Shadows of the Night (Kingdom Key Book 2)

by TylerRose.

  “Whatever your reasons, Femina, I am happy you are not so angry that you cannot come back.”

  “I’m still angry. Just not at you,” she admitted with a sigh. “In all, our week of marriage was very nice. I know nothing was your fault. And I realized that I did not thank you.”

  “For what?” he had to ask, having no idea what she meant.

  “For twice fighting to keep me away from abusive assholes. Thank you.”

  He took her right hand, velvety thumb stroking over her fingers. “My only regret is that I could not kill Solomon when he showed up.”

  “There’s always next time.”

  “You think there will be a next time?”

  “Of course there will be. Getting his ass kicked won’t deter his obsession for long.”

  “What is this?” he asked, lifting her hand to see the ring she had made out of his marriage bead. “You cannot wear this.”

  “Yes I can. You said I could not wear a necklace or a bracelet. You said nothing of a ring.”

  “Omitting it in the pressure of the moment does not make it an option.”

  “Yes it does,” she said. “I found the bead inside my bustier. It wanted to stay with me. I can wear it if I want. In combination with your father’s familial bracelet, Earnol about blew a gasket.”

  “It wanted to stay with you?” he questioned.

  “Yes. Inanimate objects aren’t as inanimate as you might think. This bench is happy to have people using it. It’s sat here alone for a long time. It was lonely. The wall is happy to hear people talking back here again, for the same reason.”

  “You hear that kind of thing?”

  “Usually through touch, but yes.”

  “What can’t you do?” he asked. “We spent a week married and I never thought to investigate your abilities. I was very selfish with you. I am sorry for that. Aside from the odd telekinesis or bringing some little thing to your hands, you really don’t display your abilities much. You took my advice?”

  “You were too busy fuckin’ me to talk about my abilities,” she chuckled. “I can’t bring things back to life. I can’t heal anyone; but I can fix a broken cup or glass.”

  “When did you Widen?”

  Widening the Breach, the physical process by which a Doyen’s abilities emerged. An extremely painful event she tried not to think about.

  “October 6th last year,” she said with a sudden yawn she quickly covered. “About three quarters of one Earth year at this point. I think I have all the abilities I’m going to have this go-round.”

  “You were up early and have had a very long day. I will be going so you can have your supper and go to bed.”

  “Does it really make you angry? The ring?” she stopped him from getting up.

  He did stop. He couldn’t remember a single instance when she’d expressed concern for his displeasure at something she’d done. Rather the opposite. She preferred to annoy. Being able to annoy gave her power over people.

  “Femina, it pleases me immensely that you would demand the right to wear it as you choose. Your insistence tells me this week together was not merely a week of sex and pretend. Our time as husband and wife means something to you and that could not make me happier. Wear the ring. Know you can come back to me whenever you wish. For any reason or for no reason at all.”

  She guffawed a laugh. “I have standing invitations from at least three men and an Emperor. What is it? I can’t say it’s the water because you’re on three different planets.”

  “It is you,” he said, flat with truth. “Your energy. Your aura. Your pheromones. Not every man will notice. But certain ones will. Those men cannot ever refuse you. They cannot ever forget you because your energy, your aura, your scent, everything about you, is etched into their psyche forever. You did not know?”

  “No.”

  “It is part of your nature. Part of the goddess you are to become. It comes through now, young as you are, because you are at the beginning of your sexual awakening. You are potent, my dearest. You drive a man insane with an uncommon desire.”

  His hand on the side of her face to tilt her lips upward, he gave her a most gentle kiss.

  “Some of us are strong enough to control ourselves and let you go. When you finally become aware of the power you possess over men, you will be a most dangerous entity.”

  He left her sitting there, walked his own pace across her yard and through her home to leave for his own. Her fingertips went to the ring to hold it and try to hold onto some measure of objectivity. She was feeling clouded of a sudden, uncertain what she was supposed to do.

  “My mentor is looking into it,” Julian said, coming back to sit with her. “You okay? You look upset.”

  “I’m fine. Are you staying for supper?”

  “No. I have to get back. I’ll have your pickups and deliveries when you call tomorrow,” he kissed her cheek and took a step away before teleporting.

  She went in, finding the big table set for two and a shoebox sized package on the far end. From the Emperor, the tag read. Mariah came in after a moment, smiling and bubbling about how much she liked her room. Part of the house but apart from it.

  “What’s that?” she asked, seeing Tyler open a box on the far end of the table.

  “I don’t know.”

  Tyler opened a smaller box within and found four brooches that declared the wearer under the protection of the First Daughter of Voran. She would need such a thing now, wouldn’t she, if she was going to have a young and unmarried woman in her home.

  “You need to wear this whenever you leave the house,” Tyler said, holding one out to Mariah.

  “Why? What’s it for?”

  “To stop assholes from forcing you to be married to them for a week. It really is important. It says you’re under my protection.”

  “If the people here are like that, why live here?” Mariah questioned.

  “Not all of them are like that. It only takes one to ruin your day. Or, rather, your week. I don’t really want to sit at the table, do you? I’m going to make my plate and sit in the library with the television on. Feel free to join me if you want.”

