by S J Doran
‘Your hunger is sated, even now you can taste it, can’t you? The embodiment of corruption, feasting off quintessential innocence…’
“Cass.” Jez shook him, concern clouding the anger. “Who are you talking to?”
He pushed himself up the wall, Jez helping him into some pants, the worst of his anger seemed to have passed.
“Mara… she left?” He tried to focus on Jez, his vision kept dimming.
“She’s your wife?” Ziva was there, screaming in his face, Agate behind her with her arms crossed, scowling.
“Did you do this?” He ran the back of his hand under his nose, doing nothing but smearing the unceasing blood across his face. “You threatened to seduce me before,” he laughed humorlessly. “And I didn’t believe you.”
“You... complete jerk.” She sucked in a breath and turned her face, “I never asked for this! I just didn’t want to kill you!” Tears magnified her eyes even as she glared at him, shoving at his chest. “Thanks to you, I’ll never be allowed home. My wings are going to keep falling out!” She ripped out a handful of her beautiful feathers and tossed them to the ground.
He’d absolutely ruined her too.
‘She was your right, as King. A worthy tribute to your mounting power.’
He held out the feathers in his cupped palms, trying to hand them back to her. It was too late. They couldn’t magically reattach. He’d done this too. He crumpled them into his fist.
“Enough, Z.” Jez picked up her arm. “Come and get cleaned up.”
“Ziva. I never meant…” He hadn’t meant to touch her.
“You’re a pig! You’ve ruined my life!”
He wasn’t proud of the fact. ‘Proud? She’s fallen. In your domain, yours for the taking.’
His life was ruined too. ‘You have the power to fix it now.’
He’d lost everything with one slide in judgment. Everything being anything that mattered. Mara.
our covenant will be indisputable
Her eyes flashed with fury, just as her hand flew at his face, Jez catching it. “Why? Why couldn’t you have just left me alone?”
His own rage ignited. He hadn’t asked her to care for him. Didn’t purposely come here seeking her. There was nothing he could have done.
“I don’t know why! You think I decided, hey! Today’s the day I’m going to ruin my fucking life and betray the woman I’ve been in love with since we were children?”
She scoffed, rolling her eyes. “Right. Way to show a woman you love them. Having sex,” she whispered the word, the corruption still hit him with a bloom of power. “With the first female you’re left alone with?”
With a snarl, he dropped the fist-full of feathers and lunged towards her, Jez shoving him back with a growl.
“You don’t know me.” His voice was low, dangerous. He was beyond rage. He hated himself — and had nothing left to lose. “You don’t know what we’ve been through in order to be together. Convenient, that you just throw yourself at me at the first opportunity. How did it go? Your plan to seduce me — did you have to wait until I was so weak I was barely lucid?”
Her hand swung towards his face again, this time he caught it. Had been expecting it.
“I know you cower against the wall instead of fighting back,” she hissed, fighting to free her wrist.
“Enough.” Jez pulled her away and pushed her into the bathroom.
He got to his knees and re-gathered the feathers, tossing them onto the closest occasional table, turning to face Jez and Agate.
I’m yours and you’re mine. Our souls till our lives should be done…
What had he done?
Agate wiped up his face and handed him a dry towel, gesturing for him to keep it on his face.
“Should I go after her?” He let down his cool façade, she’d know how much he was dying inside anyway, she’d witnessed too much. “Did she see? She knew it wasn’t my fault...?”
Agates brows rose. “Someone else’s cock? Damn, Sarrum, when you bury yourself, you dig deep. Best let her come to you after she’s cooled down some.”
He shook his head, forcefully rejecting that suggestion. He needed her. Didn’t know how to live without her. Even before they’d become lovers, or rediscovered one another, he’d always had her at his beck and call.
“I’ll take Ziva back to the other room once she’s cleaned up.” He met Cass’s eyes with a look of utter betrayal. “Go find some ice or something Cass. I’m not going to say I’m sorry for that.”
Agate crossed her arms, “I have to find my Sarratum and ensure she’s,” she shot a look at Cass, “not going to do something foolish.”
Jez nodded with a grin that didn’t erase the anger glinting in his eyes. “They do both have that tendency to cause chaos when things don’t go their way.”
“I’m coming. I need to tell her…”
Agate’s brows rose. “Mmhm. And I suppose you think she has to listen to you try to explain this away? Did you see what this did to her?”
“I didn’t mean it.” He looked down at his hands. “I needed to feed, they told me she was here.”
“They?” Agate stopped her nervous picking, looking up at Cass with wary calculation.
