Hal Route Chapter 5 Pt 2

After careful planning with Kite in the drawing room, all the details are done for my next ritual. Now all there is to do is waiting. I don't know if I'm relieved or terrified. There's so much going wrong right now. The only reassuring part in all this will be Hal at my side; he has this way about him that calms me amid the scariest storms.

Worry niggles me as I think about him sprawled across my loveseat in exhaustion all because of me. My feet move a little faster on my way back to my chambers. I hope Hal is feeling a little better now.

A flash of red and silver has me gasping, freezing in the middle of the long hall. All at once I run like the hounds of hell after nipping at my heels and maybe they are. This demon will not find me! I don't want to see him after what he did. Just the reminder has me trembling in a new bout of cold.

SLAM!

Wheezing from my mad dash, I sag against the door, grasping my pounding chest.

"Amelia?" a concerned voice says over me.

I jerk, looking up at a livelier Hal. He still looks haggard but not on death's door at least. "You should still be lying down, what are you doing?"

"You sounded frantic when you came through the door. I was worried." He looks more than a little sheepish. Almost like a child with his hand caught in the cookie jar. His expression is so endearing that for a second I forget the reason I'd ran so fast to begin with.

Hal crouches down on his knees beside me, eyes level with mine.

An icy shiver runs through me but I ignore it. "I—I almost ran into Silvio in the hallway."

Expression darkening, Hal sighs, "Something has to be done with him. You're not his first victim."

"What?" (There are others who suffered the horror he put me through?) "No!"

Coming back to myself I realize Hal is still standing when he should lay down. No matter how much he pretends, I know he doesn't feel well. He never should have given me so much power. I grab his arm, "You should sit down. You're not recovered."

Not a complaint from the droopy eared beastskin. He follows me until I pull him down on the loveseat beside me. Hal sighs as I draw his head into my lap, white lashes fluttering shut.

I place my hand in his hair, fingers tangling in silky strands. An ear twitches and I try not to giggle at the reaction. The urge to touch the triangles of fuzz is overwhelming but I try to contain myself. I'm not sure how Hal would react. My ears are really sensitive so I have no doubt his are too.

My cheeks flush at the thought. I definitely don't want to give him the wrong idea… (Quit it, Amelia. Don't even think such indecent thoughts!) It's too late though… Silvio's words have come back to me now. All it takes for Hal to be my true partner is for us to—RUSTLE.

Hal jerks up and for a second I swear he's telepathic.

"Eek! Wh—what's wrong, Hal?" my heart is hammering at a very alarming rate.

"What if someone comes in here? I can't be seen with my head in the Queen's lap," his face is flushed at the mere mention. "I should—"

Fear grasps at my chest and squeezes hard. "Stay. Please?" (What are you saying? Do you fully know the meaning of what you're saying? Hello? Have your brain circuits fried? Yes.)

Hal's eyes turn into saucers at my bold request. I catch his gaze flickering to the sky from the far side window, taking in the sunset. When his eyes come back to rest on me the shock is gone, replaced with a look I've never seen before. The kind of expression that me fully aware that he's a man. Hal blinks and the smoldering glint has disappeared with it, leaving me wondering if I'd imagined the whole thing.

Nevertheless, I'm nervous now for reasons I do not understand.

I shake my thoughts off the strange expression of Hal's and clear my throat. "I don't really want to be alone tonight." I look down, "Besides you shouldn't be alone after using all of your power source." My face burns and I want to hide.

"If someone comes in here—"

"They won't."

Hal looks conflicted at first, "If that's what you wish. I couldn't deny my Queen."

And so. This is how we spent our first night together. Now don't get any indecent thoughts in that perverted head of yours.

Nothing will happen besides sleep…