Andrew’s face paled at the thought. He always knew that because Harleen didn’t come to Hell because she had died, she could die here, but the thought that such a thing were to happen before she turned immortal, and the fact that if she did die, she might go to Heaven rather than here… He had never thought of that before, and if he was honest, didn’t want to think about such a thing.
“I would never let something like that happen to her,” Andrew said in a firm voice. This time, he looked at Sean, wanting nothing more than for Sean to believe him, because if Sean believed him, then that would mean what he said was true. Of course Andrew would never let such a thing happen if he could help it. But sometimes, things couldn’t be helped.
“Forgive me for saying, sir, but you can’t watch her constantly,” Sean pointed out as gently as he possibly could. “You won’t always be around to watch her, and for that matter above all else, I believe that she needs to be aware that even though she is in Hell, she can still die. She needs to take care to protect herself, whether it’s to always have someone with her in the castle, or to brush up on self-defense skills. You cannot leave her defenseless, Majesty. If Nigel can get to her in the Courtyard Meadow, then it wouldn’t be that much of a stretch to say that anyone can get to her.”
Andrew knew Sean was right, but something inside of him didn’t want to shatter the illusion that Hell wasn’t safe, that Andrew couldn’t protect her every minute of every day.
Before Andrew could respond to Sean’s claim, an icy ball of snow shot out of the sky and hit Andrew square in the face.
Twenty-Five
It took Andrew a moment to get a hold of his senses. The first thing he noticed was the fact that icy particles slid underneath his clothes, melting against his skin, causing goose bumps to erupt against his warm flesh. Then he heard Sean, trying to smother the amused chuckles coming out of his throat before Harleen’s outright laughter pierced the air. Andrew’s eyes glanced over at the woman, and he couldn’t hide his smile at the sight. Harleen’s head was thrown back in laughter and her hands were crossed over her stomach as she leaned forward, not quite believing that she hit him, that she had succeeded at what she had set out to do.
Luckily for Andrew, Harleen gave him ample opportunity to retaliate, and he immediately dropped to his knees and skillfully crafted what he deemed as the perfect snowball. He looked back up at his wife, finding her still laughing and completely unaware of what was about to take place. Then, as though he had done this before – and he most certainly had – he threw the snowball at her. She managed to move her head just in time, but she could feel the iciness skim across her cheek, causing it to get even redder than it already was. Her laughter was cut short, and she turned to glare at Andrew, her hands on her hips.
“You were going to throw a snowball at me?” she asked, her eyes demanding. Andrew couldn’t see her struggle at maintaining the serious look on her face, and as a result, couldn’t help but think that maybe Harleen hadn’t thrown a snowball at him in the first place. “Too bad you’re such a lousy shot!” And with that, she dropped to her knees, compacted a snowball, and threw it, managing to hit Andrew in the chest once more.
This time, Sean couldn’t control his laughter if he tried. Andrew might have yelled at him if he wasn’t so preoccupied with his thoughts. She was teasing him – his wife was teasing him! Harleen always teased him, of course, but now she played with him of her own choosing. For the first time since they arrived in Hell, it appeared as though Harleen was sincerely happy. And he didn’t want to lose that sight if he could help it.
“You know what you’ve just done, don’t you?” Andrew called to her retreating figure, watching with sparkles in his eyes as he tried to figure out just where she would hide. He had already grabbed more snow and packed it together to make another snowball. “You’ve just declared war!”
“Does this mean you plan on surrendering?” she called back, but Andrew couldn’t see her now, and as a result, turned around a couple of times to see if he could find her anywhere else.
“You know I won’t,” Andrew returned, carefully dropping the snowball on the snow and making another one. He had always been talented when it came to battle plans; he had been a warrior after all, and the thing that usually won wars was how much ammo a person had. It didn’t matter how big the weapons were; if one side had more ammunition, that side usually won. “You better have something warm back home because you’re going to be wet in a manner of a few moments.”
“What if I already am?” a sultry voice asked from behind him.
Andrew was so surprised he jumped, but turned around anyways, his eyes looking at Harleen with skepticism but also desire. Her arms were behind her back as she attempted to keep herself warm, and the look she gave her husband right now was anything but cold. She raised a brow, almost as though she dared Andrew to do something about it. He took a step towards her and as he wrapped his arms around her waist, she wrapped her arms carefully around his neck, letting her wrists dangle off instead of clutching him.
“I’m sure I could do something about it,” Andrew said, dropping his voice so it was husky, his hazel eyes darkening even more than they already were at the mere thought that someone as innocent as her could say such things.
“I think I’ll be doing something about it,” Harleen said, and the corner of her lip twitched up, her blue eyes flickering with mischievousness.
Oh, if only Andrew had been playing closer attention.
At that moment, Harleen dropped what she had been holding in her concealed hands, so the icy snowball dropped down his shirt and littered his back. He shrieked upon the contact, and she didn’t have to wait for any sort of invitation – she disentangled from Andrew and started to run deeper into the forest.
