But a crinkling of paper drew me out of my untroubled state, and I swiveled to find Zion completely naked. Apparently, towels were too restricting, as he’d once pointed out.
Peering into a brown package sitting on the counter, he chuckled, his shoulders shaking.
Curiosity tended to get the better of me, including in situations like these, and I snatched the bag from him. One peek was enough to determine that something forged out of steel rested at the bottom. One end rounded, the other a flat oval. But the longer I studied it, the less sense it made.
As Zion closed the package, a million creases damaged the paper. “I don’t think we were supposed to find this.”
Stroking Shadow’s back, I asked, “What was that thing inside?”
“It’s for this.” Zion lifted my towel, slapped my ass,hard, and dashed into our bedroom.
While the sting morphed into a burn, I gaped at the doorway. A creak revealed he’d leaped onto the bed—his sanctuary. As if I wasn’t going to smother him with my pillow in his sleep.
But Gedeon had asked for peace. One hour of peace. I could do that. I could patiently wait for Zion to slacken, to ventureinto the dreamworld, and then use the giant duvet Gedeon had procured from somewhere to close the idiot’s airways.
Rubbing my backside, I resigned to suffering another night of care and intimacy. Because that was what they entailed. Endless caresses, gruff grunts, and a tangle of limbs.
“You will never leave me, right?” I nuzzled Shadow’s head, peppering it with pecks. “You will stay here and be okay.”
Three days remained until we marched to Ilasall, but it felt like the war had already found its way to me. A lone thought about returning to an empty bed would weaken my knees.
Lowering our pet to the floor, I hung my towel on the hooks lining the wall. If I left the bathroom with the fluffy fabric covering me, Zion would shred it like any other offending piece.
Marble tiles changed to hardwood floors as I strolled back into our bedroom. Curling up beside Zion, I nestled into him, savoring the weight of his arm on my waist.
“Will you ever tell what was in the package?” I asked, toying with the hem of the duvet. Not knowing drove me crazy. After learning a world outside Ilasall existed, secrets had become a nuisance I wasn’t willing to tolerate.
He stuffed his nose into my wet strands. “It’s a?—”
The bedroom door opened. Warm light spilled onto the floor, distorting the shape of Gedeon’s shadow growing on the wall.
Whether I wanted to admit it or not, relief filled me at the sight of him.
Noticing us comfortable in bed and not in the shower, Gedeon dragged a hand down his face, muttered something incomprehensible, and vanished into the bathroom.
As the pitter-patter of the spray reverberated off the tiles, I huddled closer to Zion, stifling a giggle at his grumble about my cold feet. “It’s either me wearing socks or using you as a heater.”
“We should bring you down to Eislyn,” he groused, drawing idle patterns on my belly. “No one’s limbs should be this cold.”
“Not all of us are walking furnaces,” I protested. Admiring how Gedeon emerged from the bathroom, as bare as the rest of us, I wiggled out of Zion’s hold and threw the giant duvet aside—fine, perhaps, it took me, like, three tries, but still—and patted the empty space. “Come here.”
Standing at the foot of the bed, Gedeon glared at the mattress. Not once had he slept between Zion and I, but this was the perfect opportunity to change it.
“We need to protect our strawberry.” Zion sprawled across half of the mattress, effectively eliminating any other option of where Gedeon could settle in. “What if someone barges in?”
Gedeon took a slow, deep, controlled breath.
Yet he clambered onto the dedicated spot. Together with Zion, we launched, pushing Gedeon onto his back and plastering ourselves to his sides. Not a minute passed before his muscles loosened. And as the night invaded the room, so did the calmness.
Looking from Zion to me, he asked, “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“You’re relaxed.” I rested my palm on his pectorals in a hunt for his heartbeat.Thud. Thud. Thud.“It’s a rare sight.”
Gedeon stared at the ceiling, at the limit of the room—at the limits we all had. His chest rose with his inhales, but if not for that, he would resemble dead weight. A skeleton about to start decaying.
He was here, but he wasn’t present.
Though it didn’t surprise me. Yesterday and today had been difficult. Witnessing him and Zion crumble at Conall’s house, at the feet of their friend’s corpse, had been a harrowing experience. It’d forced me to question whether I’d looked the same after I’d learned of Alora’s end. As catatonic as my men had been.
