Page 88 of Aïdes the Unseen
The cafe vanished in a breath of wind and silence as I released the storm to batter the park behind us.
In the next breath… we were in the penthouse.
My penthouse.
High above the city, where glass met the skyline and rain kissed the windows in quiet patterns. Marble floors. Warm wood. Stillness.
She staggered slightly, but I caught her.
The puppy landed beside her with a soft sound, immediately circling once and sitting close. He was alert but not afraid.
Neither was she.
Irina turned slowly, her fingers still half-tangled in my coat sleeve. Her voice was smaller here. More human. Morereal.
“You brought me to your home,” she said.
“Yes.”
“You’ve never done that before.”
“No,” I said, not pretending. “Never.” Not since the first time she joined me to explore the Underworld. That was the last time I took her home. The last time…
She looked out over the skyline—so many lights, so many lives—and whispered, “They’ll come after us.”
“I know.” Let them come. I would battle them all. If she wished for it, I would end them all.
“Are we safe here?”
I didn’t lie. “Safe enough.”
She took a breath, nodded once, and then lowered herself carefully onto the velvet couch near the window. The puppy joined her instantly, curling at her feet like a sentinel.
She was shaken. But whole. For now—that was everything. The air in the penthouse remained still, but it wasn’t quiet.
Power curled through the space like invisible vines, trailing after her, born not just from me—but fromher. The longer she was here, away from the others, away from their voices and manipulation, the closer it came to the surface.
She didn’t know yet. Not entirely. But she wasremembering.
Small flickers behind her eyes. The way she looked out over the city like she had seen it burn before. The way her fingersbrushed the puppy’s fur like she had once cradled wolves made of starlight and winter ash.
Too soon.
It was always too soon.
I stood, still as stone, watching the lines of tension return to her shoulders, the way memory itched at the corners of her consciousness. The goddess within her shifted—unfurling from sleep. Not a hurricane yet, but a gathering storm with her name braided into its wind.
I should’ve waited.
I should’ve fought harder.
She looked soyounglike this. So mortal and alive and painfullyherself. I wanted to sink to my knees before her—not just in reverence, but in apology. For every lifetime I had not reached her in time. For every breath she had taken without me there to guard it.
So, I did.
I dropped to one knee in front of her. Not dramatic. Not theatrical. Just...true.
She blinked. Surprise, confusion. But underneath that? Recognition. Something ancient and unsure opened in her gaze, and I felt it cleave straight through my chest.
