Page 76 of Interion

“I can't stay with her.”

A shadow bit the general's rear, making him curse under his breath.

“Infernal creatures. Now everyone gets excited, but when she yells at me, you hide behind me like a bunch of cowards. You think I don't notice?”

The shadows ignored the general and climbed up the barrier. From above, a moan of pain reached his ears. With that, Zion threw his good sense to the wind.

Δ

The barrier was broken.

I knew because I saw it disintegrating in red around the house.

“He actually did that?” I asked the chimera, somewhat curious.

She just nodded.

By the divine gods! He'd broken the barrier to get in. I didn't even know what to think about that and had no strength left to continue arguing. I just sank deeper into the water, leaving only my head above the surface.

I heard heavy footsteps on the stairs, then the bedroom door creaked and the sounds stopped near the bathroom door. I waited for him to say something, but silence was the only thing screaming in that room. So I decided to take the initiative:

“What do you want here?”

Another drop splattered on the floor, marking the uncomfortable silence.

“I sense there's something wrong. What's happening?”

“Besides you breaking a very expensive barrier? Nothing you need to worry about,” I said sarcastically. A wave of pain filled me, and I put a hand over my mouth to muffle the scream.

“I'll have to disagree. There's something wrong with your scent.” I could almost hear him sniffing the air, but I preferred to believe it was just my imagination. “May I come in?”

I couldn't see his body, but I could see the shadows clustering in the doorframe.

“Come in for what, Zion? To argue about the academy? To continue the sermon about me being a different girl? To fill my mind with images of my people being killed by your hands?” I thought about it and got even more furious. “By the gods, the fact that you're part of those people makes it twice as bad.”

I took a deep breath when the pain eased up, and he stayed quiet on the other side.

“I'm not going to fight with you, Kyller.” I heard him sigh, like he was just as tired of this situation. “Look... I know our relationship is complicated, and you have every right to be angry because it's all my fault, but I'm coming in anyway.”

This time he didn't try to lie about his ancestry, but the biggest surprise was him admitting he'd been a pain in the ass. At least he was self-aware enough to see it—that was progress.

“I don't have any clothes on,” I exclaimed, sinking deeper into the water.

“I promise not to look.”

“What do you want?”

“I just want to talk.”

“I don't have the strength for another argument. Have you decided if you're staying? Because if the answer is no, you can turn around and leave.”

Stay. I didn't know why I wanted him to stay so badly. He was a genocidal monster, a murderer, an executioner. Yet I kept silently begging him to stay.

Here's the thing about loneliness: it makes you a lot less picky about company.

I curled my legs against my chest as another wave of pain radiated through my back and stomach. It felt like each limb weighed a hundred extra pounds, and apparently moving only made things worse.

He took a deep breath.