by Jasmine Walt
I felt the impact strike him and the pain ripple through his body. It wasn’t a punch in the face as he stood beside me. It was a flint dagger through the palm.
Anger and menace rolled through Zane. The feelings then rose through his thin pores as a thin, steamy mist of golden energy. He continued to shield me as I tried to get around him to face the threat. An attack against one of us was an attack against both.
“It should be enough that you’ve found your way down here so soon,” came a dark voice that dripped with false sincerity.
I knew that voice. “Yod?”
“But your death doesn’t assuage my need for revenge.”
Yod came into view. Unlike Zane, he wasn’t naked. He’d cloaked himself in dark fabric that fit his lean body quite well. I felt a prick of betrayal that his outfit was tailored and mine was shaped like a sack.
“You killed me,” Yod snarled. His chest was puffed out. His breaths came out in noisy gusts. His teeth were bared.
“I didn’t mean to.” I raised my hands in placation, but then the memory of that ordeal back in the ruins of Mosul came back to me.
Yod mistaking Loren for Gwin. The dagger at my best friend’s throat. Her body falling to the ground. The maroon stain on her chest. Her eyes going lifeless as I held her in my arms.
True, she’d lived. And, yeah, she’d come away from that deathly experience with a huge boon: magical powers, a new family, an ancient title, and a whole new life. But the major plot point of that story was that she’d died first, and it had been all Yod’s fault.
My gaze found Yod’s and I dropped all pretense of peace. “You threatened the life of my best friend.”
“A human?” His eyes nearly bugged out of his head with incredulity. “You ended my life over a human.”
“Loren’s a witch, and a knight of the Round Table, actually.” I said the words with pride. “Besides, you’re still alive and living in paradise.”
“Paradise?” Yod roared. “I had an army of nitwit humans up there. I was a god. But down here, I’m nothing. I’m powerless. This is hell.”
“So go back,” I said.
The anger fell from Yod’s face. His fists unballed and his shoulders slumped. In front of me I felt Zane’s shoulders tense as though he was preparing to protect me from an unseen threat. Off to the side, Epsilon and Vau were coming closer to us from a path. They stopped and watched the scene go down. Neither of them met my gaze. The silence felt ripe.
“We can go back?” I asked. “To the surface. Can’t we?”
When no one responded, I turned to Vau. Her brows drew close together and she looked away from me while placing a thumb to her ear.
“We never asked,” she said, rubbing the lobe of her ear. “Epsilon and I haven’t wanted to return. There’s nothing there for us. Especially if you remember the way we left. Did the Xia really drink our bones?”
I nodded.
Vau let go of her earlobe and looked to Epsilon. A shudder went through her frame, and he pulled her close. The memories from the cave in the Gongyi went through me and I shuddered too.
Warm arms came around me as they had the two times I’d been in that cave in the south of China. Unlike Vau and Epsilon, I’d had a saving grace. Zane had come to my rescue.
“We have no desire to return to the surface,” said Epsilon. “We just want to live quietly down here together. We don’t have to part down here. There’s no sickness, no allergy. No one after us. It’s peaceful. This is the true heaven. At least for us.”
He looked at Vau with a love so palpable I could feel it shining on my skin. Yod turned his back on them in disgust. Zane remained by my side in quiet support.
“You’ve been digging all of your life, Theta,” said Vau. They were the same words Eden had said to me. “I think it might’ve been an attempt to come back here. All the answers to questions you never even thought to ask are down here. You can be with Zane. He can paint and sculpt. You don’t have to leave each other, because you won’t get weak or weary in this thin skin.”
She had a point. I was itching to get back into Eden’s lab. I wanted a closer look at her writings, and I wanted to know more about that nuclear globe she’d stopped me from touching.
And there were materials and colors in this garden that Zane had yet to experiment with. There was also that added bit about the lack of allergic reactions. It did seem like paradise. But…
“I can’t stand by and let a whole race of beings be wiped out of existence,” I said.
“Might be the best thing for us all if that’s the verdict,” said Epsilon.
I turned on him, my gaze mutinous. But Vau had his back.
“Humans have spread over the earth like a disease, over land and seas. The oceans cover three quarters of this planet. Yet humans pump the core for oil. They spill their toxic waste. The way that the climate has changed and the planet has warmed is affecting the seas. Some of their unnatural plastics have even made their way down here into the core.”
Vau had always loved the seas. We’d traveled them together back when she was alive. She was never far from water.
“In the time I’ve been away,” she continued, “they’ve polluted the sky. Nature is turning against them, giving them cancers, making them barren, leeching the sanity from their minds. And still they haven’t learned. I don’t believe they will. I’ve already died once because of them. I don’t want to do it again. And at the rate they’re going, the whole planet is in danger.”
9
There were dwellings in this place. But they didn’t look like homes. I couldn’t quite determine what material they were made of. Some looked to be made of rock, others of crystal, and others looked mossy, like vegetation.
Many of the buildings had no roofs. There were seating areas, but otherwise they were open and airy, like they were built for beings who flew and who preferred the natural state of light, which could penetrate most things. Therefore why would doors even be necessary?
