Elven Legacy

Chapter 5

Jaden

As ever, he found Kili in her walled garden, seated in lotus pose on her colorful patchwork blanket between the two saguaro cacti, with sandalwood incense burning beside her.

Her wavy pine-green hair appeared nearly black in the dim light of two torches blazing on either side of the squared garden.

She didn't turn around when he approached.

However, before he got too close, she said, "Good evening, Jaden."

He heard himself chuckle, and it sounded different with Noah's voice. That was ever so eerie, for Jaden. The voice. Noah had mentioned that, for him, it was the hair color, and the skin. But for Jaden, hearing himself speak with Noah's voice was unequivocally the oddest thing about this – let's face it – already quite bizarre experience.

"You always know it's me," he said.

Jaden slipped off his shoes and sat beside her cross-legged. Though he couldn't do the complete lotus pose with Noah's body – he lacked the necessary flexibility.

The copper bowl with burning incense stick was the only thing separating them. From somewhere across the street came the faint strumming of the mandolin. Jaden breathed in deeply, and smiled. He'd missed this; the dry desert air, the clear night sky, the balmy wind, the gentle tinkling of the chimes, the lingering taste of vanilla rum on his lips.

Kili smiled too, though her eyes were still closed. Her black eyelashes curled up, long and thick. Her perfectly shaped lips were pure-black, like a crow's feathers. She still had that spider web tattoo on the side of her head, a small square section above her ear. Her hair had never grown back over it.

Jaden always felt a twinge of empathic pain when he saw it, because he remembered – from Seraph's nightmarish visions – how much she'd suffered when she got tortured, some five hundred years ago. How they'd sliced off her lips, and seared away that part of her scalp.

He snapped out of it with a slight shudder when she spoke, "Your walk is different. That's how I know. Yours is . . . quieter. More careful."

"I see," Jaden said.

Still with her eyes closed, she said, "It's been a long time. Was Noah angry that you took taless with me?"

"He was," Jaden said, resting his palms on his knees. Noah's hands felt dry and calloused. And when Jaden straightened his spine, he discovered that Noah had a fair amount of tension in his back and shoulders.

"Not too much, I hope," Kili said softly.

Jaden cast his gaze beyond the small herb garden, and up to the dry-stone wall that fenced the courtyard, the lights from the torches flickering across it like dancing ghosts.

Truthfully, he still felt awful for what he'd done, especially since Noah had been so sick the following day. But it was a thing of the past, now – they'd both moved on.

"Don't worry. I think he enjoys talking to me a great deal. I suspect it would take more than that for him to stop," Jaden said, keeping his tone light.

"You should tell him how you truly feel," Kili said, opening her eyes now. Their irises reminded him of polished onyx marbles, staring at him sidelong in the dark. She was undeniably beautiful; nose small and slightly upturned, cheekbones high and sharp, forehead elegantly wide, pale skin flawless.

Things would be ever so simple if only he could be attracted to women.

"Please stop with that," Jaden said quietly.