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Jonah wakes up to an empty bed, but it doesn’t matter, not at that moment. His mind is all too clear and he feels a sense of urgency deep into his bones: he must get up; he must get up right away.
There is something that he needs to know, something that he must learn now. He knows so.
Jonah sits up on the bed and rubs his right eye. The room is not in complete darkness; a candle was left on the nightstand. Jonah frowns a little: there is no reason for Robert to have left a light for him and, yet, he did it.
No, that’s not the case. There is no reason for that that Jonah knows of.
He gets up. Jonah feels like a giddy child who just found a treasure. He cannot explain his excitement in seeking knowledge that he somehow knows he must and will learn tonight. He isn’t curious, no, that’s not the case, it is a much more urgent feeling. Jonah feels like he can barely be contained in his own body as it is.
He leaves the room. He doesn’t bring the candle; it has quickly become unimportant.
The hallway leading to the study – and Jonah truly believes that his answer is to be found in the study – is dark and cold. Jonah walks quickly, barefoot and still wearing his pajamas. The door is not fully closed. Jonah gently pushes the door open and stands in the doorway.
Inside the room, there is Robert.
Jonah watches as Robert walks and walks around the room, gesturing to himself and struggling with something too complex to be put into simple words at that moment. He is not ready, not yet; Jonah understands so immediately.
It’s the middle of the night and Jonah watches Robert with a fondness that he’s not keen on confessing to the man himself. Robert is excited; it is obvious and contagious. Jonah is sure that Robert has been dreaming about something huge.
Something about the powers.
Something important.
Jonah watches as Robert walks around the study, ridiculously excited and so absorbed into his own thoughts that he doesn’t notice Jonah at all. Jonah watches and waits.
When Robert finally stops, he turns his head and looks straight into Jonah’s eyes. A shiver runs down Jonah’s body.
“Tell me,” Jonah demands but his voice wavers, almost breaking in poorly contained agitation.
Robert walks to him and he grabs Jonah’s hands.
“Devotion demands rites,” he says and squeezes Jonah’s hands lightly. “A power must expect some sort of… No, not expect. Jonah, you must understand. I believe Mr. Rayner understood something very basic and remarkable that we have failed to grasp before now.”
Robert lets go of Jonah’s hands and walks back into the room. Jonah watches his back.
“He told me about a ritual of the darkness,” Robert continues. He raises a hand to touch his bottom lip with his fingertips and it looks like he could be pulled back into his own head right then.
Jonah nods and doesn’t say a word. He waits. He doesn’t want to create a distraction.
“A religious thing, of course, truly what he described is meant to…It could be beautiful, Jonah, terrible and beautiful.”
Robert turns around again, but he isn’t looking at Jonah this time. He is looking past him, at something that Jonah is sure that cannot be shared, not yet. Jonah waits a moment – he needs Robert to calm down and speak properly so he can tell him everything – and then he walks into the room. He goes to Robert and holds his hands exactly like Robert had done a few moments earlier.
“Have you seen the rituals?” Jonah asks and Robert finally looks at him again. He stares at Jonah with an expression that Jonah has seldom seen in anyone’s eyes.
Robert parts his lips and licks his bottom lip. For a moment, Jonah wonders if he is too overwhelmed to speak but then Robert shakes his head.
“No,” he says and, before disappointment can wash over Jonah, he continues: “I believe I am to design them.”
Jonah stares at Robert in amazement. He wants to ask – to demand, to beg! – that Robert shares everything, describe his terrifying dreams and repeat every word Mr. Rayner has ever spoke to him. He wants to be upset that he was not the one chosen to see such things, to dream like Robert dreams, but he is simply overjoyed at the possibility of understanding the powers in such a profound way.
Jonah understands Robert's excitement. He almost doesn’t know what to do with himself.
Suddenly, Robert leans in and kisses him. Jonah laughs softly against his lips. It is hardly a romantic moment, but they are so caught up in this new understanding that both of them feel the urge to somehow put into actions part of the agitation caused by it.
Neither of them deepens the kiss and neither of them lets go.
Robert is a brilliant man; Jonah fully believes that he is capable of seeing through the task ahead.
Jonah grabs Robert’s shirt and pulls him closer. Robert moves his hands down the sides of Jonah’s body and settles them on Jonah’s waist, pulling him tightly against himself. Jonah is the one to break the kiss, but he doesn’t move away. He looks Robert in the eye, barely far away enough to do so, and speaks quietly:
“You must tell me what you saw. I must understand what you will do.”
Robert breathes out slowly; Jonah can feel the warm air of his breath against his skin.
“Yes,” Robert says. “Yes, yes.”