Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 62637 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 313(@200wpm)___ 251(@250wpm)___ 209(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 62637 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 313(@200wpm)___ 251(@250wpm)___ 209(@300wpm)
But right now. I am in utter darkness.
The great Eye of Horus, for the first time in history—can no longer see.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
負けるが勝ち
makeru ga kachi
“To lose is to win.”
~Japanese proverb
Kit
My world is different now.
I don’t know how it happened or why, but I realize this when Horus finally leaves. It feels different and weird, yet oddly comforting because I know in my soul he will come back. He has to.
We finish eating, and I go outside. I look up to the sky and wonder which of the stars picked me; which one fell? I spread my arms wide, do a little dance, and then stutter step.
I used to do that in the rain.
I don’t know how I remember.
I frown and look down at my skin, the stardust reflects the sky like water on my skin, like a Christmas lotion you buy at the store, but it feels warm.
“Stay safe, god of the sky,” I murmur.
“A gift,” a voice whispers. Stars shine down on me so bright I can barely breathe; I fall to my knees as visions appear in my mind.
“Safe from who?” Horus laughs and chases me through the forest. “You’re going too slow.”
“Foxes are never slow!” I yell over my shoulder only to run into something warm and complex.
Horus picks me up, twirls me in the air, and then presses me against the nearest tree. “See? Slow.”
“Kiss me.” My breathless words are part demand, part entreaty.
“Is that allowed? For the loser to get a gift?”
I laugh, and my heart swells. I feel like I’m floating off the ground. Things are happier with him; I’ve been so alone, so isolated. The Watcher has left his post, and I have nothing but these moments with Horus and a dark foreboding that something else is present in the forest, ready to devour. I thrust the apprehensive perception away.
“Just one?” I tease.
He’s beautiful; his golden hair falls past his shoulders, and his blue eyes only see me. Full lips descend and capture mine in a tender kiss. I want more. I wrap my arms around his neck.
He gasps in my mouth. “You tempt me.”
“Good.” I nip at his neck with my teeth. “Allow it.”
“Allowed.” He groans as my tiny bites find their way down his neck. I tug at his blue tunic and toss it to the ground, leaving it dangling at his hips; his chest is gloriously naked, and the tattoo around his eye seems darker as an even darker constellation of tattoos appear across his chest and stomach.
“Where’s mine?” I point at his chest.
He swallows slowly. “Shall I find it for you?”
“One day.” I smile, knowing that it may not be there, my star, my constellation; we’ve been in darkness for a while. I don’t want to talk about sad things. “But today, can I just have you?”
“Isn’t it past your curfew?”
I smack him on the chest. “Are you my guardian then?”
He makes a face. “I’m not that old.”
“And I’m young?”
“Younger than me.” His eyebrows arch as he looks around me. “Nice ninth tail. So what then, you’re a little over a thousand years old?”
“Mature for my age, don’t you think?”
“So mature,” he agrees and pulls me down into the grass. We tumble over and over until he’s on top of me.
My heart wants to join the song of the heavens. For this godlike creature is mine. He’s mine.
“I have never in my existence hated my duty to the world more than I do in this moment.”
My breath catches. “Why?”
“Because I want all of your seconds. I want your minutes. Your hours. Your days. I covet them, and I don’t know if I’ll ever have enough time to earn them.”
“And if I give them to you?”
“What is sacrifice when it’s unequal?” He smiles down at me. “Let me take a few more minutes though, just a few before I have to leave again.”
I nod and meet him for a kiss. He tears open my tunic and reaches for my breasts while his mouth latches onto mine. His lips are always so soft yet unyielding, his hands massive as they cover my body, touching, exploring like he’s studying everything that makes me alive.
His hand slides between my thighs.
I almost kick at him in shock. Never has anyone dared such intimacy with me. I open my eyes wide, torn—should I push him away? Demand he stop? Do I want to call a halt to things?
His mouth is still moving against mine, and so is one hand. With his other hand, he laces our fingers together and holds my arm down in the grass. I’ve never felt sensations like this before. Explosions like stars being born out of the darkness build around me as he touches every sensitive part of me.
Is this love?
I buck against his hand. He answers by pinning me against the grass and kissing me harder, pushing his tongue past my lips and brushing it against mine. He flicks a finger, deeper, deeper, ever deeper, as stars shoot above us. And I swear they’re inside me too, as I fall under his spell.