Yay, Xio Voe came home! And I love that he's going to go for a ride with his siblings.
I just adored Xio Voe's excitement and impatience here:
“I thought that, instead of spending this time in travel, you might prefer to spend it in Seijaces.”
Yes, “I would.” Did Anosukinom intend to offer him a faster way home?
“I thought that your father might not mind if I helped you get home today,” Anosukinom said. “And the rest of your party, as well.”
“Today.” To be in Seijaces, today. “Yes.” Swiftly abandoning the bed, Xio Voe rang for the servants. “Thank you, Anosukinom. I accept your generous offer.”
“I just miss you so much,” Anosukinom said. “You feel so far away from me. I promise that I’m not stealing you away from anything that you-”
“Stop justifying your choices,” Xio Voe said. “Take me home.”
As before, the scenes with Desin, Zhemt, and Rini didn't do anything for me. I'm just kind of meh on the whole thing.
I'm so glad Orinakin gave his brothers what for for not doing their part and then handing out assignments. And of course, because they're the Seven Siblings and this is how they roll, they end up talking about sex:
Anikira chuckled. “I think that Xio Voe’s voice is very sexy.”
“It’s so deep, it sounds like he’s speaking from beyond the dead,” Bade said. “It reminds me of crypts and mausoleums.” Anosanim shuddered. “But it is very…”
“Sexy,” Selorin agreed.
“Powerful,” Remin said. “Commanding.” Bade nodded, agreeing.
Anosanim’s expression grew distant, dreamy.
Selorin’s gaze became speculative.
Glancing around the table with a smile, Orinakin said, “I’ll continue, if you’ve all finished your sex fantasies.”
“No,” Remin said, holding up a hand, “give us another minute.”
And then I melted...
“I missed you so much,” Kudorin whispered, gazing into Xio Voe’s face, traces of white and gold shimmering faintly on Xio Voe’s cheeks, fading, reappearing.
“I love you,” Xio Voe whispered, the backs of his fingers skimming down Kudorin’s cheekbone. “I know that you want to hear me say it, and if it’s important to you, I’ll confess it every day. I love you, jarouje. I missed you greatly.”
“Your love, it’s so new, so vibrant,” Kudorin whispered. “Shiefa, you’re eternally precious to me. My greatest treasure is your love. I hated to be away from you. But such beautiful memories of you standing at the edge of the Ruissoie Canyon, strikingly handsome, the sunset making the yellow in your eyes shimmer like gold. You were watching the sunset, thinking of me, and I was setting the sun, thinking of you, and you were so handsome, and you were so devoted to me, so fierce in your passion for me but so calm in your acceptance of it. The depth, the strength of your love for me is shocking, but you’re so used to being bigger and better and larger that you absorb it into yourself as if there’s nothing unusual about it.”
Xio Voe gazed into Kudorin’s eyes, the sparks of blue in his eyes bright as crystal. “You deserve the greatest love there is. I will give you as much of myself as I can.”
“You,” Kudorin asked, fine silver and gold lines winding their way down Xio Voe’s neck before fading out of existence, “what do you deserve?”
“I have you,” Xio Voe replied coolly. “I have the Eternal Empire. What more could I want?”
And OMG, they're getting adorable!
Laughing, Kudorin rolled over, onto his back, away from Xio Voe but still close enough that their arms, their legs, almost touched. “I cherish everything about you. I adore every second of you. I wish that everyone could feel like this. So full of love, so full of happiness, so full of someone else’s wonderfulness. Your smiles and your voice and your beauty and your ambition and your genius and your determination and everything else about you, your long legs and your loyalty and your unending list of skills, I’m full of you, as full of you as I’d be full of chocolate cake if I ate ten pounds of it and then rolled in twenty more.”
“If I ate ten pounds of chocolate cake, I’d vomit.”
“If you rolled in twenty pounds of it, I’d eat it off of you.”
“Is that a proposition?” Xio Voe asked. “Shall I keep that in mind?”
“You’re forgetting the difference between you and cake,” Kudorin said. “There are limits to how much food the human body will consume. But when it comes to you, there are no limits. I can never have enough of you. I’ll always love every second of what I have, and I’ll always want more.”
“Then it is good that I’m the one you’re marrying.”
Kudorin smiled at him, pleased. “I think so, too.”
This reminds me of when Kudorin and Anikira banter and that's awesome. Kudorin is all about that and I'm glad Xio Voe can fulfill that need. It also bodes well for Xio Voe's relationship with his future brothers in law. He bantered with Rini last chapter and it was almost brotherly. I hope he does it with his own siblings, too.
