The Wildest Woods
Author: S.K. Munt
Date: 2017-07-06 04:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Fantasy; Dystopia
Description: They tell me to take a leap of faith They tell me to believe in myself They tell me that I am the answer to their prayers But I don't believe in any of it. Not myself, not the concept of faith and certaily not that prayers are ever heard, let alone answered. In fact, the only thing that I do believe in, is freedom. I believe that I have earned it. I believe that I deserve it. And I certainly believe that I will kill the next person who tries to tell me, or anyone else, otherwise. So maybe that is what will keep us all safe, yes? Not the faith that I have in myself as a leader, but the burning

The

Wildest

Woods

The Eden Chronicles #4

S.K MUNT

This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

©S.K Munt 2017

The Eden Chronicles

#1 The Given Garden, Part 1

#1.5 The Given Garden, Part 2

#2 The Forbidden Fruit

#3 The Tangled Trees

#4 The Wildest Woods

#5 The Fallen Forest (June 2018)

For Evander and Elliott-The Most Charming Twin Princes That There Will Ever Be!

(And who will never be permitted to read this)

PART ONE

The Book Of Liberation

By Samuel J McIntyre

Introduction

The archangel and his angelic daughter moved as quickly as they could once she had regained consciousness, but it still took them eight hours to make their way through the labyrinth of subterranean passages that were buried deep in the cliffs beneath Arcadia’s shoreline and up into The Wildwoods beyond.

It was a challenging journey for the girl, because not only was the path cramped, slick, cold dark and unfamiliar to her, but because there was nothing to do on that journey but reflect on all of the awful things that had happened to her, and dread all of the awful things that could potentially happen now that she was out of the Barachiel’s clutches, but in debt to Satan. In debt to Satan and apparently headed north to meet The Sequestered: a band of nomads, miscreants and law-breakers that were waiting for her to not only join them, but to assume responsibility for them all by becoming their leader.

The Shepherd swore to her that they were looking forward to meeting her and claimed that some of them had been anticipating doing so since before she’d been born… but the girl had a hard time believing that anyone would be happy to meet Satan’s spawn, especially once they found out how badly she’d already mis-managed her own life. Without taking her questionable parentage into consideration, the thought of becoming a leader to anyone was an overwhelming prospect, and one that was completely impossible for her to imagine while she was still labouring to mentally process everything that she’d already endured in her short lifetime.

They think I can lead them all through to the northern part of the continent, but the only thing I know about the north is based on that stupid story my brother told me when I was four, about how a man had followed a stream to a great lake! It sounded like such a romantic notion back then, but… oh Satan! How am I to trust my instincts, when all of them are screaming at me to fly out of here and never look back?

That was another thing that was overwhelming her- the knowledge that Satan’s strength was completely dependant on her daughter’s loyalty now. Her dark mother had apparently exhausted the last of her power when she’d healed her, and so she had left her under her father’s guidance, ordering him to watch over their child until she could return... but the only way that she would be able to return was if the girl was able to convince others to have faith in them both- to turn their backs on God and embrace the devil and her offspring instead. Could the girl do that? Did she want to? Or was there some way that she would be able to guide these people while leaving both God and Satan out of it? She hoped that there was, but what did she know about anything? Satan had given her two options to attaining success: Break the curse that prevented Barachiels from having female heirs, or get herself onto a powerful throne so that she could lead those that God and the Barachiels had overlooked. She’d already been taken out of the running for giving Kohén Barachiel a daughter, and so that left her with the mission of creating a kingdom that rivalled his by banding together everyone that might turn to Satan instead of God, hopefully giving them all a second chance at living a happy life, to Satan’s credit.

Both options sounded like complete fantasies to the girl, but she’d decided to at least attempt the latter, because at least that way, she’d be doing something productive for people like her; people that had been frozen out of God’s kingdoms good graces while others less deserving, like Amelia-Rose Choir, had been showered with luck and fortune. Her heart was in the right place, she was fairly certain of that- but whether or not there was a damned thing she could do to better anyone’s life, even her own, was another story.

Knowing that she would not be able to solve any of her conundrums while she was still so tired and frazzled, the girl quietly and obediently followed the shepherd like the mindless sheep that she wished she could be, watching the flames from the shepherd’s torch leap and dance towards the uneven roof of the cave’s ceiling in hypnotic rhythms that were soothing to her. Those flames were as responsive to her as the ones inside her were, she soon realised, because they dipped when her breathing was even and her mind comfortably numb, but flared angrily every time an unwelcome recollection reared its ugly head in her sub-conscious; as attracted to her as she was to them. Specifically, every time the prince that had branded her slipped into her mind, the flames roared so brightly from the shepherd’s torch that they put his eyebrows in serious jeopardy.

The Nephilim girl didn’t know how she felt about the eldest and youngest Barachiel sons in that moment, but she did know that if given the chance, she would make the one that had branded her as a whore for life suffer for what he had tried to do to her that night.

Sensing her unease and clearly desperate to forge a bond with her after years of estrangement, her peripatetic father filled the silence and the darkness with stories that he knew would feed her curiosity regarding the time before- stories that were hundreds or even thousands of years old and he hoped, impressive enough to grab and hold her attention, distracting her from her emotional turmoil and finally giving him the chance to do something right by her, however small. He spoke of great ships, ghastly wars, computer codes and rock music. He recounted a day when airplanes had crashed into the tallest buildings in the biggest city on earth, and of a tidal wave that had killed half a million people in several different countries in the space of a few minutes. He talked about the Wild West and the great south, of African plains and tropical rainforests and finally, he started talking about Heaven- a place that he agreed was perfect, but flawed for its perfection.

‘I do not doubt that Heaven is the ultimate destination for a human soul, child of mine,’ the shepherd said quietly as they began to ascend after hours of what had felt like walking downhill in zigzags’ to his charge, ‘and I do not blame God for focusing on it so, because it is the only place that everybody is truly equal in the end. Equal, content, sated and at peace. There are no tears in heaven, and there is no pain. It is everything that he promised us it would be, and his most perfected creation yet…’

‘Then why are you here?’ his daughter asked him, bewildered. The cave was opening up, but she kept her voice as reverently hushed as she had all evening, shivering when she felt a biting breeze waft past her for the first time in hours. ‘If Heaven is so perfect then why have you, Miguel and even God returned here time and time again?’

The shepherd had smiled his golden angelic smile and then they had rounded the corner and had walked into a larger cave, one that was three times her height and thirty times the width of the one that they had commenced their quest within. It had a gritty floor that was covered with footprints and extinguished campfires, and a wide entrance that opened out almost directly into a growth of Devil’s Claw trees so thick and spiky and deeply ensconced in briar weed that they formed an impenetrable screen around the clearing in front of the cave, which was only three feet wide at its deepest point.

‘Because people aren’t perfect,’ the shepherd said sagely, indicating to the filthy crowd of people that were abandoning whatever it was that they had been doing- collapsing their camp, it seemed- and rushing at them while caterwauling in delight. They were so loud that the shepherd had to raise his voice to finish:

‘So it is not perfection that they crave above all else, Larkin of Eden, but life! Being in Heaven is like enjoying a wonderful dream, but nothing is like living a wonderful dream. God has forgotten that since he dispensed with his humanity, but I have not… and these people have been told they’ll never experience a dream come true here or in heaven by the righteous for so long, that they had begun to accept that as their fate! That was of course, until Satan told them that you could- and would- help them change that. That she would send her beautiful, golden daughter to them, and that you would bring hope with you. Hope like they’ve never known before.’

‘But I can’t make their dreams come true!’ the girl cried. ‘I wouldn’t know where to start!’

‘You just showed up as Satan predicted you would Larkin- and for most of these people that was the only dream they had, you know. That you would show up and here you are: golden, beautiful- and bringing them hope.’

That impassioned declaration was the last thing that the girl heard before she was knocked off her feet by the eager embraces of her people, and to her amazement, the hope in their eyes was blinding to her.

Blinding enough for her to temporarily be infected by it too.

*

Screaming, crying, rejoicing and brandishing their babies high above their heads so that they too might witness this wondrous moment, the members of The Wildwoods branch of The Sequestered threw themselves at their new messiah demanding blessings and kissing her hands and face while the object of their affection gaped at them, a beautiful, sparkling and utterly confounded harbinger of hope, even if she wasn’t ready to believe it herself yet.

The shepherd wanted to watch that moment, and to drink in what good he and Satan had accomplished so far, but one look up at the overburdened grey sky above him confirmed that the grey brightness of the day was destined to be as fleeting as everything else wonderful could be, and so with a heavy heart he turned away and began to gather together what belongings he’d left behind when he’d gone to Eden, making his preparations to leave the moment that his daughter had had the chance to catch her breath. He usually only took the bare essentials, but this time was different because this time, he hoped that they would never have to return to this Godforsaken section of The Wildwoods again.

That was when a young man emerged from inside a tent to his left and looked from the angelic human girl to the Shepherd, and then back again. ‘May I?’ he asked, his cobalt eyes narrowing with determination as he reached out to the girl’s mind while he shouldered his black velvet cloak, which looked as heavy and overbearing as the darkening skies above. ‘I need the full story, you know, if I am to do this right. The sooner, the better.’

The Shepherd glanced back at his daughter who was now holding an infant and gazing down at it with wide, astonished eyes.

‘Lark?’ the girl demanded softly in a voice that was almost identical to Satan’s: low and velveteen and lovely but with a ring in the upper register. ‘You named him for me?’

The shepherd smiled gently, but then looked back to his new associate as his heart thumped happily. ‘Give her a moment of peace to enjoy this, son. She has earned that much, even if you don’t yet believe it.’

The boy turned his eyes back to him. ‘What about you?’ he asked, somewhat snidely, glancing down at the amber ring on his hand. ‘Would you like a minute to bury your most private thoughts too? It won’t do you much good, but I do enjoy a challenge...’

The Shepherd sighed wearily and removed the ring from his finger, stuffing it down into the bottom of his satchel and then stepping away from it, distancing himself from the stone’s power. ‘My mind is an open book- turn whatever pages you will and be done with it- we have miles to go yet today, remember?’

‘We is subjective to what I see, remember? So I won’t be going anywhere if I don’t like what I see,’ the boy reminded him, stepping closer to him and narrowing his eyes to slits, and then suddenly the shepherd couldn’t feel or think about anything for the pain in his head as the Nephilim boy raked through his thoughts and took what he wanted for himself. It pained him more than he would ever admit out loud, but he suffered it in silence and urged his assailant to take whatever he could if it meant taking less from his daughter- if it meant that the story that would be written about this time in history would be an authentic one that not only detailed God and Satan’s might, but the power of the human spirit reflected in Larkin’s actions.

‘Well?’ the shepherd asked when he felt the boy’s power retreat, but when he looked at the boy, he discovered that an old man was now standing in his place. ‘What say you?’

‘I’ll follow you to the second camp,’ the man said gruffly, pulling his hooded cloak over his head, his expression giving away nothing of what he’d learned or how he’d interpreted it before he turned to collect his few possessions. ‘But whether I follow you beyond that will depend on what I find inside her mind, all right?’ He glanced over at the girl and then smirked. ‘Call me paranoid, but something tells me that her thoughts will give me as much of a headache as my inquest will give her. Honestly, couldn’t this have waited until she’d had time to mature? She looks as fragile as a porcelain doll- and as coddled as one.’

But the shepherd smiled, fairly certain that his daughter’s spine was made of steel, and that whatever was inside her mind would prove to be as radiant as her exterior was- and five times more brilliant than any test scores could ever have hoped to prove. She could lead them to safety, he was sure of it, and he would coddle her at every opportunity that she allowed him.

Now, he just had to convince her of that.

*

The time that they had spent underground had shielded the girl from feeling the shift in the climate, but by the time they’d trekked halfway through the densest part of The Wildwoods, she had become very aware of the fact that being this far north of Arcadia came with more than a drastic change in scenery- but with a drastic drop in temperature as well. Not only because the northern half of that continent had always been colder than the southern part due to its proximity to the north pole, but because they were slowly ascending the foothills of a mountain range, so the elevation was making matters worse.

The girl knew that in the time before, the country of Canada that they were now hiking through had been as green and lush in some places as it had been ice-capped and frigid in others, but that had changed during Armageddon and so now it was all ice frosted across a monotonous landscape of broken, grey things. Satan had reversed a lot of the damage that God had done to the earth after they’d argued over the fate of it… and yet she had left the northern half frozen over. Cleared of pollution, yes, but locked in an eternal winter- and now, the girl couldn’t help but wonder if that had been a strategic move all along- to save a large part of a continent for later by making it so undesirable that no one would think to stake a claim on it until now, when they (The Sequestered) were as desperate to distance themselves from the rest of human civilisation as she was.

The girl had always been told that The Wildwoods were impassable- they all had- and although that had proven to be more or less accurate, someone had cleared a path through that hostile forest before them, and that was the path that the shepherd led them along that day. The Devil’s Claw trees grew branches like vines that strangled everything that they encountered, and in moderate climates, could actually be regarded as pretty and relatively easy to control because their branches tended to sag and coil neatly on humid earth like the fingers of loosely closed fists, proving that it was a relative of the weeping willow… But in cool climates, those vines quickly died and then petrified, turning grey and becoming as hard as steel, locking whatever it was that they’d managed to latch onto in an eternal embrace- usually the trunk of the next tree closest to it- and becoming as menacing as briar after, because every vine was encrusted with large, sharp thorns that could cut into human flesh like butter.

Though the girl was slightly built, she couldn’t see a single place that she’d be able to pass through two of those trees unharmed except for on the path, which she knew must have been painstakingly carved out of the forest with a sharp axe wielded by a mighty arm. But that arm would have tired quickly and as a result, the path was so narrow that there was no way to overtake anyone ahead of them without brushing up against the thorns or stepping into a patch of briar- a fact that proved very frustrating to her once she realised that by opting to go last, she’d inadvertently positioned herself behind an elderly man with a limp who travelled at half of the pace that the shepherd was setting ahead of them.

At first she was frustrated to know that they were falling further and further behind the others, but as the oddly-affected accents of the chattering group ahead of them faded more and more, she remembered herself and exhaled slowly, purging herself of her irritation, and knowing that it was unkind to resent an old man for not being able to move as fast as a young, healthy girl like herself could. Besides, if she was to be a leader then she was going to have to keep that fact in mind: a group could only ever be as strong or fast as its slowest and weakest member, and if that member was left behind in the name of progress, then that group had already failed despite what triumphs they might go on to claim, or what races they might end up winning. That was the Barachiel family’s problem, wasn’t it? The majority of their castes had been thriving, and so they’d blamed the minority that were flailing for their own problems- forgetting to acknowledge the fact that if you skimmed the cream off the top of the milk, then the remaining milk could not be faulted for being not creamy enough.

Keeping this in mind, the girl slowed her pace to equal the man’s and took the time to breathe in that frosty air, aware of the fact that this was the first time she’d ever gone on an excursion without being ordered to, so she should stop and smell the brittle leaf litter. Yes Satan had pushed her to follow this path, and yes she still had the right to demand that her daughter perform two tasks for her in compensation for the wishes that she’d granted her without argument, meaning that she wasn’t yet truly free… but if she’d wanted to unfurl her wings and fly away on those northern winds then she could have, and the only person she’d have to answer to for that was herself and her guilty conscience… at least until Satan had recuperated enough to wish her back into Hell, or to wherever she was so inclined.

I was always free, the girl thought then, and it was a sobering notion. If I’d let my rage and unhappiness rip out of me the way it had last night years ago, I would have realised that I had wings and therefore, the ability and the right to fly as far away from the Barachiels as possible! But no, I kept my pain and anguish bottled up inside me because I thought that I deserved that fate, and look what happened! Look at how limited an existence a powerful, intelligent human being can resign themselves to living, if they believe that they don’t deserve any better! Oh, what good I could have done the people of Arcadia, if only the Barachiels had encouraged me to spread my wings and soar, instead of commanding me to grovel at a prince’s feet and be thankful for having the opportunity to do so!

Anger and resentment surged inside her again, heating her blood (she couldn’t bear to think of how happy she and Kohén might have been together if only he’d known that she was a more powerful Nephilim than he!) but aware that there was nothing that she could do to reverse time and change anything, and conscious of the fact that thinking about the Barachiel’s for too long brought on an instant migraine, the girl went back to watching her feet trip along that barren, hard-packed and frosted earth, resenting the fact that she was walking this path when she could have been soaring above it, but mindful that every step that she was taking was carrying her- and everybody that trusted her to be a thoughtful leader- one more step away from Eden and the so-called angels that lived within.

Away from the holy place and the pious people that had scorched her soul even more than Satan and her hell fires had.

Don’t worry, Larkin said silently to the man in front of her, squeezing the diamonds around her neck hard enough to bite into her hands. I’ll protect you as best as I can, old-timer. I know how it feels to be betrayed because you are considered to be worth less than others, and I’d sooner die then let that happen to another human being!

He did not answer of course, but he heard her. And I know this because, dear reader, I was that old man, and like that angelic girl, I had been charged with a mission by Satan- not to make history, but to record it with absolute accuracy.

I am Samuel McIntyre, and although this isn’t my story, I am a part of it now- as are we all.

Please, pray that it ends well for all of us. Just don’t ask me who to pray to.

1.

The Wildwoods

Larkin

Sunday August 22nd AA644

My spirits began to diminish as the sun started to sink behind the mountains, and the temperature dropped so swiftly that not even my hottest, fiercest thoughts could keep me warm from the inside out and soon enough, I began to tremble from the relentless chill as my muscles began to seize up from over-exertion. My head throbbed with every step that I took and I began to resent my old trainer for assuring me that I was as fit and healthy as could be. Perhaps I was both of those things, but what were they good for without endurance?

The rest of The Sequestered had slowed down a little, enough for me and my disabled companion to be able to keep up with them, but I’d fallen slightly more behind when I’d stopped to relieve myself, and had been walking slightly faster for a while in order to catch up. He was obviously struggling as much as I was, but not once had I heard any of the other members of The Sequestered complain and that astounded me, because were I not so determined to prove myself to be as strong as they needed me to be, I would have been crying like a baby for the cramps in my legs.

Then as though I weren’t already struggling enough, the ground suddenly began to slant up at a sharper angle, and I almost sobbed in agony when I felt the muscles in my lower back pull tautly together. I hissed under my breath as I reached behind myself to press my frigid fingertips into my aching lower back- and then cried out when I walked straight into a boulder that I hadn’t seen, because it was concealed within the knee high mist that I hadn’t seen rising around me either. I cursed and hobbled around the offensive boulder, bending to rub my stinging knee (skin had come off despite the fact that my suede pant legs hadn’t torn) and then walked straight into a low-hanging branch of a tree that had come out of nowhere- an ancient elm that didn’t belong there. Pain bit into my forehead when the sharp bark did so I cursed audibly, wishing the old man in front of me would be thoughtful enough to give me a head’s up every now and then.

Get it together, woman! I thought, rubbing my head and sighing when my fingertips came away covered in blood. I’d already had a headache coming and going all day- I didn’t want to have to add concussion to that! They’re going to think you’re more fit to become a jester than a monarch if you trip over again!

I didn’t mind the idea of being absolved of all responsibility for these people, but I knew that Satan wasn’t going to let me off the hook that easily, so if I was truly fated to become their queen, then I wasn’t going to be known as an ungainly one! In fact, I was tempted to just let my wings unfurl and fly the rest of the way- that would impress The Sequestered, wouldn’t it? And give my legs a much-needed time-out?

But I knew that I’d be pretty unimpressed with myself (and with anyone else) for taking the easy way out while their traveling companions were forced to continue on in the human way, so I trudged on and soon enough, I saw that The Wildwoods around me were thinning out, and that tall but lifeless fir trees were starting to rise up sporadically from the tilted ground in addition to the elms. The briar was becoming sparser too and were being replaced with clusters of rocks, and everything was either dusted by snow or coated with frost, including the ground which was becoming slicker or sludgier depending on the substance of the foundation beneath it. I should have been grateful for the evidence that the country was more than just a thicket of thorns, but as soon as the scenery changed, so did the atmosphere- and not for the better. It became colder, windier and to my concern, louder.

I had sheathed my sword hours ago when it had become too heavy to carry, but when I heard an animal bark in the far distance I was tempted to draw it again, understanding that as the sun was sinking, the region’s nocturnal predators were rising and likely to come looking for a human-shaped snack soon. Foxes, wolves, bears, snakes… I hadn’t seen one yet despite the rumours that The Wildwoods were infested with them, but I’d seen enough evidence of them to know that they were around in the form of the piles of droppings that I’d passed on the trail, and in the attire that The Sequestered were wearing. Some had coats made of grey wolf fur, others were simply wrapped up in bearskins, and the rest were just toting a fox-fur stole or hat, but every single one of them had something to protect themselves from the elements with that had come from a wild animal, and I didn’t doubt that sooner or later, a pissed off salt and pepper bear would come after us, looking to avenge a felled comrade.

I couldn’t judge The Sequestered for wearing so much animal fur because wild animals seemed to be the only viable resource that they had, but I’d been raised in a place where the hunting of animals had been restricted to when an infestation of one species had thrown the local ecosystem out of balance, and so the idea of slaying a creature in order to survive more comfortably did not sit well with me. That would probably change once I got to know these people and got to walk in their shoes for longer than one miserable grey day, but for the time being they were still just a bunch of wild, questionable and excitable outlaws that had been developing relationships with Satan behind God’s back, so I wasn’t yet ready to assume that they did everything that they did with good intentions and a healthy respect for the environment. Nor was I ready to say that anything that attacked them wasn’t well within its rights to do so- a sentiment that I hoped Karol Barachiel was feeling towards me at that very moment as he came into power in Arcadia. Nervously, I touched my hand to my diamond necklace and wondered if it was technically stolen property now.

What are they doing? How are they coping? How is Constance? Are they looking for me? Or am I a nightmare that they would rather forget than pursue?

As though I hadn’t already been feeling sorry for myself enough as it was, my stomach grumbled then, drawing my attention to the fact that I was growing more lightheaded with every step that I took up that now very steep path. I’d expected us to stop for lunch earlier, but The Sequestered must have eaten before we’d left their camp because we’d only paused twice for people to use the bushes at their discretion since we’d commenced the hike, and not once had anyone mentioned having a bite to eat. I’d seen two of the mothers breastfeeding infants that were strapped to their chests, but I’d apparently been the only one driven to distraction by their hunger, so I hadn’t said anything for fear of looking weak again.

But I was feeling weak now and feared that I would faint if I didn’t get something inside my stomach soon, because it was Sunday, which meant that it had been six days since I’d last eaten a solid meal, and over twelve hours since I’d last had something to drink that wasn’t champagne or seawater. Bastien had mentioned earlier that morning that The Sequestered had limited resources because The Wildwoods weren’t viable for hunting or gathering, and he’d also mentioned that he didn’t eat anything unless he wanted to, so he had a habit of forgetting that humans like me needed to. He’d said this while I’d paused to lap salty freshwater from a small stream inside the cavern and had promised to be more considerate from then on, but he’d evidently forgotten that moment because he hadn’t come to check on me since. Perhaps he thought I was stronger than I was or maybe he was just giving me the space that I’d told him I needed and the independence that I craved, but the moral of the story was that if I wanted to be looked after, I was going to have to get used to doing it myself. That wasn’t a horrible notion, but after years of literally being fed from a silver platter, it was going to be a big adjustment for me.

I was just in the middle of assuring myself that I’d be able to learn how to hunt, gather and cook when I remembered that becoming a leader meant that I wasn’t just going to have to learn how to take care of myself- but everybody else too! My head swum and my step faltered as the significance of what Satan had asked me to do for her finally hit home and my knees buckled beneath me.

Shit! I thought, gasping down air that had become thinner and less satisfying with the ascent in altitude. Oh shit! How am I going to be able to feed these twenty mouths when I don’t even know how to feed myself? I haven’t even learned the basics, and why would I have? I wasn’t even going to get the chance to raise a child, let alone a kingdom! Oh Satan, what have you done to me? No wonder Bastien isn’t making taking care of me a priority, because soon enough it will be my job to take care of him!

Tears came to my eyes unbidden as I imagined learning how to build houses or make rules or settle disputes, but I shuddered and flicked them away, knowing that I was likely to dissolve into a puddle of tears if I gave into the urge to let some leak out now. Someone called out my name then- Bastien- and I lifted my throbbing head... and then shrank back when I found myself squatting on flat ground before the yawning entrance to a gigantic cave. Mist hung in the air around us and blurred the edges of my vision, but I could see people moving sheet metal and planks of wood away from that massive hole in the mountainside with perfect clarity.

No, not a cave... I thought, first looking up at the jagged peak of the mountain thrusting up into a dense fog above me, before dropping my gaze back down to see that the others were busy unblocking the opening, and ushering one another through a perfectly cut sphere of rock. A tunnel! Where does that lead? Who could have made such a thing? Surely that wasn’t carved out of the mountain by human hands?

‘What is…?’ I asked, rising slowly and appraising the tunnel’s entrance goggle-eyed as Bastien began to return to where I was standing, looking as luminous and energetic as he had before the four-hour hike through The Wildwoods. The sight of his glowing complexion irritated me to no end- didn’t this man ever droop? Who had the right to look that handsome after such a marathon? More importantly, how had I ever thought of him as being creepy-looking? He was so ridiculously beautiful that even the clouded air seemed to part around him in awe- piling up on insignificant old half-bred me and the cloaked man instead, who had slumped onto a boulder and gave no indication that he intended on standing up again any time soon. For the first time all day, I realised that the old man’s cloak wasn’t made of animal fur, but a luxe black velvet that had been embroidered with intricate gold stitching and lined with sleek black satin, and that caught me off-guard. Was this old refugee a former member of the nobility, or had he stolen the cloak from its rightful owner?

‘This tunnel is a relic from the time before, and an extension of the path that The Sequestered have been using for years,’ Bastien said, coming over to rub my arm vigorously. ‘Trains used to pass through it when they were headed to the more remote regions, but by the time we found it, the tracks had disintegrated and the base of it had filled with debris and stagnant water. It was toilsome to clear it out, but we worked on it for the better part of seventeen years, and now it’s rather comfortable inside, even if it looks gloomy from out here.’

‘We?’ I asked.

‘The Sequestered and I,’ Bastien leaned over to swipe a strand of my hair out of my eyes and over my clammy forehead, ‘with Satan’s help, of course.’

‘Oh, I said woodenly. ‘Of course.’ I wasn’t ready to be touched so intimately by a man just yet even if that man was biologically family to me, so I stepped delicately out of his reach and moved to approach the entrance more quickly, hoping to disguise my awkwardness under a façade of curiosity.

Seventeen years old… they have been building this place up for as long as Arcadia has been tearing me down… how lovely!

I’d been getting used to Bastien’s company in the caverns earlier that morning, but we’d gone out of our way to avoid talking about Satan in order to keep her out of our thoughts for a while (or at least that had been what had motivated me to steer the subject away from her) and hearing her name spoken aloud again now brought all of my fears and insecurities- and frankly my resentment towards her and Bastien both for creating me only to abandon me- rushing back with another pounding headache. How was I ever going to be able to think of Bastien as a good man let alone an archangel who was worthy of my trust, when the mere mention of Satan’s name reminded me of the fact that he had been taken in by her? And that the consequences of the deal he’d struck with her had been dictating my destiny since before my conception? Satan expected me to be grateful for the power that their union had bestowed upon me, and I suppose that in my position, a lot of people would have been... but if I could trade that power and the responsibility that had come with it and the torturous life that I had lived up until that point for the chance to be a normal, human girl with two parents and fair prospects, then I would have done so in a heartbeat.

What good did all the power in the world do a person, if it could not help them in their darkest hours? I’d flown the Eden coup before I could be raped the night before- but not before my heart could be poisoned by hate or my womb could be poisoned; period- and that was partially Bastien’s fault. Bastien, Satan, Martya… they all wanted me to accept a kingdom in lieu of the happy childhood that their interference had denied me, but I didn’t want a fucking kingdom- I wanted my innocence back! I wanted to know that there was at least one person in the world that I could trust as much as I had once trusted my dear Kohén, before his crown, sexuality and obligations had shredded our bond.

But I knew it wasn’t the time to launch into such a tirade and as very conscious of the fact that a few stragglers had lingered behind to recommence gawking at me, so I pushed down my sudden influx of anger and forced myself to ask: ‘Where does it lead? How much further will we have to travel before we reach somewhere that we can rest?’

‘Not much further at all, I promise,’ Bastien said, and I saw him glance over at the cloaked man with an odd expression on his face- with a question in his eyes, perhaps? Was he wondering if I’d confided in the cripple about him while we’d been walking all day? But the cloaked man didn’t look up from the ground and so Bastien settled his somewhat pained expression back on me. ‘It goes through this mountain and then down and further north underground for a while, before it comes out the side of another, smaller mountain. There’s a camp halfway through it, and another on the far side of The Wastelands- and that’s the point where I’ll be handing the lead over to you, in case you were wondering- on the edge of the road less travelled by all of us.

I wasn’t ready to think about that anymore than I was to ponder forging a bond with my estranged… shepherd... so I just nodded quickly, somewhat cheered by the prospect of getting to stop and rest soon but not wanting my relief to become apparent to the people still staring at me, probably sizing me up as a potential leader and coming away wanting. ‘Is it safe?’

‘Reasonably so,’ Bastien motioned her over to the cave’s curved wall and rapped on it with his golden knuckles, showing how solid the rock was. ‘They call it an avalanche tunnel, you see, for it was built to keep passenger trains safe from landslides and the like in the time before. Though I do not think it was intended to last this long, it has, and will probably stay preserved as it is until the climate shifts enough for humidity to become a factor and compromise the concrete’s integrity. I doubt that will happen for quite some time yet but to be safe, we maintain it regularly. If the pyramids in Giza are still peeking out of the sands, I don’t see why this should fall.’

It was clear that everybody was waiting for me to walk into the tunnel, but there was something auspicious about that moment that begged me to pause, so I turned to look behind me and back at the way we had come- and gasped when I realised that were it not for the thick blanket of mist rolling across the sky beneath me, I was now high enough to see all the way to Arcadia in one direction, and the ocean in another.

‘Oh my goodness!’ I pulled on my braid as I stepped forward a few more feet, straining to get a better look at the sheet of grey in the far, far distance to my right that I knew to be The Pacific Ocean. I had thought that we had gone northeast, but we’d stayed closer to the coast than that, and I longed for a map so that I could track our course and get my bearings. I’d seen so many maps, of the world and the old, and the mind boggled when I tried to place us now.

How far have we travelled? Thirty kilometres? More? Amazing! That explains why even my eyelids are aching!

A sudden wind swirled around me then and although it made me shudder violently, it did not detract from the intensity of that moment for me. In fact, it rather enhanced it. Though the rocky plateau that we were standing on was almost half as wide as the castle in Eden was, I was only able to discern that by judging the distance of the tops of the trees on the mountain’s periphery, because everything that was lower than me was cloaked by a fog that was growing denser as the sky darkened. It was eerie but beautiful, and a lot like how I’d always imagined Heaven would be, only grey instead of golden.

‘I feel like I’m walking on the clouds,’ I said as I crept forward, standing as close to the edge of that platform as I dared too and peering down at the fog-covered forest beneath me. ‘Bastien… where are we?’

‘At the beginning, I hope…’ Bastien said softly as he came to stand at my side, but before he could elaborate on that, he blinked and began to pat around his pockets. ‘Oh, Larkin I’m so sorry! I have some jerky for you that I was supposed to give you earlier that I completely forgot about until now. Forgive me, please, y-you must be famished-’ but something snarled then, cutting him off, and I almost jumped out of my skin when a blur of grey and white fur came charging from us from a grove of veiled trees to our right.

‘Wolf!’ someone screamed as Bastien yanked me back away from the edge of the sloped cliff and out of its path, and my heart leapt into my throat as I began to fall onto my backside and to the hard, gritty ground beneath it heavily enough for the air to be knocked out of my lungs before I could even scream.

2.

Eden Palace, City of Arcadia

Karol Barachiel

It took an eternity for the assembled leaders to settle down, but much less than that for me to lose my patience with them. There was a gong in the corner of my father’s meeting room, an ancient relic from the time before that had come from China. My father had never had to use it, but I was not the established king and so the men were not paying me the level of respect that my father had received from them, and so I did not hesitate to march over to it, pick up the hammer and strike the disc hard, killing the conversation and my ears with it and causing several of the men to flinch. My palms were sweating from my duress and I could see that the hammer’s handle now had an imprint on my palm on its black lacquered surface, displaying how insecure I felt, but I tossed it dismissively to the floor and then fixed them all with a look of reproach before they could look at it, ordering myself to look as fierce as I had been feeling when I’d called this meeting an hour beforehand.

You’re a king, and this is your first and only chance to make a royally good impression! I felt that sweat from my palms prickle under my armpits when I met Elbert Yael’s eyes and saw derision there. Remember who you are and where you have come from, because there is nothing that these people would like better than to help everyone forget it so that they can stake a claim on what is yours!

‘I do not want to have to do that again, and I am exhausted after a long hard day of damage control and eager to go to bed, so let’s keep this discussion focused, all right?’ I strode down the length of the room and towards my father’s seat at the head of the table as I spoke, praying that my legs would stay strong enough to hold me up despite the wave of doubt that I could feel rolling across the room towards me from the people that had assembled together in order to judge me. I’d been groomed to be a king yes, and this was hardly the first meeting of minds that I’d been an active participant in… but it was the first time that every world leader had been present for one, and the first time I was expected to lead the conversation in my father’s absence. And only hours after he had… after Larkin had…

My heart seized up painfully. Oh God, father… how could you have abandoned me now, in my very first hour of need? When there’s nothing I’d like to see more, than a nod of encouragement from you?

I knew that I had most of what it took to rule, but my father had always warned me that my natural desire to win people over was my Achilles that would make them think me easily manipulated and weak. I knew that he’d probably been right and that I should take his advice and act like a heavy-handed monarch with the other leaders… but I was saddened by the idea that they might suddenly stop liking me after years of them looking forward to my reign because of my famous charm.

They’ll wish for a swift end to your reign if they think you’re a marshmallow too though, so man up, Barachiel! God left the world in your bloodline’s care- remind them why, and quickly! Kings are not made until their fathers have passed, so stop feeling sorry for yourself, and understand that there’s no one for you to turn to, because you are the one that they all must turn to now!

‘This has been the blackest day in modern history, not just for Arcadia, but for Calliel, and every kingdom that belongs to the sovereign,’ I began, ‘there is much we’d like to say and accuse one another of- many fears we’d like to voice, and much blame, I’m sure, to lay upon one another…’ I sighed, seeing Yael’s eyes narrow at me, ‘mainly at me, I know... But before any of that happens, I must establish a fact: God’s people have been attacked this day- all of us- and we must not help a fallen angel in her quest to ruin this holy kingdom, by attacking one another in her stead.’

‘So has it been confirmed that Larkin of Eden truly is a dark Nephilim?’ Hamlet McPhee asked, looking doubtful. ‘I’ve heard it said that her wings were merely a prop, and that The Banished staged this entire attack to make her look more powerful than she is.’

It was hard not to roll my eyes. I’d spent the entire day trying to put out fires, getting my brothers under control, insuring that everybody that had been in the castle was interrogated concerning any possible crimes that they’d witnessed before leaving AND making arrangements for my parents’ burials... and of course while I’d been doing all of that without pausing to rest, the other world leaders had been holed up in their lavish guest quarters under my roof, exchanging gossip for speculation at my family’s expense and complaining about the fact that I’d yet to make a public or private address yet that would prove their gossip wrong. Unbelievable!

Still, it was better they believe idle gossip than discover the truth in its entirety...

‘Though I wish that were the case, I must insist that her wings were authentic, and that the fire that came out of her hands was real enough to give me third degree burns.’ I glanced out the rear window, seeing the smoke that was still rising from within the ashes of the harem. We had put the fire out by dawn, but we had not saved it and twelve hours later, the ruins were still smouldering. ‘She’s a Nephilim all right, and her soul is blacker than even I had ever imagined a soul could be.’ I slid into my father’s seat and my heart twisted to know that soon the cushion beneath me would change to fit my backside instead of his, and that by sitting in his chair, I was acknowledging the fact that he would never sit in it again.

Breathe! I commanded myself, feeling my lungs constrict with grief and making sure that I did not look my poor uncle’s way. You are a king, and Kings do not break down over their fallen fathers in front of other kings!

‘Because she didn’t want to marry you?’ President Camden of Rabia asked sharply, and I cringed inwardly when I saw the flash of anger in his eyes. ‘Or because she didn’t want to go from being one prince’s paid whore, to another’s unpaid one?’

There was muted laughter and I tensed up, wanting to lash out at him but knowing that I had no right. He’d expected me to marry his daughter for weeks and instead I’d begged them all to help me marry a prostitute at the last minute by bending the rules- a prostitute that had come close to crippling our nation by trying to wipe out the line of succession from the bottom up. Of course Connor Camden despised me now, and I suspected the only reason why he hadn’t already left our country with his nose in the air was because Ora had probably begged him to stay long enough to hear me out. That, and because despite his anger, I knew that he was actually a kind, level-headed man, unlike Yael, who was probably thrilled with the way that the evening had unfolded and delighted in how I had helped it come to pass in such a horrid fashion, by daring to want to marry an evil whore.

‘Please, show some respect,’ Atticus Hartley said quietly from his position beside me. ‘Do not forget that this is our new king’s birthday and that he has been orphaned on it. I understand that we’re all on edge, but there is no need to hurl stones at a man that has already fallen from a tower.’

‘Your survival was certainly a miracle,’ Shepherd Choir said softly, reaching over to squeeze my hand before he looked at the others, ‘to belittle him now is to belittle someone that has been spared by god for what ultimately must be some great purpose.’

‘Thank you, Prime Minister Hartley, and you Shepherd Choir, for your kind words,’ I said somewhat gruffly as I took my hand from the Shep’s so I could wipe my sweaty palms on my pants under the table. ‘But my parents died before midnight last night, so my birthday will not be regarded as the anniversary of their passing, even if this entire weekend does seem like one long, endless day to us right now, all right?’ I cleared my throat as they nodded sombrely. I didn’t want to seem ungrateful for their help and I was glad that they both still seemed to be on my side, but I didn’t want either of them throwing a pity party for me, because that would only make me look weaker to the others and I couldn’t have that- nor did I want Larkin’s actions to render the day of my birth a day of mourning forevermore. I wouldn’t give the twisted bitch the satisfaction!

I turned in my seat. ‘In response to your question, President Camden, Larkin of Eden did not get the chance to turn down my proposal because I never got the chance to offer her my hand in the first place,’ I paused, allowing the men a moment to digest that. My life was already shitty enough without people finding out that I’d been rebuffed by a whore too! ‘Perhaps the evening would have gone better if I had- I’ll never know for sure, but she broke into my chamber in a state of flux, looking for her contract, and I was lucky to get two words in before she thoughtlessly announced that my father was dead, she was leaving, I was the new king and that if I wanted to live long enough to have a reign, then I had to step aside and let her by.’ I cleared my throat, feeling my blood heat as I remembered that moment, and how dark and uncaring Larkin’s eyes had been when she’d told me about my father. Perhaps it was dishonest for me to omit the fact that I’d kissed her and had been thus spurned in my retelling, but as far as I was concerned, that had little to nothing to do with the point: that Larkin was unstable, dark, and a danger to us all.

Even if her lips had felt like a symphony of perfection against mine. Even if I’d never felt more complete then when she’d kissed me back, melting against me like…

ENOUGH! This isn’t infatuation, it’s demonic possession!

I snapped out of it, scratching at my lower lip to scratch away the memory of hers parting against it. It had been a kiss of death granted by an evil temptress and nothing more, and I had to keep that in the forefront of my mind every time the urge to replay the memory reared its ugly head. ‘After that I was in such a state of shock and horror that I could barely speak, but she rambled on like a psychopath. She accused my brothers and parents of doing terrible things and tried to absolve herself of all blame for the terrible things that had happened to others, and when I tried to grab her and hold her still- to get to the bottom of the ghastly story that she was telling me- she screamed, set me on fire and then I was falling out of the window-’

‘What did she accuse your brothers of, and what proof have you that they are innocent of her claims?’ Elliot Bronx of Janiel demanded, and I shot him a dark look but answered his question with an even tone:

‘She accused them of attempting to rape her, your grace,’ I said quickly, ‘she also accused them of murdering our mother, but mother’s body was found under a collapsed pole-’ my voice caught and to my relief, everyone drew back respectfully, averting their eyes from mine as though giving me a moment of privacy that I did not deserve because the truth was that my mother wasn’t dead- she was in a coma and chained up in the basement, and I had no proof to say that she belonged there except for Kohl’s word: something I had been doubting the integrity of all day but clinging blindly to for lack of a second opinion. These people could not know that my mother was still alive but suspected of being a black Nephilim and they could never find out, especially not my uncle Ewan who I had always suspected was in love with her, and who I also suspected might lose his damned mind if he learned that we were locking her away like a rabid animal.

So as much as I detested lying to anyone, I had to keep up the charade of being grief-stricken over her ‘passing’ until I knew whether or not she truly did deserve to die- and if I could be the one to order her death for the sake of the nation. Terrified that I would choke on my guilt and uncertainty, I cleared my throat and tried again:

‘That kind of death does not correlate with either of my brothers’ powers, does it? Only Larkin’s. She almost burned Kohl and Kohén to death, and there are enough eye-witnesses to attest to the fact that their worst injuries were indeed inflicted by fire, so I think it’s safe to assume that she accidentally killed my mother when she started burning that harem to the ground, but was blaming the twins for it in her hysteria because her flames resulted as a result of her fear and paranoia towards them. Maybe in her eyes, they got their mother killed by scaring her and triggering her fiery reflexes-’

‘And how did they scare her?’ Atticus asked. ‘What happened to set her off in the first place, do you know?’

‘My father wanted her branded, apparently,’ I said dully, trying to hide the fact that I hated this part of the story as much as Larkin evidently had, and knowing that the next part was going to be tricky to tell without revealing the fact that my mother was supposed to be a dark Nephilim too- a fact that would surely see me lose the throne that I had dedicated almost every second of my life to preserving thus far. ‘As Kohén’s favourite, in gold, to prevent either Kohl or I from trying to steal her away. My mother tried to stop Kohén and he pushed her out of the way so she wouldn’t get burned by accident, and that caused Larkin to fly into a rage- accusing him of attacking his own mother. Kohén was eventually successful in branding her, but Larkin spontaneously combusted and attacked the twins in response, revealing her true self to them for the first time. Kohl tried to put her flames out with his water and that was when she turned her fire onto the chandelier in the ceiling, dropping it on one prince and leaving the other to get him free while she fled. Whatever concerns she must have had for my mother’s well-being up until that point must have been forgotten in her rage because she left her there to die-’

‘And your father? Is it true that he was killed with a sword?’ Emmanuel Gutierrez asked quickly, and I was flabbergasted by how unmoved these men were by this awful story that would creep along behind me like a penumbra for the rest of my life, and of how callously they were butting in to pick holes in it. ‘And if so, do you have any proof that this Larkin creature committed that unspeakable act as well?’

‘Yes, it seems strange to me that someone who can apparently breathe fire would resort to using such a generic weapon while in such a hysterical rage…’ King Lachlan Gabriel of New Rome said in his thick accent, earning himself a round of nodding from the majority of the other men at the table. I shivered with offence, but I tried to look as unaffected and objective as possible.

‘I can understand why you would think that but please don’t forget that Nephilim- even fire-breathing ones- can be exhausted quickly,’ I said as coolly as possible. ‘Amelia-Rose Choir swears that Larkin struck her and took the sword, causing her to run from the location in fear, but not before she saw Larkin launch herself at my father. Amelia-Rose also said that the murderer got herself covered in my father’s…’ my voice started to go again but I swallowed hard and sat up straighter. ‘Excuse me. What I was trying to say is that Larkin’s dress did indeed, have blood splattered all over it by the time my path crossed hers. Perhaps there’s an explanation for that too despite the fact that no one else was stabbed around her before she came to my room…’ I gave them a moment to ponder that glaring fact, ‘but I’m sure that once we fingerprint the sword, we will have concrete evidence that Larkin was the one wielding it.’

‘I’ll feel better when you have concrete evidence,’ Connor Camden said quickly. ‘I mean no disrespect, your highness, but it cannot have escaped your notice that this palace of yours has been rife with speculation regarding your twin brothers’ joint obsessions over that girl this week, and worried about what affect it would have on her psyche. Half of us, including my daughter, were already somewhat convinced that Prince Kohén had forced himself upon Larkin Whittaker at least once this week and possibly countless times since he locked her away, so I refuse to believe that these claims that she made were completely unfounded until I see hard evidence to the contrary.’

That didn’t surprise me at all because it was exactly what his democratic daughter had had to say on the subject already. Yet, despite the fact that I had shared in their suspicions not long ago, it didn’t change the fact that it was the word of four people against someone that hadn’t even bothered to defend herself- four pious people against one black-winged monster! What kind of idiot would doubt her guilt for longer than a moment? ‘I understand your skepticism but let me ask you... if Larkin didn’t go on this killing spree, then who did?’ I asked, confused. ‘Amelia-Rose? Did she then disguise herself as Larkin and then come attack me in my tower room after? Because she was the only other person that was in that part of the castle at that time!’

There were a few chuckles at that- and a few abashed looks sent Shepherd Choir’s way- but President Camden remained stoic, as Ora had warned me that he would be. ‘I do not doubt that Larkin was the one to attack you or your brothers- the charred remains of the harem and the condition you were in earlier are proof enough of that.’ He folded his hands together on the table in front of him and went on: ‘However, we use a different sort of judicial system in Rabia than you do here, and someone charged with the attempted murder of three people that were unhealthily obsessed with her would not necessarily be charged for the murder of a fourth person that was murdered in a different fashion, without first getting to speak in her own defence. As you said: Larkin denied killing him but seemed almost delighted to admit to attacking your brothers, so forgive me for saying so, but something doesn’t add up, your highness. I mean, the crowned prince’s amnesia seems awfully convenient, doesn’t it?’

