26.14

Andireon still lay next to Zyrdicia when she awoke. She was unwilling for her dream to end. She liked the dreamworld she had been in, and she wasn't ready to leave it.

She dug her fingers into the cold, hard arm draped over her, checking to see whether it was real. She smiled, relieved. "You're still here."

"Where else would I be?"

"Do you have a home?"

"My home was Tenaebra."

"Now you just wander like a nomad?"

"Nomads move in search of food. I have no such needs. I move for other reasons."

"Like spying on me."

"I merely observe. Spies serve other masters."

"So you have no place to disappear to? No mysterious demonic affairs to attend to?"

"None."

She asked cautiously, "If I were to ask you to never leave my side, would you leave?"

His lips moved close to her ear and he breathed in his magical, erotic whisper, "Never."

Her heart nearly exploded in joy at his answer. Andireon was different from Azriok.