by S King
At the moment, she was busy explaining to me the difference between Edgar Allen Poe and Hans Christian Anderson. I had made the stupid comment about saying the two men were the same to which she launched into a lengthy—and detailed—explanation of why they weren’t the same.
I smirked at the passion radiating from her as she talked about a past time, she found the most pleasure in. If only I had found something to be passionate about when I had had the opportunity.
“Now, do you see the difference?” She asked, filling our bowls up with soup again.
I nodded, considering everything she had said about the poet and fairytell author, “I apologize for making such an ignorant assumption.”
Lumi smiled and waved to the inn owner for more tea, “what do you find joy in, Demir Losett? The past several hours I have filled the time with my senseless ramblings and now,” she pointed her spoon at me, “I want to know about you.”
I hated being put on the spot. Unlike most guys, I didn’t care for talking about myself or hearing my own voice. Instead, I took in all of the information thrown in my direction and considered the best way to handle the situation at hand.
Still, looking into her slate gray eyes, I raised a brow and smirked at her, “what do you want to know, Luminous River?”
“Favorite movie?”
“Come Live with Me.”
She froze in lifting her spoon to her mouth and stared at me, “the Jimmy Stewart and Hedy Lamarr movie?”
“Yes.”
“The 1941 movie?”
“Yeah?”
“As in the black and white movie?”
I smirked and tilted my head, “what? Did you think it would be something like Assassin’s Creed or Jar Heads?”
She opened her mouth, closing it quickly as she down cast her eyes, “well, I just didn’t take you for the type of man to like such movies.”
“Why’s that? Because of my brute attitude and strength?”
She snorted and shook her head, “sure, we can go with that.”
“There are a lot of B&W movies I prefer in comparison to modern day movies.”
“Examples.”
Internally, I was cringing. I had never watched a black and white movie a day in my life. I was strictly pulling from the massive list in Luminous’s profile, but the conversation kept a smile on her face, and she wasn’t asking about my conversation with the black courts.
So, being the arrogant, self-absorbed, mother fucker that I was, I launched into a spiel about my favorite black and white movies. Of course, some were from her list and others I had YouTube the previews and endings.
By the time all of the light had drained from the sky, I had surprised her in more ways than one and brought out a genuine smile from her more than once.
“Tell me what your favorite song is,” I said, looking at her seriously.
She had given me her top five and danced around the subject time and time again tonight. But I wanted to know the truth. Maybe it would keep me company at night when she was gone.
She worried her lip and smirked, “if I tell you, you’d only ruin it.”
“How?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted with a shrug of her shoulder.
“Then how could I ruin it if you don’t even know?”
She made a face, slightly agreeing with my words before taking a deep breath and looked at me, “Love Will Be Waiting at Home, by For Real.”
I nodded, committing the song to memory before looking around the small inn.
Classic furniture done in a rustic style sat strategically around the dining room while a long bar held the liquors of a time past. Only the owner’s husband was present and didn’t seem too concerned about our presence or the fact we were two wanted criminals.
“Give me a minute,” I said, getting up from the booth.
“Ok?”
I smirked, “just a second,” crossing the floor, I nodded to the man wiping down the counter with a stain cleaner. “Do you by chance have a sound system?”
“We do,” he nodded toward the laptop sitting behind the bar.
“Can I pay you to play a song?”
A knowing smile touched his lips as he glanced past my shoulder to Luminous still eating her soup.
“First date?” He asked in his thick danish accent.
I shrugged, “more or less.”
“What’s the song?”
I nodded to the piece of paper at his wrist and thanked him as he slid a pen to me. Quickly, I scribbled the name of the song on the thin paper and passed it back to him before returning to the table with Luminous.
“Where are we going to go after this?” She asked, sitting back against the bench seat and chewed on her lower lip.
I considered her question, not wanting to tell her another lie. Hell knew I had told plently in the last seven hours we were together. So, I simply said.
“I don’t know.”
“That’s what I was afraid of,” she whispered, not meeting my gaze.
I glanced over to man at the bar and subtly nodded to him before turning back to Luminous, “dance with me.”
Her head snapped up while a frown covered her face, “what?”
“Dance with me.”
Raising a brow to me, she looked as if she were waiting for the punch line of the request. The last time we had danced was on my back patio before the guards had decided to blow the structure to shit and back.
“Demir, there’s no…” she trailed off as the opening chords of her song—our song, started playing in the small tavern. The owner even took the liberty of dimming the lights for us as I stood up and outstretched my hand to hers.
“Dance with me, Luminous River,” my tone was soft, but the request was all the same.
She smiled softly and shook her head as she took my hand and allowed me to help her out of her seat. Before the singer started, I led her to the center of the room and wrapped her in my arms; just for tonight we would have this one moment where we weren’t running for our lives or dodging weapons. We were just going to be a man and a woman, stuck in a safe haven with a soft song playing to our heart’s content.
