by Hanna Peach
Cleo squealed in indignation. Jordan smiled inwardly to himself. She was so easy to rile up.
“Whatever, loser.” A pillow struck him squarely in the face.
In his sleep, Jordan became aware of a soft scent, sweet without being floral or sticky, and with a hum of musk. It was perfection. He reached out in the dark towards this musky heaven and found a soft, warm body. He pulled Alyx into his arms. To his surprise, she rolled into him instead of pushing him away.
Part of his mind wondered, did Alyx ever smell like this?
No, he realized. This isn’t Alyx. Soft locks fell across his chest as the familiar feminine body nestled into the nook of his chest and laced itself around him. Her hair, too, smelled sweet, but a different sweet than her body. This was more of a clean smell but it complemented the musky heaven just perfectly.
“Cleo,” he mumbled into her hair. Of course it was Cleo. As if he could ever mistake her for Alyx. She moaned at her name and pressed herself more firmly into him. Her body seemed to melt around him and fissions of heat vibrated through his body. She fit against him so well. His arm curled around her shoulder like armor. And that’s what he felt like, strong as steel and ready to take any sword aimed for her head.
She sighed with obvious happiness and if his head wasn’t already spinning with bliss, this sound just took him further into that state. If this exact position − this exact press and mold of their bodies − wasn’t such perfection, he would have pulled her up and onto him. But he didn’t dare move in case he woke her. Or himself. Because, of course, this was just a dream.
Jordan woke slowly, cursing the ray of sun that slipped through the curtains and landed maliciously across one eye. Something soft was on his chest, partially pinning him down. Something soft and warm and smelling ever so like the heaven of his dreams.
He must still be dreaming, then. He stayed still, hoping to remain in this blessed state. She began to stir on his chest. Her fingers curled on his shirt and their tips found their way under the hem and brushed against his skin. She moaned and Jordan found himself stiffening at the sound. How many more of those moans could he coax from her?
His eyelids fluttered open and he glanced down, stunned into thoughtlessness as he beheld the angelic face on his chest, chin tilted up towards him. That midnight hair tumbling across her smooth, tanned cheekbones, those thick lashes now closed, hiding dark eyes shaped like cats’, and that pouty smart-mouth.
It’s the most beautiful face I have ever seen in my life. This thought drifted up through his half-asleep mind.
Her eyelids fluttered open. He first registered surprise in her eyes before they melted to liquid night and an inviting smile dragged across her face. What a delicious dream this was turning out to be…
“Good morning,” Cleo said, her voice husky from sleep.
This wasn’t a dream.
Jordan snapped awake. He yanked his arm out from under her causing her to yelp as she rolled across the mattress. He leapt out of the bed, shaking the blankets off him as if they were snakes.
“Oh God,” he cried.
How long had he been holding on to her? Did he…? Did they...? He froze, letting that thought terrify him into motionlessness for one moment. He stared down at himself. He was clothed. Thank God. There was a slight stiffness in his pants, which he hoped Cleo hadn’t noticed. It was just because it was the morning and well, these things happen to men in the morning. Besides, he had woken up next to a beautiful woman. He would have reacted this way if it had been any beautiful woman. Not just because it was Cleo, right?
Cleo. What would she think of him?
Jordan looked up at Cleo still swathed in her white sheets. He saw a glimpse of red straps falling daintily off her shoulder. This meant she was clothed too.
He tried to remember what they had been doing last night that led him here. It didn’t start out any differently than any other night. He came into her room and sat in the chair by her bed and they talked and she teased him until she started to yawn.
Eventually her voice slowed to a sleepy slur and her questions grew further and further apart until she fell asleep and he spent the night in the chair…except last night he didn’t stay in the chair. He had woken up when she had a nightmare. They were coming less and less now but still coming. He had slipped in beside her and rubbed her hair, her soft silky hair that ran like water through his fingers, until she had fallen asleep. He must have fallen asleep too. In her bed.
