Chapter 14: One Must Close the Door

They returned to Zara’s flat in silence.

Rain had started over Hackney.

Water ran down the windows, turning the streetlights outside into blurred gold. Cars moved slowly through the wet road below, their tyres hissing against the pavement.

Zara placed her suitcase on the bed.

She packed quickly.

Adisa moved more slowly.

Neither spoke about the kiss.

But it remained in the room with them.

So did their scents.

Portrait of a Lady had settled into amber and incense on Zara’s skin. Gris Charnel stayed close to Adisa—fig, black tea and sandalwood, warmer each time he passed behind her.

Zara folded a dress and placed it inside the suitcase.

Adisa reached for her wrist.

She stopped.

The black mark had spread toward her elbow.

Its three lines were darker now.

Colder.

Adisa’s thumb rested just below it.

“I may not be able to protect you in Lagos,” he said.

Zara pulled her hand away.

“I did not ask you to protect me.”

“I know.”

“I asked you not to hide things from me.”

Adisa looked toward the rain-covered window.

He did not answer.

Zara returned to packing, but her hands had lost their rhythm.

Adisa removed his wet shirt.

She saw the scars across his back.

Some were thin.

Others were deep... and uneven.

Zara stopped moving.

“What happened?”

Adisa remained facing the window.

“I tried to find the gate when I was twenty-one.”

“And...?”

“Taiwo found me first.”

The room became quieter.

Even the traffic outside seemed to fade.

Zara moved closer.

The Gris Charnel on his skin was softer now. Less like the confident fragrance that entered a room before him. More private. Warm fig, tea and the faint smoke of the battle they had just survived.

She touched the oldest scar.

Adisa’s body tightened beneath her fingers.

“This was him?”

“Yes.”

“What did he want?”

“To know what I had discovered.”

“And you refused to tell him?”

Adisa turned.

“I thought I could survive him.”

Zara looked at the scars again.

“You almost did not.”

“No.”

For a moment, neither moved.

Portrait of a Lady rose slightly from Zara’s skin.

Not the full rose.

Only a dark trace of it beneath the incense.

Adisa noticed.

His eyes moved from her wrist to her face.

Then he kissed her.

This time, there was no interruption.

The fear between them became heat.

Zara pulled him closer.

His hands moved around her waist, then up her back. Her fingers pressed against the scars Taiwo had left behind, holding the parts of him that had survived.

Gris Charnel mixed with Portrait of a Lady.

Fig and rose.

Black tea and incense.

Warm wood and amber.

The scents changed against each other.

The room seemed smaller.

The rain struck the windows harder.

Adisa kissed the place beneath Zara’s ear where she had applied Portrait of a Lady that morning.

She held his face and made him look at her.

“Do not disappear inside your secrets again.”

His breathing was uneven.

“I am trying.”

“That is not a promise.”

“No.”

“Then make one.”

Adisa rested his forehead against hers.

“I will tell you everything.”

Zara searched his face.

“Everything?”

He hesitated.

Only for a second.

But she felt it.

Before she could pull away, he kissed her again.

Harder.

The question remained between them, but so did the need to be alive for one more night before Lagos.

Later, Zara slept against his chest.

Rain continued outside.

Her bottle of Portrait of a Lady stood beside Adisa’s Gris Charnel on the small table near the bed.

Two dark bottles.

Close, but not touching.

Adisa remained awake.

Inside his travel bag was the page he had never shown her.

The oldest line of the Ori prophecy.

When the gate opens, one counterpart must cross beyond it. The other must close the door.

He looked at Zara.

Her hand rested over his heart.

A faint trace of Portrait of a Lady remained on her wrist. Rose beneath amber. Power beneath sleep.

Gris Charnel remained on his chest beneath her palm.

He had promised to tell her everything.

He folded the page.

Then he returned it to the bag.

Zara moved in her sleep.

Her fingers tightened slightly over his heart.

Adisa closed his eyes.