Page 90 of Aïdes the Unseen
I wanted somethingreal. Somethingsolidto anchor to.
So I looked at him.
Graven.
Still kneeling in front of me, watching with that unreadable expression that somehow still made me feelseen. His eyes weren’t just dark, they were endless. It was as though he carried the whole night sky behind them and still made room forme.
He asked the question again, gently this time. “What do you need?”
I could have said “clarity”. I could have said “peace”. I could have asked for explanations, answers, a way to make it all makesense.
But I didn’t.
I couldn’t.
Because the answer was already there, rising like heat from the center of me, absolutely undeniable and terrifying in its rightness.
"You." My voice broke around that one syllable. I swallowed, licked my lips, then leaned forward like the universe had narrowed into a single point that existed just between us. I reached out and cupped his face in both hands, my thumbs brushing the sharp line of his jaw.
“You,” I said again, firmer this time. “You, Graven.”
His breath caught.
A multitude flickered through his eyes. It started with longing, then disbelief, and the kind of ache that didn’t have a language, only shape and weight and time.
He didn’t move.
So I did.
I kissed him.
God, I kissed him like I had been waitinglifetimesfor it. Some aching, breaking part of mehad.
When his lips met mine, the world split open.
It wasn’t gentle. It wasn’t careful. Passion surged up through both of us, reckless and ravenous. There was no easing into it, no tentative exploring. He kissed me back with hunger so deep it bordered on anguish, and I felt it—all of it.
Hisneed. Hishesitation. The restraint he wore like iron armor just so he wouldn’t consume me whole.
But also,his want. Raw. Desperate. Focused entirely onme.
His hands came to my waist, grounding me, holding me like I was something fragile and on fire at once.
Maybe I was.
Because everything else fell away.
The gods. The past. The war still looming in the wings of memory.
For one breathless, shattering moment, there was onlyus.
It wasreal.
Wewere real.
It was the most real thing I’d ever felt.
His mouth broke from mine with a gasp like surfacing from deep water. His hands trembled where they held me—one at my hip, the other braced against my lower back, anchoring us together as if afraid I might dissolve if he let go.