A few places looked like what we’d call homes on the surface. I knew Vau’s home the moment I laid eyes on it. It was shaped like a pyramid mound. Vau and I had spent a lot of time in Egypt. Her final earthly home had been a pyramid mound in the Gongyi territory of China. This was a near-exact replica.
Even though we’d just had it out, she welcomed me into her home. Of course she did. She was my oldest friend, my sister.
Yod had taken off the moment Vau and I had started our disagreement. Typical. The bastard thrived on discord and was happy when he’d sown it.
But he was wrong. Vau and I had had many disagreements in the past. We knew how to fight and still care for each other. She reached for me and brought me into her arms.
I tensed, but this time, instead of seeing her death, she showed me snippets of our adventures together. The two of us sailing the Mediterranean. Buying silks in India. Laughing and dancing as Zane and Epsilon watched us in the light of a fire.
They were happy memories. Ones I cherished. But they weren’t what was on my mind. My energy focused on all the stories I’d captured, the ones I was still figuring out, and the ones that would never be told if the vote went against humanity.
“You’re exactly like her,” said Vau when she pulled away from me. “Eden saves everything that has ever lived.”
“Now she’s going to purposely eradicate a whole species,” I said.
“It wouldn’t be the first time. It won’t be the last.”
“It’s not right,” I insisted. “It’s not fair.”
“Maybe not,” said Vau. “But it is balance. We live at the core of a spinning orb. If it goes out of balance, we all perish. You’ll come to see she’s right. Not now, but maybe in a few centuries or a millennium. Then you’ll get to be a part of something new. You can record from the beginning.”
People kept saying that, but they were wrong. It was the past that interested me most. Vau left the room, shutting the door behind her. When she was gone, I turned to Zane.
; He stood by silently, leaning against a wall in the recesses of the room that would be ours in Vau and Epsilon’s home. There were only the four walls and a mossy bed tucked into the corner of the room. Zane looked tired. And as if to punctuate the point, he sighed, his shoulders drooping in defeat.
Without a word, he kicked off the wall. He took a few steps for the doorway. My heart sank to think I’d lost his support too.
“You side with her?” I asked.
Zane opened his mouth to speak—
“Don’t tell me you have issues with humans too? What have they ever done to you?”
“You’re looking for a fight,” he said. “But I’m not going to give it to you.”
I stood in his path and stared at him. Anger pinched the tips of my fingers. But I opened my hands and let it go.
Zane and I knew how to fight too. We weren’t the type of couple that needed to agree on everything. We could disagree. Eventually, he’d see he was wrong, and I was right.
“I’m sorry,” I offered.
“I know,” he conceded.
“I love you,” I tried.
“I know,” he conceited.
I huffed in exasperation. Infuriating man.
Zane’s lips quirked up in amusement. He leaned down and kissed my shoulders. Then he kissed the side of my neck.
The pressure of his soft lips left scorch marks on my skin. Energy stirred in the core of my soul, building like a hurricane. But I stepped out of the storm and gathered my wits in the calm of the eye.
“I’m going to go talk to Eden,” I said.
“I knew that, too.” Zane sighed. Then he let go of me. “I was so much better at this seduction stuff above ground.”
“You are perfect.” I placed my hand on his strong jaw. “You are sexy and desirable, and I would totally be jumping your bones and trying to figure out how to peel back your skin to get to your energy. But the fate of the world is on the line.”
“It always is with you, Nova.”
“This isn’t about me,” I protested.
“Of course it is,” he said. “It always has been. You want to save the world and now you have the perfect platform and your greatest adversary. A freaking god, Nova. Not a god, the god.”
Zane shook his head and turned, preparing to cross the threshold.
“Where are you going?”
“To find a pair of pants,” he said. “If we’re going to fight an ethereal god, I should do it wearing pants.”
The storm died around me. The sun rose, and in the face of that brilliant star, I saw the face of this man that I loved with every lumen inside me. His light surrounded me, never letting cold reality pierce me too deeply.
“But you don’t agree with me,” I said.
“It’s not the first time. It won’t be the last.”
“You’re not abandoning me?”
“Why would you think that?” He turned back to me, his brows nearing his hairline in incredulity. “You may be a self-centered demigod who thinks the world revolves around her.”
I waited for the positive spin on those cutting words. And waited. “Your point being?”
He shrugged. “My point being that, for me, it’s always about you.”
My features softened. My insides softened. “You’re going to stand by me in this crazy fight?”
“I am crazy in love with you, aren’t I? Besides, the last time I stood by you, you got me killed. What more could possibly go wrong?”
I brushed that stubborn lock of hair out of his face. But the lock fell back over his eyes. It had always been this way. This lock of hair had been stubborn for as long as I’d known Zane, and he put up with it.
He preferred to keep his hair long, and I’d known this lock as long as I’d known him. It seemed to want attention, and would stand front and center whenever it got the chance. He simply put up with it because it was a part of him.
I pressed my lips to the lock. It fell away, parting until my lips met warm flesh. The heat of his internal light greeted my lips.
