by Hayley Todd
“So I have heard,” I replied, watching the moonlight glint off of the shining gemstone’s surface. It flickered light across the gardens, casting large swathes of silvery color over trees and plants.
Eris hummed and it sent a shiver down my spine. She had a tendency to do that, seeming entirely disconnected from reality most of the time. She stared off into the middle distance, the necklace spinning in her grasp. “This gift was forged from Hephaestus himself. He assured me that it would make a worthy present,” she chimed, smiling still.
“And, what may be the occasion?” I asked, something about this situation just not rubbing me the right way. Eris was a giver of gifts quite frequently, but rarely would you take one up, knowing the costs that she required. It was in her nature, so to speak. She offered bargains, not costless presents.
Eris watched me closely for a moment, though I chose not to trade gazes with her. She, like myself, had certain powers over the mind and I would have preferred not to be touched by those abilities. “Why, your wedding, of course,” she replied, cheerily.
I went stock still, every nerve rigid. “What do you mean, wedding?” I asked, glaring up at her now. She no longer looked at me, staring back into the pond and watching the fish dive back and forth. She produced a hunk of bread from her pouch and pinched tiny bits off, dropping it into the water. The fish fought greedily for each bite, slamming into each other and sending one another skidding across the water’s surface.
She laughed, though it was a joyless sound. I knew she was enjoying this. Revelling in her own mystery and knowledge. She loved that she knew something that I didn’t, especially something so near to myself.
Her laughter was a chime like bells. “Oh, dear. I had only assumed that you would know,” she explained, an unmistakable smile still spread on her lips. I wanted nothing more than to slap the pleasure from her but knew that violence would get me nowhere with Eris.
“What do you mean, wedding?” I hissed through gritted teeth, not able to hide my anger this time.
She stiffened, ever so slightly, then relaxed along the railing again. The chain still hung from her fist, dangling over the edge of the bridge and casting it’s odd shimmering light over the water’s surface below. The fish even seemed to notice it, staring upwards at the huge blue gem.
She laughed again, shrugging away her temporary anxiety. “Oh, Zeus, always Zeus,” she said, dreamily, “The big man, the father of the gods himself. He wanted a pretty prize, always a pretty prize. So he plucked one of the finest flowers in the garden and hid her away, far far away.”
I stared at her, trying to follow her line of thought. Zeus was always a bit of a lech, not caring who he hurt or what impact he made when he found himself a new woman. He enjoyed the chase. It was all rather disgusting.
“She was a flower, so fine, of course she would be picked,” she continued, that same half aware rambling tone to her words. “But, a brother fine, she has that too. He was sent on a quest, an adventure even! Find the flower, amidst the thorns, he would.” She trailed off, falling silent as she watched the gemstone spin on its chain.
I growled, low in my throat, catching her attention from her convoluted tale. “What did Zeus do, Eris?” I asked her, my patience growing thin.
She whirled so fast that I stumbled back a step, her hand darting out to stroke a long strand of dark hair hanging near my face. I cringed away from her, watching her like a wild predator set free.
“He sold thee of course!” she cried with laughter. I gaped at her, unable to force words through the lump formed in my throat. “To the handsome prince, goes the hand of Harmonia, the bringer of peace and maker of harmony! For his own pleasure, he puts forth your hand. For his troubles, he gives thee.” She finished her tangent, twirling away from me on feather-light feet.
I again fought the urge to slap her back into reality. My hand twitched at my side. “Eris,” I hissed. It took several moments for her attention to snap back to me, but once she looked up, I continued. “Zeus sold me?” I said. The phrase sounded pitiful, even to me. I hated to let my guard down, to let her see how the news hurt me, but I knew that if I did not, she may never explain. She took too much joy in the discord she caused.
Her plump lips perked thoughtfully, her eyes gazing into the moonlit garden. “Zeus was bad, oh so bad. He wanted his woman, and he got her! But now, it is you who has the price to pay. Funny that, eh?”
