Page 189 of Seer Prophet

He kissed me before I could ask him anything.

His light was softer than I’d felt it in weeks… months maybe.

By comparison, I felt hard and closed and covered in edges.

I fought to open to him in return, to be there with him, and he kissed me again, blowing warmth over my light, caressing my back and sides with his fingers, nuzzling my face.

The sheer softness of him started to melt something in me.

I started to fall into him, into his light.

I wrapped my arm around his back––

And he winced.

I felt the shock of pain in his light… physical pain, not separation pain. I was close enough to him in both ways by then, it felt likemyphysical pain at first, not his. I pulled back in shock, tasting a faint nausea in the back of my throat.

Confused, I looked at his face.

My heart started beating harder in my chest, long before my mind could turn over the new information.

“What’s wrong with your back?” I asked.

“Nothing.”

Kissing my cheek, he pressed his face briefly against mine. Pain slid through his light, pulling at me. I was still fighting my thoughts clear when he lowered his mouth, kissing my neck, putting light in his tongue.

“Allie,” he murmured. “Relax. Just let me be here for you. Please.” He kissed me slower, his voice soft, full of light. “Did you take a shower? I can taste salt on you still.”

My confusion worsened.

I started to reach for his back, but he caught hold of my wrist, stopping me.

“Allie,” he said. “It’s fine.”

“But what happened to you? What’s wrong with your back?”

He just looked at me for a second, as if thinking. Then he exhaled, letting his weight fall to his side, so that he was lying next to me.

“You went to Yumi, right?” I looked at the timepiece shining faintly from the edge of his organic desk. “Were you with Yumi all this time?”

Clicking softly, he resettled his body deeper into the bed. Combing his fingers through his hair, he sighed again, as if resigning himself to dealing with me.

Somewhere in that pause, the light in his eyes dimmed.

His face darkened, his body outlined only in the pale, white-green light that shone from the edges of the floor, mostly so we wouldn’t bang into things if one us had to get up and use the bathroom in the middle of the night. In that fainter glow, he was only a dark shape, his black hair only slightly blacker than his skin.

“Do you really want to talk about this now?” he asked.

I stared at him, at where his face was, feeling that pain in my chest worsen.

“Talk about what?” I asked. “What are we talking about?”

“Allie.”

He reached for me, taking my hand. Threading our fingers, he blew warmth at me, along with another pulse of pain. I felt deeper emotions there. Grief, something that felt like worry, maybe even guilt, a denser caution that edged into fear.

“Allie… please. Today couldn’t have been easy for you. Please. Let me try to help you with it. Even if you’re mad at me about Dalejem still… or for not telling you I’d met Kali and your father all those years ago. You need to open your light, honey. That’s all I want. I want to be the one to help you for a change. Like you do for me.”

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