The Forbidden Fruit

by S. K Munt

  ‘To answer your question,’ I called out, running my fingers down his stomach as I adjusted my grip, and scenting the flower that was still in my other hand. It was so much lovelier than the stink of roses. ‘I am enjoying Pacifica and the hard places I’ve been pressed against very much!’

  I felt his laughter tighten his stomach beneath my fingers, and wondered why any girl would be stupid enough to want a noble over a man who worked with his hands- and waist!

  *

  We had a fish fry that night out in the open air around our pool, and it was more fun than I’d ever had before in my life. Under the starry sky we drank cocktails and played games in the pool that Kohl taught to us all and then after that, Kohén dragged Kelia and I onto the clay Basket-Racket court so that we could explain the rules to Kohl, who’d never played a game despite the fact that the court was right there.

  ‘Jovi and Atticus play a lot,’ Kohl said to me, his voice slurred a little as he admired the racket in his hands. ‘And the general has often said that he’ll have to have me over for a game sometime… but I work from sunrise to sunset, you know? And the other kids don’t get invited over so...’ he swallowed and so did I, rubbing his lower back in comfort. ‘I hope I’m good at it, I mean… I don’t want to embarrass myself in front of him and father and talk them out of inviting me back...’

  My heart had folded for him so many times since we’d met that I was certain that it had a permanent crease down the centre of it by then. ‘You couldn’t be terrible at anything,’ I assured him. ‘Just… just try and keep your shots on their side of the net and between the lines, and try and get it into that basket behind us at every opportunity that you get… okay?’

  He looked at me, his expression mournful. ‘Will you play on my side?’

  But I cringed and looked up to see that Kohén was already beckoning to me from the other end of the court while Kelia slunk toward us with a dejected look on her face. ‘I don’t think that’s a great idea but… but I’ll go easy on you, okay?’

  Kohl sighed sadly and did not look at me. ‘Okay.’

  ‘Kelia’s really good,’ I assured him, feeling awful. Drunk wasn’t a good look on him.

  ‘Okay…’

  I patted his bare shoulder and then walked toward Kohén with a regretful heart, and his eyes were shining. ‘Ready to whoop some butt, sweetheart?’

  I took the racket he was holding out to me from him. ‘I don’t know Kohén I mean…’ I looked back toward Kelia and Kohl, then back to him, lowering my voice to whisper: ‘Do you think that’s a good idea? I mean, they’re already the underdogs. Can’t we let them win a few games, at least?’

  But Kohén laughed and took my free hand, dragging me across the court behind him. ‘And what good will that do them, huh?’

  ‘It will give them a little bit of pride,’ I pointed out. ‘And they both need more of that, and we both know it.’

  ‘Pride is not given, Lark- it’s earned and it can only come from the inside out.’ He pushed a lock of hair out of my face and lifted my chin to regard me, and I scented coconut milk and rum on his breath. ‘You were born without a skerrick of pride to call your own, but you are glorious now because you have earned every inch of the esteem that you’ve accumulated. And you’ve transitioned from being the underdog, to the potential future queen of Arcadia because you have worked hard to become a force of nature- not because I felt sorry for you, or you for yourself.’ He leaned in and kissed me gently, and he tasted so sweet that I had to struggle not to kiss him back too eagerly. ‘And you have inspired me to reach for the skies in order to win your esteem because of it.’ He pulled back and tapped my wet hair with the racket. ‘So don’t cripple their evolution, by handing them anything that they have not earned, especially a victory, or you will only further to encourage the ridiculous belief that children born noble are entitled to more than anyone else.’

  I stared at him, a little dazzled yet again. Sometimes when I thought I had him pegged, he’d do or say something to prove that he was wise beyond his years, and it never failed to leave me breathless. Like when he’d declared as a five-year old, that he didn’t want me to go easy on him in poker- but wanted to know how to win the hard way off the bat, or the way he’d held his tongue about my mother, believing that I needed to experience the shock without a prior warning first.

