With that, he rounds his desk and approaches where I sit to kiss my forehead with reverence.
I sigh, mimicking him, and stand.
“Yes, Father,” I mumble, exiting the way Jeremy had done minutes prior.
As the heavy door of his study thuds shut behind me, I impulsively fix my button-up, though it already sits perfectly.
I already have most of the day planned out to a T, so Father throwing me out of the office only speeds up my already mapped out activities.
Taking one controlled step at a time, I make my way toward the kitchen, where I can grab a late morning snack. That should make up for this lapse of time, during which I’m suddenly suspended with nothing to do.
Only as I walk onto the second-floor landing and turn my gaze to the large window to my left, I see Atlas sitting by the cliff’s edge, wrapped in his black, sheer robe.
I guess I won’t need to find a late morning snack after all.
As I approach him, having come from the back door, Atlas doesn’t look up. Once I’m directly behind his chair, he speaks.
“Have you come to apologize, Julie? Or should I reconstruct the pillow wall on our bed tonight?” His voice is light and airy, but by no means joking.
“What has Julian done?” I ask, running a hand over his curly brown hair.
Atlas is so beautiful, especially now that he isn’t having his energy constantly drained, which makes me feel plain. Ordinary.
He’s soft and pretty and so perfectly comfortable existing with no urgency or purpose that it drives me crazy. I can’t tell if I’m envious or peeved most of the time, but I always know that I love him.
I love him so much that I sold a decade of my life to a demon, just to try and save him.Not that it worked.
Atlas looks over his shoulder, big blue eyes widening as a pink hue covers his cheeks, coating the slight freckles there.
“Oh, hello, Atticus. I thought you were Julian,” he says softly, leaning into my touch as I continue to pet his head.
“I see that. What did he do?”
A small grin forms over his lips, and my brother blushes further as he turns to stare back over the water.
“Nothing serious,” he explains. “Nothing I want to tell my brother, I mean. I’m mostly just toying with him until he begs for forgiveness.”
Atlas’s small smile morphs into an evil little grin, and I’m struck with the realization that whatever Julian did must have been somethingprovocative.
Just because his curse is broken doesn’t mean Atlas is any more innocent than he was before. And I know this as I’ve resorted to sleeping with earplugs in at night, though when I wake, they’re usually lost amongst my duvet.
I guess I’ve turned into a wild sleeper.
“Well, I hope he apologizes soon,” I concede, tugging at one of the curls at the nape of Atlas’s neck.
“Me too.” He releases a dreamy sigh, and I clear my throat.
“Are you ready for classes?” My attempt to change the subject is bland, but I really don’t wish to hear more about this topic revolving around Julian.
I’m still not sure how I feel about him, other than the respect I have for what he’s done for my brother and the acknowledgment of how much he mustreallylove Atlas.
“Yep! They begin in August, but I’ve already enrolled and had Father order my supplies. It shouldn’t be too hard, right? Considering I’m doing online?” he asks.
Atlas couldn’t go to college straight out of high school the way I did. Sure, I took online classes, but he was forced to wait until his twenties due to the overwhelming visits of the incubus.
That, and he previously didn’t particularlycarefor secondary schooling.
And though Atlas doesn’t necessarily have any real career aspirations, he is interested in learning about the ocean. Now he’s able to finally follow his dreams.
