Chapter 426: Just You
"How do we get up there?" Penelope asked, craning her head to stare up at the lotus, curious as to what its purpose truly was if Zagan had reserved it for the most powerful alyko. Would he try to put August there?
"The elevator," he said slowly, deliberating on whether or not he should just pick her up and bypass the elevator all together.
He could jump up to the lotus platform with her in his arms, and it would take only a moment. The benefit of that would be avoiding any falls or errant sharp pieces of glass that might accidentally slice into her skin if she were to make a wrong move. But she was already moving toward the elevator door, and a muscle feathered in his jaw as he watched her walk so confidently as if she couldn’t just slip at any moment.
"Are you coming?" She asked, irritation evident as she turned to wait for him. He had changed the subject from how easily he could go pursue and terrorize the alyko again to whether she would like to see this lotus area, and now he seemed hesitant to even go.
He gave her an uneasy smile and followed after her, arriving back in the elevator that took them up to the roof. When the door to the elevator opened, Penelope walked out slowly, overwhelmed by the beauty of the lotus and the lush garden that surrounded it.
"This is..." she started, trailing off as she realized it wasn’t necessary to put her appreciation of this remarkable place into words, especially only for someone like Zagan to hear. Who knew if he could even appreciate beauty like this.
Zagan followed her out of the elevator, hands in his pockets as he listened contentedly to the interesting rhythm her heart took on as she walked through the plants growing here and toward the bridge that connected this wing of the facility to the center lotus. Her heart’s rhythm reminded him of someone who was compelled. She was sublimely happy in the moment, and all it took was showing her the lotus. How peculiar.
"Do you like it?" He asked, since she was no longer saying anything. Perhaps she forgot he was even here.
Penelope took in the glittering gold and glass petals that rose elegantly above her as she crossed the grass-covered bridge toward where the lotus was waiting.
"It is breathtaking," she breathed in response to the vampire who was trailing her.
She didn’t notice how he went more rigid than usual for the duration of her walk across the narrow bridge or how he sped up so that he was only a few steps behind her, his eyes narrowing in on every little tremor of movement that would be imperceptible to average vision in order to anticipate the steady or unsteady flow of her movements going forward. But she did not fall, and Zagan found himself releasing a breath he didn’t know he was holding once she arrived on the other side without him needing to intervene and make things more awkward.
From the lotus’ platform, Penelope could see all four wings of the facility and how they flared out from the center. This area was truly created for something special, indeed. It was remarkable.
"Earth, air, fire, water... you have all four elements here," she spoke to herself. "And so the fifth... the fifth is what?" She asked, gazing up at the gold and glass structure that reached for the sky. "It can’t be the moon. The moon is never here."
"The fifth is whatever that particular alyko brings to it. Perhaps there is an alyko who carries the moon inside of her. That is what Nedra suggested, though she could not contribute her own unique element in a way that would amplify the others," he mumbled the last part.
It had been a waste of time having Nedra here. He sensed that by moving into the lotus, she was just trying to appease his curiosity while all the while knowing that she was not the one who could make this particular theory of his work.
"Then you are expecting the Goddess herself?" Penelope chuckled, turning to cast him in her amused gaze.
That gaze alone made him speechless, and it took a fair amount of swallowing before he recovered from the stunned state.
"No, not the Goddess. That is not necessary," he replied quietly, walking to find himself a mere breath away from her. "Perhaps it is just you."
"Me?" She gasped softly, surprised by how close he suddenly was and the emotions that were overflowing his gray eyes that no longer appeared dull and bored. His eyes were alive with emotion. "Zagan, your eyes..."
He didn’t react to his name—didn’t even seem to notice it had been spoken, but he had heard it. It was different now hearing it said on her lips. It was different, because her voice was beautiful and because she was the one who was supposed to kill him.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" She breathed, her heart speeding up as the wind swept his white hair around her.
"I don’t know," he whispered, looking down from her eyes to her lips, confusion feathering across his forehead. "I don’t know what this is... this, this feeling," he said, squeezing his eyes shut to focus, but she was close to him now and he could feel the warmth of her life thawing something in him—that ghost limb in his chest that had been dead and unknown prickling a memory again. "Perhaps you are right. I like you," he said, a soft chuckle escaping as he admitted it.
"You do?" She whispered, terrified by the thought. But also... but also thrilled at the same time.
How could any part of her welcome feelings from him? It didn’t make sense. He was the enemy. She loathed him. She hated him. She had devoted so much of her life and work to finding a way to end him, but now... but now he was looking at her like she held all of the secrets to his existence.
