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"Get a candle," I tell her.
"Where are we going?" she asks, grabbing the candle off our table.
"I have somewhere we can be alone."
"What? Where?"
"Just come with me, my love."
She follows without another word as we leave the cavern, walk through the completely empty market, and down a tunnel to the right. On and on until we go into the entrance of another tunnel, and a door stands before us. I push it open, and the flame illuminates the space before us, one of only two in here.
"Is this..."
I nod. "Our cavern. I know it doesn't look like much now, but—"
"It looks like our home, Kayo. That's all I need it to look like. You made this for us. That's all I need to know of it."
"We'll stay here tonight, lay in the blankets like we did before, curled up in each other, your words bringing a smile to my face, and my words making your heartbeat calm in that way I love."
Tears gathering in her eyes, she nods. "That sounds perfect."
There's no furniture here yet, leaving plenty of space for me to lay the blankets one on top of the other in the center of the room. I lower her to them, and she takes her dress off as I drop our pillows to the blankets. I remove my loincloth and drop down beside her, pulling another blanket atop us. She curls up into me, her head on my shoulder, my thigh going over her so her thigh slips between mine. Our arms wrap around each other and I feel her body relax, the tension bleeding from it in my embrace.
"It will all be okay?"
"It will all be okay, Leah. One way or another. There's no other option than that. If it isn't, we'll make it so."
Those words are even more evident when we finally make it back to my parents' cavern at night, hours after everyone else has awoken from how long we slept in each other's hold. But only my mother is there, my father gone, and I know exactly to where. Leah and my mother are in the next room, making plans for the bonding ceremony while I pace the floor of the sitting area. I worry over my father, but don't want to tell Leah or my mother, even though they both know the mission he's on above ground. What if it's all a trap? What if they're torturing him right now? His words from this morning haunt me, about if he doesn't come back. I have always seen my father as invincible, indestructible. The thought of him being beaten, killed, has just never even occurred to me before. But it nags me now, it pulls at my heart and jeers my mind. I hate it.
When the door opens, I still at the sight before me. My father, covered in blood that I know is the President's. His chest, his arms, his thighs, neck, and face. His chest rises and falls with his deep breath.
"It is done," he tells me. "A new era is beginning."
I nod and smile. "It already has."
"You tell your brothers and Dalin that everything went according to plan. I stayed until they took his body away."
"I will."
Then, footsteps are behind me, and I turn to see my mother. Her eyes go up and down his body, no fear there, no hesitation as she walks over to her blood-covered mate. My mother simply goes to the tips of her toes to give him a kiss.
"Come. Let me wash you in the hot spring," she says softly.
He nods and lets her pull him away as my mother continues. "You tell all of them not to come knocking at this door because his duties as a leader are done for this day and night."
"I will." I chuckle.
Then, they disappear towards the hot spring, and I look to the side to find Leah standing there. I wonder, for a moment, if she'll fear my father now, after seeing him that way. But when I hear her thoughts, there's no fear there, only relief, that the President's dead, the people above ground will be safer now, and that there will be no war. I walk over to her, and wrap her in my arms.
"I love you," I say.
She smiles as I lift her off her feet. "Enough to have the bonding ceremony in a few days? I know I said I wanted to wait, but it seems like things are okay now, so—"
I kiss her, silencing her. "Do you think there is any day that I won't have a bonding ceremony with you?"
"A week, then."
"A week. I'll be the handsome monster with the smile from ear to ear."
