by JK Ensley
Jophiel snorted. “As well you should. They are reapers, Naga. They come to collect the souls—the dark ones we do not attend to ourselves. Perhaps you haven’t given them much thought because your purpose is not to escort. You, tiny Angel, you only rend. But these dark shadows always move in your wake, little one. I mean, well… you are the Death Angel, are you not?” He bumped her shoulder as he made to leave. “I guess you could say… you’re their leader, or something.” He chuckled. “Well, back to work. See you around, Kagi Naga.”
And with the parting words of that smirking Archangel, the enormous weight of her existence finally broke her.
I am their leader… the Grim Reaper… followed always by these gruesome, symbiotic shadows.
Daichi felt it first, but Tenshi was fast on his heels, seeking out her cracking form amongst the endless sea of dead warriors. They found her not. For how could they? She had spent years learning to hide her pain, learning how to keep her bitter tears untraceable. She now lay curled up at the base of an ancient cherry tree upon layer eight… crying out the last of her previous life’s sorrow.
Her ceaseless tears soaked the ground as the hungry sakura eagerly drank up each salty drop. Exhaustion finally claimed her and she slept. And for the first time in ages, Jenevier dreamt of simpler times—happy days where she and Jezreel laughed and played under the cloudless sky, then slept under the sparkling stars of Ashgard. Even in her dreams, she couldn’t remember ever smiling quite so much. Her cheeks ached, even in slumber.
“No matter how many times I watch you sleeping here, nor how many years have passed, your beauty never waxes old. You are now as you were the first day I was blessed to look upon you.”
“I am not beautiful,” she whispered in her dreams. “It is all an illusion… smoke and mirrors.”
She giggled then, and not her normal all-grown-up giggle. Now, she laughed with the lightened heart of a child.
“Smoke and mirrors or no,” he said. “I love you more each time I look upon you.”
“Ah, ah, ah… best guard your heart, poor soul. To invest your love in a creature such as I, is to damn your future and execute your own happiness. Believe me not? Then simply ask any man who was ever cursed enough to look into these damnable, bewitching eyes.”
Her words were hard to hear, yet her sleeping smile remained. He dared to move just a bit closer to her.
“Well be that as it may, I cannot turn back time, tiny Angel. I know all too well the truth of your words, for I first met you in my youth, and have been haunted ever since.” He sighed. “Alas, now I am old, walking through the twilight of my days. I have watched you slumber here for so many years… I can scarce recall. Yet only now have I found the courage to confide in you my only secret.” He lightly ran his fingertips down her bare arm. “You were my only Princess. I never chose another. The King arranged my eventual marriage, yes. I did not fight him in it. And as was my duty, I went in unto her at the appointed times… but only to ensure royal lineage.” He snorted out a self-deprecating laugh. “And why am I telling you all this? Well, I’m not certain. Perhaps I just wanted you to know… I never kissed her.” He whispered that last part. “I have never wanted to kiss anyone but you. To do so would have been too much like cheating on you… a thing which I could never do.” He gently lifted one of her curls. “You are my every other memory, tiny Sakura. I took the last moment I ever saw you and buried it deep within me.” He smiled. “My Sakura Mankai. You are my only joy, my only riot of color in an otherwise dreary gray world.”
Jenevier had woken about halfway through Suou’s confession. His words tore at her heart, ripping away the child-like wonder she had only just felt in her dream. Slowly opening her eyes, she turned to look at the startled man.
“Why would you forever withhold your love like that, sweet Prince? When I left here that day, I left no doubt concerning my heart. When I walked out your door, I never promised… anything. I even went so far as to unbind you.”
“Yes… you tried.”
She studied his sad eyes as he stared absently at her hair, twisting one pink curl around his finger. Finally, he met her gaze.
“I withheld my love because it wasn’t mine to give. You speak true, lovely Sakura. You never promised me… anything.”
He closed his eyes then, slowly shaking his head. When next he opened them, they were filled with stinging, bitter tears.
“But the heart wants what the heart wants,” he whispered.
She completely understood. Her life was a testament to that very saying.
“It is a greedy little thing, is it not?”
He smiled knowingly. “Yes, Milady, viciously so.”
She sat up, leaning against the large cherry tree, and patted the spot beside her. Suou chuckled as he joined her there.
“You haven’t changed a single bit,” he said. “Everything about you is the same as my memories.”
She glanced at his profile from the corner of her eye. “You look old.”
Suou laughed as he snatched her around the waist, pulling her onto his lap. “I see that horrible things still fall unchecked from those perfect lips.”
“But when I am good, I am very good indeed.”
He tapped the tip of her nose. “And when you are bad, you are horrid.”
She blushed. He only laughed louder, hugging her to him.
“It is hard for me to distinguish time, Suou—how much has passed, how short or long a thing has been.” She began to play with his snow white braid. “I am glad you kept your hair this way.”
“I did it for you. In truth, I kept the braid you gave me for days… too many days. I only let them take it down when the servants complained about me needing to wash it. Still, I made them fix it back the way you did.”
“That makes me smile, even on the inside.”
He quickly kissed the side of her head. “Then it was all worth it. Now, tell me, sweet Sakura. What about time are you having trouble with?”
“The whole of it, in truth. Like… how many days has it been since your confirmation party?”