Not for me! I thought, but I was so thrown by hearing Kohén referred to as the Crowned Prince- by my former title- that I did not get the chance to respond before the shepherd did:

‘I’m sorry… so are you actually accusing my daughter of regicide?’ Shepherd Birch demanded, looking uncharacteristically incensed and I could not blame him. Amelia-Rose was a pain in the ass, but she’d never risk her saintly soul by contemplating murder.

‘No,’ Connor Camden replied. ‘But I am saying that in Rabia, all sorts of things would be considered before blame is laid. The body and scene of the crime would be inspected, the witnesses questioned, and a jury of six shepherds would decide-’

‘You imitate an ancient judicial system in Rabia,’ Elbert Yael growled, ‘one that demonstrates the fact that you have a lot less respect for your people and your shepherds- and even God himself. Things are different here in Calliel; people are good and forthright and so we do not need to put them on trial unless they are accused of something.’

‘Remember what I said about attacking one another?’ I said quickly when I saw Connor Camden’s eyebrows pull together in fury, and heard a few of the foreign leaders titter at Yael’s words. ‘That is exactly what we’re starting to do so rein it in everyone, please.’ I looked back to President Camden. ‘So is that what you’re suggesting? A complete inquest into my father’s death? I’ve already interrogated every single person that was in the castle last night… what else would you have me do?’

‘I don’t know,’ President Camden said sharply. ‘But I do know that there’s a lot more to it than meets the eye and if we were in Rabia, we would be investigating last night’s events from every angle before charging anyone with anything.’

‘Sounds like the people of Rabia have a lot of time on their hands,’ Elliot Bronx said.

‘We do- our society runs so smoothly that we have the time to find and tie up loose ends,’ Camden shot back, and I enjoyed the way that Elliot flushed. Everyone knew that his kingdom was the most disorganised and chaotic of them all.

‘Excuse me?’ my uncle Ewan had been so silent that I’d almost forgotten that he was there, but now he raised his hand, drawing our attention to him and how ravaged he looked. His eyes were red, his skin was waxen, and the grief over losing my mother and father was etched into the lines around his eyes and mouth. I would have looked like that, I knew, but I’d healed my face before the meeting, knowing that I had to look up to the task of being king, and not as desolate and lost as I felt. ‘I don’t mean to downplay the obvious part that Larkin played in this kingdom’s destruction last night, but I do agree with President Camden when he says that my brother’s death does not fit with Larkin’s other attacks. The Banished have been trying to get Miss Whittaker out of Eden all week- so doesn’t it seem plausible that one of them ran in to save her and stabbed Elijah?

‘That makes more sense to me,’ Camden agreed. ‘Why else would Larkin deny it? The charred trail that she left behind her wasn’t something she was going to be able to conceal, so why try to wrangle herself out of just the one murder?’

‘I don’t know, Mr President,’ I said shortly. ‘Perhaps she thought that I was going to capture her and didn’t want to be held accountable for regicide if I succeeded? The other crimes she could plead self defence against perhaps, as you’ve pointed out- but not for stabbing a man through the heart.’

‘An incident my daughter would not claim to have witnessed unless that was exactly what she had seen!’ Shepherd Choir protested but President Camden only sighed.

‘Let’s take all of these ‘perhaps’ out of the scenario and get to the facts: what about your security surveillance?’ Elbert demanded. ‘That will back up or refute a lot of these claims, won’t it? I’ve heard a rumour that you have them.’

I sighed now. ‘We do in the main halls, and it should have captured everything, but unfortunately, the only footage we have is of Larkin bursting out of the harem in a state, and of her then backing into the bust that we had the only internal camera in, knocking it to the floor and breaking it. The surveillance doesn’t have sound so we cannot tell what was said between her and the guard when she raced out, but we can plainly see that she was worked up. As for everything that happened before then, there is no security surveillance of what goes on inside the harem, for obvious reasons, so no, I have no way of proving who started what.’

‘For reasons that are getting more and more obvious as this all unravels…’ Yael muttered, and I felt a ripple of anger wash over me. ‘Who knows what the hell you’re doing to your women in there that’s resulted in one death this week and one fiery escape?’

So we’re perverts now because we DON’T film ourselves fucking these women? My God, I can’t win with these people!

‘Enough!’ I snapped, and all of those heads snapped back to face me again, then my fist as I pounded it on the table. ‘I will remind you that I am Karol Barachiel, descendant of Miguel Barachiel, and that I, along with every other member of my family has sworn to protect the people in this kingdom, not to corner and rape them, and not to falsely accuse them of crimes in order to cover our own sins!’ I raked my fingers through my hair in frustration. ‘Yes, I understand that Larkin of Eden has impressed us all, and no one was more impressed by her than I- a fact that I’ve made obvious over this past week- but over two hundred people saw her sprout black wings and soar out of my window tonight, leaving me for dead beneath her, and that is all the concrete evidence that you should need to make a case against her! She is a dark Nephilim, and the most powerful one that we have encountered in the last four hundred years! She has slain the king, she has attempted to kill my brothers and either intentionally or unintentionally got my mother and the Nephilim security guard that went to her aid crushed as well! She is a murderer, and were it not for our healers, both resident and temporarily stationed, she would be facing FOUR counts of murder this night!’ I stood up and flung out my hands. ‘Yes, I thought that I was in love with her and yes, I begged you to put her on a pedestal for me and yes, she had apparently won many hearts within Eden’s boundaries including my twin brothers’ and your daughter’s President Camden- but can you not see now, as I have, that she was doing so intentionally? That she was using her dark magnetism to draw us all in only to play us off one another all along? That she bewitched us all into her embrace and out of our senses? I do not doubt that the Banished have been working towards getting her out of here and that any one of them would have killed a member of this royal family if that was what it took to get her free- but she didn’t need an escape- she has had several chances to do that already, hasn’t she? She had the people in this palace eating out of the palm of her hand! But what she wanted was to end this line, and every other royal bloodline in this kingdom, so laugh at me all you want and whisper about my hormonal little brothers, but before you do, ask yourself…is it only the Barachiel family that she has targeted?’ My gaze slid from Yael’s, to Hartley’s. ‘Or did she attempt to disarm other leaders in this room as well?’

My words rang through the room in such a pronounced fashion that for the longest moment after, there wasn’t a single sound. No arguments, no deflection, no blame- just proof that they were all what they’d spent all morning accusing my family of being: human.

Exhaling properly for the first time since I’d walked into that room, I flopped back into my father’s chair and shifted my gaze from Yael to Atticus Hartley. I didn’t have to be as perfect as God was, but I could be king if I held it together and more than that, I deserved to be.

Smiling crookedly, I shifted to get comfortable in my father’s seat at the head of the table and said: ‘That’s exactly what I thought.’

3.

The Wildwoods

Larkin

The animal- the scrawniest, mangiest thing that I had ever seen- hurtled through the space that I had been occupying and then came down as hard as I had, rolling over and over until it came to a bungling stop at the cloaked man’s feet. The man’s face was covered by the shadows cast by his hood, but I heard him gasp and gurgle in alarm as the wolf found its footing and began to snap and snarl at him, causing him to tilt backwards over the rock that he was sitting on. For one terrifying moment, it looked like the man was going to topple backwards and down the mountainside or be snared by the fierce wolf’s jaws, and I felt a sense of failure and despair rain down upon me like stones. I’d sworn to protect that man, and yet he was about to die because I had dropped my guard down in order to take in the sights! What a pitiful leader I’d already proven to be!

‘I’ve got it!’ another man’s voice shouted before I could get up to my feet, and then a broad figure rushed forward, brandishing an axe in a scarred but broad dark hand. ‘Hold still and I’ll-’

‘No!’ I screamed, using what little oxygen I’d managed to suck in to make myself be heard. I was afraid of the wolf and of what it could do to the man- but was slaying it the only option? It was such a dirty, pathetic creature and they were all wearing pelts obtained from wolves that were three times it size, so who was the real predator in this scenario anyway? Certainly not the wolf, which was smaller than any domesticated dog I’d ever seen- a mere pup with massive, matted paws, and a hungry, neglected one by the look of its pelt.

The man with the axe turned to gape at me and in that moment I saw his lack of faith in me as clearly as I saw the menace in the wolf’s eyes as it too swung around to regard me. But I’d bought the wolf and the man a few precious seconds, so I bounced to my feet and swiped the wax paper-wrapped package that Bastien had been handing me out of my guardian’s hands before staggering forward through that nebulous air and closer to the hungry animal.

‘Here boy!’ I panted, tearing the paper off to expose the dried meat within, and the wolf’s nostrils flared as it growled under its breath. ‘You hungry? Go on and get it!’ And then I flung the jerky back into the ghostly gloom that we’d emerged from, further down the mountain, onto the trail and out of our immediate vicinity. The filthy dog took off after the treat so fast that I flinched again, temporarily spooked into thinking that it was going to rush me instead, but as soon as I realised that my decoy had worked, someone had me and was pulling me backwards.

‘Quick- into the tunnel now so that we can seal it behind us before it or any other members of its pack comes back!’ Bastien panted as over the top of him the other man demanded:

‘What was that about?’ The man shook his axe, making the red ribbon that he had twined around the handle jiggle, and that was when I noticed for the first time that almost every member of The Sequestered was dressed as he was, in a navy blue tunic made of flannel. His skin was dark and speckled with darker sunspots around his cheeks and nose, and his fuzzy black hair was turning grey and dry at the tips. He had a huge mouth with pillowy, cracked lips and hard, dark eyes that sparked at me as he went on: ‘We barely have rations to go around as it is girl! That wolf would have added to our stores, but you give it what little we have left and send it on its way?’

‘I’m sorry,’ I wheezed, meaning it, ‘I just know how desperate a creature has to be to come all of this way in search of sustenance, because that’s what’s driven us up this mountain, isn’t it? The will to live?’ Bastien deposited me on my feet and then beckoned to the cloaked man to hobble into the tunnel after us before he and the angry, axe-wielding man began to hurriedly block the tunnel’s entrance from the inside. It was dark and I was disorientated, but my voice echoed clearly as I hurried on to explain as my eyes adjusted: ‘I couldn’t bear to spill the blood of something so tenacious, not after all of the violence I’ve seen in the past week, and especially not seeing as how malnourished that thing was.’ I shrugged. ‘Besides, it was my first wolf encounter. I didn’t want it to end savagely.’ Nor was I particularly thrilled at the prospect of eating dehydrated bear carcass...

‘It wouldn’t have hesitated to spill your blood!’ the man said in that strange accent that was like a rougher version of Bastien’s lilting one, but more clipped than Ora’s rounded Rabian one, and completely impossible for me to place. I sighed and leaned forward to pick up a sheet of iron, helping to barricade the entrance seeing as how they were all clearly afraid that the glorified dog was going to come rushing in after us.

‘Then that would have been its mistake,’ I said quietly, helping Bastien to secure the largest sheet of metal in place by sliding rocks up against the base of it as the old man slipped past us and hobbled into the darkness. ‘For there is no more meat on me or our cloaked friend there to eat, than there was on it. Besides, if I ever do fight a wolf- it will be one that is up to the task and not a scared and hungry puppy.’

‘Shep…’ the man complained, but Bastien shook his head and said quietly:

‘I am charged with the task of guiding her Windsor, not instructing her. She followed her instincts, as her mother had requested, and I am not inclined to argue with either of them- especially not when I deem her explanation for her actions to be reasonable and thoughtful.’ He patted the man on the shoulder as he stepped back, causing the bow and quiver that the hunter had strung over his shoulder to rattle. ‘Sorry, but you’re alone in your ire here.’ Then he turned to me and inclined his head more deeply into the tunnel. ‘Come on child, you’ve thwarted my first attempt to feed you, but fortunately, I’ll get another chance momentarily. Our supplies have been depleted by an influx of new recruits, yes, but enough has been set aside to last us a few more weeks yet so do not feel badly for how you handled that- God smiles kindly upon those that are gracious to his other creatures, and you will soon have a hot meal in front of you to prove that.’

‘Even if they’ve aligned themselves with the devil?’ I joked, but Bastien chuckled and all at once, I felt less uncomfortable in his company.

‘Perhaps we have a few more good deeds to perform before we can hope to be forgiven for that factor.’

‘Perhaps,’ I agreed, although deep down I was sort of hoping that God went on as ignorant of my existence as he always had been- forever… and that hot bear meat looked more appetising than cold bear meat had.

*

The Sequestered had dubbed their second camp Hope Station, and it was indeed a place of hope because it was a place of heat and warmth and light and comfort, the likes of which I’d been starting to think that I’d never experience again.

It was still rough of course, but unlike the first camp, which had consisted of a bunch of tattered canvas tents that had been assembled inside a shallow cave, the second had used the remains of a subterranean railway station as its foundation, giving it a more established, permanent feel. The tunnel extended on for about half a kilometre into the mountain, dank and cold as the caves in Arcadia had been, but then suddenly it had opened up to reveal a platform and the rusted shell of a train that now stretched in front of it. There were only five aluminium carriages left of that old relic and the seats inside had apparently deteriorated centuries ago, but they’d been yanked out like rotted teeth and replaced with a wall to wall carpet of bearskins and wolf pelts that the residents now slept on.

Likewise, the cold concrete platform had been transformed into a toasty common area due to a surplus of large fires that were burning safely in oversized steel drums that had been scattered around a collection of long, rough tables. Those tables had bench seats attached to them- and so many people were seated on those bench seats that I did not even attempt a head count, and surely could not have managed one due to my mounting apprehension.

Leader, leader leader… the word echoed in my mind, making my palms sweat and face flush as I watched these people watching me. They all expect you to be their leader, but there are so many of them! How is it possible that not one of them is more suited to the task than you are?

Bastien leaned over to squeeze my hand in silent support and I swallowed hard and smiled thinly, nodding to the people as they stood up to applaud me and my less than spectacular entrance. ‘I present to you all, Larkin of Eden!’ the shepherd declared to the room and though I wanted to thump him for exposing me so, I reminded myself that he’d pulled me away from one real wolf, so I should forgive him for throwing me to these expectant human ones. Though this was a terrifying moment for me, it was a prophecy come true for them and if I was destined to fail them (as I feared I was), then I knew that the least I could do was give them this one moment of hope- this one chance to believe that someone wanted to look out for them, and was fated to do so.

This one chance to believe in me the way I’d once believed in Kohén.

Fortunately, everyone seemed more comfortable to rush Bastien to welcome him home and were considerate enough for the state I was in to give me breathing room, so while he accepted hugs and brought those that had waited here for us up to date on everything that had gone on since he’d seen them last, I took the opportunity to look around the old railway station and get my bearings. It really was a huge space, with room enough not only for that dining area and what looked like a resting area, but with a food preparation one. A large concrete bench had been utilised like a kitchen, and air vents had been carved out of the arched and snow-coated roof, giving the smoke from heating and cooking somewhere to go and allowing a bit of natural light in.

That light was non-existent by the time I got there because darkness had fallen during our final leg of that day’s expedition, but the warmth of the fires was all I needed for the time being, so I stepped up to one eagerly and rubbed my hands together over it, looking around a little less obviously as I took stock of Hope Station’s population.

There were a lot of children, I saw that quickly, and a lot of old people too- more than I’d expected to see living outside of the comforts of Arcadia. The children had parents that were around Constance’s age and younger- plenty of mother and father-looking types, but I noticed that there was a distinct lack of young adults like me and that struck me as being odd. There was a group of men about Karol’s age that were sharpening blades in one cluster, a group of old women that were all cloaked and sinister-looking for it and the way they’d constellated in a circle and were chanting softly around a fire, a group of babies that were being tended to by a girl of about thirteen and a bunch of middle-aged men that were eating and laughing heartily while sitting at a table together… but no youths at all.

Surely they must have been grouped together somewhere else, possibly even in the train carriages? I stepped slightly away from the fire and peered anxiously into the darkness below the platform, searching for one of the familiar faces that I’d expected to see by then: Martya’s, Adeline’s or maybe even Cherry’s, who’d been on the wrong side of the fence the night before too… but to my dismay, the people that were coming out of the carriages to get a look at me were closer to the younger girl’s age and completely unfamiliar to me and I didn’t know whether to be happy about that, or worried sick. I wasn’t ready to face Martya yet, I knew that, but now I feared that something terrible had happened to her in the chaos that had followed the crowned prince’s tumble out of the tower window, and that I’d never again get the chance to tell her how much I loved and hated her.

‘Your loved ones will be joining us in the next day or so, God willing,’ Bastien said in a low voice then, appearing at my side while handing me an ancient cup full of what looked like tea. ‘They had to wait for us to leave, so that they could follow after with a report of how your disappearance was received, and that group is mostly made up of kids your age, because they tend to be the fastest thinkers and movers, and the most endurable. I know you’re disappointed not to be reunited with them immediately, but they will be along, Larkin, and we will wait here until they have joined us because Martya is almost as instrumental to this movement as I am.’

‘So I was told,’ I said dryly to cover my relief (I didn’t want Martya knowing how much I missed her just yet!) before taking a sip from the tea, which turned out to be broth. It was bland but it was warm and comforting and so I gulped down another mouthful immediately after I’d swallowed the first, and then met Bastien’s eyes. ‘I confess that although I am relieved to know that she will be along, I must admit… I don’t know what I am going to say to her when we meet again, Bastien. I am glad that she is alive… but I could kill her for allowing me to believe otherwise for so long.’

‘You have a lot of forgiving to do,’ Bastien agreed sadly, ‘it must be unsettling… to be forced to co-exist with people that were obligated to protect you, but have not yet earned a skerrick of your trust.’

Knowing that he was talking about himself, I met the shepherd’s eyes and responded just as quietly: ‘You have earned some of my trust today, Shepherd Birch. You said you’d get me across The Wildwoods and away from Arcadia, and you did it.’

‘Bastien,’ he corrected me, but he smiled, ‘and thank you.’

‘Bastien,’ I repeated, and returned his smile with one of my own. But just as soon as I believed that I’d managed to get a hold of myself, the stabbing pains that had been invading my head all day returned with a vengeance and I cringed and lifted my free hand to rub at my temples. I would have dropped my cup, but Bastien caught it before I could completely forget that I was to keep it upright.

‘Larkin!’ he whispered, quietly but with a voice full of concern. ‘What’s the matter?’

Exhaustion smashed into me like a wave, and I tilted dangerously close to the fire pit as I looked for something to latch on to. I found his arm instead and steadied myself on it. ‘I’m sorry…’ the pain made it feel like my brain matter was in knots. ‘I’ve been fighting off a headache all day…’

‘You need rest,’ he said, sounding helpless. ‘I’ve pushed you much too far, and didn’t give you adequate sustenance beforehand- I know that. Come, I’ll arrange for you to have a bath and then we’ll find you something more solid to eat, and a place for you to sleep for the night, all right? Somewhere that you’re less likely to be bothered by the others who are too fascinated by you for your own good.’

‘Bath?’ I asked numbly as my head throbbed and spun. ‘You have baths here?’

‘Hot ones, and somewhere for your clothes to be laundered too,’ the shepherd said before leading me over to an older woman that was holding a stack of threadbare but perfectly folded towels. ‘Georgia? Miss Whittaker needs a bath and a solid meal. Can you arrange that for me while I go and find her somewhere private to sleep?’

‘Sure thing, Shep!’ the woman exclaimed. ‘Anything else I can do for you once that’s done? Maybe fetch you a cup of warm milk?’

Even through the pain in my head, I was aware of the way the woman’s voice practically trilled the shepherd’s name. His looks may have been lost on him, but one squinted glance around the room had already confirmed that there was as many women staring at Bastien as they were at me- but where they regarded me with awe, curiosity and even a hint of suspicion, they sparkled after their shepherd like gemstones. I didn’t know how to feel about that, but I felt another set of eyes on me then, burning into me, and I twisted to look behind me, and lifted my eyebrows when I saw a boy staring back at me from across the room. Staring at me with so much intensity that the hairs on my arms lifted in response.

The boy was sitting alone in the shadows, and as I studied him, I was struck by two things: One, he had a very familiar-looking black velvet cloak puddled on the table in front of him and two, he was one of the most startlingly-attractive looking men I’d ever seen in my life, with a shock of red hair that contrasted brightly against eyes that were the colour of blue steel that was light in the inside but darker on the outside. I couldn’t imagine being attracted to another male ever again, but there was something about that boy that appealed to something in me, despite the bad vibrations that were radiating off him in waves.

Why, thank you, Larkin of Eden… the boy thought, and his words were accompanied by another succession of stabbing pains inside my mind that were so sharp that they made me gasp. You’re pretty easy on the eye yourself though I do agree with your father- you need a bath desperately. As do I... after pretending to haunch over all day!

Oh my God- who are you? My hands lifted to clutch at my head as I gaped at the boy. I was getting used to having someone inside my head after spending that week getting acquainted with Satan, but it didn’t hurt when Satan talked into my mind, and it didn’t seem as intrusive when she did it for some reason. Were you just pretending to be an old man all day? Have you been inside my mind this whole time?

The boy did not answer my question directly, but his smug smile was all the answer that I needed, and my blood bubbled in response, racing through my veins like lava. Hadn’t I been intruded upon enough that week? Why did everyone think it was all right to force themselves inside me, physically and mentally?

No! My blood turned to ice as horror overcame me. No, don’t think about that! He can’t see the way they touched me… oh it’s so humiliating! I… I … I have to get out of here!

Wait: let me explain! The boy thought, and his smug smile faded as I began to back away from him in horror. I won’t do it all the time, but I had to raid your mind today! You’re not the only one that is in debt to Satan, you know. You have your terms- and I have mine! There are ways that you can block me out but I couldn’t let you know about them before I’d gotten a better idea about your experiences! The witches will be able to help you-

Witches?!

They’re not the bad kind of witches, not really. Well, they are technically devil worshippers and one or two are dark Nephilim like me but-

Dark Nephilim? My nerves were officially shot. ‘Stay away from me!’ I screamed, not inside my mind but out loud, and though the room had been alive with the chatter of almost one hundred voices before then, it fell silent after, just as everyone turned to gawk at me. But this time I didn’t care because I had given up trying to come across as strong and composed and had started running across that platform and back into the tunnel that I had stumbled out of, knowing that I’d sprint all the way back to Arcadia before I allowed another person inside me in any way again without my consent.

Mirroring that sentiment, my wings unfurled in response to my flight or fight reflexes, which were screaming at me to get away from that terrible, beautiful boy and his sharp mind as soon as possible.

4.

Eden Palace, City Of Arcadia

Karol Barachiel

Yael turned crimson from collar to hairline, but Atticus only looked confused. ‘Larkin never attempted to-’

‘Oh come on, Prime Minister Hartley!’ I crowed, deciding that father’s advice: to never expect to be friends with the people that worked for you- had been sound. ‘Everyone in this room knows that you all but begged Miss Whittaker to work for you in Pacifica, and that she left this castle with Pacifica’s greatest asset around her pretty neck. Does that seem like a normal occurrence to you, sir? That the leader of one country would hand his greatest treasure over to a prostitute in the hopes that she might be released one day?’

Now everyone turned to gape at Atticus, and I saw the Prime Minister redden. ‘That wasn’t her request,’ he half-mumbled. ‘It was Kohén that asked for the necklace-’

‘Another unlikely happenstance,’ I pointed out. ‘That a crowned prince of sound mind would beg for such an expensive gift to win over a girl that already legally belonged to him!’ I turned on Yael next. ‘And what say you, Elbert? Did you not pledge all of the land that Larkin could dream of, in exchange for her promise to come to Yael one day?’

‘I did that because I believed it would be profitable for me to employ her,’ Yael said quickly, but he wasn’t looking at anyone anymore, and I judged him for sweating so profusely despite the fact that he hadn’t moved in a while. ‘She seemed to be an expert on cotton production and-’

‘An expert?’ I demanded, mystified. ‘A seventeen year-old girl with a vegetable garden cannot be an expert in cotton production, and an intelligent leader would know that!’

‘That’s what you say now!’ Yael snapped, looking irate. ‘But let’s not forget that you were singing a different tune last year at Kohén’s birthday ball! You damn near pushed her into my arms while assuring me that it would be in my best interests to get her to Yael-’

‘I have not denied being under her thrall- it is you that believes yourself unaffected by her and I’m trying to point out that that is not the case! My recommending her to you was yet another ridiculous happenstance that only proves how expertly she was manipulating us!’ I held out my hands. ‘If I believed that Larkin was an expert on such a thing, why would I push her at another kingdom’s leader anyway?’

‘Because you were trying to impress a girl, obviously! Or get her out of your brother’s reach and your kingdom’s laws about Companion-sharing. You wanted her to think you wanted great things for her, but you were thinking with your-’

‘As were you, when you asked Larkin if she would service you in Yael, despite the fact that you are a married man!’ I shot back, and there were several audible gasps from the other men at the table. I jumped to my feet as Yael gaped at me, thunderstruck and Shepherd Choir gaped at him. ‘Larkin told me that you propositioned her when she was fifteen and she feigned offence when she recollected your offer, but I don’t know what’s more likely now- that she was lying to me, or that you were considering having an extra-marital affair with a prostitute all along! But either way, it proves that though the lord may work in mysterious ways, a whore works in every way that she can, and that as far as the leaders of Calliel are concerned, she worked us all over good! Look at us, all right? Just look at us!’ I stormed out from behind the table and gestured to them all. ‘This evil slut has killed our king and here we sit, trying to make excuses for her! Trying to protest her innocence when there isn’t one thing about her that can be called good or pure! Satan put that girl into this palace-’

‘Karol-’ Shepherd Choir started to rise.

‘No! I will curse her name because she is a godless shrew!’ I snapped, seeing all too clearly that I’d been more influenced by Larkin’s darkness than I had previously thought I’d been, to have ended up so lost. What other explanation was there, for how much I had been mocking goody-goodies like Amelia-Rose and Kohl, and becoming enamoured with a woman whose strongest skill was sarcasm? ‘And I only use Satan’s name because I know that I cannot summon the demon that is already here! Or was, until Larkin flew out that window last night!’ I walked to the window, staring out of it at the smoke-covered sunset, heart pounding so hard that I knew it was going to leave bruises on my chest. If I wanted proof that Larkin had been trying to strip God from our lives, it was in that dull, grey and joyless sunset that she had left for us behind her.

‘I loved her,’ I said, shaking my head, ‘or I believed that I did, and I apologize to you all for that. I was under her spell and I may have never emerged from it... but the way she told me my father was dead… the lack of remorse in those beautiful, ever-changing eyes when she delivered that blow…’ I turned back to them and said flatly: ‘It has cured me of her and now I intend on curing this world of her too, and that’s why I have called you here today- to beg for a second chance at my birthday wish.’

‘Excuse me?’ Lee Selafiel looked out of place and nervous as hell as she spoke for the first time. ‘Haven’t you already had your birthday wish- to get this girl’s peers freed- granted?’

‘No. The people that I was going to free in honour of Martya Rice’s birthday were freed by default when Larkin incinerated their contracts last night. Naturally I no longer believe that releasing a lot of people like Larkin is the right thing to do, but those contracts were under the crown’s duty of care and they no longer exist and so they are free to go, whether I like it or not.’

‘So you’re saying that someone else blew out your candles so now you want a second cake?’ Yael drawled, and though the sound of people snickering made me wither on the inside, I stood taller, adjusting my collared shirt.

‘No- I’m saying that my birthday wish is to turn every person that has been enlisted in the Corps into a small army- one that I will use to protect this country’s borders until Larkin Whittaker has been apprehended, trialled…’ I smiled grimly as I got to the dearest wish my heart had: ‘and if found guilty, publicly executed as a demon- by fire.’

The room exploded in response. ‘God did not believe in armies!’ Atticus protested. ‘Isn’t the Corps we have already pushing it a little?’

‘God hated war!’ Shepherd Choir looked grey.

‘Execution is a bit of an extreme punishment to dole out to someone that has not yet had the chance to defend herself, isn’t it?’ asked my uncle, looking to Bronx and Gabriel for affirmation… but they looked down at the table top in front of them, and I had to hide a smile when I saw even Selafiel turn towards me with more obvious interest. Perhaps they weren’t in need of protection from a fallen angel just yet, but they’d all hinted to desiring the protection that an army might offer for years for their own reasons.

‘Yes! How can a kingdom that regards itself as being advanced even consider burning a girl at the stake?!’ President Camden demanded, and I knew I was losing him. ‘It’s positively medieval!’

‘Your father would roll over in his grave if he-’

‘My father does not yet have a grave!’ I bellowed at Hamlet McPhee, and they all sat down real fast. ‘But he is going to need one because Larkin Whittaker murdered him! She murdered him and she got away with it and now she’s out there-’ I pointed out the window, ‘flying around and probably thinking of how best to attack us next! Doesn’t it seem fitting that after burning us, she should come to an end in a similar fashion? Doesn’t it worry any of you to know that she could burst through any window at any moment and incinerate us all? Doesn’t it upset her that she has eleven million dollar’s worth of stolen property roped around her neck? Doesn’t it chill you to realise that as soon as she vanished from sight- every person that was on the other side of that fence this week screaming for vengeance against the crown all week suddenly vanished too? Where are they now? Who are they turning to?’ I stalked around the table, putting each question to a different individual. ‘To her, that’s who! It is like when the ocean suddenly retreats, isn’t it? You know that it will come back with strength and resolve enough, and no choice but to obliterate the shore! Well we cannot allow her to send a black wave of hateful souls racing at our kingdoms! We need to be on guard- all of us, but mostly here in Arcadia where she believes she has the most scores to settle!’ I pulled the window shade shut to block out the sight of that grim sunset. ‘We must burn everyone that proves to have a shadowed soul now that we know for certain that dark Nephilim can still be hiding amongst us!’ I whirled back to face Camden. ‘Yes, she will be given a fair hearing if apprehended, President Camden and you’re invited to sit in on it, but if she cannot prove her innocence- and I doubt that she will even try- she will pay for her sins.’

Shepherd Choir looked perplexed but at least when he spoke, everyone else quieted down out of respect. ‘Karol I know you’re upset, and I am also a bit perplexed to learn that a dark Nephilim with Larkin’s apparent strength has managed to work her way into God’s palace and remain undiscovered for so long...but do you honestly believe that there are more of them living here in Arcadia? Or that you need an army to guard yourself against such a motley crew and one very powerful girl?’

‘I agree with him,’ Emmanuel said quickly. ‘We haven’t uncovered a dark Nephilim living within our communities since that Bastien Birch character was Banished some time ago. I agree that there is a chance that the Banished might want Larkin to take them in under her wing, but that does not mean that she will. Besides, the fact that we’ve discovered two dark Nephilim living in our kingdoms in the last forty years hardly suggests an infestation, or warrants that we forge an army to stamp them out with!’

‘That’s an easy declaration for you to make, given how protected your own coastlines are, this close to Eden,’ Lachlan Gabriel said, ‘but those of us that have to share the Atlantic with the Godless and the Pirates would benefit from any sort of army being formed in God’s name-’

‘Something I’ve been saying for years!’ Elliot Bronx interjected, nodding his head eagerly. ‘I swear, Paris Kingslater must have at least five ships in his Armada now, and there are at least six other bands! I would embrace any sort of Barachiel-funded patrol on my shores, if that patrol was used to protect our people from Larkin of Eden and the Godless!’

‘Of course- they’d be instructed to protect God’s people from every threat they encounter,’ I said quickly, and I saw Queen Selafiel and Lachlan Gabriel exchange an excited look. ‘But a large number of bodies will be required for such an undertaking, and so I’d need all of you to send your third-borns to Arcadia for training and deployment. And in the name of being fair, every country that contributes to this defence force will receive an equal share of soldiers to the next. That way, it cannot be said that I am forging an army to defend only my country, but all of ours.’

‘But I don’t have your third-born clause, remember?’ Elliot Bronx asked, looking perturbed, and I had to bite my tongue from saying: Well whose fault is that?! ‘And if I send you all of our Corps prisoners, I will have no one left to fill the positions that they currently occupy.’

‘Then I would suggest that you send anyone that scores below a sixty-five on the PCE along. Not only will that give them a trade, but it will help counter-balance your population issues.’ I looked around the table. ‘Everyone else should send one out of two.’

‘That’s too many!’ Selafiel protested. ‘My factories would suffer!’

‘Then move more of your Blue Collars into the positions they vacate. If the work is fair and pleasant in your factories as it ought to be, who could possibly complain?’ I tapped on the table. ‘We need a lot of people scattered around our borders in order to catch this girl while monitoring the exploits of the godless! Soldiers that are trained in combat and that stand a chance against someone who can fly and breathe fire, and a few divisions that can sail too,’ I said. ‘I can track Larkin of Eden via the device that we implanted on her, of course, but as you all know, that device only transmits back to us when the person bearing it stays still long enough for our satellites to pick the established signal up. So as handy as it is, the only hope we have of catching her with it, is if she falls asleep somewhere close by, giving us the chance to sneak up on her before she moves on-’

‘Tracking device?’ the queen of Asiana looked ill. ‘Do all of your castle employees have such a thing, or just the Companions?’

A few of the other leaders (the ones that used those same devices in their own companions) turned pink, but I sighed, hating the fact that I was going to have to justify our actions to her, even though I knew that she would never understand. Lee Selafiel was a descendant of an archangel and a queen in her own right, yes, but she was a human woman devoid of powers and had never had need of a Companion of her own because her needs weren’t as strong as her male, Nephilim counterparts were. Besides, even if she had shared our sex drive, monarchs in Asiana were permitted to get married at twenty-one anyway, so the more insatiable rulers could simply marry as a means to a satisfying end, and would never know the torment that the Arcadian monarchs endured while waiting for their thirtieth birthdays.

Twenty-four hours beforehand, I had wanted nothing more than to change that rule so that every other love-struck prince that came along behind me could marry his heart’s desire as soon as he was lucky enough to find her, but not anymore. Marriage was off the cards for me now, as was love, and after the way my brothers had conducted themselves over Larkin, I was tempted to lift the marital age to fifty just to keep them from fucking up so badly in the name of passion again!

‘A few years ago, several of Elliot’s Companions were kidnapped by pirates, your highness, and although we were able to rescue two, two others were transported out of our reach before the Kingslater ship that they were on could be located. It was not the first time that pirates have tried to treat Companions like currency by holding them hostage or smuggling them out of a country, but it was the one with the most tragic outcome, so we all jointly decided to put tracking devices into the woman that we invested in, to ascertain that we would never lose one again.’

‘So… because you were afraid of them being treated like currency, you bagged and tagged them like you would your other precious treasures?’ Lee Selafiel made a face. ‘How gallant. Tell me again, why this Larkin girl was so unhappy? Seems like a true paradise here, for a girl like her. Or should I say, an investment?’

‘Though I’m quite a fan of sarcasm under normal, lighter circumstances...’ I began lightly, annoyed by the fact that Hamlet McPhee was laughing and clearly not intimidated by me at all, ‘I must emphasise that it is not welcome at this table, this day, your highness, so I’d caution you to taste everything that you say to me before you say it, so you too will know that you’re feeding me poison. I know that you do not respect some of our patriarchal customs, but we are not here to debate that matter right now- we are here to bag and tag a dangerous, unholy criminal before she can cause more damage than she already has, and before she can bridge more gaps between the Godless factions over your already troubled waters. So please, if you want to get into a heated argument concerning Nephilim sexuality, third-born criminals, premature marriage and free will, come see me after so we can schedule a more fitting time to do that. But for the time being I ask that you keep your uneducated opinion to yourself and do as Shepherd Choir suggested and pay some respect to your new king- and remember that were it not for my kingdom and the protection that we offer you, Asiana would have been lost to the pirates centuries ago!’

Lee narrowed her eyes at me. ‘Are you threatening me? Go along with your plan: or go on alone?’

‘How could it be a threat, if the crown threatening to stop protecting you, is pathetic enough to you to warrant mocking?’ I turned to look at the other men, who looked a lot more uncomfortable now that I’d put the strength of my kingdom- and the reminder of how much it already supported their own kingdoms- out there. ‘My family and I have been attacked, and I do not believe that we have seen the last of Larkin Whittaker or her flammable nature. My birthday wish is to train soldiers that will stand a chance of capturing her and fighting her if she resists arrest, and it is a wish that will also shield your own kingdoms from the problems that they already have. So are you going to grant it, or not?’

The other leaders all shifted nervously in their seats, no doubt deliberating how unpopular they would be if they supported me, but Elliot and Lachlan looked like they were ready to sign on the dotted line immediately, and I was encouraged by that.

‘Why are you even asking?’ President Camden asked tiredly. ‘You have the resources in Arcadia to do it even without our men, so why seek permission when we all know that you’re probably going to do what you want anyway?’ It was clear that he was still pissed off with me, just like his daughter was, but it was clearer still that I’d succeeded in spooking him a little bit more concerning Larkin, and for that I was glad. I needed Connor Camden on my side, and I needed him to want to be there.

‘I am not seeking permission,’ I said, smiling my dazzling smile for the first time since I’d entered the room, sending out a wave of positive vibrations along with it, one so light that it would go undetected by them. That was another thing that my father had warned me about: my power was a manipulative one when used on peoples’ emotional states, and so my alliances would constantly be looking to accuse me of influencing their moods to suit my agenda. I could use it when desperate, but only when it would benefit everyone, and not so much that when they left the room, they would be struck by a sudden reverse in good feelings that could be linked to their proximity to me. ‘I am seeking your blessing because I know we will be more united if I get it, not less. Our people- on every continent- are going to be confused when I announce that I will be training soldiers, and I am going to need your support to help assure them that I am not forging an army so that I can attack other nations with it. If that was my goal then I would indeed be going against my ancestor’s vow to God to refrain from starting pointless wars, and I would expect you to stop me in my tracks and cast me off my throne.’ I wet my lips. ‘But that is not my purpose- Arcadia does not want for land or wealth- only protection for its people from those that would do them harm.’ I planted my hands on the table between Queen Selafiel and Elliot Bronx. ‘Give me your blessing to go through with this, and I will repay you by making sure that I catch her before she can become an actual threat to your people too. Stand against me, and well…’ I pushed off the table, ‘don’t come knocking on our door for aid, when your own woes comes sailing up to yours.’ I stepped back, feeling a lot better when I realised that they were all looking anxious now- anxious enough to suggest that perhaps they needed my foolish alliance more than they’d been letting on.

’What part do you expect me to play in this?’ Atticus piped up, looking grey. ‘I’m your highest ranked Corps official, but I wouldn’t be able to serve Pacifica as Prime Minister and be in charge of multiple divisions- it’s too much.’

‘I know,’ I said quietly. ‘Which is why I’d very much like to sit down and have a conversation with you regarding your future in Pacifica once this motion has passed. Not only do we need to talk about the Corps and your position within the government, but I think we need to have a very serious discussion regarding Pacifica’s missing treasure as well, don’t you?’

Atticus scowled at me. ‘I certainly hope you don’t expect me to take the fall for that. Larkin Whittaker’s escape was an internal security issue, not mine.’

‘No, but I do expect you to do whatever it takes to help me find the person who ought to take the fall for it, and bring her to justice!’ I snapped, and although Atticus continued to scowl at me, he shrugged and looked away, agreeing without saying so and I almost laughed. No wonder Kohl idolised him so- the man wasn’t afraid of me in the slightest.

Not now he’s not, but he will learn to be if he doesn’t watch himself!

Smirking, I turned back to the others. ‘I’ll give the rest of you some time to decide how you feel about this, but before I go, let me also remind you of the fact that when I asked your blessing to take a demon as a wife yesterday, I also asked for your discretion. Although my desire to marry Larkin Whittaker has dissolved, my need for confidentially concerning my proposal has not.’ I pressed my hands together. ‘No one outside of this room is to find out how close I came to being taken over by a fallen woman- no one- especially not my brothers.’ A few looked up at me in surprise but I held up my hand, hoping that my palm wasn’t shining with sweat: ‘Not only will it cause a lot of fear and confusion for people to find out that a Barachiel could be overwhelmed so easily by a fallen angel, and not only because it will take a lot of the focus off where it is needed: on mourning my parents, but because Prince Kohén has lost all of his memories of that beast thanks to the injuries that he sustained, and for the sake of his soul, I intend to keep it that way.’

‘Why?’ Connor Camden demanded. ‘If he gets his memories back, he will be able to tell us exactly what happened in that harem last night and shed some light on all of this darkness!’

‘He has nothing to tell us that Kohl hasn’t reported already,’ I pointed out, ignoring that niggling feeling inside me that told me that Kohl might have edited a few of the facts, ‘and nothing to gain from getting his memories back but a world of pain and regret. Perhaps you all believe that he deserves that, but if he has been under the thrall of a demon since the age of five, then doesn’t it seem fair that we give him this chance to start anew and free of her influence?’ I leaned back against the door, suddenly exhausted. The last thing I wanted to do was fight for my brother, but so long as he was a Barachiel, it was my duty to watch over him and try to get him back on track. ‘Right now he is in a placid if not somewhat disorientated state, and I think we can all agree that a crowned prince with nothing on his mind is a lot more stable than one writhing in emotional anguish, yes?’ Yael nodded and Atticus looked vexed, but everyone else seemed somewhat indifferent to Kohén’s mental health so I moved on: ‘I don’t know if this amnesia of his is permanent or fleeting, but in the interest of keeping him sedated for as long as possible, and giving Kohl and I the opportunity to grieve for our parents without Kohén going off in hysterics over his missing whore, I have ordered that every portrait of Larkin be taken off the castle’s walls and stowed away until I decide whether or not to destroy them- or to post them on the boundary of every fence with a reward offered on it for her capture. For the same reasons, I do not want him or Kohl finding out that I also believed myself to be in love with Larkin, and was set on spoiling both of their chances with her by making her a queen. It will make them both resent and distrust me, and could very possibly trigger Kohén into remembering his jealousy. The aftershocks of such a revelation could be catastrophic for this family so please, respect my wishes, remember that you have all sworn to serve me, and keep all speculation regarding my relationship with Larkin under lock and key, all right? The only person outside of this room that knows of my plans was Ora, and it will stay that way, understood?’

‘The latter option seems like the way to go, doesn’t it?’ Hamlet asked, and when I looked at him in befuddlement he added: ‘For the portraits? Turning them into wanted posters, I mean?’

I exhaled gently in relief, taking the change of subject as an indication that yes, Hamlet would keep my secret. ‘I haven’t decided yet. It seems a little desperate to me, and the last thing I want people believing is that we desperately fear this girl.’

‘But you do fear this girl,’ Connor pointed out, standing up. ‘You’re clearly terrified of her!’

But I smiled and open the door and left them with the parting words: ‘Only because I don’t know where she is. But the moment I find her… it will be Larkin Whittaker that will be terrified of me, and ruing the day that she ever tried to slay one of God’s soldiers on consecrated ground. She will get a fair trial with a Shep, and you can all elect to be present for that-’ I looked directly at Ora’s father, who nodded, satisfied. ‘But if she is found guilty, she will be wiped from the face of this earth, understood?’

Everyone looked at one another and nodded, and when president Camden nodded too, I finally released the breath I’d been holding.

‘Good. The crown appreciates your support, and I will retire now to give you the chance to think over my other demands in private. Thank you, gentlemen, and Queen Selafiel. Now if you’ll excuse me,’ I swallowed hard, ‘I have several eulogies to write-’

‘Wait!’ Connor Camden rapped on the table with his knuckles. ‘What about your brother? Regardless of what he can and cannot remember, the fact remains that he got all of us into this mess and I know I can speak for everyone in this room when I say that I want to see him disciplined in some way!’ His outburst was encouraged by a lot of frantic nodding, by everyone but Atticus and Ewan, who still looked a little green.

I smiled, but I knew it was still more of a lopsided grimace. ‘Grant me my army, and I swear to you that the crowned prince will come to learn the true meaning of the word discipline, President Camden. And others- like hard work, and sacrifice.’

Connor raised an eyebrow, and my uncle finally looked up, frowning. ‘You’d enlist him as an officer?’

‘That would be giving him a title that he has not earned,’ I said stiffly, ‘and I think we all know that there’s been enough of that, hasn’t there?’

Feeling as though I’d made all of my points, I walked out of the room and closed the door hard behind me, certain that my birthday wish was going to be granted by the time the sun had finished setting.

I leaned against the door, staring down at my winged ring and trembling. I’d done it- I’d become a king, it should have felt amazing and yet… yet I would have traded anything in the world- anything- to be just the crowned prince again that was surrounded by the family that he loved, instead of the demons that had possessed them.

5.

Hope Station

Larkin

I was halfway along the cave before I got sick of almost tripping over something every three steps and leapt up into the air, flapping my wings just once to give me height, but not so much that I was in danger of hitting the roof of the tunnel. Tears were streaming down my face, and they slipped into my ears as I increased my speed, but I closed my eyes shut against them and then shook my head trying to shake them free, gasping when I felt one, ice-cold tear hit my wings on my right and send a shiver through me. They were so sensitive! How was that even possible? They were made of feathers! If I could not feel tears touch my hair, why should I feel them on my wings?

It only took seconds for me to reach the tunnel’s entrance once I’d taken flight and after I opened my eyes and realised how close I was to bursting through the hastily assembled blockade at the exit, I flung my wings forward, opening them out like a parachute to make myself less aerodynamic. I slowed quickly then, but my feet weren’t ready for the sudden descent so skidded across the gritty ground in a clumsy landing in my boots, squealing softly to myself. My hands hit the sheet of iron that I had placed there earlier so I flung it out of the way and then, without bothering to shut it behind me, I stepped out onto a fresh dusting of snow and glared up at the sliver of moon that was left outside, panting and then shivering uncontrollably when I felt that air swirl around me, bringing the darkness and the thick fog with it.

Can he still hear my thoughts from here? If you can boy, you best run in the opposite direction until you can’t! Or I’ll… I sobbed and pressed a hand to my pounding heart, unsure as to how to finish that threat. What I’d wanted to do was fly, but now that I saw how thick the air had become with cloud and fog, I knew that that would be a terrible idea. We were on a mountain range covered with the skeletons of the tallest fir trees I had ever seen- I’d probably make it five feet before I ran into something and got myself killed, if that, and I didn’t want to die. I wanted to sleep yes, and to skip this current phase of my life- but not to die. Not anymore.