“That was suicide!” Andrew shouted after her. He couldn’t chase her yet, not with the icy flecks molding to his skin. He inhaled, shaking his torso in hopes to rid himself of the ice. “I warn you now, girlie, what you did was absolute suicide!” The only sound Andrew could hear was Sean’s laughing, and he threw his eyes over at his assistant. “You had better watch yourself, Sean. You think you’re immune to a snowball fight? Think again.”
Even though Andrew tried to be intimidating, he failed quite miserably at it, at least from Sean’s point of view. To his credit, Sean did try to contain his laughter, but it simply wouldn’t work. Maybe it was the fact that there was a funny look on Andrew’s face, or maybe it was the fact that the all powerful Satan had just gotten his ass handed to him by a woman who had never seen snow in her entire life simply because he was distracted by her sex. Or maybe Harleen’s happiness was contagious.
“No,” Sean murmured to himself, wiping the tears of laughter from his eyes. “It’s all three.”
Andrew’s snowballs had been crushed by Harleen’s trampling feet, so if he wanted to retaliate, he would need to make more. Except this time, he chose not to. Instead, he made one and then darted into the forest after her, hoping to catch her by surprise. He walked for a few minutes, trying to see her through the thick, white forestry, trying to hear any sound, any breath, she might make. With each step, he became to get more and more worried, his stomach clenching with the emotion. He would have been able to hear the Hunters if they had come close, wouldn’t he? He wasn’t sure and didn’t want to assume anything.
“Harleen?” he called after another few moments. “Harleen, are you there?” When she didn’t answer, the heart that had started to beat only recently began to increase in speed. “Harleen!” He tried a different tactic. “You got me, okay? I surrender. Just come here, okay? I promise I surrender. You have my word as Satan himself. I won’t hit you with a snowball or anything. Harleen!”
In what seemed like forever, Harleen finally made her appearance. There were two snowballs in her hand, but Andrew didn’t notice. He walked hurriedly towards her and wrapped his arms around her body, molding her against him. It was silly, but the feel of her against him meant more to him tha
n he wanted to admit. He had thought that he had lost her, that somehow she had disappeared and he might not get her back. Upon seeing her, however, unharmed and unhurt, his heart swelled with relief, and he had to hold her.
Harleen was so surprised by the action that she dropped the snowballs to her feet in order to hug Andrew back. She wasn’t quite sure if this was some kind of trick, so her body was still tense. It was only when Andrew picked his head off of hers to look at him did she realize that he appeared to be worried about her, and she wasn’t sure as to why.
He pressed his lips to her sharp cheek, almost as though he wanted to make the flush disappear but at the same time, he couldn’t help but adore it on her.
“Are you okay?” she asked him as he placed his forehead onto hers. He needed her support for whatever reason, and while she wanted nothing more than to provide it for him, she wasn’t sure as to the reason why.
Andrew nodded, pressing her even closer to him. He had to be reassured that she was really in his arms, she was really in his arms.
“Promise me, darling,” he murmured, fluttering his eyes open so they locked within hers. “Promise me that you won’t come here alone.” Harleen looked at him with confusion, thinking they had already had this conversation, but nodded nonetheless. “Say it,” he whispered, burying his head into her shoulder. “I want to hear you say it. Please.”
Harleen knew Andrew rarely ever said please, so whatever he was worried about when it came to Hell’s Everglades was serious.
“I promise,” she told him, hoping that the words conveyed as much sincerity as she meant. “I promise I won’t come here alone.”
Harleen just wished he would tell her why.
Twenty-Six
“Come here,” Andrew instructed the next evening, waving his hand over at his wife in a diligent manner. His crooked smile was on his face, and although Harleen had been with him for more than a few months now, she could not tell what this particular smile meant. Even so, she couldn’t keep the excited smile off of her face if she had tried, and obeyed Andrew, walking straight into his outstretched hands.
“Okay,” he said, placing his hands on her shoulders and taking a step back in order to take in her attire with his sharp, dark hazel eyes. His mouth was pressed into a thin line, tilting his head ever so slightly to the side. “Let’s see. Well, you dressed for the evening, in the casual attire I stressed.” His eyes went back up to her face and he locked eyes with her. “Do you feel comfortable? You won’t get cold after a few hours, will you?”
“You aren’t taking me to the Everglades, are you?” she asked him, furrowing her brow. “Because if you are, my entire outfit is all wrong, and I’ll be needing an extra twenty minutes.”
“I’m not taking you to the Everglades,” he assured her. “You’re going somewhere.”
Harleen’s furrowed brow furrowed even more so. “What about you?” she asked, hoping her voice didn’t sound as desperate as it sounded. “You’re not coming with me?”
“Not this time,” he said, and there was something Harleen could see brimming in his irises, something she didn’t quite understand, but felt that maybe she should. Before she could ponder what it was, Andrew took a step towards her, distracting her, if only temporarily. “But you will come back, and I will be waiting.”
Then, just like that, beautiful white wings that mirrored an angel’s sprouted from her back. Harleen, instead of looking ecstatic at the prospect, had a look of horror on her face.
“You’re sending me away?” she cried as soon as her feet began to lift from the ground.
