Page 162 of Interion

“Do you think...” I was too embarrassed to say it out loud. He opened his eyes to watch me, which only made it worse. “Do you think you could kiss me? I mean, would you kiss me?”

Zion stared at me as if I’d just said something incredibly stupid.

“I don’t think you have any idea what it’s like for me.” A hoarse, incredulous laugh escaped him. “The problem isn’t kissing you—the problem is stopping. I feel like if I allow myself the luxury of touching you, it’ll be our first and last kiss, because I’ll end the night on top of you, and your mouth won’t be the only thing I’ll be kissing.”

I pictured the scene he’d just described and blushed when I realized how much I wanted it. God, what was this man doing to me? Zion lay down and pulled me to his chest. I rested my hand on his abdomen and he held it, intertwining his fingers with mine.

“Sounds like a good way to die.”

He snorted and pressed me even closer against his body. Then he tucked two fingers under my chin and tilted my face toward him. He brought his mouth close to my neck and breathed deeply.

“Don’t test my control, Kyller,” he whispered against my ear. I shuddered, shaken by the huskiness of his voice. When he pulled back enough to look at me, his eyes held a hint of desire that made me recoil at the intensity. “I’ve been walking too close to the edge, and I need to stay in control until Serguei frees us from the agreement.”

I pulled back, for the first time truly worried about how problematic it could be if things got out of control. We were partners—until now the bond had remained stable, but only the gods knew what would happen if we got too close to each other. Zion was right to worry.

I laid my head on his chest again, trying to cool things down.

“Until Serguei frees us from the agreement.” It was a confession, but also a promise. Then I closed my eyes to keep from provoking a catastrophe.

“Good night, Zion,” I murmured as sleep overtook me.

He didn’t respond, and I let myself drift off.

“Kyller?”

“Yes?” I murmured sleepily.

“You said I wasn’t afraid of anything, but I am afraid of one thing.” He paused, breathing deeply, as if the words were hard to say. “I’m afraid of losing you. That’s my greatest fear.”

I stroked his hand with my thumb and couldn’t stop the smile tugging at my lips.

“You won’t, Zion. I’m right here.”

Chapter 41

It was a Wednesday afternoon, but it was far from a normal day—Kiara was joining today’s training session.

Zion and I had spent an hour arguing about bringing her. He wanted to and I didn’t, but Zion, as always, ended up winning the argument, saying she was getting bitter from being alone at home and needed to socialize with more people. He wasn’t wrong.

When the two of them materialized at the entrance, the whole class panicked. Lorena, who was near the apparition, screamed as if the devil himself had materialized in the gym, so the boys ran over to see what all the commotion was about, and soon chaos ensued. Zion had to shout over the chatter and explained with all the patience in the world what a chimera was, introducing her as if she were one of us. For a good part of the training, the students stayed scared and avoided getting too close to the creature, veering away when they saw her nearby. But I knew it was only a matter of time before she won their hearts. Kiara was even behaving well, running with the class across the field and having fun with the circuit.

At the end of training, my hands were sweating as I held the bow and arrows. Breno, Aish, Hiro, and I were positioning ourselves to start the archery competition. Breno laid out the rules: we’d shoot ten arrows, and the first to miss the target would be eliminated. Then we’d move the target back each round until we had an undefeated winner. Aish was the first one out and didn’t seem happy about it at all, spouting Amperian curse words we’d never heard in our lives. The three of us laughed while she cursed and went to the targets to position them ten meters farther away. Finally, she came back to us.

“Ready!” she shouted, sounding like a general. We grabbed our arrows, positioning them on the bow.

“Aim!” We pulled back the bowstring with the arrow nocked, aiming at the center of the target.

“Fire!”

We shot. The three arrows cut through the air together, hitting the colored circles. Hiro’s was the most centered.

“Ready!” Aish shouted again. “Aim! Fire!”

And this repeated until Breno was finally disqualified. Beside me, Hiro flashed me an ambitious smile.

“Where did you learn to shoot like that?” he asked.

“A little from Cauê, a little from Zion, and now in my dreams.”