Lacuna - N.R. Walker Page 0,78

pages. He wanted to see what secrets she kept, but like Maghdlm had said, he couldn’t make out the writing. It was a mix of equations and codes, and drawings, in a language he couldn’t read. He didn’t trust her but he did trust Erelis. Crow didn’t have the time to decipher her scrawls and scratchings, and if anyone here could hope to make sense of it, it would be their four mentors. So he pushed the book toward Erelis. “We shall leave it with you.”

Just then, Tancho’s fingers wrapped around Crow’s and the room around them froze. Tancho stepped in close, their fronts almost touching. “I need to speak to you,” he murmured. “Alone.”

Crow was lost to the feel of him, his touch, his smell . . . and then he was gone, his hand free.

Crow shook his head, wondering if he’d just imagined that. He shot Tancho a confused look and Tancho sighed. “I need a moment alone with Crow. Please continue to talk in our absence. We won’t be long.”

Tancho wasn’t waiting for his input or approval; he took Crow’s arm and pulled him out of the room. “Care to explain?” Crow asked.

“Not here,” Tancho hissed, and they walked to his private chambers in silence.

The flames of Crow’s temper fanned with every step. It was irrational and inexplicable. He had no reason to be so angry, but he felt off-kilter, misaligned, and wrong or right, that anger was directed at Tancho.

Crow stomped into Tancho’s quarters and waited for him to close the doors behind them. “What is so important it required us to walk the length of your castle to speak?”

“Sit down.”

“I will not!” Crow yelled.

Tancho’s eyes flashed with a gleam of red that matched the fire of his hair. He pointed to the table. “Sit. Down!”

“You do not bark orders at me like a dog,” Crow seethed.

Tancho surprised Crow by grabbing the front of his shirt and dragging him toward the table. He kicked a chair around with his foot and shoved Crow into it, and Crow struggled to stay upright. But before Crow could react, before he could get to his feet or shove Tancho back—before he could kill him—Tancho straddled him, and still fisting his shirt, he pulled their mouths together in a crushing kiss.

It took a moment for Crow to realise what was happening. The world around them had slowed to a crawl, but Crow’s world was spinning for a whole other reason.

Tancho’s mouth, his hands, his body. His touch, his taste, his tongue.

But surprise soon gave way to want and need. Crow opened his mouth and let Tancho control the kiss. Tancho cupped Crow’s face and deepened the kiss, their tongues tangling, lips and hands and bodies . . .

Crow snaked his hands up Tancho’s sides, around his back, and pulled him down so he straddled him properly . . . and Tancho’s weight felt so good. Tancho’s fingers raked through Crow’s hair, rough and pulling, and he kissed harder, grinding down, and it felt so good, Crow saw stars behind his eyes . . .

Everything around them still moved in slow motion. Dust motes spun in the air like tiny planets, a galaxy moved around them as though they were the sun and the moons and nothing else mattered.

Crow had never tasted anything so sweet or felt anything so hot. He’d never wanted anything more. He’d never cared for someone the way he did for Tancho. It was more than the birthmark, the curse, the lacuna. It was more than that, deeper. Crow knew that and he was sure Tancho did too.

Tancho slowed the kiss and rested his forehead to Crow’s, his long red hair spilling down like curtains. He made no move to stand or remove himself from Crow’s arms, so Crow held him tighter. “You really wanted me to sit in the chair, huh?”

Tancho laughed and kissed him again, slower this time. Sweeter. When he pulled away, he kept his forehead to Crow’s, his eyes closed. “We are out of time. You said it yourself. We don’t know what this means, or what will happen to us after the eclipse, and I wasn’t going to see this end without having kissed you. I may never have this opportunity or the excuse again.”

Crow cupped his face. “Look at me, little fish.”

Tancho’s eyes opened slowly and he smiled. “What is it, pretty blackbird?”

Crow grinned. “I don’t know what will happen once the eclipse is done. I cannot say with certainty a