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I sign. “Are you really okay?”
Dusk speaks my words to her.
She smiles, and I watch her lips as they move. “It was a little scary, but you guys got there in time.”
We watch each other, her eyes piercing, as though she’s trying to see inside my mind just as I am hers. When she looks away, I smile. There are things I want to say, things I want her to hear, but I don’t dare because I’m not sure that I remember how to. And I can’t hear myself to know how I sound.
What if I embarrass myself? What if I horrify her?
She looks at me and holds out one hand, offers the other to Phantom while Dusk continues to hold her. “Thank you for rescuing me.”
It seems like a year ago rather than only a few days since I wanted the others to leave her behind. Now, I’ve risked my life twice to protect her. And I would do it again. As many times as she needs. And as scary as some deep part of myself feels about that, there’s another part of me that feels excited.
Maybe I’m not as broken as I thought I was.
I nod, even though I want to tell her that I’ll always save her, and she gives my fingers a squeeze and tugs me closer. I scoot, but it isn’t what she wants. She pulls until I’m leaned in far enough to kiss her. She’s as delicious as she was when I was injured. When she healed me with her touch, saved me with a kiss like this one.
Her mouth is soft, lips full and I savor the touch for a second after it’s over before I pull back and she kisses Phantom with the same fervor, the same desperation. He tangles his fingers in her hair and holds on, tilts her head, opens his mouth.
When she finishes with Phantom, she kisses Dusk and I’m lost to everything I feel, everything I want. The three of us have shared women before, a lifetime ago, but it was always just sex for me. I never thought I was capable of feeling close to anyone other than Dusk and Phantom. Not even a woman. But now, I like watching her kiss my best friends. Not just because it’s strangely hot, but because it feels like it deepens our bonds, with her, and with each other.
She’s ours whether she knows it or not. And no way in hell are we letting her go.
After she’s kissed the three of us, she nestles with Dusk on one side of her and Phantom on the other, but she stares at me. I want to know everything about her. I want everything she has to offer and so much more.
“How did you come to be with Phantom and Dusk?” Her gaze holds mine as I sign the story and Phantom translates.
I struggle to find the right words. “My mother sold me as a child to the captain of their guard. Their mother had just died, and the captain, in his wisdom, thought we would be good for each other. He trained me as a guard, but when he was busy, I spent my time with Phantom and Dusk. As time passed, we formed an unbreakable bond.”
There was more, so much more. Even now, I remember the three broken hearted boys coming together. We were less playmates, and more a strange support group. We spoke about our losses with ease, and for a time it felt as if no one in the world existed outside of us.
When we got older, things became more complicated. Phantom would be the future king. His brother, a prince of our world. And me, their ever-loyal guard. In public, we were formal. In private, we were family.
Until the event.
I’m not going to tell her about my hearing, or how I lost it, but Phantom fills in the gaping hole in my story. “He almost died saving my life when… the Shadow King tried to kill me.”
“I’m a warrior.” I smile as I sign the words. “I could no more let the shadow prince die, than I could let my friend die.” The words translate well enough and Phantom shoots me a rueful smile. There are days his guilt is bigger than he knows what to do with. He’s never quite gotten over the fact I lost my hearing to save him.
“Why did the Shadow King want you dead?” Now she’s onto Phantom.
“He’s a bad man.” Phantom doesn’t say more, and I don’t blame him. I would cut the story off there, too. No need to get maudlin or haul the family skeletons out of his closet.
“His arrogance makes him a bad king.” Dusk looks down at his lap.
“And his greed. And his unwillingness to change.” I smile at her as I finish and Phantom, again, translates.
“I wish I could hurt him with my powers, but I tried with Wraith, and nothing happened.”
“Some things can’t be solved with magic,” Dusk says.
We’d all learned that lesson well.
“I tried to save that sleeping warrior, Adrik.”
That surprises me.When had she done that?
“Why?” Dusk asks the question we’re all wondering.
