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“Tessa? Tessa!” My voice roared as I thrashed harder than I ever had. “Tessa!”
I knew she wouldn’t hear me. I’d screamed at the top of my lungs when I’d heard her on her visits, and never once had she gave me the impression she’d heard my desperate calls. There was something about this place I was in. I could hear, but not be heard. It was Aetas’ doing, I knew that. But if Tessa had been there, she’d seen me. She’d come back for me. Or … did I still look like Aetas?
The thought set me into a panic. What if I looked like him and she hadn’t seen my eyes open before the lid was shut? What if …?
“What do you think you’re doing in here?”
My voice roaring through the room had me quieting.
“I had to see Aetas.” Tessa voice was shaky but stern as she answered back. “He calls to me. I can’t help myself.” She paused. “May I open it again? I didn’t get a chance to see him before you closed the lid.”
“Are you crazy?” My voice was moving, which told me Aetas was. “You want to see the dead body of our leader? Did you not see him that night? He was dead on the floor before all of us. What is there left to see?”
“I don’t know,” Tessa said, her voice breaking. “Marko, please help me. I do not know what is wrong with me.” She sniffled and fast clicking from heels echoed around.
“Shh. Don’t cry, ma minette. I know his passing has been hard on you, but this grief will pass. You just have to focus on other things and stop coming here. This place will not ease the pain you feel inside.”
“I know,” she said quietly. “I don’t know why I do this to myself. It just hurts so much.” Clicking grew closer to me and my heart raced even faster. “I have to admit something to you, Marko. I’m afraid you might be upset, though, if I do.”
“What? Is it Hunter? Has he done something to you?”
“Me?” Hunter’s voice boomed through the room. “Why do you always rush to blame me?”
“Leave.” The demand had footsteps pounding against the floor in their departure.
“It is not, Hunter,” Tessa said, calmly. “It’s about Aetas.”
“Oh … What about him?”
Tessa’s presence was so thick around me that I knew she had to be right at the casket. I lifted my head, touching the hard surface above, trying any way I could to get closer to her.
“I think somewhere along the way I fell in love with him. It’s the only explanation for the heartbreak I feel. I long for him, Marko. My heart is breaking when I’m not here.”
“But … what about me?”
“You know I love you,” she rushed out, angrily. “All I am saying is that I think I love him as well. He was cruel at times and he did things he shouldn’t have, but he was a great leader. And he believed in me. He wanted me to be the best I could be. That meant something to me.”
“I was giving you lessons earlier,” he said, defensively. “And I love you. I love you more than he could have ever loved you. Besides,” he said, dropping his anger. “Aetas is dead. Perhaps wherever he is, he’s hearing you and you’re making him happy by saying such things.”
Silence filled the room for only a few seconds before Tessa responded.
“You make fun of me.”
“I do no such thing. Maybe he does hear you, who am I to say? I don’t know what happens when one dies.” Footsteps. “Tessa, come here.”
Fabric sounded and I knew he had her in his arms. A growl tore from me as I once again tried to twist my body. “You’re clearly upset,” he continued. “Let me take you back to the room. Let us pick up where we left off before I had to leave for my meeting.”
“No! Tessa!”
“You want to cheer me up?”
He laughed. “I’m going to do more than that. I’m going to have you screaming my name again, begging me for more of what only I can give you.” He moaned, letting out a deep breath. “Fuck the room,” he said, huskily. “I don’t want to wait.”
“Not here. Not in Aetas’ memorial. Have respect.”
“Have respect for a man who didn’t respect me? I care not for his feelings or his memory—Fuck, you’re so wet.”
Tessa soft voice let out a deep tone and I could tell she was beginning to struggle. “Marko, I said not here.”
