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“Yes.” He hesitated. “I hadn’t meant to, but the intensity of the moment got the better of me. Unfortunately, it is the reason you are now so weak.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Do you see me complaining?”
He smiled, then leaned forward and kissed me tenderly. “No. However, you should rest now.”
“But I don’t want—”
He briefly pressed a finger against my lips to halt my protest. “For once in your life, just do what I ask without argument.”
“In honor of that amazing experience, I’ll obey. Just don’t expect it to happen too often. Me obeying, that is.”
“Oh, I won’t.” His voice was dry as he rose gracefully from the bed. “Sleep, Risa.”
I did. And for longer than I’d expected, because it was late afternoon by the time I woke. I stretched, and suddenly realized I felt better than I had in days, if not weeks. I was refreshed, revitalized. Normal, almost.
Or as normal as someone like me could ever get.
“The recharging appears to have gone both ways,” Azriel commented. “Which is good, but extremely unusual.”
I glanced around. He’d returned to his post by the window, but this time his stance was relaxed and his skin gleamed warmly in the afternoon sunshine. “Meaning recharging for reapers is usually only one-way?”
“No, but you are not reaper; nor are you full Aedh. It should not have affected you as strongly as it did.”
“Well, I’m not complaining about it, that’s for sure.” I sat upright in bed, but as I did, that nagging, niggling sense of wrongness returned. I frowned and reached for my phone a half second before it rang.
I glanced at the number and saw that it was Rachel. No doubt she was simply ringing to let me know someone hadn’t turned up again. But one glance at the clock told me they were midshift, not at the beginning. It couldn’t be that.
Something was very wrong. Of that I had no doubt.
I hit the RECEIVE button and said, throat dry, “Rachel, what’s up?”
“It’s Tao,” she said. “He’s disappeared.”
Disappeared? Oh fuck, please don’t let it be the fire elemental. Please let it be something—anything—else.
“When?” I asked. My throat was so dry with fear, it came out harsher than I’d intended.
“About an hour ago. He said he was hot and was going outside to cool down. Didn’t think much of it, as he’s been doing that a lot lately.”
Because he was losing the battle. I rubbed a hand across suddenly stinging eyes. Damn it, I didn’t need this on top of everything else. But then, it wasn’t like Tao needed it, either, and it was my fault he was in this mess in the first place. If I hadn’t included him and Ilianna—>“Azriel—”
“What you want is not wise, Risa.”
“I don’t care.”
“I know.” There was a hint of resignation in his voice, but he still refused to turn around.
I let my fingers trail on, tracing the outline of a comet. The tension in him grew. “Tell me,” I said softly. “If you and I were both reapers, would you be standing there with your back to me right now?”
“No, I would not.”
“Then don’t do it now.”
He sighed. “You do not understand the risk—”
“If assimilation is our fate, Azriel, then it will happen whether or not we make love.”
“I was not talking about assimilation.”