“I didn’t mean to fall asleep,” he said, feeling like an ass when he said it because his words sounded so…stuck out there. He shouldn’t be this damned uncomfortable being caught in a woman’s bed. Lord only knows he had woken up in many before Cleo. He was Jordan Bonaven for Christ’s sake, he always knew what to say and when to say it to a woman. He certainly didn’t trip out of bed red-faced like a teenager with a hard-on when he woke up next to said woman. What the hell was wrong with him?
Cleo didn’t seem to notice the turmoil going on inside him. She yawned and Jordan found his eyes wandering to her breasts, which were pushing out against thin silky red material as she stretched. The stiffness in his pants stiffened even further. Oh great. He moved his hands in front of him, hoping it wasn’t too conspicuous.
“Don’t worry,” she said, “you didn’t do anything ungentlemanly or untoward. Unfortunately,” she added in a mumble.
“I have to go.” He grabbed his shoes and socks, the only articles of clothing that he had removed, thank goodness. This would have been an even more awkward good morning if things had gone any further. He didn’t know why he was so damn flustered. It’s not like he hadn’t spent every damn night in this room and sometimes even in her bed, but he had always been sitting up. He had never slept next to her, let alone…groped her in his sleep!
“Relax, Jordan. Nothing happened.”
“No,” he began to back away toward the door, “it’s not that. I just remembered, I…” His mind drew a blank. His back hit the door and he dropped a shoe. Dammit. He snatched it up and shoved both shoes into one arm so he could grab the door handle with his other. He glanced at Cleo, who was sitting up in her bed, the sheet fallen now around her waist, revealing her silky red top. It took everything for him not to jump back in there with her.
He had to get out of here before he totally and completely took advantage of his friendship with Cleo. “I…um…” He gave up on trying to come up with a valid-sounding excuse. “See you later.” He gave her an awkward finger wave and opened the door.
Jordan slipped out, stubbing his toe on the frame. He twisted awkwardly, still trying to hold on to his shoes while shutting it behind him. Thank God that awkwardness is over.
He turned and bumped into the last person on Earth that he wanted to see at this moment. Literally.
Alyx fell back after bouncing off his chest. Jordan whipped out his free hand to steady her out of instinct, and in doing so he dropped one of his shoes. He was certain now. God was having a laugh at him.
“Sorry,” Alyx said, blinking at him.
“No. I’m sorry.”
“No, it was me. I wasn’t watching where I was going.”
Alyx and he both leaned down for his shoe at the same time. Their heads bumped together.
“Ow.”
“Dammit. Sorry. Again.”
“It’s fine.”
Jordan grabbed his wayward shoe and stood up stiffly as Alyx straightened up too. They stood there for several seconds. Alyx chewing her lip. Jordan shuffling on his bare feet, the stone cold underneath them.
Welcome to Planet Awkward. Population me.
Since their battle with Samyara several days ago, Jordan had been trying to avoid Alyx. He just needed some time and space from her to let his feelings fade. It was clear that she had chosen Israel.
Now, evident by the thick and awkward silence that had fallen between them, neither of them knew how to move forward from here.
“How are you?” he blurted out.
She
nodded a little too fervently. “Good. You?”
“Yes. Good. Thanks.”
“I just saw Mini.”
“Oh, good. How is she?”
Alyx’s face fell a little. Jordan recognized it and cursed himself for being able to read her so well. I should be with her. Jordan shoved that thought away. No good thinking these things.
“Mini is asking for Ky. I just…I don’t know what to tell her.”
Jordan felt his heart thud a little. Ky had been Lukas and Ana’s son. He had been like a younger brother to Jordan. Jordan had barely any time to grieve for Ky after he died. Jordan swallowed down the small lump in his throat before he spoke. “That’s a difficult one. I don’t envy you.”
Damned silence fell across them again. That damned silence that was filled with all the things that he wanted to say to her but couldn’t. Jordan cleared his throat. “How is Israel?” He forced his words around the boy’s name. Yes, he wanted to make things better with Alyx but he still didn’t have to like him.
