Uendeligt: An Infinitely Forever Novel

by S King

  “What is it?” I looked over the Black Diamond Orders as we waited for Sadvidge and the other female judges to come back from powdering their noses. Or whatever it was that they needed to do when there was a break in the monotony.

  “Why did you sign off on the order?”

  I stopped looking at the Black Diamond Order on a rouge sect leader from the Gold Guard and paused. At the mention of the order I had signed off on for the Regal Guard to come in, I was painfully reminded how Luminous had looked at me when she heard the news about Slade. What was worse, I was reminded how I had gone looking for her and found nothing.

  Thanks to the seasons changing and the lack of snow. There were no footprints to follow her by and thanks to me not having followed her out of my house that night. I was stuck in an endless loop of fear induced thoughts. Not because I was afraid she was going to find out about my signature on the order for the RG. But because I knew nothing about the mysterious group.

  We knew nothing about the guard and another threat of the unknown wasn’t what we had been looking for. However, thanks to the political bullshit game me, Dristan, Karina and Lumi were stuck in. I had to be the driving force behind what happened next.

  After the ink had dried on the order, I had gone back to my office and searched the entire court system for anything on the band of ruthless mercenaries. Something to tell me they weren’t as bad as the other judges were making it out to. Something to show me I needed to worry more about Platinum than Regal.

  Yet and still, like when I went to look for Luminous, I came up with nothing. Sure, Alexi and Heaton knew more than what they were willing to tell. And asking Sadvidge was completely out of the question. So, when the other two female judges had asked for clarification on what was happening. There was nothing more than a vain silence forced into the courtroom.

  Taking a deep breath, I ran my fingers through my hair and shrugged. “I was tired of talking about the same thing with her,” I finally answered Heaton’s question and went back to overlooking the BDO.

  He grunted and looked at me, “do you think she’s really going to come back to the scientists?”

  “Not at all,” I signed the order and passed it to the court boy before looking at my fellow judge. “Luminous River isn’t one to take too kindly to the threat of death or being forced to go to the scientists either.”

  “None of us are,” Alexi commented, lost to the thoughts in his mind.

  “Isn’t that the truth,” Heaton sighed and scrubbed his hands over his face. “For her sake, I hope she’s somewhere she can find some peace.”

  Me and Alexi turned to face the other judge.

  “What?”

  “You never want someone to find peace,” Alexi stated and leaned into his knuckles. “What’s with the change of heart?”

  Heaton made a face and crossed his arms, staring at the black marble door on the other side of the room. “She’s been through hell and back. More so than any of us and still it’s not enough. Call me an old sympathetic, but the girl needs to be able to live the rest of her days in peace.”

  Alexi looked at me and hooked his thumb toward Heaton. He was mentally asking me the same thing I had been wondering. What in the hell happened for Heaton to change his mind about the situation? Normally the judge wanted nothing to do with drama and opted for silence when it came to any topic that may wage a war amongst the judges. This time however, he was completely different.

  I shrugged and shook my head, turning my attention to Heaton. “I didn’t know you had such a bleeding heart for the damned.”

  He snorted and glanced at me from the corner of his eye, “I have seven daughters. I wouldn’t want any of them to be forced to go through what Luminous is.”

  Well, slap me purple and hand me over to a vineyard. I hadn’t known anything personal about the judges serving on the same bench as me. Even Alexi was silent on his personal life and only offered surface level information when asked. Maybe he was afraid anything deeper would be used against him if Sadvidge or the other two female judges got a wild hair. It made sense, from the inside looking out. But seven daughters?

  Hell, I couldn’t imagine one let alone six more.

  “Seven though?” Alexi gave Heaton a screwed look.

  The other man lifted a shoulder before leaning into his fist, “my wife is something I can’t resist.”

  “Obviously,” I grumbled followed by Alexi’s grunt of agreement.

  “Speaking of which,” Heaton turned to face me, “how do you do it?”

  “What’s that?”