“The bitchy Domina with the black hair… the one always with Oberith.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. Focus. “Ravanna. She told me she was here.”
Agate shook her head slowly. “No. she was never here, she went to her vaults…”
“Why would she lie?” He pulled on the t-shirt, relatively certain the bleeding had stopped.
“Not for any good reason, I assure you.” Agate scowled. “We need to find her. Now.”
The look on her face filled him with panic.
He grabbed Agate’s arm and dragged her along to the portal that led directly into Mara’s rooms. Nothing. Dead. Closed.
They weren’t going to keep him away. He needed to speak to her, to explain… he winced as images of the angel wrapped around him flashed through his mind. Explain? Or make excuses she wouldn’t care to hear?
You made me believe I wasn’t enough.
Agate had to jog to keep up as he dragged her along through to his main portal. He hadn’t wanted to announce his presence by walking through her temple, but desperate times and all.
The temple was packed. Warlocks, Succubi demonesses, Incubi demons parted ways as Cass dragged Agate through. Looks of wariness met him, on the ones brave enough to meet his eyes, most averted their gazes as they stepped out of notice.
I’ll make you a throne out of the ashes and dust we leave in our wake
He walked briskly, making his way to Mara’s rooms. Her room was empty, the bed made, her drawers of clothes untouched. She had to be here somewhere…
He was blocked in the hall by an angry looking Berith.
“She’s locked herself in the Inner Sanctum,” he said gruffly, and Agate made a sound of distress.
Another one of the Dominae spoke up, Ravanna — the one who had sent him back to the Nessus. “Run along, Sarrum,” she said with a snide tone, “you’ll find your new plaything more accommodating than our Sarratum.”
Cass felt the color drain from his face. They knew. Already.
Had Mara told them why she’d run from him?
“Like father like son.” Another of the Dominae spoke.
He reeled back. If he knew which one had said it, he’d have gutted them slow, but they stood as one, an immovable barricade.
He turned back to Agate. “Can you let me know when she’s out?” He whispered. “I’m just going to…” He looked over his shoulder at their scowling faces. “I’ll go. For now.”
“I don’t think so, look.” Agate gave him a mutinous look, then nodded back toward the portal, which was blocked by another of her Dominae. The Oracle. Fuck and he didn’t want to hear it. He couldn’t take much more.
He spun and walked mindlessly back through the cowering crowd in the temple, back to the portal, to the Oracle who wouldn’t care
if he wanted her advice.
She nodded sagely, likely a requisite expression for any oracle, and looked around furtively, eyes fixed over his shoulder.
“You won’t find her here, Sarrum.” Her silvery eyes gleamed with knowledge, he wanted to shake it out of her. Her eyes narrowed into dagger slits—shit could she read his thoughts? “Come along quickly, time is running out.”
With that ominous prediction, she dragged him through his portal, back into silence.
Beneath the full moon
A harsh breath escaped, and she wanted to kick herself as she watched it transform into luminescent tendrils of silver within the cool night air. She couldn’t see the hunters’ eyes but could feel their gazes as nine heads snapped up in unison to turn in the direction of her hiding spot.
“Shit.”
Instinct took over, she stepped back, moving deeper into the darkness of the forest. Its offer of shelter nothing but a façade. The shadows and forest wouldn’t save her from the Huntsman’s wrath once the Hunt was called. These were his hunting grounds, and she was about to be turned into his prey.
“Double shit.”
The courage she’d borrowed from the now empty bottle of scotch was faltering, the false confidence she’d gained incapable of fooling her much longer into believing this was anything other than a really stupid plan. But it was also her only plan.
“No insurance policy this time.”
With far more bravado than she felt, Amara scuttled closer to the forest’s edge to gaze out over the clearing. Again finding the nine Fae hunters assembled there. No horn had sounded, the Hunt stayed, which meant Gwynn was either too confused by her presence to engage, or if still clinging to sanity, unwilling to do so. That reprieve wouldn’t last.
The nine hunters appeared neither corporeal nor phantasm of form. They were bound to the very shadows they rode among, allowing them to cover great distances at impossible speed. Lunatics, consumed by the thrill of the Hunt for as long as the full moon shone down upon Gaia.
Countless had tried to race the Hunt and win the rights to claim the Wild Magic of Gaia, only to meet their demise by the Huntsman’s scythe. Already the Ley lines had siphoned away all of her power, except for the small reserve she kept stored within her athame. She would need to use it wisely, or be reaped by the Hunt, the same as her predecessors. She didn’t want to die. She didn’t want Gwynn to be the one to end her, adding misery to his madness. And she didn’t want to leave him. He would be furious once he discovered Kali’s demand.
