Frost and Petals

The Most Natural Thing in The World (Ch. 17)

The next evening, as I stepped out of the shower before my date with Cillian, I noticed for the first time that I was still wearing my engagement ring. Not sure what to do with it, I pulled it off and tucked it into the back corner of the shelf in my wardrobe. My clothing supply had expanded after the store run yesterday. I had three new dresses in different colors and several pairs of pajamas, not to mention the underwear and bras I now had.

A sharp knock sounded on my door just as I finished pulling on the yellow dress over my new matching white underwear.

"Come in," I called.

The door opened to reveal Cillian standing on the other side. He wore black slacks and a light blue polo shirt. He held a bottle of tequila, and I raised my eyebrows.

"This is for you to keep stashed away in your room for all the times Shudmos breaks into your room," he explained as he set the bottle on the little table I had moved in to go with the chair.

"I swear there's a lock on the door, and I use it every night, but that doesn't seem to stop him," I laughed as I picked up the bottle. Deciding where to hide this would be the tricky part.

"Where did you even get this anyway?" I asked as I ducked into my washroom to hide it underneath the sink. When I returned, Cillian was looking me up and down. "Cill." I snapped my fingers in front of his face.

"Sorry, you look lovely in that sundress," he commented. "As for the tequila, I just had it picked up at the store yesterday." He offered his hand to me as I slipped on the one pair of heels I had.

Hand in hand, we walked down the hallway that led past Shudmos' chambers. Part of me tensed as if expecting him to burst out dramatically and cause a scene. We passed the doors without incident, and I relaxed.

As we walked down hallway after stoned-lined hallway, I began wondering where we could be going. Just as I was about to ask Cillian that very question, he stopped us in front of an ornate set of doors I had seen one other time, the night Shudmos had taken me to watch the meteor shower. Cillian pushed open the doors to reveal a room that opened up halfway through to the outside world.

I gasped softly as the twilight sky filled my view.

He knew sunset was my favorite time of day, and we were just in time.

"Come this way," Cillian said as he headed into the room. I pushed closed the doors and followed him to a table he set up right where the room turned outside. It was then that I noticed the design of this room was not on purpose. Piles of rubble dotted the farthest corners as if they were abandoned during a clean-up process. Other than that, the room was gorgeous. A broken chandelier dangled near the doors, empty shelves lined the walls, and pillars spliced between them.

"This used to be a library, didn't it?" I asked Cillian.

He nodded as he pulled out a chair for me at the table, "I knew this was the perfect place for our first date as soon as I saw it."

I meandered to the table and kissed Cillian's cheek as I sat in the chair. The sky was violet, with streaks of orange, red, and pink shooting through it. The sunsets in Vrathia were nothing compared to this. I had confirmed with Shudmos after my second day here that we were indeed in Sorith Kingdom.

"And look what I scored for dinner," Cillian said, and I tore my gaze from the sky. Underneath the silver lid was a plate piled high with pizza. I laughed loudly. It had been so long since Cillian had snuck pizza for me.

"Oh, you might just win me over with pizza and pizza alone," I said as I snatched up a slice covered in pepperoni and mushrooms. The sauce was so thick it dripped off the pizza before I could eat. "Especially pizza like this," I groaned and bit into the slice. Sauce slid down my chin, and now it was Cillian's turn to laugh.