  Mariah did, and they watched the news. Tyler explained some of the politics between planets. Mariah mostly shook her head at the silliness. She asked about being married to Shestna and Tyler told how it happened, leaving out the part when she’d killed Hynder herself. Mariah understood the importance of not taking a flower, of making sure to wear the brooch.

  Still in her odd mood, Tyler said goodnight and went to her room shortly after eating. She packed a bowl and toked until the weed was gone and went naked to her bed.

  Drifting to sleep, she thought of Nails. Kevin Neiland, attorney, President of a motorcycle club. Her first…everything. Suddenly she missed him more than ever, and imagined he was there, coming in behind her to hold her close and warm. She pulled the light blanket around her shoulders tighter to simulate his arms.

  She opened her eyes to a dream world and there he was…but not as he had been. She hadn’t seen his face last time. She saw the man she had known within features of a creature that was more gargoyle. She should have been afraid, should have feared for her life; but she knew it was him and she had never in her life been afraid of him. Not even that first time they’d met, alone in a movie theater with him listening to her singing the songs of the film. Other girls would have been creeped out. She’d been shy.

  Dark charcoal colored skin, soft against her, eyes as steady as they had ever been, ready to turn hard if she displeased him. She caressed that face, a well-up of emotion preventing her from speaking words. Those emotions spoke for her and he heard.

  [I miss you] she finally managed to say.

  [I know, babygirl. I’m here.]

  He was as tender in this moment, stroking her cheek and kissing her, as he’d ever been in life. He picked up her tears one at a time from the corners of her eyes, each becoming a perfect, closed rose between his fingertips. He stopped making the
m when she no longer shed tears and was smiling.

  [My love] he whispered.

  The blanket was gone, the bed larger, taller, wider, sitting on a breezy beach in perpetual sundown with the waves lapping up to the feet of the bed. She was surrounded by flower buds, their scent gentle and light.

  He lifted over her and she opened for him, offering herself to his pleasure as easily as the last time they’d been together. Calmed by his presence, no hesitation, and he was as strong as always.

  An endless dream of endless lovemaking. Not just fucking or humping, he was not using her for his own gratification. He loved her and his every kiss and touch said so.. She was free to love him in this place, to express that love fully for the first time. She understood the depths of the emotion she’d only tasted with Arran and Shestna.

  Picking up a flower, the tightly closed bud had opened as fully as her heart had. Every flower was open, releasing their fragrance into a heady perfume.

  [Because you have blossomed] he told her. [They can love you, but they can never own you. You belong to me. From the first time you gave yourself to me, you have belonged to me.]

  [You are gone] she replied.

  [I am here, as deep and full inside you as you’ve ever known. You’ve had as many orgasms as I’ve ever given you. We talk. We kiss.]

  [Dreams are not real.]

  [You are not dreaming, babygirl.]

  He thrust hard, like he used to do, and she came harder.

  Tyler snapped awake, pushing up from the bed. “Hades!” she gasped, out of breath.

  Sunlight was bright in the side windows over her head. She looked around, expecting to see that place in her dream. Expecting to see him next to her. She felt his touch even now, was achy and shaky just as she had always been after an intense night with him. He was not there. The bed, the beach, they were gone. Except for a single rose blossom clutched tightly in her hand. She held it to her nose to smell, imprinting the aroma into the memory of him.

  “What time is it?” she eventually asked aloud.

  “Mistress, it is barely past dawn,” said one of her female Neverseens.

  Tyler collapsed back to the bed, exhausted to the bone. Feeling the throb between her legs, she reached down to give her clit a bit of a stroke. She was soaked with her own juices, clit fat and swollen as Nails had ever caused it to be. She rubbed the few seconds needed to put her over the edge into the big finishing orgasm and, still panting for breath, drifted back to sleep.

  A hard, dreamless sleep it was and she woke several hours later, rested and in a much better mood. Still clouded, but alert and ready to get to work, she and Mariah split a pot of coffee and a plate of sausage, eggs and toast. They headed out to their first assignment of the day.

  Mariah liked courier work as much as Tyler did. They enjoyed having lunch on one planet and going back to Voran to have supper. They attended the theater, sitting in Shestna’s box at his insistence, and he joined them when he was able.

  Hades came to her numerous times. Not every night, but often enough that she was no longer lonely for him. She anticipated his visits, remained with him willingly for as long as she could stay in that special place they shared. She started to want to be there rather than the physical world. She went to bed earlier and earlier in the evenings, until she was going to bed almost as soon as she’d eaten supper.

  Julian came to the theater about the fifth week in, Tyler eying him so sharply that he knew he could not ease into the discussion that needed to be had.

  [Father has taken you off the list for delivering or picking up anything to do with Sistair, K’Tran, the Deek’Trai system and a few others,] he said telepathically so they wouldn’t disturb other patrons.

  [Of course he has. Why? Because I let a lesser planet have the information Sistair was trying to hide?]

  [Yes. Also because he knows you have allies among the K’Tran and the Deek’Trai.]

  She made no reply.

  [So I will make sure that you get assignments that will take you to other places where you might learn things. The Ercoli can be a fountain of knowledge and solace if you know which temple to go to.]