  “Last year, you and Luminous were sticking to each other’s side like glue. Whenever either of you were confronted by the judges.” He made a face as a furrow played on his brow, “there was nothing either of you wouldn’t do or say in order to make sure the other wasn’t about to be executed.”

  “Ok?”

  It was true. Every time the judges called me in for a meeting, ninety percent of the time it was about gathering intel on Luminous’s innocence toward Gold’s superiors being murdered. I had gone on a limb to save her each time. Granted, she had done the same for me when I was framed for Silver’s leaders being murdered. But that was because I had had enough of fighting my attraction for her. I wanted the truth and when one of my former GG members enlightened me about why I had an attraction for Luminous. Well, things just spun out of control from there.

  So, as I looked at Heaton with a raised brow. I had to wonder to myself. Where the hell was this conversation going? He knew—along with every other judge both past and present that the scientists had designed Luminous to be my perfect match. And vice versa for her.

  “I’m asking how are you able to deny what the scientists had forced you to feel.”

  It was my turn to find solace in the marble door. How had I been able to lock down my emotions? The drive to run to Luminous. The need to have her close. I could block all of those emotions from coming to the surface and found the type of strength through tricking myself into thinking she was nothing more than a good lay. But deep down in my heart of hearts. I knew I was lying to myself and every time I denied my emotions. My drive to find her. My need to protect her. A little shard of my blackened heart fell away to ash.

  Probably because I knew what was to come should I throw all caution to the wind and ignore reality. I knew if I thought the wrong thing, said something off the wall. Did anything that looked like I was going rogue against the court and my duties. Our lives would be over before we could get out of Castlehedge once and for all.

  “I don’t know.” I answered honestly.

  He went to ask me something else when the judge’s door behind the bench opened and Sadvidge along with the other two women stepped over the threshold.

  “Gentlemen,” Sadvidge shot me a snake like look before finding her seat.

  I gave her a sinister smile in return before focusing on my duties.

  “Bring in the sect leader.” Alexi ordered the court boy.

  The last thing we needed was yet another dispute about comments and looks. Sadvidge and Alexi were notorious for throwing their weight around. Then again being the only two judges that had the final and ultimate say so in any situation, who could blame them.

  “Yes, your honor.”

  “Karina Rizzo, the judges of Onyx Elite requests an audience. Please enter.” The automated voice broke through the speakers inlaid in the walls and tunnels.

  My heart stalled in its beating as the marble door me, Heaton and Alexi had focused our attention on for the past hour swung open. I could swallow the pain from Slade being killed in front of the judges. Knew it was going to be a matter of time for the event to happen after I found out where he had gotten the information on Shang from.

  But what I was not going to do was allow the same fate to be forced onto Luminous’s sister and my best friend’s only love. There wouldn’t be anything in this world that I wouldn’t do in order to make sure Karina walked away from the courtroom with air in her lu
ngs and a fire in her eyes.

  Steeling myself, I kept my face a neutral mask as the overhead light found her glossy burgundy hair. Karina walked in with her head held high and her gaze burning of hatred for being in the position she was in. Like any other guard member, she wore her standard black top and pants. Matching flat, knee high boots and one pissed off look on her face.

  When she came to a stop in the center of the floor, she didn’t bother looking in my direction. For good reason too. She blamed me for not being honest with Luminous when she was in the safely tucked away in my home. Not that I could blame her. Karina wanted Luminous back and out of harm’s way just as much as I did. But Karina was stronger than me when it came to keeping her determination and wits about the situation. Never one to deter from what was happening in front of her, she had made a promise to me and Dristan that she’d figure out a way to get Luminous back. Without our help.

  A thousand and one scenarios ran through my mind as she not so patiently waited for Sadvidge to get on her soap box and handle the BDO on the rouge member.

  “Karina Rizzo,” the woman in question looked at the order as if she didn’t know what she was supposed to give the sect leader. “Do you understand why you’re here?”