Luminous looked beautiful under the low lighting of the tavern as she closed her eyes and rested her head against my chest while I led us across the floor. Closing my own eyes for a second, I was able to soak in the lyrics and make sense of the meaning behind the singer’s message.
In truth, it was the complete opposite of her hard exterior and the cruelness which wrapped its way into each strike of her whip. The slow R&B song said everything I had wanted to tell her—if the circumstances were different, I’d be able to tell her I loved her. I could promise her I was going to be the one to protect her and she didn’t need to worry about anything coming after her. I would be the one to fight her monsters when they became too much for her to handle. I would be there when the demons of her past came knocking on the door; when she had sleep paralysis, I would be there to help her through it.
But sadly, as the song ended, I knew tonight was going to be the last night I had to entertain such foolish and ignorant thoughts. Tonight, Luminous River would take her final breath and I would be the one to ensure she did.
I clenched my teeth so hard I had to wonder whether or not they were shattering. Pressing her closer to me, I hoped she would kill me instead. But even if she did, the guard was going to be watching her and if I didn’t succeed, they definitely would.
For a second, I just held her as the realization hit me with the force of a freight train.
“Demir, what is it?” Luminous leaned back and simply stared at me after moving my hair from my eye.
“I have to tell you something.”
“Ok?” A furrow knitted her brows together while a muscle in her jaw flexed.
Taking her hand I thanked the owner of the tavern and slid enough money on the bar for him to forget we were ever in the tavern to begin with.
I led Luminous out into the cold and checked both ends
of the street before leading her away from the tavern and on the edges of town. My time was up and the only thing I could do right now was get her away from here.
“What is it?” There was a slight resistance in her grip as she followed beside me.
“We need to get away from here.”
“Why?”
“Because what I need to tell you is going to—”
The unmistakable sound of Gold Guard’s whistle broke through the sleepy streets and brought my head around to find the shadows of my former squadron heading to the very tavern we had just left. If I focused harder on the band of fuckers coming toward us, I knew I would find Luminous’s former guard members in the mass of faces.
“What was that?” Luminous frowned, ignoring my panicked expression and narrowed her eyes in the dark to see what the offenders looked like.
“Come on,” I dragged her along with me as I ran through the snow as fast as my legs would carry me. I needed to tell her the truth and I wouldn’t be able to do that if my guard killed her first.
We ran through the snow and climbed the hills until we were at the top of the cliffs, overlooking the drop offs where countless people had lost their lives to suicide.
Luminous ripped her arm away from me and braced her hands on her knees as she tried to catch her breath.
“What the fuck, Demir?” She ripped her nails through her hair and frowned out me, still heaving for breath.
Then it hit me. The scene finally hit me. We were standing on the same cliff, with the same darkened sky as the vision I had seen that night at the ball. This would be the place Luminous would die and where I drove my sword through her heart. Where I kicked her off the cliff.
My vision became blurry and my heart hammered against my rib cage trying to get free. No, this wasn’t right. This…this couldn’t be the reason why I killed her.
“Demir!” She snapped, pulling my attention away from any break in the reality I had forced us into.
“What?” I swallowed hard, unable to meet her gaze.
She spread her arms, “what the fuck is going on?” She was standing up now, as her ombre locks whipped in the wind.
I took three steadying breaths and forced my mind to come to grips with the situation. Finally, I looked at her and uttered the very statement I didn’t want to say.
“I did it.”
“What?” The confusion on her face would’ve been adorable in any other situation, but right now. It was killing me.
“I was the one to give the order to Svenia, that night. When she killed your sister, I handed her the order.”
Chapter 21 Eternity
Stepping back from Demir, I stared at him. “It was you.” My heart stopped as his words slammed into my mind; all of the pieces had fallen perfectly into place and didn’t offer any room for question.
I didn’t hear him right, I tried reasoning with myself. There was no way in hell I heard him right. He couldn’t have been so cruel as to be the one to hand Svenia the order. Not the man standing in front of me.
I refused to believe it, yet and still, somewhere deep down in the core of my heart, I knew he was telling the truth. Whether I wanted to believe it or not. I knew just by looking in his eyes he was telling me the truth and there was nothing left to do except find out why he had done it.
Demir said nothing. He didn’t move, didn’t avert his gaze, didn’t do anything. He simply stared at me like I had lost my damned mind. His eyes were filled with nothing but callous cold indifference.
“You were the one,” my words came out on a shaky breath as I struggled to breathe. “You…were the one to pass down the black order to Svenia when the courts gave it to you.” Finally, I looked up at him, “you handed it off to Svenia, knowing she would take the order without question and you could just walk away without any guilt, without anything tying you back to the misunderstanding. You did it, is that what you’re telling me?”
His eyes narrowed for a moment—a fraction of a second to show his raging thoughts before the emotion was gone and in a deafening bored tone he said.
“I did.”
“Why?”
“Because she committed her crimes.”
