Chapter 64 Chapter Sixty-Four - Gabriella
The timer goes off, so I grab my kitchen towel and open the oven. The vegetables look juicy and caramelised in the pan and the chicken looks crispy and golden roasted. Using the towel, I grab the pan at both ends and remove it from the oven, but as I carry it to the counter, the towel slips off the edge and I feel the pan searing my hand.
“Shit! Ow! Motherfuck!” I resist the urge to toss the pan and quickly place it down on a cooling rack, move to the sink and place my hand under cold running water.
Before I even register the shift in the room, the burning of my hand is replaced by a soothing burn as Jartre appears out of nowhere, pulling my hand out from under the faucet, his touch immediately easing the stinging burn of my hand.
“You’re hurt,” he frets, examining my hand with a furrowed brow. “What happened?”
“I’m okay, I just didn’t secure the towel I was using and burnt my hand on the pan,” I comfort him. “It was just an accident.”
He sighs, lowers himself as he raises my hand to his face, and places a tender kiss on my palm. As his lips touch my skin, a soft white glow exudes from his lips, coating my hand like a salve before then disappearing. He smiles and releases my hand proudly. I examine my hand in astonishment, clenching it into a fist and then flexing it. There’s no pain, no red marks, no nothing. I know he has the power to heal, but it’s still astounding to witness.
“Thank you,” I say appreciatively.
“You should be more careful,” he admonishes me.
I roll my eyes, “Are you my animai or my father?”
I turn off the running water, grab plates from the cupboard and get to work on serving up dinner since Jartre has shown up without me having to call for him.
“I’ve noticed you don’t talk about your parents,” Jartre gently muses.
“Kind of weird to bring up dead people all the time. If something reminds me of them, then sure I’ll mention them, but aside from that I don’t see the point.”
“Do you miss them?” he quizzes.
“All the time. I can’t count how often I experience something, need advice, or just someone to hold me, and wish they were still here. It’s hard to think about everything they missed, and that I missed from not having them in my life.” I swallow down the lump in my throat as the sense of grief and yearning chokes me from the inside.
Of course, I miss my parents. A decade later and it still hurts not having them in my life. I have asked myself a million times if they would be proud of me, and I hope to high heaven they are, but focusing on that grief is no way to live. I try to remember the love and happiness they brought me and try to live as the kind of person they would have been proud of. It’s all I really can do.
“I’m sorry if this is a hard subject, I don’t mean to upset you. Since I don’t have parents, perhaps I’m being callous on the subject.” Jartre steps closer, hugging me and kissing the top of my head. I breathe in his unfathomable scent and let his embrace relax me.
“You’re not upsetting me. You didn’t know them, it’s only fair to be curious,” I reassure him, rubbing his arm.
“What would they think of me?” he asks with a playful smirk.
I snort loudly. “They’d have put you through your paces, even if they knew you were a God. I’m a lot like them. They were warm, and kind, always cracking a joke and just had this way of not taking themselves or life too seriously. They embraced everything around them, but at the same time if you were an ass or they saw someone being mistreated, they were not afraid to step in and call people out on their bullshit.”
“The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” he remarks, leaning against the counter, tucking my hair behind my ear as I work on carving the chicken.
“It most certainly did not,” I chuckle. “I look just like my dad, but I got my mum’s eyes,” I smile up at him.
“Then your mother blessed you with the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen; more beautiful than the Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis combined,” he says reverently.
“If you wanted the bigger piece, all you had to do was ask,” I tease.
Jartre chuckles and walks over to sit at the kitchen island. “You’re the first person to ever cook for me,” he says with wonder. He had that same look on his face when I would cook while we were on the island.
“That’s because up until me, all you did was snap your fingers and have instant meals. Like something out of The Fifth Element or Spy Kids,” I chuckle.
“I don’t know what those are, but I assume you’re correct.”
“So, what have you been up to all day while I slaved away in the kitchen?”
“I went to check in on Orenda and Ayawamat.” I hear the grave tone in his voice and can faintly feel it growing within him like a thick cloud weighing him down. I turn to look at him only to see it etched into his face.
“And?”
“I think the eyti are converging on Azadou’s resting place…” he says gravely.
I take in a slow breath, focusing on pouring gravy over the chicken. “Why do you think that?”
“Because there’s only one thing in their path that would explain why they’re all travelling on mass. I just can’t figure out why,” he grumbles in frustration.
“But you’re not sure.”
“It’s not that I’m not sure; I’m ninety per cent sure. It’s that I can’t figure out why. If it weren’t for that burning question, I would have Orenda and Ayawamat eradicate them all.”
“Kill them?” I ask with unease.
“They’re not human, Gabriella, nor are they capable of compassion or possessing a conscience. If destroying them, stops them from infecting others, that’s more than fair to me.”
“Sacrificing the one to save the many,” I say in glum understanding.
“Exactly.”
“Why hasn’t anyone just sealed them away instead, like Fretez did? Surely that’s a better option than killing them,” I argue, moving our dinner to the kitchen island. “If she could do it, why can’t one of you do that?” I grab the cutlery and two drinks from the refrigerator and come sit beside him, handing him his knife and fork.
“Thank you,” he says as he takes them. “To answer your question, I don’t see what the point would be. How is sealing them away a better alternative to destroying them?”
“Because that way you’re not destroying innocent lives. Maybe there’s a way to save them.” I take a sip of my drink and start to eat. I can feel Jartre getting frustrated by this question, but my questions are valid.
