Reign the Earth (The Elementae #1)(109)

I touched his cheek, the stubble rough against my fingers, then the soft patch of his cheek above it. His face showed the proof of his bravery, of his valor, his heart. I touched the scar on his eyebrow, and the one beneath his eye, where the stubble didn’t grow. I trailed a finger over his craggy nose and touched his bottom lip. “I love you,” I told him again. “Every bit of you.”

He pulled me closer, pressing kisses to my cheek, my ear, my neck, murmuring so softly against my skin that I wasn’t even sure what he said, but I knew what it meant. I knew that it made me feel safe and alive for the first time in months, and it made my heart feel swollen and even a little painful, to feel so loved when so many pieces of my heart were gone.

I felt the threads brush against my fingers, close and hesitant, desperate to believe that we could love each other.

“You’ve been through so much, Shalia,” he said softly in my ear. “You need to rest.”

Again, I nodded, and he started to pull away. “Please,” I said. “Please don’t go.”

“Rian has been my closest friend for years. I treasure his friendship. I want to respect his wishes.”

Tugging at his shirt, I shook my head. “That’s not the same thing as not wanting to stay,” I murmured.

“No,” he allowed. “But you do need to rest.”

“I think it would be easier if you’re here,” I told him. “I don’t … I don’t want to be alone.”

He stared at me for long moments, but then he eased us down, letting me lie in the bed before he fitted his body to curve around my back. I turned over, holding our clasped hands between us, feeling his breath warm on my cheek. He put his other arm around me, drawing me a little closer. I nodded, and his nose brushed my skin. “Sleep, my love,” he whispered. “I’ll always watch over you.”

I didn’t sleep long, but I had never felt as warm and safe as I did when I woke, Galen’s body and scent and breath surrounding me. Loving me.

As soon as I stirred, his beautiful green eyes opened, and his nose brushed mine. “You need more rest than that,” he whispered.

“I’m hungry,” I said back. “And I want to check on the others.”

He nodded, his eyes meeting mine in a way that made me feel warmer, shivering to life. He brushed my cheek, and looked at my mouth for a brief second before he moved slowly closer, touching my lips. I pressed forward to meet his mouth. It didn’t feel rushed or illicit like our other kiss.

When my cousin Cora married, her father gave her a home in Jitra. The night before her wedding I couldn’t find her, and I searched the whole house. When I still couldn’t find her, I went to her new home. It was empty, but she was there, sweeping the stone floors.

“What are you doing?” I had asked her.

She stopped, looking at me. She looked at the broom for a long moment. “I needed to make sure that there was room,” she told me. “I just needed to clear room for him.” She touched her heart, and then kept sweeping, and I always thought she meant something more than making room for his belongings.

As Galen kissed me, gentle and soft, I felt my heart opening, swelling, clearing some kind of room for him to come in and stay.





My Lovely Dragon

I dressed in the clothes that Galen had brought before we fell asleep—they were heavier fabrics than the silks of the Tri City; the styling was similar to the clothes the praeceptae wore, and I was grateful to have more fabric than the remaining shreds of the dress I’d been wearing, still dark with blood.

There were four other Elementae besides Iona and me—five if you considered Danae, though I wasn’t sure she wanted to be called an Elementa. Everyone ate, and most went to their rooms to sleep. When I went to Iona, however, she was sitting up in bed, staring at the wall.

“May I come in?” I asked her.

She looked at me. The cavity around her eye was red still, and a little swollen, but Kata had healed it enough that she hadn’t even bandaged it. There were uneven lumps of scar tissue, but otherwise it looked strangely smooth, like her eyelids had been fused together over a sunken space. The eye itself was gone.

She turned back to the wall, rocking a little on her bed, and I came and sat beside her. I touched her leg, and she jumped, but before I moved she covered my hand, holding it there.

“In the morning, we’re going north,” I told her softly. “To the desert, to make sure everyone’s safe. You can come with us if you want, but I don’t really know what to expect. There could be more fighting.”

She shook her head.

“Galen’s men can take you away from the Trifectate. Maybe across the sea.”

“I’ll be safe there?” she asked.

I squeezed her hand. “They’ll send you somewhere safe.”

“Will there be others like us?” she asked.

I hesitated. “I don’t know. Why?”

She rocked a little faster. “I don’t …” She trailed off so long I thought she had stopped talking before she continued, “I want to learn how to use it. How to heal, like you showed me.” She nodded. “I can convince the others too. I think the rest of us should stay together.”

“If that’s what you want, I’ll make sure of it.”