Page 88 of Blue Embers
His lips met mine and I melted, taking in the citrus and ocean scent that would forever remind me of him. Those subtle smells. His warm touch. His ice and fire eyes. Killian was everything to me. An idea that was both terrifying and exhilarating. He was mine.MyBlue Breath and I was his. When I felt his electric presence dance through my blood, I felt energized. I felt lighter and more alive. Killian restored happiness in me. Breathed life into my lungs.
I lifted my arms and wrapped them around his neck, kissing him deeper. More possessively. Even before my heart had caught up, I was his since the beginning. We were connected to each other until death.
When we parted, I cupped my hand against Killian’s cheek and smiled softly. He smiled back at me, His arms around my waist to hold me against him.
“You have no idea how much I need you,” I confessed.
“I do, actually,” Killian winked. “I can feel it, remember? You need me just about as much as I need you and that’s why we’re going to stick together in this crazy world we’ve built. You, a human, and me, a Draak. I’m not letting you go. Not even if you wanted me to.”
I chuckled, shaking my head at the notion. “I don’t want you to.”
“Good. Then perhaps we should plan that opening at the museum.”
“You think it’s safe?”
“No,” Killian laughed. “I really don’t. But if we live in fear of a society we’ve been trying to get to trust us, then we’ll never get anywhere. Isn’t that the point of our little project?”
“Yes. It is.”
“Then shall we?” Killian said, stepping back as if to go inside.
Shaking my head again, I pulled him close, relaxing in the cool wind and the dimming sunset. I pressed my head to Killian’s chest again and closed my eyes, capturing him once more in my arms.
“Not yet,” I sighed. “This is too good to cut short.”
“Well then,” Killian murmured, holding me tight. “Then I suppose we’ll have to stay here all night.”
37
Persephone
. . .
Killian allowed me all the time I needed to heal after I’d cast my sister’s ashes into the ocean. Truthfully, I just wanted to move on. I needed to. The weight of her death was like a bucket of stones on each shoulder, pulling me down into a darkness I didn’t want to be in. I used Killian as a floatation device every day, but I needed normalcy. I needed something to focus on and once again it was the museum that provided me with that. I’d been coordinating with a new assistant for a week and though Ben’s violent passing was still raw in my mind, I was trying my best to pick up the pieces the whole ordeal had left behind.
After a couple weeks of reorganizing, planning, cleaning, and getting the other relics to the museum, I felt as if I was hitting my stride again. Stepping into that place still gave me eerie chills, but since Killian had so much business of his own to attend to, he’d asked Malice to watch over me. It was hard not to feel safe with a hardened Draak following me around and it even provided some comic relief every time I heard him arguing or flirting with someone new in his Scottish tongue. Mostly, however, he stayed out of the way and let me do my work. Still, even a giant Draak tailing me all over the city couldn’t take my unpleasant memories away.
Every time I saw that stairway in the exhibit hall I saw Ben hanging from it. Every time I looked at the marble floors, I saw my blood smeared across them. Because of that, I left most of the work that had to be done at the museum itself to my assistant, Lyrah, after I’d gotten her up to speed.
News of the attack had made it to every outlet there was, so Lyrah never asked questions about my reluctance to meetatthe exhibit when we had to discuss things. She did, however, have a fondness for my blond bodyguard and Malice never ceased to toy with her. I’d caught him tossing her winks and smirks a few times and she’d even brought him cookies at some point saying she’d made too many and wanted to get rid of them. It was quite entertaining to say the least.
Finally, when the press wasn’t talking about rebellion or Phyre Glass, they announced the opening of the Draak exhibit, only now we’d added a few things. Per Lyrah and Killian’s suggestions, we had put numerous artifacts and historical retellings on display from the human side of things as well. Only when everything was set up did I set foot in the giant room to witness the finishing touches. What I saw was what I’d always wanted. What Killian always wanted. Humanity and Draak together, in the past and in the present. We could only hope it would carry on into the future.
The night had finally come. I hadn’t seen Killian much in the past few days as he’d been talking with the Draakir about the Phyre Glass and the compound we’d all discovered the previous month. Although, he and the others weren’t too keen on telling the Draakir everything. That much I knew. I didn’t blame them considering the entire situation was suspected to be the work of Ares Nite. A former regent. A brother to them. If he was really behind all of it or at least had a hand in it, things were much more complicated than everyone suspected.
So many thoughts had crossed my mind that I barely remembered what I was doing. I stood in front of a full length mirror in my bedroom, surrounded with boxes. I’d written various things on them from “clothes” to “books” to “for donation.” Soon, movers would be by the house to pick everything up and bring it to Killian’s beachside manor and my old life would be left behind completely.
Aside from a small box labeled “Artemis,” I was ridding myself of my sister’s belongings. I was ridding myself of plenty of mine as well. At that point, staring at the reflection before me, I knew this was the threshold. The real threshold. The point when I had to accept that I was a new woman. I knew things now. I had new things to lose. New things to gain and work for.
The opening was that night. Killian assured me he’d have a car pick me up from my house to take me to the museum. I fished for my dress hidden in the back of the closet in a plastic garment bag and readied myself for what was likely to be an emotional night. Malice waited patiently in the living room, a beer in hand, while I took some time to myself. Now I was looking at a woman I hardly knew. My strawberry blonde hair was pulled back into braids to keep it from my face and whatever hung loose had been curled neatly and twisted into a half-updo. I’d put on my favorite, silvery-blue eyeshadow and wore rouge lipstick, which only brought out the paleness of my sparsely freckled complexion.
Draped over my body was a beaded, blue and silver dress fitted to my shape with a “v” neckline that plunged low. Since I lacked a lot in the chest area it looked elegant instead of revealing. Or so my sister used to say. I hadn’t worn the dress in a long time. Not since my twenty-fifth birthday when Artemis had taken me to a fancy bar on the other end of Wrenhil.
There was a gentle knock on the front door and, putting on my blue pumps, I made my way to answer it only to see that Malice had already done it. I walked over to see who it was. Standing outside was an older man with white hair dressed in a black suit. He bowed his head and greeted me with a smile.
“Ms. Grant,” he spoke in a similar accent to Killian’s. “The truck is here to pick up your things.”
Leaning to the side to look around the man in the suit, I saw a moving truck parked at the curb.