I glared at her. How she could enjoy such hateful past times, I did not know.
But, my concerns quickly turned inward. So, Zeus couldn’t keep his hands off yet another innocent woman. And in return, he had sold my hand in marriage to her brother to get the heat off of himself. It was a poor favor to bestow. I was certain that the woman’s family would not be satisfied with this trade. A favored daughter for an unknown “god”. Perhaps, perhaps they would accept it, but they would never be pleased with it.
Zeus was a pig.
Eris lifted the necklace again, holding the gem out to me. I lifted my palm, waiting expectantly for her to drop the jewelry into my hand. She didn’t for several long moments, looking up at me with serious eyes that I was certain I hadn’t seen on her since our youth.
“I wish the best for you, Sage, that I do. Zeus likes to stick his nose anywhere his other parts won’t reach,” she said, smiling up at me. There, just for an instant, I could see my best friend. I could see the girl that I had spent countless moments with. I could see the woman who had become my confidant. Then, that smile turned wicked, and like dust on the wind, that person vanished, replaced by the mischievous and oftentimes, destructive force that was the goddess of misery, strife, and discord, Eris herself.
She dropped the chain, letting the sapphire fall heavily into my palm. At its touch, my world ruptured into light, like the sun itself had imploded, dragging me into its depths. I fell, my mind spinning through equally sudden darkness, spinning, spinning, until I had no more thought at all.
Chapter Twenty
I woke up in a rush, breathing hard, my heart hammering in my chest. Sage’s memories were becoming stronger and taking more out of me every time they occurred.
The bed was cold and empty and I found myself tangled in the sheets, alone. I surged up, barely hesitating on wobbly legs, leaping over to where Carson’s coat hung on a hook along the wall. I jerked it free, tugging it to my face and inhaling the comforting scent it still held. I didn’t have time to try to memorize the aroma, however, and dug through its pockets until my hand caught hold of a long slender silver chain.
I lifted the necklace free of the fabric, letting the sapphire stone at its center dangle at eye level. For all appearances, it just looked like a gorgeous, ornate piece of jewelry. With a careful eye however, I could see a storm of energy swirling around within the gemstone. It pulsated and rolled, churning from within.
I shoved the necklace into my jeans pocket, not wanting it to be far from me. Only then, did I realize that I could hear a conversation carrying from the other room.
“You should have told me what you were doing,” came a shrieking feminine voice. It took several beats before it occurred to me that the voice belonged to Kellic. I had so rarely ever heard her raise her voice that it sounded like an entirely different person, even to me.
I leaned nearer to the door, my heart slamming against my ribs. It was wrong, if I was meant to know of it, I would’ve been told. But, I just couldn’t let it go and listened, my ears trying desperately to cling on to some of the words.
There was a long pause and the snap of skin on skin. I grimaced, my cheek searing with phantom pain. My fingertips prodded my face, realizing it wasn’t phantom pain. There were pinpricks of tingling agony all along my cheek.
“I should have told you, I know,” Anton replied, defeated. “But, she needed me. You were already asleep and she needed me, Kellic. I don’t know how she was conscious. I haven’t felt so much pain from her since...since…,” he trailed off.
There was a puff of ex
haled breath. “I know,” Kellic replied. “Since Will.”
Tension hung in the air, neither of them speaking for several breaths. Finally, Kellic continued. “She can’t keep doing this,” she hissed, biting back a voice filled with rage and pain. “She has to know what this is doing to us.”
“Do you really think she doesn’t know?” Anton asked, vitriol in his tone now too. “She can feel what I feel, sense what I sense, know what I know. Do you sincerely think she is that oblivious?”
Was I? I was sure that it was me they were discussing. I had known that Anton’s attention on me was not kind to Kellic, but I had always thought that she had simply understood. She had adjusted to vampirism more quickly than myself. Damien believed it to be part of her gift. Maybe she just covered it up better.
“If she knew, she wouldn’t do it,” Kellic growled.
