by CJ England
A sick feeling started in his gut as he checked her breathing, relieved when he felt it. Why wouldn’t she wake up?
A twitter from the door made him turn around. A small bird stood there, her black eyes blinking worriedly as she danced from foot to foot. He nodded. “I know I’m late, but there’s something wrong with her.”
Realizing he couldn’t take anymore time to find out, he bent and lifted Aithne into his arms, groaning at the effort. Even her small nude frame was difficult for him this morning, with his strength nearly used up. Turning, he staggered groggily out the door towards the nest he had built the day before.
Sweat rolled down his face as he moved slowly across the meadow toward the tall tree which held the sacred nest. It took all the power he had just to put one foot in front of the other. He felt as if he were slogging through quicksand, his feet stuck deep into the clinging mud.
But his eyes glowed with conviction. He would make it to his nest and Aithne and he would be reborn together. There could be no other ending. Not after all they had been through.
His heart was hammering like a jack hammer and his body was drenched in sweat when he finally reached the base of the tree. The nest was about ten feet off the ground, but a ramp was built up to it. Even before, he’d had trouble climbing in due to age and frailty at the time of his rebirth. He was grateful for his forethought now.
He staggered up the ramp just as the first finger of dawn touched the sky. He shouted aloud in defiance. He had made it.
But his joy turned to ashes when he reached the side of the nest. A blue flame shot up to the clouds and barred his way. When he tried to go through it, it pushed him back.
“What is happening?” he shouted to the heavens. “Why can’t I get in?”
There was a sharp crack of thunder and the smell of sulfur filled the glade. An evil laugh made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. Turning swiftly, he froze when he saw the form of the Ancient One standing at the bottom of the ramp.
“Foolish Phoenix,” Satan drawled. “You can’t get in because you are breaking the rules.”
Milcham shook his head in frustration. “What are you talking about? What rules? I have kept them all.”
The Devil cackled with laughter. “Don’t you remember? It was one of the very first commands you were given.” The being pointed to the limp woman in Milcham’s arms. “She must choose to leap into the fire with you. You can’t force her.”
Milcham swore. “I am not forcing her. She wants to do this. She came here with me, didn’t she? But something is wrong. I can’t wake her up.”
The Ancient One examined his long nails. “Well…I suppose that’s what comes from overindulgence in wine. In fact…” he peered at Milcham. “…I’m surprised to see you up and about at all.”
Realization dawned. “It was you,” he breathed. “You gave us the wine.” His gut twisted with anger and disbelief. “You poisoned it!”
“Oh no, dear boy,” Satan corrected him. “Not poison. It’s not allowed. I can’t hurt you…remember? It was just a sleeping potion.” His face twisted into a mask of anger. “I’d hoped you’d both sleep through the sunrise.”
“This isn’t right,” snarled Milcham. “You have taken away her choice. It’s not fair.”
The dark one smiled. “There was nothing in the rules about hurting her, Phoenix. Although, she was difficult. She has a strong heart and she is loyal.”
“Then wake her. Give her the chance to make the choice.”
“Why would I want to do that?” the Devil questioned. “I’ve just spent the last eight centuries trying to destroy you. Losing your mate again will be a delicious irony, won’t it?”
Milcham’s eyes burned with tears of anger. “It was you, wasn’t it? A century ago? You took her away from me.”
Satan shrugged. “I tried to kill her, but her brother’s love was stronger than my hate. Instead I had to settle for distracting you from her for awhile.” He sighed. “I lost track of her, thinking she was safely out of the way. Then to my surprise, she shows up at your carnival…human again.” He gave a wry glance up to heaven. “I think she had a little help, there.” Then his eyes flashed. “I didn’t know who she was at first, even used a vision spell to enhance your desire for her, thinking she would be a distraction. Imagine my shock, when I realized she was the woman I tried to destroy a hundred years ago.”
“You must release her,” Milcham shouted. “Time is slipping away. It isn’t fair of you to do this. It wasn’t what Yahweh intended.”