  “I do.” Karina, for once, bit back her temper and need to say something so sarcastic it’d result in her losing her head.

  Sadvidge closed the order and handed it to Roxy, “you have thirty days to execute the Black Diamond Order, do you acknowledge.”

  “I do,” again Karina didn’t take the chance of testing the other woman’s limits. Instead she took the order and looked at the judge speaking to her.

  “Also,” Sadvidge pulled out another order none of us had seen and smirked when she saw the look on my face.

  None of us had seen the order or heard about anything else coming in from the messengers who brought situations to our attention. Just what the hell did Sadvidge have up her sleeve now? As if to answer the question I hadn’t verbally asked.

  She dropped the sadistic act and handed down the order to Roxy. Patiently waiting for Karina to accept what was given to her.

  It took Luminous’s sister all of two seconds to read the order and toss any respect—no matter how vain or ignorant it was out the window and glare at Sadvidge with hatred running through those storm blue eyes of hers.

  “Are you fucking kidding me?”

  “Excuse me,” Sadvidge sat straighter in the chair and glared back at the sect leader and my friend.

  Normally, any other guard member—no matter their rank—would back down from Sadvidge and just blindly accept what was given to them. But Karina wasn’t just any guard member or sect leader. She was Karina Fucking Rizzo and nobody, not even one of the strongest judge in the most feared court was going to fuck with her family.

  Karina held the order up and raised her brows, “you just can’t seem to let it go. Can you?”

  I looked at Heaton and Alexi who were frowning at the scene playing out before us. At the least, we were all on the same chapter of confusion. A plus for us and a curse if I’d ever seen one. Turning my attention back to Karina, I waited for the clarification to come in.

  “Sect Leader Rizzo,” Alexi finally spoke up and motioned to the golden piece of paper in her hand, “what is in the order.”

  Karina let a bark of laughter leave her, “oh you don’t know?” Her eyes bounced from one face to the next before finding his again. “Here let me read it to you.”

  She unrolled the thing and in a pristine fashion read the order, “it is by the order of the judges of Onyx Elite and Royal Sapphire, Sect Leaders Rizzo of Silver Guard and Slater of Gold Guard are hereby ordered to execute a Platinum Order on former Sect Leader Luminous River. Should the aforementioned harm or ultimately kill any member of either Silver or Gold. The judges acknowledge both Sect Leaders to execute a Black Platinum Diamond Order on Luminous River.”

  All of our heads whipped around to stare at Sadvidge who was smiling triumphantly down at Karina. Through all of my years of training, sessions with the scientists and being vetted for the court, I’d never heard of a Black Platinum Diamond order.

  It would’ve had to been as bad as it sounded if the pissed off looks on Heaton and Alexi’s faces were anything to go off of. Maybe when the dust settled, and life became a little less black would I get the answer to what I had now been dying to know. For the time being, however, I needed to keep my mouth shut and wait for the bomb to go off amongst the judges.

  “Dismissed Sect Leader Rizzo,” one look at Judge Alexi and I knew Karina had better not back talk or argue with the older man glaring at Sadvidge.

  “Ok, but what about this?” She held up the order given to her by Roxy.

  “Disregard that order,” Sadvidge’s head whipped around in the same fashion we all had done to her. Glaring at Alexi she narrowed her eyes.

  Roxy ripped the order from Karina’s hand and jerked her own head toward the marble door. To which, Karina surprisingly booked it out of the courtroom and didn’t look back as the door slowly closed on its own.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Sadvidge growled after the locks of the door settled into place.

  “I’m moving to have you overthrown.” Alexi stood up and glared down at the woman from his greater height. “You will not use this court or the judges as your playground.”

  I shouldn’t have smiled as broadly as I did, but just hearing those words made my heart sing a happier tune of its own. With Sadvidge denounced from power, Luminous and I would be able to get away from Castlehedge without having to look over our shoulder. Granted, the hypothetical was strictly based off the assumption neither of the female judges had a bone to pick with either of us.

