by D. Fischer
“Kheelan’s new mate,” Erma finishes. “Tell me why I shouldn’t kill you now.”
Aiden uncrosses his arms and releases a gusting sigh. The weight of the world is on his shoulders, and the word mate had stiffened his spine. He doesn’t like that I’m married, and neither do I. I’d give anything to ease that burden from Aiden’s shoulders, to be free and with him until the end of times. But my fate has been stolen from me just as it has been for him. I’ll never truly have Aiden. I should have known this in the forest of my dreams - a ghost pressing his body against warm human flesh, entwined in a forbidden love. We’re two contradictions meant to forever love each other apart.
“Because she needs protection,” Aiden says, his voice clear and calm.
Erma tilts her head, and her tight curls bounce across her shoulder. “Protection?”
“Don’t we all,” Jaemes starts, and a snort quickly follows.
“Quiet, Jaemes,” Erma spits. “Protection from you, perhaps?”
Aiden nods reluctantly. “And from Kheelan.”
Erma contemplates that for a moment and raises her hand up, palm out, to silence the elves’ leader who had opened his mouth to speak. “Your input is not needed, Ica.”
I swallow at the demand, not daring to look at Ica at our backs.
“And what side of the line do you fall under, Thrice Born?” Erma asks after a moment of contemplation.
Aiden double blinks before smoothing his features. I, however, hiss as I suck in a breath, the sound masked by a new lap of waves against the rocking boat. How does she know his name?
“The side that ends with Corbin’s death.”
Satisfied with his answer, Erma nods her head and sweeps his body with gentler eyes, reevaluating her first impression. “Even if that means your own death?”
“Yes,” Aiden answers, his voice firm.
And I know it to be true, plucking the emotion from his mind. He’ll die before he loses me again. I don’t know if that’s a comfort or a great weight to an impending loss. Will Aiden be taken from me again? I don’t think I could bear it another time. I know I couldn’t. This time, if he dies again, I’ll go with him.
Erma turns to me, and I almost miss her words as my thoughts churn with oily dread. “And you?”
I think for a moment, but my thoughts are stolen when Aiden’s gaze locks with mine, the lava depths returning to the colors I remember so well - the colors I fell for. The swirls are pure. They’re Aiden. Vivid. Captivating. A safe place to the depths of his true soul. They take my breath away.
I hold his gaze as I answer. “I fall on the side of Aiden. I choose him.”
Aiden’s lips quirk in a smile, and those eyes seem to shine just a little brighter. Until now, I believe he thought I feared him. I do but only a part of him - the part that could so easily kill without guilt. I want him to know I fall on the side of us being together. I’ll do anything to kiss those lips without having to look over my shoulder.
“A lover’s conviction. Adorable,” Jaemes mocks. He wipes a fake tear from under his eye along the black skin which raccoons them.
Erma sighs, forcing me to break my gaze, my silent promise that Aiden is my forever. “Keep your feelings for another in check. Don’t let it consume the mission.”
“Creator,” Ica begs. She silences him with a deadly look.
“Mission?” Aiden questions, his eyes still on me, caressing my cheek as he searches my face.
Suppressing a laugh, Erma’s small shoulders bob, and she touches the tips of her hair, patting the curls. “Did you think you’d escape from the grips of the fee by hiding here?”
The angel’s black wings rustle, and she presses her lips into a thin line. Her hand lifts, and it is then that I see the large black bow gripped tightly in her other. Who does she protect? The protestor or the General? I can’t tell which. Not from where I stand. She’s too guarded for such inquiries.
Aiden’s eyebrows flick, a sign that he did, indeed, think so.
Erma peers at the angel. “Tember, explain while I talk with Ica.”
Tember smiles, almost wickedly, like she’s excited for the future and what we mean for it. “The only way you’ll be free of them is if they’re dead.”
Jaemes claps his hands once. “I never thought I’d endure a war in my lifetime,” he proclaims, far too cheerful for someone who may not survive it.
