Page 119 of Interion

It wasn’t a request—just a warning—and I felt him enter. He went straight to those memories, and I watched them all replay at impossible speed. By the end, I was dizzy, but it was over incredibly fast. Serguei pulled away and closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, he was serious and stiff in a way I’d never imagined he could be.

“Kyller, I must say the day has been profitable for me, but now I need to return to the palace. I can hear the king looking for me from here.” Serguei stood up hurriedly.

“What about your part? I want to know too.”

“I can’t afford to lose my gifts, and the book will steal everything.” He headed for the door.

“You’re going to leave with my information and give me nothing in return? That’s unfair!”

“The world is unfair, girl. Children need to learn to deal with ‘no.’”

When he moved to open the door, I exclaimed:

“But you didn’t say ‘no,’ you said you were going to open it!”

He turned to me with a fake smile on his lips.

“Then the lesson children need to learn is how to deal with scoundrels. The world is full of false promises, dear.”

Serguei opened the door, and his eyes—so similar to Zion’s—stared at me for a few seconds.

“It was a pleasure negotiating with you, Kyller,” he said in farewell. This time his face showed a hint of concern, but his lips still held a smile.

Despite being angry and desperately wanting to throw the book at his head, I had to be honest:

“The pleasure was all mine, Serguei.”

The door closed, and behind me, an angry chimera staggered to its feet.

Chapter 29

It was past 2 a.m. and I was still staring at the white ceiling. I was worried about Zion, thinking about everything Serguei had shared with me and that strange morning with the sonar. Gods, it was too much for a single day.

On top of everything, I was deeply irritated with Zion because he could have simply taught me to raise barriers and protect my thoughts. Instead, he’d let me believe it was dangerous to know about his scheme outside the forests, when in reality, he just didn’t want me to know because he thought it wasn’t safe. He’d deceived me into thinking there was no other solution, denying me alternatives on a choice that should have been mine. I was the one who should be choosing my own path, and raising mental barriers was essential to my independence.

I’d already tossed and turned a thousand times, kicked off the covers, fluffed the pillow, and still sleep wouldn’t come. I was trying to count sheep when I saw the barrier shimmer blue around the room and heard a door close at the end of the hallway. He’d finally returned, and I sat up in bed, barely able to contain my nervousness. I waited in silence to see if he would come to me, but ten minutes passed and nothing. So I got up, stomping, and while the chimera’s eyes went wide near the glass wall, I grabbed a robe to cover my short nightgown and headed into the hallway.

Without bothering to ask if I could enter, I flung open the door to Zion’s room, ready to interrogate him, but I stopped the moment I saw him.

He was submerged in the bathtub at the far right of the room, staring at the opposite wall with a devastated expression. I took in the scene, somewhat shocked. The water was reddish, hiding everything from his waist down, and the pungent smell of blood had become oppressive. Not his blood—other people’s. Countless scents rose from that water. His hair was stiff and matted with the red liquid, a cut slashed across his cheek, and his hands, hanging over the edge of the tub, were raw, as if he’d punched things until his skin couldn’t regenerate on its own.

Only then, looking at him, did I realize that beyond my anger, I was also relieved. Immensely relieved that he was okay, even though his eyes showed a fragility I’d never seen before. That alone was enough to make me forget my irritation—any confrontation could wait until tomorrow when his face showed so much suffering.

“What happened?” I asked quietly, feeling bad for invading his privacy like this. Shadows crossed his eyes, which immediately dropped to the red water. Pain and loss—I knew that look. It was the twin of my own when I woke from nightmares about the past.

“It’s okay, you don’t have to talk,” I murmured softly. “I’m going to stay by your side, okay?”

He didn’t respond, and I approached slowly. I sat beside the bathtub on a white marble step lined with bath products. Silence settled over us for a long time as my gaze scanned his body. He didn’t move, didn’t speak, made no effort to wash the dried blood from his hair. So I reached for a bottle of shampoo.

“I’m going to wash your hair, okay?” I asked gently.

Nothing was okay, and I would understand if he didn’t want me there, but I wasn’t going to leave. Since Zion didn’t respond, I moved closer, kneeling behind him. I put my hand in the water—it was ice cold. Cupping my hands, I poured water over his hair to soften the dried blood, and the tub turned even redder. I squeezed shampoo into my palms and worked it through his hair. I massaged carefully, slowly, so it wouldn’t run down his face. Then I rinsed with the dirty water, wondering if I was cleaning him or making things worse.

“Zion, I’m going to drain this and refill it with clean water.”

Once again, there was no response, so I shifted toward his feet, where the drain was. I reached into the tub, sinking my arms up to my elbows, and pulled the plug. The water began to drain, and I moved back to his head. I applied another layer of shampoo and kept washing until all the water had drained away. I avoided looking at his body—it felt wrong at a moment like this. I turned the water back on and plugged the drain. He was still dirty; the cuts on his face were caked with dirt and only the gods knew what else.

I knelt at the side, facing him, and this time I didn’t ask permission—I just kept working. I tossed bath salts into the filling water, and soon foam rose to cover his nudity. I gently cleaned his face, then moved down to his neck, caressed his pointed ears, and discovered cuts there too. I dared to continue down to his broad, muscular chest. I cleaned everything: shoulders, arms, hands. From the waist up, he would be clean. I went back to rinse his hair, and when my face came level with his, I found him watching me.