Garden of Embers: Beneath Devouring Eyes #2

Chapter 9, Part C

Drawing a deep breath, Sidus knocked on the closed blackwood door.

A sniffle rose inside. Then nothing.

He sighed and knocked again.

"Leave me alone!"

The starholder winced. Eternal Radiance, the kid had some lungs on them. They were going to wake everyone in the servant wing.

"Come now," he said, pitching his voice a little louder than he would to be heard by a fellow Promethides, remembering that Pyrrhaei were hard of hearing. "I just want to talk to you."

For a moment there was dead silence, filled only by the Six Stars' incessant pulsing. Then--

"I don't want to talk to you!" Radix roared.

In the room next door, someone cursed.

Sidus spared the neighboring door a glance but after a moment it remained closed. Whatever poulterer or scullion was within didn't want to get up at midnight to deal with the noise, it seemed.

"Can I at least have my paenula back?" he asked.

Sullen silence. Then a rustle. A scuff.

Finally, the door opened and a glaring, teary Radix shoved a bundle of warm clivia fiber cloth into Sidus's arms. "Now go away," they snarled, turning to go.

"Wait--" He slipped his foot in the ajar doorway before Radix could close it. And earned a flash of narrowed amber eyes and a firm kick to the shin. "Ow!" he yelped, stumbling back.

The redhead slammed the door in his face.

"You know," he said conversationally to the blackwood, "it is unlawful to assault a Promethides." He bent to rub his throbbing leg, half worried that Radix would throw the door open and knee him in the face or something.

"So kill me," they snapped. "See if I care." They sounded close to the door.

Sidus sighed, sliding to the ground and resting his back against the door. He was tired, this ague getting the better of him, but he didn't think this should wait. His mother always said it was best not to allow fresh wounds to fester, and the lifeholder didn't just mean physical ones.

"He and I cannot wed either," he said, pitching his voice just loud enough for them to hear. He began unfolding his returned paenula in his lap. "It isn't pleasant to be deprived of that just because we're both boys. I know it must hurt not to be allowed to wed him just because you're a Pyrrhaeus."

"At least you get to be with him," Radix hissed. They were right on the other side of the door, maybe even leaning against it as he was. "He would marry you if he could. But me?"

"Oh, I think he would marry you if that were an option," Sidus corrected and kept thinking out loud as he pulled the paenula over his head. "I don't know if he loves you the way a man might hope to love a spouse, but I bet if you were a conjugal match he would grab you right up in a heartbeat."

"Yeah right," they scoffed. "He does not want me. He made that clear."

"I don't know about that." He straightened the paenula over his tunica. "The Trellis reacted when you kissed him. He's at least a little attracted."

It had surprised Sidus if he was perfectly honest with himself. But in retrospect, Domi's feelings made sense. The boy and nonbinary kid had grown up together, after all. And the Pullatus was attractive. Sidus was not inclined their way but he got the impression that Domi was drawn to all genders. He grinned. The boy had certainly been drawn to Felicitas.

"So what?" Radix grumbled. Their voice on the other side of the wood came from right next to his ear. "You got him first."

The starholder chuckled. "I was not aware it was a race."