TEMBER
GUARDIAN REALM
As soon as we step through the portal, safe from the Uji’s hostage proclamation, Eliza bends and retches all over the snow. A few Igna elves grunt their protest and clear disgust, but Jaemes quiets them with one stern look.
It must have been some wordless expression for the elves to wipe the disgust from their features so quickly. They back away immediately and return to their tasks.
Interesting. Obedient, even.
I lick my top lip and smirk. “Has a great elf taken a charge? Perhaps we shall make a true guardian of you yet. Maybe even the leader of your tribe, one day.”
His lips twitch, hiding a sneer, and he flicks his head to Aiden and Eliza. “If two extra creatures mean a victory in war, then I’ll make sure they live to fight in it.”
Aiden bends his long, bulky frame and tends to Eliza, murmuring sweet tones in her ear. Strong hands gather her hair behind her shoulders while continuously flicking his eyes to the elves, keeping a close watch as they roam by. I imagine his preconceived notions of them and their prickly attitude has everything to do with the temporary hostage situation they’d endured. He’s untrusting of them, just as most angels are.
I can’t blame him. If I were under the clutches of a threatening tribe, I’d be wary of the entire species as well, even the ones providing reluctant solace.
Approaching Erma, we immediately search each other’s face. Jaemes had first proclaimed war on the boat, and though we’ve never spoken it aloud, I’ve known this day would come for quite some time. It is inevitable, and many will fall, including those we love. I am not blindly believing I won’t lose someone I care for. The battle on the Death Realm was the first move, but an alliance seems to be forming on its own.
What deaths will come before this is over? Who around us will survive it? Am I to be counted among the odds? These questions have never halted my thoughts and pondered my future. Before, it was a battle of my own realm. This time, it’s the all realms, and I have much more to lose.
Erma must be thinking the same as I. Her eyes soften, and she lifts a tender hand. Her frigid palm cups my cheek, and I place mine over the delicate back of her hand. I close my eyes, basking in this rare affection, the warmth in such a cold hand. The heart in my wrist flutters, the same beat as the butterflies flapping in my stomach.
Jaemes turns his back to the display, pretending he’s unaware of this private moment between two forbidden lovers.
Erma leans in closer to me and drinks in my scent. “Do you understand now, Tember?” she whispers, pleading. “Do you understand my anger when you cut your wings? Do you understand it is your life I’m trying to save?”
At the mention of my wings, I flutter my black steeled feathers to prove how wrong she is. I may have severed my original set, but I have a formidable pair now. I have Kat to thank for this unimaginable gift which Erma herself wouldn’t have been able to give.
She continues. “Can you comprehend the disaster of what would come if we mated?”
I tick my jaw against her palm and nod once into it. My skin slides easily along hers, and the touch sends a thrill of pleasure to every nerve. Gripping my fingers tighter around hers, I swallow the knowledge with difficulty. I refuse to let her go.
“I do understand.” I swallow. “But what if this is how it’s meant to be?”
A slow grin puffs her angelic cheeks, and impossibly, her eyes water. “The fee are meant to take mates, you know. The Divine created us this way to ensure we don’t lose our way. They wanted us to have compassion, Tember. This is what I’m showing you. Every part of
me has so much compassion for you that I can’t bear to put you in harm’s way. That thought alone hurts me more than knowing I’ll never be able to touch you in the way that I want. To call you mine. To kiss you under the stars of my chamber’s bed. To tell you I love you, every day, for the rest of time.”
She pauses to let this sink in, and her throat works to her emotions. “But those of us who care more for what we have created know how reckless and irresponsible that would be. It would be favoritism. It would be jealousy and destruction. It would cause a rift in all those we’ve created, my sweet Tember.”
She steps back and slides her hand from under mine, despite my grip. Wetness clouds my vision, blurring the falling flakes. These are unshed tears for what she has yet to say aloud and rings in my head before her lips have a chance to form her next admission.
“I will always love you, Tember,” she discloses with such passion. “But I cannot subject you to your own death. I am done sitting on the sidelines while others do my work for me. We are a distraction to each other. It can be no more.”
And with that, she briskly turns and walks away.
