Running a hand through his hair, he scanned the treeline on the other side of the clearing. Moonlight highlighted the tension in his features. “Remember when I explained to you how we raise our children? The fairy tales about kingdoms and wars that the teachers read to kids before their naps and the games they play outside, inconspicuous yet molding their minds into what we need them to be?”
“Yes,” I said, and swore at my boot getting stuck in the leg of my pants.
Gedeon took over, gathering the fabric of my pants and slowly gliding it up my calf and thigh. Kneeling on one knee, he secured the single black button and my zipper. “Sometimes, you have to sacrifice the king for the queen and her knight to win.”
“That’s not how fairy tales work, Gedeon, and you know it.”
He rose to his full height, owning every inch of his stature. “Rules do not exist in war, little death.”
“Don’t call me that.” I pulled the sides of my jacket together to ward off the cold, both nature-born and induced by him.
He smirked. “And why should I not?”
“You know why.” Ignoring the wetness drenching my underwear, I gestured to his stomach. “I almost killed you, Gedeon.”
He caught my wrist. “Almost. I’m not that easy to murder.”
“Don’t joke like that.” One tug, and he released me. Disappointment washed over my senses, and I folded my arms to keep them away from him.
“I have told you this before. I will not leave you alone, Kali. I am your future, and I fully intend to keep my promise.”
A snort fled me. “Good luck. You have no idea how hard I wish to strangle you.” Twisting on my heel, I trudged deeper into the forest. “You chose today, of all days, to appear. Why now? Why not a year from now? Or better yet, a decade?”
Deliberately loud footfalls told me he was set on following me. “Because I could not stand aside and allow Ilasall’s military to take you away.”
Stopping and turning to him, I rubbed the tattoo I’d gotten under my collarbone, currently hidden by my uniform shirt. “You’re an idiot.”
“I am astrategist. You have an army willing to listen to your commands now, Kali. A united one.” He took a step toward me, shoulders slumping when I backed away. “It’s called a long game.”
A twig crunched under my step, the strength required to break it insignificant compared to the effort it took me to say, “You may be smart, Gedeon, but sometimes, you can’t see what’s right under your nose.”
He arched an eyebrow. “And what are you hiding there?”
“That you hurt me.” I rolled my right sleeve up to my elbow to expose the ink he’d designed with Zion. “I asked for one thing—your trust, and you couldn’t even give me that.”
He took another step, and I held my hand up. “No. Don’t say anything, or I will ensure your death myself.” Slinking deeper into the shadows roaming the forest, I said, “I have a shift at Vice, but once I return”—I lifted my chin in hopes to level my voice as the words eroded me like acid—“I hope you will be gone.”
17
GEDEON
Her request cut me more painfully than the knife she had buried in my colon and which had nicked my kidney. The torturous week I had spent under the doc’s and his team’s strict supervision held nothing to how her rejection sliced me wide open.
Turning her back to me, she carelessly stomped through the woods, oblivious to?—
She startled.
Leaning against an ash tree, Zion studied her, a rumple of black fabric thrown over his shoulder. In her rage, Kali had missed that I wasn’t the only one concerned with her safety.
At least she had not stumbled. Zion had been teaching her well. Their daily trips to our training rings had paid off. Observing her form while he pointed out her mistakes had been particularly amusing. Particularly when she would not give up regardless of how far Zion pushed her, and after a while, he would resort to throwing her over his shoulder and carrying her home.
She would huff and puff her protests, but his grin would simply spread wider. And every time it happened, it would call out my own smile.
A wide array of proverbs had survived in our folklore, but there was one I could attest to. You could not comprehend the value of something,someoneuntil you were faced with their absence.
And enduring the loss of Kali and Zion had been worse than the seven days of no intense movement, no wandering around, and no training, as per the doc’s orders. Not even counting the three-week physical therapy he had put me through before relenting and issuing his approval for me to resume my regular workout regime.
Moonlight filtering through the tiny leaves dotting the branches bathed Zion’s chin, the bow above his thin upper lip, the tip of his pink tongue darting out to run over his heavy bottom lip—the tic he seldom succumbed to, only when he was truly nervous.