“They weren’t crimes to warrant a black order!”
“In your eyes.” For a second, he glanced over my shoulder before looking at me again. “I’ll admit it was a case of mistaken identity and your sister shouldn’t have died. But she had committed her own crimes.”
“I trusted you,” I whispered, not bothering to wipe away the tears or hide my emotions.
After everything we had done and we had been through, I had allowed myself to think Demir wasn’t like the men of my past; he wasn’t as heartless and cold as his position required him to be. No, Demir was more than a shell of a man and a skilled swordsman; in truth—no matter how bad I wanted to kill myself for admitting it—he was my first love.
A fox like smile covered his lips as he leaned down to meet me at eye level. Within those dull-gold eyes I saw for the first time in my life the devil himself. His voice was just as sinister as the look on his face as he asked a simple question.
“And who’s fault is that?”
Grounding my teeth together, I stopped the traitorous tears, “you arrogant, self-absorbed bastard.”
In a split second, my whip shout out toward him. Unfortunately, thanks to its length, he was able to side step the recoil of the leather and the razor wire.
“Killing me would not be in your best interest right now.”
“It’ll be better than knowing you’re still breathing.” I spun around, letting the whip fly again I couldn’t stop the malicious smile coming across my face as I watched the welts of blood form across his chest.
“Do you really want a fight?”
“I’ll keep you company,” I said, throwing his own words back in his face.
Clenching my teeth, I swung the whip above my head and jerked the leather hard enough for it to crack before catching his calf.
Unsheathing his sword, he narrowed his eyes, “let’s end this dance.”
“Agreed,” I backflipped out of the way of his nearly perfect arc toward my head.
We were in a perfect dance, me with my whip flying wildly to the naked eye and cracking through the isolated clearing. Demir with his sword and footwork melding effortlessly in a lethal charge; I’ll admit, he was my perfect match during this battle of death. He knew my moves and I knew his, but the challenge persisted when both of us were fueled with anger, distrust and downright hurt pride.
Demir was like me in more ways than one and I couldn’t let myself forget everything I had allowed myself to feel for him. There was more to all we had gone through and I couldn’t lie to myself about my feelings. There was more than just an undeniable attraction and savage lust to the things I felt for Demir Losett. But no matter the feelings, I wasn’t going to deny myself of the rage I had towards him for my sister’s death.
He wouldn’t forgive me if the tables were turned and he couldn’t deny what he felt for me. At least I hoped that were the case.
I misjudged his step and lost my footing—giving him a window to attack with the sword. My back slammed against a tree, forcing the air from my lungs. When my vision cleared and the stars subsided from my mind, I looked into his eyes and saw remorse for what was about to happen.
“Luminous River, I’m…” his voice was like silk falling from the skin. Smooth and luxurious. However, it held a hint of danger and warning as if he didn’t want to do what I had blindly invited him to do.
As if he were feeling sorry for me, his eyes searched mine for something he could hold onto. Like his remorse extended beyond the obvious. Regret for the position he had found himself in. For my position. For my vulnerability. For…everything. But why?
Death was nothing to be an afraid of; I’ll admit I wished I could change a few things, forget a lot and had lived differently. But dying under his sword and by his hand? What more could I want when everything was said an
d done?
I had come to grips with my reality in more ways than one within these last thirty minutes, knowing without a shadow of a doubt this night was coming sooner rather than later. It was obvious in the way Lovett had stared at me after his dogs took Demir off to the black courts. My time was coming shortly behind the corner and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do to get out of it.
If there were a silver lining in this fucked up situation, I would see my sister again and my parents could stop their worrying every time I didn’t call them on time.
Looking in Demir’s eyes, I smirked. In truth, the scene was almost laughable, especially when I said.
“Tell me something I don’t want to know.” I wheezed as his sword came against my throat and the sharp edge started to pierce my skin.
He searched my eyes, the dull golden pools encased in black softening if only for a moment. What came from his mouth next was something even I wasn’t expecting.
“I’ve waited for you since before you were born and now…” his eyes dropped to my lips for a moment before snapping up to my eyes again. “Now I have to let you go.”
Before my mind could comprehend what was happening, he moved, and everything went black.
§§§§§
I came to with a pounding headache and my face half frozen from the ice. My entire body was sore like someone had run over me with a train and thrown me into a meat grinder for good measure.
Pushing off the frozen ground, I held onto my head and groaned, looking around at my surroundings. But first, I looked for my most prized possession.
“You’re awake,” Demir’s familiar voice forced me to jerk around and stare at him.
“Where’s my whip?”
He stared at the blade of his sword and shrugged, “I wanted you to hear me out before you killed me.”
“And why should I do that?” Looking around, I tried to figure out exactly where we were.
From what I could tell, we were in some kind of cave I hadn’t noticed before on our trek through the mountains. However, Demir was able to start a fire and keep me warmer than I had been since this shit show had started.