Kit couldn’t imagine how he could possibly need any more confirmation. But Emil looked genuinely uncertain, and that was adorable. He took Emil’s face between his hands. “So good. Really good. Amazing. Magnificent.” He paused. “But not perfect.”
“No?”
Kit shook his head. “Nope. You’ll just have to try again next time. Lucky for you, I was serious about doing it again. You won’t even have to buy me dinner first.”
“What if I want to?”
Kit grinned and stepped past Emil into the shower. “Well, you should know I can eat a lot.”
24
Spend Some Time
Emil woke up with Kit in his arms and passed a blissful instant before he remembered that yesterday Kit had risked his own life and livelihood in some devil’s bargain with Quint. They’d have to return to Facility 17 to sort out the mess with Lange and the breach in the Nowhere sooner rather than later. His team would have questions. He sighed and closed his eyes, wishing he were asleep again.
Kit stirred against him.
Being awake had its advantages. “Good morning,” Emil murmured. “How are you feeling?”
In answer, Kit grabbed Emil’s hand and dragged it down to his hard-on. Everything else—and in their case, that meant the fabric of reality—could wait. Their morning sex might not have been as revelatory as the night before, but it was warm and easy and suffused with sleepy affection. It felt like the kind of thing he could wake up to every day, which was its own kind of revelation.
“I really do have to get up,” Emil said. “I expect Quint and Auer got in touch with the team yesterday after our meeting, but they’ll have questions for me… and you, I suppose, if you’re staying.”
“I’ll have to read the contract,” Kit said. He sat up and stretched, treating Emil to a view of his naked back. Then he began to pull on clothes, picking things up from his piles and then discarding them. “But I’m coming with you either way.”
Emil stayed on his back in bed, watching the show. “Are you sure about this—working for Quint, I mean?”
Kit finally settled on an outfit. It involved the least tasteful and respectable three-piece suit Emil had ever seen in his life. The tailoring made him want to stare, but the multi-colored print, which shifted from floral to abstract under his gaze, made him dizzy. It was already excessive, so naturally Kit added jewelry, eyeliner, and a scarf around his neck. Emil stared, transfixed by the hideous grandeur of it all. He would relish removing it later.
Kit pulled on a pair of black boots, startlingly utilitarian in contrast to the rest of him. He messed up his hair with his fingers, then turned toward Emil and put his hands on his hips. “Of course not. I don’t trust that asshole at all. But I’ve been working for evil people and watching out for myself my whole life, so I figure it’s not that much of a change. And Laila is up there, and I can’t let her down again. I don’t know what it’s like to have a sister, but… I think she’s my best friend.”
Emil nodded. He got out of bed and dressed with far less enthusiasm, since he had only the clothes he’d been wearing yesterday. It wasn’t like he could fit into anything Kit owned—and even if he could, he wasn’t sure he possessed either the particular courage necessary to dress like a drunk alien peacock or the swagger to pull it off. He smiled to himself at how Kit and Zin shared their outlandish fashion sense, and from what he’d seen of Laila, she fit right into their found family.
Emil thought of Zora and his parents and how he should have called them on Sunday. They’d be worried, just like his team. He couldn’t tell his family the details of what had happened, but his team would be angry. They already were. Unlike Kit, they wouldn’t be content to work for Quint Services once everything was out in the open. “Just so you know, there’s a chance we’ll end up doing this alone. I don’t think my team will be happy with this arrangement.”
“They will,” Kit said. He was already out the door and heading down the stairs and Emil followed him. “When you tell them we’re going to figure out a way to take Quint for everything he’s got.”
“What?” Emil said, pausing in the landing, so stunned the word came out half-laugh, half-gasp. Kit had threatened Auer’s life yesterday, but that had been blunt. Destroying Oswin Lewis Quint would require a far more subtle scheme.
