They Drugged Me Into Darkness, Now I Am Its King novel · Chapter 6 of 32

Chapter 6: The Quiet After the Fire

Lucien set the returned cloak on the chest beside the bed and did not sit in the chair beside it.

He lowered himself to the floor instead, his back against the bedframe, close enough that Aquas could have reached down and touched his hair.

Aquas lay still, the sheets twisted around his legs, his body still trembling from the place Lucien's hand had stopped.

The room was dark. The only light came from the low embers in the brazier, and the thin gold fracture under Aquas's eye, still glowing faintly.

Lucien did not look at him. He stared at the far wall, and his hands rested on his knees, and he was breathing like a man who had run a long way and was still running.

'I have not been fair to you,' Lucien said.

Aquas turned his head on the pillow. 'You stopped because I asked you to.'

'That is not what I mean.'

'I know what you mean.'

Lucien's jaw tightened. 'Then do not make this easy for me.'

Aquas almost laughed, and the sound came out raw. 'You think any of this has been easy.'

Lucien was quiet for a long moment. Then he reached up, without looking, and his hand found the edge of the bed, and his fingers brushed Aquas's wrist.

Not holding. Just there.

'I was afraid,' Lucien said. 'When my shadow recoiled from your skin. I have never seen it do that. Not once. And I have stood against things that would make the moon court look away.'

Aquas watched the ceiling. 'You thought I would hurt you.'

'No.' Lucien's voice was flat. 'I thought I would hurt you.'

The words landed in Aquas's chest and stayed there.

He had spent so long being afraid of what his light would do to him. He had not once thought about what it might do to the man who carried the darkness.

'Shadow and light,' Aquas said. 'We are a bad poem.'

Lucien made a sound that was almost a laugh. 'A terrible one.'

Aquas shifted on the bed, and the sheets whispered, and Lucien's hand did not move from his wrist.

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