Grant Me Your Grace

Dahlia asked, stepping only where there was broken grass.

“Do you go outside the temple often?”

“No, I don’t. Today is my first time.”

“First time?”

Dahlia stopped walking and looked at Hissin, surprised. She thought that since he was so good at jumping over walls, he must go out more often than she did. 

Somehow, the smile on his face felt like a lie.

His eyes narrowed a little longer as he watched Dahlia blink at him.

“Why, you don’t think so?”

Instead of answering, Dahlia rolled her eyes.

“You had such nice words for me, and then…”

She muttered quietly, almost inaudibly, and Hissin smirked, guiding her forward once more.

“The lines are always thicker and deeper as time passes. I’ve only just woken up here, so I haven’t had a chance to feel it yet.”

“So, what do you do at night when I’m not around?”

“I think about many things, the will of God, my calling here, and…”

Hissin stared at Dahlia, his red eyes glowing serenely. 

If gazes had color and temperature, Dahlia thought, they would be as red and warm as Hidsin’s eyes. 

A little languid, so much deep.

“He who seeks me, where is he passing by now?”

Hissin’s thumb gently caressed the back of her hand. 

Dahlia swallowed hard, feeling a tickle at the base of her throat.

But just as it looked like she was about to let the heat get to her, Hissin smiled again and walked away.

“Sometimes, when time seems too slow, I read a book. The temple library has a lot of interesting books.”

“Ah, that’s right, I thought that since it’s a temple, there would only be books on theology, but judging by the things that Priest Hovan brings in, there are quite a few different kinds of books. There are books on various aspects of technology and math, and many books on the study of languages.”

“Do you read foreign books?”

“Sometimes. The original books are still difficult for me, so I mostly read the revised versions. I like to look at maps, so I often look at geography books.”

“…So, do you even know the country of Moron?”

Moron. Dahlia shook her head slightly at the unfamiliar name of a country she had never heard of.

“Uh, no. I’ve never heard of it. Do you have any books about it?”

When I asked if it was famous for its scenic landscapes or unique culture, something I could look up later, Hissin’s lips curled into a thin line.

“I heard about it from a believer.”

His red eyes took on a strange color.

“It’s a dirty, ugly, and very sad country, abandoned by the goddess and driven deep into the depths of the ground…”

He’s smiling, and the sight of it makes my stomach clench in a sickening way. 

Like a glimpse of something I shouldn’t have seen.

“I asked because you seem to know so much, and if you don’t, I guess it’s not much of a country.”

But the strange glow quickly faded, and Hissin laughed lightly, soundlessly, and resumed walking. 

Something inexplicable lingered in Dahlia’s heart, and she couldn’t help but put a little more pressure on her clasped hands.

After this brief and mysterious excursion, Dahlia was back within the walls of the temple, looking more energized than ever.

Eager to savor the afterglow, she took his hand and strolled lightly through the temple courtyard.

Eventually, their feet reached the moonshine by the temple. Dahlia’s eyes fluttered once more at the familiar flower by the window.

“I’ve always thought of you when I see this pot.”

Hissin, still staring at Dahlia, reached out to her. 

I shuddered when Miftah extended his arms to me, but Hissin was different.

Instead, my body relaxed without resistance as he approached and reached out.

Fingers gently slipped past my earlobes and pulled my face covering off. The black veil slipped from beneath, a tiny gasp of breath.

His lips curled at the sight of her face, now plain as day.

“I wonder when Your Highness will find me again.”

A hand wrapped in black silk pressed firmly to Dahlia’s lips.

“I wonder if Your Highness thinks of me now.”

The lips, now a vivid pink instead of the speckled color they’d been before, parted in the shape of his press.

The breath that escaped between them dampened Hissin’s straight fingers.

“I’ve been thinking about you all day.”

His words were so meaningful that Dahlia couldn’t help but shrink back, his face like a lover confessing his heart to his beloved.

That she was very important to him.

“I…”

Dahlia’s lips curled, but she couldn’t finish. She let go of Hissin’s hand, as if she’d heard something she shouldn’t have.

For the price of blood, for the pain that accompanied it, she needed him. 

But he had no reason to need her. He was better off without her.

No good could come from a man revered as a gift from the gods getting too close to a ruined princess with many secrets.

“I… I’m leaving Baran soon.”

Dahlia murmured painedly, as if in confession.

“I’m getting married, and as soon as the ceremony is over, I’ll be leaving for the Kingdom of Hayad.”

A cool breeze carried Dahlia’s voice. 

But it must have reached Hissin’s ears, for his face grew darker than before.

“Somehow, I thought I should tell you in person…”

The look on his face made Dahlia feel like she was cheating.

No, actually, cheating would be more accurate. She’d just kissed a man who wasn’t even her lover, let alone her husband.

In a country that prized chastity, this was reprehensible, even if it was for something other than physical pleasure.

No one would be able to fathom or understand her position.

“Does Your Highness wish for this marriage?”

His voice sank low. Gone was the gentle look in his eyes, and now he wore a face so unreadable that she had no idea what he was thinking.

Without the breezy, lightheartedness of a moment ago, Dahlia’s heart was filled with bitterness and resentment.

“It doesn’t matter if I want it or not.”

“So, do you want it?”

“I don’t have a choice.”

“Sounds like you don’t want it.”

His definition was arbitrary. Dahlia, who had been hiding her heart in a thin shell and turning away, looked at him resentfully.

Memories of the dungeon came flooding back, including the savage way Miftah had grabbed her body.

Closing her eyes tightly, Dahlia turned away from Hissin.

“I trust that when I leave, you will keep quiet about what happened between us. Forget it all, it will be better for you…”

Dahlia’s words were unfinished.

Before I knew it, Hissin’s tongue was in my mouth without my permission.

“Ugh…!”

Dahlia had no choice but to allow the tongue to enter her mouth without warning. 

His large hands curled into the back of her hair, knocking the wind out of her and forcing her to steady her breathing.

Hissin fingers flicked through her hair, and she quickly became breathless. His tongue, deep in the front of her throat, skimmed the ceiling like a scraper. 

Dahlia shuddered, feeling a tickle and strange goosebumps at the same time.

His body leaned in as if he were about to burrow in. 

The force of the massive body’s thrusts forced Dahlia to take a step backward against her will, until their bodies were blocked by something.

It was the statue of the goddess.

Dahlia stiffened at the feel of the hard bronze against her back.

How dare she kiss a man in a sacred temple, beneath a statue of a goddess made in the image of a Nuit embodiment, without blood or anything else in return. 

There was nothing to be said if the Nuit goddess summoned a sandstorm to sweep this place away.

Whether they were leaning against her statue or not was irrelevant to Hissin, who closed his eyes tightly and coveted Dahlia’s lips.

“Hissin, please. Not here…!”

Dahlia tried to push Hissin away with the last of her reason, but it was not enough to overcome the weight pressing down on her.

Instead, Hissin pulled her around the waist, stronger than before, and pressed their bodies together. 

Dahlia sucked in her breath as something bulging pressed hard against her navel.

Deeper inside her, Hissin’s tongue curled around hers. 

Entwining their tongues so tightly that there was no escape, he sucked her tongue like a child suckles at its mother’s breast. 

It pulled tautly on the root of her tongue.

“Ugh…”

A sharp pain rang in her throat, and Hissin hugged her waist harder, thrusting inside her.

She didn’t know if it was intentional, or if it felt that way because she was turning her head away, but she could feel him moving his hips. 

As if he wanted to burrow inside her right now.

The heavy feel of his member, so different from Miftah’s, began to arouse Dahlia.