“I haven’t worked out the details yet,” Kit said. “But your friends are smart. And as you know, Laila used to rob banks. And Aidan’s up there, and it’s gotta be his life-long dream to ruin a billionaire. They’ll help. And there’s other reasons for me to stay in Facility 17, you know, saving Lange and fixing the breach. I’m the only one who’s successfully rescued a living thing trapped in the Nowhere. And you, of course.”
“And me?” Emil walked down until he was on the same step as Kit. He knew what Kit meant, but he still wanted to hear it. Logically, he should be asking questions about Kit’s nascent revenge plot, but he had his priorities.
“Well, you live and work up there, and it’s dangerous, so someone has to make sure you don’t do anything too stupid,” Kit said, putting the tip of his index finger to the center of Emil’s chest. “I can’t trust your team to do that, since they facilitated you poisoning yourself and walking into the breach to find me.”
“You’re welcome,” Emil said dryly.
“Plus, I want to see you again,” Kit said. He dropped his hand, shrugged and looked away. “Because I’m in love with you or whatever.”
“Or whatever,” Emil repeated, raising a brow.
“Don’t push it,” Kit said, continuing down the stairs. But he looked over his shoulder and beamed at Emil, and that was good enough.
They ate breakfast in Zin and Louann’s narrow kitchen. Emil had been to another reality—or multiple other realities—but part of him still couldn’t get over that he was drinking tea and eating yogurt with Zinnia fucking Jackson. Kit informed them that he was planning to spend some time with Emil. He didn’t say “live on a secret base inside an asteroid” or “work for Quint Services” or “save the known universe from unfolding.” He said spend some time with Emil. It was foolish to think about it that way, but it was foolish to take on any of it, so Emil supposed he shouldn’t nitpick. He focused instead on the way it made him feel when Kit said his name like that. And when Zin and Louann nodded like Kit was making a great choice.
And then when Emil went to the counter to refill his mug, Kit leaned toward Zin and said, “Zin, um…” and in the long pause that followed, Emil decided to walk across the living room with his mug of tea and become very interested in looking down at the street. Even as hard as he was trying to give them some privacy, he still heard the chairs scrape the floor as they got up to hug, and Zin exclaiming “oh, baby,” and when he eventually walked back in, all three of them were wiping their eyes.
“You be careful now,” Zin said, and Kit kissed her cheek.
Then it was time to go. They packed up and left directly from Kit’s room, right after Emil messaged Jake to say that if he could find a way to draw Lange into the lab, now would be a good time. It must have worked, since their trip was uneventful—or as uneventful as a trip through the Nowhere could be for Emil, since it still felt like pure misery.
They appeared in Emil’s room. It took some time to gather everyone after that, but Emil managed to get them all into the kitchen. Laila and Aidan were already somewhat improved, and Lenny walked in leaning on Chávez’s shoulder.
“Hi everyone,” Emil said. “You all know Kit. He’s joining the team.”
Hours passed before they could be alone again. Kit crawled into Emil’s bed and said, “You need a bigger bed.”
“You can have your own room if you want,” Emil said. “There are empty ones.”
“Fine,” Kit said. He could use it to hoard clothes and snacks. “But that’s not what I asked for.”
Emil laughed. He squeezed into the bed, proving Kit’s point. “Okay. How good are you at transporting beds?”
“Not great.
I could do it with Laila once she’s better,” Kit said, staring at the ceiling. “But maybe it’s too dangerous for her.”
“Well, we’ll figure it out,” Emil said. “We have time.”
“I was thinking about this relationship thing,” Kit said. He turned toward Emil. “Since you said you wanted to go on a normal date.”
“Just something that doesn’t get us killed.”
“Where do you want to go?” Kit asked. “I’d say Paris or something, but I guess you’re more likely to want to go somewhere with trees and dirt.”
“Well, you’ve got me there. I do love trees and dirt,” Emil said. “You know, I’m not Zin—I haven’t already been everywhere—but I don’t want you to feel like you have to do that for me. Take me places.”
