InShadowSun.PDF by Elemental Alchemy

Author:Elemental Alchemy [Alchemy, Elemental]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-07-01T23:36:42+00:00

CHAPTER 6

“I cannot stay forever, you know,” I said quietly one morning when dawn found me yet again in Aten’s bed, naked and exhausted after another night of carnal abandon. Nearly half a month had passed since that day when Aten had drawn me behind his pillar and kissed all the sense out of me, and somehow, I was still here.

Each morning, I marveled and puzzled at it anew.

Aten was still lounging in bed, though I’d nearly finished pleating my kilt. He pushed up onto an elbow and watched me.

“Can’t you?”

“You know I cannot.”

“I know you have said it, time and again.” He sat, scratching one hand through his hair as he watched me. “Every morning, or near enough. But I haven’t yet heard a good reason. I told you, you 66

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may stay as long as you like.”

I was half-turned away already, so it was easy to take the small step that put my back to him and hid my expression from his too-sharp gaze.

He had said that, it was true. But he’d also said that if I left, I’d never get an audience with him again, and every time dawn came, or evening, and I started to think about leaving, I found an excuse not to.

“I am a priest,” I said without facing him. “I have duties.”

“There are other priests.” I felt his warmth behind me the instant before his hands slid over my waist. “They will not suffer without you.” His lips grazed the back of my neck. I shut my eyes.

“And you do not want to go.”

“What on earth makes you think that?”

He laughed, the sort of laughter that was so rare from him, quiet and intimate and so sincere that I couldn’t bring myself to mind that he was laughing at me. “You haven’t gone yet, my Seth.

That seems proof enough, to me.”

I turned. His hands slid on my waist, so that when I was facing him they were pressed to the small of my back, urging me forward.

“Perhaps I am just waiting to kill you.”

He grinned. His hands pressed harder and I stopped resisting.

He drew me in until we were pressed together, skin-to-skin. “Have you decided upon another method to try?” His eyes danced with amusement. “I hope you won’t destroy my clothing, this time.”

I sighed. It was hard to joke when it was only reminder that I’d failed the original task that had brought me here. Now I had no idea how such a thing might be accomplished, nor any desire to seek such knowledge out. I didn’t want to kill him. I no longer believed he deserved to die. I had an obligation to my temple, but 67

IN THE SHADOW OF THE SUN

he was right. I didn’t much want to leave.

I wasn’t sure why I stayed, except that it was easier than coming up with a reason not to. Easier by far than trying to deny Aten’s advances when he tried to persuade me to stay.

Every night, he

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