But if I’m forced to spend time with a mind reader, well... I sat down on the ground and curled my wings around myself before cradling my head in my hands and weeping piteously- the only way that someone as tired and strung-out as myself could weep. It was one thing to know that Satan was able to pop into my head every time I thought about her… but to understand that someone had been intentionally poking through my private thoughts all day was mortifying. So if those pains had accompanied his every investigation then yes, he had most certainly been in my head all day while I’d thought of Kohl and Kohén… of Bastien… God! Was that why Bastien looked at him so often? Was he taking cues on how to handle me from his inside man? How DARE he!!!

I can’t help it! A stream of consciousness slammed into mind with the power of a freight train and I gasped and dug my fingertips into my scalp as the pain jolted me. It’s my gift and my curse, all right? I can’t turn it off!

He was coming after me! I couldn’t believe it! I told you to leave me alone!

And I told you that there were measures you could take to guard yourself from me, remember? So stop panicking and ask the question that you want to ask: How can I keep you out of my head?

How can I-

Amber! Amber mutes my powers. Most of the other members of The Sequestered hate having me here as much as I hate being here, but they’ve all started keeping amber close to them because that puts up a wall, all right?

How do I know that I can believe you?

Because I don’t care enough what people think about me to lie! I am possibly the most honest, tactless, upfront human being you’ll ever meet and believe me when I say that I hate my power more than I hate anything, so here… take that and calm down, please! I have enough to worry about without pissing off Satan by spooking her messiah off a mountaintop!

There was a clacking sound then and when I turned around, I saw a small dark stone roll to a stop just behind me. My head was pounding but as I reached around to pick it up, the pain dissipated. Groaning in relief, I squeezed the stone in the palm of my hand and then held it up close to my eyes, examining it. Yes, it was amber- one of the few semi-precious stones that were still around in abundance due to their lack of monetary value.

‘Is it safe to come out yet?’ a feeble voice asked, and I fisted the stone again as I rose and turned around to glare daggers at the red-haired boy as he emerged from inside the tunnel. He was huffing and puffing and clearly out of sorts and I was glad for that. Practically snarling, I stomped back towards him.

‘You tricked me!’ I snapped, getting in his face but having to stand as tall as I could in order to do so because he was longer and lankier than all of the Barachiels. ‘You pretended to be an old crone and then you robbed me of my most private thoughts!’

‘I pretended to be someone that didn’t matter, to see how you would treat me- a trick that one should be able to appreciate from the moral high ground that you’ve clearly set up camp on,’ the boy corrected me. ‘And I didn’t rob you; I read you. I had to find out who you were, okay-what you were made of. Satan asked me to-’

‘Satan knows who I am and what I’m made of!’ I interrupted. ‘So ask her anything you want to or even ask me, but stay out of my mind!’

‘Satan has given you rave reviews, which is why you’ve amassed the following that you already have,’ he indicated back into the tunnel, ‘but I wasn’t going to take the devil at her word, and as far as I’m concerned, only a fool would! Most of those people in there are either fools or have no choice but to put their faith in her and pray that it works out better for them than putting their faith in God has... but I am not a fool, nor am I desperate for your help, so if I was going to be forced to spend the next few years at your side, then I wanted to know what you were about before I agreed to it, okay? Dark Nephilim or not, I’m still rather picky about the company that I keep.’

My eyebrows lifted. ‘What on earth are you talking about? Why would you have to spend a minute in my company, let alone years?’

‘Because I am in her debt, of course, just like you are.’ The boy sighed and sagged back against the cave wall. ‘Do you even know what a dark Nephilim is, Larkin? By definition?’

I opened my mouth to answer in the affirmative, but nothing came out. I’d gone to say a powerful being descended from Satan that hated God because that’s what I’d been educated to believe, but my education had been strictly controlled and now I realised that a lot of things I’d learned in the past two days had contradicted with a lot of what I’d been told was the truth in Eden. ‘I… what does that have to do with anything?’

‘Because I am one by definition, and that’s what’s gotten me to this point, standing here with you and evidently- pissing you off.’ The boy scratched a bit of stubble on his jaw and I realised that although I’d perceived him to be about my age, I now realised that he was a little older than that, possibly even in his early twenties and not a boy at all. ‘So, do you know what a dark Nephilim is, Larkin of Eden?’

‘Stop calling me that,’ I said, standing back. ‘I don’t know why everyone’s calling me that because I’m not of Eden anymore-’

‘That’s what you’ve been called, since you were taken in. When Satan spoke to us, she referred to you as Larkin of Eden and it will stick until you’ve given them another name to call you by.’

‘Us?’

‘The dark Nephilim- the true dark Nephilim that she communicated with regarding your fate before she involved mortals.’ He pushed off the wall and walked past me as he spoke. ‘And because you’re refusing to admit that you don’t understand the distinction between us and the rest of the slightly naughty Nephilim, I’m just going to give you the answer and save a lot of time, all right? Also, it’s much easier for me to block out other people’s mental dialogue while I’m actually articulating my own, so you’ll find that I have a habit of rambling on when I’m given the opportunity to do so-’

‘I thought you said this rock was protecting my-’

‘I can still hear some of the others that are unguarded from back in the camp and it’s very distracting so stop interrupting me, okay? Bastien could only rustle up just enough amber to protect half of them before my arrival, and the thoughts of the unguarded ones can hook me when I’m distracted and then I lose track of my own and it’s all very aggravating...’ he paused to breathe as my eyebrows lifted and did as he’d said he would- and rambled on: ‘A truly dark Nephilim is a descendant of Satan’s minions- one of her original eleven. Satan was a hateful, wrathful creature who’d been robbed of the ability to love when she made them, and so under her influence and only her influence they were a crop of twisted entities indeed… but as they went forth and bred with humans, their darkness was diluted in the same way that the archangels’ goodness was diluted; by cross-breeding. There were quite a few murderous, sadistic creations spawned by Satan’s minions in the very beginning when their bloodlines were so potent, but Satan knew that God was more likely to try and stomp her and the human race out if she couldn’t control her originals, so she called them and their darkest descendants back to hell and gave them specific titles and tasks- tasks that would keep them stimulated and sated, while preventing them from running rampant up on earth and becoming a liability to her.’

‘And they just agreed to that?’ I asked, sceptical as always.

‘For the right amount of status and power, beings will agree to anything,’ the boy said sombrely, ‘and that’s what she did- gave them stakes or shares in hell, you could say. That’s another reason why she finds it so hard to close the power gap between herself and God- because she was allowing mankind’s love for her to be divvied up between her own soul mates instead of taking it all into herself.’ My mouth fell open as I choked on a bottleneck of questions (this stuff had NOT been mentioned in the six books of creation!!!) but he wasn’t looking at me or reading my mind so he went on, oblivious to my stupefaction: ‘She didn’t have a hope in hell of keeping tabs on all of their descendants though, and after awhile, the dark Nephilim left on earth began to evolve independent of Hell’s banner and when they died and their children died, their stories and legacies usually died with them. Occasionally, a very powerful and dark Nephilim would be conceived by accident, but by the twentieth century, the descendant of a dark Nephilim was probably completely unaware of the fact that they were different to others, or so scared and ashamed of what they could do that they withdrew from society. As a result, their characters ceased to be defined by their ancestry, but shaped by their personal journeys. Therefore, a distant descendant of Miguel Barachiel was as likely to turn their back on God as a descendant of one of Satan’s minions was- if treated poorly enough.’

‘Nature versus nurture?’ I managed. ‘The darker a soul gets, the more they are turning away from God.’

‘Exactly,’ the boy was hugging himself as he gazed out at the area behind our mountain. ‘And that’s where I come into it. I am a descendant of one of Satan’s minions, Larkin, one of the few that was still very powerful. My father wanted to see what kind of child he’d have with a human woman and so he intentionally conceived me, hoping that I’d be powerful- but he was not as careful as others have been when it came to choosing a mate and so he unwittingly bred me with a woman who had dark Nephilim ancestry as well. No power, but a rough upbringing and a predilection to doing what was wrong if not properly steered towards doing what was right. You were made with an archangel so half of your character is built on a foundation of absolute lightness and purity, but I was born under the shadow of two dark souls that had not aligned themselves with Satan, but were wicked and evil nonetheless, so I am dark by nature and nurture.’ He surprised me by pulling a small box of cigarettes out of his pockets then and lighting one. ‘Ipso facto, I have been on the highway to hell since conception.’

I stepped closer to him, fascinated by the cigarette smoke, which smelled nothing like Elijah’s cigars had. They were expensive- more expensive than semi-precious stones were in some parts, and I wondered what this boy had done to earn himself a whole box worth and a velvet cloak. ‘So is that the definition of a true dark Nephilim?’ I asked, likening this boy’s situation to the Barachiel boys that had been conceived by two Nephilim parents. They didn’t know that their mother was a light Nephilim too (or at least they hadn’t been before the previous evening) and so they’d credited their extra powers to their bloodline instead, giving Miguel’s DNA a lot more praise than was actually deserved. ‘Someone that has power on both sides of their family tree?’

‘Actually no,’ the boy inhaled on his smoke and then slowly breathed it out, compounding the fog, and I saw then that his face was a little crooked. One eye was just a fraction higher than the other, and his smile was slanted in a similar fashion, so those features in conjunction with his tousled, scarlet hair gave made him look rakish and wicked and almost elf-like. ‘Because like I said before, having Nephilim folks doesn’t guarantee anything- power comes from the luck of the draw. But true darkness comes only when we renounce God, and accept Satan as our saviour- and I have done that, okay?’ His eyes shifted to mine and they were so bright and glossy that I was more arrested by the intensity in them than by his shocking declaration: ‘I hate God and I am not afraid to say so.’

I drew back a little, perplexed by how those eyes beckoned me to him while making me feel like he was still reading my every thought. ‘And you worship my mother in his stead?’

‘It’s a bit more complicated than that.’ His face was in profile so I could see where the cloudy moonlight was shining off his clenched jaw and the ginger stubble that graced it, and could even make out the fact that he had five studs along one of his ears- an ear that was tattooed from lobe to temple in a strange pattern that was familiar but unrecognizable. ‘I was born with wings, Larkin, human like you, but more powerful than the average crossbred Nephilim. But they were black from the beginning, and they had disintegrated by the time I turned two due to the horrible way that I was mistreated- too quickly to help me fly away from them, but not quickly enough, because people found out what I was and hated me for it. My folks were pleased that I had wings- until they fell out- and although they’d hoped that I’d prove to have powers like my father, who could manipulate wind- they were horrified when they realised that my powers were the kind that would bring them more grief than personal gain.’

‘They didn’t like the mind reading thing either?’

‘Who would?’ the boy drew back on his cigarette again, and I was struck by how fascinating he was to look at. The red hair, the bright eyes that drew you into that sapphire and steel centre, the piercings, the tattoos… even if I never saw him again after this one night, I knew that memories of his face would not be softened by time. ‘It’s bad enough that people find out about it now that I’m old enough to police myself, but when I was very young, I didn’t understand that the thoughts that I was speaking out loud and responding to weren’t my own and I didn’t know that there was a cure, so I taught my folks to hate and distrust one another, everyone we knew and me by exposing their secrets and lies and ugliest musings to anyone within earshot of me. And because the community we lived in was tiny, they couldn’t even distance themselves from me which was a headache for us all.’

‘Oh…’ I tried to imagine what would happen if Kohén had been able to read every thought I’d ever had, and felt my stomach knot up again- this time on the boy’s behalf. I hated his ‘gift’ but I was sure that he hated it more. ‘Shit.’

‘Exactly. I know you’re upset that I saw inside your mind and glimpsed things that you would never want anyone else to know about, but I can assure you that uglier things have happened to me. I do not judge you for having been a victim because I have been one too… but unlike you, I didn’t have an archangel waiting in the wings to escort me to safety- I had to do that for myself, when I was seven.’

His voice had become bitter again, and I could taste something bitter in the back of my throat. ‘Why? What happened when you were seven?’

He exhaled more smoke before saying flatly: ‘I asked Satan to kill my father.’ I cringed but he went on: ‘I was a little kid and so it was an empty orison to a deity that I didn’t even believe in… but she answered back, and I have not been able to shake her since. She explained to me that she couldn’t kill my father for me- she can’t actually kill anyone unless they attack her while in a physical form- but she said that if I surrendered myself to her, she’d find a way to get me out of there, and that if I touched her hands in the mirror, she’d be able to get into my body and fight on my behalf.’ He flicked some ash off his cigarette. ‘I didn’t believe her and so I ignored her, and when I woke up the next morning, I was convinced that seeing her in the mirror had been a fragment of some nightmare… but that didn’t change how desperate I was to get rid of my father, and so I went on and did it myself.’

I swallowed hard. ‘How?’

‘I’d rather not say, and you wouldn’t want to know anyhow.’ He sighed while my imagination ran amuck. ‘Needless to say it didn’t solve any of my problems. My mother was beside herself with anger because his death put her in a very vulnerable position, and I was too young to hide the evidence of my guilt and so it wasn’t long before his men rounded me up on her command. They’d always hated me and jumped at the opportunity to make me walk the plank, so I’d say I had about an hour and a half of freedom out from under his rule before I was-’

‘Walk the plank?’ I stepped forward and touched his shoulder, my breath as smoky as his now that the temperature had dropped again. ‘You said his men got you? Was he a pirate?’

‘Captain Egan McIntyre,’ he said nonchalantly, and looked back at me when I sucked in a breath. ‘You’ve heard of him?’

I had! Egan McIntyre had terrorised the coast of Janiel for years before I had been born, and it was common knowledge that he’d been slain back when I had only been a few years old. I couldn’t recollect anything from when he’d been alive as I’d been too young but like Bastien Birch, the name was notorious enough to have hung around since. No one had known how he’d died, but the stories I’d heard all contradicted one another- some people swore that he’d been killed in a mutiny, some said that he’d been slain by a rival pirate, Paris Kingslater and others swore that he was still alive. Good God, had he truly been brought down by a seven year old kid? He’d been a beast! Seven foot tall I’d heard, with three feet of wild, red beard that had been immortalised in portraits.

Yeah… so what on earth is his twice-as-evil murderer like? Shit! I shouldn’t be alone with a guy like this, wings or not!

‘Drop the rock or speak your mind,’ the boy said then, turning back to face me more so that I could see his frown. ‘I can’t read your face and it’s frustrating to me. Have you heard of him or not?’

‘I have,’ I said quickly, snapping out of my reverie. ‘And I’m sorry if I went silent… but to be honest, I was just wondering how evil you are in comparison to your father, while wondering if I should be inching back from the side of the mountain and away from you…’

The boy snorted. ‘Seems like I’m not the only brutally honest one around here… although that’s no news to me- I worked it out earlier. You say an awful lot of stuff that you’re thinking and to be honest, that’s one of the main reasons why I’m still here.’ He made a face. ‘I can’t tolerate people who hide their real thoughts and feelings for long before I feel the inclination to thump them or in the least, expose them to the people they’re lying to. That was one of the many reasons why I couldn’t live with- or even like- my folks.’

‘And why everyone else hated you- your community was a ship!’

He nodded and took another draw of his cigarette and moved to sit on the same rock that he’d been sitting on earlier, crossing his arms across his chest and regarding me frankly. ‘Exactly, and I need to be at least two hundred metres away from people before it goes quiet in my head, so no, there’s really no getting away from my gift on a boat. Anyway yes my father was a very evil man and no the apple hasn’t fallen that far from the tree- a fact that I proved when I took him out like a savage at such tender age. I don’t know why I took such an exception to his horrid ways because I’ve proven time and time again that I can be just as horrid, but I suppose my ability to see inside other people’s heads means that I can see things from their perspective too, and that can be unsettling and limiting. It’s one thing to steal someone’s coin pouch when you suspect that they really need the money inside- but quite another to steal it when you can read their fear for their sick, starving child, you know? When you can actually picture their crying baby’s faces...’

‘You’re a thief?’ I asked, resting my hand over the diamond necklace at my throat and narrowing my eyes at him when he smiled proudly.

‘A damned good one. I’ve had to learn how to steal well in order to survive, but if I was going to take that shiny necklace of yours Larkin, I would have done so by now- trust me.’ I didn’t and that was probably obvious so he shrugged. ‘Suit yourself. Anyway, back to my story... those men actually did make me walk the plank that day. I was bound and gagged and forced off the side of my father’s ship and into shark infested waters while they cheered.’ My heart fluttered empathetically, but his face and eyes became stonier, not more emotive. ‘I began to drown straight away and couldn’t get loose of my binds, and as though that wasn’t terrifying enough, I could still read their thoughts as I struggled- could hear their delight regarding my demise,’ he cleared his throat, ‘could hear my own mother thanking God for taking me off her hands.’

‘Thanking God?’

‘Yes- that’s not uncommon, Larkin, and that’s one of the biggest misunderstandings that there is on the subject of Nephilim: having dark powers and thoughts and feathers is indicative of where they’ve come from- but has no bearing on where they’ll end up because of course, God takes anyone that believes in him in the end.’

‘Because Satan can only communicate with the ones that purposefully open their minds up to her…’ I rubbed at my forehead with my free hand. ‘Christ, this is so confusing…’

‘I know.’ He sighed. ‘Anyway when I realised that no one was coming to save me, I started praying to Satan again- asking her to save me. This time she responded that she could do as asked, but that it would come at a very high price. She was weaker then you see, and more desperate than she is now, so I had to swear myself to her- forever.’

‘Like Bastien did?’ I asked, feeling hollow inside for him.

‘No, I went one further than simply pledging allegiance in exchange for an extended life,’ the boy tucked his hands under his arms nonchalantly before admitting: ‘I swore my soul to her that day Larkin.’ He met my eyes and said: ‘And now you’re stuck with me until I can earn it back.’

All I could do was stare at him.

6.

Eden Palace, City Of Arcadia

Karol Barachiel

I felt good when I first exited the royal meeting room, but I’d only just closed the door behind me when I remembered that despite the fact that my army was probably in the bag, the sun was about to set on the worst day of my life, and that the dawning of a new day would not change the fact that my mother was unconscious and locked up in a basement, my father was dead, my brother had lost his memories, my other brother seemed to be keeping a million secrets locked up behind his too-blue eyes, my best friend was furious at me and the girl I loved had proved out to be a demon. Like the golden sunset that had just been washed out by ash clouds, my proud smile faded and the pounding in my chest became an ache that almost knocked the breath out of me. Yes, I had made it through my first official meeting as king, but would I make it to the end of this godforsaken day without falling apart, let alone the next? Or the over-morrow?

‘You must get over your fixation with your brother’s whore…’ I remembered my mother once telling me then- back when Larkin had been a fifteen-year-old girl that I couldn’t keep out of my dirty dreams. ‘There is something about her that is off, Karol. I’d have her blood tested for traces of dark Nephilim if I didn’t think that doing so would and being proven wrong would only cause you all to scorn and ignore my advice more than you already all do!’

I’d laughed when she’d suggested that, but now I wanted to cry. Had she truly not wanted to test Larkin’s blood because she was afraid that she’d be proven wrong and considered paranoid… or because she’d been afraid to push for blood-testing, knowing that she herself might end up on the wrong side of a needle one day if it became a common practice?

Confused and lost to myself, I collapsed back against the door and closed my eyes now, holding my sanative hand to my own chest, and moaning in dismay when I realised that not even my healing powers were helping- my heart was broken, and not even I, one of the most powerful Nephilim beings left in the world- could numb the pain that Larkin had inflicted upon me, or ease away the majority of my anxiety and grief. She hadn’t really broken my heart by rejecting my love no, because my feelings for her had been a manipulation that I’d only mistaken for love... and I knew that now… didn’t I?

Yes, yes I did- but the damage she’d done to my psyche, my family and my home had been real and I was not sure that I would ever fully recover from so many losses, especially the loss of my mother, whom I’d always thought of as my best friend. As though that wasn’t bad enough, there was that other thing that made my testicles shrivel up in fear- the idea that I could have been spawned by a dark Nephilim- and that soon, everyone would learn of it.

I may have convinced the royal assemblage to approve of my demands … but how am I ever going to approve of myself now that I suspect that I have dark Nephilim blood inside me? And it has to be dark, doesn’t it? Because if I was as light as I always believed, wouldn’t I confess the truth to mother’s lineage to Shepherd, instead of trying to cover it up? Wouldn’t I tell someone that mother is alive and in need of real medical care? God, should I visit her? What would you have me do?

‘Karol?’ a timid voice asked, and I looked up to see that Amelia-Rose was standing in front of the opposite door to me, dressed for dinner in a tailored linen dress and watching me with anxious eyes as she ducked into a brief but flawless curtsy that flashed me a glimpse of her cleavage. It was one of the flattest chests that I’d ever seen, but she had lovely bone structure around her collar and shoulders so I snuck a peek out of habit if not desire. ‘Is there anything I can do for you?’ She took a meek step forward and bit her lip, searching my face with her gaze. ‘Anything at all?’

I was embarrassed that I’d been caught in such a fragile, private moment, but comforted by the knowledge that she was just the Shepherd’s daughter- a man that would be relieved to hear that I was struggling to deal with the twists my life had taken, and not unnerved by it like the other men in that room would be.

‘I’m fine,’ I said gruffly, pushing off the door. ‘I’ve just had a long, tragic day and am in need of sleep and solitude, that is all. Speaking of which…’ I looked around me, confused. ‘How did you get into this wing, Amelia-Rose? And why are you hanging about in the halls?’

‘I came to check on you,’ she said, coming closer to me, her eyes bright with concern as she reached up and tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear. ‘I’ve been worried about you all day, your majesty. You have so many burdens to bear right now and though I do not doubt that you will rise from the ashes of that harem like a phoenix, I am sad that you will have to try to do it alone now…. You know... now that you and Ora have called it off…’

‘Called off …?’ I realised then, and snorted. Of course. I’d spent most of that week with Ora, pretending to be romancing her when really she’d just been helping me plot a very different love affair in secret. That love affair had come to a screeching halt before it had even started, but even though people would hopefully never find out that it had been Larkin I’d been hoping to marry all along, they were going to notice that Ora and I weren’t exactly looking at each other with starry eyes anymore, so not only was I going to have to explain why I was no longer besotted with the object of my affection, but I was going to have to deal with the fact that the single women in the nobility were going to start regarding me as eligible again.

What am I going to tell people? How can I explain that no, I’m not getting married but no, that doesn’t mean that I have the slightest interest in courting or joining with anyone anytime soon, if ever? Can I feign heartbreak? Or can I get away with using mourning my parents as an excuse?

Ora and I had already had one, fervent discussion on the subject of keeping certain secrets, we’d neglected to come up with a story to explain why we were no longer sneaking off together that we could both adhere to- a story that Amelia-Rose was clearly anxious to hear now even though I didn’t have the faintest clue as to what to tell her.

‘Yes. You have called it off, haven’t you?’ Amelia-Rose asked, stepping closer. ‘I heard rumours that you were planning a lavish proposal last night, but that never eventuated so-’

‘I was dying, Amelia-Rose,’ I said shortly, stalling. ‘I couldn’t get off my back, let alone down on one knee.’

‘But you’re no longer getting engaged are you?’ Amelia-Rose pressed. ‘I heard her hiss at you that she was getting on the next ship back to Rabia the second that she could so-’

‘Ora and I are not seeing eye to eye on a few things right now, Amelia-Rose,’ I said crisply, wondering how the fuck she’d overheard so much and praying that she hadn’t heard Ora and I bickering over my feelings for Larkin. We’d fought all right, not because Ora was disappointed that I didn’t want to marry her- but because she was staggered that I’d turned on Larkin so swiftly without sitting the twisted little swan down for a cup of tea and a heart to heart first! Like I’d even had the chance while lying prone on the deathbed that the strumpet had sent me falling to!

It was preposterous that anyone would give someone like Larkin the benefit of the doubt, but it spoke volumes about Ora’s ability to forgive and to believe in the best in people- an ability that I respected, but did not share, not anymore. Rabia’s first daughter had agreed to allow me to hunt Larkin down without fighting me, but she’d refused to take a ‘side’ until she’d heard Larkin’s first too, and I knew, would condemn me if I burned the bitch at the stake without giving her the chance to explain herself first.

‘Think of your soul, Karol!’ she’d begged me, actually lowering herself onto her hands and knees so that she could cling to my scorched and torn pant legs while she appealed to me to call off my hunt for the demonic Companion. ‘Think of your heart! They are both so beautiful, and you have been glowing with radiance this past day as you imagined loving that girl forever! Perhaps you are right and she tried to kill you all, or perhaps I am right and this is just one big misunderstanding that she has chosen not to stick around to clear up because she fears what will happen to her now that people have seen her wings...but either way, her actions should only be reflected in her character, not yours! I can already see your heart twisting, shrivelling, blackening in response to what you perceived to be her cruelty… and I can see the resolve in your eyes to never love again, and although I understand why you are hurting so, you must understand that you cannot allow yourself to deteriorate like that when your goodness and kindness is what is truly needed! No matter what damage Larkin had done to you, you cannot ignore the fact that much damage was done to her here too, and that it is up to you to heal yourself and this kingdom for everyone’s sakes! Think of what God would do, or Miguel! Don’t dedicate your life to cursing her- pray for her instead! Bring her back here if you can by all means, but spread the word that she will be given a fair hearing if she returns willingly and maybe, just maybe, she’ll take you up on the chance to explain herself!’

‘Why would I give her the chance to explain herself?’ I’d demanded. ‘She killed my father! She tried to kill me, and all I wanted to do was love her! She’s evil, Ora, and she has taken everything from me!’

‘As your family once took everything from her, Karol!’

‘I had no control over that! She was a third-born, and she was born the same year as a prince! It was fate that dropped her into that harem, not I!’

‘If fate dropped her- a dark Nephilim with such a sharp mind and a beautiful, magnetic character- into your harem, then it had to have been for a greater purpose than as a plaything, didn’t it?’

‘I tried to make her a QUEEN!’

‘After twelve years of treating her like a whore!’

‘She IS a whore!’

‘She is what you made her!’ Ora had screamed, and I’d actually shrunk back. ‘You trained her, you toyed with her, you pressed yourself against her and you offered everything she could ever dream of in exchange for tolerating being fucked by as many of you as possible, and yet you wonder why she fucked YOU? I don’t; sex and deception was the only currency that she had access to here!’

I had winced, and had barely been able to croak out: ‘I had a change of heart. I tried to change and save her from her fate but-’

‘But you were too late and so now you’re changing back, right? Unbelievable!’ Ora had turned away from me in disgust. ‘There have been several reports of the history of time, of dark Nephilim being forced into the darkness by the actions of the light. Perhaps you interpreted the Creation Story differently, but what I got from it was that Satan would have been just fine, if Miguel had opened his heart to her in the first place instead of denying her it because of his lust!’

‘Miguel was a saint! You’d condemn him for his one weakness, and then ask to know why I would condemn Larkin for several?’

‘In the end! Miguel was a saint in the end, and made the ultimate sacrifice for mankind... but he created a monster first- with God’s help and his blessing, and it almost took the destruction of the earth to make him see the error of his ways!’ Ora had shaken her head, keeping her back to me. ‘So close your heart to Larkin now, if that’s what it takes to protect yourself, but do not expect me to believe that you are doing so for anyone but yourself, or that anything good or just will come of it. Or that burning Larkin will burn away your own sins- not in my eyes, and not in God’s either!’

I stared at her back, utterly lost. ‘So what are you saying? That if I hold her accountable for her crimes, you’ll condemn me?’

‘I’m saying that if you hold her accountable for her crimes and your own without first hearing her out, you’ll condemn yourself.’ She turned back to face me. ‘It’s not punishing a criminal that upsets me about all of this Karol, because if Larkin truly was plotting against you all, all of this time, and is unrepentant for it all now then yes, she’s evil and the world will be better off without her.’ She held up her finger. ‘But if there’s the slightest chance that your brothers did as she said they did and tried to rape her together last night, then I don’t blame her for one fucking thing she did after, not even killing your father because he has been fighting as hard to keep her here, as you were to freeing her! By ordering her to take that brand he was as good as holding her down for your brother’s pleasure!’

‘And if she denies it?’ I’d asked, feeling raw- and exhausted from my efforts to ignore the truth in all she was saying. ‘What then?’

‘It’s for a Shep to decide what she is, and is not guilty of,’ Ora had said woodenly, ‘not you, and not I. She deserves a fair hearing, Karol, just like every other suspect of a crime does, and if you try charging her for these crimes without giving her the chance to make accusations against your brothers in return, then know that that the President of Rabia and his daughter- your friend- will sever the alliance between our countries as quickly as you have reached for the knife to cut out your own heart with.’

That had rocked me. Not just the thought of Rabia turning against us, but of my friend, Ora, turning against me. ‘You can’t-’

‘Actually, we can. We’re a republic now, Karol. You do not gift us anything that we don’t pay for, and we do not answer to you, remember? My father and I have supported the sovereign up until now, and have turned a blind-eye to some of the ridiculous, antiquated customs that you all seem convinced that you still need… but we will not support a blatant disregard for justice, and neither would our people! She gets a trial, or you lose a powerful ally and a lot of trade routes! Take your pick!’

Obviously, I’d quickly agreed to give Larkin a fair trial, and Ora had believed me and had even hugged me, telling me that her father would be pleased to hear that, but I’d been lying of course, or at least, I’d been aware of the fact that I might be lying, because if Larkin was apprehended and given a fair trial, she would then have the chance to spill secrets about my mother’s genetics, and if she was telling the truth, then that would be the end of the Barachiel’s reign. I could not allow that to happen- I could not allow one evil Nephilim, like my mother, to blacken almost seven century’s worth of my family’s sacrifices for the good of mankind simply because she had found a way to slither under the radar and into my father’s bed. Maybe it wasn’t fair, but it was still stamping out the evil influences of the world so it was just.

Yes, regardless of what Larkin had done or why she had done it, there was a good chance that she and my mother would both have to be executed quickly and quietly and without the republic of Rabia ever learning about it anyway, and although it sickened me to admit that I was willing to do that- even to myself- I knew that as the leader of the free world, it had to be done. Lying about my motives was surely proof that my mother was dark and that I had inherited some of it, but if I could do right by my people after, wouldn’t I make up for it in time?

‘Karol?’ Amelia-Rose’s voice penetrated my thoughts again, drawing me out of my despair and into my despised reality. ‘I’m right, aren’t I? You and Ora are at odds with one another right now, aren’t you?’

‘No.’ I sighed, shaking off all thoughts of Larkin like I could shake off my own shadow. ‘I have called off any plans I had to get engaged, but Ora and I have agreed to disagree on certain issues and have reconciled following our quarrel. So despite the fact that we have both concluded that there are more important things for me to worry about right now than my personal relationships, I know that she will be to me what I truly need right now: a good friend.’

Amelia’s brows drew together. ‘So you ended amicably, then?’

‘Our brief courtship was too frail to have required an official ending, Miss Choir. Like a shooting star, the tail of it was as sweet and swift as the beginning and without distinction.’ I moved to walk by her. ‘And that is how courtships should be, isn’t it- fleeting? Until they knock your world off its orbit permanently?’

‘So she did not, um, knock you off your orbit?’ Amelia-Rose asked from behind me and I cringed, safe in the knowledge that she could not see it. Was she really trying to sniff out her chances with me before my father’s body was even cold? It was a low move, even for her- and especially considering that her father had all but begged me to allow her to stay on in Eden with him as an apprentice shepherd not two hours beforehand! ‘Is that what the problem was?’

‘No…’ I said smoothly as I sauntered away, ‘I’m saying that I would not allow her to, and that she is considerate enough to know not to try while I am already under so much pressure.’ Scare her off now Karol, and quick, before her hopes become a plot in that deluded head of hers! I’m off marriage enough as it is, without contemplating taking this misguided martyr to bed as my wife!

‘She’s a fool, then,’ Amelia-Rose said softly before I could take another step, and I twisted back to gape at her, not bothering to hide my surprise.

‘I’m sorry; what was that you said?’

‘If a girl knows that she has even the slightest chance of knocking a handsome prince off his orbit…’ Amelia-Rose began to sashay towards me and all at once I realised that her hopes had already become a plot, and that that plot involved her uncharacteristically low neckline and a bullshit desire to be seen as a shepherd when she was really just a viper. ‘She should take it,’ she paused, staring up at me with a salacious smile, ‘and she should not stop until she has succeeded.’

I looked down at her, hoisting one brow and not bothering to hide my amusement. ‘That’s a very forward sentiment for such a reserved girl to admit to having. I imagine it’s not one you’d dare to express in front of your father though, yes?’

‘Who said that I was reserved?’ Amelia-Rose asked, eyes glinting wickedly as she toyed with her long, burgundy hair. ‘I have strong morals, rock-solid faith in our lord and the desire to help people that are less fortunate than I… but that does not make me a meek kitten when it comes to matters of the heart, your highness.’

‘Is that so?’ I asked, floundering for anything more articulate to say while so taken aback. ‘Well, I suppose I’ve never given much thought to you as far as matters of the heart go-’ her eyes flashed at the thinly veiled rebuff but I sugar-coated it quickly by adding: ‘I mean, you always seem so focused on accomplishing actual goals that I didn’t figure you had much time to ponder shooting stars, you know?’

‘Well, you’re going to have to start looking closer, aren’t you?’ Amelia-Rose practically purred, regaining her composure- and channelling some of Emmerly’s too. ‘It’s true that I do not flaunt my sexuality like other girls do, or waste my time trying to make a match for myself when there are more urgent matters requiring my attention at hand...but that does not mean that I am devoid of passion- only that I am waiting to find the perfect man to explore all of my passions with.’

My breath caught in my throat, almost choking me again. Was she drunk? I’d had to bear her flirtations before in the past, but they’d been weak and uninspired and nowhere near as blatant as this! It did nothing to increase my desire for her because she was still the most sexless girl that I had ever met (okay, possibly tied with that horrid Kelia brat, whom I also had to plan a burial for yet), but Amelia-Rose was drawing my attention to the fact that I hadn’t had sex in weeks and that I would probably feel a lot better if I took someone to bed that night.

Anyone but her.

I patted her shoulder. ‘Well then, I’m glad to know that, for it proves that you’re even more well-rounded than people already believe that you are. And on a personal note… I have noticed that you and Kohl have been spending a lot of time together this week, so I’m cheered to know that you’ve already met at least one man- well, boy- whose passions are similar to your own. You two get on well, don’t you? Social justice warriors that you are?’

Amelia-Rose’s brows pulled together. ‘That wasn’t what-’

‘Don’t worry about me, Amelia-Rose!’ I said quickly, before she could spin any more of her icky web in my hallway, ‘I shan’t be lonely for long. Of course I will never move past the pain of losing my father, but the Barachiel family will rise from the ashes of this tragedy like you said, as will the harem- I am sure of it.’

The shepherd’s daughter’s mouth popped open. ‘You plan on rebuilding that filthy den? Karol, you cannot be serious! You don’t need a bevy of whores at your disposal, you need a wife! You need a queen!’

Ahhh, the apprentice shepherd rears her second head!

‘I’m to be addressed as your majesty, Miss Choir,’ I said sternly, but not fiercely, ‘and as far as my needs go… you don’t have the faintest clue about what it is that I need…’ I ran my eyes over her and then looked away dismissively as I turned on my heel, ‘or what I desire, so you should probably stop offering up your unsolicited… advice and concentrate on your studies instead.’

And yes by advice I mean yourself so back off!

‘What about love?’ she cried after me. ‘All God wants is for us to love one another, remember?’

‘I don’t think he meant us as in you and I specifically, Miss Choir,’ I joked as I turned onto the landing and out of her sight. ‘But luckily for you, Kohl might be of a different opinion. Go find him all right?’ I spotted Adeline pacing anxiously on the other side of the door at the foot of the stairs. ‘I have urgent matters of my own to attend to.’

With that, I hurried down the stairs and opened the door. I hadn’t seen Adeline since the day before and hadn’t even known where she’d been all day or had had the time to worry about her- but when I saw her now, it was like emerging from a fog.

That’s my girl! I thought, relieved. My blood didn’t stir at the sight of her like it always had, but my insides definitely warmed up. That’s the only queen I will ever need- the queen of the harem!

‘Karol!’ she cried, flinging herself at me and wrapping me up in her warmth and softness. ‘I’ve been so worried about you! No one’s let me in to see you all day and-’

I didn’t want to talk though, so I pulled back just enough so that I could lean in and kiss her, silencing her and communicating just how desperately I needed to be with her too.

But something had changed between us- something finite, because after first going rigid in my arms, my sweet Companion reared back and looked at me with the same distress and despair that Ora had been regarding me with all day- before slapping me.

What the FUCK?

I reeled back in shock and opened my mouth to ask her what the hell had gotten into her now, but before I could, Adeline burst into tears and ran away, leaving me alone, stunned, suddenly very aware that Kohén had wandered into the small hallway and was now gaping at me… and trying my hardest not to curse God for saving a life that I was no longer sure was worth living.

‘Are you all right?’ Kohén spluttered, stepping forward, but I turned my burning cheek away from him and stomped down to the ballroom- in the opposite direction that Adeline had gone in, and to the one place in the castle that I knew would be empty.

I wasn’t all right, not even close, but I wasn’t about to discuss my plethora of woes with the stranger in my little brother’s skin- the one that was probably to blame for it all.

Maybe even more so than Larkin.

7.

Hope Station

Larkin

The boy and I stared at one another for so long that snow actually began to fall before I admitted: ‘I don’t understand. I’m sorry… if I drop this rock right now, you will sense only a void in my head.’

The boy nodded. ‘I’m not surprised. It can be frightening for humans to learn that they’re in the presence of a being without a soul. That is what I am and have been since that day in the waters beneath my father’s ship. I was so scared and heartsick that day that I didn’t even hesitate before agreeing to Satan’s trade, and just as soon as I’d agreed, I was surrounded by a pod of mermaids. They started untying my binds and breathing into my lungs, keeping me alive while a sudden storm broke overhead and put the ship in peril.’

My jaw dropped. Mermaids?

‘Yes, mermaids- they’re not as bleedin’ sweet as they were made out to be, trust me, and only helped me because Satan promised to sink my father’s ship so that they could loot the looters and feast on the flesh of the sailors that went overboard-’

‘What?! Mermaids feast on PEOPLE?’

‘If they have to. They don’t like the taste of human flesh, but fish gotta swim…’ he wriggled his eyebrows at me and then held up his hand. ‘Look the mermaid thing is another story all together, and I’m trying to finish mine so focus, please like I said- it’s hard for me to stay on a train of thought as it is.’ He drew on his cigarette again. ‘The mermaids swum me to safety but then abandoned me on the mainland of another region, far away from the people that wanted me dead but without so much as an inkling as to where I was to go or what I was to do. New Rome, I believe it was now because it was the closest landmass at the time, though I didn’t know anything then. I tried communicating with Satan directly after, but she’d been sapped of her powers by granting my wish and so I thought that she’d abandoned me as well. Needless to say I was one very scared little boy in a very unfamiliar world, and the only thing I knew for sure was that I was an outsider and always would be, thanks to my gift, and thanks to the fact that I’d given away my soul, I was also now a monster. I have been stealing, lying and using people’s minds against them in order to survive since. I don’t feel especially bad about it so yes, I am a true dark Nephilim, because I am one as far as my ancestry and my soul is concerned.’

I stared at him, more horrified to learn that my mother had abandoned him than I was to hear that he had abandoned God. ‘Satan didn’t check in on you or offer you anything in the way of guidance after she got the mermaids to help you?’

‘No, Satan tends to only communicate with people when there’s something in it for her, and she’d already gotten the only thing of worth that I had left at that point, so it was years before she made contact with me again, looking to make a few more deals. By then I was well and truly fucked up, but old enough to run some errands for her and desperate enough to want to capitalise on what I’d get out of helping her, so we’ve have had an employee/employer thing going on since. She uses me when she needs me, I get what I can out of it and then we go our separate ways after with no regrets.’ He dropped his cigarette on the ground and crushed it with the heel of his boot. ‘I’ve spent the last thirteen years living like a high-functioning homeless person thanks to that deal and I was all right with that for most of it but…’ he shook his head slowly, sadly. ‘Well... over the last couple of years I’ve started feeling restless, you know? Unfulfilled. You see, the biggest different between a dark Nephilim like me, and a black-feathered princess like yourself is that where you don’t love God, I can’t love God at all, or anyone else. You need a soul for that and I don’t have one so I cannot feel love or get into Heaven-’

‘I thought God took some of Satan’s archangels up into heaven? They didn’t have souls, did they?’

‘Actually they did. They were mostly just so dark that you couldn’t tell. You cannot be born without a soul, Larkin- and it can only be freely given away. Some of her archangels got lighter and lighter with the more time they spent on Earth but some of them got worse, just like I did. Once again, it all comes down to nature versus nurture.’

‘So... what are you living for then?’ I interrupted, feeling another headache coming on- but this time it was a natural one from information overload. ‘If you’re just dead on the inside and hateful-’

‘I’m not,’ he said quickly, waving away his own smoke. ‘I don’t have anything positive to live for, but I don’t have a particular vendetta to see through either so I’m sort of in purgatory; the kind of purgatory that I know that a lot of human men also exist in. I don’t have friends or family, but I can respect people- not many thanks to the mind reading thing of course- but I can grow fond of some of them and even enjoy their company at times. I can also enjoy things like food and sex and tobacco and alcohol and natural thrills like heights and sunshine so I am still somewhat alive on the inside…’ he made a face. ‘But man’s sole purpose on this earth is to find love, and when you know you cannot, you live a pretty pointless existence but with a definite, unchangeable end.’

‘I can imagine…’

‘Not yet you can’t- I see that now after poking through your mind all day.’ He smiled a bitter smile at me. ‘Perhaps I will like Hell as an alternate afterlife to Heaven- I’m told that it’s nice if you survive it- but I will never love anything or anyone more than I value myself and that makes me feel as lonely as any human man would, especially considering that I don’t have some higher purpose, like some of the other dark Nephilim do.’ He sighed. ‘I’d probably find the fulfilment I so crave if I could be evil and ambitious, like some of my Hell-bound comrades can be, but once again…’ he stood up and gently tapped on the side of my skull, ‘I have too much enforced empathy for my fellow man to want to hurt anyone beyond what they can stand and unless absolutely necessary, so I am trapped by the tiny sliver of humanity that I have left. On top of that, I can barely stand to be around people anyway, and the more there are, the more it drives me around the bend because it limits where I can go and what I can do.’ He retrieved his hand and scratched his dark red stubble again. ‘For a while now I have pondered just killing myself, but I am one of Satan’s strongest tools, it seems, and more valuable to her as a mortal than a bubble of energy, so she panicked when she realised that my suicidal thoughts were beginning to loop and offered me a deal: I’d do one more rather large favour for her, and if I did it right, I’d get my soul back. I’d still be indebted to her after, but at least I’d be a human again.’

This story was starting to sound eerily familiar to me, and I wondered if I’d ever get desperate enough for want of something to sell Satan my soul. ‘She can do that?’

‘I hope so, otherwise I’m officially the biggest sucker in history. But her offer was an odd one this time and much more complicated than the last: I either had to go and shadow The Barachiels, or you, until you prove that a human can thrive under her guidance... or have perished.’

I reeled back from him. ‘What?!’ I felt sick-the fact that she’d thrown in my death as an escape route for him made it pretty clear that she didn’t have as much faith in my longevity or intelligence as she’d eluded to having. ‘That’s insane! Why?’

‘Because of my ability, of course. Satan has been waiting for you to take her hand for a very long time, and she thinks that the history that is being made right now will end up being as significant to the world as God’s Armageddon was. Last time history was made telling the story of good versus evil, the people that recorded it and turned those recollections into the Six Books Of Creation got a lot of stuff wrong, just as the ones that wrote the Bible and the Quran did in the time before. Because this is not the first time that mankind has proven that they are capable of living by ‘the’ book, she wants another book written this time, one that tells an unabridged version of whatever goes down. And who better to record the whole truth, than a man that people cannot hide their truths from?’

I stepped back, wings unfurling as that flight or flight reflex kicked in again. ‘So everything I do until I accomplish what she wants is going to be recorded by you via you digging around inside my head?’

‘Not everything,’ he assured me, ‘only what is relevant to your odyssey. That is why she said that I can go after them instead, you see? She is convinced that they will do as much evil as you will good from hereon out, and she’d be just as content for me to record that as she would be for me to follow you. So long as she ends up, you know- looking good.’

‘So long as she ends up looking like a superior deity to God,’ I realised, and then groaned and turned away. ‘All right I get what she’s up to and I see why you’ve agreed to it, but if it’s all the same to her, why don’t you go give Kohl Barachiel the mother of all migraines for the next few years, hmm? Between him and Amelia-Rose Choir, you’ll end up with the juiciest, filthiest story in history!’

‘Because it’s not all the same to me,’ he said emphatically. ‘There are more people in Calliel and because they count themselves as pious, I can’t very well tell them what I am and get them all to wear amber for our mutual benefit, can I? So I’ll be subjected to everyone’s thoughts if I go there, and I can usually only blend into an unguarded crowd for ten minutes at a time before that headache that I give you turns back on me with a vengeance anyway, you see? But at least here with these other misfits, I can be honest about what I am without fear of persecution, and that honesty allows me to help them keep a mental guard up against me so it’s a win all-round.’

‘For everyone except for me, you mean,’ I griped, clenching that rock again. ‘My mind is a door you plan on repeatedly knocking on, yes?’

‘Well, yes…’ He pressed his hands together in a prayer position when I flinched and looked away. ‘Look I understand why you’re upset and I don’t like having to do this either but now that I’ve seen inside your head, I know that I can not only tolerate you, but that I can also help you, if you let me! Wouldn’t that be great?’

‘Help me?’ I walked to the other side of the rocky shelf, forcing a path through the mist that I hoped would close between us. ‘That thing you do doesn’t tickle, you know, and it’s incredibly intrusive!’

