Uendeligt: An Infinitely Forever Novel

by S King

  “Oh how the mighty have fallen,” I grumbled to myself as I adjusted the robes yet again.

  “Judge Losett, they’re ready for you,” the junior member of the Gold Guard stuck his pea sized head into the room, careful to keep his eyes glued to the floor.

  I didn’t make a move to answer him, or even acknowledge I had heard him. It wasn’t in my job description to do such a lowly thing. Instead, I closed the robe and grabbed the case file from my desk.

  He opened the door wider, stepping far enough back that even the swinging fabric of the robe didn’t touch him. This was the role we had chosen—and essentially given. His job was nothing more than a stool pigeon’s post. Alerting the judges when it was time to sit on the bench. Taking orders to members of the guards—no matter the hour. In turn none of the judges would say anything to him. Not even a simple thank you or an acknowledgement in anyway. It was sad to say, but I didn’t even know the kid’s name.

  As I walked along the black marble corridor, my dress shoes making subtle tap…tap…tap with each step I thought about what I had done in order to get here.

  My past was nothing to gloat on, but I hadn’t had a second thought when I was handling orders left and right. Running the Gold Guard sect had been the highlight of my life at one point. Then she happened.

  Clenching my teeth together, I couldn’t stop the images from forming in my mind before they started. And like all of the other times, I was confronted with the final moments between Luminous River and myself.

  The misery. Pain, surprise, shock—all of the emotions known to man, excluding happiness and joy had crossed over her face the moment the dagger pierced her skin. And I had been the one to cause it. I had been the one to watch Luminous River. My Lumi, falling away from this world as she stared up at me with those beautiful eyes of hers. And the only thing I could do was stare after her. I couldn’t go launching my body off the cliff in the hopes I would catch her in time. I wasn’t able to speed down the cliff’s edge and catch her before she fell into the black abyss below. I couldn’t do anything but watch. Wait. Worry.

  I pushed through the doors of the judge’s quarters and climbed the four steps to the bench. Pushing the memories to the darkest corners of my mind where they belonged. Luminous flat out refused to kill me when we were being backed against the cliff’s edge. I had warned her—in not so many words—about what would happen if she didn’t do it. But still, she refused and in turn? I mercilessly drove the dagger she had given me through her stomach without batting a lash.

  Looking back on the memory and what I should’ve done, the guilt to rage on. Why had I done it? Because I had some futile hope she would be saved by someone and returned to me when the guards cleared out?

  If I were really in the business of berating myself for the past, I’d have jumped after Luminous and not thought twice about it. Instead, after she was far from view and her blood was still dripping from the dagger. I had turned around, raised a brow at the guard members and demanded they fuck off and give me my robes.

  “Judge Losett,” Judge Sadvidge looked at me over the rim of her glasses. “You look like you need a minute.”

  As usual the older woman was toying with me like a lion playing with a mouse. Her hair was as white as the snow that fell from during the harshest of winters. But her eyes were as clear as the ice frozen along the tree branches. Heartless by nature, this woman was never one for sympathy.

  Judge Sadvidge was a bitch on her best days and if I had the need to die right now, within this very second, I’d kill her myself. Maybe it was because she needed to feel some type of superior power over everyone who came across her path. Maybe it was just because she had a nature about her that reminded me of a damn snake in the grass. Whatever the case was, I didn’t like her and neither did any other judge on the bench that had two cents worth of a brain.

  Nonetheless, I wasn’t in the mood for her snarky comments and appraisals about my appearance. Since I joined the bench, she felt the need to point out my imperfections and how I had looked like I been ran over by a freight train on a daily. In the back of my mind, I tried to convince myself she had nothing better to do and was just a bitter old woman who found humor in my pain. Granted, that was when she wasn’t busy laughing at the poor sap who found him or herself in our presence. I knew as much. But today was not the day.

  “I’m fine,” my voice hadn’t lost its strength or ability to warn of a dangerously close line the offender was dancing on when necessary.

