The Silent: Irin Chronicles Book Five(58)

Kyra glanced down at the tray. Fruit and rice. A bowl of vegetables and chicken bathed in fragrant coconut curry. A pot of tea and a single cup.

She looked up at Leo. “I love you. Or I think I love you. I’m not sure I know what that is, but I feel something for you that is so huge. Sometimes it frightens me, but I cannot seem to stop feeling it.”

Leo didn’t say anything, but his face… She couldn’t read his face.

He sat beside her and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Why wouldn’t you know what love is?”

“The only people I have loved are my brothers and sisters. And this is not the same.”

“No.” He leaned over and delicately kissed along her ear. “No, it’s not.”

“Do you love me like this? I think you do, because you are so kind to me. You take care of me. I think… you must think about me as much as I think about you. I try not to listen to your thoughts, but your voice is so clear. Even when I hear you, I can’t know if you have this feeling inside you. Is that what reshon means? Does it mean you love me?”

He placed a warm hand on her neck and tilted her head to the side, laying kisses along skin that hadn’t known sensation until he touched it.

“Reshon,” he whispered, “means that you are mine and I am yours. That we were created for each other. This is love—because I love you so much—but it’s more than love.”

“What can be more than love?” Her heart felt like it might burst. Leo loved her too. He had been raised with love, so he must know the feeling she was talking about. He didn’t have her fractured past.

He loved her.

Leo pressed his cheek to hers. “When we have time, when we are safe, I will show you what it means to be reshon. What I can tell you now is that it is a connection ordained by the Creator. It means my voice will always be the clearest for you—”

“It always has been. From the beginning.”

He smiled. “And my touch will always give you peace.”

“It already does.”

Leo hauled Kyra into his lap and hugged her tightly. “You belong to me.” It wasn’t spoken in pride but in awe.

She smiled against his chest. “I would like that.”

“And I belong to you.” He tilted her chin up and kissed her. “You know that’s part of it, don’t you?”

“What can I do for you?” she asked. “If I am your reshon, what does that mean for you?”

“Your touch will heal me,” Leo said. “When I am wounded, your touch will make me stronger. Your song…”

His expression went blank, and Kyra’s heart sank.

She asked, “It won’t be the same, will it? It won’t be the same as it would be if your reshon were Irina. Because I don’t know the same magic.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“It does.”

“Ava was able—”

“Ava was human. Or at least she was to the Irina. She has no ties to the Grigori world. No one would ever question her loyalty, Leo.” She rested her ear over his chest and listened to his heart beat. “They taught her magic, but it’s not the same for me.”

He said nothing, because he knew she was right. It didn’t matter how much Leo loved her; he could not teach her the magic she needed to be what she wanted to be for him. She also knew he wouldn’t let her go. Their connection was unique. She believed that.

“I love you, Kyra.”

Would it be enough?

Leo set her on her pillow and put the tray on the low table beside them. They took turns feeding each other until they had eaten everything. Kyra couldn’t finish what Leo had brought her, but she smiled and fed him the rest.

“You are what they call a bottomless pit.”

He stretched out next to her. “There is a lot of me to fuel.”

“Most Irin I’ve met aren’t as tall as you. Most Grigori are taller, but they’re not as strong.”

“It’s probably simple genetics. Everyone in my family was tall. But my cousin and I…” He winked. “We may have written a few spells to give us an edge. I don’t know if they worked or if it’s just in our blood.”

“So your parents were tall as well?”

“I believe so. I didn’t know my mother, just a few things about her. She was a healer. Sometimes I think I have memories of her, but I don’t know if I’m really remembering or whether they’re memories others have told me. Both of Max’s parents were killed in the Rending. Our mothers were twin sisters. I think that’s why we look so much alike.”

“Your father?”

“I did meet him when I was seven. He was a mystery. Everyone assumed he was dead for many years. And we were never close. I don’t think he was ever the same man after he lost my mother. Our grandfather is the one who raised us. He wrote our first spells.” Leo turned over to show the line of spells that ran down his back. “Until we went to the academy, he cared for us. And he was very tall. He was our mother’s father, so Max and I were all he had left.”

So the Rending had taken Leo’s family from him too. Though it happened before her birth, Kyra still felt a pang of guilt anytime one of the Irin mentioned it.

“It had nothing to do with you,” Leo said.