The Truth of Our Demise by Nepheli R.K

Author:Nepheli R.K. [R.K., Nepheli]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-11-08T16:00:00+00:00

14

Zephyr

There, in the semidarkness of the kitchen, I was surprised to find her still awake, a glass of water in hand as she gazed absentminded out of the small window arching over the sink.

In her white, long nightdress, pale and silver under the opalescent sheen of the moon and stars, she looked like a godsend vision, glimmering and ethereal, and so painfully out of reach.

Her back was turned on me, and her long hair looked soft and plush like silk, cascading down her shoulders to settle around the narrow curve of her waist in little fiery whispers of curls.

All the temptations of the Cosmos that could ever find me, gathered to that perfect line of her body.

“What are you doing still up?” I asked, my voice hoarse and thick by the collection of obscene thoughts currently unraveling in the back of my mind.

Ophelia squealed, jumping out of her skin and spilling half of her water all over herself. She turned to me furiously, her eyes round as she pressed dramatically a hand over her heart. “Are you trying to scare me to death?” she bristled.

I grabbed a tea towel from one of the cabinets nearer to me and quickly approached to help her dry off.

The water, tormentingly so, had turned the front of her linen nightdress nearly transparent, and at the inkling of her nipples I almost, almost groaned.

Noticing my wandering eyes, she swiftly grabbed the towel from my hands to cover herself, brows low and the thirst for violence stark in her eyes.

“You’re terrible.”

“Well, usually I’m an entitled, arrogant, disrespectful princeling. So if I’m only being terrible tonight, you must be very happy with me,” I quipped, barely containing a self-indulgent smirk. I was both pleased and discombobulating to see her smile vindictively back at me.

I took the glass she left near the sink and filled it again before offering it to her. “Why aren’t you asleep?”

Ophelia took a few long sips before inspecting her dress behind the towel, deciding to keep the feeble fabric latched to her chest for a little longer. She then explained with a small, tired sigh, “I just realmwalked.”

“Are you alright?”

She nodded and leaned against the kitchen counter, her expression daydreaming. “I saw a dragon.”

Both of my brows shot up as I endeavored to fathom what it was like to have such a grand, life-altering power. To slit the Cosmos in two and peek at worlds that my own stale imagination couldn’t even conjure up in sleep — I couldn’t discern if it was a curse or a gift.

“Don’t you ever think yourself lucky?” I wondered. “You have the entire Cosmos at your fingertips.”

Her face became inscrutable as she uttered, “I don’t feel safe. If I felt safer, perhaps I’d enjoyed it more. See it as a grand adventure. If, let’s say, I had someone to teach me how to fight.” She looked up at me expectingly.

“Ophelia—”

“Why are you so against this?” she demanded, regarding me with a dubious, penetrative look.

I tried quite clumsily to stir the conversation away, “I saw Riona at Inferno, tonight.

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