  A snake like smiled lifted the corners of her mouth, “if you say so, Judge Losett.”

  The old battle axe made it a case and point to emphasis my title whenever she could and hadn’t let off the torment since day one. She relished in the fact I was in pain every time I put on the same black robe as she—and the other four judges wore all because I saved myself instead of Lumi. Of course, I had never gotten to the bottom of the hatred she held for me—or for Luminous. And frankly, I didn’t care one way or the other.

  She was the kind of bitter old woman who needed to busy herself with crocheting or something. Not testing the limits of my patience. Granted, if I wanted complete harmony within my place of business I’d have flat out ask her in the hopes of getting the truth. But who was I kidding? I didn’t care about getting the truth from Sadvidge and I wasn’t even interested in obtaining vain harmony.

  I showed nothing as I adjusted myself in my chair and looked at the case file. Whatever the reason was for Sadvidge’s constant attacks on me. I’d deal with the fallout later. Right now, we had yet another case to handle and looking over the case file I knew the kid needed something other than a stern talking to. Then again, with Sadvidge leading the session, he would probably get more than what the official notice recommended.

  Franklin Urellie, Silver Guard member, twenty-seven. Stepped out of line when handling a red order. Add the constant reports of insubordination from his direct leader. Along with going out on his own for orders that required further investigations. He was hellbent on trying the limits of a society who didn’t take too kindly to being questioned or challenged.

  Judging from the notes, I could tell Franklin was going to be the most disrespectful asswipe this court had ever seen. Not that I was complaining. Hell, I could afford a little entertainment right now.

  “Mr. Urellie, the honorable judges of Onyx Elite request an audience.” The automated voice that crackled through the underground speakers echoed from the tunnels leading to the Silver Guard’s HQ.

  After Karina’s little tantrum to save me last year from the Onyx Elite’s fury the tunnels and courts had to be rebuilt. Naturally, the new courts were built to be ten times better than the last. With all of the shock resistant and explosive proof material money and means could buy in order to build such a structure. Now Karina—or anyone else for that matter would have a hell of a time trying to blast the courts out of existence.

  With a deep breath and locking down my face, I sat back in my chair like my fellow judges and simply waited for the man in question to make his appearance. After all, Sadvidge would make sure she got the last laugh in the situation and nothing less would do.

  Thanks to my position, I didn’t have to worry too much about handing down recent orders or executions. Unfortunately, I had to sit back and learn the ropes of the courts. Not that I didn’t know anything about the formalities. After years of seeing what these people were capable of, there wasn’t much to learn.

  “Deliver this to Sect Leader Joker O’Qhuinn,” Judge Heaton handed off a packet of paper three-inches thick to Roxy before falling back in his seat.

  I didn’t know if it was the new title Lovett held or if it was just because it was Lovett. But every time I heard one of the judges or even guard members addressing Lumi’s former friend as sect leader I wanted to smash his head through a damned wall.

  The trifling son of a bitch had weaseled his way into my girlfriend’s position and was still doing a fucking great job at running the Silver Guard
’s squadron eight. Internally, I rolled my eyes on the compliment to the jackass holding the position as sect leader.

  He had purposefully found an opening and took the opportunity like it was the best thing he’d ever accomplish. When word came that Luminous had died and a search and recover was under way, Lovett did nothing but sit back and watch. And to think, once upon a time he claimed to have loved her with every fiber of his being.

  The door to the singular tunnel leading to SGHQ opened, halting any further thoughts I may have had about the two timing, snake-faced bastard sitting at Luminous’s desk.

  Franklin Urellie was a short man in comparison to his Silver counterparts. Standing at a measly five-foot-eleven, he looked like a bug in comparison to my six-foot-seven. Still, he wore the height proudly along with a smug personality cloaking him in nothing but arrogance and ignorance all in one.

