...”she said, thinking he spoke of his creator.
His lips peeled back in disgust. “He’s already back. I feel him more than ever near this stone.” Quist scanned the vicinity around them in earnest.
She hugged herself tighter and refused to look about with him, shivering, wanting to again reach for a weapon that wasn’t there and to hold on to its imaginary comfort. But what she had instead was a man with a whip and a set of wings.