‘I know…’ I heard him follow me as dirt and ice crunched beneath his boots, ‘but if you allow me to stay by your side a lot I won’t have to go into your mind as often, will I? Because I’ll have a clear view of what’s going on from a front row seat without needing to intrude on your thoughts as much, get it?’ A wolf howled in the distance but we both ignored it. ‘I won’t have that opportunity with the Barachiels, even if I could get into Eden, because they’re far too guarded and thanks to your reign of terror, they’re going to be on high alert for dark Nephilim forever now, and if I’m found out…’ he turned me back to face him so that I could see the desperation in his eyes, grasping my upper arms tightly and forcing me to empathise with him the way he claimed that other people unfairly forced him to do the same. ‘Larkin… just think of what they’d do to me if I was found out!’

If he’s found out before he gets his soul back and killed… his own story will end- badly.

‘I don’t know-’

‘Please? I really don’t want to go to Eden and am fairly sure that I will end up dead if I do- so that’s why I came to feel you out first. Yes Bastien knows what I am and he hates the idea of me causing you pain, but he also likes the idea of me representing you honestly, and so he has opened his mind to me so I could see all that he has seen in the past day. If he can do that, can’t you?’

My heart folded. ‘So he really is in on this nightmare?’

‘Yes, but only because he thinks it will benefit you.’ The boy let me go when he saw my wings drop in resignation. ‘That will be where my record starts- at midnight last night after you came back to consciousness- and I swear that if you are as open with me as he was, I will stay out of your thoughts at all other times.’ He held out his hands. ‘And if you don’t agree for the sake of my soul, just think about what I can do for you! You’re going to have to try and turn that mob in there into a community, right? Well I can help you do that! Dishonest people are the Achilles of every kingdom Larkin, so if I police the dishonest ones that you have here then think of how much easier your job will be!’

‘I don’t have a job!’ I cried. ‘That would imply that I have an agenda but I don’t! I have a prophecy to try and live up to, and a vague one at best that apparently changes every minute!’

‘But-’

‘No, it’s MY turn to talk!’ I ranted, shaking his hands off as he reached for me again. ‘You and Satan and Bastien are all starry-eyed to think of where I could get us over the next few years but I quite literally can’t see two feet in front of me right now! I’m probably going to make a fool of myself and yet you want my permission to keep tabs on it so you can set up a running commentary on my satanic coddiwomple? Ugh! It’d be one thing if you were nice but you’re already admitted to being a soulless monster so what’s in this for me, huh? Besides, I don’t even know your name!’

The boy smiled. ‘My name is Sam, Samuel McIntyre and who says I’m not nice?’

I raised an eyebrow. ‘You said that it’s impossible for you to be kind. In fact, you’ve referred to yourself as a soulless monster that’s been doing Satan’s dirty work for her… so what part of that sounds like a glowing recommendation to you?’

He shrugged. ‘Kind is a state of mind, but nice is a way of acting. I can act as nice as anyone else, considering that I know how to fake it well when required- and that’s all that most apparently nice people are doing, you know- putting on a disguise. I can be incredibly charming, but the only reason why I didn’t come at you all smiles and compliments is because after looking inside your head, I knew that you’d likely breathe fire at me if you suspected for even a second that I was interested in anything but your mind.’ He made another face. ‘And because I figured it was best to tell you the truth while the night was young- because the longer Bastien and I hid my gift from you, the angrier you’d be when you found out about it.’

‘You’re right on both counts,’ I crossed my arms across my chest, ‘but I’m still angry, Sam. You refer to having emotional scars, but I don’t know any specifics- whereas you know all of mine. If I feel this violated after one day with you, how am I going to feel after two, or three?’

‘Less violated than you did in Eden, I should hope,’ Sam said, his disposition sobering as his eyes darkened. He stepped closer to me, and I flushed hotly, knowing that if he got too close he would be pleading the rest of his case with singed eyebrows. ‘If you work with me, I can make damned sure that you’re never violated again.’

‘Wh-what do you mean?’ I asked, tightening my hold on the rock when he stepped closer still.

‘You’re a beautiful girl, Larkin…’ he said softly, and the urge to shoot sparks intensified inside me as he stepped more into my personal space while dragging those bright eyes over me. ‘I wasn’t lying when I said that before. I would not hesitate to take you to my bed, and I don’t think there’s a man inside that camp that would. However-’ he held his finger up when I bared my teeth, ‘I would never force myself upon you and I can expose any man that would contemplate it. Imagine how much peace of mind that will bring you, hmm?’ He stepped back and gestured to the opaque air again. ‘Imagine how much more soundly you’ll sleep knowing that all of the truly bad man have been weeded out of the community!’

I narrowed my eyes at him, though he had a point. Still... ‘Well what about you, huh? How do I know that you’re not capable of attacking me now that you’ve admitted to finding me attractive?’

‘Do you think Satan would have sent me along if she thought there was even a chance that I would?’ he asked, incredulous. ‘I’m here to work off a debt, not to accumulate a larger one by raping her only living child. Besides, a life without a soul is a life without passion. You might not believe that I wouldn’t jump you, but I can swear to you that I am the only man in this world that cannot fall in love with you and believe me when I say, that makes me a hell of a lot less dangerous to you than every other man that will ever cross your path will be!’

My fingertips tingled, but this time it was due to a rush of relief. ‘I believe you,’ I said quickly, and it was his turn to look surprised. ‘If I learned anything in that castle, it was that the most dangerous men in the world are men that believe that they are in love.’ I stood taller, and felt my wings begin to go numb in a way that told me that they were folding away. ‘Okay, I think I can come to terms with this, but before I agree I want to know how you made yourself look like an old man. You said your only power is in the mind but-’

‘It’s a magical cloak. It allows the person wearing it to assume whatever identity they want.’

I blinked. ‘Where did you get such a thing?’

Sam turned away and gestured towards the opening in the tunnel. ‘I stole it from someone in Asiana. I had no idea what it could do until about a year later and so no, I have no idea how it was made.’

I cringed as I walked past him and into the darkness again, hoping it wasn’t a symbolic moment. ‘You really are a bad person, aren’t you?’

‘Yep.’

‘Can I borrow the cloak sometime?’

‘Maybe.’

‘What stuff have you done for Satan?’

‘I’d rather not talk about it.’

‘Fine… then can you tell me more about the mermaids?’

‘Has anyone ever told you that you ask a lot of questions?’

‘And the witches?’

‘They’ll tell you all about themselves if you ask.’

‘Did you ever want to be a pirate?’

‘My guess is that I’m going to regret not going to Calliel instead...’

‘Hey Sam… guess what finger I’m mentally holding up?’

‘This one?’

‘I think I’m going to end up setting you on fire.’

‘I think I’m going to be grateful for it when you do…’

Even though we were in the darkness, I was fairly certain that we were both smiling for the first time in a very long time, and I also found myself wondering if souls were overrated.

8.

Eden Palace, City of Arcadia

Kohén Barachiel

As far as I knew I’d only been a prince for less than a day and I hated it. HATED it. Everything about being in Eden made my skin crawl and strangely, everything about my identical twin made me wish he’d come out as a fraternal one instead, because then I wouldn’t have to see myself doing and saying so many things that irritated me.

It was a horrible thing to think about someone, especially someone who was clearly bending over backwards to help me out, but something about Kohl was so off that it was decomposing, and worse than that was the fact that I had no idea what it was. Well, some version of me did know- the Kohén that was curled up in a foetal position under a trapdoor in my mind probably understood exactly why I was so repelled by my own twin... but that Kohén wasn’t stepping up to take his life back and so I was stuck living it for him and I didn’t know what to do about my conflicted feelings. How was it possible for me to feel so numb towards everyone, but so irritated by my twin brother?

Kohl’s smile was bothering me, and the strange thing was that it was bothering me because it wasn’t like mine. His mouth and his eyes were identical mine as far as the shape and colour went, but the way he used them was very different, so different that it amazed me that people struggled to tell the difference between us. His smile seemed unanchored- nervous and jittery. One moment he would be scowling off into space, lost in some private outrage and the next, he’d flash a mega-watt grin at someone just because they’d entered the room. He had lots of different smiles too- a repertoire of them- and I seemed to get more varieties than anyone else did. Others got a sad, bittersweet smile or that blinding one but I got smirks, sneers, grins and most annoying of all- this lip-wetting thing that he did before he finally gave me that blinding one… like he was warming the smile up, or something- working on it but only after careful consideration. It unnerved me every time that he smiled at me, but those broad, bright ones were the worst because I knew they were powered by some joke that he was in on with the other Kohén that this Kohén was completely befuddled by.

To be fair, Kohl seemed like a pleasant enough kid, and he’d been nothing but helpful and respectful to everyone all day, but he was a little bit too composed in the light of all of the tragedy that we had suffered as a family for my liking. Oh Karol was putting on a big, tough front but everyone knew it was a front, even me, so no one was whispering about how ‘well’ he was taking things because it was plain that he wasn’t… but Kohl seemed almost at ease with the entire situation- like everything was going to be just fine if we kept our heads. He was as determined to catch that Larkin girl as Karol was, but he didn’t seem upset by our father’s death as a son ought to be.

As I ought to be.

One of the Companion girls had quickly whispered to me that he and our father had not been as close as Karol and I had been with the king, so it wasn’t so shocking that he was suffering less than Karol was, but that didn’t make me feel any better about anything. Why hadn’t they gotten along? Why had he hated our mother too? That same Companion had told me that while Elijah had favoured me, Constance had favoured Kohl… so why had he been able to rabbit punch her earlier that morning like it was nothing?

That had been the definite low-point of the day- seeing my mother seemingly rise from the dead, only to be put into a coma by my twin in the blink of an eye. I’d freaked out and had practically sprinted for the door, determined to declare to anybody within earshot that my twin brother was a fucking lunatic, but he’d shut me up real quick by explaining that he’d done that for both of our sakes, but mainly mine. I could not forget that she’d revealed herself to be a dark Nephilim that night, and I had to keep in mind that if the rest of the kingdom found out about that, then we’d probably be put to death for having dark blood in our own veins.

Then he’d delivered another blow by explaining to me that I’d been the one to knock her out, and that he’d only taken responsibility for it because he knew that I would more likely be charged for attempted murder of my own damned mother if it came to light that I’d hit a woman in anger, instead of people thinking that he’d shoved her while defending me. Then, just as I was ready to throw myself into the fireplace and finish what Larkin had started and with good reason, he’d reminded me that both mother and Larkin Whittaker were the evil ones in this scenario- that they’d both been playing mind games with me since I’d been a little kid, and that I should not be held responsible for how desperate they had made me feel in the end.

‘You’re going to hear a lot of nasty things said about you until all of this blows over Kohén, but you must hold strong to what I’m going to tell you now: Larkin Whittaker pretended to love you in the hopes that having your heart would be the key to her freedom.’ He placed his hands on my shoulders and looked me directly in the eye. ‘She was in all of our heads and all of our hearts, turning us against one another Kohén, even mother. You did some shitty things in the name of your apparent love, but it was never love Kohén, it was an infatuation that she orchestrated. If you get your memory back, I swear to god that you will know that what I’m saying now is the truth, but I sort of hope that you don’t, because I think your amnesia is the only thing keeping you alive.’

‘I wouldn’t want to live without her?’

‘No. You wouldn’t want to live with yourself. Because despite how innocent you were and still could be, that girl made you into an obsessive, jealous and paranoid control freak that would probably kill anyone that stood between the two of you- good or evil.’ He cringed. ‘And yes, you did try to uh, subdue her in the end using your passion. She was half out of her head due to her allergic reaction to the golden brand and thought it was both of us tearing at her clothes, which is why she ran out of here screaming rape and accusing us both of it. I do not think you would have raped her, or at least I know I wouldn’t have let you… but I do know that a lot of people that have been watching you slink off into this harem all week like a sex-crazed monster are going to believe that you tried, so these coming months are going to be difficult for you, my twin, make no mistake about that. I’ll admit that twenty-four hours ago I would have revelled in it, but the moment she left, her hold over me dissipated so like Karol, I have come to my senses enough to understand that I was never truly in love with her, just spellbound, and that I need to stand by you because blood is thicker than water and ashes.’ He squeezed my shoulders. ‘I can see that you’re upset with yourself thanks to that awful little story but please, focus on the moral of it: everything evil that you did, you did because you were provoked by a demon, all right? And now that she is gone, I do not doubt that you will revert to being the sweet, considerate gentleman that you would have been if you’d never gotten stuck in her web on our fifth birthday.’ He cringed as he released my shoulders and stepped back. ‘Unless mother comes to and spills all of our secrets to the public as she threatened too, of course, because that will lead to the Barachiel family’s collective ruin, and now that she’ll never get to be a queen, she won’t give one whit about what happens to the rest of us.’

‘So you want to what… kill her?’ I asked, confused. ‘Won’t that make us as bad as her?’

But Kohl shook his head as he scooped her up by the arms and nodded to me to take her feet. ‘No I couldn’t do that, and I’d like to hope that none of us could. However, until you and I have had the chance to speak with her and dare I say: threaten her, we cannot risk her getting the opportunity to run her mouth to others. She needs to be taken down to the basement while no one is watching, tied up and watched closely for signs that she is coming to and-’

That was when our eldest brother had stormed back in and had demanded to know what the hell was going on. Kohl had explained to him what he had just explained to me, and although Karol had looked sickened by the plan, he had gruffly agreed that Kohl’s idea of hiding her was the safest one, and had barricaded the door so that we could carry our mother’s limp but heavy body down through a secret staircase, two flights down and into the basement.

The entire thing had felt like an out of body experience for me, and I could tell that Karol was trying not to sob, but if Kohl had been feeling anything at all, it hadn’t shown on his face or rather, our face, and I suppose that was what was bothering me the most about Kohl- I was numb to everything that was going on because they were all strangers to me, but why did he look so unaffected? How was he managing to force one smile on such a dark day, let alone several different kinds?

I pondered that as we tied the unconscious duchess to a steel bed and then Karol said that he wanted to be alone with her for a while so that he could try and heal her again, in the hopes that that would bring her back. But Kohl had pointed out that he had a lot of scared people upstairs waiting for Karol to show his face and address the crisis and that Kohl could stay in his place and wipe down her face and neck with a cool cloth and try talking to her until Karol could return. But although Karol had agreed to go upstairs, he had refused to leave either Kohl or I alone with her, and that had confused me further. I was glad to be excused from baby-sitting the almost-corpse, but Kohl had looked and acted offended after and had stomped upstairs in a funk, after reminding Karol that he was a part of this family too and the one that mother would have wanted at his side the most.

Unmoved by our brother’s ire, Karol had locked the dungeon door behind us unapologetically before commanding me to go back into our father’s office and stay there because he couldn’t stand to look at either of us. He then quickly explained how the tracking device worked and then went on to say that because I was the one that had caused Larkin to turn against us so violently, then I should be the one to be on Larkin-watch from thereon out. He didn’t care to be bothered every time she rested briefly, but he wanted me to not only keep track of everywhere that she stopped, but to notify him when she settled down for a considerable length of time.

‘How long is this tracker of hers going to last?’ I’d asked, feeling a little green at the idea of being imprisoned in my father’s office for days.

Karol had smiled. ‘For as long as the satellite monitoring it lasts. The poison that keeps her infertile will only take fifteen years to dissolve, along with the vial it is in, but the microchip attached to it is indestructible. So much so that if I switch the signal to Kelia’s, you will see that it is still working now, despite the fact that she was electrocuted and has been dead for five days.’

I’d shuddered on the inside. ‘So how long will I be watching this little light for?’

Karol’s smile had flattened. ‘Until it stops moving forever, as Kelia’s has, and even then, I will lock her ashes up to make sure that she cannot return like the demon that she is and sneak up on me in my nightmares.’

Then he had slammed the door between us too.

So that was how I had spent the rest of my day: staring at a confusing-looking, backlit map on a flat screen and waiting for a little light to flicker on. By the twelfth hour it had done that exactly twice, one hundred kilometres offshore in nothingness for only two minutes, and then twenty kilometres further on from that for five. When that five minutes turned to ten and then to fifteen, I decided that she was stationary enough to warrant reporting and so I had hurried downstairs- and that was when I had caught Karol and one of his companions in a very heated moment on the opposite side of the castle.

I was already on edge thanks to the looks I’d gotten by the people in the throne room when I’d hurried past them, but when I saw the red-haired woman slap my brother, I’d jumped as though she had struck me. What on earth was going on in this castle? Was the water poisoned as women’s wombs apparently were?

I’d called out to Karol after the woman had rushed past me without even seeing me and into the arms of another, older woman dressed just like her, but he’d stomped off into another doorway without responding to me, so I stood there and tried to decide if the fact that Larkin’s signal had stabilised would improve Karol’s mood or darken it further. Deciding that I didn’t want to get punched for intruding upon him a second time, (he’d made it clear that he couldn’t stand to be around me anyway) I’d moved to go out the way I had come, but had hesitated when I’d heard my brother’s Companion babbling incoherently to the other- babbling private things that I probably wasn’t supposed to overhear.

‘What happened, sweetheart?’ the older woman asked, looking as red-eyed and raw as my uncle had been looking all day. ‘Wasn’t he glad to see you?’

‘Too glad!’ the redhead wailed. ‘He kissed me, Resonah!’

‘Why is that-’

‘Because he never kisses me, not like that. Not with an open mouth, and certainly not with his tongue…’ she sniffled. ‘He always said it was too intimate, and that he should save at least one part of the act of love for the wife he would have to take one day! The wife that would have to live with the fact that he’d already experienced passion with others…’ her voice cracked. ‘For the past fourteen years I have wished that he would kiss me the way a husband kisses a wife, but have not pushed for it because I wanted him to have a wife too, and babies, even if it meant that I’d never see him again…I wanted him to be happy! I touched my lips to his only fleetingly, and that was enough for me so long as his arms were around me, and his breath on my neck...’ She began to cry again, while I scrunched up my face, dying of mortification. ‘But now I see that he has turned his back on happiness, because of her! I should rejoice to know that he would kiss me so intimately now, and that he obviously wants me to return to my position… but I fear that I just kissed the Karol that we all adore goodbye forever.’

‘Ssh… ssh…’ the older woman said over Adeline’s sobbing. ‘Perhaps you are making too much of this, darling. His highness has had a wretched day and is probably in need of more comfort than even he understands.’

‘I wish I could believe you,’ Adeline’s voice was still wobbling. ‘But I know him too well, Resonah. This day has altered him, and if Ora can’t get through to him, what chance do the rest of us have?’

‘Ora does not know him the way that you girls do, Adeline. She is a new acquaintance of his, not a soul mate. Give him time and I’m sure he’ll return to your arms, and all will be as it once was.’

Adeline sighed. ‘That’s exactly what I’m afraid of.’

‘Growing up to be an old prostitute that is hated by her master’s spouse, like me?’ she sniffled. ‘One that has nothing to live for, once her love has left this world?’

‘No. Growing up to be an old prostitute who wins her master’s attention forever... at the expense of his soul.’

I’d heard enough. Knowing that I would melt into a puddle of embarrassment if caught eavesdropping on my brother’s Companions, I made the snap decision to follow Karol into the room he’d disappeared into, moving as quietly as my polished boots would allow. I was a bit stunned to suddenly find myself in a room that was the size of the royal suite and the throne room combined, but the solitary figure standing by the window across from me and staring out over the front lawn drew my focus immediately. He’d looked lost and lonely all day, but never so much as then when surrounded by so much negative space. My mouth was dry, but I forced myself to speak:

‘I’ve come to tell you that Larkin’s signal has been stationary for fifteen minutes now. I do not know how long she will stay in the one place, but I can tell you that she is halfway between here and the island nation of Pacifica, according to the map, though the two times she has stopped seem to suggest that she is not heading towards it, but somewhat north of it.’

‘Thank you,’ Karol said quietly. ‘Now please, go back upstairs and check to see if she has moved since you left the room.’

‘Yes, your highness,’ I said quietly, but before I left, I cleared my throat and awkwardly wrung my hands together. ‘Look… I won’t ask you if you’re all right again, because that’s obviously an inane question,’ I said, keeping my voice low enough so that it wouldn’t echo through the room and out the door, ‘and I can’t apologize for the part that I’ve played in ruining our family’s happiness because that will not be a sincere sentiment until my memories have been restored to me…’ I swallowed hard, crossing my arms across my chest as I closed the gap between us a little more. ‘But I can apologize for not knowing how to handle any of this now because that is the truth: I don’t have the faintest clue on what to do or how to act, Karol and like you and Kohl have both said, it’s probably best for me if I go on that way.’ I looked down at my feet, stopping a few metres behind him. ‘But it’s not what’s best for you, is it? You hate me for being spared of the memories of the people I have lost and the things I did to lose them… and you’re well within your right to. I can’t do anything to change that, but I can say that whatever it is you want me to do to make the aftershocks of these tragedies easier on you, I will do it. If you want me to take full responsibility publicly and be flogged, I will do it. If you want me to be disinherited, I will not protest. If you-’

‘I want you to get as far away from me as possible,’ Karol said roughly and I cringed but nodded and immediately began to retreat.

‘Yes your highness, of course- I will go straight back to the-’

‘I don’t mean just now,’ Karol turned around then and levelled me with a glare that was more tainted by sadness than anger. ‘I mean that I want you out of my sight and out of my life until I have had he chance to work through my issues with you, or you have had your memories restored- whichever comes first.’ He leaned back against the window and crossed his arms. ‘I have just asked a permission to train up a small army of soldiers whose sole purpose will be to find Larkin Whittaker and anyone that would harbour her, and as soon as that permission is granted by the other world leaders, I will be enlisting you in the very first regiment. You will go to St Miguel to the largest Corps barracks that we have, and you will stay there until you are a soldier,’ he paused, allowing me to process that before continuing: ‘also, you will not return here to live in Eden or enjoy any of the finer parts of life as a prince until you turn twenty-one and complete your apprenticeship in the Corps, or until I can stand to look at you again: whatever comes first.’

Whoa! I thought, rocked by the announcement. That’s… that’s not what I was expecting him to say!

‘I’m sorry,’ my brother smiled slightly, but it was a bitter smile. ‘Perhaps I will get over this within a few months or maybe it will take a few years, but I am a soldier of God and a lot softer than I currently appear to be, especially when it comes to family, so I know that, in time, I will come to forgive you and will probably even regret sentencing you so harshly now.’ He turned away again. ‘But I know that if mother and father were here, this is what they would do: whatever it took to redeem you in the eyes of God and your people and sometimes, the fastest path to redemption is via hard work. You will be an ordinary soldier, with no special entitlements and no special treatment, and hopefully the public sees that as heavy-handed enough on my part to pardon us both from their current anger.’

I stared at his back in silence for ten seconds, sort of thunderstruck by my good fortune. This was his punishment? Kicking me out of the palace that I already hated? I would have jumped for joy, if I hadn’t feared that doing so would give him cause to change his mind.

‘What of my brother? The um, other one?’ I asked, mood plateauing at the prospect of being glued to my strange mirror image for a considerable period of time. ‘He is not going to be punished too, is he?’

Karol chuckled and muttered something under his breath while shaking his head, but rested his palms on the windowsill either side of him and sighed before saying: ‘I can’t punish him for falling in love with a girl and right now, that seems to be the only crime that he has committed so no, I have no grounds to punish him on that I can see…’ he muttered something else, but then stood up straighter and crossed his arms again. ‘But looking at him would be the same as looking at you, and since Larkin incinerated his contract last night too, he is free. I am obligated to keep him here if he has nowhere else to go because he is third in line in an official capacity now that father is dead… but Atticus Hartley asked for him to be stationed on Pacifica as a Lieutenant under his command once he was freed a week ago, and though I know that Mr Hartley is second-guessing that decision now, I am afraid that I must insist that Kohl takes that position anyway- and sets sail for the isle of Isthmus first thing on Tuesday.’ He cleared his throat. ‘Though I cannot confirm that we will be granted permission to raise an army, however small, Kohl’s fate has been sealed- and Prime Minister Hartley is off somewhere, telling him right now.’ He glanced back at me. ‘I do not expect Kohl or Atticus to be pleased about any of this, so consider yourself warned, okay? We may have a shit storm on our hands in the next few minutes- one that will cause rain to fall from the very ceiling. If you are honest in saying that you have no recollections of your time in Eden, then you may find a display of Nephilim anger to be somewhat perplexing- and wet as far as your twin is concerned.’

‘I do not remember anything before I was five or six years old,’ I said quickly. ‘I am not lying to you about that, Karol. The last memory I have is of falling through a ceiling, and everything before then is watery.’

‘Then you are lucky,’ Karol said, turning away again. ‘Because I’m fairly certain that if you hadn’t lost your mind by accident- I would have bashed your head in until you had anyway.’

My stomach sucked in. ‘Why only fairly certain?’

He chuckled dryly and stared back out the window as he responded softly: ‘Because I think the fact that the king is dead is as much his fault as it was yours and Larkin’s. A lot of things could have gone differently last night, but branding her was a stupid, heartless decision that he has paid for with his life, and that this kingdom will pay for in fear, because every time she looks down at it, she will remember that so long as this kingdom stands, she will belong to it, and that she will not abide.’

I made a face. ‘You’re not honestly suggesting that one girl could actually bring down a kingdom as strong as this one is said to be?’

‘No. But I do not doubt that she will try, and that someone will get hurt when she does.’ He lifted a hand. ‘Now, in the interests of making sure that she doesn’t, please return to father’s-’ he paused, ‘my office... and resume your duty until I summon you again.’

Knowing that I was lucky to have spent a few minutes with him without getting screamed at or beaten to a pulp, but aware that both could still happen if I lingered a moment longer, I turned on my heel and marched back out into the throne room, past the companions that were still whispering to one another and up the flight of stairs that led to our family’s private suite, trying not to look at the broken and blackened harem door. Being subjected to people’s scowls had been painful the first time I’d crossed the throne room and foyer, but this time I moved so fast that they would have wrenched their necks if they attempted to follow me with their hateful eyes and so, the second crossing was quicker and much more bearable than the first.

When I opened the door to our private foyer, the rooms seemed deserted, but I was about to pass Kohl’s room when I overheard something else that I probably ought not have- a bit of crying, and some smoochy noises. Too curious for my own good, I peeked around the corner into my twin’s room, and winced when I saw Amelia-Rose sitting on Kohl’s lap, cupping his face in her hands and kissing his tear tracks away.

‘It’s only for a few years…’ she whispered. ‘I’m staying here with father now, Kohl- I’ll watch over Karol and your mother, I swear it.’

‘How can you make such a promise? You don’t understand what she’s like! She threatened to say wicked things last night- whatever it took to poison the world against us! So what if she turns you against me too while I’m not here to defend myself?’

‘Do you doubt me, Kohl Barachiel?’ Amelia-Rose asked archly, pulling back and wiping his tears away. ‘Do you believe for one second that I will allow this kingdom of God’s to be overthrown by a few lying, dark Nephilim?’

Kohl looked up at her, awed. ‘How can you have so much faith in a family that has almost none in itself?’

‘Because you are Barachiel’s. God favoured you Kohl and now, so do I,’ she whispered softly as I drew back. ‘When you return from Pacifica in four year’s time… I hope that will be a fact that you will know for certain.’

Then they were kissing again, and I was so sickened to realise that two of my brothers had turned to a woman’s body for comfort in the face of bereavement that I pushed off the doorframe, feeling like something slimy and wrong was crawling around inside me. I didn’t get how I could feel so judgmental towards others after all that I had done, or how could I dislike people for doing whatever it took to deal with and clean up the mess that I had made, but I did. Not only because it seemed shallow and soulless, but also because it supported the accusations that people had made against me, didn’t it? If two brothers cut from the same cloth could crave a woman the same day that their father had died and their mother had gone ballistic, then how could I doubt the allegations that I’d tried to force myself onto the girl that I had loved?

I wanted to smash and shatter things- especially myself- but that would be a cowardly act so I went into the room that I’d been told was mine, knelt by my bed, closed my eyes against the framed photographs of my twin and I that were hanging all over the walls and began to pray again. Not only that God would forgive my sins- but that he would forgive my brothers too. Maybe Eden was too small for all of us to co-exist in together, but there had to be room for all of us in Heaven, right?

Cheered by that prospect- of us all one day knowing peace- I took a deep breath and threw in another prayer for Larkin Whittaker as well. God knew that she needed him more than anybody did.

9.

Hope Station

Larkin

People looked relieved to see Sam and I re-enter the station intact, but it was clear that I’d spooked them a little by screaming at him and taking off in front of them all, because they gave me a much wider berth upon my return than they had upon my arrival, and averted their eyes accordingly.

‘Do I want to know what they’re thinking?’ I asked Sam as he helped me up onto the platform.’

‘Nope.’

‘Didn’t think so.’

Bastien came over to greet us, gave Sam a funny look that I responded to before he could. ‘We’re fine,’ I said stiffly, holding up one hand. ‘I know all, and I’ve agreed to not set him on fire just yet.’

‘Good. I’m glad- I’m certain that this arrangement will benefit us all.’ Bastien took my arm and led me to the side, pointing towards the back of the station. ‘There’s a bath ready for you, and something comfortable to sleep in. Leave your clothes on the table next to it, and we’ll have them washed quickly so they can dry by tomorrow. When you’re finished, I have accommodations and a solid meal ready for you, all right? Take as long as you want- the residents have already had their turn in the washrooms, and the other newcomers were just rushed through while you were… disposed. A few of the men have to take their turn yet, but they’re happy for you to go first.’

I felt awful to think that the other people that had walked all of that distance with me that day had been hurried through the process of bathing in order to give me privacy, and guilty over the fact that I was going to probably get a better bed and a bigger meal than everyone else... but I sighed and nodded, thanking him. I wanted to start off my leadership by demanding to be treated as an equal but then again, I’d probably had a much harder week than anybody on earth and was therefore, too tired to argue. Instead, I vowed to be as quick as possible for the sake of the males that were still waiting instead.

I followed another woman that passed me by then towards the washrooms, and was pleasantly surprised to see what a nice set up it was. Three steel drums like the ones that they were keeping the fires in in the main room had been cut in half and set out in two rows of three, and all were full of water with a folded towel positioned on small tables beside them. The room was shivery, dark dank and draughty, but two smaller fires had been positioned between the two rows, keeping the area lit and warmer than it would have been without. It hurt me to strip off my clothes but I managed to get them off, yet when I put my toes into the water, I cringed to find that it was only lukewarm.

I didn’t want to get into a bath that would turn cool by the time I got out because my teeth were already chattering, but then I realised how stupid I was being and leaned over further, easing my fingertips into the water and closing my eyes in concentration. I tried to get good and mad enough to make the water boil but once again I was too tired, so then I tried just imagining the water getting warmer and suddenly there was a bubbling sound, accompanied by a rush of warmth around my fingers.

I did it! My lips parted in astonishment when I saw that my fingertips were glowing as red as a stove element and causing the water around them to bubble and boil. I can change the temperature of things too! How amazing!

It took only about a minute for the water to grow uncomfortably warm and I hurriedly got in after that, moaning as I folded my limbs into the short but deep bath. There was a cake of odd-looking soap on the towel beside me and I lathered myself up quickly, washing everything from my toes to my hair and then sinking under so I could rinse it all off, sniffling when I scented cinnamon and something grassy. It was a bad way to wash hair and I could practically hear Maryah clucking her tongue at me for rinsing with dirty water and not using conditioner after, but I mentally gave her the finger as I had Sam. For the first time in my life my looks had gone from being the most important thing about me to the least and I was going to take advantage of that.

Once I was clean, I took a moment to recline and close my eyes, allowing my poor muscles to soak up all the heat that I could while occasionally using my power to heat the water again. The crude bath was actually heavenly, but it wasn’t long before my eyelids started to feel so heavy that I had to struggle to keep them open, so before ten minutes had passed I groaned and forced myself to sit up and wring out my hair. I reached for the towel and wrapped it around my head and then began to stand up and made the mistake of looking down at myself… and then coloured the air with curses that would have made Sam blush.

The brand. I had been going out of my way to not look at it, but now that I was clean I could see it shining on my skin, and it made me contract away from it, straining to escape my own body. When I realised that that wasn’t going to work, I tentatively touched it with my fingertips, and though I was glad that I could barely feel it at all, I was still resentful of the fact that I could see it- that Satan hadn’t taken it off me. Surely she had the power to right such a wrong?

Next I looked down at my stomach and was a bit surprised to see that there was still a thin pink line there just above my pubic mound. I touched it tentatively, but it didn’t hurt either. That should have been a good thing, and yet the numbness of the area both on the surface and beneath reminded me of the fact that I was empty in there- hollow inside. I’d gotten the tracking device out and that was definitely a plus, but the poison that had been inside that little cylinder had had almost two years to do its damage and I knew that there would be no undoing that. I was free, but I was still never going to be able to have a child- a fact that seemed fitting seeing as how I was pretty sure that I was never going to allow a man to touch me again, but more depressing now that the door had opened on so many other possibilities.

Satan had left those two scars there for a reason, and I knew it. She would have been able to find a way to heal them both but she’d left them there to remind me of what the Barachiels had done to me on the off-chance that I would forget my rage and abandon her cause by doing what I’d always done- and forgiving them. Well, she’d been right to do that I supposed, because seeing those scars made a furious heat flare up inside me that would have easily set Eden on fire if I’d let it loose- but she’d been foolish to leave me with a reminder that she would always, always put her needs ahead of my own. That like Sam, she could be interesting company, even affable and helpful- but she could not love me, and in that sense she was not a better guardian than God… but very much his indifferent equal.

I opened my fist and stared down at the amber stone, mentally shifting Satan, Sam, Martya and Bastien into the same: ‘Proceed with caution’ pile. I was never going to let another being hurt me again- regardless of what colour their feathers were.

And that sounded more than fair to me.

*

By the time Bastien had led me to the smallest, emptiest cabin on the train, he practically had to hold me up. I was wearing a long, one-piece jumpsuit that was made of flannel- a fabric I’d heard about but had never worn- and I was amazed by how warm and soft it was. I didn’t want to know how many people had worn it before me because it was practically threadbare, but I was tired enough to be more comforted by the hand-me-down than suspect, so I got into it and then into my animal-pelt bed without a fight, and then allowed Bastien to prop me up with pillows so that I could eat.

He insisted on feeding me manually, and although it was a bit embarrassing, I let it happen because I could see that he was desperately trying to make up for seventeen years of absent parenting in one day. It wasn’t going to work but his heart was in the right place so I accepted spoonful after spoonful of the warm, potato and cream based dish while fisting the amber stone in my hand so I could safeguard my thoughts from Sam, who’d gone off to sleep by himself somewhere removed from the rest of us- but not as far as required for him to be able to block out my thoughts. I knew that he’d reminded Bastien to feed me earlier after hearing my resentful inner dialogue, and I was fairly sure that he’d given Bastien some conversational tips as well, because as he fed me, the shepherd started talking about the people that lived outside of Calliel’s boundaries, starting with the mermaids, continuing to the witches and then, moving on to the pirates. I knew that I was being manipulated into liking the man, but that didn’t do anything to douse my curiosity so I listened, fascinated by every word that he had to say, even if they were all almost impossible to believe, and even though his soothing voice was quickly lulling me into a hypnologic state.

As it turned out, the witches and mermaids were both sects that related back to the eleven dark originals that Satan had created. Sam had told me that different titles had been assigned to different demons, but Bastien expanded on that, referring to the demons by familiar names and stunning me with the revelations. The mermaids had descended from the dark angel Lilith- a name that was thrown around a lot as an example of evil, but never in accurate detail. Apparently Lilith fed off the energy produced by lust, and had made a habit of assuming a mermaid form when she’d still been on earth, because it had given her access to many a sailor. In that form she’d fed not only off men’s lust but the men themselves when they turned out to be violent or cruel, and she’d rescued women that had been treated the same way by other men, turning them into mermaids when the urge overcame them, and back into humans so that they could flee the area after they’d raised enough hell.

They’d been content to go on doing that forever, but when God had returned to earth for Armageddon, he’d come across Lilith and her pod of water nymphs in that form and as punishment, he’d turned them all into mermaids permanently- trapping their legs within those tails and their bodies under the water by giving them gills. Lilith had panicked at the idea of being bound like that forever so she’d called out repeatedly for God to return and save her and when he did, she quickly surrendered her soul to him in exchange for an invitation to Heaven. He’d obliged, but Lilith hadn’t bothered to ask for help for the other mermaids and in their anger, the mermaids had turned their backs on Lilith and God alike and had screamed for Satan instead.

Satan had returned to help them, but there had been nothing she could do to dissolve God’s magic, so in the end, all she’d been able to do for the mermaids was to give them the ability to breathe above the surface again, and the ability to walk on legs for a few hours a day. The mermaids had turned on her then too, renouncing any allegiances to God and Satan both and swearing that they would take the oceans for themselves and leave them to the ruins of earth.

That had been over six hundred years ago so although Bastien did not doubt that those original mermaids were long gone, he’d heard enough rumours about them mating with human men to understand that their population had probably increased a lot- and enough about them eating people to know that their resentment of every race outside their own had increased with it. They still probably hated Satan too, but Satan always found a way around an individual’s dislike of her to get what she needed out of them, so he didn’t doubt that the mermaids still served her- for a price- and that was probably why they’d helped a young, drowning Nephilim boy for her. They were neither light nor dark, but a shadowy entity unto themselves that were best avoided. They shied away from populated shorelines, but made it their business to keep the unpopulated ones that way, and Bastien admitted that he was actually more frightened of them then he was of pirates.

The shepherd didn’t believe that the mermaids actually ate men though- the supposed mermaid ‘victims’ that he’d seen had only ever had flesh missing from their throats, indicating that they’d killed for the sake of killing, and not for feeding which contradicted Sam’s story a little. It was strange, but I felt better after he said that. I’d always thought of mermaids as beautiful fairytale creatures, and although I could be all right with them killing evil men, I wasn’t thrilled by the cannibalistic element as it took a lot of the romance out of the fantasy for me… but when I relayed this to Bastien, he looked at me like I was a bit crazy, cleared his throat and ask that I not go swimming without him. Then he changed the subject. I supposed that given my recent experiences, he was afraid that I’d leave Satan’s camp and join the mermaids and I had to admit to myself (as I squeezed my thought-blocking stone) that I’d probably be a lot more comfortable ripping out men’s throats with my teeth than leading them, so he was probably right to be paranoid.

‘But don’t worry Bastien,’ I said softly, smiling. ‘If I was going to be any sort of fairytale creature, I think I’m more likely to end up as a dragon, than as a mermaid.’

‘As a father I’m relieved to hear that you’d prefer getting around in armour and breathing fire over drawing men into the sea with bare breasts and a siren song,’ he said, returning my smile, and I nestled more deeply into my pillows, glad that he ‘got’ me.

Like the mermaids, the witches were a sect that had originated from one of Satan’s originals, Hecate- another female. That name was notorious too but like with Lilith, her story had been misconstrued a lot so that by Armageddon, she’d been considered to be more of a fictional demon than an actual angel from hell. But Hecate had been the dark archangel that Satan had assigned to watch over those that had gifts of the magical variety, and because she’d never returned to the earth, God had not managed to get her under control and so she still lingered in the underworld and could still be invoked by those that had absolute faith in her- apparently. Bastien had never been to Hell himself so he could not vouch for knowing anything about it with certainty.

The witches that lived with The Sequestered had that sort of faith in her, and spent most of their time performing rituals in Hecate’s name. I had been spooked by that, but to my surprise, Bastien had nothing but nice things to say about our resident spell casters, and went as far as to say that they were an asset to the community because they worked more for a common good than they did for individual gain. Witchcraft was a word that had a lot of evil connotations, but Bastien insisted that magic was one of those things that could only be defined as being light or dark according to the intent of the person working the spell. He assured me that not only was magic more about harnessing and filtering energy before redirecting it than it was about the worship of anything or anyone, but it was something that we all practiced in some way every day whether we knew it or not. To demonstrate, he lifted my scratched knuckles to his lips and kissed them gently before saying: ‘Kissing someone better is practicing magic, Larkin- just as saying ‘Bless You,’ when someone sneezes is. The witches here have certainly done some odd things in the pursuit of a specific outcome, but they’ve also brought my attention to the fact that practicing ritual magic is an every day occurrence for all of us. Closing our eyes when we pray to God is one of the more common rituals, blowing out birthday candles while making a wish is another, and breaking a bottle of champagne over the hull of a new boat is yet another. The witches here do everything with a sense of ritual, from when they sweep the floors to when they kill animals for meals and when they draw baths and although witnessing that sort of thing can be an unsettling sight, I must admit that this camp has been a healthier, more prosperous and peaceful place since they joined us three years ago and started applying their beliefs to our everyday lives. I’ve seen tribal groups doing the same sort of thing over the years and it always seemed like nonsense, but it actually works for these people, so what can I say? I’m a believer now.

I don’t actually know that they’ve descended from Nephilim though. It seems as though everybody has the potential to tap into whatever it is that they fool around with, and that potential can be honed more expertly by dedicating oneself to the practice. As people they are kind and thoughtful, if not a little eccentric and outspoken, but they could be classified as evil to many because they worship Hecate above God.’ He paused, weighing whatever he was going to say next carefully before he added: ‘They can be good company, however I should warn you that there are two that are quite odd. Arial- the one that wears her long grey hair in a braid- has psychic gifts, and she has an unnerving habit of blurting out your fortune without being asked to give it. She’s frighteningly accurate too- but she’ll only speak when she’s inclined to, and it’s almost always in riddles.’

I swallowed the mouthful of sauce and indicated that I’d had enough to eat with my hands even though the truth was that I was too fascinated to be interested in my food now. ‘What does the other one do?’

The Shepherd scratched his head and made a face. ‘Skia is the oldest one- she has a face like a raisin, and a voice like a seagull so you won’t miss her. She seems to be the most gifted spell caster, and will have a go at making anything you wish for come to pass… but for a price. Not a monetary one, mind you, but you’ll end up wishing that it was, because after she’s considered your request, she’ll usually tell you that she can do it, but not until you’ve fetched her the specific items that she needs in order to help her to accomplish the task- items that are usually harder to get than the thing that you want is, especially around here.’

‘I’m intrigued…’ I admitted slowly. ‘But I’m afraid that I’m probably not going to believe that any of this is more than a bedtime story before I see it with my own eyes- not even the mermaids though I’ve heard them referenced twice now and had a tail of my own for a brief period last night...’

Bastien raised an eyebrow. ‘How exactly does a fire-breathing angel talk herself into being a sceptic on the subject of magical beings?’

I chuckled. ‘Probably because her friend forced her to read as many science texts as she did fairytales. In the end, everything magical seems to have some sort of scientific explanation behind it. Just think of how many years the last human race argued over the creation story for, before they worked out that they were all half right! God had created all, all right- by creating the big bang. So how can we say that what he did was magic, when perhaps there’s a scientific explanation behind his existence as well? I can breathe fire and humans can’t, but does that make me a divine being, truly… or an alien with trickier DNA?’ I yawned, covering my mouth and muffling my words. ‘Magic is a wonderful thing to believe in, but sometimes I can’t help but wonder if it’s just a science that hasn’t been figured out yet.’

It was the shepherd’s turn to laugh gently. ‘I can’t work out if that’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard, or the most intelligent. Though when it comes down to counting myself as an alien, I’m more inclined to believe the former.’

I smiled at him, pleased to know that like magic, I wasn’t that easy to figure out. ‘Well don’t worry. Tomorrow I’ll come out with something crazier and you’ll forget all about my theory about science versus theology and angels versus aliens. I once spent two weeks researching the whole chicken and the egg conundrum before I decided that the egg had to have come first. Kohén was so mad at me for ignoring him while I pored over books that he-’ my voice broke off- broke as in snapped when something inside me snapped too. The fact that I’d never again get the chance to irritate Kohén in such a harmless way- in a way that we had a chance of making up over after- winded me and caused my eyes to fill with tears. Oh God, I missed him so much!

‘Larkin?’ Bastien asked gently, but I stared down at the fur that he had laid across my lap and said hoarsely:

‘Never mind…’ I toyed with the fine hairs, tugging at them, wondering again if my wish to make Kohén fall out of love with me had made his love turn to hate. ‘It’s a stupid story…’

Don’t think about him! You cannot think about him! Wherever he is, if he’s thinking about you it’s with hate, not having a chuckle over your ridiculous squabbles over the years! You and Kohén always found a way to bury the hatchet before… but not this time Larkin, he’s gone! In fact the boy you once loved isn’t just gone- he never existed! Don’t allow yourself to long for your friendship because it was a FARCE! You have not lost him- you have escaped him!

‘You were right… the egg did come first,’ the shepherd said quietly, resting his hand over mine. ‘It would have been conceived by mutation from another animal similar to it… just like we were.’ He shrugged. ‘But where you believe that there is a scientific explanation behind everything magical- I’m afraid that I must insist that the reverse is often true as well. Is that something you could open your own mind to? The fact that miracles come in all ways, and not just in answered prayers?’

My cheek twitched in a smile but I still didn’t look up, knowing even the slightest movement would shake the tears from my eyes- and I wanted them to evaporate where they were. ‘Something tells me that life on this side of Eden’s fence will leave me no choice but to consider it that way as well. Don’t get me wrong, Bastien, I’d like to believe in miracles. It’s just…’ It’s just hard for me to believe in anything anymore.

There was a pause and then: ‘Do you want to talk about it?’

Talk about the boy I’d loved that had molested me in front of his twin brother in the name of love with the father that had put me in that situation? No, I really didn’t, and so I leaned back, closed my eyes and shook my head, trapping my hot tears behind my eyelids. I was so tired- tired and beginning to crumble emotionally now that I was somewhat comfortable- like a hard biscuit dipped into warm cinnamon milk.

‘Do you want me to tell you about the pirates then?’ he asked softly.

