The Golden Key Chronicles

by AJ Nuest

  A cold glint of fury embedded itself in Selene’s hardened heart. “You shall not.”

  The weight of nine sets of eyes shifted to her and she opened her palms at her sides. Until the truth of their transgressions had been carved upon the alabaster walls of her kingdom, she would not allow these nine daughters to flounder, alone and lost in her realm. Though the light of his rays reached far beyond the heavens, their father held no power here. “I grant you sanctuary. My table is set and I offer succor in your time of need.”

  The nine drifted close and lowered to their knees at her feet, offering up prayers of veneration and thanksgiving. Yet their gratitude did not ease the resilient set of her jaw.

  The moon goddess peered over their bowed heads toward the distant light of their father’s dazzling realm. The sun god had no authority to dole out his verdict to the incursion of her domain. He did not rule all of existence, and like those same gods throughout the deep infinity of the heavens, he had not considered the repercussions of his decree.

  She would seek him out and make known his error, and they would see who last held the fate of these nine daughters in their hands.

  Chapter Two

  Tendrils of fell smoke wafted throughout the vapors of his kingdom, yet Helios did not summon the wind. The tainted air emulated his sullen disposition, and he was not propelled to drive away the misery of his contemplations.

  He breathed deep the bitter tang of disappointment and braced his hands atop the balcony railing. Rolling his head back, he tracked the trails of ash into the wide clear span of his blue sky.

  A gust of cool breeze spiraled the cinders into a frenzy and he tipped his head, frowning. Who dared disturb his pondering? A quick search past the swirling disturbance and his brows rose.

  A delicate being came forth. Yet where had she hidden that he’d never before witnessed the pale arc of her cheek, the gentle cascade of her iridescent hair or the profound mysteries hidden inside the jeweled opalescence of her eyes?

  He smiled, and the entirety of his being rang out with joy as she neared. His soul set ablaze in awe and wonder. She was a goddess, perfect in form and glorious in sight, the secrets of the universe held within the poise and grace of her demeanor.

  As he shone the full radiance of his light upon the path of her descent, her obsidian gown absorbed the potency of his rays, and every portion of her ivory skin reflected the force of his warmth and hunger.

  She was darkness to his light, a cool balm to his burning isolation, the long-awaited answer to the torture of his soul.

  The muted tap of her silk slipper broke his enraptured stare and he rushed to where she alit on the balcony. “You shall stay with me throughout the endless interlude of eternity.” He clasped both her hands in his and pressed a fervent kiss to her icy fingers. “And all beings shall rejoice and bear witness to our love.”

  A frown pleated the smooth skin of her brow and she withdrew, slipping her hands from his. “Are you so arrogant a god, you do not care to even know my name before issuing the whole of your desires?”

  Discontent flared at the loss of her touch, and he grumbled a low warning. To insult him so was a reckless endeavor. Did she not know the full breadth of his power? Did she wander so far about the heavens, she was unaware of the scale of his rule? Any being who’d previously borne witness to his supremacy had shown him the proper respect. To bestow her a place at his side was more than blessing enough. “Your name does not matter. Throughout the ages you shall be heralded as my consort and wife.”

  A wintry current stirred the ends of her hair, and her gaze glittered with razor-sharp scrutiny. “And what of your daughters? The nine you so thoughtlessly cast into my realm without concern for announcement or permission?”

  He scowled as embers of agitation stoked the white-hot hollows of his heart. Who was this creature who so easily questioned his authority? What manner of being was she, to place judgment on his commands?

  His gaze followed as she crossed to the balcony and surveyed the fires abrading his desolate planet. The deep yearning to join her, to stand and invite her counsel made his scowl deepen farther still. Never before had he sought the opinion of another. To do so would surely weaken his dominion over all those who knelt at his feet.

  She sighed and shook her head, leaned past the railing and pursed her lips. Every filament in his being tightened with desire, and he stood awe-struck by her radiant beauty. Her mouth beheld the dew and curve of a parted rose. One kiss from her, and surely he would never know thirst again.

