Chapter 135: A Mortal Deserving Of Jealousy

Everywhere in front of the house looked like there had been a horrifying battle. The ground was split and cratered all the way to the porch steps, and a path of broken trees ran off from the yard, where something had torn a swath straight through the forest and left the trunks snapped at waist height.

The moment he arrived, Uthed came out to meet him, one hand in a splint and a bandage wound round his torso.

Theo’s stomach dropped. One look at the old man was enough, and he bolted, going straight past Uthed without a word and through the door.

Estea was sitting by the fireplace with one hand held out to the flames and her new favorite blanket over her legs.

As Theo hurried in, breathing hard, she turned to him, and frowned:

"What is the despair for? Calm down."

Theo didn’t hear a word of it. He ran to her and hugged her, pulled back to check her over, arms, face, the blanket, then hugged her again.

"Goodness! Thank goodness you’re fine! What happened, where’s Sesan? Is she inside, is she fine? What about Thall?"

Before he could say any more, Estea brought a cold knock down on the middle of his head, and he froze.

He held his head in both hands and finally looked at her.

"Wh... what was that for?"

She brought down another one, harder.

"Both are for touching me without permission, you vile thing. Since when are we on such a wavelength?"

Theo was still holding his head and looking at her. Quite frankly, she was saying a number of things, but Theo seemed distracted by something else entirely.

At the same time, someone else came out from the back of the house, her bare feet quiet on the boards, in a pair of small shorts that showed off her porcelain thighs and one of Theo’s hoodies, the one with the burnt sleeve ends.

Theo saw the hoodie first.

’Why haven’t I thrown that out yet?’

Then he saw it again, on Sesan, with the sleeves hanging past her fingers.

’Why would I ever throw that out? I’m never throwing that out, it’s definitely staying with me forever!’

Theo smiled and stood up, leaving Estea to go and meet Sesan. Without a word, she walked into his arms and hugged him tightly.

Theo stood frozen for several seconds while the gorgeous frost beauty, the Queen of Nelfihmr, held on to him like a woman who had missed her husband.

He was scared to touch her back.

’She could flare up the moment I touch her...’

Still, he moved his hand to her back and rested it there, between her shoulder blades, and rubbed slow, gentle circles through the hoodie.

’Ah... this feels so nice.’

Warmth spread through his chest, and it made him want to leave for the Tower again... just to be missed.

Theo had never thought being married could be this sweet. It was nice, pleasant, and it warmed him right through. Even the hard parts of it, Estea’s temper and Thalleria lying still on a machine downstairs, weren’t going to last forever.

Estea, maybe one day.

But he would wake Thall, and receive her love too, and he would receive lots of love from his women while he got stronger.

The thought made his heart pump even faster than it usually would. He tried to kill it at once, because this was not what he had agreed with his wives. The purpose of this marriage was to help them, not to fall in love with them.

’I don’t think I can help it.’

He finally pulled himself away from Sesan and turned to Estea.

"Please, can you let me know what happened here?"

Estea’s chin came up:

"Oh. So now you are suddenly in the mood to talk? After turning your back on me to hug another?"

Theo gave her a confused look.

"Another? It’s Sesan."

Then he squinted.

"Estea... are you jealous?"

She threw her head back and let out a single loud laugh.

"Bah! Who? Me? Jealous? You think a mortal like you can make me jealous? You esteem yourself way too highly."

Theo gave her a sideways look and tried not to smile, but the harder he tried to hide it, the harder it got, and the redder Estea’s face went.

’She’s so cute and she doesn’t even realize it.’

"I’d like to know what exactly happened, but first, permit me to go and see my favorite wife."

Her fingers tightened on the arm of the wheelchair:

"You say things without ever thinking about their consequences, right?"

"I didn’t exactly think there’d be consequences for stating the obvious, especially since you don’t seem to care about that fact."

Theo was already walking away. He paused and turned back.

"Oh, wait. There’s no way you actually do, right? You wouldn’t care about the feelings of this vile thing, a mere mortal."

She glared at him from her wheelchair. If her eyes could have bored a hole through the wall behind him, they would have, right there and then.

Theo greeted Odette on his way past and hurried down to check on Thall.

In the sublevel he pulled the chair up beside her bed and stayed a while, telling her everything that had happened to him since he left, and about the expedition coming up.

Thall was asleep, so deeply asleep that she looked neither dead nor alive, while the slow green rhythm climbed and fell on the monitor beside her. Even so, Theo was always excited to talk to her, and when he did, he felt like she was listening.

She never gave an answer, but he always felt like they got a little closer with each conversation. Other times he thought himself silly, and wondered if this was just his way of coping. He did it anyway.

When he was done, he came back up to the parlor and finally sat down. Asterion came in quietly and greeted Theo with a respectful bow.

"Welcome back."

Theo looked up at him.

"It’s good to see you again, Asterion."

Then he looked around the room, at Uthed, Asterion, Odette, and Estea by the fireplace. Sesan was sitting next to him, swinging her legs playfully.

"Please, can someone tell me what happened?"

Uthed let out a slow breath, and spoke:

"There was a Gate... A category V Gate."