Page 320 of Alchemised
In the foyer, an intricate mosaic of the ouroboros dragon was inlaid in the marble floor. Meticulously rendered in both grandeur and savagery. She studied it from the landing above.
The Ferrons must have been so proud when the house was built. They must have thought they’d defeated god.
That night, she pulled Kaine into the bed. He’d slept in the chair beside it every night, her hand in his, ignoring her arguments that surely there were other beds in his house.
Now he finally gave in to her.
She curled against him, having missed the warmth and comfort of his body.
A few more days and she would go back. She’d convalesced there longer than she’d meant to, but the return trip would be hard, and she’d be no use at Headquarters if she wasn’t recovered.
Everything would be different. The bombing had decimated the Resistance, wiped out their supplies. Everything they’d gained in the last year, gone, and now Morrough knew there was a spy. The Undying were looking for Kaine, trying to lure him out, but that would not stop Ilva or Crowther from coercing him into doing whatever they deemed necessary.
She had to go back.
She held him, her heart beating so hard it made her whole chest throb.
She pulled him closer, tilting her head back, and kissed him. His hand rose up to caress her cheek, but he began to draw away. She knew he was going to say she was still recovering. She was so sick of her convalescence. Of having so little time and never getting to spend it in the ways she wanted.
“It’ll be fine if we’re careful,” she said, not letting go. “Please. I want you before I go.”
He was careful. Slow and gentle. He touched her as though she were glass.
He pushed into her and she caught his face in her hands, pulling him close so that their noses and foreheads brushed, her fingers trembling.
I love you.
It was right at the tip of her tongue, but she hesitated, biting the words back.
There was a part of her that felt she might doom them if she said it. If there were important things left unspoken, tomorrow would come.
She kissed him instead.
I love you. She told him in the way she held him close; in the way her mouth met his; in how her hands trailed across his skin, mapping him, memorising every detail of what it was to be with him, his scars under her fingers.
I love you.
I love you.
She told him in the way she let go of herself and held on to him instead. With every beat of her heart. I love you. I will always love you. I will always take care of you.
IT WAS DUSK WHEN SHE left. She stepped outside for the first time. Spirefell was a sprawling house which curved in, connecting with the other buildings to form a large courtyard with an overgrown garden in the centre.
Amaris was there, waiting restlessly. Her wings fanned out and fluttering.
Kaine lifted Helena carefully, the chest brace absorbing the pressure of her weight. As he swung up behind her, she looked towards the house. In the summer gloaming, it looked almost like an immense slumbering dragon itself, curling inwards, the spires like spines. It was covered in vining roses which crept all the way up the front, nearly covering it.
Davies and an old male servant, possibly a butler, stood at the top of the wide flight of stone steps, watching.
When Amaris launched herself into the air, it was like being punched in the ribs. Helena doubled over, gasping from pain, and she felt Kaine tense and nearly turn Amaris back.
She gripped his leg. “I’m all right.”
They were airborne for longer than Helena had ever been before.
Amaris flew towards the mountains, trying to beat the moonrise. It was close enough to the Abeyance that Lumithia was a crescent, not too bright as she rose. They landed on the top of a building dangerously close to Headquarters. When Helena looked south, she saw why.
A wall had been erected, marking off Resistance territory. It was more than halfway up the island. Beyond, she could see the gash bisecting the city where the bomb had gone off, the buildings fallen. The centre of the island was cratered.