“Cass…”
Memories rose of those lust-filled eyes searching her own, seeing them full of shock and confusion, and again she found herself wishing she’d reacted differently upon discovering them together. He was the sin-eater, Ziva was an uncorrupted angel, which meant she couldn’t really blame him for succumbing. But part of her did just that, resented that Cassius hadn’t been strong for her, hadn’t waited for her.
When I waited four hundred years for him.
The hurt ran deep, deeper than any blade could ever cut. And if she were to surrender to that hurt now, she knew she wouldn’t survive this night.
She forced attention back to where it was needed most, to her plan towards defeating the Hunt.
Judging by their size and energy imprint, she was beginning to have doubts Kali ever meant for her to succeed. Each rider sat perched atop a massive black beast, all except the Huntsman. He rode a pale white horse formed of smoke and mist, which shone like a beacon amongst the darkness of night, announcing that he required neither darkness nor camouflage to secure his conquests. The cocky bastard.
She oughtn’t fear the sight before her, after all, she was a necromancer. She’d single-handedly raised armies from the dead, had faced the horrific Draugr as they’d risen from the ground, she’d even dined with the Lich. But looking at the hunting party assembled at the clearing, it was difficult to ignore building dread.
The hunters themselves a sight menacing enough to turn warm blood to ice water, but they weren’t all she’d be running from tonight.
To aid their efforts, the riders were flanked by a ghostly army of servants, slain prey whose lives were claimed by the Huntsman’s scythe, binding their souls into the Wild Hunt’s servitude.
“And then of course, there is the mandatory pack of Hellhounds…” She shuddered at the sight of the sharply fanged beasts, bred in the bowels of Hell, trained to consume flesh and bone of their quarry, be it alive or dead. A tithe from Asmodeus, bribery in hopes the Hunt would turn a blind eye to his demons during the full moons.
“This is going to be a breeze...”
She was totally screwed.
Chancing a glance down at her covered feet she glared at the sneakers she’d found hidden deep inside her closet. Never before worn, they pinched her feet. Her cotton shirt clung to her skin, anxiety and mist dampening her clothes before the hunt had even begun. After this night, she was going to take a long soak, sleep for days, and hopefully awake to discover this had all been but a bad dream.
“Nothing more than a dream...”
The steel of her athame glinted in greeted as she drew it from its sheath, next it glistened red when she slid the sharp blade across her palm. Slicing open her own flesh across Cassius’s sigil, before raising the blood-stained blade to her lips.
She had to go through with this.
“I challenge the Hunt, and I will win.” There was simply no other choice. Fate and love had seen to that.
With a kiss against steel, she absorbed the infernal energy contained within her blade, molding its power into her will, before releasing her dark magic across the fields. It called to those whose spirits were trapped, those who’d been robbed of life, but denied a death. In payment for their protection, she would break those unearthly chains which bound the phantom army to the wild hunt. She only hoped they would give her enough time to cross the forest before the Huntsman broke free.
“Hisnu shi.” Defend me
At her command, tendrils of darkness slithered out across the distance, ignoring the nine imposing riders to latch upon unearthly chains which bound spirit to the Hunt. She didn’t feel joy, still, her lips twisted into a smile when she sensed their power break, their magic shattering apart against her own… a small and short-lived sense of accomplishment ran through her.
She’d just hijacked the Huntsman’s command over his spectral army… and made them into her servants.
New sounds filled the night air, the panicked neighing of horses and the vicious snarls of frightened hounds. Angry shouts broke through the eerie silence as spectral servants turned on their masters. That would keep them busy, but not for long. Already the Infernal energy was running out, her magic waning. The clock running out before her time had even started. Abandoning all thought of fighting, she did the only thing left to her—she ran.
In the distance, the sound of a horn tore through the sky. The Huntsman’s call. The hunt was on.
Acknowledgments
To author Lena Moore; for reaching out in friendship to two newbie authors and offering us her support, wisdom and assistance.
To the Forbidden Realms street team for never giving up on us; Robin Bragg, Sephora Masters, Lorelei Reinatus, Reina Nyx, Lee Edmonson, Tracie Kemmerer
To the Forbidden Realms RP family, for breathing life into the Realms on a daily basis on Facebook.
To our own families; we love you all, (thank the hells you guys never get tired of eating pizza)
Thanks to Dez at Pretty in Ink Creations for the amazing covers
Find us on Facebook:
SJDoran
Our Website:
https://www.sjdoranforbidden.com/
-Their story continues-
To discover what happens next, watch for Jez’Piel and Agate’s upcoming adventure in “Foretold by Fate” coming soon