Page 19 of Joy Guardian
“Hey, Keepers, my glass is empty!” the woman shouted, waving a silver goblet in the air.
She tripped, and Councilor Jerti grabbed her around her middle, stopping her from falling. She laughed again, bending over in his arms. Her limbs tangled in his tendrils that were attached to her. He laughed too, in an unstoppable, hearty laughter that I’d never heard from a shadow fae before.
A human man stumbled down the path toward us.
“I’m not feeling so good…” he mumbled drunkenly, then bent over the mosaic edge and retched into the fountain.
Sefri rushed to him, along with two other Keepers.
“Is something wrong with him?” I asked one of the Joy Vessel Keepers who was passing by.
He waved me off. “Humans tend to do that sometimes when they have more wine than they can stomach.”
“Why do it to them then?”
“They do it to themselves. Humans love wine.” He shrugged.
Ciana got up, wrinkling her nose at the sight of the man’s half-digested dinner floating in the peaceful waters of the fountain.
“Let’s find another place.” I cupped her elbow, leading her away.
“Actually, I should probably go to bed,” she said as we walked away from the soiled fountain and the commotion around it. “It’s late, I mean…earlyalready. The sun will be up soon.” She turned to me. “I don’t know, Kurai, I really don’t know how to answer your question. I’ve been spending all my time making sense of my past. I’ve had no energy to worry about the future yet. But even if it were possible to go back, there are so many things to consider… The uncertainty of the time jump is a serious matter. Our world evolves so fast, a hundred years would mean a huge difference in people’s way of life. But,” she smiled, “if it’s not something that will happen anyway, why even think about it, right?”
“Right,” I echoed.
I couldn’t possibly tell her about the Watchers or their plan. It would jeopardize the lives of many people, including hers.
“Well, I’ll see you tomorrow?” she asked hopefully.
“Of course. I’ll come over again.” I didn’t even try to fight it.
I knew it’d be impossible for me to skip our regular meetings even if I tried. Because I had tried, often, and I had always failed, coming to her again and again.
“Have a good day, Ciana. Sleep well.” I bowed to her in parting.
“Thank you,” she said, then rose on her tiptoes and unexpectedly placed a kiss on my cheek.
The touch of her warm lips imprinted on my skin along witha soft puff of her breath. Light as a brush of a butterfly wing, the kiss jolted through my system with the power of a lightning strike.
Ciana kissed me.
She should not have done that. The kiss was a sign of close intimacy that was inappropriate between a Joy Guardian and a Joy Vessel, and it was illegal. Yet it took everything I had for me not to fall to my knees at her feet and beg her to do it again.
I didn’t know what exactly she thanked me for, but her gratitude warmed my heart, making me wish I was worthy of it.
Her cheeks glowed subtly, and I would bet anything that they’d be warm if I touched them. If I took her face in my hands, if I brought her lips to mine, if…
“I’ll see you tomorrow.” With the tiniest of smiles, she turned around and left, stirring a storm of feelings into a hurricane in my chest.
As I stood there, watching Ciana run through the door into the building with her bedroom, someone bumped into me from the side.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Joy Guardian.” Sefri tossed her thick, long braid over her shoulder, then wiped her brow with her forearm. A basket with soiled rags hung over her elbow. “Our Joy Vessels need a lot of care.”
That was the closest I’d ever heard her to voicing any kind of a complaint.
“The intoxicated ones need even more so, I assume,” I commented. “And your work will double with the new humans arriving soon.”
She raised her eyebrows, staring at me in confusion. “What do you mean?”
