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Maybe it was me who was swaying. From behind, Onus leaned over me, his arms wrapping around me. “Breathe.”
Am I not breathing?
“Suck. In. Air.”
My upper body jolted and jerked as I tried to inhale, but it felt like I had ingested the gasoline that had just threatened to kill Anita. My lungs seized as if the swallowed gas had been set on fire.
The arms around me readjusted, then my paralyzed body was lifted, my bare feet from the dirt I detested. Yes, detested. To the point I wanted it cleansed.
Still trying to breathe, I imagined doing just that. Helping Mother Earth cleanse what is hers.
“Bad, Little Hellion,” chuckled Onus as he started walking toward the door. “You didn’t need to burn down the building just to move in with me. Could’ve just asked.”
Outside for the first time, in a space of time of which I was ignorant, I peered past Onus’s arm to see the playground where no man would want to play again.
Watching smoke rise above the trees and into the sky, I wondered if my father was proud of me.
As my eyes drifted shut, I thought, Thank you for Eagle, Sire. Emma will birth the soul who will love my son, everlastingly.
???
I came to in a shower. Warm water was so much better than freezing mountain hose water. This shower wasn’t the one I had shared with Onus; it was bigger, had a tub, and had some sort of bear-printed wallpaper. I was still being held by Onus who no longer appeared as smug. His brows were pinched as he stared at me. “You back, babe?”
Lethargic, I stared into his dark eyes that once held such affection. “Back?”
“From visiting that winged asshole. He help you?”
I hadn’t been with Elijah,. And I was surprised to see how pale my skin was when touching Onus’s dark beard. I hadn’t seen the sun in so long.
It was shameful and humbling to experience human emotions to such a degree, but I did. The man holding me was a terrible human being, selling children for atrocious acts, yet I still cared for him.
And I was grateful he still cared for me. “Are you jealous?”
“No.” His lips slammed to mine, telling me otherwise.
The passion was as painfully short as it was sweet to my lips and heart. For a few seconds, my sun had returned, only to resemble black ice once again.
Suddenly, I was on my feet, unstable, grabbing onto the wall for stability.
He scorned, “Clean yourself.”
Onus left me, scowling as he yanked the curtain shut in frustration.
Feeling a cold loneliness, I hoped the water would rewarm me, like the warmth I had felt in the strong arms that no longer wanted to hold me.
There was a bar of soap like the one I’d seen Onus use. Being a deity, soap had never been needed. But now I used it the way he had, watching dirty bubbles form on the skin of my arm. Then I watched the dirt slip away when I held my arm under the spray of water. A simple task but unexpectedly soothing.
Once every other part of me, including my hair, was clean, I turned knobs until the wonderful water stopped running.
In a towel that smelled like flowers, I exited the bathroom to find it was connected to a bedroom. Onus was at a nightstand, naked, his back and butt muscles like carved stone. When he faced me, he was sniffling and wiping at a powdered substance under his nose.
My heart sank. “How long have you been using?” I was very aware of the destruction drugs caused humans and their loved ones.
“None of your business.” He gestured to the bed in the big room. “Bend over.”
Not having Anita present to use against me, my heart rate spiked. I had nothing to lose when letting him have my anger. “Buy that cocaine with the money you made off a little girl’s body?”
He rolled his neck while an evil smile crept across his lips. “Yes, I think you fighting what’s about to happen will feel even better.”
