CHP37

Seneya’s eyes flew wide open as daylight beamed down on her from a window. Someone called her name. Kael? She sat up and rubbed the back of her neck, glancing down. She still wore yesterday’s clothing. Her shoes had been taken off and tossed haphazardly onto the floor. She would have never done that.

Kael…

Seneya groaned and hoisted herself on jelly legs. His aura had overloaded her, which meant he’d had a bad night; It left her a little hungover and foggy of a morning.

Occasionally their visits to the pit left him a little sad when people kept calling her his child or when memories surfaced. Either way he’d never let her see a bad day of his.

“You up?” He asked her. She shrugged and flopped into one of the kitchen chairs before she tried to let her tail out and choked over her tongue with gritted teeth as it hit the waistband of her jeans and cramped up. She arched her back, scrambling to adjust her waistband before letting it slide the rest of the way out.

“That looked like it hurt,” Kael commented, hiding a snicker before he laid her breakfast out. She rummaged through the bag and didn’t see the typical paper-wrapped meat and produce, but a few Tupperware containers stacked neatly and some cutlery. Kael looked away guiltily. Her stomach growled.

“Dee said you should have b—” Kael started and paused as she pried open one of the containers with a fork. Her tail swished, wagging almost like a dog’s as she excitedly dug in with a satisfying whimper of delight.

“—better food…” Kael trailed off and watched her eyes start to water, and her body shuddered.

“Sutz, I love Dee so much right now,” Seneya whined. Actual tears trailed over her cheeks, and she drew her legs up to a fold and leaned over her food. All pretense of table manners escaped her, and the richly sauced meat disappeared in barely a dozen bites. Kael wanted to reach for the bag and pull his free, but he honestly had this pricking feeling working in his ikris like she might bite him if he tried. Of course, seeing as her teeth had just recently been refiled, that was a bad idea. Surprisingly, though, her Acerrai was flowing quite smoothly, the words bubbling over her tongue.

He reached anyway, though, picking up a container by its lip with a placative gesture. Her green eyes flicked up once, and he pulled back with his food just as Seneya tipped the corner of the container into her mouth to drink the sauce.

“You, okay?” He asked.

Her weary stare focused on him and lingered. Finally, he started to say something a few times and let the silence fill the space between them. Admittedly, Kael was not a communication expert.

“Aura,” she said gently before going back to the bag to dig around. A few fresh apples rolled onto the table, and a Tupperware slid out, full of some kind of rich green salad.

“You’re going to share that one, yes?” Kael asked.

“You going to tell me about my family?” She squinted at him. Seneya had asked a dozen times since her first visit to the pit when she found out her tail meant royal blood, but Kael dodged the questions.

“Well, we know who your mom was, who your grandmother is… That I can tell you. Your father? Whoever gave you the shape of your ikris? No clue. Can’t tell you about your eyes, either. That’s all father territory and, honestly, not as important as getting you to your grandmother eventually.”

“What if I don’t want to meet her… What if I want to stay here?” Seneya stared at the salad for a long while.

“Well, the first I cannot help you with. You’ll have to meet her sooner or later. The second? I’d be happy to have you. You keep the quiet at bay. You don’t seem like you’d want to be a leader.” Kael’s toothy grin shot back at her impassive stare.

“Alright, but let’s make an agreement that you trust me a little more when you’re having a bad evening? You don’t have to do that thing to ease me. I am capable of rejecting your aura.” She folded her arms.

Kael closed his eyes. “Seneya, it’s not just about the aura; it’s about what you and I are. We are not… You felt how much stronger you are last night, yes?” She’d finally beaten Briggs in arm wrestling and, despite Kael’s better judgment, had gone into the ring and had thrown out every challenger that had tried. A little bit of muscle on her went a long way.

She nodded.

“A seraph in pain is a seraph that kills. We are not meant to be around one another. Seraphs are not meant to comingle. We are designed to war and fight one another. With you sleeping and me in poor company, I feel better.”

Seneya split the salad off into his container and brought the half-empty plastic back to herself for greedy bites.

“Maybe it’s time you bring that skalt and tell me your story, Kael. If you’ve not figured it out already, I don’t know about these wars we’re supposed to have.”

“I don’t think I have any….” Kael trailed off as Seneya stood on shaky legs and stretched tall into a satisfying curl that went all the way down her spine and through her tail. Her toes bit into the floor in a grasp as it ended. She rummaged through a few of the cupboards and pulled out a few dusty old bottles.

“I’m assuming that’s what these are?” She stared at them, then Kael. He squinted at the bottles.

“Huh. Thought I drank those….” He inspected the curling labels on them, ruined from humidity, and twisted the lid to sniff it. He did the same for the other. There was no telling what ended up in one of those bottles during his worse hours before she came. Thankfully, he only smelled whiskey. It would have been awkward if it wasn’t…

“Yeah. Probably should get another two or so if we want to have that fun conversation….” He sighed with anguish and went back to his food.

“Maybe wait until tomorrow, then?” She sat back in her chair and bent low over her salad, stuffing a forkful into her mouth with a noise of delight.

“You know? No. Let’s go into town together. There’s a different crowd out in the daylight hours, and you can go flatter Dee a little. She misses you between weekend visits.” Kael grinned before reaching out to ruffle her hair. Her body flinched as his hand entered her proximity. Her tail flit with annoyance with a sharp snap not unlike what her wings did.

“Hey! Attitude down. Don’t do that at me, little starling.” She blinked up at him, cheek full and expression bewildered.

“Hm?” She swallowed hard.

“Did you think I was going to take your food?” Kael squinted down at her.

“N- I don’t know?” Seneya seemed as startled by it as anything.

“Yeah, well,” Kael reached out and snatched her container with a grin. She scrambled for it as he bolted out of the door. Between her long tail and numb legs, she tumbled head over heels into the grass outside before she clambered onto bare feet and struggled her way out of the shirt she wore last night. She rolled her shoulders, let her wings free from her underclothing, and bounded off after him. She’d be slower with her wings out, but they threatened to lash and cramp anyway.

“Hey!” Her shout echoed around them.

“That’s what attitude gets you!” he laughed as his heavy feet tore at the ground.

“Attitude just got you my food!” Her voice turned shrill and filled with laughter, despite how much she loved the food. She bounded off, trying to gain on him. He could run much faster than her, and with just a kick of his heel and flit of his wing, she knew he could beat her. An idea pricked at the back of her mind.

She paused and braced herself, mischief dancing in her eyes as her aura flicked. Kael slowed and peeked over, fork in one hand, salad in the other. “What are you doing?” He tilted his head at her before taking a step back. She took a deep breath, arched her wings, and by the time he realized what she intended to do, he was nearly ready to laugh but choked as she bucked her wing bases and flit her primaries. His own wings hitched within him, and he dropped the fork in a fumble.

“Sutz…” Seneya muttered before she slumped into a pout. Kael gave her a marginally impressed look.

“Okay. Points for that one. You almost had me lash, but I don’t think that means you’re dominant. I just haven’t been around strong blood in a long time.”

“Dominant?” Seneya shrugged.

“Yeah, just be careful about lashing around others. Seraphs trigger the worst of it. Do it hard enough, and you can literally make some people collapse to their knees. It’s great,” Kael leered before reaching his raw, unwashed hand into the bowl of her salad and using his dirty fingers to grab a mouthful and bring it to his lips.

“Oh, come on!” Seneya moaned in a trailing whimper.

“Guess we have another excuse to go back into town, now. We need to return the containers and get you another salad since I ate all this one.”

Seneya groaned. “You’re a real—"