Amid the Clouds (Brave New World Book 1)

Chapter 31

Next time Xan woke me up it was with a kiss on my upper lips. His intentions were innocent and quite romantic: he wanted me to see the sunrise over 'our' homecloud.

We watched it through the balcony door with me sitting on the soft carpet, back resting on Xan's chest and legs outstretched between his. It was a magnificent view – both that of the sunrise outside and of the impressively toned legs inside. I gazed at the former and caressed the latter.

Heaven.

The fire-red color of the clouds above the city - which, as I had learned, kept the homecloud hidden from enemy eyes while also providing a stable, favorable climate - reminded me of blood.

I know: what normal person thinks of blood in such a romantic setting? But three days in heaven couldn't make me forget the bloody reality in which I had lived for months. Nor could they make me pretend that while I lived up here in bliss, that same reality no longer existed.

With the reminder of blood came rushing all the questions I hadn't gotten around to ask.

"Xan, can I ask you something?... Somethings?" I hugged my knees and turned until my side was pressed against his chest and I could see his face.

He smiled. "Anything and anythings."

He wrapped a tail around my waist, one arm around my shoulders and the other around my bent knees. As always, his body radiated such warm that I didn't need anything on my naked skin but him.

"You killing the zombie king... It's a huge victory. You succeeded where your ancestors failed, despite the fact that they weren't facing a full-blown zombie apocalypse."

"That is true, anima," he patted my hip, "but it is not a question."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm getting there, Xan. Here it goes... What happens next?"

He shrugged, wings included. "We celebrate." Then he specified with a fangy smile, "We feast." After he got the blush from me he had most certainly intended, he went on. "The head of the flesh eaters' king will be added to my ancestors' trophy room, right next to the head of the blood sucker's king. Have you explored that part of the palace yet? Or were you too busy reading certain scrolls in the library?"

I arched a brow at his lop-sided grin. I didn't waste time explaining that I intended to never visit the trophy room. I preferred to remember Vlad Dracula's look from my fridge magnet, and not from his severed head, thank you very much.

"I meant what happens now, as in the grand scale of things?"

His hand left my hip to trace my jawline with a knuckle. "You are my anima, little blessing. Even you do not deny that any more."

"Yes," I admitted.

There was no denying the connection between me and the gargoyle king I had yet to get to know, but felt as if I already did. That single day without him, what I'd experienced at the realization that I might never see him again? It had made me embrace what I'd been feeling all along in Xan's arms. Safe. Happy. Loved. Home.

I still considered a made-up crap the story of the Gods splitting one's soul in two, though.

"You are also my queen," he carried on. "You are no longer denying that either."

I made a face but nodded. The moment I had shown up in the courtyard in the clothes of a queen, I had sealed my fate. Not that I knew what being a queen up here actually entailed, but that was a topic for another day.

"Then you know what awaits us, anima." Xan cupped my face to ensure I was looking at him. As if I could peel my gaze away from those night-sky-blue eyes so beautiful in their alienness. "I will care for you, protect you and cherish you until my last breath. Afterwards I will wait for your soul in the Great Beyond so that we truly become one, beyond the death of our mortal bodies."

"Oh..." Xan was truly good at coming up with cheesy, Hollywood-worthy lines. But I knew he meant every word. I felt it with every fiber of my being.

I placed a hand over his heart. "I'll love you right back, animar."

He flapped his wings once and his tail got a firmer hold of my waist - my mate was a happy gargoyle right now. "Will you give me many pips, too, when you are ready?" he added with a confident smile and another pat on my hip.

"Do I actually have a say in the matter?" I raised an eyebrow at him. He had used his there-can-be-no-arguing-over-this tone.

"Of course, anima. You determine when you are ready for the first pip and also at what number to stop after the third pip."

I laughed wholeheartedly. "You're unbelievable! Such a generous king you are, to give me the freedom to choose past child number three." I shook my head, incredulous.

His black brows knitted together. "You want fewer than three?"

Poor Xan sounded so confused by the possibility of a woman not wanting to birth a small kindergarten. How many children did a gargoylish family have on average? That was a question I suspected I would eventually find the answer to, most probably by becoming part of the statistics myself.

I caressed his chest until his frown disappeared and a pleased rumble escaped him. "I have no idea, Xan. I haven't thought about kids before. I had kind of lost hope in finding a good man to raise a family with. Anyway, I believe the matter should be left in the hands of God–er, Gods... Whatever. You get the picture, don't you? I mean, I might already be... pregnant... You know, with us getting carried away for days and all."

He chuckled. "My silly little human, you can't be carrying a pip yet. I haven't willed it so." My eye roll at that ridiculous statement made him narrow his eyes on me. He patted my abdomen with the tip of his tail. "When I fill you up with fruit-bearing seed, you will know, little blessing. Because you would have demanded it of me, once ready. The decision on the first pip is yours to make, not mine. That is the law of the Gods."

"Okay... I guess?" Here he was, telling me I was being silly, when he was the one claiming babies were made when the man willed his swimmers to become 'fruit-bearing'. The scientist in me laughed at his absurd claim.

I didn't laugh out loud, though. He was a gargoyle. He lived on a cloud that was solid enough to walk on, and warm and bountiful enough to sustain life. And down below creatures of fantasy and myth were walking the Earth. Science had as much credence these days as a Tolkien novel.

"Are you saying you are ready now?" The hope and need in his tone were palpable.

I laughed nervously in reaction to his smoldering gaze, and patted his chest. "Down, boy. I'm not ready to go there with you yet." Feeling his tail droop around my waist, I quickly added, "But I'm sure I will be someday."

The smile returned to his face and his tail-hold became confident again.

Good. In this positive mood he might be more open to what I actually wanted to ask him when I began this conversation.

"Xan, what happens with the ground now?" I formulated my question in specific terms this time to avoid further misunderstanding. "With the zombies soon to be out of the picture entirely, there still remain so many threats to humanity. You want to save humanity, don't you?"