Total pages in book: 362
Estimated words: 347293 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1736(@200wpm)___ 1389(@250wpm)___ 1158(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 347293 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1736(@200wpm)___ 1389(@250wpm)___ 1158(@300wpm)
“I say this with the deepest respect possible,” Bele replied. “Fuck you, meyaah Liessa.”
“All right.” Aios tugged on Bele’s hand. “Let’s go before you end up getting thrown through a wall.”
Bele blew me a kiss, and I smiled as Aios dragged her toward the doors. I started to turn back to the portraits when I heard Aios say, “Can you give us a moment?”
Thinking she was talking to me, I turned, only to realize she was speaking to Bele.
“A moment where I can’t be involved?” Bele asked.
“Yep.”
“Why—?” Aios cut Bele off with a kiss.
“Please?”
“How can I say no after you kiss me?” Bele grumbled. “That’s an unfair tactic.” She stepped back, looking over Aios’s head toward me for a moment. “I’ll be outside.”
“Thank you, love.”
I looked away and saw an all-too-familiar heated look fill Bele’s stare. Several moments passed before I heard the library doors close.
“What’s up?” I said, looking over my shoulder.
Aios’s face flushed prettily. She came forward, and her chest rose with a deep breath. “Was Nyktos surprised you shifted already?”
Not expecting that question, I faced her. “Yeah, I guess so. Why?”
“It’s just that I’ve never heard of any Primal shifting as soon as you did. Bele just did it recently, only once, and even her shifting so soon was a surprise.”
“The embers were already mature when placed inside me,” I said with a halfhearted shrug.
Aios nodded, clasping her hands. “With Bele, she shifted because she was upset. We were talking about everything that happened when Kyn attacked.” Her gaze moved from me to the portraits. “It was the first time Bele actually brought it up and talked about how she felt when she heard that I had…that I died.” She sent me a quick smile. “She’s not big on opening up—like someone else I know.”
A faint smile reached my lips. “I guess Bele and I have more in common than we thought.”
“Yes.” She was quiet for a moment. “You know, when you were taken, I knew Nyktos would find a way to save you.”
I raised my brows. “You did?”
“I wasn’t awake yet when Nyktos left the Shadowlands to bring you back, but I heard how he couldn’t be talked out of it. Not even Nektas could convince him to wait until the Shadowland’s forces could join him,” she said, causing my chest to squeeze. “None of that surprised me, though. His reaction—his need to get to you as soon as he could—that is. I’ve seen the way he’s looked at you—from the moment he brought you here. Even when he was angry. I saw how he looked at you the night of your coronation, and I knew what that look of want that goes bone-deep meant.”
“You did?” I whispered.
“He looked at you in the same manner I used to catch Bele watching me during one of our off periods. It was how I knew I looked at her.” Her smile was sweet. “His love for you was so clear, etched into every inch of his flesh.”
My breath caught.
“And I saw it on your face. I saw it long before then,” she continued, sending a dose of surprise through me. “I heard it in your voice the night of your coronation when you asked if I’d ever been in love—what it felt like.”
I remembered exactly what she had told me. “You said it feels like being home, even in an unfamiliar place.”
“Was I not correct?”
“You were.” My eyes searched hers. “You spoke then in the past tense—”
“Remember when I said yes and no as my answer to whether my relationship with Bele was new?” she said. “We’ve only recently rekindled.”
I started to speak but stopped myself.
“What?” Aios prodded.
“I was going to be nosy.”
“Please, do so.”
I didn’t need to be given permission twice. “What happened that you spent the last two decades apart when it sounds to me like you were both still in love with each other?”
“It’s hard to say.” Aios sighed. “Bele can be…”
“Difficult?” I suggested.
She laughed. “I was going to say she can be so strong that it’s hard not to feel weak in comparison.”
“Oh.” My lips pursed. “Sorry.” I leaned toward her. “You’re not weak, Aios.”
“I know that.” She paused. “Now. But to answer your question, it wasn’t just that.” Her shoulders lifted in a shrug. “I don’t think either of our heads was in the right place.”
“I’m happy to see it appears you’re both in the right space now.”
“We are.” Her smile grew, and she tilted her head. A moment passed. “And you probably think it was Bele who wasn’t in the right headspace. It wasn’t. It was me.”
I quieted, watching her.
Her gaze was fixed forward, but I didn’t think she saw anything before her. “It took a long time for me to move past what happened when Kolis held me. And even longer for me to realize that I hadn’t yet when I believed I had. Like I was able to move on in certain areas but not others. And…” She shook her head. “Like you—like probably everyone who has ever gone through something like that—I didn’t like talking about it. Especially with someone I loved. I didn’t want her to…”