“Days?” He chuckled. “I cannot recall the days, little Cherry Blossom. But I was twenty-one when I asked you to be my intended, the night I tried to bind you with a dance. The kingdom celebrated my sixty-sixth year this past spring.” He absently outlined the edges of her intricately tattooed hand. “I was only a few days passed forty when you began crying beneath this tree, forcing its blooms to shine down upon you. I cannot see you until you cry yourself to sleep. I always see the blooms first.”
She touched his cheek, causing him to meet her sorrowful gaze.
“Apologies for making you sad, sweet Prince. I never wished to bring you more pain than I already had.”
“Don’t you dare apologize for blessing me.”
“Blessing you?”
“Yes. Eventually, I am blessed with but a brief glimpse of your tiny sleeping form… before you leave, taking the enchanted sakura with you.” He tucked her curls back behind her ear. “For over twenty-six years, I have gazed at dried tears upon angelic cheeks. And every single time, I whisper… I would never have let you cry yourself to sleep all alone. I would have always held you while you crumbled.”
“You said that to me?”
He tenderly kissed the top of her head. “Every single time.”
They held each other for several quiet moments, the past playing about painfully for both of them.
“Tell me, little Fire Dragon. Did you ever marry your kilted Guardian? Or perhaps that handsome purple Angel you left here with?”
She snorted out a laugh. “No. I have not seen Ahriman, that purple Angel, since the day I last saw you. And as for Vittorio… I guess it just wasn’t in the stars for us. But I finally did marry, though.”
He sort of growled. “Was it that dimpled sell-sword?”
She giggled. “No. He is quite charming, I’ll give him that. But, no. You have never met my beloved Yui. Although… you have seen his likeness.”
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His brow furrowed in thought. “His likeness? Hmm, Yui… Yui. You mean… You don’t mean the man who stabbed you clean through. The one you kissed while he plunged a blade through your lovely back.”
“No, silly. You killed him, remember? No, my Yui is from Jinn… my rare magical Shinobi.”
“A Shinobi, huh? With beauty enough to rival Akio’s vicious little brother?”
“Yes, except Yui’s eyes are the most enchanting shade of lavender you have ever seen.”
“Is that so? Hmpft… I think I hate him.”
Jenevier just giggled and shared a final hug with her old friend.
*****
When she left the eighth layer realm and King Suou’s lovely little piece of it, she was hit with a disturbing thought.
Has it truly been over fifty years since I last saw my friends on Ashgard? Jezreel probably has about twenty kids by now. She pulled up short, panic seizing her chest. Wait now… let me think. That cannot possibly be right. Or can it? Let me see, best I can recall… I was in my forties by human calculations when that devious little Elf stole my essence. I was then married to Finnean for seven years, and it was another three before Vittorio took me to see the cherry blossoms… And Suou just said that was over forty years ago. Right? Silent tears burned her lovely eyes. “Then… it has been over fifty years since I said farewell to Alastyn. By all that’s holy. If he yet lives, he would be nearly a hundred by now.” She started sobbing in earnest then. “How could I so easily forget the people who were so important to me? How could I be so selfish? How could I just let the years flow by as water? What kind of heartless creature am I?”
“You are all Angel now, Kagi Naga.”
She turned to find a stranger hovering in the air not too far away.
“The only possible way for you to be who you are, is to forget. You are not horrible, Little Fire, only normal. Well… celestially normal.”
He smiled then, a little too big and a little too showy for her comfort.
“Who are you? And… how do you know my name?”
He flew nearer, well, he moved nearer. She didn’t actually see any wings.
“Allow me to introduce myself.” He bowed gracefully. “My name is Maza Vespar Rixx. You can call me Rixx. And as for how I know your name, everyone knows who you are. Naga—the delicate Death Angel.”
He casually ran his fingers through his fiery red hair, which immediately fell back over his left eye… an eye that almost perfectly matched his red locks. But as strange as a crimson iris was to look upon, his right eye was the truly haunting one. It was pale gray in color—cold as steel. He tossed his head slightly, now revealing both celestial orbs simultaneously. The sight was halting, truly unnerving.
It’s like… he stares at me through fire and ice. She shuddered.
“You are whispered about within every realm, Kagi Naga—the pink-haired tiny Fire Dragon.” He chuckled softly. “You are loved and hated equally, little one.”
“Is that so? Well, Rixx, it’s nice to know your name, I suppose. But… what are you? Never have I seen a creature quite like you.”
He chuckled again. “No, I guess you haven’t. What I am, Kagi Naga, is a Nephilim. The last Nephilim.”
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About the Author
JK Ensley is a native Tennessean by way of Missouri, born there and quickly ushered down South. A product of public school and private college, she spent her early twenties bouncing across the country. Fascinated by rich culture, ancient customs, and thick accents, she’s compelled to drink in the many exquisite differences humanity is gifted with. A self-described, happily divorced mother of three with a black belt in sarcasm and an über common minivan, she does little to hide her wicked wit, advanced sarcasm, and extreme shoe addiction. “At the core of me, I’m one slightly twisted, pink haired, sword-wielding, invisible ninja with a laptop, an imagination, and very little me time. That’s just who I am. I’m comfortable in my skin and I love my life. Totally not kidding about the hair, the swords, or the laptop, but I might’ve stretched it just a little with the invisible part.”
You can find Jennifer at the following locations:
www.facebook.com/ADancewithDestiny
www.jkensley.com
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Download entire series here.