  Yes I could argue back that he’d been spoon-fed as well, but that would be a lame argument, because I knew deep down that if Kohén Barachiel had been born as a Blue Collar, then he would have ended up working his way into the noble class anyway. And if inheriting a title had been off the cards to him, as it practically was to Kohl, then he would have earned one of his own- as a general, or maybe even a president because, he didn’t let anything come between him and attaining his goals- least of all- rules.

  ‘I-’ I was about to just drunkenly blurt out that I loved him, but there was a sudden buzzing sound and Kohén’s expression immediately shifted from sexily arrogant, to wide-eyed and flummoxed. He spun in a circle, and then his eyes landed on the clay ground and he let out a bellow:

  ‘WASP!’

  I jumped, and then I heard Constance scream.

  ‘Oh my Goodness Kohén, Kohl- get out of there!’

  I followed Kohén’s gaze and saw the rather innocuous looking bug on the white line a few feet from his sneakered feet, and snorted.

  ‘You’re afraid of that?’ I joked, moving toward it, and intending to stomp it with my own foot. ‘Kohén’s it’s just a tiny-’

  ‘Don’t move Larkin!’ Kohl cried out then, and I looked up to see him hurdle the fence and come to a standstill a few metres away. ‘Don’t disturb it, please? We’re safer so long as we know where it is.’

  ‘Oh my God!’ I froze, looked from one twin to the other, then over at Constance who was opening the fence and striding in while waving us over, looking deathly pale. ‘What’s-’

  ‘They’re allergic!’ the duchess was breathing heavily and beckoning Kohl over with urgent flicks of her hand. ‘They disturbed a nest in Eden when they were three and were stung badly. Kohl ended up swelling up to twice his size and Kohén-’ her voice broke. ‘Baby, please? Get away from it!’

  I looked at Kohén. ‘What happened to you?’ I whispered.

  ‘My heart stopped,’ he said quietly, still staring down at the wasp, and my heart stopped. ‘Whether it was from the venom, or because I took such a fright that I zapped myself too much from the inside out, we’ll never know. But Karol couldn’t revive me- so I would have died if father hadn’t jump-started my heart again.’ He swallowed hard. ‘I’ve been terrified of them since.’

  ‘Oh no!’ I felt tears prick at my eyes. ‘Well, get away from it, now!’

  But Kohén shook his head, his eyes not moving from the insect. ‘I- I don’t know how to…’ his forehead creased. ‘Dad?’

  ‘I’m here son.’ I looked over and saw that Elijah was now beside his wife, looking concerned. ‘Just breathe through it, and then walk over slowly, all right? But if anything happens, I’m here.’

  ‘Both of you, please!’ the duchess sounded distraught. ‘Before it-’

  The wasp moved, and Kohl and Kohén grew rigid, both boys flashing blue so brightly that it blinded me. They were scared- really scared and we all held our breath as we watched the little bug zoom about in a small circle before settling back onto the clay again, making it harder to see.

  ‘I’m so sorry!’ the general called out, and behind him and Jovi, I heard the other Given girls whispering between themselves in panic. ‘Honestly, I take such precautions-’

  ‘Precautions?’ I whispered.

  ‘We have the grounds fumigated against them,’ Kohl said quietly. ‘In Eden and around my barracks, but we don’t see them as often as we do honeybees here in Pacifica so… Kohén?’ he swallowed. ‘We move on three, all right? Slowly.’

  But Kohén shook his head yet again, and his eyes hardened as his glow abated. ‘No,’ he said. ‘I’m not goi
ng to let fear make me run like a princess from these things for the rest of my damned life.’ He winked at me. ‘There’s no pride in that and besides… there are hot chicks watching, man.’

  ‘Really hot,’ Kohl agreed, though despite their cavalier words, both boys still looked petrified and were tinted blue. ‘We’re gonna lose face if we don’t take it down.’

  ‘So we do just that.’ Kohén wet his lips and lifted his eyes to Kohl. ‘On three- together.’

  ‘And if we miss and just piss it off?’

  ‘We pick up our skirts and fucking run like matching princesses before we leave matching puddles of pee on the clay.’

