He let out a breath as rose to his feet and held out his hand for Finnian to grab onto. “How do you feel about pomegranates?”
“Let me guess.” Finnian intertwined their fingers together. “It’s called thePomegranate Orchard?”
Cassian laughed, leading him to the hawthorn coppice. “Let us start there.”
23
ACHES OF TIME
Finnian
The Past
There issomething he isn’t telling me.
A guttural feeling flared in him each time he graced the subject of Ruelle.
They did not have the type of relationship where they kept things from each other. They spoke of their troubles, counseled one another, granted advice if need be. And when they disagreed, they always met each other with guards lowered.
Life with Cassian was coming home after a long, mind-numbing day to find him on the sofa, cravat untied and hanging around his neck, all his buttons undone, dozing off to the sweet silence Finnian’s home provided. He’d peek one eye open and give a genuine smile as Finnian sauntered over to lie with him. They’d rest in the quiet of each other’s company for a minute, and then talk throughout the night, sharing details of their days, until it transitioned to hours of kissing and hands pulling at each other’s clothes. Some nights were sensual and slow, and others were sultry and starved.
It became a ritual. Whether they were in Finnian’s home in Hollow City or Cassian’s palace in the Land of the Dead, they had integrated into each other’s lives. Something about that unsettled Finnian the more he turned over Ruelle and her need for revenge in his mind.
He laid in bed with Cassian stretched out beside him. The soft intakes of his breath indicated he’d finally drifted to sleep. Not that deities needed it, but Finnian had learned over the years that when he lulled Cassian into it, he would wake feeling refreshed after the temporary halt to his overworked brain.
The crackle of the fire from the hearth filled the dark room.
Finnian tucked his hand under his head and stared at the ceiling. The obsidian glinted against the glow, and the time they strolled down the countryside in Augustus played in the front of his thoughts.
Darkness only scares those afraid of the unknown.
It had been over a decade since he’d sat on the bank surrounded by moonflowers, listening to Cassian say those words.
He’d felt the walls of his chest heave then, just as they did now.
Darkness. The unknown. All of it petrified him to his core. To stumble in its jaws, unprepared and helpless.
The fireflies had always been something he envied. They had the power to carry the light with them everywhere they went.
He extended his arm upward and a trail of magic glistened like a stream dipped in the cosmos, swirling and grasping at the ceiling.
“Movere lucem.”
The twinkling specks spread across it. A swarm of dazzling fireflies embedded in the crystal, the luminescence permanently fusing with the obsidian.
Finnian stared at them, his heart brimming as he reminisced—the cushioned seats of the theater hall, how engrossed he had been in the music when Everett quietly sat in the chair beside him, the scent of freshly plowed grass and petrichor as they strolled down the dirt path into the trees. All the efforts on Finnian’s part to enticeEverett. He was attractive and Finnian had full intentions of seducing him.
The hand on his throat and the appearance of Cassian looking back at him had genuinely taken him off guard. The shock had frozen through him like a creek during winter.
Now, though, their past as enemies made him smile with nostalgia. He’d always enjoyed pressing Cassian’s buttons and tousling his flawless composure, intrigued to see what lay beneath the surface. His darker side had always appealed to Finnian.
He quietly sat up and snuck out of the bed.
With a swivel of his wrist, his trousers appeared around his waist. He slipped into his linen shirt, not bothering to button it up, and headed towards the door.
He gave a final peek behind him to ensure Cassian’s eyes were still shut before sliding out of the room.
Dusk filled the sky,spilling silhouettes across the Pomegranate Orchard. Slick, inky-black serpents slithered and coiled around the base of the trees. They hissed as Finnian strolled by.
