by S. K Munt
‘Yes, father,’ Miguel whispered, sinking to his knees in front of his creator with his winged son gurgling happily in his arms. ‘I know you, and I know what you want from us and I will die mortal with love in my heart for you, for this chance.’
God kissed Elijah’s little fingers, then smiled at the little girl standing behind them and whispered: ‘I know. Because despite mankind’s lack of faith in me, I have never loved any of you one little bit less.’
And then he was gone, and the angels wept.
But, God took the faith and love within every surviving mortal soul with him, and so Heaven had never shone as brightly or been as warm as it was in the moment when Life received its second chance on earth, under the golden Barachiel crown.
END OF BOOK VI
PART THREE
21.
August 2nd AA644
It took eight days for us to sail home, and although I had ample time to converse with the duchess over our prospective arrangement, there was little to no privacy on the ship and as pleasant as she was acting toward me, it would have aroused suspicions if we’d been caught engaged in a deep and meaningful conversation, so neither of us tried. We could have attempted a plotting session again upon our arrival as well, but the last few days of the voyage home took us across rough coastal seas, so by the time I got back into my own, non-moving bed, I was quite content to stay there and sleep without thinking and dream of nothing but sleeping through the night in Kohl’s arms. I’d said she had until the end of the year to liberate me, but I wasn’t going ANYWHERE until the castle stopped swaying!
I had such strange dreams- of the golden man giving me away while I was being married to Kohl but then stealing off with the groom and taking him over into the Wildwoods after, of Emmerly marrying both men, and of Kelia learning to play a trumpet naked to win Karol’s hand. They were all creepy enough to be disturbing, but odd enough for me to be able to laugh them off soon after waking, but in every dream, the golden man made an appearance in some way… he was always in the periphery- a flash of blonde hair and that charming smile that reminded me of something oozing, and I’d wake with a start every time our eyes locked, suddenly fearful of leaving Eden and all of the security that I had known since I’d turned five, to enter a world where I would be within HIS reach again.
Then I’d remember the way I’d felt when Kohén had inspected me, and the mortification of Karol’s glazed smile beside him, and that was enough to jolt me back into reality- security was a broad term for a Companion in Eden! And I’d take off fighting an evil Nephilim like my father, over a good Nephilim like Karol now that I’d seen what the angelic duchess was capable of doing! Add lust to that sort of obligation to guard an asset and… my skin crawled, and I immediately got out of bed, showered, and then went looking for the duchess.
‘Hello, Larkin! Long time, eh?’ Karol said to me when I bumped into him in the cross-section of the hallway. I had to admit to myself that he looked even better than before I’d left. His hair had been cut in a new, shorter style and he had a slight shadow of stubble around his jaw. The Pacifican style of men’s attire had been sexy in a revealing way, but Karol didn’t need to reveal an inch of his physique to look alluring. In leather pants, a white ruffled-shirt, a sheathed sword at his hip and black boots, he looked like a dark prince from times past, or more like his pirate of a brother.
And every inch the rake still! He’s like a wolf… don’t let him see you staring or the canines will sink into your flesh!
I raised an eyebrow. ‘Didn’t I see you at the dock like, three days ago?’ I scratched my head. ‘Or was that a nightmare…?’
‘You certainly looked nightmarish when you disembarked,’ he teased, not taking any obvious offence to a very obvious insult, and I shrugged and turned to walk away, not feeling energetic enough yet to battle him. He caught my skirt and said: ‘But you look lovely now.’
I’d yanked my hair into a limp ponytail and hadn’t done more than wash my face with soap. ‘Um, thanks- you know how I try!’ The door behind him opened and I saw Adeline step out and smile at me, wriggling her fingers. Her red hair was styled into lovely waves which complimented her thick hourglass shape, and I thought for the millionth time that she was the most sensuous woman in Arcadia, and felt as though the girls from my year looked like gangly children compared to her, which I supposed we still were. Lord, what did Karol see in me to make him so like a dog with a bone? ‘Anyway, I see that you have an obligation to uphold so… I’ll just-’
‘Hang on, smart arse…’ Karol said as Adeline tittered. ‘I need to ask you something about the plantations you saw… Kohén hasn’t come out of bed either yet, and I’m most curious-’
‘He’s probably reliving the highlights of his trip in bed alone...’ I muttered under my breath, but then said more loudly. ‘Oh?’