“If there was a way to save them, that power lies with Azadou, and that is never going to happen. Gabriella, Azadou has one purpose and one purpose only: to spread malice. I’m not even sure if he could undo his magic even if he wanted to.” He rubs his face in frustration, “Why are we talking about this? I respect your curiosity, but this is not something I wish to discuss.”
I sigh, “I’m sorry. The matter just doesn’t sit well with me, that’s all.”
“I understand that, but you weren’t there when this began. You don’t understand this the way I do.”
“Nothing wrong with an outside perspective,” I argue.
He reaches out, taking hold of my hand, looking into my eyes pleadingly. “Please, Gabriella. Drop this subject.”
I take a deep breath and nod in compliance. As much as I need these questions answered, I know this is a sore subject for him, so bombarding him with questions reminding him of something he still feels great shame and guilt for, isn’t going to do anything except upset him, and I don’t want to do that.
“I’m sorry, Jartre. I didn’t mean to upset you,” I apologise, brushing my thumb over the back of his hand.
“I know, it’s okay,” he assures me, kissing the back of my hand.
We settle into comfortable silence as we eat our food, but every now and then I can feel Jartre’s eyes on me, and not in the usual way that makes my insides throb.
“Are you alright?” he tentatively asks.
“Sure, why wouldn’t I be?”
“You’ve been off since the island. I’ve been letting you have your space and resisted the urge to snoop in your mind, but it’s driving me crazy,” he admits.
I chew my lip, thinking of how I can answer his question. “I’ve been worried about Derrick.”
“Derrick?” he says, furrowing his brow.
“Yeah, he’s finally scheduled his surgery, but they can’t get him in for like another month. I’m just worried about if he’ll have complications during his month of waiting and then worrying about how the surgery will go. I’m sure everything will turn out alright, but I still worry.”
“Of course, you’re worried. He’s your family. You’ve told me about how he and his parents took you in, I understand how important he is in your life. I know you don’t want me intervening in his condition or his process of dealing with it, but I can at least promise to step in should things get complicated. Within reason, of course.”
I look up at him, my heart filling with deep gratitude for this horribly misunderstood, gentle giant. “That really means a lot to me.” I hug him tight, nuzzling my face against his chest.
He wraps his arms around me, rubbing my back gently calming my frazzled nerves. “To be honest, I’ve come to like the man, and Wyatt too. They remind me a lot of Ezillus,” he muses.
“I have to ask, how did such a friendship form? Because you two are polar opposite personalities.” I pull back, looking up at him with intrigue. Jartre is grumpy, dominant, aggressive and at times morose – understandably. Ezillus is energetic, fun, patient and a peacemaker.
“I used to get along with all the Gods, but after everything went to shit, Ezillus became my confidant. They understood me, at times when I didn’t even understand myself. They were patient and resilient and never tried to force me to be anything I wasn’t or feel anything I didn’t. They become my support system, and despite the way it may seem at times, I truly see them as a loyal friend who I am grateful to have in my life,” he says sincerely.
“And what do you think Ezillus gets out of your friendship?”
“Free entertainment.”
I chuckle, taking a sip of my drink, “They certainly do seem to love a bit of drama. I find that very common among non-straight people. I theorise that it’s because most people under the LGBTQIA umbrella have grown up in chaotic or toxic environments and are constantly being dragged into political drama, religious drama or some kind of argument they don’t want to be involved in. There’s so little peace they get to experience, that I think they learned to adapt to the drama and build such a thick skin, that as a culture they’ve adopted it and morphed it into something fun to the point they can so easily brush it off because compared to the very serious dramas they have faced, petty shit is nothing.”
Jartre thinks that over. “Hmm, I think there might be merit to that. I think for Ezillus, they find the way humans think and operate to be so strange and so fascinating because there are so many things humans do that we just can’t comprehend.”
“Sounds like why some people watch true crime documentaries.” Jartre cocks his head to the side curiously. “Well, I know some people watch it because they know they can’t fathom themselves ever doing the things these criminals have done. It’s so different from them, and so unimaginable, that they develop a natural curiosity around the dichotomy of the situation. Because we can all understand hating someone, but we can’t all understand hating someone so much you’d end their life. I think it’s the same for why people study science or anything that is different to them, it’s that desire to understand and know how things work.”
“I actually agree with everything you just said. Take you for example, I could watch you do anything and everything for hours. Whether you’re cooking, dancing, singing or just speaking your mind. Whatever it is you do, I find it utterly fascinating and so unique,” he gushes reverently, making me smile bashfully.
“None of those things are unique to me,” I chuckle.
“No, but how you do them is. There is a light about you that draws me in, and I feel hypnotised by it. Whatever you do, you put your whole heart into it, and it shows. It’s something I adore about you.” He leans in, placing a chaste kiss on my lips.
My smile turns into a devilish smirk, “Does that go for sex too?”
He smirks in kind, placing his finger under my chin, “That’s not so much light as it is pure fire, burning hotter than a thousand suns.”
“Sounds dangerous,” I tease, tugging on his shirt as I brush my lips against his.
“Your fire consumes me like no other, and I would gladly burn in your flames for all eternity.” His eyes burn like melting silver as the reverence and augur of his words set my soul ablaze. The power this man has over me is matched only by the power I have over him. Two burning souls, kept alight by the love and desire they have for one another. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do or give for this man because whatever else he may be, at the end of the day, he is my man. A man I would give everything for to spend my life with him.
I capture his face in my hands, pressing my lips against his in an unyielding kiss as fierce and smouldering as the fire growing between us. He grasps my thighs, yanking me onto his lap to straddle him as his lips ravish and consume mine. I lock my limbs around, craving to be one with him now more than ever.