“Is he…purring?” He was already unbearably adorable, but add in the faint vibration originating from him… “I don’t want to let him go.”
Zion shook his head. “So it’s a he?”
“I didn’t see.” I cradled him closer to me. “But I don’t care.”
“If we keep him, you’ll have to feed him. Bathe him too, and believe me, cats hate water.” He gave me a pointed look. “And he’ll litter the floor with dung.”
“Gedeon used to have a cat.” My throat clogged up at the mention of his name. “How did he take care of it?”
Zion exhaled heavily. “They had a litter box for her in the bathroom.”
“Her?”
A sad smile graced him. “Her name was Dusk.”
“That’s a lovely name.” Suiting both the cat and Gedeon—always surrounded by the gloom, claimed by the darkness, veiled by the shadows. “What if we name this one Shadow?”
“A shadow never hurt anyone.” Zion reached to scratch under Shadow’s chin, and the kitten struck his paw at him.
My shoulders shook as I tried to contain my mirth.
3
GEDEON
Leaning against an elm tree, the fissured bark snagged on my leather jacket. Not a cloud floated in the blue expanse as I gazed through the bare branches at the bright sky.
Dawn had broken a few hours ago, and I relished the steadily climbing warmth. Spring had officially decimated the winter and made itself comfortable on the season’s throne.
It had been a while since there was a morning as such. The last couple of months had been…survivable—my jaw clenched at the lie the word carried—but before last summer, before I had taken Kali for myself, before I had succumbed to Zion, my mornings used to suck.
Every one, I would wake up on the edge of a metaphorical chasm. Alone. And every time, my own shadow would push me into it, and I would fall. And fall. And fall.
Darkness would descend, starting its journey along the sides of my body, and slowly, it would enshroud my entire being. The last light would leave my vision, and I would dissolve, grow lost in the void.
But somehow, I would still reach the bottom, the pit of the underworld, where the god from the tale my father had used toread to me awaited me. A blaze would reduce me to char, but that crackling sound?
It would rise not from the firewood, but from my bones fracturing and breaking. Blisters would strew my chest, each bubble bursting with ice, further singing my deteriorating body.
Yet I would keep my mouth shut. Because a god would loom over me, lurking, patiently waiting for me to lose my composure.
Eventually, I would. A scream would slip past my defenses, and the deity would glow in victory, dragging me to his horde of demons. Their fangs would tear off my cooked flesh I didn’t think I had anymore.
Delirium would become my salvation until I realized I had no muscles left, no nerve endings, no neurons firing in my brain. The universe would bleed me dry until everything stilled.
Except death. It would circle me at a distance, always out of reach.
But a single thought about Zion’s and Kali’s eyes would end my torment. A pair of ocean blue would suck me in like a whirlpool, a vortex drowning me in its depths. And a pair of forest-green would wrap around me like seaweed, its tendrils raining caresses and calling me back to life.
My bones would forge themselves out of ash, my flesh would weave back together, and I would take the first breath in eternity. I would come alive again.
Because before I’d metthem, I had been a senseless corpse marching around and barking orders to ensure our compound’s survival.
But they had hauled me out of that inescapable pit I had used to spend my days in. Nights, too.
And today’s morning served as a cover to that pit so I wouldn’t fall back into it. Not that I would entertain such a possibility when twigs and withered greenery crunched under the heavy footfalls of Kali and Zion striding no more than twentyyards from me, their figures invisible in the thick forest of this valley.
Admiring the flawless sky, I stuck my hands into the front pockets of my faded black jeans. My matching hoodie and jacket refused to keep my body heat at survivable levels for long. First days of spring or not, the chill swirled in the air and licked your fingertips, leaching their color until they whitened.