  His coal black hair was neatly combed and gelled away from his face while his pin-stripe suit was tailored to compliment his body frame. Pure Italian leather dress shoes reflected the light coming from the ceiling, hinting at just how much care he had taken in making sure nothing tarnished the work of art on his feet.

  “Mr. Urellie,” Judge Sadvidge narrowed her eyes as she looked at the report all of us had. “Do you understand why you are here this evening?”

  “I do,” he answered in a thick Italian accent that the ladies would fall over themselves just to hear right before their deaths.

  “What do you have to say?” I asked, not liking the kid’s cocky attitude. At least, I was allowed to ask questions and interact with the people who had come before us.

  “Nothin’,” he shifted on his feet and glanced around the rom.

  “Really?” Judge Sadvidge allowed her glasses to slide down her nose as she raised a cocky brow at the cockier kid in the middle of the floor.

  He had the actual audacity to smirk in her face and shrugged, “really.”

  Wrong move, kid, I internally warned and subtly shook my head. Stupid, stupid kid. Shutting off my face, I stared at him and pushed the file away from me.

  “Mr. Urellie, you have been accused of mutiny against the Silver Guard. As punishment you shall be sentenced to death.” Sadvidge handed down the order without batting a lash and waited for the eruption of emotion from the man in front of my panel of judges.

  Five, four, three, two, one.

  “That’s bullshit!” He snapped and tried to advance toward the bench.

  “Roxy,” Sadvidge advised with a bored tone.

  I ground my teeth together as the Bobin Roxy moved as fast as the speed of light. He grabbed Franklin by throat, and no sooner did Franklin’s feet lift from the floor did Roxy snap the poor guy’s neck.

  Idiot I thought to myself. It wasn’t anything uncommon for the judges of the BC to order a death and witness it within the span of a few minutes. When Roxy dragged the body from the center of the floor and disappeared through a side door, the chambers fell silent once again and left the judges to their own thoughts.

  “That’ll be able, your honors,” the same kid who had come to me at the beginning of the night, stood in the middle of the chamber floors and bowed out of respect.

  Being the heartless, cynical bastards we were, the five judges and myself got up and left the bench. Over these past three months, I had watched, listened and waited for something to come across the bench regarding Luminous. So much to the point I had thought I had actually killed her. But with each passing night of order after order and handing down sentences to those who didn’t stay in their lanes. There was no news on Luminous or her death.

  In some type of respect, I had gotten used to the monotony offered by the repetitive nature of the courts. The madness would last into the late afternoon hours of the following day, only to give me barely enough time to sleep before having to do the job all over again.

  Kicking the door closed, I leaned against the barrier and pinched the bridge of my nose. What was Luminous doing right now? Was she ok? Was she trying to figure out how to come back to me? All of the questions swimming around in my mind were pointless and not worth the time. But it was the only thing stopping me from climbing the walls.

  My cell phone buzzing against my desk put a pause on the mantra I had memorized since the HG told me her body hadn’t been recovered over a month ago. Crossing the floor, I swiped the thing from my desk and answered it as I clawed at the suffocating robe.

  “Yes?”

  “How’s life going for you, judge Losett?” The laughter in Dristan’s voice was like an answered prayer that had come just in the nick of time.

  I smirked, hanging the robe on the hook and fell into my office chair, “I’m here. What’s going on with you man?”

  “Well, let me just say, I don’t understand how you did this for so long.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Being a sect leader is fun and all until you have to do the paperwork.”

  I laughed under my breath, staring at a picture of Luminous, Karina had graciously gifted me as punishment for my deeds. Every time I sat at my desk, there was the picture of Luminous smirking back at me.

  Tracing along her jaw line with my eyes, I tried to fill the emptiness with conversation. “How are things going over there?”

  “It’s going, you know they don’t fear me as much as you. But at least they know when to back off.”

  “What about Slade?”

  Dristan blew out a raspberry and had we been standing face to face, I knew he was probably shaking his head.

  “The son of a bitch likes to argue, I know that much.”