‘Yes. Adeline, this will be boring so just wait inside for me, okay?’ he tapped his hip. ‘And go warm up for the fight of your life!’
‘Certainly, your highness. And hello Larkin! Aren’t you tanned!’
‘Hello Adeline,’ I said as she went back into her room and closed the door. ‘You really do look as lovely as always.’
‘Thank you!’
‘Yes thank you,’ Karol said, waving her off. ‘And get stretching!’
‘Yes sire!’
The door shut. I threw up in my brain at the sword-fighting façade he was trying to evoke- knowing that his blade would likely be pressed to her neck in his duelling, pillaging fantasy while she remained unarmed and flexible, and then Karol was coming around in front of me and taking my hands.
‘So…?’
I blinked at him. ‘Um... what do you want to know? The crops are-’
‘I don’t care about the crops,’ Karol said, waving his hand. ‘I already talked to dad about all of that.’ He swung my arms a little, grinning. ‘How was it? It must have been pretty thrilling, yeah?’ he leaned closer and whispered, conspiratorially. ‘The sun, the sand, the fields…? I’ve been dying to see you again, and to hear how you enjoyed it.’
I stared at him for a long moment and then cleared my throat and said: ‘Um, are you making chit chat with me?’
Karol looked confused. ‘Well, that’s a pretty traditional thing to do when you haven’t seen someone in five weeks…. and then only sporadically for almost six months before that... And I heard about how you finally managed to win over mother and I am most impressed and eager to hear your side of the heroic story...’ his voice faded and he frowned at my bewildered expression. ‘What?’
I pointed down the hallway. ‘You want to talk to me about winning over your mother while there’s a woman probably stripping for you in there? Because I really, really don’t.’
Karol followed my eyes, then back to me and the furrow between his brows deepened. ‘You’re still convinced that this is a den for perverts to pass time in? Larkin, grow up. You’ll be eighteen in about ten months-’
‘You know when I’m turning eighteen?’ I asked, surprised. ‘What an odd thing to keep track of!’
He shrugged. ‘It’s not so strange.’
‘But I just turned seventeen-’ and then I realised why he’d monitor such a thing as my ageing, and I experienced an internal shuttering of consciousness against vile thoughts. ‘Oh God…’ I stepped into him. ‘You have a countdown?’ I hissed.
How am I going to get off this hook when he’s already baited it and submerged it?!
Karol’s expression didn’t register a single emotion that I could identify. ‘It’s not so strange…’
‘It’s more than strange. It’s weird, and very desperate for a beautiful man with your charisma to need to stoop-’ I squeaked as Karol leaned in and kissed me, shoving him off me with so much force that he thunked into the wall behind him hard enough for the sound to reverberate along the corridor, and still I lifted my fist and sent it straight into his solar plexus. His eyes widened then narrowed viciously, and I dropped my hands like they were we
apons and stepped back, blinking rapidly and realising that I’d probably just jumped the banishment gun a little prematurely! And even though he’d hurdled the proprietary one and scared me to do so, I was sure to be the only one pay for it!
I had a furtive, silent conference with my brain and my pride and my fear for about four seconds before my brain overruled the rest of the triumvirate. ‘Your highness!’ I whispered, bowing my head. ‘I am so-’
‘Don’t apologise,’ Karol wheezed, then moved back and lifted my face to his. His eyes were emerald fire but as he pressed his hand to his stomach, I saw the redness of breathlessness immediately began to leave his complexion. He really could heal quickly, and when he spoke again, his tone was almost normal. ‘I like that mouth so much more when it’s sneering at me, and what I just did was wrong. But I…’ his eyes dropped to my mouth and every muscle in my body locked. ‘I missed you,’ he whispered. ‘And hearing you toot my horn for once instead of me having to do it to gain your notice overcame me…’
‘I didn’t toot your anything,’ I said, pushing his hand away again as my pride shoved my brain our of the driver’s seat and changed gears. ‘I stated a fact: you’re not a mutant, and you’re good at bull-shitting.’
