I'm A Stick Beside Him Novels & Stories

With or without Lucian beside me. Though I always want him beside me. Just not in front of me. Not casting shadows. Not diminishing my light. Beside me. Equal. Partner. Always. That’s what I proved today. And that’s what I’ll tell him tonight. After I celebrate this victory. My victory. Mine alone. Finally.

“I don't know what I'm becoming." "You don't have to know tonight," I said gently. "You just have to let someone stand beside you while you find out." His expression softened, and for one quiet moment, I thought my words had reached him. Then his fingers suddenly tightened around mine. Seven sucked in a sharp breath. I immediately stepped closer. "What's wrong?"

Eventually, he must have drifted off to sleep beside me. Being the good friend he was, he refused to leave my side, even for a moment.

But, I knew there definitely would be a way around it all. I looked up to the sky and down to my left and right hand side, hoping for a miracle. “You are trapped, there’s no way out now” he said grinning at me. And luckily, to my left hand side there happened to be a stick. Perfect…I muttered to myself. “I have never been more glad than I am right now,” he said. I was suddenly interested in what he said a while ago. “What do you mean?” I asked curiously. And then, he laughed.

"Do you understand how that sounds? From the person who is supposed to be beside me?" "I am beside you," he said, and his voice had the quiet force of something genuinely meant. "I have been beside you through everything. I stood in that coronation hall and I have been in this palace and I have been watching every corridor and every face and every inconsistency because I am not willing to let anything happen to you. That is what beside you looks like for me. That is how I do it." "I need you to do it differently," I said. He looked at me for a long moment.

Then, without looking at me, he lowered his voice. "When you're with me... you're supposed to stay beside me." I blinked. "...Excuse me?" "Don't wander off like a little kitten." I turned my head so quickly I almost tripped. "A... what?" "A little kitten." He finally looked at me. "You disappear every few minutes." "I wasn't aware I needed your permission to walk." "You don't." He answered calmly. "But you came here with me." "So?" "So stay beside me." I stared at him in disbelief.

He just sat beside me, close enough that our shoulders touched. We sipped in silence. I stared out the window, watching the light fade into something softer, something steadier. My father’s words echoed in my mind. ‘If you stand with him, you stand against me.’

He fell into step beside me, his expression unreadable to anyone but me. "Great job," he whispered. I chuckled lightly. "We’re just getting started."

“Tomorrow.” Talia studied him for another moment, the yellow blanket still gathered tightly beneath her chin. Then her voice became quieter. “You really knocked.” The sentence entered the room more gently than the first one had. Ezra glanced toward the doorway before looking back at her. “Yes.” Her fingers tightened slightly around the blanket. “Most men don’t.” No one moved. The house heard that too.

“This is how you walk beside me.” Not praise. Not possession. Acknowledgment. My pulse moves slow but strong. His hand lifts, just enough for his fingers to brush my hair behind my shoulder. Not intimate in the obvious way. Intimate in the way that says he sees every detail. No audience. No throne. No court. Just us. His gaze holds mine for a moment that feels longer than it is. “Stay with me tonight,” he says. “No matter what is said. No matter who speaks to you. Do not step away from my side.”