Descending (The Rising Series) (31 page)

Hesitantly, he lowered his weapon and left.

“Sorry about the interruption,” Sara said. She ducked out the door and shut it.

“Well, that was…”
Kyros began to say, until he noticed the bed was shaking.

He looked over to see Gretchen laughing
. He smiled in return, and she laughed even harder. Seeing her laughing got him going, and his laughter followed hers.

When their laughter finally quieted, they lay back on the bed and looked at the ceiling. “I have to admit
,” Kyros said. “The looks on their faces were hilarious.”

She laughed again. “Weren’t they? And Drakōn looked like he was ready to run you through.”

“At least I would have died happy.”

“Would you have?”

He turned on his side and looked Gretchen over. She was so beautiful. Her hair was wild, her cheeks flushed, and her eyes searched his.

“I’ve never been
truly happy until I met you. So yes, I would have died happy.”

“You know what would make me happy?”
She reached out and pulled him down for a kiss. His lips pressed down on hers, and he was in bliss. Her arms wrapped around his neck as he braced his body above her—careful not to crush her. He explored her mouth. His hands burned to touch her body, but he held himself back. He wanted to say his vows before he took what was before him. She deserved that, deserved to be treated with respect and love. Not ravaged like a hormonally driven wild man. He wanted to show her how much he loved her, how much he cherished her. He wanted to show her she was worth waiting for, worth paying for.

H
e pulled back and smiled.

Gretchen growled. “Sometimes I wish you weren’t so noble.”

He brushed a kiss below her jaw. “Mmm. Me too. But you’re worth it.”

She chuckled.

“I can’t wait forever, though.”

She sucked in a quick breath. “I sure hope not.”

“And since I can’t protect your virtue indefinitely, I have a question to ask you.”

“Yes?”

“Will you marry me, Gretchen?”

“Marry you? You’re
asking
me?”

“I know, for a
Dagonian, it’s unorthodox to ask the bride to be. I would normally ask your father, but I know humans do things differently.”

“No, I mean, you aren’t just going to carry me off somewhere and marry me without my permission
?”

He raised an eyebrow. “It’s tempting. But no.”

“You know, it’s also customary for a man to get down on one knee to propose marriage.”

Kyros moved to get off the bed. He was screwing
this up. If only he’d studied up on how to offer marriage to a human woman. He never in his wildest dreams thought that knowledge would be needed.

“Kyros, stay where you are. I need to answer you.”

He froze and looked back at her smiling face.

“The answer is yes.”

A wide smile spread across his face. “You will?”

“And you don’t have to carry me off and force me. You’ll just have to carry me across the threshold.”

“I’ll carry you anywhere and everywhere you want.”

“Careful what you offer
; I just might take you up on that,” she said, smiling.

He leaned in and kissed her again. As he pulled away, he had real worry etched in his face. “I do have a couple questions. What’s a
threshold, and how dangerous is it?”

“I’m going with you,” Gretchen said for the hundredth time. Her mind filled with the horrors her mother had wrought in the last two days. How Kyros expected her to just send him off to find her, she hadn’t the faintest clue. She couldn’t possibly let him go.

Kyros frowned. “I told you. We are not going to bring you and Sara into a situation blind. Once we find her, we’ll need to scout things out. When we have the layout, we can plan our attack.”

“Kyros is right,” Xanthus said. “
She’ll be less likely to detect a smaller group.”

“But why you?” she asked Kyros.

“Other than Xanthus,” Kyros said, “Drakōn and I have the most experience in this area.”

“I’d be going myself,” Xanthus said, “but I have to be here to direct the operation.”

“I should go. I can help,” she said.

“Gretchen
.” Xanthus sighed as he stepped over to her. “How many times have you hunted down a killer?”

She didn’t answer
; she didn’t need to. Still, she frowned at him.

“Kyros and Drakōn have gone after hundreds. If you accompany them, you’ll only be putting them at risk.”

She stomped over to Kyros. “Fine, but if you get yourself killed, I’ll never forgive you.”

He stepped up to her and leaned in. “Gretchen
—”

“
Don’t you do it,” she interrupted. “You think I’d want to kiss you when you’re acting like this? I…” she paused, glaring at him. She threw her arms around his neck and pressed her mouth to his. He enthusiastically kissed her back.

In the back of her mind, she heard a few grumbles and throats being cleared.

Kyros swept Gretchen up off her feet as she roped her arms around his neck. He nibbled from the corner of her mouth down to her neck. “If you don’t come back in one piece, I’ll never kiss you again.” She spoke through ragged breaths.

“I’ll come back,” he said and groaned.

“In one piece.”

“In one piece,” he agreed.

He set her down, keeping his hand on her, making sure she was steady on her feet, before letting her go. She looked around, “Where did everyone go?”

Kyros chuckled. “I’m sure they had pressing matters elsewhere.”

Drakōn appeared a moment later. “You ready to go?” he asked Kyros.

“Yes.”
Kyros stepped toward the door without a backwards glance.