  A nervous giggle escaped me and both twins blinked at the sound and glanced at me, surprised as though they’d only just remembered that I was there and listening to their drunken big-talk. But then Kohén smiled and Kohl’s taut features evened out and he nodded, wetting his own cherry-red lips and I was overcome by the sight of these mirror images both damp and sweaty and tensed with fear flanking me on both sides. Oh, to be the filling in a comfort sandwich right then! ‘H-how-’

  ‘I’ve been trained to focus on small objects…’ Kohén said quietly. ‘I could probably do it alone with ease but just in case it moves-’

  ‘I’ve got it,’ Kohl said. ‘Let’s do this.’

  Kohén nodded, inhaled through his nostrils and then let it out gently. ‘One…’ he whispered, and my spine felt like it was made of cold steel.

  ‘Two…’ Kohl’s eyes darted to me and he smiled grimly, before focusing back on the wasp.

  ‘Three!’ Kohén declared, and the entire court lit up as both twins flashed blue like camera’s firing. Energy shot out from each of them- a stream of water from Kohl’s fingers, and a stream of electricity from Kohén’s. Both elements connected in the exact position where the wasp had been sitting, and there was a crackle followed by a hiss and a brighter flare of light and then- nothing but a small puddle, with a tiny black figment of dead bug sitting in the middle of it.

  I let out a breath as a whoosh and around me, felt everyone else doing the same thing. I moved to embrace both boys, but before I could, they let out twin hoots of triumph and practically bounced into a hug of their own and so I wrapped my arms around myself and grinned, stepping back from the glorious sight and then turning away from it just as the duchess whizzed past me, sobbing relieved tears and embraced both.

  I was proud of them- so proud that I knew that I needed to get away from them and spent the rest of the night drunk and in my bed alone with my hand in my underwear and with two boys in my dreams before I did something really stupid… like swooned.

  16.

  The king kept us very busy on Caldera Island and every day there was a new activity. Snorkelling with native guides, two horseback riding lessons with just Jovi, Kohén, and I, pineapple-picking as a group, hula dance lessons with Kelia and the most exciting highlight for me- visiting the salon with the other Companions and the duchess.

  I’d never been one for pampering, because the salons back in Arcadia only offered cheap-looking enhancements to change how someone looked, like stained complexion colour creams to make pale girls look tanned, or dark girls look fairer, and prissy up styles or fake extensions for hair. But the Pacifica one specialised in natural treatments to enhance or decorate one’s natural looks, and some of those options allowed us to get a little wild. It did tattoos in semi-permanent brown ink with stencils, hair-braiding and beading and solar-bleaching (using only concentrated sunlight through a sort of scope and natural ingredients to lighten hair in streaks), piercing, hot mud baths (in a thermal underground chamber!) eyebrow-shaping by threading, and massage. I got a mud bath straight up with Kelia and it was lovely enough to even pull her out of her four-day funk, but I was determined to get a piercing from the moment we first walked in, and when the duchess wrinkled her perfect nose and said that would make us look like heathens (in front of a native girl with four piercings on her face) my mind was made up. I had my ears done and then my navel, (I made sure to choose the thinnest possible gold so no one would think I’d ‘earned’ them) and afterwards, I could not stop looking at the little gold hoops in my ears and the slightly thicker one through my belly button. For the first time in my life, I felt sexy! Not because I thought that I looked sexy, but because I felt like a woman who’d finally chosen something for herself.

  The other girls loved the way it looked too, but I’d whimpered and my eyes had watered when she’d done my stomach with the needle (it had hurt way more than I’d let on though) and then after my skin went bright red in all three places and then began to itch like mad, so they stuck with the non-permanent stuff. When we walked out of there, Emmerly had more golden highlights in her toffee-coloured hair, Elfin had a tattoo right across her lower back shaped like a sun setting over waves, Kelia had had her eyebrows threaded and hair braided into a multitude of tight ropes to stop it from frizzing in the heat which was a sexy, grown-up look for her, and Lette had done her legs in the tattoos and had gotten a chunk of golden-blonde in her bangs, which looked effective and stark against her dark eyes.