  His hair was drawn forward with her deep intake of breath and he pressed the auburn locks from his eyes to keep her within sight. The swell of her breasts, the curve of her hips and thighs…each part of her would cool the heated lust in his veins.

  A chill wind issued forth. Crystalline droplets hung in the air as she expelled the extent of her lungs toward the hissing globe. One pounding stride forward, and he gazed down at the misty clouds hovering around his creation. She swept her hand aside and the evidence of what she had wrought became clear.

  A shell of white ice blanketed the once blistering surface of his planet, sparkling and glistening beneath his rays like a shroud of the purest bright diamonds.

  Surprise overtook him and he stared wide-eyed at the goddess at his side. Not in all his lonely days, had another impressed their ruling upon his domain.

  “You have wreaked havoc throughout the heavens.” She crossed her arms and jutted her chin forward. “And this is the final occasion I shall lower myself to clean up your messes.”

  A hearty laugh gathered force deep inside him and he tossed his head back to enjoy the full gale of his delight. The warm gust of his amusement fluttered through her hair and she turned her head, lifting a protective arm to shield her face.

  Eons in tide of time had passed since he last beheld such satisfaction in another. Indeed, she was not just an ideal match for him in grace and form. Her honor, strength and determination soundly confirmed she was the parted half of his heart.

  She narrowed her gaze and little chips of ice sparkled along the fringe of her lashes, yet still he chuckled and shook his head. Surely, the depth of her wrath was not to be taken lightly, though he could not be more pleased by her frosty reception.

  “Your daughters weep and are without solace in my realm, yet you have the audacity to laugh and disregard their plight as if their hearts are not broken?”

  She misunderstood. And he was fully primed to shine a light upon the error of her ways.

  He strode forward and her pale eyes widened with the rumble of his approach. The cold bite of her skin cooled his palms as he cupped her porcelain cheeks and drew her near. “I shall not undo what has been done. My daughters were soundly warned of their punishments and must forfeit their place at my side. But you, my pale goddess…” He touched his lips to hers and the air sizzled at the melding of dark against light, cold surrendering to hot. “You shall stay and divulge the mysteries of your exquisite beauty to my ravenous eye.”

  Her fingers encircled his wrists and she tugged as he brought her forward a second time, but his purpose would not be swayed. He tipped his head and imbibed once again on the sweet nectar of her lips, swallowing her gasp of surprise. The atmosphere surrounding them hummed; the light behind his closed eyelids crackled. Her tight hold on him loosened and the cool planes of her palms skimmed the heat of his arms.

  Yes …

  At long last, he had found her. They had found each other.

  The moment her mouth parted, he accepted her invitation and dipped his tongue inside. The walls of his palace shook. Tremors quaked down his limbs as she surrendered and her body softened beneath his hands. Her moonlit fingers slid home into the fiery licks of his hair. Her tongue swept his and the potency of her essence burst across the infinity of his mind. She tasted of moonbeams, the profound wisdom of the universe…of distant journeys and mysteries to be solved.

  Existence paused. All creatures in the heavens halted and tur
ned on their paths.

  An ache for more surged heavy and hot into his thighs. The shaft of his creation hardened between them, and she sighed into his mouth as he pressed the evidence of his arousal against her waist.

  He would plunder until every intricacy of her desire was imprinted on the diagram of the cosmos. The flame of his heart roared and heat leapt from the surface of his skin. He would kneel at her feet and beg until she consented to ease the unending appetite of his needs.

  Fisting his hair in her fingers, she wrenched his head back. Lightning cracked as their kiss was severed. Her hands shoved against his chest, and she withdrew. Disbelief floated in her gaze and she blinked, placing her fingertips to her kiss-swollen lips. “No. This cannot be. I shall not be made victim to your unforgiving radiance.”

  Frustration swirled and formed a raging inferno in his chest. After such a joining, she could not deny their fates were bound by a higher cause.