Yes, yes I did. But by the time he’d started listing different bands of pirates in different parts of the world; The Copperheads, the Kingslaters, The Arrows, The McIntyre’s and The Finnegan’s, I was falling asleep again, and glad for it, because for the first time in my entire life I’d just been tucked into bed and regaled with bedtime stories by a man that knew everything about me, and apparently wanted to have a relationship with me anyway.

I couldn’t think of him as my father yet, but the fact that he wanted me to was enough to make me believe in miracles, even if was only for a moment.

PART TWO

10.

Hope Station

Larkin

Monday August 23rd, AA644

I slept dreamlessly for what seemed like an eternity, and awoke shocked and disoriented late on Monday afternoon, roused from my sleep by the sound of people yelling.

I didn’t know that I’d been out of it for eighteen hours when I woke up, though. I was still so tired that it felt like I’d only had an hour’s sleep, and was so sweaty and hot that I kicked off the pelt that I’d burrowed under like it was a burning object, and had to talk myself off peeling off the flannelette jumpsuit that was clinging to me with sweat. I had been feeling a chill when I’d fallen asleep, but I’d obviously been too tired to be aware of when I’d started overheating again and now, I felt wretched and achy all over, from my head to my toes. Moaning and groaning and praying that my clothes had had the chance to dry, I moved to the door of the cabin and froze when I saw Sam standing there, grinning at me and holding out my folded and laundered clothes.

‘Ask and you shall receive, Dragon-Lady,’ he said, bowing slightly, and I sighed and snatched my clothes out of his hands as I rubbed my aching head.

‘Fine- then I want my rock back.’

‘Sorry, I had to lend it to someone else that arrived this morning. You were out of it and their thoughts were a bit too much for me, so I came and pried it out of your hand.’ He stepped back and waved for me to go back inside. ‘Go, get changed and I’ll try and find another piece of amber for you. And don’t worry about the yelling-’ he followed my eyes to the two men that were standing up on the platform, the ones that were involved in a heated argument that had progressed past name-calling and to shoving. ‘They always get like this- one of them will knock the other out sooner or later, and that seems to fix them up for awhile.’

‘You know them?’ I asked, but Sam shook his head.

‘Nah. I just… you know…’ he twirled his finger around his head and I sighed and slid the rusty door shut between us. I appreciated the fact that Sam had sensed my distress from how hot I’d gotten, but I didn’t like the idea of having slept so heavily that I’d been physically unaware that someone was in my quarters with me and taking something from my hand. In reflex, my hand went to the diamond necklace around my neck, testing to make sure it was still there.

‘I’m offended!’ Sam called back through the door.

‘You’ll be a lot more than offended if you don’t get out of my head!’ I called back, pausing in the middle of disrobing to claw a bit of sleep out of the corner of my eye.

Yuck! How long have I-

‘It’s four on Monday-’

‘I swear to GOD that if you-’

‘You’re welcome, Dragon-Lady, but for what it’s worth, I’m sure you’d catch more male victims by going topless than you would by breathing fire!’ Then I heard Sam laughing as his footfalls retreated, so I rolled my eyes despite the fact that my lips had curved up a little. He was a headache and definitely too much to take before I’d had the chance to wake up properly, but it was handy having him around, I supposed, at least when it came to getting my laundry. Smiling wickedly now, I slipped into my black suede pants and deliberately thought:

In fact, he’d make an excellent butler, or a maid. I don’t even have to ring a little bell when I need something! I could mentally tell him how much I’d like a boiled egg and-

How about I ring your bells huh?!

How about you try, minion? I shot back, buttoning my britches, quickly reflecting on my training in Eden so that he could see me throw a knife directly into the heart of a target and then flipping Kohén over my shoulder during a martial arts class. You might be able to see a punch coming, but you’d have to move really bloody fast to avoid getting hit by one of my mine and seeing as how I’m still waiting for that egg-

Oh shut up!

I smiled, feeling the pain in my skull alleviate as he retreated from it. Not just because I’d won, but because I instantly felt a lot healthier and safer. Quickly, I finished getting dressed, hoping that people weren’t judging me for being so lazy by sleeping the day away.

By the time I stepped out of the carriage, the fight between the two men had quietened but as Sam had predicted, it was because one of them was lying unconscious on the floor. Bastien was busy talking to the one looming over him with red knuckles to match his face, obviously trying to calm the victor down, but to my surprise, no one else around seemed especially bothered by the fight. I spotted the lady that had been fawning all over Bastien the night before hurrying past me with a bunch of dirty plates and asked her what had happened, but she simply shrugged and said that she had no idea- fights like that broke out in the camps all of the time, and it had been awhile since she’d cared enough to inquire as to why.

Georgia did however, hint that the two men had come from rival groups before they’d joined up with The Sequestered, and that most fights that broke out in Hope Station were usually triggered by a minor incident that was blown out of proportion due to pre-established rivalries. Everyone respected Shep so he was able to break up most fights and talk the rivals down after… but he just hadn’t yet worked out how to get people to stop picking fights in the first place.

‘I suppose it’s because you’re all crammed in here, yes?’ I asked her, and she nodded and said that yes, personal space was usually a factor and I nodded, thinking that I’d grown up in such conditions so it was easy enough to empathise. Impossible to solve the problem though, at least until Bastien led us out of there. ‘Is it only the men that clash?’

Georgia laughed. ‘Girl, have you got half a mind? The women are as bad as the men, if not worse!’

I frowned at her, confused. ‘Are you telling me that the women in here throw punches too?’

‘If pissed off enough, the women in here will throw knives, Lark,’ she said, still chuckling, ‘and hard.’

‘I don’t believe it,’ I said, feeling dispirited. I looked around the room, at all of those dozens of unfamiliar faces, and felt a twinge of despair when I saw that they looked a lot less affable now than they had the night before. They were all talking loudly and over the top of one another, the kids that had been sitting down quietly and listening to a story the previous evening were now running in crazy circles through the common eating area while a bunch of adults yelled at them- but made no move to actually get them under control. An older woman and a younger women were slamming things about at the food preparation area while sniping at each other loudly enough for me to hear it from where I was standing (in thick accents that I could not place at all), and that same group of middle aged men that I’d seen sitting together the night before were now involved in a heated argument over the card game they were playing. I didn’t know why their behaviour had dissipated so much overnight and I was not a fan of labelling people, but the word ‘Heathens’ was definitely coming to mind now that I was seeing how they interacted with one another.

Back in Arcadia, the Blue Collar caste was considered to be the most common one, and yet none of us would have dreamed of yelling at someone else in public unless something horrible had happened. And the children…! I bit my lip as one crashed into my leg as he evaded another without pausing to apologize to me, wondering how I was going to get this mob under control if Bastien could not. It was one thing to resent being confined in a cage like an animal, but quite another to act like one, wasn’t it? I’ll bet they can’t even read yet...

Oh… I have a feeling you’re about to eat that ‘Heathen’ label yourself… the words stabbed into my head, but when I whirled around to tell Sam that he’d better be approaching with amber or retreating mighty quickly, I was shocked to find myself staring into a familiar face- at last.

‘Larkin…’ Martya’s lower lip wobbled as she stepped closer to me and extended her hands, reaching for mine. I sucked in my breath when I saw her, mind reeling, heart racing and face flushing. ‘Thank Satan… you really are here.’ She swallowed hard, and I saw that she was filthier than I had been the day before. Filthier, obviously freezing and anxious, but alive and well. ‘Please… I know you’re furious with me right now, but you have to forgive me!’

Thank Satan?!

The prayer paired with a demand for forgiveness hit me like a punch to the stomach, as did the mournful expression on her face and the obvious anxiety in her voice. Martya’s teary, hazel eyes burned with apology, but there was a spark of something else in there that I recognised as well: triumph, and I shivered with rage at the sight of it. It was that same spark I’d seen in her eyes when she’d announced that she’d found a cure for the locusts, and not that dissimilar to the flash of self-satisfaction that I’d seen in Amelia-Rose’s eyes when she’d stabbed our king with her saintly sword, and it told me what I really needed to know: that my ‘friend’ regretted nothing. Oh Martya was clearly sorry for the lies she’d allowed me to believe because I was angry with her for them, but she wouldn’t do it differently if she’d had the chance to because her thoughtless actions had gotten me here where she wanted me to be and in the end, that was all that mattered to her. I wasn’t a mind reader, no, but I had been her friend once and so I could read her face just fine.

In response to her question- and so many others- I pulled back my hand, and struck her so hard that she went flying off the platform, and onto the rotted tracks below while around us everybody screamed and scuttled back. Everybody but Sam, who had bowed his head and was shaking it, but not without a lopsided smile stretching his handsome features.

Who’s the Heathen now? he accused me silently and I didn’t say anything back because I knew it was true. But I also knew that I’d started to shut God out of my life when Martya had sneaked out of my life, and that that had changed me a lot in ways that would affect her too. Martya had wanted a tougher, less emotional and forgiving swan? Well, she was about to get her wish!

I am what she has made me- and the woman she has made is going to make damned sure that no one manipulates her again!

A ripple of chaos swept through the room in response to my strike, washing The Sequestered my way like a wave of spectators. There were exclamations of surprise and excitement but no recriminations for me, so I stood there trembling with rage and anguish, staring down at the girl on the ground while a couple of other people slyly went to her assistance as though afraid that I’d go after one of them that was obviously helping her next.

‘You didn’t have to do that,’ Gabby said, stepping forward and making herself seen, and I slid my infuriated gaze to her, balling my fists and trying to keep in the hot rage that was burning them from the inside out trapped within. Siria stepped up beside her like they were forming a first line against me, but I kept my eyes focused on the twin that had pissed me off the most- the one that had seduced Sapphire Whittaker and had brought about that family’s undoing.

‘You don’t get to tell me what I can and cannot do!’ I said, barely recognising my own voice for the hum of anger that was resonating through it- distorting the sound. ‘You’re not my mother- you’re just the empty vessel that helped get me into this world… right?’

Gabby had glossy black brows that rose in amusement, and lovely red lips that tilted up in the corners in a hint of a taunting smile as she took another step towards me. ‘You’re welcome, Larkin,’ she said, and I saw red.

I lifted my hand to throw a fistful of flames at her, but I heard Bastien cry out in fear and that was enough to freeze my arm, mid-air. ‘You’re welcome?’ I repeated to Gabby, incredulous and still holding the ball of flame. ‘For what?!’

‘For being who you are!’ Gabby snapped, resting her hands on her hips and indicating around the room. ‘Powerful! Beautiful! Destined for greatness! I helped shape you!’ She pointed to Martya, who was crying as she was helped up onto the platform again- crying and bleeding from a cut in her cheek and the corner of her mouth. It pained me to see her like that, but I wasn’t about to show it- or any sign of weakness- in front of all of those people. ‘We both did!’

‘You would be remiss to believe that I am grateful for how I have been shaped, Gabby, or that I would ever conceive of thanking you for the way you have helped my fate along!’ I shrugged off Sam’s hold and went at her, dropping the ball of flames at her feet and causing her to scuttle back until they disintegrated to smoke. ‘You-’ I included Siria in on my glare, ‘both of you have helped me without my permission for the last time, understood? I don’t know what kind of arrangement you have with Satan, but as far as I am concerned I owe her two favours and two favours only so I won’t have you doing her any on my behalf again!!’

‘You can’t limit what we do for Satan-’

‘But I can limit how much you can do for her HERE if I refuse to take another step north in your company!’ I pointed out, and she blanched. ‘I’m doing Satan a favour too, remember? Something tells me that if I tell her that I’ll do this without you or not at all, she’ll agree with the not at all part, so don’t push me Gabby! I think I know who’s disposable here, and who’s not!’

‘We’re all disposable to her!’ Siria argued, eyes flashing dangerously. ‘You’re not going head-to-head with the duchess of Calliel anymore, little swan, but a divine being! If you believe that she’ll let you push her and us around then it’s only because she’s allowing you to believe that, so wake up to yourself!’

‘Oh I’m wide awake, Siria…’ I said, stepping forward and enjoying the way they retreated. ‘Maybe I am disposable to her but it’s going to take her another seventeen years to breed a replacement for me and she’s not exactly patient, is she? You on the other hand well… there’s two of you.’ I looked from one to the other, and shrugged as I lifted my hand and started generating another fireball so they’d know to take me seriously. ‘Killing both might piss her off but if I take out just the one I’m sure she’ll-’

‘Larkin!’ Bastien called out again, sounding upset, but I whirled on him as Siria and Gabby backed up further while shouting at me that I was crazy.

‘Shut up! I get to talk now!’ I snapped, and everyone gasped and reeled back. ‘You all manipulated me into this position against my will and wishes, and here I am! I don’t like it, so if it’s here that you want me to stay you can all listen to me for two minutes, or find yourself another bloody chosen one because there’s only so much more of this crap that I can take! Thanks to my wings, there’s only so much that I have to take too, and you’ll all do well to remember that I don’t belong to anybody but myself!’

Everyone began murmuring to one another while looking at me with grim expressions, but the shepherd sighed and nodded before stepping back into the shadows a little more. I felt more stabbing at the sides of my mind then, and I met Sam’s eyes as I heard:

Be careful, Larkin… they’ve all put their faith in you because they have faith in Satan, remember? If you disrespect her and the women like Martya, Siria and Gabby who they believe to be her commanding officers, there is a good chance that they will begin to distrust you instead!

They should distrust me! I thought back. I have no idea what I’m doing and zero faith in Satan! Distrusting me and questioning my judgement is the second healthiest thing that they can do! The first, however, is to distrust Satan herself and her minions! These women aren’t heroes- they are the reason why I was forced to get closer to Kohl in the first place, and why I drank more than I ought to and even why I read that letter from Karol at the worst possible time! I do not NEED their kind of help, especially if it’s given before it is requested!!

‘But you do belong to Satan, don’t you?’ the young girl that had been minding the kids the day before asked me then, still staring at my fireball with wide eyes. ‘She’s your mother and sort of your boss, isn’t she?’

‘Yeah!’ a man close to Sam’s age said, looking irked. ‘So if she tells you to get us out of here, then don’t you have to?’

‘Not unless she orders me to,’ I said, shaking my head and blowing out the fire when I heard someone whisper ‘Liberty’. That was just embarrassing! ‘She can order me to do two more things for her and I must do them or pay a price, but she’s probably already got something specific in mind and I don’t see her wasting those orders on trying to force me to work with Gabby or Siria if I’m completely against it, do you?’ I looked back to the other people. ‘That’s another thing that I want to make clear here: I have not sold my soul to Satan, I have not allowed her to possess me physically yet so she can’t force her will on me that way, and if I ignore her commands then I get sucked back into the ocean to where I was last night before I made this deal with her, which is bad for me but not necessarily the worst case scenario so heed my words or regret it! Certain death will be waiting for me if I deny her, but thanks to these women-’ I jerked my thumb at the twins and Martya, ‘I’ve gone through worse already, so I will not be taking a step forward in Satan’s name if I believe it is to the detriment of the human race, understood? It’s worth more than my life is to me- a sentiment that neither God nor Satan seem to share!’ I was bluffing a little because I couldn’t think of anything worse than ending up in Kohl’s grasp again, but I was mad enough, I hoped, to hide that from everyone but Sam and I saw their collective unease mount at my words, which pleased me. Keeping my grim smile in place I turned back to the dark women behind me and said: ‘And if you help me again without warning me first- on her behalf or your own- you will need someone to help put you out after, got it?’

Gabby narrowed her eyes at me. ‘You’d let all of these people wander on without guidance just because you have a grudge against my sister and I? How lovely!’

‘Selfish!’ someone else cried out. I turned around and saw that it was a man. ‘Satan told us that you’ve consented to help keep us safe but you’re just threatening us and attacking our own-’

‘I have consented to try and get all of the people in this room to somewhere safer than this!’ I exclaimed, tearing my gaze off Gabby’s face and twisting slightly, addressing everybody at once again. ‘I have consented to follow Satan’s guidance- and Bastien’s- for a while because I don’t have an actual plan of my own, besides getting the hell away from Eden... and conveniently for me, her prophecy regarding me heading north with all of you happens to be compatible with that, so here I am-trying to step up as requested!’ I shook my head. ‘But it was a request and NOT an order! I am not her puppet and I am not her vessel and I am not going to allow anyone-’ I looked at Martya and my voice wobbled: ‘even someone that I once dearly trusted, to manipulate me in order to push their own agendas ever again, so we do this my way, or not at all!’ Martya sobbed onto the shoulder of a girl next to her that I didn’t recognize, and although it broke me, I turned back to the crowd so she wouldn’t see it. ‘Yes, I will follow this prophecy and Shepherd Birch until the end of the road and I will do what I can to keep you all alive and migrating north after he hands over the lead to me… but I am not going to go along with people that I distrust flanking me, and I am not going to refer to myself as your leader until I have proven that I am one, all right? Likewise, I am not going to promise you peace on earth, equality for all or a victory over the Barachiels should they come after us, because I do not know that I can deliver those things yet!’ I saw people looking at each other with expressions of concern and horror, and I held up my hand. ‘Perhaps you’d have more faith in me now if I said otherwise, but insinuating that I know exactly how to make you all happy and safe and healthy would make me a liar, just like every other dishonest leader there’s ever been and I refuse to do that! So do not follow me if all you’re looking to do here, is pick a fight with the Barachiels, and do not follow me because you think I worship Satan and am eager to do her evil bidding... and do not follow me if you expect me to make all of your dreams come true, or to avenge you by taking out those that have hurt you while thumbing my nose at God…’ I looked over at the small baby girl named Lark and then up at her parents, who looked more composed than anyone else. ‘Follow me if like me, you’ve got nothing left to lose that the established kingdoms in the world like Arcadia wouldn’t take from you anyway: your child, your life, your dignity, your happiness- and your will to live.’ I held up my hands. ‘I can’t guarantee that you will be able to keep all of those things if you follow me, but I can guarantee that I will never try to tell you that you’re not entitled to them again. And isn’t that all we really want here? To be told that yes, we are entitled to be happy and that no one gets to decide how our lives will go no matter how good or evil that person claims to be?’

The crowd went silent after that- so silent that I couldn’t even feel Sam in my head. I should have been happy for the sudden lack of yelling, but the weight of that silence was pressing down upon me and flattening me making me more aware of all of the accusations and questions that their eyes were screaming at me instead.

‘I’m sorry if I didn’t just say everything that you hoped I would,’ I said gruffly, dropping my hands to my sides and shrugging. ‘I wasn’t prepared to give a speech or anything so you just got my truths instead. If that’s not good enough for you, well…’ I nodded over at Siria and Gabby, ‘follow them. They’re skilled liars, and probably much more suited to this role, than I am. Nonetheless, the fact remains: if you follow me, then it will be me you are following, not Satan. She has taken over my life but my mind is still my own, as are most of yours. Please use them wisely before you decide to follow anyone out of the only home that most of you have ever known- you owe yourselves that much, at least, don’t you think?’

No one else said anything else but I saw Bastien smiling gently, so I ducked my head and stepped out of the centre of the space leaving Gabby, Siria and Martya staring at the ground at their feet- and everyone else staring at them while they whispered about me. I knew the three women were furious with me, but I didn’t know if they were going to retaliate or not and right then I was too overwhelmed to care. I was shaking from being forced to confront my supposed fate without first having splashed water on my face.

The twin women are angry, but they’re thinking more along the lines of how ungrateful you are, than they are about plotting revenge, Sam said quickly, making a sudden, painful return to my mind. More than anything, they’re hoping that Satan doesn’t punish them for the fact that you’re not more grateful for their intervention than they figured you’d be. They fear she will punish them and you for the things you just said.

Satan already knows how I feel about them and her, I mentally whispered back. She can access our thoughts when we think about her as easily as you can all the time, remember? Besides, even if I was stupid enough to think I could get away with bad-mouthing her behind her back without it getting back to her… I don’t know how to hold my tongue anyway, so it’s only inevitable that my less than gracious thoughts about her are going to piss her off eventually. Better we get it all out now, yeah?

Fair enough. But you don’t have to worry about that Martya girl trying to backstab you again- she’s more loyal to you than she is to Satan.

Really? I asked, wetting my lips and darting a glance Martya’s way as she was consoled by her offsiders. How do you know that? What’s she thinking?

Oh! For someone who was so morally opposed to my ability to pry into minds, you don’t seem to mind-

Spit it out, Sam!

Sam sighed. I can’t read her thoughts right now- she’s the one that I gave your rock to. But earlier she was worried sick about how you were going to receive her, and is pretty much willing to do anything to make it up to you. Socking her may have changed that, but I don’t think so...

I walked over to the washer woman, Georgia, feeling weirded-out by the way people backed away from me, but sort of relieved that the room had become calm again. I indicated that I’d like one of the small terry-cloth rags from her stack of laundry and Georgia nodded and so I took one before doubling back to Martya, holding my breath. Really? I was almost overcome with relief. Well, if her thoughts are so pure, then why did you block her?

Sam sighed again. Her thoughts are only pure when it comes to you. When she looks at me, however… well, her internal dialogue gets rather impure.

I almost snorted out loud, but was kept in check by the wave of sadness that overwhelmed to know that Martya had started taking an interest in boys without my knowing about it. What else had changed about her? She has a crush on you already?

Natural selection rears its ugly head- the fact that my hair colour is the same as so many members of her family has her thinking we’re on the same Darwinian track together for a reason.

God save you then. When that girl wants something…

She won’t want this for long. Not once she gets past the hair and gets to know the man beneath it.

There was something rather melancholy about Sam’s last thought, but I didn’t have the time to address it because I was already in front of Martya and holding up the towel, like the limpest, rattiest olive branch that there had ever been.

‘Here,’ I said softly, but still rather brusquely. The girls flanking her (all young adults like us, this had to be the faction of scouting kids that Bastien had mentioned) all inched back with cautious airs. ‘For the blood.’ I swallowed hard and said. ‘I’m not sorry I hit you because I know that I really needed to do that. But I am sorry that you’re hurt.’

‘I’m sorry that I did something to warrant getting hit, and I know that I did. I just…’ Martya took the towel like I’d handed her the moon and yes, something deep and sweet twanged inside me, to see her look so hopeful after such a small gesture. ‘What do I have to do, Lark? To be considered as your friend again, and not your enemy?’ Her eyes spilled over and she shook her head. ‘I know you have a right to be angry with me, but I can’t bear it. Please… just tell me what I have to do to win your trust back, and I’ll do it, okay? It’s you I want to follow, Lark, not Satan!’

I hugged myself and studied her carefully, rubbing my lips together as I considered this. ‘If you mean that, then firstly you have to swear that you’ll never lie to me again, okay? No matter how bad the truth is, or what you think speaking it will cost our friendship… I’d rather have a bad friend that I know inside out, then have a friend who only pretends to be good, that I do not know at all.’

Martya nodded eagerly, stepping forward while pressing the towel to her broken skin. ‘I swear it! What’s the other thing?’

My fingertips latched on to the boning in my corset, holding myself together. I used to be so good at this forgiveness thing! Damn Kohén and Kohl for robbing me of my ability to give it freely! And damn my foolish heart for wanting to do it again anyway, so badly. My nose tingled and my eyes watered as I stepped forward and gently moved a lock of her knotted hair out of her eyes.

‘Never- ever- die on me again, okay?’ Tears spilled out of my eyes. ‘I barely survived it the last time!’

‘Oh… Lark!’ And then Martya was the one wrapped around me, holding me together as I sobbed on her filthy shoulder. I didn’t have a whole lot to be grateful for in that moment, but I was elated to see that my tears were running clear again over the shoulder of a friend instead of a demon.

11.

Hope Station

Larkin

It would have been nice if Martya and I could have spent the rest of the day re-bonding, but there were things to do and plans to make before the time came for us to head onto the third camp, and now that I’d had enough sleep to make clear-thinking a possibility again, I knew that what I’d blurted out earlier had been true: that there was no way that I could even consider steering people north on Satan’s behalf, until I had a better idea of what Satan was all about, and how the Barachiel family had handled my dramatic departure.

So I asked Bastien, Siria, Gabby, Martya and Sam- all people that had interacted with Satan or the Barachiels in a personal way- to have an open discussion about everything right away. Gabby and Siria weren’t exactly thrilled at the thought of spending any time with me at all and that was obvious, but I supposed their pride at being consulted overwhelmed their anger at having been publicly reproached, because they didn’t hesitate to join us. They hadn’t yet apologised for the part they’d played in all of my unfortunate twists of fate, but they hadn’t stormed off either so I took their moody silence as a sign that they were going to at least try to tread carefully around me from thereon out.

Unfortunately, they had very little to tell me about the state of things in Arcadia because apparently, Kohl Barachiel had ordered a complete and utter lockdown on Eden just before he had followed me outside, and although Karol was blessedly still alive, he hadn’t yet lifted that order either, so I got the distinct impression that the Barachiels were going heavily into damage control and sorting their stories out before they addressed the public, and that made me scowl. Oh, to be a fly on the wall in that wing right now!

Martya went on to say that people were being warned to lock their houses tightly and practice precautions until I was found, but there had been no formal charges lain against me yet and therefore, no one outside of Eden seemed to have the faintest idea of what was going on. Everyone assumed that I’d gone on a murderous spree, but only half of the people blamed me for it, and the others were having way too much fun guessing what had happened and frightening people with gross exaggerations to care about the truth anyway.

Not one person knew that Karol had been about to propose to me though, and that had me wondering if maybe, he’d just been lying all along as a means of cornering me. Ora had convinced me that she was telling the truth about his feelings for me, but who knew what lengths a Barachiel man would go to, to bed a woman they had their eye on? Even Martya had seemed downright shocked to hear it and I’d thought that she’d had an ear in everything!

Karol hadn’t technically survived though- his injuries had been incompatible with life and so he had died only seconds after falling out of the tower. However, the healers had gotten to work on him quickly and even though I knew it was Satan that had revived him thanks to my wish- not God or his healers- his return from the dead was being touted as a true miracle. Kohl Barachiel had emerged from the harem with his clothes ripped and sooty but unscathed, and Kohén had survived too, but he’d apparently sustained some bad burns and head trauma, and that was the last that Gabby had been able to pick up before she’d had to make a choice- flee, or stay. She’d fled with a lot of her people but not all, and so now we wait to wait for enough time to pass for some of our people to sneak back into Arcadia and liberate the ones that were being detained for questioning. That made me nervous, but Martya assured me that I had nothing to worry about- like Cherry, the members of The Sequestered that were still in Arcadia were either free and beneath suspicion, or locked up in Eden and completely unaware of how The Sequestered worked. If pressed for information, they’d have nothing to tell, at least not as far as the link to me went, or the locations of our camps or the fact that Satan was directly involved because as of right now they were still just a bunch of disconnected people that hated life in Arcadia and were looking for a way out. No one was ever told anything until they’d either spoken to Satan themselves, or had arrived at camp, so that was a relief, and everyone that went back was watched carefully by another member of the group to make sure that there weren’t any disloyal members in our ranks.

The others had managed to pick up one more crushing piece of information though- both the king and the duchess had died, along with poor T’are, and I felt myself fall apart when her death, and that of T’are’s was announced. I folded my hands over my knees and sobbed for a few minutes, and for those few minutes- that was all that could be heard. Eventually I started sniffling and they started talking again, but Constance’s loss stayed with me, like an anchor hanging off my heart for the rest of the day, and I knew there was a good chance that I’d never forgive myself for my actions having inadvertently caused T’are’s death either. But I couldn’t turn back the clock on those deaths and because I hadn’t caused them, I couldn’t even allow myself to wallow in guilt so eventually, I pulled myself together and promised that someday, some way, I would find a way to honour them both.

But for now, I had more important matters to focus on. I tried to pump the others to see if we couldn’t figure out if following Satan’s lead wasn’t going to get a lot of people killed via some sly plot of hers, but to my dismay, none of them seemed to have a clue about Satan’s true agenda. Thanks to Sam’s gift, I could tell that Siria and Gabby were being as genuine as they knew how to be on the subject too, which was a shame because I was still somewhat eager to pick a fight with them. They’d pondered the question a lot (though not half as much in their whole lives as I already had in one day) but they honestly didn’t know anything beyond what Satan had told them: that she wanted control of the earth and the people on it simply because she believed that she would do a better job than God had. Being the loyal followers that they were, they hadn’t thought to question her sincerity and why should they? Satan never concealed her wicked deeds from them, so why would she bother trying to hide a wicked motive?

That explanation ought to have put my mind at ease because at least she’d told us all the same thing, and yet it seemed too simple- for both Martya and I- who could smell rats easily after living with them in Eden for years. Bastien liked to hope for the best in people to shine through so he wasn’t half as paranoid as we were, and Sam was so jaded that he took it for granted that Satan wanted the earth only to make it something ugly and evil and frightening anyway and wasn’t particularly concerned about it (In fact, he scribbled on his notebook the entire time and rarely looked up anyway) but Siria and Gabby insisted, rather plaintively, that all Satan wanted was our love, and that she planned on earning it by making a few changes to how mankind functioned, via me- a fact she hadn’t bothered hiding.

I didn’t understand how that was going to work, but in the end it was decided (for me) that the fact that Satan had chosen to mate with a light Nephilim instead of a dark one proved that her heart- or whatever was left of it- was in the right place. I suspected that it wasn’t her heart that was on the right track but her brain, because it made sense to fool people into following her by using a blonde teenager who didn’t want to hurt a fly as a decoy representative of her master plan… but I couldn’t argue with the group because at the end of the day, one fact remained indisputable: I would never brand, enslave or oppress someone without due cause and so I was a better alternative as a leader than the Barachiels by default, no matter what angle it was viewed from. Also, worshipping a God didn’t change how evil or good a person could be, so why should I worry about the consequences of building a dark kingdom on earth, if the people in God’s own kingdom were corrupt anyway? Yes, everyone agreed that Satan was still definitely out to ‘get’ God so my paranoia wasn’t completely unfounded in their eyes, but the consensus seemed to be that she’d get all the revenge that she needed if her wish came true, so why look for a rat in a sewer? As far as evil plots went, ‘World Domination’ definitely ranked among the highest so weren’t we wasting time trying to prove that the devil was a bad person when we already knew that it was true?

I felt dispirited after leaving that meeting- especially when we walked back out onto the platform and saw that people were madly packing for our departure into the unknown- but Bastien squeezed my shoulder firmly and whispered that in the end, the only actions that I could be held accountable for were my own. Sure, Satan might betray us all by turning around and doing something ugly with the power that I was to amass for her, but that could only be Satan’s fault and never mine, not so long as I continued to do what was right.

But that’s the thing that’s really bugging you, isn’t it? I asked myself as I shuffled along. You are going to do what’s wrong: two things that are wrong, and until you know what favours she’s going to ask you to do so you’ll be able to gauge how ‘evil’ you’re going to be asked to be, you don’t know that you’re going to be a better leader than the Barachiels, do you?

There was more to it than that and I knew that I would feel a world of guilt if Satan did something horrific thanks to me despite how much of a part I played in it, but I did have the presence of mind to understand that it truly was out of my control. If what Satan wanted was to end the world or bring Hell to earth or ruin God and heaven, then she would find a way to do it, one way or the other. And if I couldn’t bring myself to do whatever it was she asked me to do, then I’d have no choice but to say no and end up back in Arcadian waters, facing the fate that I’d only narrowly escaped the last time. That would be awful but if it came to that, what choice would I have but to swear myself to god, forgive and love him now that I’d known worse, and pray that he took me up to Heaven once Kohl Barachiel was through with me? It was the cheat’s entry into Heaven, but an exit from Satan’s clutches and so it would have to do.

‘I know that you feel like Satan’s pawn, Lark,’ Sam said softly- audibly- bringing my attention to the fact that he’d followed me quietly out of the room and had lingered by the door to scan my thoughts without my knowledge. ‘But the fact of the matter is that she’s asked you to be a queen, not a pawn, and that means that you’ll be able to make more moves than you think- moves that she’ll have no control over once they’re made.’

I turned around to face him, noting that his eyes got lighter as they got further away from his pupils, like a ripple in dark blue water. ‘But I’m still just a piece to her,’ I pointed out. ‘Doesn’t matter what I do- she can knock the board and every piece on it to the floor at any time, if she doesn’t like the way it’s going.’

‘Nah… the board is way too precious to her for that. Irreplaceable, remember?’ He lifted his eyebrows and leaned forward to say: ‘As are you. No matter how much she scares and threatens you Larkin Whittaker never ever forget that fact- she is only as powerful as her most faithful servants are, and you’re the most powerful of all. Get the earth in the palm of your hand, and you’ll soon find that she is in your control too.’

I snorted. ‘You make it sound so easy…’

He shrugged and then pulled out a small leather pouch before taking my hand and sliding a bracelet made of tiny amber stones onto my wrist. I lifted my eyebrows in surprise and that was when I saw Martya watching us while she patiently waited for me by the train. Was that a frown I saw on her face then? Why wouldn’t she want me to shield Sam from my thoughts?

‘Ever studied the former world leaders?’ Sam asked, pocketing the pouch. ‘They were all morons, and not half as pretty as you when covered in Wildwoods dirt. The only thing limiting you in this scenario is you and your fears so for all our sakes, please try and get over them, okay?’

I furrowed my brow at him. ‘Was there a compliment buried in there somewhere?’

‘Under The Wildwoods dirt thing? Maybe. Anyway, I’ve got to go get some writing done, so if you don’t mind...’ Sam winked at me and then barged his shoulder gently into mine as he passed me by in a brotherly way that would have made me smile, if not for his parting words.

‘Write about what?’ I hissed after him. ‘Hey you’re not going to write down that I hit another girl, are you? Or that I thought the ‘H’ word about people? Sam…? Sam!’

But he waved at me over his shoulder without turning back, leaving me to stew in my own internal steam… and to think of how well he and Kohén would get along if they ever met!

To think of how nice it would be to have a charm that would keep Kohén Barachiel out of my heart the way that the amber bracelet would keep Sam out of my head, because even that one moment’s lapse in my own shield caused a sharp, stabbing pain to puncture it.

Oh God… he lost his mother… I know his death may not have affected her much, but what is he going through right now?

‘Larkin?’ Martya called out when she saw my step falter. ‘What’s wrong?’

I pressed my hand to my heart and swallowed hard, trying to shake off all thoughts of the misguided prince that I had left in my past, and took a few more stumbling steps towards my uncertain future and the only old friend that I had left, praying that soon enough, I’d find my stride again and that it would lead me as far away from Eden as possible.

*

I had known that Bastien had anticipated moving quickly, but it had never occurred to me that we’d be leaving Hope Station that very day. Apparently it hadn’t occurred to anyone else either, yet when my father announced that we’d be leaving there by seven p.m. and walking through the night, no one complained but me.

But complain I did. I protested that it was too soon, and pointed out that Martya’s group had barely had the chance to recover from their own gruelling walk through The Wildwoods, and that it would take more than a few hours to dismantle the camp, but I was overruled by a sense of urgency that forced Bastien to put the needs of the entire community over the needs of one faction of it. Evidently, one of the witches had foreseen that an extreme cold front was coming that would usher in a premature start to winter- a winter unlike any that I’d ever experienced before. I challenged this theory by pointing out that we’d been almost in the negative temperatures the day before and yet we’d survived, but that was when Bastien reminded me of the fact that not only did I have an internal heat that would keep me alive in conditions that would kill others- but that not even I would survive in negative forty degrees for long.

That shut me right up. Negative forty? I thought, staring at him in my stupor, and he nodded gravely.

‘And it’s worse than it sounds Larkin so please- get your things together quickly, all right? We have a storm to race across the wastelands.’

I did not know how racing more north of this point was going to do us any good, seeing as how it was common knowledge that it would only get colder as we went further north, but Bastien was a smart man that had experienced things that I had not and so I shut my mouth and gathered up my only possessions- my sword and my jacket, before braiding my hair so that it would stay out of my face. As I did this, I said a silent prayer to whatever God was listening that this wasn’t a prank that Satan was pulling on me, and thanked Maryah for having taught me how to braid, if nothing else, because my hair was getting so long that it was starting to tangle around my elbows.

Once I was done, I set about asking other people what I could do to help them, and was asked to strap bundles to sleds, roll up bearskins and help pack away the things that were used in Hope Station that we couldn’t take with us: things like plates, cutlery and furniture. They had no intention of ever returning to live there but knew that it would come in handy if they ever needed to return south for some reason, so everything was stowed away carefully but swiftly.

I was afraid that I was more of a hindrance than I was a help, because I didn’t know where anything went, and lacked the basic know-how to do things that came to them easily, like tying complicated knots in the ropes and rolling bearskins so that they wouldn’t get wet from the snow... but people seemed happy to show me how to do those things and so I watched them as attentively as I’d ever watched my instructors in Eden, cramming my skull full with useful information and hoping I’d start forgetting how to do useless crap in the process, like dancing badly with a fan, and giggling only loudly enough to flatter the joke-teller but never so much as to be considered forward to them. My skin crawled as I remembered Kelia practicing her laugh on Kohl, and I tied the next few knots a little tighter than was probably necessary, cursing Maryah and all that she stood for as fervently as I’d thanked her not long before.

Brainwashed… I thought, watching Martya lope across the room in a way that was unladylike but athletic and purposeful and nothing like the stilted teeter that she’d been trying to perfect when we’d been in the harem’s dormer together. We were utterly brainwashed by those people! And Kelia… God, what a wasted life, in every sense there is! I don’t know if I should continue to regret her death, or thank the fates for having scooped her out of that cesspool of a palace prematurely. Where is Emmerly right now? Whose lap is she on, and how miserable is she? Has Kohén asked her back? Has she accepted? How bad are his head-injuries? Oh God Larkin no! DON’T THINK ABOUT HIM!

I hurried quickly to finish belting down someone’s sleigh (there were at least eight of them that had been packed with what food supplies and warm clothes we had left) and though I did manage to get Kohén’s name out of my mind, I struggled to repress my concerns regarding Emmerly and the others, so I started picturing them all being happy and safe and out of Eden instead, hoping that my positive thoughts would reach them and affect them somehow. I could and should forget about Kohén and what he had meant to me as soon as possible, but I had to be careful not to let the other girls that I had grown up with leave my heart or my mind just because two of us had gotten free. I didn’t know how I was going to go about getting the Companion Caste dismantled, but if I had any purpose in this life, then surely seeing that through ought to be as much mine as it was Bastien’s, right? If not more?

Let’s hope that that won’t be your problem anyway, I thought as I watched Martya show Sam how to layer on his clothes so that he would have more insulation and less to carry. Surely after all that has happened, they’ll all be considering settling down quick smart, right? To save their reputations if nothing else?

The last thing everybody did before we left was put on their animal furs over the top of the shapeless shifts that all of the men and women were wearing, and although I was offered a bearskin cape that was beautiful due to how pure white the fur pelt was, I draped it over my arm instead of putting it on, knowing that I’d have to be near death to consider wrapping myself up in a dead animal’s skin. I still did not judge The Sequestered for doing what they had to do to survive, but many of them still had the heads attached to the cloaks that they were wearing, so the shadows that they were casting on the tunnel walls looked like the silhouette from some nightmare that I did not wish to blend into yet. The woman that had given me the pelt gave me an inquisitive look when I shrugged into my jacket but left the coat off, so to save her any offence, I explained that I ran a little warmer than the others, and would probably give myself a sweat that would turn into a chill if I put the pelt on too soon, and she smiled in understanding and to my mortification, actually bowed to me before she hurried back to her young son. I watched her go, and wasn’t jolted from my astonishment until Martya came up wearing a fox-fur jacket and asked me if I was ready to go. I wasn’t ready, not by a long shot, but I’d never been ready for anything a day in my life and I didn’t see why that should change now, so I nodded while the fires were snuffed out around me, wondering if there was going to be a light at the end of this tunnel for The Sequestered, or more frigid darkness.

*

I hadn’t understood why we were starting such a potentially perilous hike at night, but as we walked, Martya took it upon herself to tell me everything she knew about how The Sequestered operated, so although our trip was a dark one, it was illuminating all the same.

For starters, there wasn’t anything scarier in this world then being caught out in the wastelands on the other side of the avalanche tunnel at night, according to Martya, so we were going through the tunnel in the darkness so we’d reach the wastelands in time for sunrise. She explained that it was always sort of dark in that region no matter when you crossed it, but the dead of night was above and beyond the most dangerous time to be out because that was when the apex predators that dominated the region came out to hunt, even the salt and pepper bears, whose coats were slowly darkening every year in response to their new, nocturnal eating habits. It was a twist in evolution, to be sure, and one that had developed as a result of the land predators breeding too quickly in an area that was almost impossible for them to escape from, and one that was now practically devoid of smaller animals for the larger ones to prey on. Martya said that when she’d first started coming to Hope Station two years before, there had been plenty of squirrels and rabbits getting about in The Wildwoods and fewer foxes and wolves- but in the two years since, small animal sightings had become rare, and bear sightings had almost doubled. She didn’t know why they were suddenly breeding so fast for certain, but she had deduced that it probably had something to do with the fact that the north was starting to thaw out a little more every spring after centuries of a prolonged ice age. Longer, somewhat warmer springs meant more breeding for everyone, and more breeding for everyone meant more meals for the bigger ones and less places to hide for the little ones and the stupid humans that decided to traipse through their territories.

Martya suspected that the ecosystem would start to balance itself out a little more as the springs increased in length, giving the tinier animals a chance to catch up as far as population went, but in order for that to happen there was going to have to be a turf war first, because the region simply could not provide enough sustenance for so many ravenous creatures as it was. It would have been different, she said, if the bears had been the brown bear variety or even grizzlies, but the salt and pepper bears were a hybrid of brown bears and polar bears, and they’d taken after their polar bear counterparts in the sense that they did not go into hibernation during the coldest months, so the rest of the wildlife were never spared from their appetites. To complicate matters, wolves didn’t hibernate either, so the two wild species had gobbled up most of the moose that they’d preyed on centuries ago and had started fighting the foxes for what was left. Naturally, they’d both gone for the foxes at first, but foxes were foxes and so they’d evolved accordingly, learning to band together just as wolves had started breaking away from their packs, protecting one another in the face of certain extinction after years of going their own ways. Yes, it certainly sounded like the fur-covered inhabitants of the north had thrown out the laws of nature rulebook just as humanity had tossed aside the bible and now they were disorientated, desperate and starving and why? Because like humans, they couldn’t seem to stop themselves from mating, even though their world was already collapsing around them due to the strain of overpopulation.

I should have known better than to be shocked by how much Martya had already learned about the north, but I’d equated her dirty, gaunt appearance with a step backwards in evolution and of course, that wasn’t the case. She didn’t have access to the books we’d had in Eden, but she’d been listening to people- soaking up all they knew into herself like a sponge and now she was practically dripping with knowledge, and after just half an hour in her company I realised that aside from the fact that she’d developed a somewhat coarser sense of humour and a hardness in her eyes, she’d only changed for the better since I’d seen her last. Would that be me after two years in the north? Or was I going to be dead by the end of the day because I’d read a romance novel for every second textbook that she’d pored over?

After Martya had finished explaining that we would be able to walk through the night because everyone in Hope Station had slept until two that day in order to prepare themselves for this migration, she tried to steer the conversation in Eden’s direction. I managed to give her a brief synopsis over what had happened since I’d seen her last, but luckily for me I didn’t have to go into great detail about the ugliest things that had happened, because Satan had already shared most of that with her. About Kelia’s death, and my almost affair with Kohl and how Kohén had tricked me into the harem… the things that had made me hate myself, before I’d gone to Hell. Martya didn’t understand the specifics of my final night in Eden and so she pressed me to divulge exactly what had happened, but the moment I tried to explain what had gone wrong after I’d received Karol’s letter, my voice failed me. We hadn’t seen one another for a long time and it was pitch black in that tunnel, but Martya had worked out that I was beginning to have a meltdown and so she quickly changed the topic again, and had started telling me about how she’d faked her death instead.

That was an exciting story, I could tell that much because it involved a sequestered man driving the carriage and helping her make their disappearance look like an accident, but I couldn’t be the audience that she needed me to be because I was concentrating on trying to swallow down the lump that had formed in my throat from just saying Constance’s name out loud- a lump that was refusing to go away. I knew that I had a crying jag coming my way, and that I would probably feel better about everything once I’d actually allowed myself to give into the urge to sob all of my woes out, but was I ever going to be alone again for long enough to do so? Or was my despair just going to expand inside me until I exploded again, like I had in Eden?

Martya’s mood had withered a little at the mention of Constance’s name and I could not blame her for that because she’d never gotten to know the softer side of the duchess the way that I had… but I missed Constance dearly, and I struggled to come to terms with the fact that they would be holding funerals for the king and duchess in Eden in the near future- funerals that I should have been present for, but could not even dream of attending because I was traipsing through a train tunnel in the north because Satan had asked me to. I’d been barely holding on as it was, but when I imagined Karol throwing a clod of earth onto his mother’s open grave, my heart twisted so sharply that it snapped something inside me and just like that, the dam inside me broke and tears started running down my face- and they kept running steadily and stealthily like that, unobserved by everyone and muffled by Martya’s persistent chatter, until the light at the end of the tunnel became a wall to wall carpet of white.

We’d arrived at the avalanche tunnel’s exit point, and as though the universe knew that the only way to stop me crying was to intervene, my tears promptly turned into ice on my face as my breath turned into a crystal cloud in front of it. We were in the wastelands all right, and for all of the imagination that I had, I honestly could not picture that there was something on the other side of it, much less another side of it that I would reach alive.

12.

The Wastelands

Larkin

Tuesday August 23rd AA644

Bastien allowed us to all pause to rest and have something to eat before we left the avalanche tunnel, but although people gobbled down their portions of jerky, biscuits and warm cider eagerly, they passed over the opportunity to rest in the name of fortifying themselves for the next leg of the journey. I watched in awe as they started unrolling their bearskins and then began wrapping them around themselves, before using the strapping to cinch them in place around their torsos. Boots were taken off and small burlap sacks (the kind we used in Arcadia to keep carrots and potatoes in during transit) were slipped over their socks before the boots went back on. Scarves were then tied around faces and heads, leaving only the eyes uncovered, and despite the fact that the children already seemed to be wearing everything that they owned at once, leaves and down were stuffed under their first layers against their skin for the sake of insulation.