Andrew’s face dropped. “No,” he called as he watched her get higher and higher, away from grasp. “You said you wanted to see the stars again, one last time. So I wanted to give you that.” He didn’t tell her that if she so chose to, she could remain back up on earth since he let her go of his own free will. She would only be coming back if she wanted to.
Once she had disappeared, Andrew turned to look at Sean, an anxious expression embedded on his chiseled face. “Do you think she will return?” he asked him, not caring if his voice sounded worried. Because in all honesty, Andrew was worried that Harleen wouldn’t come back. He had never been romantic, but such an action might break his recently attained beating heart.
“I can’t say for sure, sir,” Sean said in a quiet voice, tilting his head in order to meet Andrew’s eyes. “But I think that what you did for her expressed more than words could ever say. And it’s smart too. You’re giving her the choice to come back or not, and you’ll soon see whether she comes back to you of her own free choosing, or whether she chooses to stay on earth.”
“And if it’s the latter?” Andrew asked, practically demanded. But Sean didn’t take Andrew’s anger personally; his anger almost always masked his worry and frustration. “And if she chooses to stay up there instead of returning to me?”
“Then you have to let her go,” Sean murmured, knowing it wasn’t what Andrew wanted to hear, but at the same time, knowing it was what he needed to hear.
Harleen arrived in Mariner’s Park - a park her grandfather used to take her to when she was kid – in what felt like a few minutes She wished she could look at the wings currently littered on her back, but if she craned her neck and started spinning around, she might look like a dog chasing her tale.
No one was there, that much she could tell, and due to the stars’ brightness, she could tell it was midnight, maybe even one o’clock. Harleen felt a shiver run through her body, and if it wasn’t for the wings, she might be cold. However, they proved to be warm and comforting.
To be honest, Harleen had no idea Andrew was ever going to let her see the stars. They had spoken about it only once, and not since that fateful night where their bodies had been connected together on a deeper level than Harleen had ever thought possible. As she took a seat on one of the park benches, her neck craned up to look at the stars and she realized that it wasn’t the same without Andrew. That this moment, while special and while she would take full advantage of, had less meaning without him.
Did this mean anything special, anything different, when it came to her feelings regarding Andrew? She didn’t want to think about it now. In fact, she didn’t want to think about anything. She turned her body and lay down on the bench, placing her hands on her stomach and flickering her eyes up at the stars. She hoped she would memorize what the stars looked like. Were they really worth giving up for an eternity she might or might not love down in Hell?
She saw the night star – Evangeline, as she was known as. When she was a kid, she would always make a wish on the particular star, wanting to be some kind of princess, to fall in love, to get the latest Barbie. They had all managed to come true. She married Andrew which made her a Queen, and she had gotten that Barbie for her birthday. The whole love issue, she wasn’t sure of, but nothing stopped her now regarding making a wish on her old friend.
After glancing around to make sure that no one was there, she looked back up at the star and allowed a sigh to slip out of her nose. “Okay Evangeline,” she murmured under her breath, and watched in fascination for a moment, the way her breath came out in whiteness; it must be incredibly cold, but her wings prevented her from noticing. “I know we haven’t talked in a while, and for that, I’m sorry. But if you’ll hear me out, I promise that…” She let her voice trail off, unsure of what exactly it was she was going to promise. Because truth be told, she was never going to see Evangeline again. “I just don’t know how I feel about Andrew…”
As the words slid out of her mouth, her body felt content, as though she knew exactly how she felt, and it was only now, when she spoke – wishing on a star – did her feelings finally make themselves known to her. It was a revelation, but somehow, Harleen always knew.
At that moment, she heard a car pull up to Mariner’s park, and she shrouded herself in her wings, hoping they would camouflage her, hoping the person wouldn’t notice her. Someone probably called the cops, and she was busted.
God, she did not need to go to jail. She could already imagine the conversation she would have with Andrew, and truth be told, he would never allow her to live it down.
However, Harleen was too curious to not peek at who it was, and her mouth dropped open when her eyes came in contact with a familiar car, a familiar face just sitting in the driver’s seat. But the person he sat with, well, Harleen didn’t seem to recognize her one bit.
Harleen wasn’t jealous. Along with the new clarity Evangeline provided her with, she should have known Rosco wasn’t going to be waiting around for her. It had to have been longer than three months, and without any words from her, she could understand.
If anything, Harleen was upset with herself for even worrying about her loyalty to Rosco in the first place. Her time with Andrew might have been a tad more enjoyable had she realized that he wasn’t going to wait around for her. She might have been able to come to the conclusion that she loved Andrew sooner, and her time in Hell could have been a lot more fun. When she finally looked away, she allowed herself to swallow, and let her mind wander just a bit.
It was at that moment that she decided to consciously make an effort to work on her marriage with Andrew, no matter what. It was silly; she had barely turned eighteen, and yet her union with Andrew felt nothing short of right. She was his queen, and he was her king.
And she loved him, and wanted nothing more than to remain with him for as long as he’d let her.
Falling for the Devil: Book 1 of the Gods & Monsters Trilogy Page 13