Asher Converse's Arc

Chapter 30 of 30

With the spy sent away, the crew scattered to sleep. The trap was set for the new moon. Two nights of waiting stretched ahead. Asher climbed to his room above Elixir and found the door open. Tucker leaned against the wall inside. Tucker had run Elixir's bar since the start. He'd flirted with Asher for weeks and taken every soft refusal without complaint. Now he'd shed his vest. His chest was bare, gold chains resting on skin. He flexed one arm slow, watching Asher watch him. "Long night," Tucker said. "We earned it." "You should sleep," Asher said. But he didn't move to send him out. Tucker crossed the floor. "You keep telling me no." He took Asher's hand and pressed it to his chest. "Tell me no now." Asher felt the warmth under his palm, the slow beat there. His fingers slid up to the curve of Tucker's arm. He thought of the chain at his own throat, the woman below, the promise. He thought of two nights before a fight he might not survive. He kissed Tucker. It wasn't soft. Tucker pulled him close, hands in his hair. Asher felt the muscle under his hands, the bicep, the chest hair rough against his fingers. Tucker's mustache brushed his lip. Asher stopped thinking about the woman. He stopped thinking about the moon. For one night he let it all go. Morning came gray through the shutters. Asher woke first. Tucker slept beside him, one arm thrown across the bed. The gold chain still hung at Asher's throat. He touched it and felt the old weight return. Tucker opened one eye. He looked at Asher, then at the chain, and didn't reach for it this time. "You're already regretting it," Tucker said. His voice was flat, not hurt. "I can see it." "No," Asher said. And it was true. "But nothing changed. She's still down there. I still go to her." Tucker sat up. He rubbed his face. "I know that." He pulled on his jeans, then reached for his vest on the floor. "I've known it since the start." He fastened one gold chain, then the other. "I took the night. That's all I wanted." Asher watched him dress. Something loosened between them. The wanting had a shape now. It had happened, and it was done, and Tucker wasn't going to make it a wound. "Two nights," Tucker said at the door. "Then he comes." He buckled his belt. "You keep your head clear for that. Don't let last night crowd it out." "I won't," Asher said. Tucker paused. "When it's over. When your bar's the place every wandering man knows." He almost smiled. "You still walk down to find her." "I still walk down." "Good." Tucker opened the door. "Then it means something." He went down to open Elixir. Asher sat alone with the chain in his hand. The night was spent. The enemy still came. But the thing between him and Tucker was settled now, and his crew would need him whole.