Page 205 of Anathema

He let out a chuckle, and it was then I realized that it was the first time I’d really heard him laugh. The sound, so deep and unexpected, distracted me from my own.

The laughter died down to quiet again. How strange to find even a small measure of mirth when the world felt like it was crumbling around us. My thoughts spun back to the conversation with Elowen earlier, and the possibility that Aleysia was very likely dead. “Zevander?”

“Yeah.”

“Perhaps we should return to Nyxteros tomorrow. I’m …. Given the state of things. I just don’t imagine Aleysia would …” I couldn’t say it. Of course, I knew she was strong, but I just couldn’t imagine her surviving such a world. “I don’t want to give up–” My voice cracked and I cleared my throat.

“If she’s alive, Maevyth, it’s by the grace of the gods. No mortal stands a chance against Cadavros.”

“But if there’s a chance?”

“Wait until morning to decide. Assuming all hell doesn’t break loose tonight.”

I blinked to hold back tears and nodded. “Okay, we’ll wait until morning, then.” Turning back over, I let out a sigh of relief. “Thank you for coming after me.” The thought of being there alone brought more tears to my eyes.

A long pause followed. “You’re welcome.”

The room fell to a deafening quiet once again, as I lay staring at the cob walls that gave off an earthen odor.

Zevander shifted behind me, his bulky body jostling me around. I tilted back toward him, and when something brushed my backside, my body tautened. I jolted forward, kicking my leg out against his thigh.

“Oh! I’m sorry,” I said, scooting myself closer to the wall.

“Are you not wearing undergarments?”

Brows pinched to a frown, I turned to the side. “Did you intentionally touch me there?”

“Not intentionally.” In my periphery, I saw him slide his arm beneath his head. “Can’t say I regret it, though.”

I ran my tongue across my back teeth, slightly irritated and wholly embarrassed. “Well, I didn’t intentionally not wear them.”

“You unintentionally didn’t wear them?”

“They were … torn away by the creature that used to be my step-uncle. He was trying to–” I choked off the last bit, refusing to put myself back in that nightmarish moment. Acids shot to my throat at the visual of his manhood dangling over me.

Zevander made another sound of disapproval in his throat. “And did he burn with the house?” he asked through clenched teeth.

“Yes.”

“Pity. I’d have liked to divest him of his hands.”

“Well, you’d have had to piece them back together first.”

I heard him shift behind me. “Oh?”

“It seems I learned the spinal whip rather quickly while my virtue was in jeopardy.” When I glanced over my shoulder, I caught the dimple in his cheek, as if the thought of that pleased him. Strange, how much I liked the idea of pleasing him.

“How did it feel?”

“I don’t know. I was terrified at the time. Relieved, but also … confused.” Lying as far away from him as I was, I could feel the air leaking through the walls, and I wasn’t entirely certain whether it was the bitter chill, or the memory of that moment, that left me shivering right then.

“You’re cold,” he said.

“A little.”

The bed jostled again with his movement, and a radiant heat enveloped me as he wrapped his arm around me, drawing me back into his body.

“What are you doing?” I asked, startled by his hard chest pressed into my back and the bulge in his trousers that I could feel against my backside.

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