It takes some time for me to gather myself, to banish the pain carving deep gashes in the pit of my stomach, and for the surrounding noises to penetrate my hearing. But when she disappears from my sight, bending around the corner of a teepee, I’m pulled back to the matter at hand. Her words continue to echo in my thoughts, and I vow I’ll discuss this with her again after she’s had some time to collect herself. To see reason. To take me for what I am: the rest of her life. After the war, perhaps, when it’s safe for her to love me as equally as I do her.
Jaemes, who heard the entire exchange, meets my eyes squarely. His head is tilted, and his body is positioned to have shielded the entire exchange between Erma and me from curious glances. He reaches forward, slow, as if to not scare me or be the wrath of anger, and gives my shoulders a firm squeeze.
“I see now,” he says, a mild murmur. “When this is over, my friend…” He leaves his promise open-ended, and I curtly nod for his blessing. Perhaps Jaemes and I are more than we appear – friends who will forever be enemies - and for his own version of compassion, I’m grateful.
He’s right. When this is over, I will pursue the matter at hand and cut down all those who object. I have an inkling Jaemes will be there right beside me, a looming tower of power to all those who protest a union between creator and creature.
Aiden gathers Eliza to her feet, and Jaemes drops his hand back to his side.
“That’s impossible,” Dyson’s clear, shocked voice rings from behind me. Where he came from, I do not know. It’s hard to hear an approaching body when this village is crawling with them.
I look over my shoulder and spot Dyson’s awe-filled expression. A pang of sympathy overcomes me. Dyson’s day has been full of revelations and life-altering situations. Perhaps I shall reserve my reservations about him until I have the full picture of the man himself. It is clear he’s had a harder life than most, and I share this with him. My life has not been easy either.
“Aiden?” he questions, shuffling to his friend. His pack hangs behind, gathered around the fire and watching with intense curiosity.
“How?” Dyson wheezes as he passes me.
“It doesn’t matter how,” Aiden responds, his voice rumbling as he steadies Eliza to her feet with a firm grip to her elbow.
The three begin to speak in low murmurs and bowed heads, discussing the time they’ve spent apart. Three friends reuniting under one realm, each altered from the last time they were together. It is clear they care for one another by the soft eyes and gentle touches of reassurance. Dyson’s head hangs with pure guilt bowing his spine, and Aiden bends to meet his gaze. It’s touching, almost, to see a demon care for another. To see him feel for another, to console and accept. I don’t know what the three of them have been through, but whatever it is warrants apologies and forgiveness.
Goosebumps riddle my skin with obvious envy. If only forgiveness would be delivered to me in such a way, I wouldn’t have to fight so hard to receive it. I’ve never had what they have – an easy acceptance - except. . .
I look to Jaemes from the corner of my eye and wonder if I may be deceiving myself. He may not care for me the way Aiden, Eliza, and Dyson do, but he has his own way of showing he cares – continually saving my skin and banishing my self-doubt with mockery that uncovers my confidence.
“How is it everyone seems to know everyone?” Jaemes asks, a murmur in my ear when he catches me peering at him.
“These three survived a great wrath by Kheelan’s hand,” Erline proclaims.
Jaemes’ muscles tense in obvious fright, and he growls his annoyance. “Must you fee sneak up on everyone?”
Erline smiles, small but tinged with humor, while she observes the three. “We’re quite good at it.”
I chuckle my agreement and angle my body to Erline. “Did Erma -”
Cutting me off mid-sentence, her smile fades quickly. “Discuss the new guest and possible war?”
The word ‘war’ is punctuated by a new roar of fire and fresh logs being plopped onto it. The flames are situated beside the teepee behind Aiden, Eliza, and Dyson. It was doused with collected fat from our earlier hunt’s carcass, and an immediate bellow of smoke quickly reaches the first row of branches swaying above our heads.
I scoff. “Don’t pretend you didn’t know there would be a war.”
She crosses her arms behind her back, content on watching Eliza hug Dyson with tightly shut eyes. “I thought there may be, but my hope was to deliver their assassination swiftly. That plan is long gone.”