‘You said beautiful and charismatic.’
‘Then perhaps the Given girls need to be given a thesaurus that will allow them to understate things so their masters can keep up!’
But Karol only smiled more brightly. ‘You said beautiful and charismatic,’ he repeated, ‘and you’re a walking thesaurus.’
‘I meant the other things more!’
‘That I do not doubt. But Larkin… you’d better watch that tongue of yours, or find yourself the recipient of my birthday wish.’
‘You’d have to be turning three hundred to have enough fucking candles to blow out-’ but he pressed me up against the wall and that silenced me pretty quickly with a single, heated look that told me what he wanted to do with me with much more clarity than the guidelines ever had!
Heel pride; fear’s got this one!
‘I get a thirtieth birthday wish, which must be granted, so long as it’s within reason and that it is only a positive change, and not a selfish one,’ he said. ‘My father wished for the city of Janiel to become a Kingdom, and my grandfather wished for the Artisan caste to be expanded by a further five percent to allow more people in, in memory of his mother, who had failed to qualify as a dancer by two points.’ He pressed me closer to the wall. ‘And if you’re not careful, my wish will be to have you transferred into my harem.’
I sucked in a breath, certain that I’d gone purple. ‘You said it couldn’t be a selfish request!’ But Karol only leered more and responded:
‘Once you experienced what I’d do to you, you’d agree that it was a blessing bestowed upon you- and I could have Adeline come out here and back me up on that!’ he wriggled his eyebrows. ‘She likes you, you know: says you’re a firecracker.’
‘Gee, that’s swell, but you are out of your mind if you think that I’d go to you by FORCE without a fucking noose around my neck!’ I spit out, and he pulled back quickly, losing all of his colour. ‘And if you kiss me again, I’m telling Kohén-’
‘I don’t care,’ he said, shrugging but still looking wounded. ‘Ekita Tariel has already married, and I don’t have to raise funds for a locust panacea anymore so his threat of muddying my name for the Tariel crown is redundant!’
‘Well the other things will piss him off plenty, and you won’t live to see your thirtieth birthday!’ I turned to stalk away, but his voice followed me.
‘Why only if I do it again?’ he asked quietly. ‘Why not now?’ I didn’t answer, only kept walking long the corridor. ‘Larkin?’ I heard his footfalls rush after me, and then his hand was on my wrist and pulling me back. ‘Larkin, what’s wrong?’ I almost laughed, but I clapped my hand to my mouth and bowed my head before a hysterical giggle-sob could slip out. ‘Larkin...’ his voice was harder. ‘You said you’d trust me so trust me now and tell me what’s going on, why you turned down your field, why you and Kohén haven’t come out of your rooms for three days, and why I heard a ridiculous rumour that he had group sex with-’
I sucked in a breath, for his words hit me right in the solar plexus this time. It had been hard to deal with in Pacifica, but remembering Kohén’s betrayal while back within Eden’s walls was too much. We’d grown here together, and now we were nothing to each other and it was going to be so much harder to face this new, awful reality without a kinder, gentler version of Kohén’s eyes on standby to remind me that I was worth something to somebody, or that Kelia was worth a reprieve because she meant something to me.
‘It wasn’t a rumour,’ I whispered. ‘So Congratulations, because your sweet baby brother has grown up to be just like YOU. In fact, he’s surpassed you and your father in the rotten way, because he didn’t even like Kelia- and YET- he fucked her to get even with me!’ I yanked my elbow out of his grip and stared at him, letting him see the hate in my eyes. ‘Yes, be proud, Karol, you’ve set an even harder example to follow than your father has, and your mother is practically overflowing with tears over it. Joyful ones I’m sure…’ I dropped the fake smile. ‘But because we both know that they’re not, as mine are not- you and Kohén can go fuck yourselves until you find a suitable, legal opportunity to take turns raping me!’
Karol’s face went white. ‘It’s not rape!’
‘It’s not consensual either,’ I pointed out. ‘You ask five year-old girls to sign a contract that forces them to become sex slaves, and threaten to kick them out to face off with worse predators if they buck against it later!’