  She laughed, short and sharp and fortunately covered by a humorous moment in the play.

  “Do they have a Temple of the Immaculate as well?” she had to ask, the lights coming up for Intermission.

  “As a matter of fact, they do. Somewhere. It’s hard to find, so if you want to find it, you really have to want to find it.”

  Intermission lasted half an hour, allowing for fresh drinks to be brought and unrushed visits to the rest rooms. Tyler sat there a few more minutes after the second half began, becoming more agitated and claustrophobic by the second.

  “Excuse me,” she said, and was through the door of the box to get outside to the street and the open expanse.

  Julian followed close behind.

  “Why do I feel I’ve landed in the middle of a drama of epic proportions?” Mariah asked.

  “Because you have,” Shestna replied, not moving. “Please stay and enjoy the rest of the play. Live your own life. Don’t worry about hers.”

  Mariah did stay with him, enjoying the music a great deal even though she didn’t understand a word..

  “Are you unwell?” Julian asked, catching up with her when she stopped in the middle of the walkway.

  “Too many people in too small a space,” she said, stopping to catch her breath. “It becomes overwhelming without warning.”

  “Who is your lover? You need to spend a night with him.”

  “I don’t have one.”

  “Wait. What?”

  She laughed. “You’re a little too surprised by that. Seriously, I’ve not been with anyone since I was married to Shestna. Unless you count having sex in my dreams.”

  “Ooh, a dream lover. Who is it?” he asked like the gossipy brother she never had.

  “Someone I used to know on Earth. He died fighting off Adamantine.”

  “The grave I found you at that one time?” he guessed, hoping to be wrong.

  “Yes. He’s a dream trying to convince me he’s not a dream. My own wishful thinking, more like,” she sighed. “At least it doesn’t hurt as terribly to remember him now. I am sleeping longer and better than I have in a long time..”

  “Since he’s come to your dreams?”

  “Yes.”

  “How many times?” he asked as they cut across the road in front of the library and temple.

  “I don’t know. I’ve not counted. A lot.”

  He was too disquieted.

  “What?” she prompted.

  “Find yourself a flesh and blood lover,” he said. “One who can love you in broad daylight and not just in dream space.”

  “You sound like it’s real.”

  “You’ve seen spirits all your life, Tyler. Why deny they exist now?” he asked in return. “What I really want to know is what music you’ve been singing recently.”

  “I found a new Benatar a few weeks back when I was on Earth. Just before I came here to visit Shestna. Wanna hear it? It’s really good.”

  “Only if you are singing it too,” he smiled.

  They were at her door, a Neverseen opening it for them. Into her bedroom, where the only stereo was, and she changed into more comfortable clothes in her toilet room. They shared a bowl and she cued up the album to play consecutively. He was entranced from start to finish, saw and felt what she did, heard what she heard.

  “Then there’s this one,” she said as Rise (Part 2) ended. “It’s called Kingdom Key.”

  He couldn’t have been more in love with her as she hit note after note. Much of the album mirrored what had been happening on Earth and in her life. The attack and aftermath, Solomon not wanting to let her go.

  “Not that you need salvation, but what is your shortcut?” he asked when it was done. “What is the Kingdom Key you search for?”

  “My Kingdom Key is truth. Truths about everything. Shortcut? At the moment, I guess hav
ing someone stand in front of me and tell me those truths. Apparently, the only one who knows them is Earnol. He’ll never tell me.”

  She started the last song, another hard rocker she belted out easily.

  Shestna walked Mariah home and asked the Neverseen to tell Tyler he was there. He could hear music playing in her room.

  “Forgive me, Your Highness, but the Mistress is in her room with Master Julian and her music. She said no disturbances.”

  “Tell her anyway.”

  “Forgive me, Your Highness, but…no. That is a mistake made once and I have already made it.”

  Shestna chuckled, remembering when he’d barged in on her on Crecorday station. She certainly hadn’t been amused.

  “Very well, Neverseen. I relieve you of the duty,” he said, already crossing the room toward her door.

  He knocked as the song wound down, and smiled when she opened the door herself.

  “So Julian knows you sing.”

  “Not that it matters, but yes. What do you want?”

  “To say good night and I hope you sleep well.”

  “Thank you. You too,” she replied, shutting the door.

  “Wait a minute, Shestna,” Julian called out getting to his feet. “I’ll be right there.”

  He paused to hold Tyler’s hands a moment. She could feel his regret as if it was her own.

  “If I could give you all the answers, I would. I can’t. I don’t have them all and my hands are tied over what I do know. You know that. Best I can do is point you in the right directions to find answers yourself. You have to do the work, dangerous as that is to you.”

  “I know,” she said quietly.

  “I’m going to send Shestna in to talk. You two haven’t done that since the day your marriage ended. You need to.”

  “No, we don’t.”

  “Yes. You do. Stop pushing him away.”

  He exited, shutting the door behind himself and exhaling out a tremendous sigh.

  “What?”

  “She’s so changed. I hate it,” Julian admitted. “Do you know she’s not had a lover since your marriage to her ended?”