“He’s good. He just came back from his outing with Tobias. You know, father, son, bonding time.”
“Good. Great.”
“Yeah.”
“That was crazy how they found out. Crazy that they were living alongside each other and didn’t realize they were related.”
“It was.”
“Crazy how quickly someone can suddenly go from a friend to meaning so much…” Was he even talking about Israel and Tobias anymore?
“Yeah. Crazy, huh?” Her eyes flicked to the door behind him. A look of curiosity stole across her face and for a second she chewed on her lip as if she was debating whether to say something.
“It’s not what you think,” he said quickly.
“What isn’t what I think?”
“What you’re thinking, just then. You’ve noticed the door…it’s not what you think.”
“So that’s not Cleo’s room.”
Crap. “It is but...”
“It’s really none of my business.”
“She has nightmares…from her drug withdrawals…”
“She is very beautiful…”
“I feel sorry for her so I’m just helping her.”
“…and very experienced.”
“Jesus Christ, Alyx. I just sleep in the chair next to her just in case she goes through a withdrawal because I feel sorry for her. Nothing’s going on between us. It’s more of a nuisance, really.”
“I see.” She didn’t sound convinced at all. “It doesn’t matter anyway.”
“It matters to me.”
Alyx inhaled. “No, Jordan. What I think shouldn’t matter to you.”
“Alyx, you taught me that I could love. How do I get over that? I can’t just turn my feelings off.”
“You…you need to try.”
Alyx wouldn’t meet his eye. She mumbled some excuse and disappeared before he could stop her. Jordan slumped against the door and swore under his breath. That had not gone well.
* * *
Cleo remained leaning against the inside of her bedroom door, the fingers of one of her hands pressed hard against her lips, trying to hold back the sob that was building up in her chest. She knew that Jordan was still on the other side of the door and she didn’t want him to know that she had heard every word. Every single hateful word. He would have more reason to feel sorry for her then.
“…I feel sorry for her…it’s more of a nuisance really…”
She had to stop these feelings she was developing, whatever this was. She thought he was feeling them too but Jordan clearly wasn’t. He still loved Alyx.
“It does matter to me…Alyx, I can’t just turn my feelings off…”
Jordan wanted Cleo, even if he denied it to himself. Last night had been evidence enough. Jordan had been the one to curl into her, to pull her into him. But having Jordan want her wasn’t enough. She was beyond trying to deny to herself that her feelings for Jordan were just physical, although they had certainly started out that way.
Jordan loved Alyx, not her. Even if Jordan did give in to his desires for her, she wouldn’t be in his heart.
Chapter 2
Tobias rushed down the wide curved stairs to the main entrance of the castle. Down at the bottom, Marin was waiting for him. Marin was a thick, tall, muscular FreeThinker, one of Lukas’s friends. He had only barely recovered from his torture by Samyara but he had insisted on going out to search for Ana too.
Tobias stopped before Marin, relief filling his veins. In Marin’s arms he held Ana, asleep with her head tucked into his neck.
“Oh thank God, she’s okay. Where did you find her?”
“She just appeared at Tara,” Marin explained. “She was hysterical, nonsensical. Screaming for Lukas. I had to knock her out with a bit of borrowed DreamWalker.”
Tobias brushed the hair back from her face. There didn’t appear to be any bruising or abrasions on her. “At least she’s alright.”
Tobias looked up in time to catch the look on Marin’s face. There was something else that Marin wasn’t telling him. “What is it?”
“It might be nothing. A trauma thing from whatever she’s been through.”
“Tell me.”
“Tobias,” Marin said slowly, “when she arrived in Tara, she didn’t know who I was.”
* * *
Lukas barreled through the doors into Tobias’s office. He stared around the office. Tobias was behind his desk. Jordan was standing at one of the bookshelves in the office. But there was no Ana.
“Where is she?” Lukas demanded.
Tobias’s face was grim. “Come in. Close the door.”
