Page 61 of Horns & Heart
Chapter23
One day later.
It had taken me hours to come back to myself after we’d touched down in Aër.Well, I’d never really left—no out-of-body experience for me—but still, something had not been set to the standard configurations.
I hadn’t lost time or anything.I knew perfectly well that as soon as we got here, Inkiri had wrapped me into his arms, clicked, sniffed me, and called me precious and a lot of other things that let me know I was cherished.
Everyone else had looked freaked out.Most of all Nokim.Nokim had been dead.I knew that—another piece of foreign knowledge.Lissir was walking again, properly, and he came over to press a gentle kiss to my cheek.Lissir was fine.I knew he wouldn’t have lasted much longer though, like I knew Nokim had been dead, but now he was okay.
“I was wrong,” Vergis said.“He’s not a conduit.”
“Then what?”Fellisse asked as he ran his hands over Nokim’s body where it had been broken.Where it wasn’t broken anymore.
“No clue.Not a one.”Vergis looked at me.Not with his resting bitch face this time.I didn’t know what this face of his was called.The color-me-surprised face?
“It doesn’t matter,” Inkiri said.“Sweet thing, say something.”His voice was so gentle.It was the voice I’d melted for.But I couldn’t really speak or engage.I was too full.It had been too much.I was there with them though, and it had to be enough.
Inkiri carried on clicking at me as he scooped me up, and then they talked in LaGuardia, picked a direction, and walked.
We got to a town.It was my first time seeing a town where everyone had horns.Everyone but the children, anyway, who were still growing them and had sort of stubbly, cute little ones.
People gawked at us.They probably thought Inkiri had taken me as a pet or something, or they might’ve been gawking at all the blood all over us.Honestly, we were soaked in the stuff, all but Vergis, who seemed the kind of guy to walk out clean after a bloodbath.
We made it to a hotel or inn or tavern.I didn’t know what the best word was, but there was a bathhouse there, and Inkiri cleaned me with the utmost care, taking his time to lave his tongue all over my throat and wrists.
While the others went to soak in a big, common pool after washing, Inkiri carried me to a room once he’d dried me off and deposited me in a bed.That was good.I knew I needed sleep.The magic had wounded, and I needed to heal from that.Another thing I knew without knowing how I knew.
I slipped into sleep promptly, but even as I slept, I could tell that Inkiri was there with me.I had a new kind of awareness that let me know he was in bed with me, or close to me, like once when he sat at a low table with the others in our room and they talked in low voices so as not to wake me.
The awareness faded gradually as I slept, and when Inkiri wrapped me in his arms next, I felt the last bits of it dissolve.Only then did I slip into normal sleep.
When I stirred again, it was still dark outside, but a gray light was outlining the windows.They were tall and narrow, reminding me of the light reflecting off skyscrapers.
I stroked the blue hand across my chest.“I love you,” I said.
Inkiri shifted.“You speak again.Fellisse—neither he nor Vergis were sure what was wrong with you, but now you speak.My Rory.”
I turned around to face him.“I mean it this time.About the loving you thing.I need to get that out while I still have the courage.Also, nothing was really wrong with me.I was all there.Just a bit tired, I guess.”
“Sadir.”Inkiri bent toward my throat.
I felt his tongue.My skin was so sensitive.
“I’m okay.We all are.”
“We shouldn’t be, but we are.”Inkiri kissed me on the mouth.
I surrendered.It was easy.So easy.I reached down between his legs, and he was hard for me.Slick too.He moaned into my mouth.
“Sweet thing, you need rest,” Inkiri mumbled against my lips when he broke the kiss.His voice sounded strained.
“What I need now is your strange blue cock.I need you to ravish me.”I felt my face turn cabbage red.“I maybe even want to feel, you know, your barb thing.Inside me.Again.”
Inkiri growled.“Rory, by the ancestors.As you wish.But we stop if you look unwell.If anything hurts, you say so.Yes?”
I snorted.He stopped moving entirely.I groaned.“Okay, fine.”
The bed was spacious enough for two of Inkiri’s size, so we had plenty of room.He carefully guided me to the middle of it.The pillows were fluffier here, likely to accommodate the horns, and when the light brightened, I realized it wasn’t a bed at all, but bedding laid out on the floor like a traditional futon.It fit with the low table I spotted when I looked to my left.
