Chapter 13

I woke up in Ethan's arms.

About a year ago I slapped him because he was spooning me and now look at us. I looked out the window and saw it was still night time.

I tried to move but he refused to let me go and instead pulled me closer to him.

"Is it morning yet?"

"No, go back to sleep."

"Promise you won't leave me?"

"Why would I leave you?"

"I don't know... Because maybe you regret it?"

I turned to look at him, frowning and gave him a peck on the lips.

"Never."

"I told you I would make you pay one day for throwing water on me."

I chuckled and then gave him another peck.

"Your laugh is adorable, I could listen to it all day. Is this why you were so snappy when we boarded for Venice? You were jealous of the horse girl? And now Rose?"

"Considering I haven't realized that I wanted you until tonight, I don't know. Maybe I was and I didn't know it. I thought you could never like me that way, that you were just messing around, so I guess that's why I pushed you off me in Monfard and then in Forl."

"Well do not worry, my darling. I only have eyes for you."

"So you're not leaving me?"

"No, never. I would never be able to to that."

I lay my head on his chest and he wrapped his arm around my shoulders.

We sat in silence for a few minutes before I decided to shoot my shot.

"You love me. Real or not real?"

He lay a soft kiss on my forehead.

"Real."

______________________________________

Ethan and I woke up early the next day. Oliver needed our help and we decided to offer it, if he helped us back. Ethan knocked on Oliver's door and he let us in.

"Come in, Ethan, Helen. Welcome. Can I offer you something? Biscuit? A coffee?

"What coffee?"

"An interesting concoction, brought to me by a Turk merchant. Here, have a taste."

He handed Ethan a cup. He took a sip and frowned, handing it to me.

"A little bitter if you ask me. It just seems lacking somehow....I don't know. Have you considered adding sugar, maybe? Or milk?"

"I like it this way." I said chuckling and then took another sip.

"I suppose it is something of an acquired taste."

He looked at me and smiled. .

"We should get to business."

"Why are you always such a buzz kill?"

"I wasn't one last night..." He said in a seductive voice.

My eyes widened, not believing the guts he has to tell stuff like this so openly, and Oliver snickered.

"Right, Now where were we? Our failure at the palazzo cost us dearly. It will take time to recover. No doubt Davis will use this pause to strengthen his defenses and continue his oppression of the district. You may not share our motive, but I know you share our goal."

We both nodded and then looked at each other.

"Why not gather your forces and try again?" I asked looking back at him.

"To act in haste would only bring more losses. No. We must resupply and draw new plans."

"We can't. I can't afford to sit around and wait."

"I agree with Ethan. We can not waste any time."

"Nor would I want you to. Work with us instead. Already my men begin to mend yesterday's wounds. Seek them out, they'll put you to work. The sooner you aid them, the sooner we can strike."

Ethan looks at me and I gave him a reassuring nod.

"Very well, sir. We accept."

"It is the right decision."

We headed outside in the courtyard and saw a young woman with a wooden crutch standing with her back against the wall.

"Hello, Rose. You seem to be healing well."

"How are you finding Venice?"

"It has its charms. But how do you deal with the smell? How disgusting!"

She chuckled and then looked at me.

"You must be Alessia. Ethan just couldn't stop talking about you last night."

I looked at him and saw he was blushing.

"Is that so?"

"No, of course not. Lies."

"So, what brings you to me?"

"We were hoping you could help us with something."

"And that would be...?"

"We want to learn to climb the way you do."

"Alright. I can't do that. Well, I can't, but Frank can. Frank! Move your ass! Show these two how to reach the top of that scaffolding."

"Ethan! You can't say things like this so openly. What if someone heard you?" I said between chuckles.

I started laughing with him as well and I put my head on his chest. He hugged me tight and lay a kiss my forehead.

"Let them hear me. May the entire world know that you are mine now. And nothing is going to change that."

"Do you mean it?"

"With every cell of my body."

He gave me a long and passionate kiss and then dragged me towards the stairs to our room.

"Not now, Ethan. We need to go to Rose and we promised Oliver we would help him."

He sighed and then let go of my arm.

"Tonight. I promise."

I said as I put my arms on his shoulders and gave him a kiss on his cheek.

"You better not fool me."

I winked.

"I always keep my promises, don't worry."

We left the guild and climbed up to the safety of the rooftops. We looked around and saw a high tower with a cross at the top.

"That must be it."