Then, they started getting their weapons ready. Axes were ground against a stone until they gleamed, and sticks were sharpened to points. Quivers were slung over shoulders and bows were taken in the hand- taken and then tensioned… while I stood behind them open-mouthed, watching a white-haired boy of about thirteen tighten the band on his Shanghai.

So… not the first time they’ve visited this neck of the woods then?

I had been appalled at the idea of wearing an animal fur before, but I saw that I would die if I did not rug myself up in something now and so I shouldered it, grateful for the fact that whoever had fixed it up had not left the face attached as some of the others had. I saw Sam smirk at me from across the dingy tunnel as he wrapped his own head up in a scarf and I flushed, knowing that even though he could not read my mind right then, he’d obviously already picked up on how I felt about wearing fur, and was enjoying silently calling me a hypercritical sell-out now. That was irritating, but his pointed look was valid so I didn’t bother to give him a dirty look back. I was stubborn when it came to arguing with people, but only when I was in the right.

I was touched by how many people came over to me to offer me sweaters and gloves when Martya pointed out that I wasn’t even slightly prepared to brave the cold front dressed as I was, but even though I was tempted to take them, I’d seen enough people doubling up on gloves to understand that the underfed, malnourished humans that I was traveling with would still need them more than I would so I declined, repeating what I’d said earlier about my natural body-heat as an excuse. I doubted very much that my slightly higher core temperature was going to do me much good in a blizzard seeing as how I was already feeling the chill now, but the people accepted my explanation and then put their second or third pair of gloves on as they walked away while I fastened the ties on my cloak across my chest, cursing Satan for having given me such a vampy, low-cut ensemble. The suede pants were easy to move in and comfortable, but who was I going to impress around those parts with an over-abundance of cleavage? Especially once my skin turned blue?

Still better than those ridiculous togas though… Plus the fact that you’re wearing next to nothing makes you look fearless. Go with it, so they don’t realise that you feel the exact opposite of how you must look from the outside.

We commenced the fourth leg of that seemingly endless peregrination before I was ready, and it was three times harder to navigate than I’d imagined. There had been an actual trail leading to the third Sequestered camp for years, but it was already covered in snow and so Bastien had to lead us off memory, with the assistance of a few of the other sequestered men that had made the trip a handful of times themselves. I was glad that they were all sure that they knew what direction we ought to head off on, because I couldn’t even tell north from south thanks to the fact that the heavy clouds above us had blocked out the sun and left only a greyish glare behind to vouch for the day. That was bad news for the adults like me, but most of the smaller children had piled onto the sleighs that volunteer adults were trading off pulling to rest their little legs, so the darkness of the day was helping them get some much-needed sleep. They were tough, those kids, and that could not be denied. Sure they were sleeping now, but anyone too big to be carried had already walked for fourteen hours straight the night before, and I was fairly certain that there wasn’t a child in Arcadia that would been able to do the same thing, even in the Athlete’s caste.

The wastelands was the name they gave the entire northern half of the continent beyond The Wildwoods so we had already technically started walking through them when we’d started going uphill out of The Wildwoods and into the mountains on Sunday afternoon. But most of the people in The Sequestered were referring to the particular valley that we were starting to descend into then every time that they spoke of the true wastelands, because unlike the mountainous areas before Hope Station, this part of the region had once been well developed and highly populated by people from the time before.

There hadn’t been any major cities there, according to Serif, the white-haired fourteen-year old boy that walked beside me for awhile as we half-tumbled down an incline into that valley, (I got to travel in the middle of the pack this time because a group of men had offered to bring up the rear and cover us with their bows) but a lot of roads and a handful of small towns had been scattered around us and Serif knew this because Bastien had once showed him a map and a few old pictures in an ancient encyclopaedia that Serif said had smelled like hell. The area had never been bombed, but the floods, flash fires, avalanches and landslides that had ravaged the area during the apocalypse had caused the debris of that civilisation to sink into that valley, and then the blizzards that had set in for the long haul had sealed all of that accumulated waste under ice that was only now starting to dissolve. Clearly excited by the idea of one day staging a major scavenger hunt there, the red-cheeked, bright-eyed Serif swore that if all of that snow were to melt away, it would reveal a virtual junkyard of ancient relics below, and maybe even treasure.

I wasn’t so sure that we’d find anything resembling treasure under all of that slush and ice, but Serif’s enthusiasm was contagious and distracting, so I listened attentively and smiled and even asked him to list what sort of things he might hope to find there in order to keep that little pocket of sunshine at my side. I was aware that I was enjoying his company so much because he reminded me of a young Kohén, but I refused to let that become a conscious thought for fear that it would bring the shadows back over my mood.

I would have liked to spend time with the kids that were closer to my age, who were all grouped together right near the front with Martya’s other friend, but I didn’t know how to go about introducing myself to them. The adults seemed to pity me for how I’d been raised because I was still a child in their eyes, and the younger ones didn’t understand Companionship or judgement yet- but young adults were a different story. They had the understanding of grown-ups, and none of the compassion, and I fear that they’d judge me the most. In their eyes, I’d been granted the advantages offered up by adulthood- sex, wealth, alcohol and parties, (by Satan, of all people!) but none of the hard work that they would have been expected to do in alternate castes to earn such things for themselves, let alone whatever they’d had to do to survive on the outside of these fences, and so they eyed me warily. Hell, they probably figured that I’d lived a blessed life in comparison to them, and that was going to make connecting with any of them difficult, despite how desperately I wanted to make friends- real ones.

Serif was still innocent enough to take me at face value though, and he obviously appreciated having an attentive audience because he treated me like an equal, and seem unfazed by my so-called satanic significance. He went on and on about pirate treasure and ancient art and still-functioning technological devices that he might find, until he ran out of things to unearth in the Wastelands and moved on to tell me what he was sure to uncover under the sand and ice of the abandoned continent of Africa once he was done digging up the frosted northern hemisphere. Despite the fact that I was too tired to talk back much, (I’d offered to take someone’s infant for a while halfway through Serif’s monologue because her mother looked ready to drop so I was extra burdened) I realised that I was enjoying his company more than I’d enjoyed anyone’s company since I’d spent those few sweet hours with Ora the previous Monday, and was thinking that I’d have to befriend the buoyant child- until he glanced up at me meaningfully and hinted that he’d always wanted a girlfriend with hair that was like mine.

Yes, totally off-topic and completely mortifying, and I cringed inwardly to realise that apparently every male on the face of the earth had an agenda similar to Kohén Barachiel’s- even the ones that hadn’t gone through puberty yet. I’d been blushing fiercely and trying to think of a way out of that one without hurting his feelings or his pride, (Serif had what looked like a very large burn that stretched up from the underside of his jaw to halfway up his right cheek, and I didn’t want to make him think that had anything to do with my hesitation when it was my fear of the male species that had me grossed out) when Sam had called him over to take a turn towing the toboggan loaded with food for awhile.

‘You’re welcome,’ Sam came over to me a moment later, rubbing his hands together as he blew into them. Like me, his hands were bare and already chapped from the freezing winds.

‘I thought you couldn’t read my m-mind?’ I asked, surprised but grateful all the same as I ducked my head to block the sleeping baby’s face from a sudden flurry.

‘No, but I can read his. S-Siria brought m-me more amber, but there’s not enough yet to cover every b-body.’’

‘Can you tell me what happened to his face?’

‘N-No, he doesn’t even know. He m-must have been a toddler when it happened.’

‘That’s awful.’ I felt a rush of sympathy for the boy, but awe too. He was so confident for someone with such an obvious scar! A little over-confident sure, but I was fairly sure that Karol Barachiel would have worn his hair over his face if he’d been that deformed, so vain were the males of Arcadia.

‘Nah, he doesn’t let it get him down. Believe m-me when I say that won’t be his only attempt to woo you now that he got through stage one without b-being rebuffed.’

I sighed and held the baby tighter, feeling uneasy with how quiet and still it was and wanting to share all of the warmth that I had with it. ‘Couldn’t you have intervened a few m-minutes earlier so he wouldn’t have m-made it to stage one to begin with?’

‘Why? I’ve got to have some fun. Besides, I was using your rubescent cheeks as a beacon in all of this blinding white.’ He gently barged me in the shoulder and laughed, and I was a little relieved to feel the baby stir. ‘Watch out lady, or I’ll start telling you what he’s thinking about you wh-when he’s alone because he’s not quite as innocent as-’

I tripped him so he’d fall face-first into a snow mound for that one, and then called out for Martya to come help him up because I had my hands full, secretly thinking that I’d tie Sam to a tree and leave him there if he didn’t stop torturing me with his special ‘gift’. Or set him on fire with my own, seeing as how at least that way I’d get the chance to warm up a bit. But as I entertained the thought of playing with my fire as we walked just to see if I’d be able to generate enough heat to keep everyone warm for awhile without catching on fire myself, the ground levelled out beneath me and became uneven and slushy and just like that, we were in a valley.

It was like being transported to another planet, so I held the baby tightly to my chest and stared like an alien would. From above, I had been able to see where the original valley had begun and ended because there was still a bowl-like shape apparent in the lie of the land that was rimmed by a thick, dead forest of blackened trees that had once been called evergreens, but once we were in the base of it, there was no guessing how the landscape would change beneath our feet between one step and the next.

But there was no way to continue north without crossing it and so that was what we did. Our teeth chattered and our muscles seized up with uncontrollable shivering and our eyelashes fused together, forcing us to squint through frosted-over eyeballs, but we followed the shepherd over rotted tree trunks, rusted and belly-up trucks that were imbedded in ice right to the running boards, collapsed buildings and so many frosted animal carcasses that I gave up trying to count them after fifteen. Sometimes there was nothing to be seen for ten metres except for the lumpy white ground ahead of us, so it was anyone’s guess what was under there, but at another point we actually walked parallel to the hull of a massive wrecked ship on our right that was longer than Eden’s front perimeter fence and jutting up out of the ground so much that the lower portholes were actually visible above the snowdrifts. I was more than tempted to go exploring, (and some people were giving me the time to do just that by collapsing on the ground in fatigue- mostly the ones that had been carrying their children for hours) but I could hear things moving around inside that hull so I nipped my wanderlust in the bud, knowing that bears had probably been camped out inside it for a very long time and would not take kindly to uninvited guests.

But it was hard to tear myself away from that boat, because I’d never seen anything like it in my life, and neither had a lot of the children apparently because they abandoned their sleighs and clustered around me, ‘Oohing’ and ‘Aahing’ and asking questions that I could not answer. I waited there with them until Sam caught up with me, and asked him what a ship like that would have been used for (for all of our benefits) but before Sam could answer, Serif swaggered up and informed us all that it had been the kind of boat that wealthy people would have vacationed on while touring the Canadian Rivers in the time before. ‘A cruise ship’ he called it, though he had no idea how it had gotten there because where we were hadn’t always been this close to the coast.

That was when Sam pointed to more indistinguishable lumps near the edge of that part of the valley, saying that there must have been an actual harbour in that area once with access to a sizeable river at least, because he’d read someone else’s mind and had seen their memories- of having spotted several twisted and rusted yachts stuck in the snow and the ice there a few years ago when they had made this trip during the summer.

Of course ‘summer’ in the region meant that it snowed just a little bit less than usual, but that slight rise in temperature permitted just enough of a thaw for those rusted old boats to be able to peek out from the frozen bay around and beneath them. We couldn’t see them now, of course, but kids being kids, they all started trying to convince one another that they could, having a grand old time despite the brutal weather. Like me, I suspected that they’d all been cooped up in dark, dank spaces for too long, and viewed these supposed wastelands as a winter wonderland of sorts- a graveyard from the time before full of wonderful mysteries that were just begging to be uncovered and solved.

I was amazed that these ancient relics had survived for so long because seventy-five percent of Calliel was devoid of ruins despite how over-populated and developed America had been in the time before, but that was when Martya joined us and started explaining that things had lasted longer in the north because it hadn’t been bombed to smithereens first as America had been and because the ice preserved things as surely as the heat deteriorated things in America’s deserts.

But the ice would only pardon the objects in its grasp so long as it, and they, remained frozen so now that the thaw had set in, the landscape was destined to flatten out and quickly. Some of the kids looked disappointed to learn that they wouldn’t get to roll the ship over one day and go sailing out to Pacifica on it, but I noticed one or two of the children hanging on to Martya’s every word like I once had, and probably always would. The hunger for knowledge, I supposed, was the only human craving that could never be completely sated.

That was when a fox came rushing after us, and preservation of our lives became the only thing on our minds. As I cried out and attempted to octopus-arm the kids closer to and behind me without dropping the baby in my stiff arms, the fox whizzed between the legs of a man to our left, and then took a nip at another child’s leg behind him when she screamed in terror and leapt up into her father’s arms. Adrenaline flooded my veins when I saw the fox jump up and gnash its teeth at the girls dangling foot, and I was just calling out to Sam and Martya to come guard the kids so I would be free to throw myself into the fray, when the man with the axe, Windsor, (whom I could only recognize because of the bright red strip of fabric that he’d used to fasten his axe-stone to its handle) raced forward from behind them and managed to land a blow into the fox’s rump that made the animal yip in agony and spurt blood all over that pristine snow before it took off over the hill with an awkward gait. My heart sank at the sight of the blood and the tortured wails of the animal as it yipped its last, but I was human and so I was more upset by the sound of the frightened little girl’s wails.

‘That was impressive, wasn’t it?’ Sam asked, indicating to where the people were dusting off Windsor while other members of The Sequestered tended to the father and daughter. I wanted to help but honestly, everything seemed to be taken care of already. ‘You know… for a bunch of Heathens.’

I sighed a cloud of fog. ‘I never thought that they were Heathens, Sam. I thought briefly yesterday morning that they were acting like them, but I’d already seen them act politely enough to know that wasn’t the closed case- so please, don’t put that in your bloody memoir.’

‘I know,’ Sam said nonchalantly. ‘You always try to see the best in people. I, on the other hand, figured them for Heathens straight up. And I thought I should know because I myself have known to act like one from time to time.’

I hugged myself under my coat and rubbed my arms briskly, trying to get the residual heat from my brief fire to penetrate my icy skin and accelerate my blood circulation, especially inside my elbows. Kids were crying in fright, and I inclined my head to indicate to him that we ought to help Martya comfort them all, even though I knew that I was going to have to palm off the baby-carrying job to someone else for a while. ‘That doesn’t surprise me at all,’ I nudged him with my cloaked elbow and grinned, ‘but these people aren’t so bad. I was expecting sex crazed barbarians-’ Sam choked and started laughing and I looked at him, raising an eyebrow. ‘What?’

‘Oh nothing. Just do yourself a favour and sleep near the kids and away from the adults as often as you can, all right?’

I made a face. ‘What is that supposed to mean?’

But Sam pointed down to the small girl he was leaning down to pick up and held a finger to his lips. ‘Nothing that should be repeated in mixed company.’ He now patted the little girl’s head as he picked her up. ‘There there,’ he said flatly, and without a shred of compassion. ‘The mean animal is bleeding to death now- and that will make him too weak to come back and eat you so you’re fine.’

In response, the child went bright red and threw back her head in a wail that made my arm hairs stand on end. I lost my footing in a patch of mushy snow as a stiff breeze swooped over the side of the valley and right through me, but I managed to get the terrified child out of Sam’s indifferent arms. ‘You have a way with children,’ I said wryly, jogging the little girl on my hip while I looked around for her parents. ‘It’s not a good way, mind you-’

‘No soul, remember?’ Sam was rubbing his head and looking agitated. ‘Besides, children are vexatious for me, especially ones that are too young to articulate their thoughts. It’s like having a very loud thunderstorm in my head whenever there’s more than one around.’

‘I’m sorry,’ I said, and I meant it. ‘You go on, I’ll be along soon.’

‘Thank you,’ Sam turned away from the children, a pained expression contorting his features, and I watched him go, rubbing the little girl’s back vigorously. Like Sam, I didn’t have the slightest idea about how to handle children, but Kohén had always enjoyed having his back rubbed when he was upset and-

My thoughts were ripped off that particular track when suddenly, the feeling of being watched came over me so intensely that I actually spun around, half-expecting to find someone standing on my heels. But there was nothing there- just a little boy helping another little girl off the snow and paying me no mind, the ship and the white-washed landscape. I frowned as that feeling intensified and scanned the snowy lip of the valley, terrified for one moment that maybe we were being followed by someone, maybe even by a few of the Banished or worse- someone from Arcadia- and that was when I saw it; a tiny, lone, white-grey wolf. It was barely distinguishable from the blanket of white slush behind it, but it was sitting on top of one of the unidentified lumps that we had just passed and staring at me.

Wow… I thought, holding the little girl more tightly. That kind of looks like the one that attacked Sam the other day…

I opened my mouth to sound the alarm because the wolf was certainly close enough to us to pose a threat, but that was when I saw it look from me, to the blood on the slushy, scarlet ground and then back at me again. Its face was unreadable, but I could feel fear emoting off it, even from where I stood. Had the fox been a friend of his? Wasn’t the best company to keep, but I’d had worse friends so I could empathise. Now my skin was crawling from the feel of the bearskin around my shoulders and arms, and my stomach was whirling from the guilt pooling inside it.

I’m sorry, I thought, biting my lip and trying not to cry for how lonely that wolf looked. Honestly… if I can do something about the rift between my kind and yours, I will. But how about for now, you don’t attack me, and I won’t attack you, hmm?

In response, the Wolf’s ears twitched and then just as suddenly as it had appeared, it turned and left. Deciding to keep the creature’s appearance to myself, but keep a watchful eye out for it, I turned to face north again, and forged on.

13.

The Factory

Larkin

We arrived at the third sequestered camp just as the valley was beginning to get too dark and cold to fathom, and I was somewhat shocked to see that this one was man-made as well. Except instead of turning a tunnel or an old railway station into a home, the people that had founded the third camp had actually built themselves a home, which they now referred to as ‘The Factory.’ We should have been excited to see it, but by that point all seventy of us were staggering around like zombies and could barely speak through our clenched jaws, and a few of the children and adults were actually weeping due to their lethargy, so the best we could do to demonstrate our relief was to lift our feet over the three-inch threshold without falling down and dying on the spot.

It wasn’t a pretty building, nor did it resemble any structure that I had ever seen before, but it was certainly functional and when we were welcomed in and down a staircase- all seventy of us- I was gobsmacked to see that it was about the size of the harem, but two floors high! As Bastien helped me out of my cloak and hung it over a rail near a gigantic fire in a hearth so the snow would melt off it, he explained to me that he had helped build this place eleven years before when he and a few of the older members of The Sequestered had discovered the ruins of an old factory there. Its walls had been crumbling and it had been filled with snow and ice thanks to the fact that there had not been a roof left on top of it then, but they had gradually begun to restore it after realizing that what was left seemed structurally sound, as they had in Hope Station.

So, using debris that they scavenged from the wastelands, they’d slowly patched up the gaps in the bricks with more bricks and stones and handmade mortar (none of the scavenged bricks matched, so it had an odd, patchwork look to it from the outside) and once that was done, they’d started using old trees to build roof trusses, and finally rusted sheets of iron as a new sharply slanted roof that had to be repaired constantly so that it wouldn’t cave in from the snow that fell on it every day. The building was ugly, but it was not as cold inside as it should have been, and when I looked closely at the interior walls, I realised that was because they had been insulated using fabric! Like a crazy quilt from some faded hell place, scraps and scraps of mismatched, torn and stained fabric had been glued to the insides of the bricks in a pastiche without rhyme but with plenty of reason and as a result, the entire place seemed a lot more comfortable than it had a right to be in that hostile and frosty region.

I wonder what creative genius came up with that idea? I wondered as I yawned for the third time in as many minutes. Or is that just one more basic survival tip that has escaped my notice thanks to my sheltered upbringing?

The oddest thing about The Factory was the fact that when you entered from the outside, you actually found yourself standing on the landing on the topmost level. The giant upper room had been partitioned up into tiny stalls for sleeping in, like a barn, and a flight of steel stairs led down to the first level, which made it feel like you were descending into a basement. Bastien yawned (proving that yes, even he had physical limits!) as he explained that the first level had been boxed in by snowdrifts over the years and so they had decided to fit a door into the top floor when it had become obvious that they were never going to be able to dig the main one out. Now they’d gotten so used to using the top floor as the entry that they rarely gave the old, snow-covered door beneath the snow a second thought. Bastien joked that if the snow ever piled high enough to cover the second floor too, they might consider turning the cramped attic into a third.

The bottom floor still had its original pillars from the time before in place to help support the entire structure to show that it had once been just the one, open room, but The Sequestered that had restored it had divided that space up into three specific rooms: a common room, a kitchen and a washroom, which made it feel cluttered. There was no plumbing or electricity to speak of and barely any furniture, but snow was brought in and melted for cooking, drinking and washing with and kerosene lamps and brick fire pits used for heating and light, and Bastien swore to me that it was a lot more comfortable than it looked even though he’d never been very comfortable staying there due to how isolated it was, and how peculiar its permanent residents were. The whole place stank of smoke and mildew and sweaty, wet humans, and things like bags of flour, rice and weapons were stored right up against the walls, giving that gigantic space a grubby, crowded feel, but the colossal wood fire kept some of the more unpleasant odours at bay and delighted the children, who crowded around it like little tribal warriors, warming their hands.

I also warmed myself by it gratefully, but I was somewhat unnerved by the boarded up windows and the cracks in the floor- not to mention that steel staircase, which rattled under the weight of a handful of people, and distinctly sagged as the seventy of us had filed down them. Was this building truly safe? The mildewed ceiling said otherwise, and made me reflect on how much safer I’d felt at Hope Station despite the fact that there had been the weight of a mountain’s peak pressing down on us. To add to my unease, the few people that had greeted us had seemed more guarded than welcoming as they’d ushered us in, and then when they announced that we were to eat straight away, it seemed more like an order than an invitation. Bastien had been right to refer to them as being peculiar!

We ate sitting on the floor and nursing our plates on our laps because there was almost no furniture around, save for a scattering of cushions and burlap sacks full of unidentifiable stuffing, but we ate greedily and quietly while that massive fire warmed us from behind and the delicious stew warmed us from within. I was bunched together with Martya, Sam and Serif (who I feared was regarding the dining situation as a date) but Siria, Gabby and Bastien sat over in the furthest, most isolated corner of the room and spoke with a few of The Factory’s residents quietly and fervently the whole time, arousing my curiosity. It struck me as odd that Bastien wasn’t sitting with me because he’d made a habit of hovering around me every time he wasn’t needed elsewhere, and then when I realised that they were looking over at me a lot, I started to wonder if I was the one sitting in the wrong spot. These were our hosts, after all, so should I have excused myself from my friends to go sit with the people that were considered to be in charge of things in these parts, seeing as how I was supposed to be the one taking charge of everything the next day?

I didn’t know, but they certainly hadn’t jumped up and down with excitement the way the last two groups of camp residents had when I’d arrived, so I was still in two minds about whether or not to go over there when I felt the pains that preceded Sam’s invasion of my mind begin to poke at the inside of my skull, making me groan and sit back down, cross-legged and grounded.

No, you shouldn’t go over there. Bastien’s trying to talk them into following you, and I think that’s going to be easier to do if you stay far away.

I bristled with offence. What’s that supposed to mean? And where’s my bracelet?

I slipped it off your wrist while you were hanging up your cloak and talking to your father-

Bastien!

Right, Bastien...because I knew we’d need to communicate quietly.

Why didn’t I feel it?!

Thief, remember? Anyway, back on topic, Satan told them she was sending a warrior to lead the way north, but as far as they’re concerned, Bastien’s delivered them a pretty little princess instead. He’s trying to convince that you’re tougher than you look but they’re not buying it.

I am NOT a princess!

Maybe not, but you look like one. So if you go over there all smiles and politeness, like you were just planning to do, you’re gonna act like one as well and the chances of them following us anywhere after that will evaporate.

If they’re that easy to scare off, then we shouldn’t want them anyway!

We don’t, of that I can assure you. But Satan does, and she’s been pretty insistent that Bastien coax them into going along with us. If he fails, she’s going to be unimpressed- and I don’t like it when she’s in a bad mood.

Why does she want them so bad? Are they Nephilim?

Nope. But they have skill sets or something that she needs. He toyed with his little ear studs- something I’d noticed that he did when he started feeling self-conscious. They were distrustful of this grand plan enough as it was, but now that they know there’s a mind-reader with you too, they’re tempted to just beat us both to death so Satan has no choice but to send someone else.

Charming. What have they got to hide that makes them fear you so?

Nothing… now. Sam smirked at me. No, the skeletons in their closets are nothing that I haven’t seen the likes of before, but they each seem to have a lifetime’s worth of misdeeds to their credit- too many for even me to ever conceive of sorting through.

So… they’re like you?

No they’re worse… bitch. Sam gave me the finger slyly as he lifted his bowl to his face and drank from it, almost making me giggle, which in turn made him smile and Martya look confused. In the sense that they don’t have Nephilim powers or a lack of soul to justify the damage they’ve done to their fellow men over the years, like I do, and they’ve burned so many bridges in so many places that this really is the only society left on the face of the earth that won’t cast them out- especially so long as they keep baking this lovely bread.

They were eager to follow you at first, thinking that a new kingdom would be a fresh slate for them, but because they know I can read their minds now, they figure that fresh slate is already dust, you know? That’s not the case, and Bastien is trying to explain that I don’t want to hear their thoughts, and that I’m the last person on earth that would care about their history or judge them anyway… but they’re spooked by me all the same. Also, they’re pretty much convinced that someone as sweet as you will turn against them the moment you find out the things they’ve done anyway, so they don’t see any reason why they should waste their time following you if you’re destined to shun them in due course anyway.

I raised an eyebrow. Can you give me some examples of the things they’ve done so I can decide whether I would shun them or not?

Sam sighed and pretended to be engrossed by the action of dusting crumbs off of himself. Can you keep a straight face? Because they’re reading it awfully carefully- and mine.

Guess we’re about to find out.

He chuckled audibly, earning himself an odd look from Martya. Well, the big bald guy, Papyrus, used to be the captain of one of Tariel’s fleets of ships and had dual citizenship in New Rome because that was where he was originally from- a prosperous vineyard in Vartica where your favourite champagne is from. He’d been born into a noble family and had worked his way back into the caste on the seas, so he was pretty much the toast of both countries.

However, Gutierrez is notorious for underpaying his sailors and so Papyrus was going to attempt to short change the shipment of gold in New Rome, by buying less wine and art with it, but then telling his king that some of the stock that they were bringing back was ruined on the voyage so no one would notice the missing funds- and then give his men an equal share of what he’d skimmed. But one of them was too pious to accept the extra gold and blabbed everything to Lachlan Gabriel, who reported it to Emmanuel Gutierrez and as a result, Papyrus was stripped of his title of Captain, ejected from the noble cast and forbidden from returning to New Rome, even to live with his family. He could have stayed in Tariel and worked as a sailor in the Blue Collars because Emmanuel knew he was too good at what he did to be taken off the ocean all together let alone Banished, but Papyrus had too much pride to be used as an asset but not treated like one, so he jumped ship instead- literally.

I thought that over as I dabbed the last of my bread in the last of my soup. That’s not so bad is it? He’s a bit like Robin Hood, really- with an ego.

I don’t know who Robin Hood is, but Papyrus is all ego- sexist to boot- and hasn’t made a right turn since that day. In fact, he jumped from one pirate ship to the next after he left Tariel, trying to convince the men in charge to steal the Tariel gold that he failed to steal the first time, and was eventually accused of conspiring to raise a mutiny on one of those ships- a crime that he actually was guilty of. He and a couple of his co-conspirators all opted to jump and swim for the coast instead of accepting a death sentence at sea on one of Finnegan’s boats, but it took them the better part of a day to cross the bay of Alaska and only two of them made it to the land out of six. He probably should have learned a valuable lesson out of all of that, but he still thinks about stealing back ‘his share’ from Tariel every few minutes.

So his dreams revolve around stealing a small fortune?

Tariel’s fortune, specifically. He thinks he has paid the price, and so he should be compensated for what it cost him.

Ah. I made a face as I attempted to eat my now tasteless bread. Is the one that escaped with him still here too? Sounds like people I ought to keep one eye on, for certain. They’re frighteningly determined!

Yes, it’s the ebonic beauty, see? The one covered in amber and therefore, blocking my insight to her mind? I’d seen her so I didn’t bother looking before I nodded. It was hard to miss that coffee-skinned brunette- because she was the only person in The Sequestered, aside from Bastien, that didn’t look homeless. Well, she goes by the name Lady Lucida but the only stuff that I know about her is the stuff that the others have thought about her, so I don’t know much for sure- only that she’s gone to great lengths to keep me out of her head.

Tell me what you can decipher anyway… I encouraged him silently, even though my skull felt like it was going to crack in two from the pressure of his mind in mine. Don’t worry, I won’t let on that you’ve told me anything, if that’s what you’re worried about.

Thank you- I’ll live longer if you help me keep up the charade that I don’t pry without good reason. All right, well… from what I can gather, she was ridiculously wealthy before she came here, but the others don’t know where she’s from because she’s intensely secretive… warm when treated with respect, it seems, but guarded. She was a passenger on the Finnegan ship The Trafalgar, but I don’t know why she jumped overboard, because she wasn’t involved in the mutiny plot. Satan led Bastien to her and Papyrus so he’d be there when they washed ashore, and he led them to this place by accident, so they are technically the founders of it. I’m trying to pick more details about her from Papyrus’s unguarded mind, but she must have kept secrets from him too because he doesn’t seem to know any more than what Bastien does.

I pursed my lips, wondering about what had happened to such a beautiful woman on a ship full of pirates to inspire her jumping into the freezing waters off the coast of Calliel. However, her experiences were likely to have been a lot more traumatic than mine had been, so I decided to respect her privacy the way I wanted my own respected, and keep Sam’s insight out of it. So what do Bastien and Papyrus know about her?

She likes cooking- this delicious stew is a recipe of hers, and the man next to her, Montgomery, trekked all the way into Arcadia to hunt the bovine we’re enjoying so because that’s what he got kicked out of Asiana for doing- poaching. Lady Lucida is always graceful and gracious and Shep quite likes her… but she’s terrifying when she’s angry, which has given her an alpha-female role here that intimidates others… Oh, and you don’t have to worry about her identifying as sexually traumatised, because she’s a big fan of Satanic orgies and takes it upon herself to organise them when the ‘right’ company comes knocking on the door!

I almost spit out my half-masticated bread. WHAT?!

Oh yeah, and she’s not the only one into that sort of thing, Larkin. I warned you earlier, remember? Sam glanced at me quickly again, and I cringed when I remembered his little comment about ‘Heathen’ behaviour earlier that day. In fact, you’re going to have to be very careful about how you police people’s sex lives around here because for most of them, the euphoria that comes with sex is the only thing they have in their lives worth celebrating. I picked up on a few idle, orgy-related thoughts back in Hope Station, but those thoughts are becoming a lot more commonplace now that we’re here, and that’s got a lot to do with Lady Lucida and the coven, who like to sit in on the fun and re-direct all of that energy to hell. In fact, I get the feeling that a lot of people come here just to, um, celebrate life, and are wary that you’ll condemn them for it.

Good God… how many of them are degenerates?

Degenerates is a harsh word, but from what I can tell… at least thirty? Most of them are single, but not all of them. I won’t point out who’s who to you for the sake of your sanity, but they’re probably not the ones who you’d expect to be so… passionate... about life.

That’s not helping my sanity, Sam, that’s making it worse! Now I’m going to worry about everyone!

Sorry. But you need to know this stuff, Larkin. Life can be as ugly as it can be wondrous, and sex is one of those things that will always find a way to be both.

I know. But I sighed. I’d thought that by leaving Eden, I’d left behind grotesque things like group-sex, too but apparently not. Now I’d not only lost my appetite, but was afraid that what I had managed to eat was going to come back up. Well, I’m relieved that they’re planning on abstaining tonight, because even with my personal aversion to sexuality aside, I’m going to disapprove of Satanic orgies on principal alone. I mean, promiscuity is downright dangerous on this side of Calliel’s fences, isn’t it?

Well, yes. Pregnancy and disease can happen if precautions aren’t taken thanks to the lack of antibiotics and potions here... but they’ve all existed in a lawless society for a very long time and won’t take kindly to being told what they can and can’t do now, even if you can offer them other things in exchange.

Especially while I currently have absolutely nothing to offer them in exchange but hope and ice, you mean?

Exactly. Besides, orgies aren’t just held for the sake of having sex here, Lark- but as I said before: as a ritual that harnesses energy for Satan that will help her help you. If you outlaw their rituals- any of their rituals- you’ll not only be cramping their style, but displaying ingratitude to them and to Satan, so tread carefully and think this matter through as objectively as you can before you address it. The last thing you want is for the people that run this place and the witches to turn against you.

Objectively? I gave Sam a funny look and as he read my mind, and his cheeks became even rosier. Wait… you’re not morally opposed to this whole orgy thing like I am, are you?

Sam looked away again, pretending to yawn, but I could still see that his ears were as red as his hair now. I don’t have a whole lot to live for, or a soul, remember? Sex is one of the few things about life that has kept me anchored to this world. If that pretty lesbian couple were into men too I’d be asking when the orgy starts but unfortunately, they’re not into men at all- or promiscuity.

I rolled my eyes. So are you going to help conspire with Lady Lucida to get me ostracised if I lay down a no-orgy law?

Of course not. I can think of a lot more pleasant and inclusive ways to get you to relax the rules a little.

The blood drained from my face. Excuse me? Was that-

I’m joking Larkin calm down. Sam winked at me. You really take yourself and everyone else too seriously, you know that? That’s something else to keep in mind here- life should be fun. He grinned suggestively, looking me up and down. And what better way to have fun then to get all sweaty-

‘Unbelievable!’

‘What’s the matter?’ Martya asked, looking at me with interest and drawing my attention to the fact that I’d spoken out loud. Sam gave me a reproachful look and I ducked my eyes.

‘Oh… nothing…’ I dusted crumbs off myself. ‘I’m just amazed that I lived in Eden for all of those years and never ate that well. Makes me wonder why the chefs in Arcadia were paid so much, you know?’

‘Oh I know, right?’ Martya started chattering about her experiences dining on the lamb over the past two years and Serif chimed in, and although that made it a lot harder for Sam and I to communicate silently, I was glad for it because I was still reeling from all that he’d said and nursing a massive migraine from the sheer amount of time that he’d spent inside my head.

Don’t even joke about that stuff… I managed to warn him. I’m not that kind of girl, and you’ll cease to keep the parts of your anatomy that qualify you as a man if you suggest inviting me to an orgy again!

We’ll see… Sam teased back, but I let it go because I knew he was joking.

Or at least, I hoped he was.

Once my stomach was full I began to fantasise about finding somewhere to crawl off to and fall asleep (somewhere preferably far away from Sam and Serif both) but the fact that our little group had become more animated must have made us seem more approachable to the other members of The Sequestered, because they started to gravitate our way as Sam had predicted they would.

One by one people came and sat with us or knelt by us to introduce themselves and to give me a brief summary of whom they were and whom they wanted to be, (and vague hints to who they expected me to be) while Sam silently gave me extra details that they were withholding. I was too tired for such an influx of information, but I listened as best as I could, keenly aware of the fact that mere hours now stood between me becoming their leader in an official capacity- and that Bastien’s dining companions were now watching me very carefully to assess how I treated their people.

Some of their stories were very sad or tragic and rivalled my own if they didn’t surpass them. One woman had killed her husband after he’d spent their sick baby’s money for medicine on Companions instead, and had run when she’d heard that she was going to be banished for murder despite the fact that her newborn had perished too. This had all happened the week before while I’d been at the end of my own rope, and it chilled me to think that Kohén hadn’t thought her trial worth a mention. How many other awful truths about life in Arcadia had he kept me oblivious to?

Most of them. You weren’t his lover or his girlfriend or his friend- you were his POSSESSION. How many times are you going to be shocked by that fact?

That story hurt me gravely but it wasn’t the only horrific one, and my mind spun to realise that so many unhappy people had been living in Arcadia all of this time. I met a couple of beautiful girls, Quilline and Riesling, that were a year older than me that had both fled noble families and Yael willingly because they were too in love with one another to fathom being paired up with ‘straight’ spouses in the lottery, and I quickly realised that they were the pretty lesbian couple that Sam had been fantasying about and heaved a sigh of relief when I saw his eyes flicker up and down them appreciatively.

I also met a man that had been rejected from the Artisan caste of Tariel because Elijah had wanted him and his genius mind in the academics, and had gone as far to change the answers on the academic test that the man had flunked on purpose. I could tell that the man- Logan- was an artist and a passionate one straight away, because where the others were timid and polite with me, he stormed over and let me know that under no uncertain terms would he spend his future juggling numbers instead of paints and that If I had a problem with that, he wanted to know NOW. I said I didn’t have any numbers or paints for him to juggle so his destiny was entirely in his hands, and in response to that he kissed me hard on both cheeks and then flitted off happily, making people laugh.

There were so many other cases of people that had been screwed over by fate, God, or the people in charge, and just hearing their stories was exhausting for me. There were people from Calliel, New Rome and Rabia… people that had been born in the wilderness and abandoned, people whose lawless villages had been sacked by pirates…People that believed in God but could not beg entrance into the kingdom’s governed by his kings, and people that worshipped Satan because they’d come from families like Martya’s- spawned by dark Nephilim, but so far removed from their powerful ancestors that they ceased to have any powers now.

It was hard to keep my thoughts straight that entire time, but I did manage to arrive to three distinct conclusions by the time we all got up to wash up our bowls and then our faces. One: I had no idea how I was going to give these people everything they wanted without taking away something that someone else wanted because a lot of their wants and needs contradicted with one another’s. Two: Piracy was a much bigger problem in the free world than the collective monarchy had allowed us to believe (just as dark Nephilim were! Extinct my ass!) and three: that there wasn’t much I could do to ruin these peoples’ lives beyond how they had already been ruined. I didn’t know who was to blame for their misfortune, God or Satan, but if I was willing to at least try to turn their lives around, then that was more than anyone but Bastien or Satan had done for them in a very long time, so I had to be on the right side now, yes?

At least until Satan proved otherwise.

Eventually we were all shepherded off to bed, and although Sam started to follow Martya, Chánnel and I, he came to a sharp halt suddenly and swung around, making a hideous face at whoever was behind him. I followed his gaze and saw Lady Lucida, Papyrus and a tiny little old crone standing in a huddle by the fire with Gabby, Siria and the other guy, Montgomery. They were chuckling over something, so when Papyrus lifted his eyes to mine, sneered a smile and then looked away to guffaw again, I stepped back away from my fur and stared at the back of Sam’s head.

What? What did they say?

Without looking back at me, Sam silently replied: Papyrus just said that despite Satan’s best intentions, you were clearly built to be a whore, not a leader. And then Montgomery said: ‘Like mother, like daughter.’ He spun back to look at me, and I was impressed to see that he looked at least half as angry as I felt. What me to knock their teeth down their-

I saw red, and I reached inside myself to unearth my fire with a rage that I hadn’t felt since I’d been in Eden. I lifted my hand, fingers curled like talons around the ball of fire that I soon hoped to hurl at them, but before I could summon it or release it, there was a roar from my left and suddenly a flume of fire three feet wide and at least nine feet long shot out of the gigantic hearth and scorched the air with such ferocity that the noise it made almost overwhelmed the sound of at least twenty-five people screaming around me.

‘Larkin!!’ Martya grabbed my limp wrist and yanked me back, surprising me with her strength again. ‘What did you do?!’

I didn’t know- I honestly did not know how the fire that I’d invoked had come from within the hearth and not my hand, but I was enjoying watching the people that had just been mocking me scream and twist and pat out their singed hair and clothes too much to articulate that fact.

‘You can control fire as well as generate it!’ Sam exclaimed as he trotted over to me, grinning. ‘Did you know that?’

I thought back to when Bastien had been leading me through the caves, and how I’d noticed that the flames in his torch had flickered and ebbed according to my mood. ‘I had an inkling- but I guess I needed some genuine nasty kindling to help me tap into it.’

Do they still think I’m a harmless princess?

Nope. They like you less, but they’re scared of you more!

Good. I stepped around Sam and held up my hand to silence everyone that was still exclaiming over what I’d just done- some with fright and others with delight. No one seemed to be seriously hurt because the fire had had only just managed to lick the group of foul-mouthed miscreants with the curled tip of its tongue before retreating, but I was pleased to see that Papyrus’s forehead was now as bald as his head was, and that Montgomery’s entire sleeve had caught on fire and was taking so long to put out that I did not doubt that he would have burns.

‘While I have everyone’s attention, let me make something incredibly clear to all of you!’ I wasn’t yelling, but my voice was ringing out through that cavernous space. Lady Lucida looked irritatingly unperturbed by my fiery outburst, but the others were listening even as they put Montgomery’s scorched sleeve out. ‘I do not like the word whore.’ I marched up to Papyrus and produced another ball of fire by concentrating hard this time, making sure that it came only from within and filled the palm of my hand. ‘Sticks and stones may break my bones… but fireballs cause deformities. Either refrain from using that word, or be prepared for me to wash your filthy mouth out with flames.’

Papyrus crossed his arms and tried to look as non-threatened as possible. ‘I’ve met bigger and scarier people than you in my life, princess. It’s going to take a lot more than a hot temper to put me or my mouth in my place.’

Sam tried to tell me that he was bluffing, but I already knew that and so I smiled as I said: ‘If that’s true… then why did you piss yourself, Captain Cooper?’ Then I stepped back and twisted away, smiling at Martya as she saw the wet stain on the front of the Captain’s pants and began to giggle hysterically. I heard Papyrus suck in his breath and then everyone else’s laughter as he turned and ran out of the room, but I didn’t stop to watch him go, for I was too busy enjoying the sound of laughter around me, and seeing the smiles on those tired, cheated faces.

Sam was right: sometimes life just needed to be fun.

14.

The Factory

Larkin

Wednesday August 24th, AA644

The Sequestered managed to fall asleep quickly and quietly that night despite my pyrotechnic display, and I was grateful for it because it was noisy enough inside my brain as it was without the added distractions. I needed to wind down but instead of feeling exhausted after throwing flames, I felt more keyed up than I had the last time and I didn’t understand why. Was that because it had come from an outside source instead of from with me? Or was my anger at being called a… that awful word… keeping me simmering and alert enough to drift to the surface of my shallow slumber every hour or so? I had no idea, but I did know that soon I would have to start playing with my fire more- finding out what my limits were, and learning how to control my triggers so the next time I threw a wall of fire at someone, I’d have meant it.

I slept in one of the stalls upstairs with Martya, smushed in with her friend Channél and all three of our furs, and though Bastien and Sam had claimed the stall next to us, I was very aware of the fact that they had a hurricane lamp in there and that they were not going to sleep as they ought to have been. I waited and waited for that glow to disappear from above me (the stall walls did not go all the way to the ceiling) but by one a.m., I gave up wondering what they were doing and stuck my head out of my curtain and behind theirs (there were no doors, just fabric partitions) so that I could take a look, and because I knew that moving around would take some of the edge off my claustrophobia which was getting worse and worse as Martya unconsciously snuggled closer and closer to me in her fitful slumber.

To my surprise, both men were both sitting up with their backs against the walls and pads of old recycled paper in their hands, scratching away with pencils. I didn’t have to ask what Sam was doing because the fact that he covered the paper with his hand and told me: ‘Bugger off, you’ll see it when it’s done,’ told me that he was dutifully fulfilling his obligations to Satan, but Bastien turned around and showed me what he was working on: a map- for me.

Curious, I wriggled out of my stall and went into theirs so that I could study it more closely (earning a huff from Sam, who made an obvious show of twisting more so that I wouldn’t be able to see his re-cap of my ‘journey’ for the day) and that was when Bastien explained his etchings to me, and how they were more of an anti-map than a traditional one, because studying it wouldn’t help me see anything except for the way we had come, and the way that we probably shouldn’t go.

You told him to make me that, didn’t you? I asked Sam, and then realised that he couldn’t hear me because I was wearing my bracelet again. Oh well, thanks.

Sam didn’t move, not even to twitch an auburn eyebrow.

My guide had used an old map of the north as a reference point, but God had destroyed so much of the continent formerly known as North America during Armageddon that the two maps looked nothing alike, not even the coastline, as hundreds of kilometres of land had been reclaimed by rising seas on both sides of the continent. However, the map was handy because it gave me a better idea of where we were now and how much distance we had crossed since leaving Arcadia, and included points of reference that I would never have found on one of the Calliel-made maps, including the cave system under the tidal falls and all of The Sequestered camps, which were of course, highly-guarded secret locations. So secret that this was the first map that had ever been made.

Unfortunately, all I could see on the map were mountain ranges, more Devil’s Claw forest and fields of ice that had to have been bigger than Arcadia. There was a cove literally just above us, but Bastien explained that no, sailing out of there was not an option- it was full of ice bergs, riptides and whirlpools and even if it hadn’t been, the cliffs around it were so sheer that no one had even been able to get down to the water before.

‘This is impossible…’ I muttered, frowning down at the map in concentration and consternation. ‘If you’re right about the lie of this land, how am I going to find a way that you have all failed to find, much less, get seventy other people through it too?’

Bastien shrugged. ‘I’ve made a rule to never underestimate humans or what they can withstand.’ He tugged on my frazzled braid. ‘And I’m counting on your inner fire to see us through anyway.’

I snorted. ‘I’m not that bloody tenacious. If I was, I would have gotten out of Eden sooner, wouldn’t I?’

‘I wasn’t speaking metaphorically, but literally: your power gives you the ability to keep the cold at bay, and your tenacity, well… there aren’t many people that would attempt to punch Satan in the face to get them out of their way, so don’t underestimate your metaphoric inner fire either, little one.’

I flushed, both embarrassed that I’d taken his words at face value and had forgotten that yes, I could probably melt a lot of ice- and dually flattered by his opinion on my fortitude. But the moment was getting a little too touching for my comfort (especially while Sam was sitting right there probably quoting us verbatim) so I cleared my throat and pointed to above that eastern forest, asking more and more questions until I was even more convinced that my mission was an impossible one, and he was yawning every minute or so.

