by A D Seeley
She put out her finger, not really expecting anything, but the butterfly took to the air and landed on it.
She giggled and looked over at Inac, who was smiling at her with delight on his face.
“Look,” she cried.
“Most life forms can sense your nature,” he called back. “It must know you’re an angel.”
She smiled and looked back down at the butterfly as it slowly fluttered its wings.
“Oh…” she said after it took flight.
She looked back at Inac, whose mouth was now open in awe as he stared at her.
“What?” she asked.
“Um….” His brain didn’t appear to be working.
“Inac…” she whined in a cutesy voice. “Stop looking at me like that. You’re making me embarrassed.”
“Sorry. You’re just…god, Hara, do you realize how beautiful you are?”
“Thank you,” she said as she walked up to him. “But, for the last time, don’t swear,” she gently chastened.
“I will do whatever you say. Sorry, my mind just….” He still seemed out of sorts. He probably didn’t even know what swear word he’d said.
Like he liked to do, he put a hand through her hair. But this time, he didn’t look her in the eyes and kiss her. Instead, he stared at her hair in wonder as he ran his fingers through it. He seemed mesmerized by her thick waves.
She knew it was odd that she hadn’t put her hair up for the long hike—and it probably had twigs and bits of leaves in it now, as well as the nape of her neck was slick with sweat—but it was all worth it for this moment. This was exactly why she’d left it down. Inac loved to play with it, and she loved him doing so.
She put her hands on his elbows and closed her eyes so that she could pay more attention to the sensations of his touch. As she tuned into her senses, she felt the hot sun against her face, warming the outside of her as much as he was warming the inside.
“Hara?” he said, his voice cracking slightly.
She opened her eyes when he didn’t go on. His eyes were the warmest gray she’d ever seen.
“Yes?”
He let out a deep breath as he brought his other hand up to her cheek, lightly grazing it with the back of two fingers.
“I just….”
A part of her wanted to scream, “Say it!” But she was worried that doing so would never get him to open up about his feelings. Maybe if she told him how she felt, he’d be able to say the words that his eyes were telling her he felt. She wasn’t even sure why she hadn’t said it to him yet because she told everyone else how much she loved and cared about them. She just didn’t know how Inac would react to the depth of emotion she felt for him.
“Hara…I….”
She stood on her tippy-toes and gave him a small, yet sensual, kiss. When she was done, she pulled away enough to whisper, “You what, love?” Maybe saying the word would help him to repeat it.
She kissed him again, this time feeling a smile under her lips. When he pulled away, his smile disappeared and he was looking at her seriously, his brow furrowed. As he obviously fought to come up with the words she so longed to hear, he began a soft caress along her cheek.
“I love you, Hara,” he finally said, his voice a verbal caress softer than any physical one he could ever give her.
She smiled, her spirit soaring through the clouds at his words. “I love you, too, Inac.”
He got a small grin on one half of his face, but his brow was still furrowed.
“Is there something wrong with that?” she asked.
She felt like he was about to tell her everything he hid from her…as well as that she probably wouldn’t like it. Instead, at the very moment she was sure his walls had broken, a large smile took over his face and he said, “You must be starving. Come on. I brought us dinner.”
True to Inac’s character, he had switched his emotions so quickly that she was now lost while trying to figure out what exactly was going on. She stood there, wishing for a road map of his mind so she could figure out what turn he’d just taken, while he took items out of his backpack. Before she had him figured out, he had a blanket set up, Tupperwares full of things set around him.
“Sorry it’s not as glamorous as the last one we had together,” he said as he dished up some kind of fancy salad for her.
“Well, we are in the middle of nowhere,” she said as she moved to take off her hiking boots and socks. Once they were tossed aside, she sat there letting the late afternoon golden sun soak into her skin. She was wearing shorts and a racer-back tank so the light was getting a lot of her. Too bad she didn’t tan. She didn’t anything. Her skin seriously didn’t mark at all. She didn’t even have freckles. It was pretty weird. Then again, Inac’s skin was flawless as well. But his skin was much darker than hers so it wasn’t so much a surprise that he didn’t have any marks on him at all. Not even one scar marred his perfection…other than the one on his right shoulder where he was shot only a few months ago. But that seemed to be fading fast….
“While I make our sandwiches,” he said, “why don’t you go take some pictures?” He then threw her a pair of sandals; the kind you wore wading in water that had the black foamy bottoms and the two Velcro straps. Tevas, or something like that.
“These aren’t mine.”
“They are now. I bought them for you to wear up here.”
“Oh. Thanks.”
He smiled in response before beginning to make them turkey sandwiches. Ignoring that, she put on the sandals and got out her camera. She had taken so many pictures this trip already that she would fill up at least three more scrapbooks when they got back. Still, she took picture after picture of the scenery and the animals—especially a chipmunk that scampered nearby collecting seeds—until Inac called her over for dinner.
They ate, mostly talking about school as they did so. Once they were finished and he’d put everything back in his bag—only after rinsing them off in a pot he filled with water—he asked, “Do you want to see something amazing?”