A stab of pain thrust through my chest. I felt...betrayed. Did Kellic truly believe that I would hurt her intentionally? I had always thought that she understood Anton’s and my bond, that she had figured out how we could not fight it. My agony caused him agony. Did she not see that by not helping me, it was hurting him?
“No,” Anton said with the same furious thunder. “She would never hurt you. You’re right. But, I will never let it hurt her.” There was a thunderous slap and pain raked down my face again. The burning had only just started to fade from my cheek when it reignited.
I was stunned and hurt. But I couldn’t decipher if it were my own feelings, or Anton’s that burst through me. I felt like Kellic had turned on me. Could she not see where we were coming from? I knew she didn’t fully understand imprints since she hadn’t had one yet, but I had hoped that she had understood more than this.
“So, is that it, then?” Kellic seethed. “Do you choose her over me?”
There was silence. I held my breath without realizing it even. Was she seriously going to give him an ultimatum? She was my best friend, she was my family, but so wasn’t Anton. He had become invaluable to me. He understood me in a way that even Carson did not.
“Kellic, her pain has almost killed her twice. You’re being irrational.”
“Oh, irrational, huh? My feelings are hurt so I must be crazy, is it?” she was yelling, even screaming now, the words becoming more detached the more she spoke.
“That’s not what I meant,” Anton sighed. “I will not abandon her, Kellic. And I realize that you’re hurt and I should’ve told you where I was going, but I hadn’t intended to stay with her. She needed me,” he urged. “I know you love her too, Kel. How would you have felt had I let her suffer?”
The quiet stretched on for what felt like hours, though mere seconds was more appropriate. For an eternity, neither of them spoke, and guilt seeped into me, standing in the doorway but not moving to open the door. It felt dirty. I should just confront her. I should’ve confronted them both. I felt equally justified and ashamed. Part of me wanted to argue that I knew Anton first, technically, or that he had been intended to be my husband since we were children. I wanted to throw our imprint out like a physical blow.
But then, I took a deep breath and realized that those were the cruelest things I could have possibly done. Kellic loved him. She wanted to be with him forever. She adored him. I cared for him deeply, loved him even in my way. I didn’t want him in my bed, but I knew I held a part of his heart, and he held a part of mine.
I imagined how I would feel, had my and Kellic’s roles been reversed. Could I watch the love of my life entangled with another woman, no matter what I knew about their relationship? I liked to think that I could, understanding that there was so much more beneath the surface, but unlike myself, Kellic couldn’t feel how Anton felt about her. She couldn’t see what I saw or know what I knew. I could see, with a little lack of confidence, how that relationship would turn toxic, digging beneath the onlooker's skin.
My body warred with various pains. I felt betrayal and sorrow and agony and frustration. I knew not all of it belonged to me. With Anton so close and so upset, I wasn’t sure that any of it did, despite knowing that I did feel the same in some ways.
I never found out what Kellic’s response to his question was, as right then, the door handle turned and I darted from the room, appreciating my vampire speed as I made it to the bathroom before light poured through the doorway.
I stood at the sink, cupping water into my hands and splashing it across my face as though I had only just awoken. I felt terrible for the deceit but I needed to think on what I had heard before I made it clear that I had been eavesdropping, whether intentionally or not.
Anton approached the bathroom door slowly, as though he were trying not to startle me. I could see him in the mirror’s reflection regardless, but I appreciated the caution.
“Good morning, sleeping beauty,” He crooned as he always did, a troubled smile on his face that he tried to bend into a normal expression. It didn’t work. I could see the pain laced along his features as much as I could feel it emanating from him.
I put on my brightest grin, shoving my own troubles into the back of my mind. He couldn’t handle my pain right now, and hiding it was the least I could do.
“Good morning, Mr. Van Murg,” I replied in a playful tone. Much to my dismay, even that simple address seemed to sour his mood. His eyes flicked downward and his lips twisted into a half scowl.
