Rise [Bruno Mars]

Chapter twenty-seven

Ryan hesitated. A decision hung in the air.  

“I want the best for Bruno. And if that means not giving up his location to the devil, then fine.” He turned away, to physically avoid temptation.

I swallowed down a plea, the desperate urge to fix things clawing up my throat. “I'll look for him myself.” There was the beginning of a set of stairs next to the counter's end, and I was about to climb them when Ryan stopped me.

“I just wanna know how you could be with Joseph like that? How could you, even after he assaulted y—” 

I slowly spun on my heel. “What?”

“Forget it,” he mumbled, shifting uncomfortably. “Bruno doesn't want to be found. Why can't you just respect that?”

I stared at him for a long time. “I'll respect it.”

I went upstairs, passing two closed doors and entering the one at the end of the hall. In the middle of the room Joseph was bound to a chair, long legs before him. “Adrian.” My name was a ragged breath. I always thought of his voice as glass, but now that glass was cracked. Joseph sat mostly still, but I could see the strain of lean muscle underneath the fine robe he wore. I neared, and his chest quickened, his face dark with need.

His exhale rushed out onto my skin when my forehead met his damp one. Calm. It spread through me and out into him. I sensed him ease, and drew away. 

“What was that when we kissed?” I asked, not yet untying his hands. “We kissed before, and that never happened.”

“The kiss was real, Adrian.”

I thought about his words. He was right.

“What you felt,” he said quietly, “was the energy the Incurses use to control those who are subordinate to them.”

The Sleepwalkers, he was referring. “And you felt it more, because you're in stage two.”

“I feel everything more. Even this tranquility you have given me.” Something went thump and Joseph folded his hands in front of him. “You are skilled, Adrian.” 

I glanced at the bundle of rope now on the floor. “Someone's not in knots.”

Joseph laughed that dark and lovely laugh. I thought of black silk sliding lavishly over my skin. “I don't think I fully understand the gateway metaphor.”

“Our tether has opened.”

“But why because of a kiss?”

“Vinculum unitatis. The bond of unity.”

Ignoring my still, but now faint, confusion, I leaned in so close to him I saw the flecks of silver in his eyes, my hand trailing across his shoulder. “I wonder what would have happened if we hadn't been interrupted. Where would it have led?”

His eyes narrowed. “Would you like to feel it again?”

I breathed out the word, “Yes.”

“Be alone tonight, and I will come to you.” His head tilted, studying me with a slight of something alive, like joy, or satisfaction. “And we will see where we are led.”

*

I knocked on the door.

“Come in!” 

I cracked it open, apologizing. “I'm sorry. I'm looking for a friend of mine. Oh, do you need help?”

It was the girl I saw helping to restrain Joseph, with skin like a night summer's sky. She was my height, even shorter, her movements languid as she removed things from a trunk and laid them out on her bed.