  I grunted in acknowledgement. Sounded like Slade; the cock sure jerk was something of a thorn in Gold’s and Onyx’s side. But he knew how to do his job and whenever someone from his guard was injured he was there to help them heal, no matter the hour.

  To make matters worse, I had even leaned on Slade a time or two when I was pounding on death’s doors. Not to mention I had asked him to save Luminous as well. No matter the case, he was a good guard member. He just had a hell of a mouth on him.

  “So, are you coming out tonight?” Dristan asked after a heartbeat of silence.

  “What’s tonight?”

  Since the promotion Onyx Elite had bestowed on me, I hadn’t been able to spend any time with my annoying friend.

  “Celebration for Karina making deputy sect leader.”

  Again, I pinched the bridge of my nose. I had completely forgotten about signing off on the order to promote Luminous’s best friend and sister.

  “Yeah, I’ll be there, Mad Devil, right?”

  “No, she wants to go to Nine Lives tonight.” He blew out a hard breath as papers rustled in the background to tell me he had finally finished the tedious task of crossing Ts and dotting Is.

  I nodded, even though he couldn’t see me. “Alright, yeah, I’ll be there.”

  “Don’t forget some form of a present, you know how she is.”

  I smirked, “alright Dristan, I’ll be there. See you soon.” We didn’t bother with the parting sentiments or any further conversation.

  If I wasn’t going to do anything else tonight, I was going to spend some time with my friends. If anything, just to have a break from my torturous thoughts about Lumi and stabbing her. God knows I had done enough of that over the course of three months and could stand to have a modest break between the haunting nightmares. Even if the relief came from a drunken induced slumber. I wasn’t going to complain.

  A knock on my door jerked my attention away from her picture on my desk and forced a frown on my face.

  “Enter,” sitting straighter in the chair, I made busy with shuffling the papers and notes littering my desk.

  “What’s going on boss?” Slade sauntered into the office like he owned the place. His ombre hair was shoulder length while his crystalline blue eyes took everything in carefully.

  “What’re you doing here?” I asked, nodding to the chair in front of my desk and tucked away the con
fidential forms about another case.

  He huffed a breath and clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. “Well, do you want the bad news or the good news?”

  Raising a brow at him, I debated with myself if I wanted to just clobber him and get it over with. Instead, I shrugged.

  “Good, I guess.”

  “The Honor Guard hasn’t found Luminous’s body.”

  “What? How is that good news?”

  He shrugged, “if you stop and think about it. If they don’t find a body then there’s a strong possibility she isn’t dead.”

  Valid, I thought to myself. But the sole fact forcing me to cast shadows of doubt over the good news was simple. My visions were never wrong. Before I had stabbed Luminous, I had seen her dying in the exact same way as that fateful night.

  “Then what’s the bad news?”

  “They haven’t found her body.”

  I let my head fall back on the chair as I stared at the ceiling. If it wasn’t one thing, then it was something else. The HG were a band of determined fuckers and didn’t give up when things became a little too difficult. Only the hardest of tasks were handed to the dreaded guard and recovering Luminous’s body was at the top of their list for the time being.

  “So, what’re you saying?” I finally looked at him and raised a brow.

  “I’m saying, right now there’s hope for the best and anxiety for the worst.”

  “That doesn’t help things, Slade.”

  “I’m aware of that, but for now, I’m just going to follow them and see where they think she might have gone.”

  I shook my head, “if she landed safely in the water then that means she had to float downstream. An injury like that would’ve been too painful to deal with. So, she couldn’t have swam upstream. If anything she would’ve had to been caught by someone and that person took her north.” Rubbing a hand over my forehead, I sighed, “we all know that didn’t happen. So, anything above Castlehedge is out,” I was mumbling more to myself as I tried to think of where Luminous could be hiding away.

  As long as she stayed hidden then she wouldn’t face any danger. But if she came back to Castlehedge? Well, I didn’t want to think about what we would have to do in order to get out of the spot we would be in.