Chapter 275: The Time Arrived
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Lily traced one finger lightly over the back of his hand where it rested between them.
"You look different today."
His eyes shifted to her. "Different how."
"Younger, somehow." She thought about it. "And older. Both."
"That is not an answer."
"It is the only one I have."
He considered it and found, annoyingly, that it made sense.
The last few days had pulled too many hidden things into light. Son. Blood awakening. Heir. Husband. Enemy. Desired man. All the names sat on him now at once, and perhaps it did change the face they made together.
Lily leaned her head lightly against his shoulder. "You also look less alone."
That one went into him quietly and stayed there.
He turned his hand and linked his fingers with hers.
Neither of them spoke for several breaths after that.
Then Lily said, almost in a whisper, "What happens when I go back tonight."
The question cooled the room by just enough to matter.
Sekhmet did not pretend not to understand it.
"You go back as you always would."
"And if my dad looks at me and knows something has changed."
"He will know something has changed," he said. "Not what."
Lily sighed softly. "That is true."
He looked at her profile in the low light. "Can you hide it?"
Lily thought about that for a moment. "Marriage? Yes." Her mouth moved faintly. "Happiness might be harder. Because we are not virgins anymore."
That got him. A small, real smile this time.
Lily turned her face toward him and saw it.
"There," she said softly. "That. I like that one."
"What one?"
"That smile. The one that only appears when you forget to be difficult."
"It rarely appears for a reason."
"I will collect it anyway."
He shook his head once in helpless disbelief.
Then he leaned in and kissed her again because there was no point pretending words were enough tonight.
The kiss turned warmer quickly, but he kept it there, careful and close, letting her feel the promise beneath it without taking them farther than this night should yet allow.
Lily moved nearer of her own accord. Her hand left his and came up to rest along his chest again, then slowly higher, feeling the line of his shoulder through the fabric as if memorizing shape instead of merely touching it.
When the kiss broke, neither of them spoke at once.
Lily’s voice finally came small and honest. "I do not want to leave."
Sekhmet’s answer was immediate. "I know."
She looked at him, and the ache in that look was almost enough to make him reckless.
Almost.
But tomorrow still exists. Mihos still existed. The house still existed. And whatever came next between them deserved not to be stolen from exhaustion and pressure, but chosen fully.
So he drew her back against him and simply held her. Long enough for the nearness to become its own comfort.
Long enough for her breathing to steady again. Long enough for the last sharp edge of the day to dull into something almost peaceful.
"I will send you back before your house becomes suspicious," he said at last.
Lily made a quiet sound of displeasure.
He pressed one brief kiss to the top of her head. "Do not argue with me while I am being responsible. It makes me unreasonable."
"That sounds like a threat too."
"It is."
She sighed, but there was warmth in it. "You and your warnings."
"You still like them."
"Yes," she admitted.
He stayed like that with her a little longer, one hand in her hair, the other at her waist, while the day outside deepened and the hidden shape of their marriage settled more fully into both of them.
But the quiet did not last as long as either of them had imagined.
Lily remained in his arms for a little while longer, and for those few extra breaths the room still belonged only to warmth, low lamplight, and the unsettling comfort of finally not having to pretend distance where there no longer was any. Her cheek rested against him.
Then Lily lifted her head slightly.
Sekhmet noticed the change immediately.
The softness in her expression remained, but something else had entered beneath it now. A more focused kind of resolve. He had already learned to recognize that look in her. It meant she had been thinking quietly for several minutes and had reached a conclusion dangerous enough to deserve its own heartbeat before being spoken aloud.
He looked down at her.
"What."
Lily’s mouth moved faintly. "You ask that as if I am always about to create trouble."
"You usually are."
"That is unfair."
"It is an experience."
She should have argued. Instead she stayed close, one hand still at his chest, and said in a much quieter voice, "I do not want to wait any longer. Let’s do it today."
Sekhmet’s expression changed.
His hand at her back tightened slightly.
"Lily."
She met his gaze directly. "Do not say my name like that and pretend you do not understand what I mean."
He understood.
That was the problem.
For one moment he said nothing, and in that silence she could almost feel his mind shifting through danger, timing, secrecy, consequences, hunger, the void land, the veil, Mihos, Kess, Elena, and every other blade currently standing in line outside the narrow path they had chosen.
Lily continued before he could bury the thought under caution.
"You already said the shockwave will not escape if you turn me inside the Void Land." Her voice remained calm, but urgency lived in it now. "We already know how to hide it. You already know others are coming for you because of what you are." Her fingers curled slightly against his shirt. "Every day we wait is another day we leave this unfinished."
Sekhmet looked at her for a long moment.
Then he said, " I wanted to do it after a few more days. This is not because you are impatient."
"No."