The Liberian

Chapter 61

“Halle, stop!” He sounded distant and far.

Derek! she cried. Halle stood in a world of blinding light.

“Halle.” Derek’s voice was faint. “Come back to me.” She turned in the white emptiness but couldn’t find where he was. “Listen, find your heartbeat. Find mine. Come back.” He sounded strung out, which only caused her to feel more distraught.

Derek? she asked into the emptiness. There was no reply. Halle closed her eyes, only to find more light. She listened, there was nothing. Halle walked for a bit, but couldn’t make anything appear before her. Time seemed to have stopped, and she wasn’t sure how long she wandered. Finally, she sat and simply listened.

Slowly, painfully slowly, she began to hear a distant drumming. It was a familiar rhythm, and it called to her. Halle allowed it to flow back into her, it resonating through every aspect of her consciousness. It was a slow transition as the world faded into blackness.

Her eyes fluttered open. Derek’s face hovered above her, and he let out a small relieved laugh. For the second time in one day she found herself pressed against his chest. Halle sighed softly. It was a trend she could learn to live with.

“You scared me again,” he muttered. “That’ll be the last time we do that.”

“No,” Halle insisted with a shake of her head. “I’ll get it, I just need more practice. I pushed too hard.”

He studied her carefully, and she yawned, suddenly feeling exhausted. She made no motion to get up, and he made no motion to remove her from his person. Halle’s eyelids drooped closed.

“Rest,” the prince instructed.

She shifted slightly, her ear against his chest. “Derek?” she inquired with another yawn.

“Halle?”

She struggled to find the right words. “This is a really, really awful idea.”

Halle felt him stiffen a moment, and he let out a small sigh. “I know.” His voice was barely audible. “I know. Now rest.”

Halle felt her consciousness fade as she was swathed in a comfortable warmth that only he could exude.

Halle WAS ONE of those perpetually cold people. With a small amount of body fat, likely due to her spotty eating habits when wrapped up in something, she was usually the first to complain about a chill. She had long since accepted it as part of her lot in life and dressed as warmly as possible to make up for it.

However, at this particular moment she was pleasantly warm. It was a surreal feeling and, in her half-sleep haze, she shifted, pressing herself closer to the source. That source adjusted itself beneath her before settling again. The unfamiliar sensation brought Halle back to awareness. Her mind was sluggish with sleep, and she struggled to make sense of it.

His heartbeat was the first thing she heard. Slow and strong against her right ear. The second thing she heard was the scratching of quill on paper. Halle cracked open her eyes and saw she rested in the crook of Derek’s left arm, which wrapped around her side. She was halfway onto his lap as he sat cross legged on the floor. Stretched across her was his right hand as he marked papers on the table.

The previous events came back in pieces, punctuated with a yawn.

“You’re up.” Derek placed the quill on the table and ran a hand through his hair. “How do you feel?”

“Tired,” she responded groggily.

“I could tell.” His tone was flat but his posture had no heaviness to it. “I’m fairly certain you depleted most of your magic and fell into your Channel.”

Halle made a note to ask him, Fritz, or Fot about that later when she didn’t feel so sleepy. “How late is it?”

He shifted and reached out to the edge of the table. It had parchments strewn across it with all manner of scribbles on their surface. Derek pushed some pages aside, and a glint of silver caught her eye.

“Let’s see, eight-thirty.” He inspected the pocket watch.

“Can I see it?” Halle held out a hand.

He looked at her curiously but obliged. Halle turned the watch over in her fingers. The back was polished to a mirror finish, the front held the blazing sun of the Empire. Time pieces were rare because those who understood their strange mechanics were few and far between. Halle stared past her reflection in the glass that covered the obsidian and alabaster face of the watch. “It’s beautiful.”

“Thank you,” Derek replied awkwardly.

“I’ve never held one before,” Halle mused aloud. The few clocks she had ever seen were large, like one at the circulation desk in the library. “It’s like holding time itself, isn’t it?”

“I suppose.”

“I wish I could make it stop,” she breathed.

His hands closed over hers and the watch, shutting the front latch closed. “If you could, what would you do?”

Derek’s breath was warm on her cheeks, and Halle was keenly aware of how close they were. He held her in one arm, the other hand holding both of hers, her side pressed along his chest. What were they doing?This?” Derek motioned to the parchment, allowing her to save them both from themselves. “There is the exciting job of checking our stock, making sure we have enough supplies to make it to the Crossroads. There were one or two discipline reports; I screen them for Father.” He paused; she followed his stare to one piece of paper that was completely full of his slanted scribbles. “I also began taking some notes on our Bonding.”

“On us?” Halle glanced at the paper.

“There is not much information on Bonding. I wanted a record I can look back on later if anything strange happens.”

She bit her lip, unsure how she felt about her experiences with Derek potentially being read by someone else. “I suppose it makes sense. If you need any insights from me, let me know.” Halle offered, and he nodded. “Does your brother help you with the other things?”

“Baldair?” Derek pushed his hair back with both hands. For a moment he looked like the man she’d met back at the palace; at least until the hair fell back messily around his face.