Page 36 of Blue Embers
Killian turned, reaching around to flip on the light. Inside, a green towel was on the floor in front of the tub and a hand towel hung on the rack by the sink. Killian stepped aside, letting me move past him into the bathroom.
“Where are your towels?” he asked.
“Closet in the hall,” I said.
Killian stepped over to the cabinets in the hall while I started unbuttoning my blouse, my hands still a bit shaky. Killian re-entered the bathroom with a fresh, folded towel, which he placed on the counter beside me before he made his way to the shower and started the water, letting it get warm while I undressed.
It wasn’t in my character to undress in front of people so carelessly, but I wasn’t exactly thinking about it at the moment. PLus, Killian and I already had sex. Part of me felt like he’d already seen me nude until I remembered that we didn’t even get each other’s clothes off when we had our moment at the museum.
I cursed myself, but continued undressing. Losing Artemis and seeing that fight all in the same hour had made me a bit less cohesive. I stripped down to nothing and pulled the tie from my hair before slowly making my way to the bath. Killian rose up, turning to me as I pulled the shower curtain back and slipped under the warm stream of water. He didn’t look at me for long. He turned his gaze away as I wet my face and then he headed slowly for the hall.
“I’ll wait for you,” he said, closing the door as he left, leaving it cracked as if to remind me I wasn’t there alone.
Letting the warm water consume me had a comforting effect. I didn’t know how much I needed it until I was under that stream, washing two days off my body and watching the water swirl down the drain by my feet. I scrubbed my hands with a cloth, remembering what Artemis felt like when I’d touched her. She felt heavy and inhuman. That corpse wasn’t her. I couldn’t bear to think about it. What I wanted to remember was her face when she was alive.
I took my time in the shower. It was a place to be alone and rinse away much more than sweat and oils from the past couple days. Once I finished, I felt something I never wanted to feel again. A loneliness that was growing with each second I continued to remind myself that Artemis wasn’t coming back. That I had no family. No friends. Nothing besides my work. My studies. My aspirations, which at this point didn’t seem worth it.
Grabbing the towel off the sink, I patted my hair and then wrapped myself up, staring at the fogged mirror. My blurred reflection stood in front of me, gazing through the haze like a ghost. I reached out, wiping the humidity from the glass to see my face looking back. I chanted encouraging words in my head, trying to dismiss the ache I was feeling in my throat. I was determined not to cry anymore.
Taking a deep breath, I turned and opened the bathroom door, padding barefoot down the hall toward the living room where I heard Killian’s voice concluding a conversation on his cell. When I stepped out, he was standing in front of the white coffee table, one hand in his pocket while he slipped his phone into the other and turned to look at me. A rush of relief came over me when I saw him again, despite seeing him only moments ago.
“I made some calls,” he spoke, his voice a welcome sound in the unbearable silence. “Your sister’s body is being moved to a private mortuary owned by the Draakir. She was an Ashling, so they’ll treat her quite well. It’ll be ready when you are.”
I nodded, unsure exactly what I was supposed to do with a body. Artemis had been sick for a while, but we’d never discussed any plans. I was always reluctant to and hated when she brought it up.
“I never let her tell me what she wanted,” I said, regretful. “We don’t exactly have a family plot reserved either.”
“Then don’t think about that now.” Killian moved slowly toward me.
“What am I supposed to think about now?” I said. “Did you talk to Saxon? Find out what he knows? I assume he knowssomething.”
“I told him I was making sure you were alright before I returned. Which I am. I also told him I’d come back with you.”
“No,” I refused. “My sister is dead. I have nothing to do with this anymore. Whatever you guys are doing, I can’t--”
“Saxon has things to say to you. Things your sister would have wanted you to know.”
“Like what?”
“You’ll just have to come back with me.”
I didn’t have anything to say to that. I wanted to know what Saxon had found out. I wanted to know what Artemis was about to tell me that day. I wasn’t sure how much it overshadowed the fact that Artemis was dead now. I was suddenly caught in the middle of something much larger than I was prepared for. I thought about the situation as a whole instead of focusing on Artemis alone and found myself wondering about so many things it was making my head hurt.
Looking up at Killian, his eyes were glowing dimly in the faint light of the one lamp near the side of the sofa. He looked much bigger in my house. The roof was closer to his head than it was in his two story manor. He took up more space in my small living room and, for the first time, I felt small but not in any way that made me afraid. Instead, I felt like nothing could touch me if he was standing there like a big shield. I stepped toward him, closing some space between us.
“Why are you here?” I asked him.
“To make sure you’re alright. Loss hurts us deeply.”
“Does it hurt you? Have you lost people?”
“Many,” Killian said. “But Draak,” he exhaled. “We expect to lose people. Deep down, we know we’ll be the last ones standing in the end. We always are.”
“So why get attached?”
“I don’t,” he denied.
“Then why do you care if I’m alright?”
