Page 81 of Ronan

“Were there other Anunians there besides you and your father?”

“A few, although the others were often wary of us because of our history as warriors. My father’s closest friend was the ancient Bemesse lady next door, Shon’ya. They’re a race of scholars, and she was old even by their standards.” My smile widens as I remember her kind yellow eyes. “Gods, what a pair they made. She didn’t even come to his shoulder, and her deep brown skin was covered in wrinkles, but her mind was razor sharp. I don’t know that I ever asked her a question she couldn’t answer.”

“I bet you asked a lot of questions as a child,” he says, and I huff a laugh.

“So many questions. She was the unofficial village matriarch, and the reason my father and I were permitted to stay when we arrived. The others were not so quick to accept us, although we eventually built a home there. One away from the fighting, just like my father had been dreaming of.”

“Tell me about the trees.” Cameron’s voice is slowing, getting heavier and quieter as he snuggles his face into my chest.

“You always have loved the forest,” I muse, and he gives a sleepy nod against me. “Trees are taller there, some of them reaching so high, their tips touch the clouds. Every color you could dream of—purple and blue, bright yellow, and even some with green leaves that resemble the trees here.”

“My favorites were the Dirdira that grew along the banks of the rivers. Their branches were tiny things, skinnier than my fingers, and they formed a curtain that fell all the way to the grass.” I glance at my palm in the darkness. “Pale yellow… almost the same color as our marks.”

“Back when they glowed,” he adds, and I chuckle with a nod.

“Yes, back when they glowed. The light pushed through like a prism when you were underneath, painting rainbows across the grass. If you touched the branches, they lit up like fireflies. It had something to do with the microorganisms that lived within the leaves, although I’ll admit I was daydreaming when it was explained to me.”

Cameron’s laugh blows across my neck as he presses a barely-there kiss against my skin, listening intently. “As a child, I would hide underneath them, running in circles and dragging my fingers along the branches. I’d run until I was dizzy, then fall to the ground and lie on my back, staring at the masterpiece of luminescence around me.”

“It sounds so beautiful,” Cameron whispers, and his limbs twitch as sleep tries to pull him under.

“It was,” I whisper back, pressing my lips against his head and closing my eyes, desperate to hold on to that memory as long as I can, and terrified of the day I wake up to find it gone. “The most beautiful thing I’d ever seen until the day I met you.”

Reyes perches on a small, empty section of the countertop. “You’re sure you don’t mind us taking all these things?” Cameron asks.

“Explain to me why he gets an opinion on the matter,” I grumble, gesturing around at the towering stacks of supplies filling the garage. “And why he's even out here? I thought he was hiding?”

“Saw you getting ready to leave and wanted to see you off,” Reyes says with a snarky grin, but I ignore him, gesturing at the piles of stuff.

“What’s here could supply him for the next decade, and he’d still have a surplus. Not to mention, he already told us his little goblin caves are filled with way more than what we’ve collected up here.”

“Doesn’t change the fact that it’s his stuff,” Cameron argues, as Reyes glances warily between us.

“Possession is nine-tenths of the law,” I mutter.

“Thought possessionisthe law for monsters? You just swept me from that jail cell and claimed I was yours.”

“Funny, that’s not exactly how I remember that happening.”

He nods, a serious expression on his face as he turns to Reyes. “Oh, of course he’d remember it differently, am I right? Picture this—me, trapped in a dark, dirty cell. Ronan, clad in his officer leather. What’s this? Interrogation room, but why?”

“What sort of fucked up improv are you doing?” I ask, horrified, but he ignores me.

Cameron’s grin is manic as he continues. “Rebel scum, they call me, but it’s all lies. A smack of the hand, my bread thuds to the ground.”

“Stop,” I beg, covering his mouth with my palm, but the little shit licks me and wiggles away.

“You are mine now, he claims, then—slam! Stuffed in a trunk… why is it so dark?”

“Oh, my gods, smite me down now,” I groan, burying my face in my hands. Cameron loses it, giggling hysterically as he comes over and hugs me, his body shaking against my chest.

“Y’all are fucking weird,” Reyes says, and I just shrug, because after that performance?

Yeah.

“You’re the one living in a rat hole.”

“It’s not a rat hole. It’s a very nice secret apartment with my favorite stuff in it.” Ignoring me again, he focuses on Cameron. “Don’t feel guilty about the supplies.Consider it payment for getting that solar panel up and running. They all died when raiders took the parts a couple of years ago. I managed, but having hot water and lights is a luxury after so long without them.”

---