“Was it something I said?” I asked nonchalantly, begging my panicked, shouting mind to shut up with its anxious babble.
Anton ran his hand up the back of his neck, rubbing against the back of his head. “I kind’ve decided to officially go by Lereaux for the time being,” he replied, trying to force a playful demeanor into his features. I had to silently wonder if my own fight was as pointless. I could see right through him.
I nodded. “I can understand that,” I replied.
Lereaux had been the fake name that Anton had used while working at my club as a bartender during his father’s ruse to get his son closer to me. I didn’t have to ask why he wouldn’t want to run around using his father’s name. Henrick had been labelled a traitor to the Magick kingdom. I couldn’t blame him for wanting not to be associated with that.
“So, then how are you this fine morning, Mr. Lereaux,” I said instead, grinning at him through the mirror.
I turned to face him and only just caught the remnants of his reflection sagging. He had straightened again by the time I turned around.
“Oh, I’m fine,” he said through tight teeth. That alone would’ve been a perfect indicator of his distress. Anton didn’t speak like that. He was the relaxed, aloof playboy, not some serious, hard soldier. I felt for him.
He cleared his throat after several seconds and I knew by his anxious emotions that he didn’t want to say what he was about to. “So,” he began, dragging the word out. “Where’s Carson?” He asked after a long moment, not looking at me.
A pain slammed through me like he had stabbed me in the chest. He might as well have. I couldn’t breathe for a long moment, gasping grand gulps of oxygen as though I would never get enough.
Anton was by my side immediately, his hand snaking beneath my hair to press his skin to the back of my neck. The agony started seeping away, little by little. But the expression on his face was enough to make me pull away.
He looked back at me, his head cocked to one side. I imagined he thought that look of misery had been carefully buried beneath his goofy exterior, but he had missed his mark.
“Don’t do that right now,” was all I could say around my scattered breaths. His eyebrows furrowed and the cocked head made him look a bit like a confused toddler. I wanted to laugh. Well, almost. Because at the same time, I kind’ve wanted to cry.
I could just barely see that Kellic had entered the room. Her arms were crossed over her chest and she leaned against the door frame, watching us with narrowed eyes and a bitter expression.
I sauntered back into the bedroom, sitting on the edge of the bed and pulling my knees up toward my che
st. Anton had followed, moving to stand beside Kellic and wait for what I had to say. She didn’t look any happier by his company.
I took a deep breath, knowing that the next words weren’t going to come easily, but also knowing that I needed to get them out. I needed to move forward. Dwelling on my sorrows was not going to improve my situation, as painful as they might be.
“Valeria is alive,” I breathed, and that finally changed Kellic’s expression. Anton immediately looked furious, his lips twisting into an uncharacteristic snarl. Kellic’s eyes narrowed, her eyebrows tilting inward as though she were simultaneously enraged and completely confused.
“What?” she hissed.
“Valeria is alive. And she has Carson,” I said.
Chapter Twenty-One
I sat in a plush chair across my from father’s desk. Damien paced behind the hard wooden table, two fingers pressed to his chin. He hadn’t spoken in a while. His silence had begun after I had told him my story, with Anton’s help, including every detail, even my experiences as Sage.
The only thing I had omitted, were the details of the necklace. I left that part abstract, hanging, though the weight of it sank my stomach.
Damien settled his eyes on me, leaning against the top of the desk. “Is there anything else?” He asked, as though he knew already that I was withholding something.
I fidgeted in my chair, shaking my head back at my father. “No,” I replied simply, an ache opening within my chest as I spoke the untrue words.
Anton stared at me, making me more uncomfortable. His gaze seemed to sear right through my body and into my very soul. I couldn’t meet his eyes.
His gaze narrowed on me as my father resumed his pacing, back and forth behind the desk. I looked over the book bindings, reading name after name. I recognized some as classics that I had been made to read in high school. Others held archaic names that were unfamiliar to me. Some even sported languages that I couldn’t read.