‘That’s not-’ Karol raked his hands through his dark hair, looking agitated and averting his eyes and I knew I was on dangerous grounds but I pressed on while he was speechless, enjoying that element of our interaction very much!
‘I don’t care if they end up calling to you, I don’t care if you wait until they’re of age to penetrate them and I don’t care how hard they come after- we are not Companions to you, we are things! Stolen little girls trained to be princesses only to become sticky with your seed, abused, brainwashed little dolls that YOU punish for marital sins committed in the time before! And the ones you deceive into believing that they are loved better here than they could be anywhere else are the most abused of all!’ Karol opened his mouth but I raised my voice and screamed: ‘And if God is okay with it, then he can go fuck himself TOO because I will give my heart to SATAN before I give my body to a Barachiel against my will, especially one who would wish for a lustful encounter on his birthday- instead of something positive for his people!’
Doors opened around me, and with those damning words expelled from me, I began to shake with fear and exhaustion. Karol staggered back as though I had struck him and satisfied by that, I turned on my heel and fled.
‘Bolt your doors everybody!’ I cried as I ran past the pool, where Kelia was sitting with her radio on beside her, humming while painting her nails. ‘There is a wolf in the halls ready to huff and puff and blow your pride down in his anger with me- possibly with three of you at once!’
‘Larkin calm yourself!’ Karol bellowed after me. ‘I do not want to have to punish you for this conduct, but I will report your foul language to Shep if you frighten your friends!’
I pivoted, my ponytail whipping around my shoulders, my breathing haggard. Adeline was right on Karol’s heels and her eyes were so bright with anxiety, and so like Martya's in that moment that I couldn’t keep the next words in: ‘I don’t believe it was an accident,’ I said, my throat tightening around the words. ‘And when I die, don’t YOU believe it was a coincidence, no matter what your lover whispers to convince you otherwise!’ And then I turned again and bolted.
‘Oh, God…’ Adeline whispered, and for the first time ever- she actually sounded troubled. ‘Lark…’
‘Larkin!’ the wolf howled my name and, feeling genuine fear for my life, I doubled my strides and s
lammed through the north wing door and straight out the back, ready to hurtle myself into the electric fence before I allowed Karol to place even one fingertip on me.
Banishment it is!
22.
I spied the duchess sitting by Martya’s old pumpkin garden as I galloped by, which served to further enhance my paranoia that she’d had something to do with my friend’s death, because she was the only person other than me who went there. I stampeded towards her, breathless, then reached down and picked up a handful of leaves. With a trembling open palm, I scattered them to the wind.
‘This is my future,’ I croaked, watching the ochre and golden leaves whip past and out to the rear stone fence. ‘Martya foresaw it! If I don’t get out of here while I am still a sapling, then one of them will see that I grow roots and die behind this fence. And after the scene I just caused in the harem, I’ll be lucky to have that sort of fate, and not Martya’s sort!’
‘What do you know of Martya’s fate?’ she asked me quietly.
‘What do YOU know?’ I demanded.
‘Nothing,’ she smoothed out her skirt and sighed, not looking up at me. ‘Always nothing.’
‘Then why are you here? It reeks of a guilty conscience!’
Constance shrugged. She looked as beautiful and fresh and as crisp as the air, in an ice-blue gown that was fitted tightly around her torso, cleavage and wrists, but then flared out in multiple layers of a soft fabric in various shades of pale blue which seemed to deepen with every layer, then pooled around her like a downy cloud where she sat. Her hair was swept up in the sort of top knot that would have looked too severe on anyone else, but it took years off her, as did the delicate blue ribbon-bow perched at the base of it, which matched the elegant sash fastened around her tiny waist. ‘I do have a guilty conscience, because I wished her dead when I learned that she’d found a cure for the damage I planned on continuing to do for many years to come.’ She picked up a shrivelled cherry tomato. ‘But I did not kill her, Larkin, and neither did my husband. I was going to Pacifica that night and that was all I cared about and as soon as I’d set sail, it was the last thing I wanted to talk about, and all that he did. But we were at sea, so we were not involved in her accident.’