We started running towards it, jumping from rooftop to rooftop and avoiding guards that were yelling at us to get down.

Ethan leaped into a haystack bellow and then looked at me.

"What are you waiting for?"

"The last time I did a Leap of Faith was three months ago and I did it because of the adrenaline, I wanted to get away from you."

"Come on, it's not that high. The villa was taller."

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. i jumped and panicked for a second when I didn't feel the haystack make contact with my body, but I soon calmed down when I felt Ethan's arms pull me out of the pile of hay.

We met with Rose at the front of the church. She was looking for a good spot for us to train our new ability.

"Climbing a bit of scaffolding is all well and good, but let's see how you do out in the open."

"Top of that tower then?"

Rose nodded.

"I'll be right back."

We both climbed up the front of the church to the roof and then headed towards the tower.

I put a hand on the white stones that were sticking out of the building. When I reached the end of the first set, I pushed myself up and tried to grab onto the next.

Ethan was right next to me so, when I missed the brick, he grabbed me by my hand and stopped me from falling.

"I got you."

I smiled and started climbing again. We reached the top and he pulled me in for a tight hug.

"What is this for?"

"You scared me! I told you that your leg would make climbing harder."

"My hand slipped, it wasn't my leg. Besides, I've been through worse..."

I lifted up my robes and looked at the wound that I had on my abdomen. A tear rolled down my cheek but he noticed, despite me having my hood up. He wiped it with his thumb and then pulled me back into a hug.

" I don't think I'll ever be able to recover from this." I said almost in a whisper.

"I'll make sure you forget about it. You'll see. In time, you won't even remember how you got it."

"I'm pretty sure that a scar like this only comes from a stab wound so your words are pointless."

"We'll see about that..." He kissed me and then sat down.

"Come, sit with me." I took a seat next to him and put my head on his shoulder as he wrapped his hand around mine.

"It's so beautiful up here."

"Let's make this our spot then."

I frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Let's come here every evening and just look at the city, watch the sunset. Or we could come every morning and watch the sunrise, it's up to you. But let's retreat here when we want to be alone."

"You mean like my spot at the top of the Auditore's Villa?"

"I'm pretty sure it's mine too now, since, you know, I followed you there and invaded it."

I laughed and then sighed.

"I've had a hard life, and I'm still so young. But I have a feeling that now it will slowly get better."

I turned to look at him and gave him a soft smile.

"Because of you."

"What happened to you not wanting to be with me because it wouldn't be

fair to Felix?"

"Leonardo made me understand that Felix would have wanted me to be happy no matter what. And I actually don't think my feelings for him where that strong. There is something about you, I don't know what, but you manage to calm me down with just a simple touch, a hand on my shoulder and I'm relaxing. He was never able to do that, I always calmed down on my own, and it took hours, sometimes even days. If I really loved him I guess I would've ran away with him."

"Hey, it was love. It was love for what you knew it to be at that time. That doesn't mean you didn't love him, you just didn't love him as much as you thought, I guess."

"How come you were never mad about me taking part in the conspiracy?"

"How could I ever be mad at you?" He smiled and kissed me on my forehead.

"Come on, let's go down."

I nodded and when I saw he was heading towards the wooden beam, I froze.

"What are you doing?"

"Doing a Leap of Faith? I'm not climbing down."

I gulped and he came over to me and put a hand on my arm.

"Doing it from a roof was one thing, but from a tower this high is another."

"Listen to me, do not let fear take control over you. Think of it and feel it like a cold fire, that starts in your chest and spreads out in your whole body. Feel it in every part-"

"In every part of my body, my arms, my fingers, my toes, my neck. I need to use it to empower myself, and not let it scare me even more."

He looked at me confused and took a step back.

"How do you- how do you know that?"

"It is something Felix once told me, when he taught me how to climb and run on rooftops. Why?"

"He told me the same thing when he taught me the Leap of Faith..."

I wiped away the tear that escaped from the corner of his eye and then looked over the edge.

"I'll jump first. You tell me how I did."

He nodded and I walked over to the platform. I looked down to see Rose waving at me.

I saw Ethan take Leaps of Faith hundreds of times before, I can do it.

I pushed myself off and spread my arms. It felt like I was flying, like I was in the air for hours. I turned and landed in the haystack on my back. I got out and looked at Rose.

"What took you two so long?"

"We stopped at the top and talked for a while. The view up there is amazing!"

