Page 73 of The Fake Divination Offense
Just that.
No biggie.
My muscles twitch and pulse, worry discharging from where I’ve been keeping it stored since the moment I saw Bel at the karaoke bar.
Gods, Iamrelieved.
Holy shit, am I having a breakdown? Has this broken me? Possibly.
At my silence, Bel shifts uncomfortably on his feet. “I have touse the spray every twenty-four hours or else—” He waves at his body, then runs a hand through his hair, tapping at a spot an inch back from his forehead. “I, um, file down my horns, and they aren’t very big, so it’s not hard to hide them. But it’d be too expensive to get transformation magic to make my tail vanish. The spray only alters how things look. It can’t make anything disappear completely, so I use a small portal dimension stitched into my boxers for my tail, and—it’s weird. I know. All of this is so weird, but I—I wanted you to know. I’m sorry I lied to you, Orok. I’m—”
His voice catches, and I’m already moving.
I sweep his face into my hands and kiss him. Fuck everyone else watching. I kiss the hell out of him, eating up his startled cry and then his relieved, stunted sob as he clings to me.
He buries his face in my neck and I hold him. Rocking him. Murmuring, “It’s okay, it’s okay, I’m not going anywhere,” until Ilbryen clears her throat.
Bel shudders against me. Since he seems in no hurry to let me go, I keep my arms around him as I look up.
“I’d ask how you feel knowing he’s a descendant of your god’s sworn enemy,” Ilbryen says, “but I’d say it doesn’t quite bother you, does it?”
My simple “no” feels more definitive than if I had finally renounced Urzoth.
“We have been guarding Belzaroth in one way or another his entire life,” she continues. “But he has been in protective custody for eight years, since a sect of Galaxrien Vossen cultists began pursuing a ritual they believe requires part or all of his mortal descendant.” She motions at Tem. “Mr. Raussec has been his handler since early summer, and when Belzaroth went missing last night, he called us in.”
“Because he wasabductedby an Urzoth follower!” Tem explodes. “And you’re giving him all our secrets so he can run off to his church and havethemslaughter the target to stop the resurrection.”
The target?
Fuck. This. Guy.
I pull Bel off me so I can meet his eyes. “You know I wouldn’t do that.”
Cheeks tear-streaked, he manages a watery smile. “I know.”
“We need to transform him back and get him out of here,” Tem snaps at Ilbryen. “He’s been compromised. Mostly byyou.”
Ilbryen looks at Tem. It’s barely more than a flick of her eyes to him, but it’s so ice-cold he reels back.
Then she looks at me, her glare softening infinitesimally, and after a long beat, she says, almost as an afterthought, “Yes.”
Tem huffs and throws his arms out. “Finally. Belzaroth, reapply your illusion magic, and let’s go.”
Bel inhales quickly, his hands fisting in my shirt.
I constrict my hold on him. “No—what? Go where?”
“Telling you would quite defeat the purpose ofprotective custody,” Ilbryen says. “Belzaroth will be moved to a new secure location. It appears the cultists are aware that Galaxrien’s heir is connected to the Urzoth church, in light of their recent attack. They do not seem to know about Belzaroth personally, but they are getting close. While his cover as an Urzoth follower and the paramour of an Urzoth star did seem smart—hiding him in plain sight, as it were—it clearly isn’t enough to merely beassociatedwith Galaxrien’s enemy. We must take more intensive measures. To ensure his safety.”
She cuts her words with a penetrating look at me, and my mind races, hands gripping Bel’s upper arms.
He tugs at the hem of my shirt, running it through his fingers. “It’s all right, Orok.”
I frown down at him.
“It’s all right,” he says again, and tries to smile, but it’s full of all the heartbreak he’s shown over our time together, all the little flashes of it that didn’t make sense until now. “I’m—I’m used to it. I knew they’d want to move me after the news dropped last night.” He fights for composure. It slips the more he talks, mine splintering right alongside his. “I wanted to tell you. I’m sorry, though; you didn’t need to be pulled into this. But I… I wanted you to know the real me. I just… just wantedone thingthat’smine.”
A strange sense of calm settles over me, the unnerving immobility that came with seeing him transform, with finding out all his truths. Like this path was always laid, I just hadn’t known I was walking it until this moment.
