Ashes Learned Human Names novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: Five Terms

"Come in," Lucia said. "I have terms."

Rafael stepped over the threshold and stopped, with the door still open behind him.

"Shut it," she said.

He shut it.

She sat on the edge of the bed with her bare face to the lamp, and he stood with his back to the wood.

"One," she said. "If I ask you something, you tell me the truth, even if it's ugly. I'm not going to ask twice."

"Yes."

"Two. You don't fix things before I ask you to. You ask me first, every time."

"Yes."

"Three. When it gets hard, you say you need a minute, and you stay in the building. You never leave town again."

His throat moved.

"Yes," he said. "I swear it."

"Four. If I say no, any day, for any reason, it's no. You don't argue and you don't sit under a lemon tree for nine nights."

A short sound came out of him, almost a laugh.

"Yes. Is that all?"

"No," Lucia said. "Five."

She stood up.

"You stood outside my ward door for three nights. In that life. You never came in."

"I couldn't."

"You can come in now," she said.

For a moment he did not move.

Then he crossed the room and took her face in his hands.

His thumbs traced the scar as his grip tightened.

"Kiss me," Lucia said.

He kissed her.

This was not the hospital, with its rails and tubes and time running out.

It was slow, and then it was not slow.

She pulled him toward the bed by his shirt, and he came with her.

She pushed him down until he sat on the mattress, with her standing between his knees.

"I want to do this," she said. "I want to lead."

"Lead me anywhere."

She undid his buttons one at a time.

His breath was rough under her hands, and he watched her face the entire time.

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