“I guess we’ll never know, will we?” The Ancient One smiled. “At last I have you right where I want you. I have waited eons for this moment.”
Frustrated beyond belief, Milcham turned and tried to leap through the blue wall of flame. There was a long hiss of power, and the wall exploded knocking him and his precious bundle to the ground.
There was a loud laugh and looking up, Satan stood above them. Leaving, Aithne lying on the ground, Milcham stood to face his enemy. “Let her go!” he shouted again.
The Devil laughed again. “No. You have a choice, Phoenix. Go into the fire alone. Save yourself and become immortal again so you can live for another thousand years mired in loneliness. You would always know you had made your decision and left the woman you say you love…behind.”
Milcham stared at the dark one. Then his eyes moved to Aithne, lying still on the ground. His heart shredded in agony. He loved her. The thought of being without her ripped at his soul. He closed his eyes in anguish, remembering the last time he’d walked away from his mate. As bad as that had been, there was no describing the misery he was going through now. Aithne was his whole world. How could he go on without her?
“Or,” came the Devil’s insidious voice. “You can choose not to walk into the flame.”
Milcham opened his eyes, flinching at his enemy’s tone. He stared into the smug evil face and felt his soul shrink. “What are you talking about?”
The Ancient One bared his teeth. “Don’t you know?” He laughed in genuine amusement. “Are you sure I can’t tempt you, one last time?”
“That’s what this whole thing has been about, hasn’t it?” Milcham exploded. “I wouldn’t give into you in the garden and so you want to destroy me. You’ve been trying for the last thousand years, starting with this challenge.”
“You sound so surprised.” Satan shook his head. “And this is about much more than you, Phoenix. This is about proving to your God that everyone has a price. No one is beyond temptation. Not even his favorite, the most loyal of all his creations…The Phoenix.”
He stepped up closer. “You are running out of time, you know. Stay with your mate. Stay mortal. Choose what you wouldn’t choose in the garden. Choose to die.”
Icy pain shot through Milcham. It would come to this. He had to pick between his immortality and his life with Aithne. Everlasting and eternal life alone, or the short span of a normal human male’s years with the woman he loved. Without the fire, he would be caught in this human body forever, unable to shift into the beautiful form of the Phoenix. He would be grounded, never again able to soar through the skies, feeling the warmth of the sun on his face. Stripped of his gifts, of what made him who he was…he would be a mere man. Another one of those, who had been tempted by the Ancient One…and fallen.
He stared down at Aithne’s still face and then back up at the evil creature who stood before him. There was no way to win this challenge. Not with Satan calling the shots. It was just like before, although this time evil wasn’t offering him the fruit, he was offering him… Milcham narrowed his eyes. Just what was he being offered? He thought for a long moment, and then it hit him.
He was being offered nothing evil, he realized. In fact, just the opposite. He was being offered…love.
Warmth unfurled within him, chasing away the icy pain of failure. His eyes glowed in sudden comprehension. He was wrong. It wasn’t the same. Before, he’d turned away from his mate because he refused to do evil.
But loving Aithne wasn’t evil. It was just the opposite. It was right and good. Even if it cost him everlasting life, he would still be obeying his Lord. He’d been told to go forth and find his mate and he’d done so.
He’d tried to bring her back and step into the fire with her, but he’d been prevented from doing that. But it didn’t change the fact he’d found his soulmate. Even if it cost him his life, he wouldn’t turn away from her.
She was his everything.
He glared up at the Devil who smirked down at him. “You have finally succeeded in tempting me. I will stay with her, Satan, because I love her.”
The Ancient One’s dark eyes smoldered with glee. “You would deny your God. Curse him now, for not protecting you.”
Milcham shook his head. “I will not curse him. Never! You may steal away my immortality, and take away my home in the walled city, but I will not reject Yahweh.” He bent and gathered the unconscious Aithne in his arms. “I have no reason to do so.” He brushed back an ebony strand of hair. “He has given me my mate. All I have ever desired, I hold now in my arms.”
