Chapter 93 Quiet Moments
Sera was reading Belphegor’s letter for the third time when someone knocked.
She opened the door to find him standing there looking like he’d just woken up, which knowing him, he probably had.
“Want to see something?” he asked without preamble.
“Is it another plant?”
“No. Well, maybe. There are plants involved but that’s not the point.” He was already walking away, clearly expecting her to follow. “Come on.”
Sera grabbed a shawl and followed him through corridors she’d never explored, Morpheus perched on her shoulder chittering sleepy complaints about being disturbed.
Belphegor moved with purpose despite his usual lazy demeanor, taking turns without hesitation until they reached a door she would have missed completely if he hadn’t stopped.
“Where are we?” Sera asked as he opened it.
“Observation tower. Nobody uses it anymore because the stairs are annoying and the view isn’t impressive enough for people who want to be impressed.”
He started climbing, glancing back to make sure she was following.
“But I like it.”
The stairs wound upward in a tight spiral that made Sera slightly dizzy.
When they finally emerged at the top, she understood why he’d brought her here.
The room was small, barely large enough for two people, with windows on all sides that showed the Vestibulum’s landscape in every direction.
It wasn’t beautiful exactly, too dark and twisted for that, but it was striking.
More importantly, it was completely private.
“I come here when council meetings are particularly terrible,” Belphegor said, settling onto the window ledge like he’d done it a thousand times. “Which is most of them.”
Sera joined him, careful not to sit too close but somehow ending up closer than she’d planned anyway.
Morpheus immediately abandoned her shoulder for Belphegor’s lap, curling up and falling asleep within seconds.
“Traitor,” she told the sprite fondly.
“He knows where the good napping spots are.” Belphegor scratched behind Morpheus’s ear absently. “How are you handling being back? The Vestibulum isn’t exactly restful.”
“It’s fine. Different from your kingdom obviously, but fine.”
Sera looked out at the landscape.
“I miss the quiet though. And the gardens. And…”
She stopped herself.
“And what?”
“Nothing. It’s stupid.”
“If it was stupid you wouldn’t have almost said it.”
He was watching her now instead of the view.
“Tell me.”
Sera felt heat creep up her neck.
“I missed you. Which is ridiculous because we barely know each other and I shouldn’t miss someone after a few days but I did anyway.”
The silence that followed made her want to take it back, to laugh it off as a joke, to do anything except sit here feeling exposed.
Then Belphegor’s hand found hers on the ledge between them, fingers threading together with the same careful deliberation she remembered from his kingdom.
“I missed you too,” he said quietly. “That’s why I grew the plant. Why I volunteered to come to this council meeting even though I hate them. Why I’m sitting in a tower showing you a view that isn’t even impressive just because I wanted to be alone with you for a while.”
Sera’s heart was doing something complicated in her chest.
“Belphegor—”
“You don’t have to say anything back. I just wanted you to know.”
He was still holding her hand, thumb tracing small circles across her knuckles.
“But if you did want to say something, I wouldn’t object.”
She turned to face him properly, close enough now that she could see the exact color of his eyes, the way his hair fell slightly into them, the careful expression he was maintaining like he was trying not to hope too hard.
“I don’t know what I’m doing,” she admitted. “I’ve never been good at this kind of thing. I’m usually the friend who watches other people figure it out while I stay safely on the sidelines.”
“I’m not asking you to have it figured out.”
His free hand came up, fingers brushing along her jaw so gently she almost didn’t feel it.
“I’m just asking if you want to try.”
Sera didn’t trust herself to speak, so she nodded instead.
That seemed to be enough because Belphegor smiled, really smiled, and then he was leaning in slowly enough that she could have stopped him if she wanted to.
She didn’t want to.
His lips met hers carefully, testing, like he was asking a question.
She answered by leaning closer, her hand coming up to rest against his chest where she could feel his heart beating faster than his calm expression suggested.
The kiss was gentle and unhurried, exactly what she would have expected from him if she’d let herself think about it, which she definitely had not been doing constantly since leaving his kingdom.
When they pulled back, Sera was pretty sure her face was bright red but couldn’t bring herself to care.
Belphegor looked slightly dazed, like he’d surprised himself, and Morpheus was still sleeping between them completely oblivious to everything.
“Oh,” Sera said, which wasn’t particularly eloquent but was all she could manage.
“Yeah.” Belphegor’s smile was softer now. “Oh.”
They sat there for a while, hands still linked, not talking because words felt unnecessary.
The Vestibulum’s landscape stretched around them in all directions, dark and complicated, but up here in this forgotten tower it felt manageable.
“I should probably get back,” Sera said eventually, though she didn’t move. “Lilith will wonder where I went.”
“Probably.”
But Belphegor wasn’t moving either.
“One more minute?”
“One more minute.”
They stayed for five, then ten, neither one wanting to be the first to leave.
When they finally did make their way back down the spiral stairs, Belphegor walked her to her chambers, their hands finding each other again in the corridor like it was the most natural thing in the world.
“Tomorrow?” he asked at her door.
“Tomorrow.”
Sera felt herself smiling.
“Same tower?”
“Same tower.”
He squeezed her hand once more, then left, Morpheus chittering what sounded like approval from his shoulder.
Sera entered her room and immediately collapsed onto her bed, pressing her hands to her face and trying not to make any embarrassing noises about how completely, stupidly happy she felt right now.
She’d kissed Belphegor.
Belphegor had kissed her.
They’d kissed each other and it had been perfect and she wanted to do it again immediately.
Tomorrow couldn’t come fast enough.