Pirates had managed to get to the eastern side of the continent before, but it hadn’t done them much good because a rival faction had found its way there shortly after too, and the resulting squabble over the sliver of land that they’d discovered had killed most of them and drawn Janiel’s notice to the invasion, causing them to amp up their border security. Three people had survived that battle and had migrated their way over to The Factory the previous Spring, but according to Bastien, they’d sworn that the area they’d abandoned had been as desolate as the wastelands were anyway and not worth investigating further.

That was crushing to learn, but Bastien wouldn’t allow me to go off to bed defeated, and so he rubbed my shoulder encouragingly when he saw me droop. ‘Don’t lose faith, Larkin. Just because we haven’t found a way north yet doesn’t mean that we won’t. For six hundred and fifty years, no one believed we’d get through this part of the north either, but here we are...’ he nodded at the map and patted my back. ‘And onwards we will go until we find a place to settle down, permanently. All long journeys end, eventually, even if it does feel like they take an eternity to complete.’

I nodded and smiled thinly as I wriggled out of his cell and back into mine, deciding not to tell him that it wasn’t the length of the journey that I feared, but the idea that the permanent resting place we’d find at the end of it was the kind that we all longed for and rightfully deserved: an eternal one, well out of God and Satan’s reach, buried under the snow in a forgotten world that not even the pirates would bother with.

*

I slept deeply that night by repressing all of my thoughts and fears and concentrating on the sound of Sam’s pencil scratching, but they were too numerous to be ignored for long and somewhere around five a.m., they penetrated my dreams and jerked me from my slumber so roughly that I gasped as I sat up, feeling like I was falling.

At first I felt panicked and disoriented by the complete darkness of that room, but the sounds of people snoring and shifting restlessly in their sleep assured me that everything was how it should be, and that I was the only one being so tortured by dreams of Satan, Hell, and blue-eyed boys that broke their promises. However, getting my bearings didn’t make me feel any better because my claustrophobia felt even more overwhelming in that darkness and so I instantly broke into an anxious sweat, realizing that it was Wednesday and that meant the time for me to take the lead had come.

But I can’t do it like this! I need a plan! Instincts! A better map! Something!

I pushed Martya’s sweaty, heavy limbs off me and scurried out of the sleeping quarters like a rat through a crowded sewer, and almost yelped in alarm when I felt someone grab my ankle.

‘Here…’ the old woman with the long white braid croaked, holding out a small wax-wrapped parcel of what I’d come to learn was rabbit jerky. ‘A little nourishment for your outing.’

I stared down at the old witch in confusion (was it Arial? I was too tired to remember!) and eventually shook my head. ‘No thank you,’ I whispered, disentangling my ankle from her grasp, thinking that she smelled like old paper but not in an unpleasant way. ‘I don’t want anything to eat, I just-’

‘Your wants and needs are no longer your primary concern. We need you, and so, you must take our food and live.’ She stretched up so that it was within my reach and frowned at me. ‘You may not enjoy the taste, but you will live longer for the nourishment it provides. Take it, and then flutter off safely.’

I stared at her resentfully for about ten seconds and then sighed and took the jerky, stuffing it into my back pocket to appease even though I knew I’d have to be starving to eat it. ‘Thank you,’ I said softly and somewhat gruffly. Like I needed to be reminded that I no longer belonged to myself- again! ‘You are too kind.’

‘There is no such thing as too kind,’ the woman said as she lay back down again, being absorbed by the other bodies around her in that lumpy darkness.

‘Right...’ I agreed, before tip-toeing out onto the landing while silently thinking: ‘But there’s definitely such a thing as too creepy!’ and thanking the gods that she’d given me rabbit jerky instead of a rabbit’s foot or something worse.

Once I was out on the landing, I paused to get a handle on my breathing and stared at the door across from me, asking myself if I was crazy for even considering going out there alone and without my cloak.

Not crazy, burning alive! I need fresh air that doesn’t smell like human bodies and sweat and mildew! I need open spaces! So I’m going NOW!

It took me the better part of two minutes to wrestle the door open due to how much frost had collected in the jamb and a sweat actually broke out across my forehead in the effort it took to get the handle to turn, but I stumbled out onto the snowy ground the moment that it opened and yanked it shut behind me, not caring if it sealed closed again now that I was on the ‘wrong’ side of it. The sky was still incredibly dark and a sheet of icy winds was sluicing through me that made me shiver uncontrollably, but I opened my arms to the sky and delighted in it as the force pushed me back against the building, deriving the same sense of satisfaction from that arctic air that most cold people got from stepping under a warm jet of water.

Heavenly, I thought, closing my eyes and tracing my tongue with my lips to taste the powdery snow that was being blown across my face. Absolutely heavenly. Oh god, how can you be so consumed by creating perfection elsewhere, if that means missing out on moments like these? One simply cannot appreciate extreme cold, or know the beauty of it, until they have struggled with extreme heat!

I felt like a traitor to God, Satan and my fire but I didn’t care. My inner heat was my gift and one that I was learning to be grateful for, but like Sam’s gift it was also a curse- a condition that I knew could result in heart failure if I didn’t find a way to manage it carefully and constantly, soon.

Cold air. Cold water. Releasing flames. Flying… they all help. They all lower my temperature and my anxiety, so… FLYING! Of course! I should be FLYING!

I spun around as I shrugged out of my coat and studied the snowfields behind me, panting with excitement now as I realised that the solution to all of my problems might have been at hand all along. Not under my nose, but between my shoulder blades, and just as I thought it, I felt my wings unfurl and with a jolt that was followed by a rush of adrenaline that woke me up completely. For the sake of safety I quickly rolled my bracelet off my wrist and deposited it by the door with my jacket, but I did so hastily as excitement overwhelmed all of my other sensibilities, tricking me into thinking that I was overheating still when really, my skin was already turning blue.

Who needs a map when you have wings, right?

Puffing out clouds of mist, I began to lope across that thick wet snow, flapping my wings laboriously and forcing myself to move faster and faster until my feet stopped sinking into the slush, and started cycling through the air instead. I was immediately struck by how much more resistant the wind was there compared to the first and only time that I had flown over Eden, but I gritted my teeth and concentrated my energy on making those wings open and close in tandem with my breathing and soon enough, I was high above The Factory and soaring away from it and over the wastelands.

This is it! I realised, watching the landscape beneath me unfold and reveal things that I wouldn’t have come across after even an hour of walking. I was about three hundred feet off the ground and ascending quickly and to my delight, the winds were losing their strength and the land beneath me was starting to become easier to read. This is how I’ll find my way! There’s The Wildwoods, up ahead, and there’s-

I screamed as I ploughed face-first into a blanket of white clouds so opaque that I could not see even my own hand in front of my face. My eyes began to frost over and my head spun, and for lack of a better plan I immediately stopped flapping my wings and started plummeting back to earth while wiping at my eyes, trying to scratch away the rime that had sealed them shut. That wasn’t working so I screamed again, forcing what little heat was left in my body back into my hands, which I balled into fists and pressed into my eye sockets, making my skin hiss. The heat was almost unbearable, but the ice coating my face immediately began to melt so I could blink again, except my relief at having my vision back was rudely interrupted by the sight of the Sleeping Giants that were rising up from the ground beneath me now to break my fall- and every bone in my body with it. My heart and stomach dropped at the sight, and my mind went blank with fear. This was one hundred times worse than jumping off the tidal fall! How cruel Satan was, for robbing me of the will to die and restoring terror to moments like this!

I screamed a third time and began to pump my wings frantically as my thighs reflexively tucked up against my abdomen, and although the strain on the muscles in my back was intense, the action was effective enough and as quickly as I’d begun to drop I began to rise again, gasping for breath while silently screaming every curse word I knew in my fear and frustration as I flew awkwardly backwards. How many times could one person almost die in less than thirty seconds, anyway? Having wings was turning out to be a lot more dangerous than not having them had been!

The urge to flutter my wings wildly to get as far away from the forest of Devil’s Claw was overwhelming, but I forced myself to keep my movements tentative so that I wouldn’t accidentally propel myself up into the low clouds above me again. I twisted around to come back the way I had gone and gently lowered myself to the ground as soon as the snow was within reach, grunting when I landed heavier than I would have liked, and blinking in surprise when I looked back at my wings to inspect them, and discovered that they- and every other inch of me- was covered in tiny ice crystals!

‘Wh-what the…?’ I dusted the crystals off my skin and although some were brushed away, others stuck and stung and I grimaced, grateful for the fact that no one was around to witness this embarrassing expedition of mine.

Oh, there are witnesses… Sam’s voice was clear but sounded a lot further away than usual, and didn’t hurt me as much as they normally did. Turn around and wave to your audience Larkin- or at least have the decency to come back this way and flap about where we can all see you as clearly as I can hear you… it’s good fun. Kind of like watching a drunken lorikeet flap about...

I did no such thing, and although I ground my teeth together in embarrassment to understand that my thoughts had woken Sam up and given him cause to venture outside to watch me- and to bring a crowd with him- I did appreciate the fact that my hot flush of shame was melting the frost off my skin and wings. I flapped my wings gently a few times to air them out (the brisk air wasn’t stinging them but it was numbing them, which I didn’t like) and then began to study the sky above me and then the tree-line behind me, biting my lip and wondering how I could utilise my advantages without being smacked down to earth again by my disadvantages. I’d wanted to fly high above the region so that I could get a good look at the lie of the land, but thanks to that low cloud cover, there was only so high that I could go before I became lost within that horrid whiteout. There was a chance that I could go as fast as possible, penetrate them and emerge on the other side before panic set in again, but if the storm was as bad as Bastien said it was then I wouldn’t be able to see anything below me anyway.

Bastien says that you shouldn’t attempt to go above a thousand feet, Lark! Sam called to me inside my mind, and I spun around then, looking back in the direction of The Factory but not being able to see anything but the snow sweeping past between it and myself. Archangels could fly a lot higher back in their prime because they were immortal, but you’re not so anything above a kilometre up will make it impossible for you to breathe and eventuate in you being covered in frostbite, so stay low!

I deflated as my grand plans to circumnavigate the continent evaporated. So I couldn’t fly through low cloud cover, but couldn’t rise above it- what good was that? The northern half of the continent was mountainous and would probably suffer low cloud cover on a daily basis! Dammit Satan, couldn’t she have made me a soul mate, instead of just an overburdened and ill-equipped human with wings?

Satan said you were destined to do this, Sam said quickly. But she didn’t say it was going to be easy, wings or no wings, you have to find a way.

I was about to give him a piece of my mind when I saw a movement out of the corner of my eye, and froze. I instantly felt my heartbeat slow down on instinct and following that instinct, I very slowly turned to find myself staring at the wolf that had snuck up on me- and was now standing only two metres behind me and glaring at me from behind yellow eyes.

Shit shit shit!

What? What? WHAT?

Shush!

‘Hello…’ I said softly out of reflex, wetting my lips before rubbing them together. ‘What can I, uh… do for you?’ I gave the animal a brief once-over with my eyes, my body twitching a little when I realised that not only was this the very same creature that had attacked Sam on the mountain that day, but probably the same one that had been watching us yesterday. ‘Again?’

In response, the wolf’s ears flattened back, making my tummy harden and frost over like I’d swallowed a frozen snowball. It growled so quietly that it was barely discernible over the wind, but I managed to read its body language loud and clear: I didn’t have a whole lot of time left to get out of its way. Question was: could I take off before it could grab me? Would my boots offer me protection from its fangs if I did not? Boy, was this day off to a shitty start! First I’d been grabbed by that old... realisation rocked me.

‘You may not enjoy the taste, but you will live longer for the nourishment it supplies. Take it, and then flutter off!’

Oh my God… hadn’t Bastien said that Arial saw things? Was it possible that she’d been talking about me feeding the wolf all along?

I reached for my back pocket and the offensive jerky inside, the wolf mistook my sudden movement as an indication that I was going to flee or attack and snarled, bending onto its forelegs and launching itself at me. I did not have the time to throw the meat away from me as I had when I’d diverted the last wolf from Sam, but I managed to get the dried meat out of my pocket and then pitch it at the wolf as I flapped my wings and levitated off the ground. The dog jumped at me as I’d feared it would, but it missed and landed on top of the jerky sacrifice instead of my boot, giving me the chance to pull my legs up and then rise swiftly- too swiftly. The wind pounded against me hard enough to almost send me sailing directly over its head and back towards Calliel but I grit my teeth and resisted its pull, shooting up so high that I lose sight of the wolf, but not so high that I lost sight of everything again.

What just happened? Sam demanded. Was that a wolf? Has it been following you? Explain your thoughts, woman! They’re all disjointed!

But I turned and coasted back over The Factory then out over the gorge, and I didn’t slow down until the only thing that was close enough to me to be heard was the sound of my heart pounding freely, and the whoosh of the wind through my wings.

Yes Arial was creepy, but she was certainly proving to be helpful!

I quickly learned how to fly safely and with a semblance of control that morning after the wolf had inspired me to stay off Terra firma for a while, but I only managed to circle the area north of us for a few minutes before it became apparent that flying was never an activity that I was going to be able to engage in for extended periods of time without suffering, at least not in bad weather anyway. It was cold up there- colder than I’d ever imagined an autumn sky could be- but it was the strength of the wind that had me gasping for breath. I’d originally thought that flying was a lot like swimming, but flying through the northern skies that morning was a lot more like swimming through cold gelatine or crushed ice because it resisted my attempts to sweep it out of my way and left me panting while the muscles in my back burned.

But I did manage to get a quick overview of the area and to my disappointment, it was almost exactly as Bastien had drawn it, only a lot more complicated-looking. I couldn’t see any higher than the foothills of The Sleeping Giants, but we wouldn’t have been able to make it up those foothills anyway because they were shale and vertical and therefore too slippery and unstable to attempt to climb. Every now and then I flew in as close as possible, but from what I could tell, every nook and cranny was stuffed with Devil’s Claw and Briar and then hidden under the snow. Perhaps a team of well-equipped and experienced Sherpas would have found a way through all of that chaos, but we would not, especially with so many children and elderly individuals in tow.

The cove also looked every bit as impassable as Bastien had described, but I flew over the edge of it and down into the depths just to be sure, and was almost bowled over by the force of the arctic winds that were sweeping in from the ocean. The water was as malevolent there as it had been that night under Kohl’s command, and several times I had to jerk up and away from the choppy surface when a wave leapt up to lick at my feathers, spraying me with ice water that was so cold that it made my jaw lock up in reflex. The bluffs surrounding the cove were also shale, but the devil’s claw trees themselves were thinner, especially around the edges where the ocean winds had combed through them, and I thought that if it came to cutting a path through them then that would be the best place to try. Then, just as I thought it- I saw what appeared to be an opening in the furthest corner of the cove, and sucked in a breath so cold that I felt my lungs stiffen rather than inflate.

Oh my god! What was THAT?!

I spun to try and get a closer look, but the second that I did, a spasm tore through my upper back so sharply that I screamed again. I dipped so low that I almost collided with the wall on the northern side, but I gave up trying to turn around and managed to flap my wings hard enough to get me up and out of the cove before I started plummeting back towards the earth again. The Devil’s Claw were rising up to tear me to shreds, but I groaned and flapped my wings one more time, and that gave me just enough momentum to carry me over the edge of the forest- sending me hurtling towards the snow field behind The Factory where people were waiting for me, instead of into the sharp and certain death that I’d been dreading seconds ago.

I was terrified all the same, but I got a good close look at the edge of the forest as I sailed over it, and when I noticed water glistening up through a denser patch of trees, my heart skipped another beat. There was a stream running through that forest and into the cove! So if we could somehow get to that- surely it would lead us to whatever body of water it was trickling out of, yes?

My mind swum and my heart soared with possibilities, but by the time I finally landed in a half-crash near Sam’s feet, I was practically screaming in pain and incapable of articulating what I’d seen into a comprehensive thought, let alone a string of words that would explain it to others. Sam moved forward to wrap my fur around me and other people were out there watching me and crying out to do something for me, but Bastien was the one that came up behind me and pressed his thumb into the edge of my shoulder blade hard, whispering to me to breathe and providing what was thankfully immediate relief.

‘Ssh… ssh… it will pass momentarily,’ he assured me, gently but firmly massaging my twisted shoulder while I shook and shuddered. ‘Breathe. It hurts, I know… you must be very careful when making sharp turns, especially in strong winds, little one. Your muscles need time to adapt to this new way of functioning…’

I nodded to show that I understood, but I was barely listening to him. All I could think about was all that I’d just seen, and the heavy sky above it that had almost completely obscured the potential path from sight the moment that I had passed it by.

‘What is it, Lark?’ Sam asked, furrowing his face in confusion as he attempted to piece my scattered thoughts together like a jigsaw puzzle. ‘What did you see?’

‘How long will it take to get everyone ready to leave?’ I managed to ask, looking over my good shoulder and towards the gorge while Bastien continued to massage a wider circle behind my shoulder blade with his thumb. Now that I was coming around, I was enjoying the exquisite agony less, but I needed it more so I clenched my teeth around my agitation to have a man touching me and welcomed the relief.

‘Twenty minutes, maybe thirty depending on how much stuff we take with us,’ Bastien said softly. ‘Why?’

I turned around and grimaced a smile up at him, barely able to see him for the snow flurries that were sweeping down into the valley and coating my eyelashes with frost. ‘Because we’re leaving now- before my path disappears under more snow and I lose my way to the river that I think it connects with.’

‘Your what now?’ Sam came forward and knelt, helping me up off the ground as I held up a hand to indicate to Bastien that I didn’t need any more massaging. My wings retracted, but the phantom pressure and ache of them lingered behind deep in my flesh, making me worry that I wouldn’t make it ten metres north let alone thousands now that I’d already exerted myself so much. ‘Since when do you have a path in these parts?’

‘Since when do these parts have a river?’ Bastien demanded, perplexed.

‘They don’t, but I think the area just north of here does, and if we can get to it through the first twenty metres of Devil’s Claw, we might be able to get to the stream that I think leads to that river.’ My lips were trembling so hard that it was a shaky smile I offered him. ‘It’s not really a stream- just the tail end of a run off that trails off over the edge of the cove- but it has to come from somewhere, right? And that somewhere is where we need to be. I think.’

Everyone else started whispering that I was insane or seeing things, but my father grinned at me. ‘Are you saying that you’re truly ready to take the lead now?’

I got up, nodding, and started hobbling back towards the house, determined to set an example for everyone by moving quickly myself. Yes I’d seen a path, but I’d also seen the severe storm swirling towards us from behind it, which meant that every second counted. ‘I don’t think it matters if I am or not, does it? What will be, will be, and nothing will be at all if we don’t make haste and get to the other side of the cove.’

‘But the cove is impassable!’ Papyrus argued, rushing to catch up with me. ‘I’ve been investigating it from above for years! I don’t believe that a river feeds into it, but even if it does, how are we supposed to get from this side of the cliffs to that one?’

‘By bringing me kerosene, Captain Cooper,’ I snapped, clicking my fingers and generating a tiny flame- enjoying the way he shrank back. It was a pathetic flare and spoke volumes about how fucking cold I was, but he’d learned his lesson and shrank back accordingly. ‘As much as you can find! ’

‘Liberty,’ someone whispered from behind me, and I heard Sam chuckle inside his head. ‘She truly is Lady Liberty.’

‘She really flew!’ Channél whispered to Martya, as other people’s voices began to rise. ‘I’ve never seen someone fly before!’

‘I’ve never seen someone fly that poorly, either.’

‘You wouldn’t do any better!’

‘Never said I would!’

‘She fought off that wolf!’

‘She fed a wolf, you moron. There’s a difference.’

‘Satan will damn you if you speak like that!’

‘I’ve bin damned since the day we were wed, woman... Satan doesn’t scare me now.’

‘You’re a clod, Damion.’

I should have taken offence to some of the things that were being said about me, but it wasn’t their words that I was turning over in my mind, but my own- words I’d once exchanged with Kohén a very, very long time ago; about how little things grew from big things.

‘That’s what I heard. The stream starts tiny and gets bigger and bigger, so those who can stand the cold long enough to follow it get to a real paradise…’

‘But the north has been ruined! It’s all ice and dead forest! And The Wildwoods are overgrown and full of wolves and bears and-’

‘So they say- but who knows what’s true until we’ve seen it with our own eyes?’

Well, I’d seen evidence that water was flowing though the Devil’s Claw and into the cove from above, and if those small miracles were possible, then maybe the existence of a true paradise was as well.

15.

The Wildlands

Larkin

We left The Factory behind at six that morning, and the only person that stayed with it was Gigi, the old crone I’d spotted the night before whom had never intended to come with us because she was already eighty-seven years old and couldn’t climb a flight of stairs, let alone a mountain. Eighty-seven wasn’t that old by our books, but Sam explained that Gigi had been beaten up a lot in her forties when she’d been tossed out into The Wildwoods for practicing Witchcraft, and her bones had never healed right, leading to a long list of health problems that she suffered from every hour of every day.

I felt a flood of empathy for her after Sam explained what he’d unearthed from her mind, but he quickly informed me that I ought to save my sympathy for someone else- for Gigi truly had been a witch, and such an ill-intentioned one that the coven from Hope Station had barred her from practicing with them. She’d had the power to be able to tell when someone was going to die- not a God-given, Nephilim power but one she’d worked hard to cultivate- and she’d used that power to convince them that she could break death’s grip on them if they paid her a small fee that wasn’t technically small.

However, she had only used the people whose fates she’d guessed correctly as an example, and had fleeced people that were destined to live long, happy lives out of their money with that proof of her prowess, creating fake potions to sell to them as placebos to ward their deaths off with. Most of those potions had been harmless, but one had contained ingredients that had given a teenage girl a bad allergic reaction, causing her death so suddenly that Gigi only foresaw it seconds before it happened when it was already too late for the girl to be saved. That girl’s grieving parents had made accusations against her to a Shep, and when dozens of people had stepped forward to attest that they too, had made a similar transaction with that woman after she’d approached them, she was allocated a Shep’s hearing on several counts of fraud.

After years of cheating people out of their money, Gigi was swiftly proven to be a hustler when it came to light that she’d never offered the people that had actually died in the region a potion- only those that had already been in perfect health anyway. She’d been branded as a thief and a witch after and hurled over that fence without a backwards look, proving that for all of their faults, sometimes, the Arcadian justice system got it exactly right.

I grew furious after hearing the entire story, demanding to know how many other horrid people like that I’d have to tolerate to appease Satan, but Sam had said that Satan had only kept Gigi around long enough so that she could look me over, and declare if I was destined to live a long life, or a short one. In the end, Gigi had refused to tell Bastien the verdict and so he had no qualms with leaving her behind- especially seeing as how Bastien and Gigi both knew that she would be dead by noon the next day anyway.

Yes apparently not even she had the ability to thwart her own gift- for she’d seen her death five years beforehand and had been waiting expectantly for it since.

Sam and I discussed this verbally as we traipsed through the remainder of The Wastelands, but we could have done so silently because Siria had my bracelet and was breaking it up into tiny pieces- threading the drilled beads onto smaller bits of string as she walked with Gabrielle’s help so that the kids would have tiny rings to wear. Sam was thrilled with how clear and uncrowded his mind was becoming already (Siria had given them to the most obnoxious children first) that even I had thanked Siria for her help- and had meant it, though I had asked Sam to talk to me verbally as much as possible because my head was already pounding from a lack of sleep and stress.

Sam wasn’t a perky character by any means, but he was in a brighter mood as we walked that morning as one by one, the children’s thoughts were blocked from his overcrowded mind, and I couldn’t help but notice that Martya was so transfixed by this brighter, less irritable Sam that she did not stray far from his side for long.

I longed to ask Martya about her crush on Sam and her romantic life in general (and if she’d ever had one at all) so that I could get to know her better again, but I knew that it would be too awkward a subject for either of us to tackle yet. Truth be told, we’d never been the kind of friends to giggle about boys, but to caution one another against them, and so it seemed better that we should stick to discussing less invasive subjects while we were still repairing the jagged cracks in the foundation of our friendship.

Martya had definitely come out of her shell, but although she was brighter, stronger and more social than she had been in the harem, she was still very obviously a lone wolf, just like me. Yes, she knew everybody by name and yes, people treated her with respect and went out of their way to include her in their activities or conversations, but she was still almost as introverted as she had been in the harem, and spent an excess amount of time gazing off into the distance with a thoughtful look on her face. If you asked a question that she could answer, or if she thought of a question that she’d like to ask another, she became quite the chatterbox, but most of what she had to say on any subject had come from between the pages of some book, so I couldn’t help but wonder how much of her free time she’d spent reading about life since she’d left Arcadia rather than living it. Plenty of other guys our age regarded Martya with frank interest, and yet she seemed completely oblivious to all but one, so I laughed to myself when I decided that she’d probably only noticed that Sam was alive at all because his hair was too bright to go unnoticed.

We walked for thirty minutes before we began to approach the edge of the wastelands, and I noticed that although Lady Lucida and Papyrus had come along, they were lingering at the back of the pack with Siria, Montgomery, Gabby and a few other uncertain-looking people- keeping a safe distance from me while trying to pretend that I didn’t exist at all. They made me nervous, the whole lot of them, but Lady Lucida was wearing a scarlet wool cloak, so at least I knew that she wouldn’t be sneaking up on me because she was the only one of us aside from Sam that actually stood out against all of that white and grey. I wasn’t intimidated by them, per se, but I did wish that Gigi had indicated to Bastien whether I’d live a long life or not, and I was even contemplating asking Arial if she’d had any insight of her own concerning my longevity, now that I’d seen how she’d anticipated that run-in with the wolf that morning. I’d thanked her for that, but all she’d said in response was: ‘Follow the steps of those that came before us all, but never their actions…’

Very helpful. But at least she hadn’t said: ‘Yes, that dodgy crew are plotting your death.’

The path that I’d glimpsed wasn’t as easy to access as I’d hoped it would be because the snow was piled so high in across the rim of the wastelands that sometimes it concealed even the trees behind it, which threw off my inner compass. But when I started to become disorientated by all of that monotonous white, I went for a quick and painful flutter and soon found that denser part of the forest again, sitting somewhat to the right of where we’d been heading so we changed course straight away.

Once I’d gotten to where I needed to be over the lip of the valley and facing this new section of The Wildwoods, I got a few of the sensible adults to get the children out of my way while Sam got me the canister of kerosene that Papyrus had grudgingly obtained for me from his stores. I made quick work of splattering the Devil’s Claw trees with the pungent liquid inside, (shrugging out of my cloak first and being careful not to accidentally splash any of it on myself) and once the little tin was empty, I hurled it into the trees and smiled with pyromanic anticipation. It wasn’t the most creative plan in the world, but it would save us hours and hours of chopping if it worked.

All right Larkin… time to harness your inner dragon!

People were watching me keenly now, and as though I’d absorbed some of Sam’s power, I felt like I could sense everything that they were thinking about me and my actions in that moment- from those that were excited but confused (Serif) to those who were counting on my great idea fizzling out, like Lady Lucida, and it made me feel weird- self-conscious and yet sort of determined to prove myself. I cupped my hand and generated a tiny ball of fire within it to make sure that I wasn’t going to go up in flames too, but nothing bad happened, so when I glanced over my shoulder and saw Lady Lucida’s simpering smile, (‘This will be amusing,’ that smile said) I did not attempt to suffocate the swell of heated fury within me. I didn’t know who the hell she was, but if she was afraid of Sam entering her mind and seeing her truths, than she wasn’t half as self-assured as she looked, and had no right to look down her nose at me!

In response to my ire the ball of fire in my hand expanded, and although all I could feel was the lightest touch of warmth in my palm and against my face, I could tell that the fire was burning hotly enough to do some serious damage, even with all of that ice and snow coating the trees. I pulled my arm back slowly, keeping my eye on my fire, pointed to the kerosene-soaked patch of Devil’s Claw with the other hand and then bowled the ball overhead, feeling a rush of pride when it hit the second tree in and immediately bloomed like a flower, sending out a crackling of sparks and more than two dozen lively flames.

There was a cheer from someone as the thinnest branches of that tree began to smoulder and drop to the ground almost immediately, but there was no time to stop and admire my handiwork, only to duplicate what I’d just accomplished again before the kerosene that I’d spilled could be diluted by the snow. I bowled a larger ball of fire directly into the first tree and then immediately pelted another smaller one that penetrated more deeply, and though a sweat broke out on my brow and my aching shoulder began to throb in protest to the overuse, I continued to attack those hateful trees until all of the branches before me were hissing, steaming, smoking or smouldering. It was a tough tree to break apart when it was frozen solid, but evidently the heat of the fire defrosted its strength and revealed how old, fragile and willing to die those hateful things were.

After what could have been thirty seconds or an hour, I dropped to my knees, exhausted and suddenly freezing cold despite the cold sweat that I’d broken out into and helpful as always, Bastien stepped forward with a lit torch and indicated to a group of The Sequestered to join him and finish what I’d started. They rushed forward, leaving only a few of us behind.

How much fire was that? Fifteen, twenty fireballs? Is the cold I’m now feeling a sign that I’ve used up my energy, or would I be able to go on if I tapped into an exterior fire, as I did last night?

My head was spinning due to my fatigue and the acrid stink of claw-smoke, but I lifted it just enough and watched with satisfaction as the snow melted from the trees, mixed with the ashes and then fell into the tiny stream that was coming out from behind it, causing it to run faster with grey slush to the right and over the rim of the cove.

‘Don’t burn too wide a path!’ one person yelled out. ‘We can’t afford to leave an obvious trail behind us, just in case we are followed.’

‘Keep your head low and away from the smoke, and cover your babies’ faces!’ Lady Lucida called out, showing her alpha side. ‘Inhaling too much claw-smoke for an extended period of time can cause all sorts of health issues.’

‘Respiratory infections, yes?’ Sam asked, glancing at her, and Lady Lucida nodded curtly.

‘Among other things, including sterility, so if you fancy one day spawning a whole bunch of unholy, mind-reading brats to carry on Daddy-Red’s name, I’d suggest that you wrap something around your nose and mouth to keep the vapours out.’

Sam gave her the finger behind her back, but I looked up at her in shock. ‘Wait… these trees can make people infertile?’

‘They use the sap of it to create the infertility elixir,’ she said without looking at me as she waved at some children to come back from the fire. ‘Shouldn’t someone as brilliant as you’re supposed to be know that?’

‘Well, they sort of skipped over the baby-making tutorial where I was raised!’ I bit back, unimpressed with her attitude.

‘They did the same with me too,’ Lady Lucida said, sniffing and turning around to glower at me, ‘but that didn’t stop me from using my head and investigating the shit that they were going to flush through my system before I allowed them to do it.’

I felt my blood turn to ice. ‘You w-were a Companion?’ I demanded, astonished. ‘From where? When?’

‘Elliot Bronx was my master, and I his dearest friend… until I was kidnapped by Egan McIntyre’s men over ten years ago.’ She shot Sam a dirty look before looking back at me, and suddenly it all made sense to me: her grace, her pride, her presentation… she’d been raised in a harem!

‘Pardon me?’ Sam’s face wrinkled up in confusion. ‘Did you just say that my father-’

‘You heard me, cabin boy: your scumbag of a father ruined my life,’ Lady Lucida snarled, and although Sam’s face went white, Lady Lucida didn’t take her eyes off me for long enough to enjoy the way that she’d stunned him. ‘Don’t open your mouth to tell me that you’re sorry, girl, or think that this will make me your best friend or you my shoulder to cry on because unlike you, I’m actually proud of who I am and where I have come from.’ Her eyes were alight with the fire of someone that had been judged too many times to count as she peeled her cloak off her shoulder and showed me her brand, making my heart skip a beat. It was just like mine because like me, she’d been a ‘favourite’, but because it was from Janiel it was platinum rather than gold, and actually looked pretty against her dark skin. ‘I don’t like the word whore any more than you do, but I like myself a hell of a lot more than you do, and I won’t be treated like I should be ashamed of that fact now that you know what I am, understood?’

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing- or of how I was being scorned by another Companion! It felt like the worst kind of betrayal, especially under the circumstances- I was there to improve her life, not to condemn her! ‘If you were so proud to be Bronx’s Companion then why have you been hiding here-’

‘Because he wouldn’t have wanted me back after I’d been had by barbarians. I wasn’t- I’ve never allowed a man to push me around whether they be pirate, king or commoner-’ her eyes flashed Sam’s way balefully again but he shrugged this time, unperturbed by his father’s actions due to the lack of soul thing, and probably because he’d suffered more at the man’s hand than she evidently had anyway. Besides, he had killed his hateful father, so why should he have to feel guilty for the guy’s actions? He must have been four years old when Lady Lucida and Egan’s paths had crossed! ‘But I couldn’t have proven that after I’d escaped, and wouldn’t have subjected myself to their ridiculous tests anyway. I cared for Elliot, very much, but I have too much dignity to beg for someone’s approval, so I decided to make my own way in the world and see where it took me instead of returning to Calliel.’ She stood taller, looking back down her nose at me. ‘Clearly it’s brought me to you and it’s no secret that Satan wants me at your side- but no, I won’t beg for your approval either, precious.’ She crossed her arms in front of herself in an uppity fashion. ‘You either take me as I am, or you go on without me- it’s your choice. After all, I can make a life and a living for myself anywhere, and if I’ve made it this far without Satan’s help, then who knows where I might end up, hmm?’

I honestly thought I was going to throw up, and thanks to the tone she was taking with me, I wasn’t sure if I’d throw up dinner from the evening before, or fire. ‘Are you saying that you want to go on being a-’

‘Yes.’ She raised her at me eyebrows in a challenge, and I noticed then that they had been very artfully shaped, like a comma on its side. It was effective, but a bit too much for someone her age, which I guessed to be mid-forties now that I was close enough to see the tiny lines near the corners of her eyes, and the dark sun spots around the apples of her cheek that were similar to Windsor’s though not as pronounced. Her dark eyes were glittering youthfully though, and not a hint of grey could be seen in her intricately-braided hair, so I could only imagine how lovely she’d been back when she’d still belonged to the king of Janiel- even if she was a bit of a witch now. ‘My career as a king’s mistress may be over, but I still have a gift to give, and I enjoy giving it very much. I know you don’t feel the same way and although that’s a shame- it’s not my problem. I’ll be respectful of your abhorrent feelings towards the Companion caste because I know that it can be a very cruel system indeed... but being taken into that harem was my destiny, so I won’t be taking one more step in the same direction as you until you swear to me that I will be treated with acceptance and respect when I finally get to resume doing what I was born to do, got it?’

My temper flared. Was she seriously trying to tell me how to run my own kingdom before I even had one? ‘For someone that demands respect and acceptance, you sure have a lousy way of showing it! Didn’t they teach you any manners in your harem? What right have you got to tell me how things are going to be?’

‘I simply thought it imperative that I make my position on prostitution clear before we wasted any more of each other’s time.’ She shrugged. ‘And surely you of all people can understand how I got to be so defensive about my profession and all of the stigma that comes with it, yes?

‘I can understand how you go to be so defensive,’ I agreed, ‘but I have no idea how someone that calls herself a lady can behave so atrociously and think that it’s acceptable!’ I shook my head, thunderstruck. I had never said a judgmental word about the women who chose to become prostitutes, because my ill-feelings towards Companionship stemmed from the fact that most were forced to do it, but if Lady Lucida thought she could talk down to me and push me around because she was above me or anyone else, then she was about to get judged very harshly indeed! I’d signed onto Satan’s team to make the world a more equal place, not to take ultimatums from women that thought that they were better than me again! ‘I don’t know what Satan thinks I’m going to get out of an alliance with you, but as far as I’m concerned-’

‘Apparently I save the life of someone you love,’ Lady Lucida said quickly, and my body was overcome by a wave of prickly heat. ‘You give me a life worth living again- one full of luxury and comfort and joy with a harem of my own- and that puts me in a position to help you when you’re at your most desperate. I don’t know how or why, but that’s what she told me, and that’s why I’m here.’

She’d save the life of someone that I loved? But how? I didn’t love anyone, did I? I frowned at her, feeling vulnerable and confused. ‘I don’t-’ I looked over at Bastien and Martya who were cutting through the Devil’s Claw that was still smouldering, and bit my lip. As though sensing my unease, Bastien turned around, looked from me to Lady Lucida and frowned in confusion before making his way over to us.

‘Is everything all right, ladies?’ he asked, raising his voice to be heard over the wind, and though I was too stricken to move yet, and Sam was just gaping at the Janielian Companion in horror, Lady Lucida nodded.

‘Yes Shepherd Birch. Your daughter and I were just getting acquainted, weren’t we Larkin?’ She turned back to smile at me again. ‘I was warning her about the Devil’s Claw sap, and she was telling me how imperative it is to keep you safe from it… isn’t that right?’

I sucked in a breath through my chattering teeth. Was she implying that the person she would save was Bastien? Was she right? Would he die if I didn’t allow at least one woman to sell herself in my hypothetical paradise?

‘Oh? Larkin… that’s so thoughtful.’

Bastien’s tender voice did it for me, because despite the fact that Lady Lucida was practically frothing at the mouth with sarcasm, all he’d heard was that I wanted to protect him, and now he was beaming like a sun ray- completely oblivious to the fact that I was contemplating ripping the older woman limb from limb. My heart ached, and something inside me felt dirty and wrong, but the shepherd’s smile was quite possibly the most beautiful thing that I’d ever seen so I swallowed hard and nodded slowly.

‘Of course I want to keep you safe,’ I said softly, turning away, and I practically felt the triumphant energy ripple off the other woman as I silently agreed to her terms. ‘No matter what it takes.’

Are you fucking serious? Sam demanded silently. How could you agree to build a harem after how much you risked to escape the last one?

Because I lost a lot more in Calliel than my virginity- including all of the people that were like parents to me. I can’t lose Bastien too, Sam. Besides, there will be terms, and she’s not going to feel half as smug as she does right now when she hears what they are!

But you don’t know that it’s him-

Which means it could be Martya or possibly even you, I shot back, and his eyebrows hoisted heavenward in surprise. So shut up and let me do my job, okay? Or I might decide not to like you as much as I think I will!

‘That’s very sweet of you,’ Lady Lucida practically purred as she lifted her skirts and began to approach the Devil’s Claw forest. ‘Don’t you think, Shep? Cabin Boy?’

Sam had defrosted, and now he narrowed his eyes after Lady Lucida. ‘I think you can go to-’

‘How much of a dose of this stuff does a person need to be rendered infertile?’ I demanded of the Shepherd, speaking loudly and quickly in order to cover whatever awful thing that Sam was about to say.

‘A lot, Larkin,’ Bastien said, still looking bewildered. ‘Why do you ask?’

‘Because Lady Lucida is trying to scare her,’ Sam said, stepping forward while still glaring after Lady Lucida, who turned when she heard her name. He pulled his flattened packet of cigarettes off his packet as we began to walk closer to the blaze. ‘Weren’t you?’

‘I’m just stating a fact,’ Lady Lucida said sweetly, toying with one of her pearl-encrusted braids. ‘Why do you think the Barachiel family has never just said ‘To hell with it!’ and set the entire Wildwoods on fire? Because it would cost them at least two generations worth of successful pregnancies, that’s why.’

‘Also, because you’re not allowed to say Hell in Calliel…’ Sam’s lips were tight around the butt off a cigarette as he leaned in to light it up using a burning, twiggy branch. But he looked up at her once it was done, took the cigarette out and blew a small cloud of smoke her way as he added: ‘They’re afraid if they do, people like you will find their way in…’

‘Oh shut up,’ the courtesan snapped, flouncing off in a huff and leaving Sam with the last laugh- a fact I would have appreciated if I hadn’t been feeling so frazzled. The cold, the toxic fumes, the promise I’d just made to that awful woman… it was all almost too much to take!

I turned to Bastien pleadingly. ‘Will this hurt people? I don’t want anyone to get sick! Oh god, if I cost someone the chance to be a parent like… like…’ tears were forming in my eyes but Bastien shook his head and wiped them away.

‘You haven’t hurt anybody, sweetheart. You’d have to have the sap injected directly into your bloodstream for it to have any long-lasting effects, or breathe the smoke in for days in order for it to have any short-term ones, all right? No one here is going to end up barren because of you.’

‘Besides, if this part of the forest is as shallow as you claim it is, this fire will be out within an hour, so it won’t burn for long enough to endanger anyone anyway,’ Sam said, and I exhaled a little, nodding.

‘Okay,’ I said, feeling a bit better about the Devil’s Claw, but worse about the courtesan thing now that it was sinking in. ‘I trust you guys.’

‘Thank you.’ Bastien pulled me into his side and rubbed my shoulder again, but he’d obviously learned a lesson or two from how I’d reacted when he’d done that in the past, because he only embraced me for the briefest moment before pulling away. ‘So… are you ready to keep going?’

I wasn’t, but I did.

16.

The Wildlands

Larkin

After the Devil’s Claw trees had finished burning, everyone with a strong blade took to hacking away at the charred corpses that were left, and after only fifteen minutes we’d succeeded in doing two things: burying the tiny brook underneath our feet with slush, ash and scorched leaf litter... and carving a path right through that thin section of the forest and to the larger brook that was waiting for us on the other side- one that snaked a path through a grove of trees and uphill to where I suspected the river I’d seen was waiting.

There were exclamations of shock and awe as everybody damn near stampeded me in their rush to see what our hard work had revealed, and even though I’d already glimpsed it from the sky, I had to admit that I felt a stirring of excitement within my heart when I too got to slip under the thick canopy of trees and into what could only be described as a natural tunnel through the centre of that inhospitable forest. Maybe it wasn’t the path that I’d always imagined finding, because that one had supposedly fed into the north-eastern part of Arcadia and this one ran off into a cove one hundred kilometres northwest of it... but it was better than no path at all and I was certain that I was meant to follow it.

‘Impressive,’ Sam had said, pulling on my braid when I caught up to him, but not taking his eye off the point where the brook slipped into the shadowy growth before us and doubled in width making it about a metre and a half wide. ‘It’s not the Nile, or anything, and I think I’ve actually taken pisses with more cubic metres of moisture than that… but it’s a start, isn’t it?’

I nodded, immensely relieved that he couldn’t read my mind now that Siria had given me a tiny ring of amber to wear too, and see how pleased I was with my ‘pissy’ little discovery. It was a small stream in every sense of the word- only a few metres thick at its broadest points, but the trees that surrounded it shielded us from the wind and that was important. It was very shallow but the water flowed rather quickly over a bed of icy rocks that were still more brown and green than white, and although I knew that our boots would get wet and that the entire route would be a slippery one, walking on those stones was going to be a lot less exhausting than trudging through thigh-high snow so long as I got the chance to dry out everyone’s socks by a fire at some point.

‘Come on, Liberty!’ someone shouted from ahead, making me cringe and Sam laugh. ‘Destiny’s a-waitin’ as are we- for you to get back in the lead where you belong!’

I blushed hotly as Sam needled me about the Liberty moniker, but I drew my sword and hurried forward, motivated not by my need to impress anyone anymore or to prove my worth- but to discover. Like the aspiring explorer that he was, Serif made a point to stay right on my heels the whole time, while Martya stayed behind him, relaying everything that I was doing back down the line so any abrupt stops that I came to wouldn’t result in everyone behind us slamming into one another.

The trees that lined that brook were healthier than the rest of the forest, which caused them to be a bit taller and more imposing, but the branches of the Devil’s Claw in there weren’t completely petrified yet so every time I encountered one of the lower-hanging ones, I used my blade to slice them out of our way to save people taller than me from getting stabbed by the barbs. Sometimes the canopy made by those branches was so low that we had to walk in a squat for up to ten minutes at a time and sometimes I had to hack away at the branches for a good twenty minutes to save us from having to slither beneath them on our bellies, so the result was that we moved much more slowly than usual, but carefully and safely and with a lot less exertion. My left arm was too sore from where I’d sprained my wing to even lift the axe, but my right was strong and the axe was sharp, so I sort of enjoyed that bit of grunt work, if for no other fact than because it was keeping me warm.

But eventually the route became easier and therefore, rather monotonous and it didn’t take long for my claustrophobia to reinstate itself. I knew that everyone else was going a bit batty from the monotony of the hike once the novelty had worn off, because people started snapping at one another about watching where they stepped or moving faster and begging for a rest (the sleighs couldn’t be dragged over the rocks so all of the kids that were too heavy to be carried were being forced to walk while a few disgruntled adults were being forced to carry the sleighs) and though I desperately wanted to give them the chance to sit down and have a snack, the issue was that there was nowhere to do that because there was no bank on either side of us- just clumps of exposed, submerged and twisted tree roots so sitting without getting soaked wasn’t an option.

I was really feeling the cold in there too, and I felt sorry for the people who were complaining about water leaking into their shoes, but there was nothing to be done about it. My boots were still dry because Satan had obviously given me the best ones that she could summon up, but I’d been wearing them for days and my pinkie toes were starting to feel rubbed raw, even under my thick socks. I wanted to wear my cloak but I was too short and it was a bit too long for me and so I’d stuffed it into the rucksack I had slung over my shoulder (it belonged to one of the men carrying a sleigh) and suffered without it instead of getting the lower half of it soaked. That was all right though, because the act of clearing our path kept me from stiffening up completely for the entire three-hour duration of that trek.

We just have to keep going! I thought, cheering myself silently when I felt blisters developing on my poor, icy feet. There’s a river up there somewhere, I know it!

Eventually Martya caught up to me and started babbling about forest stuff while Sam, Serif and I listened quietly, and although Serif’s eyes glazed over pretty quickly, Martya’s prattling kept my paranoia about possibly killing everyone at bay. She explained how moss worked and how I could use that knowledge to my advantage, and pointed out the bends in the tree branches high above our head so that she could demonstrate that south-westerly’s blew through the region more than any other kind of winds did. After that, she went on to explain about how she could tell fox droppings apart from the wolves’ and the bear’s ones.

‘It all just looks like shit to me,’ Sam remarked, looking disgusted by us both for leaning over to inspect a fox’s droppings.