  But I was scratching and irritated and developing hives, much to the duchess’s delight. Kohén took one look at me and freaked out, threatening to go cuss out the ‘heathen’ for poisoning me, while frantically demanding that a Nephilim be brought at once, but when the crown’s native healer’s power failed to improve matters, Kohl actually laughed and dropped to his knee in front of me, looking up with a curious, bemused expression.

  ‘Larkin… have you ever worn gold before?’

  I made a face, and Kohén gave me a dirty look. ‘Not ever,’ I said honestly, ‘why?’

  ‘Some skin types develop an allergic reaction to certain metals.’ He pushed his hair back from his ear and pulled a tiny silver ring out of his ear and asked: ‘Do you trust me?’ I closed my eyes and cringed when I saw him reach for my belly button, but the skin was so irritated by then that I barely felt him touch me until he said: ‘Okay, there…’ he motioned the healer back. ‘Try now.’

  The healer came over and brushed her fingertips against my skin and like before, my skin returned to its normal hue. We all stood there, waiting for the blotchy redness to come back, but when it didn’t, I looked at Kohl with my mouth agape while Kohén snapped:

  ‘Are you saying she can’t wear gold, just silver?’

  ‘Nope,’ Kohl reached for my earrings and unsnapped them too, gently enough but I still winced. ‘She’d probably do worse with silver- but my earring is technically white gold, which is a harder metal to come across, but a common substitute for jewellery for someone with a nickel allergy.’

  ‘Great, so she’s going to be a costly Companion, is that what you’re saying Kohl?’ Constance demanded of her son, and I wanted to scream at her. Maybe I’d offended her at times, she’d been downright abusive toward me since the day that we’d met and I’d done nothing heinous enough to warrant all of that. Besides, her own diamond ring was made of white gold, and was the most precious jewel on the face of the planet- but I was the expensive one? Ha!

  ‘No. I’m saying she’s allergic to yellow gold,’ Kohl said pointedly, and she scowled slightly and not for the first time, it was clear that their relationship was a complex and awkward one. ‘So until Arcadia has recovered from the locust crisis completely, her and my big bro are best off staying just friends or, moving to a region where white gold is the national colour.’

  I did a cartwheel on the inside while Kelia and Emmerly exchanged an eye roll.

  ‘Get out of here with that big brother crap,’ Kohén drawled, but he smiled at me. ‘Gee Larkin, it’s a good thing that I’ve resisted your charms for this long, hey? But, while we’re on the subject of precious metals… want to come for a walk with me? I have something cool to show you that dad thought you might like.’

  I was instantly curious, but before he’d allow me to go off with Kohén, Kohl marched me back down to the salon to get my earrings traded f
or white gold ones, and then put my gold hoop in his ear.

  ‘I was going to offer you a private surfing lesson tomorrow morning,’ he whispered. ‘But now that you’ve gotten this…’ he glanced down at my tummy, ‘You won’t be able to lie on a board for days.’

  ‘Then I’ll take it out,’ I said, keeping my voice just as low while Kohén charmed the girl behind the counter. ‘It’ll probably close up, but it’ll be worth it.’

  ‘Don’t you dare,’ he whispered. ‘It’s the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.’

  ‘Really?’ I was a little baffled. ‘But it’s so common here.’

  ‘It’s the mark of a wild, native girl on a pampered palace pet,’ he insisted, touching the ring and making me shiver. But then I saw that Kelia was watching our interaction so I smoothed out my features and stepped back, adopting a more casual and less intimate stance.

  Lord, she can’t hear us can she? No, Kohl’s using that velvet voice of his...

  ‘He marked your neck for a few days but this is permanent, and Pacifican, like me.’ He grinned. ‘And it gave me an excuse to think up an even better plan.’

  ‘And what would that be?’ I asked, darting my eyes Kelia’s way and smiling blandly, and Kohl smiled and tugged on my hair, completely unaware of her.

  ‘Atticus thinks that you’re interest in developing farming is fascinating, and has asked my father if he could take you down to the barracks to show you around. He thinks it will be good for the boys’ morale, to meet a Companion who scored the highest in Calliel history-’