“Indeed,” Jaemes mumbles, shifting weight to his other foot. “And the mascot’s charge? Has she returned?”
I narrow my eyes at Jaemes whose lips twitch in amusement. I flap my wings once to prove my worth, stirring the snow gathered around our ankles.
“No,” Erline responds, a hushed whisper. She doesn’t find it funny, and immediately, I rein in my smile. “But I suspect Dyson will collect her soon.”
Silence and heavy emotion settle in the area, too great for me to further endure for more than a few more minutes. It adjusts, this emptiness where I hold Erma in my heart, reminding me that I can’t escape my own troubles for long.
“Do we have a new plan?” I ask, grasping the subject to banish my hurt.
Erline nods, her head bobbing as she considers her next words. She tucks a stray white hair behind her small ear. “I believe Thrice Born has his own agenda, and it’ll surely work in our favor. I also believe Kat has her own as well, though she has yet to voice it or draw from it.”
She already took a go at her own plans of war. She ventured to the Death Realm in hopes of ending the fee, but I keep these thoughts to myself. I don’t think she went there to start a war. I think she went to save the people in it because she was the only one who could. Except, it didn’t end that way . . .
I quickly flick my gaze to Erline. Her expression is grim with worry, and I chew on the inside of my lip with a bout of anxiety. “She’s in trouble, isn’t she?”
“The darkness is powerful, Tember.” She draws in a shaky breath, a rare moment of her seemingly indestructible demeanor shifting to great concern. “It’s seductive, and Kat needs to find a way to pull herself from it or make peace with it.”
I swivel back to Dyson, the snow crackling as it compacts further beneath my shoes. “If she doesn’t . . .” I gulp, my mouth suddenly thick with saliva. “We’ve lost the war before it has truly begun.”
An elf, one who refuses to look Aiden or Eliza in the eyes, hands two fur blankets to them. Aiden gratefully accepts the offer and murmurs his thanks to the creature. Erline twitches a smile, also caught off guard by a caring demon.
“He’s a fine creature, isn’t he,” she says, but neither Jaemes nor I respond.
Gracefully, Aiden slides the thickest one over Eliza’s shoulders before he covers his own. Eliza shivers once underneath it the
n sighs with audible relief. Aiden, however, shows no signs of enjoying the warmth it provides.
“Indeed,” she says. “Indeed.”
It’s unnerving how Kat holds our future in her hands. Doubt lingers in my thoughts, and I breathe deep, hoping to demolish the idea that she may be our greatest weakness instead of our best chance. She’s the largest weapon we have, the only dragon and magic wielder, and with a reputation that frightens the fee. But even with these strengths, the opposing fee outnumber ours. Those odds are useless to consider, for even with Katriane as an aide, we may still lose.
“Perhaps…” I begin. “Perhaps we aren’t looking at the full picture here.”
“Oh?” Jaemes quips, his voice thick with sarcasm. “Finally admitting to ignorance, are we?”
I ignore his jab, my mind consumed with my train of thoughts.
Tilting my head, I observe the three before us with a different set of eyes and voice my findings aloud. “Look at what we have here.” I sweep out an arm. “We have a demon, pulled from the void, with unimaginable abilities. He can clearly love - his power must be great.” I nod at my own assessment, agreeing with myself, and continue. “We have a mate to King Death, himself. Don’t tell me you can’t smell her power from here. It tastes as the split moment before a bolt of lightning strikes the land.” I look back to the wolf pack, anxiously waiting for their packmate to return while stealing glances into the forest for Kat’s reappearance. “We have them, the elf tribes, and we have Kat’s mate.”
Erline smiles with hope. “Dyson could be the key to her own plight.”
“Would you look at that,” Jaemes whistles. “We have ourselves an army.”
“And the angels?” Erline asks, quirking a brow at me. “Will they fight for the greater good?”
I consider this, chewing on the inside of my lip and tasting a bead of my own blood when I bite too hard. “Some will, but it’ll take some convincing. After the discovery of Erma and me, I’m not completely convinced of their allegiances. You felt it; there was a distinct rift when we were there.” It’s why we sought safety with the elves.