Satan gave a snarl that shook the trees. “You think she will love you now? You will be nothing! The man she loves will disappear with the rising of the sun.”
Milcham glanced over his shoulder at the rapidly approaching dawn. His heart twinged once with the knowledge of his loss, but then he looked back down at Aithne’s face. “What she and I have, a creature like you will never understand.” He jerked his head up and his amber eyes stared at the Ancient One. “I have made my choice. I will stay with her.”
There was a sudden clap of thunder and the wind blew fiercely. In his arms, Aithne stirred and yawned. When she saw him, she smiled. “Is it morning?”
His throat was tight when he bent and kissed her. “It is, Assai.”
She sat up and looked around her. “What’s happened? Is it time? Is that why we’re here?”
He crushed her against him. “I have something to tell you.”
She held him to her. “What’s wrong?”
The Devil’s evil laugh broke them apart and Aithne gasped when she looked up and saw him staring down at her. She struggled to her feet, and with Milcham’s help stood swaying back and forth as she fought against the dizziness that threatened her.
The Ancient One laughed again. “I have allowed her to awaken. Tell her, Phoenix. Tell her what you’ve done.”
Gritting his teeth, Milcham turned Aithne to face him. “Last night the wine we thought was sent by the Lord, was in fact sent by this creature…the Devil.”
Her eyes widened. “Satan?”
He nodded. “Yes. And in that wine was a sleeping herb. It caused us both to oversleep. I finally awoke, perhaps because my immortal body refused the brew, but the sleeping potion put you into an unnatural sleep and try as I might, I couldn’t awaken you.” He touched her face. “I tried to carry you into the flame, but it wouldn’t accept you.”
“But I wanted to go with you,” Aithne cried in pain and frustration as she realized what he was saying. Fury filled her mind and soul. It wasn’t fair. “I wanted to.”
“I know you did. But remember…I promised Yahweh you would make the choice on your own. You had to know the risks and if you were unconscious, I couldn’t prove you had chosen this path with no reservations.”
Tears welled up in her eyes, and she turned angrily and faced the enemy who had destroyed her family, and now taken her love from her. “This is your fault. You knew I wanted to go with him.”
“Fair or not, he made his choice without you.”
Aithne’s hand itched to slap the satisfied look off his ugly face. Milcham, sensing her anger, pulled her back to him. “It is all right, Assai. We will be together.”
She wiped her face. “I know…I know. But it isn’t right. I will grow old and you will live forever. I will take whatever time we have together, but it still isn’t fair.”
Satan cackled loudly behind them. “But that’s just it, my dear. He won’t live forever. He isn’t the Phoenix anymore. He is only an ordinary man. He chose to become mortal, so he could stay with you. The man you think you love…is no more.”
Her mouth dropped open and she swung back around to Milcham. “Tell me he lies! Tell me you didn’t do this.”
He swallowed and shook his head. “I can’t. I would rather be human with you, than immortal without you.” He cradled her wet face in his hands. “I love you.”
Aithne stared at him her mind numbed with shock. He’d given up his immortality for her? Some small part of her was pleased he cared so much he would sacrifice himself, but the rest of her was appalled. She couldn’t…wouldn’t be the cause of this.
“You can’t,” she choked out. “You must get in the fire. You are the last of your kind. You can’t die.”
“He can’t.” Satan rocked back and forth in satisfied delight. “He has made his choice. He won’t break his word, you know that.”
She ignored him and put her hands on his broad chest. “Please, Milcham. I love you. I want us to be together, but not like this.”
“He is right, Assai,” her lover said quietly. “I have made my choice. I will be fully human when the last finger of dawn touches the sky.”
Aithne looked over his shoulder, noting the slow lighting of the eastern horizon. She wouldn’t accept it. He was the most important thing in her life, and while he might be happy as her husband, he would never be fully whole again without the Phoenix part of him. His very soul would wither away and die. And she was pretty sure, the Devil knew exactly that. She looked back at the dark form behind her.