Oh
no, he will not.
“Kyros, you aren’t going to leave without kissing me goodbye, are you?”

Kyros turned back in surprise. “Gretchen, we spent the last ten minutes kissing.” He stepped up to her, towering above. “Was
n’t that enough?”

She shook her head. “No, I mean… no. You should always kiss the ones you love goodbye.”

A smile spread across his face. “Is this a human thing?”

“No, it’s a Gretchen thing.”

He chuckled. “It is, huh?” He picked her up as he crushed his mouth to hers. This Dagonian never did things halfway. She’d only wanted a peck; instead, he once again made love to her with his mouth.

Drakōn cleared his throat before speaking. “Should we leave before or after the birth of your first child?”

Kyros smiled against Gretchen’s mouth. “We’ll leave now.”

Kyros sat her down. “Goodbye, my love.”

“Be safe,” she answered.

He
turned to the door and left.

Sara pe
eked in from the hallway with raised eyebrows.

Gretchen’s shoulders drooped as she sighed.
Sara stepped in the room, placing a hand on Gretchen’s shoulder. “He’s going to be fine. Xanthus said that, besides himself, Kyros is the most-skilled warrior in the entire sea.”

“I know he’s good, but…”
She couldn’t finish.

Sara tugged Gretchen over to the couch to sit down. “You love him. Of course you’re going to worry.”

Gretchen could feel tears building. “I love
him so much. I don’t think I could survive losing him.”

“You won’t have to. He’ll be fine.”

Gretchen nodded. She glanced at Sara as she tucked her legs up underneath her.

“I still can’t believe you’re walking around. I can’t believe you’re a mermaid, either,” Gretchen said.

Sara smiled. “You didn’t have any clue?”

Gretchen shook her head. “None. I didn’t know mermaids could live on land with a tail.”

Sara smiled. “What, you thought I would have shriveled up and died?”

Gretchen chuckled. “No. But,
hiding a thing like a mermaid’s tail must have been hard. It’s too bad you didn’t get land legs.”

“Yeah, that would have saved me a lot of problems. But then, I probably wouldn’t be the person I am today if my life had been easier.”

“I know what you mean. I’ve spent my life trying to be as different from my birth mother as I possibly could.”

Sara smiled.
“Gretchen saves the world…”

“…one child at a time.”
Gretchen chuckled.

“
Are you going to return to law school?” Sara asked. “They can’t possibly believe you caused that man’s death.”

“I did cause it
.” Gretchen frowned.

“He deserved it anyway.”

“Who am I to decide whether a person lives or dies?”

“
From what Xanthus has told me, he and Kyros make that decision all the time.”

“I don’t think I want to hear it.”

“Don’t worry. It’s all legal. They simply do their best to keep order in a place with dangerous criminals.”

“Do you think there’s a place for me down there?”
Gretchen asked.

“There better be. That’s where I’m going when this is all through. If
there were no place for you, there wouldn’t be a place for me either. Why do you ask? Are you thinking of leaving dry land?”

“Well, Kyros and I…”
She hesitated, unable to prevent a smile from lighting up her face.

Sara sat up
. “You what?”

“We’re getting married.”

Sara laughed.

Gretchen grinned
. “What? You think marriage is funny?”

“No. It’s just
, he better hope you
do
decide to live down there. He’s hated every moment of living on land. At least, he did until you showed up.”

“Yeah,
well, I may have said yes before I got a chance to think things through.”

“
But you love him.”

“I do.”

“What ever happened with Hal?”

Gretchen laughed. “I don’t know what I was thinking dating
him. Do you know that before we went anywhere, he’d insist on coming over and doing my makeup and hair? And then he went through my wardrobe and gave me fashion advice. Me! Can you believe it? Like
I
need fashion advice. I should have known he wasn’t right for me when he started throwing out clothes of mine he didn’t like. I mean, they were
mine
. He had no right. But I overlooked it. I thought it was just a creative genius being eccentric.”

Sara shook her head. “It looks like you’ve picked someone as polar opposite to Hal as one can get. Can you imagine Kyros giving fashion advice? Or doing makeup?”

They heard a snort and looked up. Pallas stood in the doorway. He had his hands over his mouth. His shoulders were shaking.

“Pallas, were you listening in
on our conversation?”

He cleared his throat and said, “Of course not. Only women feel the need to hear the insignificant details of other people
’s lives.” He returned to his room, grumbling.

“Right
,” they both said at the same time. They turned to one another in surprise and burst out laughing.

“Oh, I haven’t laughed like that since…” Gretchen began. “Since this morning.”

And they were laughing all over again.

“We’re acting like teenagers,” Gretchen said.

“More like preteens,” Sara chuckled.

“Ah, but it feels so good. The last few days have been…” Gretchen knew she didn’t have to finish. Sara had been just as traumatized from the many deaths lately.

“Yeah,” was all Sara said.

“
Do you think we’ll be all right? Going after your mom?” Sara asked a moment later.

“We’d better be.”