“I know,” Kit said. He laid his head on Emil’s chest. “But maybe I want to.”
“I’d like that.”
“So where should it be, then?”
“Well, I would say the places I most want to go are places nobody else has been yet,” Emil said. “But I’ve had enough of that for this week. So… dinner with Zora and my parents?”
“Fuck, you always go right for the scariest option,” Kit said. Visiting someone else’s family sounded just like traveling to an alternate reality. But maybe hanging around Emil was making him stupider and braver, because Kit kind of wanted to meet Zora. And Chávez and Lenny had a lot to say about the care packages from Emil’s family. Maybe it would be nice.
Emil laughed. “We can wait. I don’t want to rush you. As much as I’d love to see them more often than I do, I’m also happy to stay right here.”
“Yeah,” Kit said, curling up against him. “Me too.”
The series will continue with Out of Nowhere, which is coming soon.
* * *
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Also by Felicia Davin
Thornfruit (The Gardener’s Hand, Book 1)
The sun never sets in Laalvur, and children born with magic keep disappearing into the city’s shadows. Alizhan, a mind-reading thief, uncovers part of this plot and nearly gets killed for it. Another young woman rescues her, and they both end up entangled in a conspiracy and fighting to save their city—and each other.
Nightvine (The Gardener’s Hand, Book 3)
Alizhan and her companion Ev leave the constant sun of their homeland to sail for the Nightward coast. They pin their hopes on His Highness Prince Ilyr of Nalitzva, a man rumored to understand any language, even one he’s never encountered. But Ilyr is not who he claims to be, and danger lurks in the glittering court.
Shadebloom (The Gardener’s Hand, book 3)
The conclusion to the trilogy, available now!
Turn the page to read the first chapter of Thornfruit…
Thornfruit
TEN YEARS AGO
WHEN EV was three years old, a wave had crashed into the cliffs of Laalvur. As the flood waters had drained from the lower city back into the ocean, they’d left a giant dead medusa speared on the splintered wreckage of the harbor. The monster’s carcass had lethal tentacles as long as three men lying end to end. It had taken six people to lift its massive bell.
It was a horrible story—medusas killed people, and so did waves—and Papa always made it worse by saying words like oozing and gelatinous. But Ev still wished she’d been there to heave it off the ground and throw its corpse back into the ocean. Or maybe she could have saved someone from drowning. The heroes in her favorite books were always doing things like that.
Ev was twelve now and her life hadn’t offered much in the way of adventure, but she remained hopeful. She zigzagged down the narrow street after her father and their cart, ignoring the slap and clatter of donkey hooves, wooden wheels, and leather sandals against the stone and straining to hear the water instead. A whole ocean of it, her father had promised. But the harbor was still another steep turn or two beneath them on the path, and Ev couldn’t see that far down.
Papa said sometimes the sky and the stones of the city were so red that they made the ocean look red, too. Ev had been to Laalvur before, but she could only conjure a vague memory of orange-brown cliffs pierced by dark doorways and people everywhere, even on ladders between the street levels. Her best friend Ajee didn’t believe her when she said she’d seen the city. She’d sworn up and down she was telling the truth, but she hadn’t come back with any good stories.
“Did you see a shark? Or a medusa? Or a wave?”
Ev hadn’t.
Ajee said it was dumb to want to be like people in books when Ajee and Ev were just going to live in the village of Orzatvur their whole lives, where there were no sea monsters and no princesses to save.
It didn’t matter what he thought. He wasn’t here. Now she was old enough to help bring their cart to the market, and she’d walked all the way from the farm with Papa. Her dog Tez had tried to follow her, and some of her cats, too, but she’d shooed them all away at Papa’s orders. She had to do what he said if she wanted to come back every week. Then she’d finally see something exciting enough to impress Ajee.
