Page 107 of A Game of Monsters

I was aware that there was no bed in the room. But I had no plans to leave, and Erix didn’t need to be told that either. I put it down to Erix realising that if the tables were turned, and it was me who’d just faced a death, he’d have to be pried away to leave my side.

I smiled at the unspoken knowledge.

“Come here,” Erix said, taking my hand and leading me off to the side of the room. We stopped before a thick pillar of cool marble. Threads of black veins spread amongst the stone. Erix sat himself against the pillar, spreading his legs out on either side.

He patted the space between them. “Lie down with me.”

Altar, that command almost brought me to my knees.

I tried to find an excuse for him to go find a bed and to leave me. But it would’ve been wasted breath. So I did as he commanded. I nestled myself between Erix’s legs, laying my head on his chest. His body was hard with muscle, and yet I melted into him, feeling at home even surrounded by this strange place. There was no need for bedding in such a hot climate. But Erix rested a wing over us, offering me the cool air in his body-made shadow.

I looked up to where Duncan’s cocoon hung ahead of us. Even from the distance, I could still hear the strong thump of his heart, and how it played in symphony with the chime of bells.

But there was another beat that sang to me too. Erix’s heart echoed through my back, spreading across my chest until I was full of him.

“Erix?” I said, closing my eyes to hide myself away from his reaction.

“Yes, little bird?”

I took a deep breath in, drinking in the scent of him. “Do you remember the dream you had, the one Duncan used Duwar to give you?”

“I could never forget it.” Erix lowered his mouth to my scalp and pressed a kiss to it.

“Can you tell me what you experienced?” I asked.

You called for me, so I came.

“It was of us.” Erix’s wings tightened, holding me close. “The three of us, that is.”

I exhaled a breath full of tension. My mind came up with an answer to Erix’s concern from moments ago. “So, even back then, Duncan was showing us the possibility of a future.”

“I suppose he was.”

In the moment, I thought it was Duwar taunting me, using a weakness I didn’t know I still had against me.

Erix took a moment to pause, thoughts swirling behind those bright eyes of his. “All we can do is wait for him to make it through, and once he is in his right mind, we will see what he says.”

“And if the proposal is the same?” I asked, hope glittering across my words.

I found myself holding my breath for his answer.

“Little bird, I made a promise to never leave you again. I too am a man of my word. I plan to stick to it.”

“Good,” I said, wishing it was physically possible to press into him more.

“Now sleep,” Erix said. “I’ll wake you if anything changes with Duncan.”

“What about you?” I asked. “Surely you are tired too.”

“Exhausted,” Erix answered. “But for just a moment, I would like to enjoy this. Us. The chance of a tomorrow.”

“There is a chance for more than just a tomorrow, Erix. There could be so much more.”

So much more. Me, Erix and Duncan. But first, we had a world to save.

I woke from a dreamless sleep, startled beneath the sky-shattering boom of thunder. My eyes opened to a dark room, but it wasn’t because night still ruled the sky outside. A storm had finally rolled over Irobel, casting the once-blue sky in a blanket of dark cloud. But unlike the others, this was one was here to stay.

“Robin – where?” Erix mumbled frantically, sitting up, jolting me forwards.

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