“You know what will happen to him, don’t you,” she queried softly. When his eyes glowed with unearthly delight, she flinched. She was right, and she loved Milcham too much to allow that to happen to him. Even though she wouldn’t be allowed to be with him in this beautiful place, she knew what she had to do. Turning back, she caressed his strong jaw with a trembling hand.
“I love you,” she whispered.
“And I love you. We will have a good life, I promise you.”
She sighed and took a step backwards. “You made the choice not to go into the fire, so you can’t change your mind, right?”
“Yes.”
“Fine. She leaned up and kissed him. “Remember how much I love you.”
“I don’t understand,” he growled. “What are you doing?”
She took a deep breath. “Changing your mind for you.” With all the superhuman strength she had left, she pushed him, hard, right into the wall of blue flame. Caught unawares, he tumbled through it with no resistance at all, his naked body landing in the nest of spices.
She heard an unholy shriek behind her and before she could think a step further, Satan grabbed her by the arm. “No,” he screamed. “This cannot be. You foolish girl. What have you done?”
The wind whipped around her, but she felt no fear. She gazed at her lover who was clambering to his feet. “I made sure the man I love, will live forever.”
In the nest, Milcham jumped to his feet, shocked beyond belief at her actions. He had made his choice to stay with her out of his undying love. How dare she not respect that? He took a step to climb out of the nest, and came up hard against the wall of blue. He stared in shock.
“No,” he shouted as he pounded his fists against the flame. “Why can I not get out? I must be allowed to go to her.”
Outside the flame, Aithne gave a sob of relief. He couldn’t get out. She could see him beating his hands against the transparent wall, but to no avail. He wasn’t able to leave the nest, which meant she’d saved him. There would be a Phoenix living here, in the walled city for the next thousand years.
“Do you know the trouble you have caused me?” Satan spat at her. “I have planned this so very carefully. Every step of the way…I had contingency plan after contingency plan mapped out. Women, liquor, every temptation known to man I threw at him. And while he may have staggered a bit, he never fell. He was never tempt
ed beyond redemption.” He shook her hard. “But this time, he chose you over his God. This time I had him.
“You’re wrong,” Aithne said joyfully. “You’d already failed. You may have tempted the Phoenix, but his choice was the right one. You forgot perfect love casts out all fear and hatred. He would have stayed for me, because he loved me. But I loved him so much, I chose to let him go. One love, spring boarding off of another. The sign of two soulmates…of true twin-flames is they would give up their lives for each other.”
The Ancient One screamed his fury to the skies, knowing she was right. He had failed because he had forgotten the strongest and most important emotion in the universe.
Love.
“I may have failed with the Phoenix,” he snarled, dragging her close to the flames that separated the lovers, but I won’t fail with you. Not again.” He grabbed her by the hair. “You two will never again know each other’s touch. You may have saved him, but you have condemned yourself.”
Quickly, he pulled back her head, and before the horrified eyes of the man on the other side of the flame, he sliced Aithne’s throat open with his sharp claws.
Chapter Twenty-One
“No!” Milcham shouted as blood poured from a gaping wound in his beloved’s neck. He beat on the walls of his prison. This couldn’t be happening. “Aithne!”
Her eyes flickered in shock and pain as she choked and grabbed at her throat. Scarlet liquid pooled between her fingers and she dropped to her knees.
Satan laughed madly. “I have killed you for taking away the one I truly wanted dead. But even now, I’ve won. He will have to watch as your life blood drains away, and awareness leaves your eyes. A better ending I could not have written myself.”
Aithne could hear her enemy’s words coming as if from a great distance away. Her eyes were fixed on Milcham. His mouth was moving, but the wall prevented her from hearing him. She tried to smile at him. Even though she hadn’t wanted to die, the knowledge she’d saved him would soothe her soul.