Zane’s eyes fluttered closed. He let out a soft moan. I entwined my fingers with his. He needed to know that I was here for him too, that I would always be here for him. He opened his eyes and stared at me.
“How are you feeling?” I asked, cradling his palm. He’d pulled out the shank Yod had thrown, but his skin hadn’t reknitted.
“Like a piece of me has been ripped apart.” He shrugged. “I’ve felt worse. I’ve had my heart broken.”
“I’m sorry. I keep putting you in harm’s way.”
“I know what I signed up for,” he said. “If Tres could see me now. Doubt he’d trade places.”
“I don’t want someone to hurt you to get to me. And I never want you to hurt again, for any reason.”
My eyes burned. Tears pooled at the corners. I was surprised there was any liquid inside of me since I hadn’t eaten or drank anything since my rebirth.
“Hey, come here,” said Zane.
I took a deep breath in and sighed. My struggle was only a pretense. I came into his arms. His skin was so thin, the heat of his light seeped into mine.
I inched my fingers down along his until our digits met at the webbing between each finger. When we touched, memories swirled from my chest because, I realized, that’s where most of my memories of Zane were stored.
I pushed that energy to the forefront. I wanted him to see those memories, to drown in those feelings. He breathed a sigh deeper than mine.
It felt like relief. It felt like gratitude. It felt like love.
I tilted my head back and met his lips. I’d kissed this man for centuries, but with the truth of who we both were so close to the surface, it was like we kissed for the first time.
Heat rushed to my lips. My lips immediately swelled, as though all the energy in my body rushed to that spot, hoping for a taste of him. I reached out and clung to his shoulders, needing his strength to steady me.
But the added contact of my palms against his bare skin only pulled the energy from my head to my hands and left me even more lightheaded. My toes tingled, so light from the loss of energy I thought I’d float away. I anchored my hands around Zane and pulled him closer, and even closer, needing desperately to shake loose this cumbersome flesh to get to the heart of him.
I scratched at my chest. My nail snagged at the skin covering my heart, and the thin veil of flesh tore. Light trickled out.
Zane pulled back, his eyes wide. “Are you sure?”
“For better or worse,” I said.
I was now certain we breathed air and our lungs did, in fact, need it to survive beneath the surface. I was certain that we were alive and not dead. My breath caught in my throat and my heart sank into my gut like I had just died.
My fingers trembled as I reached out to him. When my skin met his, I saw a montage of my face. Really it was mostly my lips.
My lips split in a smile. My lips rounded in an O of surprise. My lips widened as passion was wrenched from me.
I stepped into Zane. Fell into him, and he caught me. Like he always did. When I was at my best or my worst, he was always there. When I’d loved him well, when I’d behaved badly, even if his back was turned, he always reached for me. I’d never once fallen without his arms, his heart, his love as a soft cushion.
“Kiss me,” I said, my voice desperate.
He grinned, the devil in the glint of his eyes. “Where?”
“My soul.”
He kissed me on my chest, at the space where I’d torn my skin. He poured into me as his breaths mingled and mixed with my essence. I felt myself bursting forth. The true me burned against the skin that covered my light and the thing that I was made of poured out. Zane’s soul poured into me.
We tumbled onto the mossy bed. My head bounced from the impact.
“That’s one way to try to take my head off,” I said.
“I’m so sorry, mon coeur.” But he chuckled as he said it.
I reversed our positions and mounted him.
He was already naked, at least his body was. I grabbed for the edges of the sheath I wore and tugged it up. He didn’t help me. He simply watched.
Zane’s fingers traced my rib cage. Then he cupped my breasts. His thumbs rubbed at my nipples, drawing them into taut points. All his attention focused as he handled my right breast.
“What?” I asked. “Did Eden get something wrong?”
He frowned. “I think she may have changed your cup size.”
I threw the balled-up sheath at his head. “Jerk.”
He chuckled again, and then tossed me on my back. But he didn’t take the upper hand. He laid me down so that we were side by side. His face turned serious.
“Forgive me,” he said, his features suddenly grave.
“What sin have you committed?”
He swallowed before he answered. “I doubted you. I doubted what has always been between us.”
I shook my head, taking his hand in mine and joining us down to the webbing once more. “You had every right. I let the memories slip through my fingers.”
“I should’ve never let you get too far away from me.”
“Zane. I don’t want to do this.”
He pulled back. His warm skin leaving mine left me cold. I reached for him before he could get any farther.
“I don’t want to assign blame or give forgiveness,” I said. “I just want to be. I just want to be with you. Can we just be?”
He smiled and pressed his lips to mine. No blame. No forgiveness. Not even any gratitude.
His kiss was life as it should be. Me and Zane. Zane and I. Together.
Need grew in my belly as our torsos pressed together. I couldn’t get close enough to him. Damn this skin. It felt suffocating. I needed to get it off so that I could consume him.
I scratched at my chest, needing him closer. My skin tore a bit more and it was such a relief it felt like an orgasm. Zane bent his head down to touch my light with his lips again. Any climax I’d had in the past three thousand years had not been anything like loving in the light.