  “It can and it shall be.” He reached for her with both hands, but she withdrew another pace.

  “No.” Defiance hardened her features and a crisp wind whipped her hair into a white froth about her shoulders. “For centuries past, I have witnessed the horrific result of the sun gods’ pitiless yearnings.” She lifted her hands and the bluster of an arctic breeze lofted her skyward. “The heat of your lust would singe me to ashes, and I would not survive the love of your white heart.”

  He fell to his knees, and a cry of loss broke from his throat as she shimmered into non-existence.

  * * *

  With a flick of her hand, Selene whisked closed the ebony curtain of her kingdom as she strode into her palace. She pulled a breath deep into her lungs and ice pellets coated the air with her shaky exhalation. Surely, she could not contemplate one night in the sun god’s arms in exchange for the whole of her existence. She placed a trembling hand to her brow and willed the searing bliss of his passionate kiss away. She could not welcome him back into her arms and risk forfeiting her place in the heavens. Above all, her rule of the night must be maintained.

  She placed a flat hand to the quivering arousal in her belly. Instead of fouling her tongue with the tang of burnt ash, his lips had tasted of creation, the essence of life, that first breath of might from which all things were born. Her eyes fluttered closed, and she shivered. How warm his hands had been…how gloriously luminous and inviting the pull of his nearness.

  His high unlined brow beheld an intellect beyond the ages. The excitement embroiled in the amber depths of his gaze displayed impatience for things yet to come. Each portion of his hot masculine form had molded perfectly to hers…and yet he’d shivered in her embrace. He’d allowed her interference on his planet and expressed joy at her reproach. He’d declared her place at his side and collapsed to his knees in anguish when she departed.

  Were those the actions of a god whose intent was to destroy her?

  “You have fallen under his spell.” The voluptuous goddess sauntered near Selene’s side—Lithra, her name was called. The generous curves of her hips and pendulous breasts shifted beneath her white gown as she circled Selene on bare feet. She closed her eyes and sighed. “Your desire for him sings a melody of yearning to the fabric of my soul.”

  As a goddess of creation, Lithra would be finely attuned to Selene’s desperate longing, but she dismissed the dangers should Selene surrender to her heart.

  “No matter the force that draws us together, I cannot return to your father’s side. To do so would risk my survival and the guardianship of those who inhabit my realm.” A cold tear tumbled onto Selene’s cheek, and she briskly swept it away. “We must remain apart.”

  “And yet you weep.” Lithra opened her eyes and gifted Selene a serene smile. “You have become one of us. A goddess to gaze lovingly at his kingdom but never enter.” Her footfalls were silent against the obsidian blankness of space as she wandered toward the window and tugged the veil aside. “A being who has encountered the enchantment of his radiance, and yet is forever denied his captivating presence.”

  Selene peered toward the sparkling sun god and approached the parting of her inky curtain, the whole of her being instinctively lured toward the beauty of his warmth and light. A hail of starry streaks burst forth from the halo surrounding his kingdom and she stopped in her path, placing a hand over her heart. “What miracle is this?”

  His daughters rushed to join Lithra before the window, and stood in wonder as the glittering sparks scattered far across the mantle of Selene’s shadowy realm. One by one, they became embedded in the obsidian vastness of the cosmos, until a small corner of her domain twinkled as if diamonds had been dusted at her feet.

  “He breathes to life another companion.” The auburn waves of Eolande’s hair blazed bright, and Selene edged away from the fiery maelstrom accompanying the goddess’ complaint. Was it jealousy or anger that spiked her temperature to such a degree?

  “No.” Cassiel pointed toward the glistening jewels. “Those are not beings of light. See there? They hold no form or function.”

  “Yet they shine as if part and parcel of his being.” In’am glanced toward Selene. “And he has tossed them into your realm.”