When they arrived at the lowest level of the city, Ev could hear and smell the ocean before she saw it. Even when they pushed their way from the thronged street into the open market—where everyone was unloading carts of ripe cheeses and fruits, vendors were already calling out their wares in singsong chants, and there were pack animals jostling and squawking chickens in cages—the smell of fish and salt was in every breath, and the water lapping at the city’s edge was a rhythm beneath the noise.
There weren’t many open spaces in the lower city, squeezed between the cliffs and the water as it was. Laalvur was named after the old god Laal, who’d supposedly laid his body down to make the Dayward side of the world. The cliffs were his right hand, with four rock fingers reaching into the sea and a long stretch of the city curving along the low, marshy coastline like a thumb.
Ev and her father set up their cart to sell fruit in the market, a cove between Laal’s middle and ring fingers, which were called Arish and Denan. The inlet and the neighborhood that clung to the cliffs like algae were both called Arishdenan.
Arishdenan held the second largest harbor in Laalvur, after Hahim. Small boats were docked all along the sunny length of Arish and the shaded length of Denan, so the inner harbor bristled with masts. The docks and decks of the harbor and the market had been rebuilt in Ev’s lifetime, since the wave nine years ago. The wood already creaked with weathering from salt and sunshine, but the boats bobbing next to it were painted blue and yellow. Fresh, brilliant colors in defiance of the fearsome sea, with lyrical names to match. From where she stood next to her father, Ev could see a small vessel called Her Heart as Constant as the Sun.
The sun was indeed constant and fierce, scattering gold reflections on the water and striping the red cliffs with shadows. The water near the city was dark and brownish, not the brilliant red reflection of legend, but even that struck Ev as strange and beautiful. From far back, sheltered between the pillars of Arish and Denan, Ev could only see a slice of sky and ocean, and still, she’d never seen anything grander.
Farther out to sea, there were ships anchored in the water. Ajee had better believe her this time.
“It must go on forever,” she breathed.
“It’s nothing but salt and poison,” Papa said. He’d unloaded half the cart while she’d been staring. “Except for the islands, but those have their own dangers.”
“It’s not poison.” Ev was too old to fall for that. The medusas were poisonous, but not the water itself.
“It is if you can’t swim.”
Papa had been all over the world, from his home in Adappyr, where it was so hot that everyone had to live in an underground city, all the way to Estva, where it was dark all the time and people built walls out of ice. He used to work on a ship. He’d been as close to the islands as anyone ever got. Ev loved his stories. She’d never been anywhere at all.
&
nbsp; “Don’t wander off,” her father warned. “Or I won’t bring you with me next time.”
Ev heard people speaking Laalvuri, Adpri, Hapiri, and languages she didn’t recognize, and she saw pale-skinned Nalitzvans and Day tribeswomen in robes, but hardly anyone stopped to buy something. The vendors called out the same chants over and over, and a priest of the Balance gave a loud, droning sermon about how the good, civilized people of Laalvur must root out superstition and let go of their false fears of magic. It is the Year 764 of the Balance, he was saying. The time has come to embrace the truth. No one was paying attention to him. Sometimes pamphlet-sellers strode through, crying out the latest news and rumors. Her father haggled with a customer over the price of melons and berries.
Food odors thickened the hot, still air. Why did anyone eat fish? Ev didn’t care if priests said that eating the flesh of animals was part of God’s Balance. It smelled gross.
Ev should’ve brought her book. Papa didn’t like her bringing books everywhere because they were so expensive, but if he didn’t want Ev to read them, then he should stop buying them for her.
She was in the middle of a series called The Sunrise Chronicles. All the books took place in a magical world where the sun moved across the sky, and Day and Night were times instead of places. In this strange world, people could stand in one place and see the sun at one hour and the stars in darkness the next. Ev had never seen the stars. The only darkness she knew existed in windowless rooms, a luxury manufactured by humans. The sky over Laalvur was always red-gold, and the sun hung in the same low spot all the time. The idea that the sun could disappear—that the whole sky could turn black—enchanted and chilled her. What a changeable, chaotic world that would be.
Edge of Nowhere Page 26