Chapter 211: Of Balconies, Boundaries, and Bad Timing
Chapter 211: Of Balconies, Boundaries, and Bad Timing
The moment the male voice drifted clearly through the night air, Elyn turned toward Zorathys so fast one would have thought she had been struck.
Her eyes were wide.
"Wait," she whispered in disbelief, "I thought they were having...differences?"
Zorathys sighed.
It was the sigh of a king who had seen far too much nonsense in his long, exhausting existence.
"They have been having differences," he replied flatly. "For quite a while now."
Another muffled moan echoed faintly in the distance.
Elyn’s eyes somehow widened further.
"But—"
"That," Zorathys continued, pinching the bridge of his nose as though the very concept tired him, "does not prevent them from maintaining an active sex life."
He paused.
"I simply did not expect that to occur on my balcony."
Elyn blinked once.
Then twice.
And then, quite unexpectedly, she chuckled.
Zorathys slowly turned his head toward her.
"You are laughing."
"I’m at least happy for them," she said, still trying to suppress her amusement. "Ignivar especially."
"Happy," he repeated slowly.
"Yes," she insisted. "I saw how crestfallen Ignivar looked earlier when Ysera removed her hands from his. He looked like someone had stolen his last remaining reason to exist. And Ysera may pretend not to want him, but it’s clear that she does."
Zorathys gave her a long, lazy stare.
"Why," he asked evenly, "should you be happy about demons having sex on my balcony? As a reminder, they were supposed to be watching you dance, firefly."
Elyn immediately lifted a finger to her lips.
"Don’t speak so loudly," she hissed.
Zorathys looked mildly offended.
"Do not worry."
He gestured faintly around the shadows that surrounded them.
"They will block out every sound from the outside," he explained calmly. "And they will prevent any sound from us from escaping."
His gaze flickered toward her with faint mischief.
"We may speak freely."
Elyn narrowed her eyes at him.
"I don’t trust you."
He shrugged lazily.
"You do not trust many things I do."
"I trust you," she said pointedly, "to be lazy and avoid work."
He stared at her. Then, unexpectedly, he chuckled.
Elyn smiled at him.
And something unfamiliar stirred in his chest.
His heart—an organ that had not truly functioned in centuries—beat once.
It did that sometimes now. It beat softly, but it only did so around her. He did not understand it.
He did not understand it.
Yes, Elyn was beautiful. She was the most beautiful human he had ever seen, and he was also intrigued by her character.
Her blue eyes crinkled when she smiled. They seemed to lighten, like frost touched by dawn. There was something unguarded in her expression, something honest when she smiled at him or even chuckled lightly when she saw or did something she liked or perhaps something she found funny.
And her hair—
That ridiculous, stubborn, red-colored hair.
He liked it. He liked it a lot, and he also liked her temperament. It reminded him of the fireflies in the realm.
He liked many things about her.
Too many things.
She was interesting to him. That was all she was—someone interesting and intriguing. But then he did not understand why his heart beat when she laughed or when she was close to him.
He did not understand why he was drawn to her, that sometimes the first thing—or rather person—he searched for after waking up was her.
He did not understand why he was so protective of her... He paused. Perhaps he knew the reason. It was because she was interesting; after all, that was why he was protective of her.
She was a puzzle he would like to keep close, to observe and unlock different parts of.
His eyes narrowed faintly. He had no idea why she had puckered her lips earlier.
The memory replayed in his mind with startling clarity.
Her eyes closing.
Her lips parting slightly as if waiting for him to kiss her.
He almost laughed at that. There was no way he was going to kiss a puzzle.
"Zorathys?"
Her voice snapped him back to the present.
He blinked once and then gave her his attention.
"Yes?"
"Did you hear anything I just said?"
He held her gaze for a brief second.
"No."
She stared at him.
"I was speaking."
"I am aware."
Her lips twitched.
"At least you are honest."
He inclined his head slightly in acknowledgment.
"What were you saying?"
She exhaled, glancing briefly toward the direction of the still-ongoing balcony activities.
"I said," she repeated patiently, "I don’t want to stay on this balcony anymore, especially with Ignivar and his wife going at it like schoolchildren."
Zorathys frowned at that. She always said the strangest things. Most he could understand, but some he could not.
"Schoolchildren?"
"I meant horny kids," she told him.
"Oh," he said with a nod. "But you cannot hear them."
"I know."
"You cannot be heard by them either."
"I know."
He folded his arms.
"Then what is the issue?"
Elyn gestured vaguely toward the darkness.
"I know they’re there."
He stared at her blankly.
"And?"
"And that makes it strange."
"I am uncomfortable and would prefer if we go somewhere else."
Zorathys considered this as though it were a complex political dilemma. His eyes narrowed slightly.
"Are you about to assign me more work?" he asked her.
She blinked in shock.
"Work?" she asked, and he nodded.
"How is moving to a different location even work?" she asked him.
"Even the way you said it means it’s work. But the thing is, firefly, wherever you go, there is always some work to be done. I don’t know if I have it in me to do more work. Dancing was a lot, after all," he told her.
He watched as she rolled her eyes, another expression he liked seeing. She was very expressive, something Zorathys was not very familiar with because he never paid attention to others.
"Dancing with me was wrong?" she asked him.
"Yes," he told her with a tired sigh.
"You were the one who wanted to dance," she told him.
Zorathys nodded. He had wanted to dance with her because he needed to feel her close to him, but he wasn’t going to tell her that.
"I wanted to dance to recover my energy, but once you danced so well, I couldn’t recover my energy. I lost more instead. Dancing is tedious work, firefly," he told her instead.