She chuckled and shortly after, Ethan was by my side again.

"So?"

"Looks like you've learned all I have to teach. I'll let Oliver know about your progress. Finish your other tasks."

It was almost dark outside already so we decided to head back to the Guild.

"Tell me, why did you ask for separate rooms last night?"

I chuckled. "This again?"

"What? I just want to know."

"I wanted to avoid a serious conversation by all means. Especially because you heard everything at Leonardo's. In my mind, you only thought about me as a sister, not as a life partner."

"But now you know better."

"Yeah, I do now." I said between laughs.

"Why is the guild so far away? I just want to get to bed."

I rolled my eyes. "You mean you want to get me into bed."

He laughed and then looked at me. "You promised, remember?"

"How could I? You wouldn't have let me forget anyway."

"That is... true."

We both laughed and then I remembered something.

"I have a question."

"What is it?"

"What did you want to tell me last night before we ran into the guards? I cut you off and just remembered now."

"I told you when you woke up during the night."

"No, you didn't."

"Yes, I did. I wanted to tell you that I'm in love with you. I said and I quote, 'Helen, listen... I am in-'... And that was all I could get to say before you cut me off. Then, when you asked me if I love you, I said 'real'. So yes, I did tell you."

I was quiet for a few seconds, trying to collect my thoughts. "Since when?"

"Since when what?"

"Since when are you in love with me?"

"At first, I think it began the night I saved you and brought you back to the villa. I was constantly worried you wouldn't wake up. Then I started feeling something in my chest and stomach when we went to get the Codex pages from your palazzo. Why do you think I told the guards you were pregnant?" He chuckled.

"I was secretly hoping that after we go inside you'll kiss me. Hell, do you have any idea how hard it was for me to not kiss you? All I wanted since that day was to taste your beautiful lips. And in the end, the day you ran away from me, I gave up trying to hold back and just went for it. I seriously thought you were going to kiss me back but after you pulled away and told me to never do it again I was disappointed and ashamed. So I came up with the lie that it was the only way to stop you from talking."

"I could see it all over your face after we got back. And I was just mad, I guess, I didn't expect it. It's funny, that night I fell asleep thinking about our kiss."

He let a small laugh escape and then smiled.

"You do realize that if you would have told me sooner, it would have saved you from me slapping and hitting you back in Romagna, right?"

"Eh, you hitting me wasn't so bad. My ego was more damaged than my body, to be honest. I was hoping, once again, that you would kiss me but instead you ran away again. Knowing something was bothering you was killing me and I couldn't even get close to you because you refused to even let me hug you. Hell, I wanted to to be the man you one day marry. If those weren't signs that I wanted you, then you are more blind than I thought."

I lightly punched him in the arm and then smiled.

"Besides, I wanted to make it special." He shook his head.

"You're going to laugh, but I wanted to confess my love to you through a song. I tried to learn how to play the flute, but failed miserably."

I snickered and then started laughing.

"It's hard to imagine you singing." I said still laughing.

"Seriously? I wanted to do a nice gesture and you're laughing?"

"Believe me, you telling me this just makes me like you even more."

"Yeah, but the way I confessed wasn't that special."

"Are you kidding?! It was amazing! The way you said you wanted me, the way you kissed me and the desire you had in your eyes... And then you answered 'real' when I asked if you love me... Ethan, that was the most magical night of my life."

He stopped at the entrance of the Guild and then looked at me.

"Okay, then I have a question for you."

"What is it?"

"You love me. Real or not real?"

"Is this our thing now?"

"Yes, now answer."

I chuckled and looked down, blushing.

"Real, very real."

He gave me a long kiss before taking my hand and running with me up the stairs.

"Then you're in for a treat tonight."

I didn't know what he meant but I quickly understood after we entered our room.

He immediately closed the door behind us and pressed me against it. He pinned my arms above my head and started kissing me, even more hungrily than last night.

"You have no idea how much I wished for this day to be over..."

"Easy there, tiger." I said between chuckles but he stopped me with another kiss.

"Not a chance, I'm not going easy on you."

He picked me up and carried me to the bed. He put me down and then lay on top of me, kissing me with passion.

I knew this was going to be one of the best nights in my life...

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Hey hey there. I know you all going to be mad at me for not pointing out the details of their 'love making'. This is a child friendly book okay, lmao xD. Maybe I'll write one, maybe... *wink*

Don't be a silent reader and tell me what you think! :)