Page 86 of The Gods Forbid

It took several minutes for me to talk myself into leaving my bedroom that morning. Sebastian had left sometime early in the morning. I didn’t tell him I knew he stayed, though at some point in the night I’d cracked my eye open and almost offered the other half of my bed to him. He was too large to spend that much time in a chair.

When I finally gathered the courage to leave my room, Sebastian was already in the kitchen, coffee mug in hand, looking exactly the same as he did every morning.

My sigh of relief racked my entire body.

“Good morning,” I said, my voice still sounding a little hoarse.

“Good morning,” Sebastian said, and it seemed like he was trying to force a smile to his face. He extended the coffee cup to me, my necklace catching the dim morning sun. I hadn’t realized that rays of sun even made it through my window this early in the morning, but I was so distracted by the way his strong wrist looked against the thin gold chain to pay it any attention. “If you would, love, please hurry up and sit down. You couldn’t have possibly chosen a worse spot in the book to pause.”

“You’ve read it,” I said, taking the cup out of his hands. I’d gotten used to bracing myself for the jolt of lightning that shot up my arm when our hands brushed. “You know what happens.”

“My memory isn’t that strong,” he said, ushering me over to a seat.

“You have a perfect memory. You could probably recite the whole thing back to me right now,” I said through a laugh.

“You flatter me.” A grin was plastered on his face in full form.

This was normal for us. I was so relieved, my limbs felt heavy and warm. We’d been growing closer, definitely forming some sort of friendship forced upon us by the proximity, but last night was … a lot.

I tried not to think too hard about how easy it was to establish a routine with him.

In the mornings, he started reading while I ate since he was always up and painting before I was. I took over after I handed him another cup of coffee.

We almost got into a physical altercation over the dishes. It started as us bickering over who would do them, but ever since touching had been brought into the equation, Sebastian looked like he was seconds away from picking me up and moving me away from the sink if I beat him to it.

When it was the other way around, I had half a mind to jump on his back until he let me do them.

Sebastian was not willing to argue with me this morning, mumbling something about my ankle under his breath. He knew damn well it was probably in a better state than it had been my entire life after he healed it, but I sat down on the couch anyway.

It was a Saturday. I could rest.

“What do you have planned today?” he asked, as he toweled his hands off, leaning against the sink.

“Nothing,” I said, with a megawatt smile on my face.

Sebastian laughed, coming over to sit on the couch with me. We read for a while, our own books this time, then he tried to teach me how to make pasta, which turned into a floury mess. Some time in the afternoon, I snuck off to my part of the studio, trying to ignore the openly curious expression on Sebastian’s face.

It wasn’t a secret, but I didn’t know why I wasn’t telling him yet. Probably the same reason I was so nervous to read aloud in front of him the first time.

It was a perfect day, really. Until we went to sleep.

I always stayed awake a little longer than he did. There was a good chance I was imagining it, but I was pretty sure I could hear his breaths steady each night.

Only this time, about an hour after we both walked into our respective rooms, a blast of heat shot through the walls.

This had happened before, the warmth in the house kicking up a bit at the same time he seemed to toss and turn in bed, but never like this.

It felt like the sun was seconds away from crashing into my house.

I was pretty sure he was having a nightmare. That was the only thing I could think of that could make his power go out of control like that.

Maybe it just took him a second to get through it, then he’d be fine. I didn’t want to barge in there and cross a—

Ow. Okay, that was too hot.

He’d helped me. Maybe I could help him.

All I knew was that I couldn’t leave him like this. I would suffer the heat if I thought he was okay, but this was unlike anything I’d ever felt from him.