This chapter is dedicated to @_Basia_! Thank you so much for the supergift!

  Unable to take it anymore, Iryz jsuddenly climbed on top of him, straddling him right over his firm abs as she pressed both her palms down on either side of his face.

  Confusion, shock, and so many other emotions exploded within her at what he had just said.

  "What… did you say?" she asked, holding his gaze so intently as she hovered over him, pinning him down with her body and her eyes. Though she was only a slip of a girl, Zeres just laid there and allowed her to continue being in the dominant position, looking up quietly at her.

  Her heart was trashing wildly in her chest. But her mind was filled with a multitude of doubts, even telling herself that she must have misheard him. There was no way he would have said that, right? He could not have indirectly called her his 'home'. Right…?!

  He stared back at her. Their gazes held each other's and before they knew it, the air between them seemed to have thicken and become quite intense. Iryz even imagined that she could hear the crackle in the air between them – that was how charged the situation between them was right now.

  "I want to stay here, Iryz. This time, I promise to stay… and I won't leave again." Though his voice was still soft and low, there was a steely quality that she detected underlying his tone. As though he was making a vow as he said those words.

  She felt like her entire being was shutting down. Apparently, all those words from Zeres were just too stimulating. They were just too much for her to take in. So much, that she was having a hard time believing it.

  So the very next thing she did was to press both her palms to both sides of his cheeks and then brought her one hand over his forehead as if to check if he was perhaps having a fever. "You… you… are you drunk or high on something? Did someone put you under some weird spell?"

  He calmly caught her wrists, pulling her hand away from his forehead as he lightly shook his head. His beautiful eyes were intense as he moved her hands back down to cup his cheeks. "I'm not drunk. Nor am I under anyone's spell, Iryz."

  "Then what… what happened? Did something happen to you, that you're suddenly saying –"

  "You don't remember anything from last night?" Zeres interrupted her and asked.

  His question had her blinking. Right. Last night?? She could not remember. She could not even remember how they had ended up snuggling up together in her single bed all night!

  "Shall I… remind you –" he helpfully offered.

  But she pressed her palms over his mouth. Her face was burning red. She did not want to remember. Gosh… she already knew it must be something totally embarrassing. She must have been the one who had pulled him onto the bed, clung to him shamelessly or probably something even worse. She just wished that she had not dared to kiss him in her drunkenness!

  "No need. No way. You're not going to remind me about whatever embarrassing thing I did last night. If you do, I'll kick you out of my house, I swear. Why don't you just tell me what exactly happened to you when you left yesterday? Did something bad happen?" she continued on blabbering. Partly it was embarrassment. But partly also due to her not wanting to hear something from his mouth that might hurt her already hurting heart. Actually, she did not know what was going on with herself as well at this moment.

  She was being overwhelmed. And she actually did not know what to do. What to feel. How to react. She did not know whether to rejoice or to cry. To believe or to doubt. Maybe she was just too afraid. Scared that this was not real or that she was mistaken once she allows herself to take his words seriously.

  When he just stared at her, Iryz continued. "Tell me… it succeeded right? I mean the spell. You managed to… help your…" she swallowed, "your lover, right?"

  "Alicia is not my lover. She never was and never will be my lover." He told her and the world seemed to screech to a halt when she heard those words. Then the memories came crashing back into her like a tsunami, causing her to just sit there on top of him, frozen and unable to move.

  He finally moved, propping himself up with his elbows. And he did not seem to mind that much that she was sitting on his stomach at all. His movement in raising his upper body to look at her, had her sliding lower down his body as he now had himself in a sitting position.

  "I really… like it here." he started, staring into her forest green eyes. "Since I… since I had woken up from the thousands of years of slumber, I had always felt as though I do not belong in this world anymore. I had lived in many different places the past years but… I have never found a place as peaceful as here – right in your house. So… would you allow me to live here, Iryz? I can sleep downstairs in the library. I don't really need a bed. I never sleep in beds anyway."

  "What?!"

  "I mean… it's hard for me to actually fall asleep in bed. Maybe because of my childhood. My mother whom I can no longer remember had never allowed me to sleep in a bed or any proper bedding, in fact. I have already forgotten the reason why… but as far as I can remember, I had always slept in a sitting position. So even if I have a luxurious bed, I will still end up preferring sitting on the floor or anywhere else. So I don't really need any bed or mattress." He had said that like it was so trivial, as though something just worth mentioning as a passing.

  "Idiot…" she muttered weakly, biting on her lower lips as it started to tremble a little.

  "I know…" he admitted, smiling wryly. "I really hope you will not kick this idiot out." He joked about himself.

  "Fine. I will let you stay… but only with one condition. If you want to live here, you're no longer allowed to move out. Meaning, you will be bound to stay here forever. If you don't think you could keep that condition, you better run away now."