Ezekial gasps on a laugh of shock, edged with pleasure as his eyes close. “Even now, unconscious, she senses us and knows we need grounding.”
I hum, no longer fighting, but indulging in the sensation I’ve refused for too long. Accepting it, completely.
Finally accepting that I may be possessive, controlling, dark to the bone. But I am also hers.
Always.
The small, serpentine shadow curls at my side, and this time, I won’t ignore it. I brush my fingers over its scales, letting it sink into me.
Chapter 49: Julien
Sai and I haven’t left the living room since Jasmine fell unconscious. She’s slept most of the day with her head cradled in my lap, and her feet upon Sai’s. Besides the occasional sound from the TV Sai turned on a few hours ago, there’s nothing but her steady breaths.
Ezekial left to find Kane, and we’re still waiting for their return. But I don’t mind the waiting, not when I hold something so precious.
Whatever Jasmine has awakened in Kane, I know it can only ever be good. Many beings fear change, but change is necessary—inevitable. And with Jasmine as our catalyst, I welcome the metamorphosis.
A loud explosion rips through the speakers and Sai mutters a sharp curse, lowering the volume as he glances warily at the side of her face.
“How much longer do you think she’ll be out?” His fingers brush over her bare calf.
“As long as she needs.”
He scoffs, slumping back in his seat again as he stares at the flickering screen. “What a typical Julien answer.”
There’s a bite in his voice, and it’s rare—Sai directing it at me—but I know this isn’t true anger. It’s worry dressed in its finest armour.
There’s only one time I can recall in which Sai was truly angry with me. The night he asked me to turn Orion.
In a past, long ago, when we were given a group of enforcer misfits to train. Technically, we’d been part of Ezekial’s unit for years by then, but neither Sai or I took our roles seriously. Not until we were handed that group.
The Chaos Crew, Sai called them.
A handful of wild, disobedient recruits who were close to being ‘expelled’. Ezekial had tossed them our way with a shrug and a challenge:Make something of them.
And somehow, we did.
They were reckless, loud, and insufferably young at times. But eventually, they listened, they learned, called us Uncle J and S. I was indifferent to the name, Sai swore he hated it, scoffing every time, but we never once stopped them saying it.
In time, they became some of the finest recruits to pass through the enforcer academy. Orion’s unit of three in particular we praised as being sharp, fearless, and loyal.
Years later, Orion’s unit was tasked with patrolling a stretch of neutral land near the necromancer border, unsettled territory rumoured to be pulsing with strange energy surges. But they never returned, and soon, we learned why.
The Necromancer King had captured the unit alive. He didn’t hide it, rather he decided to broadcast the moment with a warning:This is what happens to trespassers, he declared. A message to all who dared to enter the district no one but he could touch.
Delphine and Prospero told us we couldn’t go after them.It would be a breach of district boundaries, they said.It would be an act of war,they said.The necromancer district is too unstable, too dangerous, you’ll never survive,they said.
But Sai. Passionate, heated, loyal Sai, would never leave someone behind.
Not like he was.
We left that same night, the four of us. Enforcer unit Nimur.
We entered the Necromancer district, and we tore through it like a fire.
Even now, I still remember the scent of that wicked place, rot and insidious magic stitched together like something dead that refused to lie still.
We fought our way through the filth, we searched every building, every holding cell, every ruin leaving bodies in our path.