  Fear slid icy and sleek into the chambers of Selene’s heart and she withdrew a pace, studying the glowing faces of the nine goddesses before her. For their father to cast off pieces of himself would weakened him. He would collapse beneath the weight of his kingdom and all those within range would falter in the absence of his light. “But why would he do such a thing? What purpose could be served?”

  “Perchance he looked inward and suffers a tide of self-loathing,” Aldreda whispered.

  “Or perchance he seeks to dim his heat in deference to your will.” Fortuna floated her hand aloft to cup Selene’s cheek, and a delicate mist coated the icy air at the contact. “I shall venture near to his seat and make my presence known and, by means of his blessing, I shall determine the cause of this sacrifice.”

  The goddess vanished before Selene had the chance to command her elsewise. She closed her eyes and touched her fingertips to her cheek, and a sigh issued forth as the warmth of Fortuna’s presence slowly ebbed.

  Chapter Three

  Sprawled upon the seat of his golden throne, Helios broke another luminous ray off his form and pitched it into the ether. The jab of pain lasted the eternity of an instant, yet he had not the wherewithal to care.

  Nine daughters he’d breathed to life. To each of them he bequeathed a portion of his character. And when their inner lights displayed those same traits he carried within himself, he’d wearied of their presence. He’d grown angry with their folly and judged them insufficient for his wife.

  A sardonic laugh shook his shoulders and the walls of his palace trembled in deference to his misery. The reasoning behind why the moon goddess had deemed him less than adequate to be her lover was certainly no mystery. He’d concluded the same result through the exploits of his daughters.

  He sighed and wrenched another luminescent beam from his being, crushed the shard in the ball of his fist and allowed the stardust to shift through his fingers. The moon goddess had come to plead his daughters’ case and, so distracted by the frost of her beauty, he’d considered nothing but the fulfillment of his needs. Much like Lithra, he’d permitted the conflagration of his lust to overwhelm his reasoning and, throughout the solitary unfurling of the eons, he would eternally regret his choice.

  Rising slowly from his throne, he peered toward the edge of his kingdom and the obsidian line which would forever haunt his reign. The moment she’d departed, he’d summoned the full force of his glare to chase after her, but his light was no match for the vastness of her realm. No matter how close he trod to the tremulous edge, his radiance was muted…absorbed and stolen by the emptiness of space.

  He rested his shoulder against the threshold to his balcony and shifted his radiance to the lush carpet encircling his earthly globe. The hard shell of ice she’d breathed onto its surface had thawed to shades of gre
en and blue—a divine blessing bestowed his creation amid the heat of their searing kiss, and one he’d realized much too late to convince her to stay at his side.

  Yet what did this marvel matter? For all his arrogance, perchance he was but one god of many she’d deigned to visit. Perchance in all her wanderings, he was not the first to pledge his vow. It would be no shock to learn her love was sought by several of his kind.

  “Father.”

  Pushing up from the doorway, he squinted toward the hazy brink of his kingdom. There, hovering just outside the farthest reach of his light, the eldest of his daughters perched on the cusp between day and night.

  “Fortuna…” Her name fell as a whisper from his lips.

  She smiled at him from across the rolling canopy of his azure sky. “Do not despair, Father. All is not lost. The moon goddess has borne witness to your sacrifice and she longs to return to your realm. Yet she fears the union of your forms will destroy her. She has not the strength to withstand the fervor of your white heart.”

  Joy surged and he blazed bright against the walls of his castle. The moon goddess did not despise him as he had feared. She yearned for their love just as he did…and yet she worried the intensity of his passion would spoil all they hoped to share.

  His jaw firmed as his rays glistened and warmed the atmosphere. Quavering waves of heat shimmered and lofted through the air.

  Had she witnessed the same of her sisters? As she traveled her path through the heavens, did the moon goddess weep crystalline tears for those who drifted charred and lifeless beneath the light of her pale eye?

  His heart rebelled at the image of harming her in such a way. She had come to him on behalf of his daughters. She had welcomed them home into her realm. After soothing the blistering torture of his planet, she had yielded under the bidding of his kiss.