  “All those in favor to motion for the dismiss of Judge Sadvidge, cast your votes.” Judge Alexi made no move to sit down or charge the woman.

  Instead, he glared at her. Shadows passing over his face and demons clawing at the rustic color of his eyes. If I hadn’t known any better then I’d have sworn the two shared some sort of sordid past and one that wasn’t too pretty. But Alexi hated Sadvidge just as much as everyone else and to think he would do anything outside of avoiding her would be downright certifiable.

  Brushing aside my curiosity, I made quick moves to cast my obvious vote and sat back in my chair. However as the fates and my luck would have it, Sadvidge had another trick up her sleeve that she was dying to play. And now was the perfect opportunity to reveal her hand.

  “Have it your way,” Sadvidge calmly stood to be at a somewhat equal advantage in height. Her tone became sinister, and her eyes glossed over in rage. “I invoke the Creator’s Vote.”

  Everything stopped. Nobody moved. Nothing made a noise. I had no idea what the Creator’s Vote was but knew from the way Roxy and the court boy nearly bolted from the courtroom things were about to become a bigger shit show than what was already happening.

  As if I couldn’t get away from the drama, Sadvidge smiled wickedly before tilting her head to the side. With a flick of her wrist, she pressed a button I hadn’t noticed on her desk and just waited.

  Something in the court shifted as the whine of mechanisms echoed off the marble. Turning my attention to the middle of the floor, I watched in horror as a secret passageway opened. A moment of silence before a soft whirring came from within the black hole.

  In a matter of seconds two heads popped above the opening and revealed the two people I had thought were dead all of this time. There was no way I was seeing who I thought I was seeing. No possible way.

  “What seems to be the problem?” The man looked at each of the judge’s faces while his female counter part stared at me with something I couldn’t decipher.

  Not good, this was not good at all. And the worst part? Luminous was going to kill me for keeping this secret from her until the right moment appeared.

  §§§§§

  “I need to figure out a way to find her without getting my own fucking head popped
off my neck.”

  I made a face at the center dash and continued to drive through the barren roads as Dristan tried to come up with another argument as to why I needed to let things run in its course. After the night’s events and the decision had been made, I needed to get the hell out of dodge and not look back.

  Unfortunately, not knowing where Luminous was put a damper on my plans. Now here I was driving through Castlehedge, trying to talk Dristan into getting on board with my half-thought out plan.

  “Look Demir,” Dristan sighed into the phone and mumbled something to Karina. “Whatever that—”

  “Bitch!” Karina hollered, forcing me to turn down the volume on my Bluetooth.

  “Yeah,” Dristan said calmly, “whatever she’s planning for Luminous, it’s bad news for all of us and we can’t take anything too lightly.”

  Slowing the Hummer down at the red light, I scanned the street for any type of movement, “Dristan, I need to talk to Luminous and save her from what’s coming down the pipeline.”

  “Well, what’s coming down the pipeline?”

  “You know I can’t tell you right now.”

  He took a deep breath and blew it out, “is it bad?”

  “Isn’t it always?”

  “Ok, Demir, I’ve gotta know. What type of bad are we talking about?”

  I hadn’t told him or Karina what—or rather who had made a surprise appearance in front of the judges tonight. Honestly, I didn’t know why or how to. But I couldn’t bring myself to even verbalize the truth. As soon as I told Luminous I knew hell was going to rain down on Castlehedge.

  Naturally, she’d blame me for lying to her, then she’d tell me I was just trying to cover the truth with something as sinister as the truth. In turn, we’d get into a big fight, probably to the point of physically fighting each other. Then maybe, just maybe, we could sit down and talk like rational human beings. As if that ever played out in our favor.

  Rubbing a hand over my face, I came to grips with the possibility of losing Luminous to the courts and the scientists. Along with losing her forever, even if I could save her. In the current state of things there wasn’t a fucking thing I could do to stop it. She was going to be livid and torn apart like nobody’s business and yet again, I was going to be the main one behind the pain.