My heart softens. I really fucking love them for caring.
‘Yes,’ Cielo signs. ‘I’m happy.’ He drops his hands and twists his fingers around mine.
She sucks in a breath, and I think I know what’s coming, so I brace myself for a question I can’t answer, but Gia quickly cuts in. “Babe. Boundaries.”
“But—”
“Boundaries,” Gia says. Her tone is firm but kind.
Amara lets out a puff of air. “Right. Sorry.”
“It’s fine,” I murmur. I want to be able to answer that question. I want to say that Cielo is mine and only mine, and this is a forever kind of thing.
But I don’t know what this is yet.
Or what it might be.
Or what it can be.
Hell, I don’t even know how long the Vyastil live or if they have partners for life. I need to ask, but I’m afraid it’ll scare Cielo off.
“We should go,” Gia says after a few beats of awkward silence. “I have work at ass o’clock.”
Amara groans but doesn’t protest as Gia lifts her to her feet and steals a kiss before she leans over to us, pressing her lips to Cielo’s forehead first, and then mine.
“See you soon?”
“Dinner later this week,” I tell them.
They shoot us a quick nod and a goodbye, then the door shuts, and I feel Cielo stiffen. I feel another pulse in my head like before—not words this time, but more like confusion.
A discomfort.
I don’t know what I’m meant to do next, but the thought doesn’t feel like it belongs to me. It feels like I’ve tapped into someone else’s radio. I don’t know what any of it means, and it’s a little scary.
Still, I swear I heard Cielo in my head earlier. Either that or my nerve pain is killing off my brain cells and making me hallucinate. The feeling is gone as quickly as it came, though, so I push it aside to worry about later. I’m exhausted, and I think Cielo is, too.
“Want to go to bed?” I eventually ask.
Cielo relaxes back against me and sits there for a long moment before he turns his head and kisses me without warning.
It’s a bold move.
One I wasn’t expecting from him.
But it’s also one I definitely want more of.
twelve
CIELO
My Dante departs in the morning to go to work, leaving me alone in the apartment. I watch some more ASL videos that I got at the Book Nest…which they call a library. It does not make sense—these English words—but many human things confuse me. Iamgetting better at understanding, though. It will take years, but I am motivated to become more like them.
If I have to live here for the rest of my life, I will adapt.
But even though I enjoy my time with Dante and have made friends, I miss home. I miss my family. I would like to see them once more, to say goodbye. The dream I had sits heavily with me, even still. I can’t stop picturing the Eretharian sky in the moments I do sleep, or the looks on my brothers’ faces as they’re condemned to work and starve. I don’t know if it’s real, or if it’s a fear, but knowing I can’t make sure myself is killing me.
I fiddle with my torn earlobes, and my hand falls away from them. Last night, in my head, I vividly saw Dante piercing them, marking me as his.
