Restart Again: Volume 2 by Adam Scott (hardest books to read txt) 📕

the bed when I entered the room, with Val gently prodding her from the bedside.

“We have just returned from the restroom, and I am now attempting to help her prepare for bed,” Val explained.

“Thank you, Val,” I said apologetically. “I think I can handle her from here.”

“Who?” Lia asked loudly, her head hanging upside down on the far side of the bed.

“I will leave you for the night, then. Have a pleasant evening, both of you,” Val said with a hint of amusement in her voice before leaving the room.

I watched her go, then turned back to Lia when the door was shut. “What am I going to do with you?”

“Who?” She repeated as she wiggled around aimlessly on the bed.

“You.” I set the empty mug on the table and filled it with water. “Here, I want you to drink this. We can’t have you too sick to work tomorrow, right?” I sat down on the edge of the bed next to her.

She swung her arms forward and launched to an upright sitting position beside me, coming dangerously close to flying straight ahead onto the floor. After examining the contents of the mug thoroughly, she nodded and took it in both hands. “I’ve never had a hangover before,” she mused when she had finished the water.

“Well, you’re going to,” I laughed, patting her on the knee. “It won’t be fun, but there are some meditation tricks you can use to get through the worst of it. I’ll help you with it when the time comes.”

“Thanks, Lux,” she said with a wide smile. I took the mug to set it safely on the floor, and not a moment too soon; she threw her arms around my torso in a violent hug. “I love you,” I heard her say into my armpit.

“I love you, too,” I smiled, rubbing her back. “Now, why don’t we get you changed so you can go to bed?”

She leaned back and ran a finger clumsily across my chest. “Are you saying you want to...take my clothes off?” she asked with a breathy voice.

I rolled my eyes and stood up. “Yes, because I’m almost confident you won’t be able to do it yourself, and you won’t sleep comfortably in your armor.”

“That’s not what I meant,” she whispered loudly, fluttering her eyelashes at me.

“I know,” I said with a chuckle. Digging through our belongings, I found the nightgown she had packed and returned to the bed. “But you need sleep. A lot of sleep.”

Lia huffed loudly and pouted as she began to fumble with the straps of her gear. “You’re no fun.”

“I know,” I repeated, softer. It was a much more involved process than usual to remove her armor, but in the end she was successfully dressed in her nightgown and stretched out in the correct direction across the bed. I poured another mug of water for her before I sat down and removed my own gear. “How are you feeling?”

She downed the water, then rubbed her eyes and yawned. “Sleepy, and...spinny,” she answered, burrowing her way underneath the blankets, her desires from the previous moment apparently abandoned. “I’m not spinning, am I?”

“No, you’re not spinning,” I reassured her as I climbed into the bed beside her.

“That’s good,” she murmured into her pillow. I expected her to follow up on the thought, but when I leaned over to check on her, I saw that she had already fallen asleep.

Despite the exciting dinner events it was still early on in the evening, and I knew I had no chance of falling asleep for at least another few hours, so I leaned back against the headboard and began my evening meditation. The anxieties I had pushed away during our evening meal came rushing back, and our encounter with Palo only served to make them worse. My mind was quickly inundated with a never-ending stream of worst case scenarios detailing what we would find when we reached the city the following afternoon.

A soft knock at the door pulled me back to my senses. I was unsure of how much time had passed over the course of my meditation, but the room was still dark, and Lia was still asleep beside me. Carefully, I extricated myself from the bed and padded to the door. Cracking it open just enough to peer through, I found Val on the other side. “Uhm, hey, Val. Do you need something?”

“No...well, yes,” she whispered, her face uncharacteristically uncertain. “Can we talk?”

***

11. SECRETS

I stared out across the moonlit countryside as the uncomfortable silence between Val and me lengthened. We stood at the edge of the roof where a small open-air patio had been set up. Val had led me to the spot without a word after her sudden appearance at my door, and her continued lack of explanation as to what our meeting was about set me on edge. That, and her attire.

Since meeting her, I had only ever seen Val dressed in full armor. It didn’t matter if we were in the wagon, having dinner around a campfire, or sleeping; she had never taken it off, and I never saw a single piece of normal clothing among her belongings. In combination with her brusque mannerisms, it had cemented an image of her as cold, emotionless steel in my mind. Seeing her dressed in normal clothes, a black silk pullover shirt with matching pants, was a strange experience that forced me to reevaluate that image.

As I stood next to her in the crisp night air, I was astounded at how much power she exuded, even without her armor. It was clear that her clothing was tailor made for her; it fit her perfectly and accentuated her muscular figure. Her short sleeves only partially covered her biceps and triceps, which were so developed that they looked flexed even as she rested her forearms on the railing before us. Her perfect posture amplified the imposing breadth of her shoulders, and her neck, which was usually covered in a gorget,