Page 52 of Heir to a Curse

He flushed and looked away.

I slugged through half that little pot of tea, letting the heat and herbs soak through me. “Okay, so this is real,” I said finally, as though asserting the truth would suddenly wake me up from a dream. “A bath you say?” I could use a bathroom. “Is there a bathroom? Toilet area perhaps? A bath would be nice too.”

He nodded and got up, waiting for me to rise. I felt old as I stood, like I’d run hard the night before. And we had, hadn’t we? Run from something? I glanced at the closed door, which I knew to be covered in talisman, but followed Xiang to the opposite door.

Instead of leading out to more paths and tiny buildings it opened to a huge garden surrounded by a giant wall, one so large that there was a waterfall in the distance. I could hear it and see the rushing of the water. A stream flowed through the center of the garden, surrounded with potted plants instead of wild ones, rocks lining the edge as though we sat on the side of a mountain.

Xiang made his way out and down the edge of the stream to a wide area of water that seemed mostly still as it was opposite the waterfall. He pointed to the water. “Cold,” he warned, but dropped his robe and stepped into the water. In only a few feet he stood chest high in the stream. I stood there a few minutes, watching him, marveling that he was there, and in the same moment terrified of what that meant.

He pointed toward the area of trees. “Relieve?”

Right. I had to pee. I stalked toward the area, glad for some seclusion and expecting something, I don’t know what. An area well used for defecation perhaps? An outhouse? Perhaps a plank on the ground with a primitive hole? Only there was nothing. No smell or sign of any spot used for that purpose. Maybe because Xiang was the only one here?

I found a spot away from everything, behind a tree, and tried to pretend I was camping. Peeing in the woods was no big deal. Done it a hundred times. It would have been less alarming if the bugs weren’t as large as my head, and the trees didn’t seem to be moss covered trolls of some sort. Or maybe that was just my overactive imagination. I returned to the pool, finding Xiang finger combing his hair in the water.

The small section looked clear, and if scary wildlife lurked below, I didn’t see anything move. I dipped my toe in first. The icy chill of it made me jump back. “Holy crap!” That was more than cold. “Um?”

Xiang gazed up at me expectantly. Maybe it was one of those weird water things, where you acclimated to it and it didn’t feel so cold?

I let out a huff of air. What a way to wake up in the morning. At least the area was warm, the sun shining down on us. I thought maybe the rocky ledge overlooking the pool might be a good place to sunbathe, if one were stuck in another dimension with a mystical stranger one was highly attracted to. So I shoved off my shorts, leaving them on the side of the small stream, and practically leapt into the water.

Cold was an extreme understatement. The chill hit me like a fist in the gut. The water went over my head, and I thought for a few seconds I’d keep sinking, freezing and sinking, but Xiang touched my arm, and I found my feet. Bursting free from the water, I gasped and sputtered. “Cold!”

Xiang’s hands on my arms felt like a furnace. He nodded. “Cold.” Like duh, he’d warned me.

I shivered, thinking for a few seconds I’d develop hypothermia or something, and reached for the only heat source nearby. Xiang let me wrap my arms around him, his body like fire against me. Okay, fuck, that was almost worth the cold. “We should get out,” I said with chattering teeth. “Before we freeze to death.” But that fast I was acclimating to the water. Still a little on the chilly side, it was manageable, even better in the warm ray of the sun. And pressed against Xiang, that was good too.

He stared up at me, watching my reaction, so I started to wash off, surprised that the last of the headache vanished. I let my mind wander, trying to not focus on the beautiful man naked in the water with me. I wasn’t the type of guy to be attracted to just anyone. I had to know them first. And that was the eerie part. Ididknow him. The way he moved, the feeling of his heartbeat as he was pressed close to me, even the way his expressions sometimes opened to real emotion and then locked down to a mask again. I had a dozen lifetimes of memories studying his face and nuances of body language.

“I feel like I’ve known you forever,” I admitted quietly, feeling a little crazy. I’d never been a big believer in any religion, and certainly never thought about reincarnation. Was I this old lover of his reborn? And if so, how did that make me feel?

“We have known each other for a very long time,” he said.

“Yeah? All the old mes were so great right?”

He shrugged, his expression shutting down. “I would know you anywhere.”

“And am I always an asshole?” I wanted to know if there was a way to change that. Abandoning him over and over, it seemed unfair in a lot of ways.

He seemed to think about that for a while. “You always leave,” was all he offered.

“Do I usually remember the past?”

“Sometimes.” He tugged me toward the edge of the water.

I pointed to the sunny ledge above. “Can we sit up there? Is it safe? It looks warm.”

He glanced up and nodded. “Yes. Let me get blanket.” He left me at the edge of the pool to dash inside. I wondered if I should pull the boxers back on, but they were dirty. I took them to the water and scrubbed at them until I felt they were clean, then laid them on a rock to dry.

Xiang returned in another thin robe, and held one out for me. He carefully climbed around the edge of the pool to reach the rock ledge and laid out a layer of silk. I slipped into the robe he gave me, surprised not that it was also silk, but by how well it fit. How many other versions of me had worn this? I tried to bury the thought as I carefully made my way across the rocks over the water and to the ledge, joining him.

I sat down beside him, pleased that the warmth of the sun was real on my back. I put my hand on my chest. “My name is Zach now. I don’t know what it was before, and that’s okay. I just want you to know.”

He nodded, “Zach.”

“Must suck for you to always know me. Be stuck with me. When I’m such a jerk.”

He tilted his head like he was working to understand all my words.