He seemed so excited that there was no way she could say no. However, when it ended up that in order to see something “amazing” she had to wade across the pool, which was shallower than it looked—her short shorts barely got wet—and hike up the side of the waterfall, she wasn’t as excited as she had been. When they got to the top, though, it was worth the few scrapes and bruises she’d received despite Inac’s help in getting up.
“Oh my…. Inac, it’s gorgeous!” she exclaimed. She found herself on the top of a peak with a 360 degree view. A view made even better since it was also perfect timing for the sunset. The hues of oranges, pinks, and purples looked like swirls of paint in the vast sky.
His answering smile was so large that she couldn’t help but kiss it.
“I thought you’d like it,” he said once she pulled away.
“Like it? I have to take a few pictures.”
She took tons more before leaning back into Inac. They were still standing so he put his arms around her waist as she laid the back of her head against his chest. She then put her arms around his. It was so beautiful; so effortlessly romantic. She wanted to live in this moment for the rest of her life.
It was when the show was almost over that Inac turned her in his arms. He then bent over for just a moment and picked a beautifully vivid purple wildflower.
“Thanks for bringing me here. It really was beautiful,” she said, taking a fragrant whiff of it as he placed it under her nose.
“Not near as beautiful as you,” he said, pulling it away and tucking it behind her right ear.
She looked down, suddenly shy for some reason. Maybe because of the cadence of his words. She felt like he was going somewhere with that.
“Hara,” he said, lifting her chin until she was looking him in the eyes. “I know that I’m not the best boyfriend; that it’s frustrating that I don’t open up. And I’m sorry that I don’t. But my life has hardened me. From the time when I was a boy, I had to take care of thi
ngs for my family and wasn’t really allowed to feel things emotionally. And then, the Mokolios have been such a large part of my life. They’ve been the only thing I’ve put myself into, which makes it difficult for me to put myself into anything else. It’s all I’ve known for a very long time. And, as a Mokolio, I’ve done some things that I’m not proud of. Things that were necessary, but not necessarily good. I wish that certain deaths didn’t have to happen, but they do—they did. And that’s all a part of me, too. But, despite all that, it’s like I said earlier, I really do love you.”
“I love you, too.” She couldn’t think of anything else to say after his emotional confession.
His lips turned up in a small smile before he continued. “I’ve been thinking a lot about things the past few months. About places I’ve been and places I’m going. I’m not proud of a lot of the things I’ve done in my life, and I can’t change them or make them better…what’s done is done. I can only move forward and not make the same mistakes.”
“Okay…?” She didn’t understand what he was talking about. He seemed to be opening up, though, and she wanted to encourage him to do so.
“I guess what I’m getting at is how much you’ve done for me. I know we’ve only been together a couple of months, but I like seeing you every day. Especially this past couple of weeks. I like waking up with you in my arms.”
“And I like waking up in them.”
“It almost feels perfect, doesn’t it?”
She giggled. “What do you mean, almost? It feels perfect to me.”
“So you can’t think of anything that could make it better?” he asked with a glint in his eyes. He seemed to be enjoying her confusion.
“No…. Not that I can think of. Can you?”
“I can think of a couple things,” he said with a roguish grin that made him appear years younger. “But one in particular.”
She squinted slightly, looking at him in suspicion. “If you’re talking about being intimate, then forget it, buddy.”
He laughed. “Relax. I’m not talking about sex. At least not in how that could be the main way things could get better,” he said with that rakish grin of his that told her that he wouldn’t be upset if he could show her all the reasons, including the S-E-X one….
“Okay. Then what?”
“I think that, in order to have things perfect, we would need to be married.”
She would have fallen off the mountain if Inac wasn’t holding on to her. When he didn’t go on, instead just looking at her expectantly, she realized that he was waiting for her to say something.
“Oh…um…yeah…that would make it…um….” When she couldn’t think of what to say, she instead asked, “Are you trying to get at something?”
He laughed. “No. Just making an observation is all.”
“Oh.” She couldn’t help but be disappointed. She had begun to think that he’d brought her up here to propose, which was a ridiculous sentiment. They couldn’t get married. They hardly even knew each other. She definitely wouldn’t have said yes….
He shuffled his feet while putting one hand in his jeans pocket. She was about to ask what he was doing when he knelt one leg on the ground while holding her hand with one of his.
She took in a deep breath and held it.
“Hara, I know we have every reason not to get married. We’ve only known each other a few months and have only dated a couple of those. We still have a lot to learn about one another. You’re religious; I’m not. You’re innocent, and I’m of the world. I could go on and on. But none of those things really matter because we love each other. I know that I told you that my next marriage would only be because of love. And that’s why I’m asking you…Hara,” he said, letting go of her hand to open a black velvet ring box. “Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife? Will you marry me?”
She didn’t know when she’d put her hands to her mouth, but they were there. Keeping one there, she slowly moved the other one to lightly stroke the ring he offered. It was odd in the last light of the day, because the round-cut stone appeared to be a sort of purplish-red.
She pulled her hand back and lowered her other, saying, “Inac….”
“I know. Like I said, I know there are plenty of reasons to say no to me—”
“Inac, please, let me say what I need to,” she interrupted.