Lukas did so and moved to the front of Tobias’s desk.
“Have a seat,” Tobias said.
“I don’t want to sit. Where is she?”
“Lukas, I really think you should sit,” Jordan said.
They were stalling. But why? He spoke through clenched teeth. “Tobias. Tell me where Ana is.”
Tobias and Jordan traded a look.
“What?” Lukas demanded, staring back and forth between them. In his stomach a cold fear began to percolate. Something was going on. Something was wrong.
“Lukas,” Tobias began slowly, his face lined with concern. “Before I bring you to her, I need you to be…prepared.”
A cold, deathly grip curled its hand around his stomach and squeezed. “Oh my God. Is she alright? Is she hurt?”
“She’s not hurt. Not that I can tell but…”
Lukas’s hands flew to his hair, tugging at it. What were these games, then? Ana wasn’t hurt but there was something very, very wrong. “Tobias, whatever it is. Tell me.”
“Ana…isn’t herself.”
Lukas swallowed the hard, painful lump that appeared in his throat. “What do you mean ‘she’s not herself’?”
* * *
Alyx closed the door to her room. She swept the room for any demon-bug spying devices. She didn’t trust Balthazar one bit. She found none.
Only then did she pull out the charm Raphael had left for her. She sat in her chair, dangling it from one hand. It looked like a round metal coin on the end of a necklace wrapped in a mirage. When she touched it the mirage faded away to reveal an eight-pointed star within a circle all in silver. Engraved around the outer and front edges of the circle were the shimmering words,
“Look within your soul to find the path to the truth.”
What the hell did that mean?
She stared at the charm, reading the words over and over again. She supposed that “the path to the truth” could be a metaphor to mean the location of Raphael’s missing Amulet piece as Balthazar suggested, but what did it mean to look within herself? What did she actually have to do?
Was the answer inside her? Did she have to say the answer to the riddle out aloud? So, what was in her soul?
“Um, love,” she tested, “love is in my soul.”
Nothing happened.
“Light.”
Still nothing
happened.
“Eternal life.”
Nope.
“Abracadabra?”
The shimmering ink seemed to wink at her.
“Come on,” she let out, frustration making her nerves jangle, “tell me what the answer is.”
The charm, of course, did not reply.
Jesus Christ, she was sitting here talking to a piece of metal. She must be going mad.
Maybe Tobias could help. He might know more about Raphael. Or Jordan. He was good with riddles. But, she remembered, Mayrekk did say that only the Guardian could understand the riddle.
“Alyx?”
She jolted from her chair and snatched the charm into her fist. She relaxed when she saw who it was. “Israel, you scared me. I didn’t hear you come in.”
Israel chuckled as he moved towards her and wrapped her in his arms. “You were concentrating pretty hard. Do you know when you concentrate you stick the end of your tongue out?”
“I do not.”
“You do. Makes me want to kiss you.” He leaned down to her and brushed his lips against hers. His tongue grazed her lips teasingly but he kept his mouth just out of the reach of her greedy lips. It was teasing, tantalizing torture. Just before Alyx thought she might lose her mind, he closed his mouth over hers. She floated herself off the floor so that they could deepen the kiss.
Finally he pulled away. Alyx sighed happily in his arms. This, a girl could get used to. Who knew that one day she might find more time for kisses than blades.
“So,” Israel asked, “what are you working on that requires such concentration?”
Alyx had all but forgotten. Again. He did have that effect on her. She showed him the charm, explained what it was and read out the riddle hidden under the mirage.
“And you thought that ‘abracadabra’ would work, huh?” Israel said.
Alyx blushed. “You heard that? I thought it couldn’t hurt.”
“But it didn’t work.”
“Nope. Nothing has so far.”
“Can I help?”
“Please, if you can make sense of it.” She handed over the charm to Israel. It looked so delicate in his strong hands as he turned it over. She watched his scar on his top lip dance as he spoke out the riddle on the charm under his breath. “Raphael said that only the Guardian could understand the riddle, which means me.”