He shut his mouth.
“The only thing making me hesitant is your secrets. You’re probably more secretive than the government.”
“What if I promised that you’d know all of my secrets before the wedding? Would you say yes then?”
She looked into his earnest eyes. He really meant that.
“Then of course I would say yes,” she finally answered.
He took both her hands, though one not as much because he was still clutching the box. “Then I swear to you, Hara, I’ll answer all of your questions before the wedding.”
“Not immediately before, I hope. I’d like some time to process them.”
He flashed her a small smile. “What if we make a deal that you won’t let us set a date until I’ve opened up to you?”
Again, she scrutinized him, finally smiling back as she said, “Then yes, Inac, I’ll marry you!” She was so happy that tears poured unheeded down her cheeks.
He grabbed the ring and put it on her left hand’s ring finger. It was beautiful in its simplicity with just the one large round stone set in a white gold band.
“I wasn’t sure what metal to go with but decided on the white gold because it’s like your hair; both silvery and golden.”
She looked at the band, contemplating that, before turning her eyes back to the center stone. “It looks…” she said.
“Red with a slight purplish tint?” he asked.
“Yeah.”
“That’s because it is.”
“Oh. What kind of stone is it?”
“A diamond. I wanted your ring to be as unique as you are as well as to match your incredible eyes.”
“It’s real? I didn’t even know they came in this color…?”
“It’s real,” he said, nodding. “But they’re extremely rare. This is the rarest color of them all.”
“I can’t…. It must have cost a fortune.”
“Hara, take it. Please?”
It seemed so important to him that she nodded.
“Good,” he said, moving the flower from her right ear to her left one. “Now, unless you want to stay on this mountain all night, we should start making our way back. If we’re too late, Tracker will have my head.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
***
The entire helicopter ride and drive back to camp was spent with Hara staring at her ring with a sappy smile. Inac knew this had been the way to go to get her to the next stage of his plan. And he would keep his promise…she was bound to figure things out when he murdered her.
Lying by telling her that he loved her, followed by the proposal, had gone perfectly. The only thing he hadn’t planned on was the way that his heart had sped up as she’d gleefully played in the sun with the butterfly. She really had taken his breath away in that moment…which was exactly the reason he needed to hasten things with the proposal. He didn’t know how much longer he could go before he would actually have difficulty doing what he had to do.
“You know, love, it is yours forever, so you can stop looking at it,” he teased.
“I know. I just…are we really engaged? Did that really happen?” she asked with such a beautiful smile that he wished he could kiss her, but he had to drive the car.
“It did. And we are.”
When he finally pulled into the mostly dark camp, Tracker was waiting with an angry demeanor. In the state she was in, Hara didn’t seem to notice.
“Hey Track!” she called as she hopped through the door Inac had opened for her. Crystal and Ji soon appeared too, both looking thoroughly annoyed…probably because of Tracker. “What are you guys still doing awake? It’s getting late.”
>
“Where have you two been?!” Tracker demanded. “The deal was two hours. You’ve been gone for eight!”
“Oh, we were just getting engaged,” Hara replied with a nonchalance that had Inac impressed—she wasn’t very good at hiding her excitement with things.
“What?!” Crystal yelled as she jumped forward in her excitement.
“Are you serious?!”
“Yeah, really,” Hara said, holding her hand out for her friend’s inspection.
“Congratulations!” Crystal cried. Then, grabbing Hara’s outstretched hand to pull her toward the pitiful fire as Ji followed with a large grin of his own, she exclaimed, “Now tell me everything. Every little detail.”
Hara started the story as she followed Crystal, not seeming to realize how upset Tracker was through the stars in her eyes—they outnumbered the ones in the heavens above them.
Before the girls could sit down, Tracker silently grabbed Hara’s left hand from Crystal and glared at the rock before flinging it away and turning to run down the dirt road and out of camp.
“Track!” Hara called. He didn’t stop, or even slow.
After calling after him a few more times, Hara turned to Inac, tears streaming down her face from a mixture of what he knew to be hurt and worry.
“Inac?” she asked.
He nodded. “I’ll go after him. You three stay here.” Without waiting for a reply, he began to chase after Tracker, certain that he would catch up soon because of how much longer his legs were than the kid’s.
What Inac hadn’t counted on was how much Tracker’s anger was fueling him to run faster than he normally would be able to. Because of that, it took Inac a while to find the kid since he’d also gone off the road and into the woods. Deep into the woods. When he finally located Tracker, the kid was standing still, his back to Inac, breathing heavily with his hands in fists at his sides.
“You trying to get lost so Hara will get all worried about you?” Inac asked once he was right behind the shorter boy.
Tracker whirled around in surprise; he hadn’t heard Inac. That had been Inac’s intent. He’d begun hunting thousands of years ago and had learned to be almost silent. But, again, Tracker managed to surprise him because, as Tracker turned, he raised one of those fists and punched Inac square in the jaw. The kid had a pretty good arm, too—it turned Inac’s head, though his body didn’t move a millimeter. But the pain barely registered in Inac’s mind; he had also learned to not feel pain when there was such a miniscule amount of it.