‘That’s because you don’t have a soul,’ Martya said flippantly, standing up again and prodding me along as I cracked up laughing. ‘When you get it back, you’ll remember how wondrous nature can be.’

Sam didn’t have a response for that and he even went as ruby-red as his hair, which made me fall in love with Martya all over again. I’d forgotten how witty she could be!

Everyone did what they could to stay dry, but eventually the water got deeper and so people’s skirts, pant-legs, cloaks and shoes starting getting waterlogged, which made them all heavier, colder and less pleasant to be around. I was faring better thanks to my inner warmth, but by the time the stream began to slant uphill and the sounds of running water could be heard emanating from above, the rest of my traveling party had blue lips and chattering teeth, which terrified me. Then, actual ice started drifting past us and that was when the complaining and bickering started. I’d had their faith all morning, but by the time we had all scrambled up a small, half-frozen waterfall and onto open ground again, I was fairly certain that they wanted to toss me into the river that was rushing past us as a human sacrifice to the God that they had forsaken.

Oh my God! I thought, rejoicing by myself as everybody else collapsed in exhaustion. We’d emerged not only out of the forest, but onto a wide riverbank that acted as a thin but solid boundary line between it and the river beside me. That’s not just a river, it’s a canyon!

And it was true. Though the right half of the world fell away from us into a deep ravine that became a carpet of treetops that seemed to stretch all the way to the mountain range on the eastern horizon, it was impossible to see anything to our left beyond the river that was hurtling past us at a cracking pace and the massive canyon wall that loomed up behind it.

That canyon wall dwarfed us- it had to be at least eighty feet high at that point alone, and though I knew that the coast was on the other side of it, I didn’t know how far away that other side was because I couldn’t even see all the way to the top of it from there. Nonetheless, I didn’t need to know what was up there to appreciate it- it blocked all of the north westerly winds and seemed to go on doing so for a long way yet, as did the land bridge beneath us- and that meant that my path had just become a highway.

‘Th-this is a-m-m-m-’

‘I know,’ I said to Sam, pleased that at least one person was happy with the progress we’d made, I hugged myself and began walking over to the larger clearing ahead of us, which appeared to be a frozen over delta of sorts and the point at which the river had broken free of its banks and rushed over into the forest, creating the stream that we’d just scurried through. There were sticks and other kinds of debris matted around the edges, and even though they were obviously damp or coated with ice, I was determined to get a bonfire going with them so that I could defrost my poor followers in kind. ‘And I’ll bet you any money that this leads down into the cove.’

‘I don’t have any m-money-’

‘Oh stop trying to talk,’ I teased him, earning myself a look of irritation. ‘Just let me read your mind for once: Wow! That Larkin, she’s so amazing! How can she be Satan’s gift, when she seems like God’s?’

‘It’s got something to d-do with your t-tits, I think-’

‘Oh shut up,’ I said, picking up a long piece of driftwood and swatting him with it, but I smiled because I was the only one that could and I figured that Satan would appreciate the token of gratitude. And once other people worked out what I was doing, the ones that could move started rustling up anything that would burn too.

The river was deep, and I wouldn’t have been able to stretch down and touch the surface of the white water even with someone holding onto my feet, but it had become dammed up near the delta by rocks and debris, causing the run-off down into the forest canopy which looked like little more than a splash of thin, frozen ice with some water still sliding over the top of it and down into the ravine. Martya said that although it would freeze over completely soon enough, it probably ran a lot stronger there during the warmer months, as the river beside it did, so we could probably count on it being there again this time next year, even if it was destined to be covered by snow again soon. She also agreed that the canyon wall appeared to lead all the way back to the cove behind us, but to my excitement, she estimated that it went on for a lot further ahead- possibly all the way to the unnamed mountains in the distance that I’d seen on Bastien’s map.

And if it led to those mountains, then there was a very good chance that it would lead to a valley too- maybe even one with a lake.

Cheered by that thought, I huffed and puffed until I got the bonfire going, stood next to it for just enough for the numbness to be leeched out of my limbs, and then took flight while everyone else tried to cook the foil-wrapped packages of damper that Lady Lucida had prepared in advance for the trip. The smell of the dough cooking made my stomach rumble, but the thrill of discovery made my heart skip a beat and that overwhelmed my hunger. It was freezing up there because we were at a higher altitude again, and the breeze that swept along the top of the river was so intense that it was hard to keep control of my wings, but as soon as I’d leapt into the air I was being sucked downstream so rapidly that I couldn’t have stopped if I’d tried.

It had taken three and a half hours to trudge along the path before it had connected to the river that run parallel to it, but I was only airborne for just under two, terrifying minutes before I was spat out into the cove near The Factory again, back where we’d started. I was almost sent hurtling headfirst into a rock wall when it veered out sharply and suddenly at the very end of that long canyon, but the wind knew where it was going and it took me with it confidently.

I exploded out of the narrow gap that the river was ploughing through and was instantly terrified that I was going to be splattered against the southern wall as I had been earlier, but I resisted the urge to try and pull up sharply for fear that I would aggravate the muscles in my back again and thankfully, a crosswind broke the initial wind’s hold on me. When it was safe to do so, I spun around to face the gap that I’d just exited from, was delighted to see that it was barely discernible from there, just as it had been earlier when I’d glimpsed it the first time. In fact, both the coastal and inland entrances to that tumultuous cove were well concealed, because the rocky walls that framed both were angled sharply. So it was no wonder that ships- pirate or Arcadian- had never been able to find this place before- it was one of the North’s many well-guarded secrets!

I didn’t know if a ship would ever be able to pass along the inland river given how choppy the water was and how much debris was being rocketed along it, but it would serve me just fine as far as navigation was concerned, because so long as I kept it in sight, I’d always know how to get back to The Factory, and that was all I really needed to know before I forged on- that if anyone started to die on me, I might be able to fly them back to food, warmth and shelter before it was too late.

Food, warmth, shelter… and Gigi’s corpse.

Once I was satisfied with my little exploration, I tried to fly up above the canyon wall so I could get a better idea about how the coast was shaped and what waited for me above it but unfortunately, the storm was starting to droop over the atmosphere by then, and the gale-force winds that were whipping up in the thick of it were much too fierce for me to fly into let alone, against. I had only just managed to get a glimpse of yet another forest of Devil’s Claw on top of the headlands when the air clouded around me again, so in the interest of not pushing my luck, I quickly veered out over the forest that we’d just tunnelled through and coasted over it until I saw the fire that I’d made for my followers.

By the time I descended back out our makeshift camp, I was more than exhausted and frozen solid, but everyone was in better cheer by then and so they took care of me- bundling me up in the furs that they’d started drying by the fire and force-feeding me damper that melted in my mouth. Sam, Papyrus, Serif and Windsor started building more fires because the one we had wasn’t big enough to keep everyone warm, but before they could light them I summoned up my own heat and send it scorching through the air, using my mind to shape a trail for it to follow that would cause it to ignite all of them. In the blink of an eye and a held breath, five fires exploded to life around us, and cheers filled the air as smoke did as The Sequestered defrosted at last.

Not against Satan, not yet- but they were certainly warming up to me.

*

By noon everyone’s clothes had dried out and the winds were beginning to make the smoke from the fires waft sideways, so I reluctantly got to my feet and handed baby Larkin back to her mother, assuring her that she was as warm as could be and that I would take her back the moment her skin grew cool again. Vanessa, her mother, thanked me repeatedly for having nursed her while we’d waited, but when she told me that I’d make a beautiful mother one day, I felt my heart sink.

‘They don’t understand,’ Lady Lucida said softly, coming around to speak to me under the pretence of warming her hands by the fire after Vanessa had bustled off. ‘Because the elixir that is given out among the unmarried masses is only a temporary contraceptive, they assume that that we’ve had the same thing. Only the men that frequent harems know otherwise, and even some of them remain unenlightened.’

I swallowed hard. I didn’t want to have to talk to this woman yet, but my curiosity got the better of me and forced me to respond: ‘You’ve obviously had yours in for more than fifteen years, so does that mean that you’re able to-’

‘No,’ she said, but she seemed no more depressed about that fact than she had been moved by my abhorrence to her profession. ‘It should have stopped working quite a while ago, but I haven’t had a blossom bleed yet, even though I’ve shown no signs of going though menopause either. I’ve heard some rumours about it wearing off- even from one girl that cut hers out of herself as I’m told that you did- but though she started bleeding about seven years later, all of the pregnancies she had afterwards dissolved before she’d even started showing, and it turned out that her womb had withered like a raisin inside her in the short three years that it had been poisoned for.’

I sagged a little. ‘Thank you for telling me,’ I said softly, but still somewhat stiffly, wondering if she enjoyed pointing out the fact that whore or no whore- I was as fucked as she was. ‘It’s nice to have a little more certainty, even if it’s not the kind of certainty that I wanted to have.’

Lady Lucida frowned at me. ‘Not everyone gets everything, you know. You are young, beautiful, powerful and tenacious, and that is more than a lot of people get so my advice to you would be to take that string of diamonds that you earned during your time there, and find a way to use it to build a new life for yourself- one so wonderful that you’ll never give motherhood a second thought again.’

My hand went to the cold stones around my neck. ‘I didn’t earn this- they stole something from me, and so I stole something back from them. If I sell it then it will feel as though I’ve participated in the transaction, so any happiness that I know after will forevermore be tainted by the knowledge that they paid for it with their jewels and that I paid for it with my fertility- and such a thing is priceless.’

‘Maybe some people feel that way but that’s not-’

‘Well that’s how I feel, Lady Lucida. I will allow you to go on prostituting yourself and if you conduct yourself with kindness, professionalism and grace than I will not judge you for it. But do not suggest that I use Barachiel treasure as a foundation to build my kingdom upon because if I do, that will give them grounds to claim that it belongs to them if it’s ever discovered, and I’d sooner live in a cave then know luxury thanks to them again, especially seeing as how I’ll never forget what it truly cost me in the first place.’

‘With an attitude like that, the life of a cave dweller is the only kind you’ll ever know,’ she said, her tone scathing. ‘You, and all of us that follow you.’

I smiled serenely. ‘There’s more to life than living in the lap of luxury, Lady Lucida. You’re strong, beautiful and tenacious and that’s more than anyone else gets- so my advice to you would be to forget about my string of diamonds and the fear that you will end up in a cave, and working on being kinder. I don’t hold much value in all that I learned in Eden but I do know that you can’t suck dick well while sneering at people, and you’ll never be anyone’s favourite again unless you learn to retract your fangs.’

Lady Lucida snarled at me and huffed off, and although I chuckled to myself, it was a hollow victory and one that made me aware of how cold and toothy I was becoming too. I’d been simmering deep inside for days over what the Barachiel men had taken from me, but now that Lady Lucida had confirmed that I was probably barren for life- I was practically boiling alive with the desire to neuter the two princes that had held me down for that fucking ritual in the first place!

I’d thought that I’d made my peace with the fact that I’d never get to be a mother back in Eden because honestly, who could imagined raising children in that kind of place? But now that I’d had a few days to see the loving way that other families interacted one another outside of the palace, the barren pill was becoming harder to swallow. Of all the promises that Barachiel men had made me, how cruel was it that the only one they’d kept was the promise to render me infertile?

And how foolish was I for having hoped, for even one moment, that I’d ever be completely free of that family’s hold on me?

Lady Lucida had returned to her little clique and was obviously relaying to them the fact that not only was I awful, but that I had no intention of cushioning their futures with my jewels, but everyone else was packing up so that they could move on with their lives so I did the same thing- unclasping my collar with shaking hands and shoving it deep into my pocket as tears slipped silently down my cheeks.

I had stolen those diamonds as surely as the Barachiels had robbed me of the ability to have children, and I did not doubt that some day, someone was going to come for them. When they did I’d return them- but not before I’d made them understand that everybody had the right to procreate and that such a sacred thing could not be sold.

And I’d do that by ripping off the genitals of whoever had the balls to come after me in the first place.

*

The path was wide enough for the sleighs to be used again, so we covered a lot of distance that afternoon despite the fact that the wind pushed against us the whole time, and by the time the sun had begun to set, Martya assured me that we’d covered at least eleven kilometres, which was impressive. It was a dangerous path to be sure, because we were constantly at risk of either toppling off it and into the river, or over the other edge and into the forest below, but I forbade people from walking more than three abreast, and that got us through the day without any fatalities, though one mischievous little boy, Trajan, seemed determined to scare someone off the precipice because he kept on shouting ‘Boo!’ at people, making them flinch and stumble. He probably would have done that all day because he didn’t seem to have parents around to pull him up on his behaviour, but he tried it on Sam and because Sam heard it coming with his gift, he managed to swing around in time to return the favour- damn near scaring the little boy into the river himself. Trajan burst into tears from fright after that and spent the rest of the day glowering at Sam from behind, but he didn’t try to scare anyone else and we were all grateful to Sam for that. Seemed he was better with kids than he thought!

It was so strange, to have to follow a path towards an unknown destination. Most people that found themselves in our position had ended up there because they’d gotten lost and were trying to find their way home... but we’d gotten ourselves lost on purpose with the sole intention of finding a home- any home- and the only clues we had to finding what we were looking for were: ‘Head north,’ and ‘Follow Larkin,’ and that wasn’t much to go on. Where had Satan seen us ending up? In my head, and I was looking for a turquoise lake like the one in the old drunk’s story, but you’d hardly be able to make a home by one in weather like this, even if it existed, so what did Satan expect me to find? A cavern system within a mountain that was large enough to accommodate us all? Another underground railway station? Or in her prophecy, had we been wearing fur and happily building igloos? Every possibility seemed as plausible as becoming cave-dwellers did (there were plenty of those around, popping up in the oddest places!) but my muscles locked up in anticipation of claustrophobia as I tried to imagine making a home out of any of them, especially considering how comfortable my last life had been.

Turns out, I had been a little spoiled after all- at least as far as climate control and nice bed linen was concerned.

It was stranger still to be hypothetically plotting things like setting up camps for the night when we didn’t even know if we’d have to, or if we’d miraculously stumble upon whatever it was that I was supposed to find any minute now. I didn’t know if I’d be safe going to the east or the west, high ground or low… if we should be trying to fish the river to forage up as much food as we needed, or if we needed to make a camp as soon as possible in order to survive the night. I had my bearings now, but I was just as lost for them, so I did all that I could do and followed the river. Perhaps the truth to my destiny lay at the beginning of it, at whatever place the rain was collecting enough to maintain such a vibrant stream of fresh water, but when we came across a massive bat cave at a bend in the river- the biggest one we’d seen yet- I stopped caring about what lay ahead and started working towards laying down my weary head instead.

‘Are you sure this is safe?’ Vanessa fretted, as others looked around for bears.

‘Are you sure we shouldn’t keep going?’ another asked, but I was too tired to respond to them. No one was thrilled at the idea of sleeping with bats, not even me, but they started to fly out when I lit a few fires inside, and I couldn’t tell you if they returned in the night or not, because as soon as I snuggled up next to Sam and burrowed my face into Bastien’s furry hood from behind, I fell fast asleep in that cold, riparian camp without one bloody thought towards everyone else’s well-being.

17.

The Wildlands

Larkin

Thursday August 25th AA644

Though the storm had drifted south, I was told that we copped the end of it that night because while I slept the dreamless sleep of the dead, some of the others apparently clung onto one another for dear life and cursed my name as the fires were blown out and the winds had shrieked loudly and powerfully enough to shake the rocks that we’d sought shelter beneath.

All was still when I woke up, but after I pried Sam’s arms off of me (he swore he’d snuggled in for warmth and nothing else) and stumbled outside to investigate, I saw that with the morning’s grey, glaring light came much enlightenment for the terrain around us had been covered with a fresh layer of snow, and that ominous grey clouds were creeping our way from the north- clouds that looked twice as heavy and as low as the ones we’d seen the day before.

‘Another storm is coming,’ Bastien said, coming to stand beside me and stretching, and I nodded, wondering if this was the one that Arial had predicted originally, because the air had teeth that was biting into me. ‘Think we’ll make it to your turquoise lake in time?’

I looked at Bastien to see if he was joking, but the smile on his face was kind. ‘You’re the guardian angel,’ I said motioning to the wilderness around us. ‘What do you think?’

Bastien turned me so that I was facing to the east, and pointed to a snowy valley in the far distance, calling my attention to a sight so beautiful that I caught my breath. ‘I’d say if that’s possible, anything is.’

Although the forest still dominated the land to the east, we were on the other side of the Sleeping Giant’s now and there were quite a few valleys lying in the foothills of those gigantic mountains, creating clearings in a handful of areas that I presumed had been lakes once. One particular clearing was huge, but it wasn’t empty like the others because a pack of at least thirty horses had just emerged from one side of it and were galloping across it towards the other.

‘Oh my gosh!’ I rushed forward to track them with my eyes, but the hill that we’d slept within blocked my view of most of that great valley and so I turned and rushed through the cave in order to exit out the other side, leaping over people as I squealed that there were horses running past and that they should all come look and see. When I emerged out the other side and onto the trail again the horses were already halfway across that valley and I had to scramble up the side of the cave in order to get the best view of everything behind it, but it was thrilling all the same. Not only because their proximity was a clear sign that non-predatory mammals could survive in that land for an extended period of time, but because they reminded me of us- a bunch of displaced but determined creatures blindly following a leader across the wildest part of earth despite the fact that they did not belong there.

Everyone cried out in surprise when they saw the horses with their own eyes, and I feared that the rocky outcropping beneath me would crumble under the weight of so many people clambering over it, but their evident delight thrilled me even more than the horses themselves did.

‘This is amazing, Lark,’ Sam said, coming up behind me and wrapping his arms around me so that he could rest his chin on my shoulder in order to see past me. ‘It’s a pain in the ass and I could have done without you rubbing up against me all night, but it’s quite the adventure all the same.’

I chuckled nervously as I wriggled out of his grip, sacrificing watching the last of the horses disappear into the trees in favour of not being embraced. I knew that Sam wasn’t flirting with me and that he didn’t know that he was making me uncomfortable because my mind was blocked by the amber, but he was a very sexual creature by nature and because I was the only person around that he’d made any kind of real connection with, I tended to get broiled by that potent male Nephilim energy of his by default. Under different circumstances, the way his breath had just tickled my ear would have thrilled me because he smelled like leaf littler and musk and was as beautiful as the reddest of sunsets, but under my circumstances, it made my stomach lurch. Maybe the day would come when I’d be okay with him and Bastien hugging me, but that day wasn’t today.

‘Sorry,’ I said lightly, getting down onto the ground and rubbing my hands up and down my arms to warm myself because I’d left my cloak and my jacket inside where I’d used them as bedding. ‘I’ll sleep next to someone else tonight. I was just too exhausted to think things through.’

‘That’s not necessary-’ Sam began to say, but when he landed on the ground behind me and looked around, his eyebrows shot up. ‘Wow,’ he said, scratching at his ear studs again. ‘This is different. I didn’t notice yesterday because it was so dark when we arrived but Jesus…’

‘What?’ I asked, but when I turned around and saw what he had seen, my eyebrows shot up too. Snow was all over the place there too, but the terrain beneath it had changed as it wound around the river bend, and it was such a drastic change that I didn’t know whether I should celebrate it, or run in fear. ‘Oh… okay…’ I walked closer to the edge of the river, peered over it and narrowed my eyes. ‘Well, shit- I guess we walk faster today, hey?’

So we did.

I could not get over the changes in the land and as the day progressed, it just kept on changing, which made me feel queasier. The canyon wall was gradually sloping lower- so low that I could actually see the silhouettes of the trees that grew along its edge, but I couldn’t fly up there to check it out better because the sky was lowering with it, inch by heavy, grey inch. The river was rising too, rising and widening and though that diluted some of its ferocity it continued to swerve gently towards the east- making me worry that it was going to lead us to the ocean instead of a freshwater lake. I didn’t know if Satan saw us sailing to freedom but if she did, I hoped like hell that she was willing to provide us with an ark and not expect me to build one like Noah had, because I knew less about building a boat than I did about building igloos!

The biggest change was the land to the right of us though, because we were no longer suspended high above the forest, but walking practically level with it, and instead of being choked up with Devil’s Claw as it had been before, the woods were suddenly full of conifers, elms and hemlocks too- all of which were overburdened by piles of snow that made their branches tremble threateningly. The ground was sloping downhill still, but the trees closest to us were tall enough to loom over our heads anyway, bathing the trail in a lacy shadow that made me feel like I’d run through from one side of the cave in the morning and had exited the other in the afternoon instead of seconds later.

Some of those changes ought to have made me feel more secure because the odds of any of us falling to our death had just been halved, but they didn’t, because being level with a more hospitable forest meant that we were now on more level ground with whatever dwelled within it, and because of the snow, it was going to be practically impossible to tell a boulder apart from a Salt And Pepper bear- a fact that we discovered not one hour into that hike when a baby cub barrelled out into view on the path in front of us, making Martya scream at my side.

I didn’t see the cause for alarm because as far as I was concerned, the tiny bear was the most darling thing I’d ever seen, but two heartbeats later the mother came out looking for it, and I was so shocked by the sight of it looming up out of the forest in front of me that I practically widdled myself in fear. It was close to seven feet tall and the sound of its agitated snarl made every hair on the back of my neck stand up, but I didn’t understand how perilous the situation was until Windsor came barrelling forward with his axe at the ready, shouting that he ‘had’ it, just as he had with the wolf back in The Wildwoods. Montgomery came up behind him, fitting a bow into his quiver and commanded me to get out of the way, but I couldn’t budge an inch despite the fact that pandemonium was breaking out all around me.

I didn’t know anything about bears aside from what I’d read in books and had been taught at school, but I did know that hand to hand combat with one was likely to get Windsor and anyone that tried to help him killed, so I screamed at him to leave it alone when he drew it back and with a grunt, shoved him off the path and into the tree-line, commanding him and everyone else that was listening, to run. The people closest to the bear and I did as instructed and darted into the forest, skirting around the bear and screaming hysterically, but Windsor whirled on me and called me a string of foul names, telling me that my tree-hugging ‘thing’ was going to get everyone killed and was a good indication that I’d get all of them killed if we ever had to face off with the Barachiel family too, because I was clearly a coward that didn’t understand the concept of survival of the fittest.

I saw red and shot flames at him out of reflex, and not only did they shock him into a retreat, but they alarmed the bear enough to cause it to stagger back a little, looking more agitated but less sure of itself. I screamed at Windsor that he was welcome to get himself covered in animal blood in a forest full of predators if he wanted to, but that he could forget traveling with us unless he took a dip in the frozen, raging river after to wash it all off because we wouldn’t be walking anywhere with someone that smelled like a fresh kill. Though his eyes widened somewhat, he didn’t actually acknowledge that there was any sense in what I’d said until much later (months later, actually) and the last thing he said to me before he scooped up Trajan and raced him away through the forest was that the bear could have me- he was through trying to protect a woman that didn’t have the sense to protect herself.

The others at the back of the pack stared from me to where Windsor had gone and back to the bear with eyes round as saucers, but none of them seemed to know what to do or where to go. Sam moved to step forward, his face hardening with grim determination as he sized up the bear, but I cried out for him to get Bastien and Martya out of there and that was the last thing I said before the bear realised that I was good and distracted and came lumbering towards me a second time.

I screamed and backed up, holding up my hands again and shooting two more balls of fire and light its way and the rest of The Sequestered took their cue and bolted into the forest too with Sam, Martya and Bastien leading the way but crying out for me to be careful. One of the fireballs hit the bear at the top of one of its hind legs but the other missed and hissed a path through the air to its baby and that did it- it turned away from me and went after its cub as it yipped and pawed at the ground in front of it where the flames had landed, startling it. I sucked in a breath and moved to run after my friends, pleased that I’d distracted it if nothing else and praying that I had time to get around it and catch up with the others, but then I heard a small voice cry: ‘Larkin wait for me!’ and the mama bear spun around as I did.

No!

My blood turned to ice when I saw that Serif had waited behind for me, and now a good ten metres separated us. Sensing that it had a better chance of devouring this smaller, less flammable creature, the bear roared and began to race at Serif, getting down on all fours and shooting forward with shocking speed. I went into autopilot again and though I did not remember most of it after, somehow I got my cloak off one of my arms and started running at Serif too. The youth didn’t scream when he realised how much trouble he was in and instead, lifted his tiny little shanghai in self defence, but he never got to pull back on the band- one minute one of the bear’s massive claws were striking out towards him and the next, Serif was howling in agony and I was lifting him off the ground.

The next few moments blurred by, but by the time I had caught up to the rest of The Sequestered, Serif was bleeding profusely from the jagged tears that the bear had carved down his right forearm and my wings were flapping so hard in my panic that I apparently knocked over the first two people that raced to our aid from behind me with them. Serif was crying in sharp, ugly little gasps, but he clung to me as I screamed for help and told me that I’d saved him, I’d saved him… over and over again until I couldn’t see his pale face through my tears. Martya and two of the witches stepped forward to tend to Serif’s wounds with the little first aid kit that they had and I tried to disentangle myself from his desperate grasp, but Serif clung to me and refused to let me go, so I had no choice but to sit there and watch as his wounds were irrigated, covered with some weird herbal remedy to stave off infection and then bandaged. My claustrophobia floated to the surface of my nervous system (the last time someone had held me this tight they’d…) but my concern for the boy’s welfare overwhelmed my concern for myself, keeping me pinned beneath him.

‘I’m so glad you were there…’ Serif choked out, his face contorting with pain as his fingers crushed mine. He wasn’t that much smaller than I was, not really, but his eyes were so bright with vulnerability that he looked centuries younger than me then. ‘I thought I’d be able to save you but…’ he sobbed and buried his face into my cloak, which was still half-hanging off me. ‘Thank you Larkin. I guess I’m not ready to become an explorer yet, am I?’

‘Of course you are,’ I said, my throat tight. I couldn’t look at his wounds- they were so deep! How close had he come to having his arteries clawed out of his wrist? ‘You just need to pick on a smaller bear next time, hmm? Work your way up to wrestling the bigger ones?’

‘I think I’ll leave it to you to fight them in general- just for a few more years,’ Serif said, closing his eyes and wincing as Gabrielle tightened the bandage, ‘at least with you around, I can go on adventures and live to talk about them after, right?’

‘Right,’ I said as my eyes filled with tears again and my heart swelled with hope. He wasn’t flirting anymore and he wasn’t trying to be brave- he was just a kid that had been scared out of his wits and was now holding onto the one person that made them feel safe- me.

I smiled then as I realised that it was possible to feel like a mother after all- even if you didn’t have a womb.

*

We got moving again almost as soon as we’d patched Serif up, and though it hadn’t proven to be the safest place to be, Martya returned to my side, making little notes on the map that she’d borrowed from Bastien as we went- the kind of notes that measured distance and left me in awe of her because I had no idea how she managed to keep track of such things. Nor did I know how she and Sam could write while walking, because even reading while walking made me sick.

‘Look at us, huh? Just going for a casual trek in the wilderness…’ she glanced at me, and I couldn’t help but notice how becoming the winter was for her, for her Rubicon cheeks set off her auburn hair and hazel eyes prettily. It was a shame that Sam was too preoccupied by his own notebook that day to pay her the kind of attention that she’d clearly tried to snare from him earlier when she’d tried walking at his side. ‘I know you’re not happy about how all of this came to be, but you’ve got to admit… the future feels brighter out here, doesn’t it?’ She held out her palms and snowflakes immediately began to fall onto her maroon gloves. ‘Now that we’re free?’

‘I’m still deciding on how free I am… being the devil’s actual advocate and all... but yes, I am appreciating the open sky, or I was until it started to drop down on us.’ I looked around me, suddenly feeling very confused- and like a thoughtless twat. ‘Where is your family though? I thought you said that your parents and brothers were all involved with-’

‘They are, but they stayed in Calliel to keep an eye on things, you know? Once we’ve established a village or whatever it is that we can manage to establish, some of us will go back for the others. For the time being, they’re expecting us to be gone for at least two years before we can return for them but I hope it will be sooner than that.’

I frowned at the idea of returning to Calliel even two years from then, but asked: ‘Are they safe?’ instead as I pulled my cloak more tightly around myself. The temperature was dropping again, and fast! ‘I know you said a lot of people that are linked with us don’t know what it is that they’re linked to, but your family has obviously been involved in this crusade of revenge against the Barachiels for awhile, so how have they avoided detection for so long?’

Martya’s grim smile was re-directed back out at the snowy forest around us. ‘Because they’re Blue Collars and farmers, Larkin, which means to the Barachiels and the rest of the nobility, they are beneath notice. They don’t rebel, they don’t gossip, they don’t practice religion and they didn’t blame The Barachiels for my death so they slipped right through that big ol’ crack in the caste system quickly and quietly and they’ve stayed hidden in there since.’ She sighed out a cloud of frosty air. ‘I still can’t work out if that’s a comedic or tragic element in all of this, but I know having Adeline thriving in the inner sanctum for so long has generated a bit of trust for us.’

‘Our spine is the one part of our body we never get to see, and yet it is the part that supports us the most,’ I agreed, thinking that over and narrowing my eyes at a massive chunk of ice that was churning along the river. ‘So long as it does what it’s supposed to do, of course, we don’t give it a second thought. But should it snap-’

‘The rest will fall, eventually,’ Martya finished solemnly. ‘And they will fall, Larkin- they must. I know you have mixed feelings towards them but-’

‘Did you know that Karol released the people who scored highest in the PCE the year of our birth in your name the other week?’ I asked quickly, blowing into my hands to make it seem more casual, but she stiffened all the same.

‘To get you into bed, Larkin,’ she said tersely, and though I’d noticed how hard she’d been working to keep her personal agenda out of our conversations over the past few days, I saw the shadows of her truths slip back behind her eyes now as she closed the book and slipped it under her arm. ‘He made a big, grand gesture for one dead whore-’

‘Martya!’

‘Sorry, for one dead Companion... to make another feel grateful to him.’ She looked at me quickly and yes, those hazel eyes had darkened. ‘If I’d lived, and if we’d been his, I don’t think it would have once crossed his mind to release you or anyone else on my behalf, do you?’

I sighed, looking down at my boots and frowning at how deep my footprints were becoming. ‘I’d like to believe that he would have but… I guess I don’t know what to believe and I probably never will. Ora swore that he loved me in the end, as did he, and if that was true then I suppose there was no limit to what he would have done to make me happy… but he never would have become infatuated with me in the first place if I’d been his to enjoy rather than to long for so I guess you’re right- I just don’t know if that makes him evil, or just someone whose potential went untapped for a very long time.’ I blew out a breath and confessed: ‘But I do know that if all of the things that he did for me when he believed that he was in love with me came from his desire to make me his wife and his equal and not just his toy, then he wasn’t evil, Martya…’ I remembered the costume that he’d had made to woo me with, the way Ora had said that he’d demanded permission to change every rule in order to marry me, the way he’d brought Lindy and Coaxley over to celebrate my release so I’d have some family there, and the way he had granted my freedom... and tears stung my eyes- hot ones. ‘In fact, he could have just been the most incredible, loving, thoughtful man on the face of the earth.’ And I scared him out of a window! Thank the heavens that Satan cleared that from my conscience and brought him back, because if I’d had to live with that… well, I wouldn’t of, would I? That’s the whole point?

Martya didn’t know all of the intimate details so she made a face. ‘You thought that about Kohén once, didn’t you?’

I nodded, hugging myself tightly now that I could feel the wind picking up again. ‘Yes, but there was a difference- Kohén brought me Liberty… but Karol granted me it. He is many things and a lot of them were awful- but he was trying to change.’

Martya looked at me, incredulous. ‘Please tell me that you’re not harbouring some-’

‘No!’ I said quickly. ‘Absolutely not! I am far too rational to fall for a man like that, and far too smart to know that a man like that would never fall for me anyway… not in a way that would last… but you can’t help the way you feel and the truth is that I feel like Karol was compassionate, kind and most importantly, determined to make the world a better place in the end, regardless of what motivated him to try and change in the first place. I do not have romantic feelings towards him and I’ll never have such feelings for any man again thanks to the things that I was subjected to under his family’s care, but I don’t hate him anymore. In fact, I feel sorry for him.’

Martya sighed, glancing behind her. ‘I can at least empathise with you as far as being unable to control your feelings goes. Sam’s got to be the worst possible candidate for a love interest around here, and yet every time I look at him…’

I chuckled, looking back to where Sam was so focused on his work that the tip of his tongue was poking out between his teeth in a comical fashion. He looked ridiculous but that focus softened him, and I could see why Martya was developing a crush. ‘I agree that he’s got to be the worst candidate…’ I looked back at her. ‘But the heart wants what it wants. With any luck he’ll get his soul back soon enough so why don’t you try and steal a kiss and see where it-’

‘Absolutely not,’ Martya said sharply, and I blinked, surprised. ‘He doesn’t want me Larkin- if I leaned into kiss him, I’d end up falling flat on my face.’

‘He’s not looking to be anyone’s boyfriend…’ I agreed carefully, looking back behind me to see how far behind the rest of The Sequestered were, because we were rounding yet another large bend in the river and I didn’t want anyone to fall behind or wander off in the wrong direction now that the snow was falling more heavily. ‘He wouldn’t even know how to be one, but I know that he still craves a woman’s touch, so if you approach him carefully-’

‘I’m very aware that he’s up for a good time and believe me when I say that if he wanted one with me, and if the chemistry was there, I’d offer myself up as a casual fling in a nanosecond.’ Martya looked straight ahead at the track, eyes flattening as she tucked her ears under her wool hat. ‘But he wants someone else, Lark- in fact he’s obsessed with someone else and I know that because he’s been sketching her all morning.‘

My eyebrows shot up because I thought he’d been writing about me, and I was relieved to hear that he had someone else on his mind, even if that someone wasn’t Martya. ‘He can draw?’

‘As true to life as a photograph,’ she confirmed, now tucking her hair into the collar of her jacket. I looked behind us and saw others were doing the same- everyone but Sam who’d lifted his book so that it was vertical in order to make sure that the powdery snow did not fall on his work. ‘That’s just one more thing that makes him sexier than hell to me... but I’m not interested in being kissed by someone who’s imagining that I’m someone else, you know? I already tried to be someone’s favourite once and I failed dismally- I won’t lower myself to jostling for a man’s attention again, especially now that I’ve seen what he looks for in a woman because she and I don’t have one single physical characteristic in common.’

I cringed, thinking of the remarks that Sam had made about the twins. Clearly he went for bombshells, but Martya was attractive too, so what was the harm in her at least trying? ‘Tell me who it is! I can imagine her picking her nose or something, and Sam might lose interest when he sees that in my mind, yeah?’

‘If he sees that in your mind he’ll see your intentions too, so no.’ Martya looked at me and smiled a smile that did not meet her eyes as she threw her arm around my shoulders. ‘But thanks for the offer. You’re a good friend, you know that?’

‘As are you.’ I squeezed her back, frowning when I suddenly noticed that as we were rounding the bend, the forest beside us was falling away again. Not downhill, but outwards, tripling the width of our path in the space of a few metres. ‘One day, I’m sure we’ll look back on our adolescence and laugh at the silly things we thought mattered, right? Like crushes… and balancing books on our heads...’

‘I hope to, but until then…’ Martya pointed ahead and to the left and when I followed her gaze with my eyes, my heart sank, because our entire future had just vanished- under a wall to wall blanket of white nothingness that was paired with a wind that was so intense that it immediately began flinging about the loose strands of my hair. ‘You might want to worry about that instead.’

But I couldn’t respond- I couldn’t do anything but stare at the blizzard that we were about to walk into- and the valley beyond it that was already vanishing beneath it- and think that even hell had looked more inviting than that part of the north did that day.

18.

The Wildlands

Larkin

The valley that had appeared in front of us on the other side of the river bend seemed to be twice the size of the Wastelands and had a horizon of its own on two sides, but with a backdrop of nimbostratus clouds above and behind it that blocked my view of everything from the mountains to the coast, while the blizzard blocked out almost everything else behind a screen of snow that had more movement, direction and harmonies than a symphony. You could still make out the pronounced lie of the river and a section or gorge wall above it on our left, and the forest behind us and to our right- but the mist that was creeping across to us between both was already beginning to veil those massive landmarks too, and soon I feared that we wouldn’t be able to see a foot in front of our faces for it.

My heart began to beat frantically and fearfully, and as though they had picked up on my terror the way a wild animal does, the winds began to intensify a second later, bludgeoning us with swirls of snow and mist the second that we began to emerge from the woodlands and causing the other people behind Martya and I to cry out in shock and fright.

‘This is at least negative twenty!’ someone cried, and my heart spasmed. If it was negative twenty here, then what was it going to be like ahead of us when the forest and the canyon vanished completely? How would I know if we were walking across a field of ice or into a sea of it?

On Bastien’s command, (I was too bug-eyed and slack-jawed to voice one of my own) we came to a halt so people could take a moment to prepare themselves for the onset of the snowstorm. It was going to be a wicked one, I could tell, because the grey, engorged belly of those clouds appeared to have swallowed the mountain tops whole and were racing towards us with a craving for human flesh- flesh that would turn to snow the moment its icy breath hit us anyway.

We are so going to die! I thought, still too dumbstruck to move- never before had I seen snow flying in horizontal sheets like that, sharp enough to cut us into ribbons, even through our furs. We are going to die and it’s going to be all my fault! Mine, and Satan’s!

But I was apparently the only one that thought that for certain because the others were still going to great lengths to avoid death as diligently as they always had. The only baby boy in The Sequestered, Nadeem, was pressed into my arms as his mother begged me to keep him warm so that she could carry her other son, and before I could protest she was off, scooping her four year-old off the ground while thanking me for being an angel. The baby had dark olive skin, almond shaped eyes that were as jet-black as his thick head of hair was (traits he shared with his mother and brother) but he proved to be nowhere near as grateful as she was for my assistance, because he started to wail the second that she walked away.

I started to fret more now that I had such an adorable, vulnerable burden to bear... but I tucked the baby into my jacket and then began to button him up, hoping that the tightness of the fit would hold him in place without smothering him. Someone stabbed a torch into the snow in front of me and took off without saying another word, and I gave Satan a hysterical piece of my mind as the baby’s fists tangled in my hair and its sobs intensified- a conversation that sadly, remained one-sided. How fucking long did she need to rest for anyway? Would we get to trade at some point so she could plough through the snow while I curled up into a warm bed in hell?

But before I could burst into frustrated tears, Martya helped me out by taking the jacket’s sash and securing it low on my hips and under the baby’s bottom to help support its weight, which made it relax its grip a little. Then, she pulled my cloak closed around both of us and fastened the toggles in the front leaving me feeling restricted, constricted and inelegant, but secure. Her face was creased with worry, but she gave me a quick smile as the snow started to blow harder around us and then leaned in to kiss my cheek.

‘Blizzards always end, even if they sometimes feel like they’re lasting forever,’ she said, before pulling her scarf around the lower half of her face so what she shouted at me next was muffled: ‘Keep moving, no matter what, and stick close to the river!’

‘Can’t we just wait in the woods?!’

‘No! They’re too think to offer much cover and sitting still for too long will kill us a lot faster!’ Martya handed me my torch and out of frightened reflex, a tiny flame sprouted out of it only to be immediately be blown out by the wind. ‘If we keep moving, our blood keeps circulating!’

‘But don’t try to race the storm!’ Bastien showed up at my side and started winding a scarf around my lower jaw, while I started rubbing my hand down the baby’s back rhythmically. ‘Set a slow, steady pace, because if we stress or exert ourselves too much, we’ll sweat and develop hypothermia.’

Their advice was both helpful and confusing, and I was afraid that I was about to burst into tears from stress and freeze my eyeballs over. ‘Can’t one of you that actually has experience with this sort of weather take the-’

‘You’re the one that needs to lead us, Larkin,’ Bastien said quickly, kissing my other cheek, ‘and a shepherd’s true place is often at the rear of his flock, anyway. Start moving, and I’ll go make sure that those most vulnerable to the temperature will move closer to you, just in case you need to-’

‘To what?’ I squeaked. ‘Set them on fire?’

But he was already gone.

I started walking and for a little while, I fooled myself into believing that the blizzard wasn’t going to be half as dangerous as it looked, even when the clouds started to pass directly above our heads and the snow started falling with the consistency of rain. The winds were cutting yes, but I could hear them more than I could feel them, and it was actually very pretty once we were clear of the forest- sort of like being in a snow globe. The river was getting wider and shallower, but that didn’t affect us in any real way, at least not then, so I told myself that I could manage this, just as I’d managed to survive everything else.

Just keep putting one foot in front of the other. You weren’t born brave like Martya was, but surely, you’re on the path to becoming brave now, right?

The baby had stopped crying after about ten minutes and had fallen asleep against my chest, and even though I suspected it had probably sobbed itself into an exhausted sleep, the feel of it breathing in harmony with my heartbeat now was soothing to me all the same, like I was walking to a beat. I kept opening my collar to look down at his peaceful but puffy little face, comforting myself with the knowledge that even though it was getting scary out there, the baby wasn’t yet affected by it yet so we were doing okay.

I was doing okay. Not brilliantly, but I hadn’t gotten anyone killed yet and that was something.

The valley had resembled The Wastelands at first, but twenty minutes into it I realised that they were really nothing alike. The only unidentifiable lumps were boulder-shaped and very few and far between, and the snow was firm and shallow, which made walking easier, even though I was walking on a slant in order to stay on the rim of it but without losing sight of the river. In fact, I had to actually remind myself to slow down a few times, because I kept accidentally accelerating to a pace that was fast enough to break a sweat and that was the last thing that I or any of The Sequestered needed.

They all seemed to be doing okay too, and I didn’t have to worry about the kids so much because they were now back on the sleighs and being towed across the flat base of the valley to my right. Singles were following in my footsteps along the angled rim, but it would have been too hard for those pulling the sleighs to tow them along the angled dunes so they’d gone all the way to the bottom of it instead. They were tough, those adults, and I told myself that the next time we stopped for a rest, I’d pull them aside, learn their names, and thank them for making the migration that bit easier on everyone. That was, if we ever got to rest again in a way that wasn’t a final one!

The first few kilometres of that crossing was bearable, but it was silent except for the wind, and I found that unsettling. For days our group had been keeping up an endless stream of chatter (and bickering) so now that it was too hard to talk, the only thing we could hear was that whistling wind so it made me feel a lot more isolated than I truly was despite how desperately I’d been craving peace and quiet the night before. I started singing to myself under my breath, but I gave up after a few attempts because every single song that I knew triggered memories of Kohén, and that was just going to cause my heart and my eyes to ice over faster.

Unmoved by my despair, that weather continued to get worse and the river began to sweep more distinctly towards the left- pulling away from the valley and snaking off towards the coast instead of arcing around as I’d hoped it would. I didn’t want to leave the valley, because it was so nice to have such a clear view of everything again after having been forced to walk such a narrow path for so long… but I knew that I had to follow the water, and so I beckoned people to come up the rim of the valley again before turning northwest, following the gorge wall while squinting to keep track of the icy river between me and it.

Why can’t Martya be right about something good happening? I thought in dismay as the canyon that I’d been counting on for days- the only consistent thing in my life- began to open up exactly as a mouth of a river would as it embraced the sea. Not only was it growing broader, but it was freezing over too, for shelves of ice the size of my bedroom back in Eden started clustering at the edges, becoming one with the sloped, snow-covered embankments before creeping out towards the centre, forming a glassy rim. The evidence of the snow’s domination of that wild river sank all of my floundering spirits, especially as those shelves of ice began to vanish against deep mounds of freshly fallen snow, making it hard to tell where the bank ended, and the frozen waters began. Realizing that I couldn’t let The Sequestered walk over such uncertain ground I stopped, turned to face the herd of humans behind me and then carefully peeled Nadeem out of my jacket before handing him to Siria while his mother looked on with despair.

‘He’s all right!’ I had to shout at her to be heard over the wind. ‘B-But I can no longer see wh-where the true edge of the river is, and I need to try and stay as close to it as possible s-so I don’t lose my b-bearings!’ It was so hard to talk because my teeth were practically slamming together hard enough to splinter. ‘I n-need to go-go ahead of you all a bit so I can scout this area out, and it’s g-going to be risky. If I fall through ice and into the w-water, there is a chance that I will survive because I can fly f-free- but if the b-b-baby gets wet…’ I winced and shook my head. ‘I’ll never forgive myself!’

‘You will fall into the river, and s-soon,’ Arial stretched up to grasp my face while she shouted into it, catching me off-guard. How the hell had she managed to keep up with the people at the front of the pack? ‘But if you keep the broken trees in sight, you will find your way through!’

‘I will?!’ I squeaked, pulling back in horror. I was going to go into those freezing waters soon? Bloody hell! And what did she mean by broken trees? The clouds were so low that I could barely make out the pom pom on top of her navy knitted hat, let alone a tree line anywhere. ‘Anything else I should know?’

But she shook her head firmly. ‘Not that you should know, no.’

‘Enough yammering you crazy old nit w-wit!’ Windsor said, stepping between us and shooting Arial a look of annoyance before turning to me with squinted eyes. ‘Ignore her Larkin and focus! St-stay as close t-to the edge as you c-can, and w-we w-will st-stay as f-far b-back as w-we c-can! But w-won’t stop m-moving. We can’t!’

I didn’t know when Windsor had decided to start talking to me like I wasn’t a no-count tree-hugger again, but I nodded quickly and turned to move. However, Sam stepped forward, caught my hand and pulled my amber ring free, stuffing it down into his boot and then slamming a migraine home into my head:

This is one of those moments when you should take advantage of my gifts, you know? he asked, and I nodded quickly, blowing into my hands to warm them up and wincing to see the way that tiny ice crystals were whipping against his ruddy cheeks. All right, you go ahead, and report back anything you see while we follow at a safe distance. I’d like to make it to the foothills by nightfall, but if you think that looks improbable, let me know so I can start everyone digging a shelter or trench or whatever, all right?

All right! I said, and leaned in to kiss his gelid cheek. Thank you Sam! I’ll move as fast as I can and get back to you straight away, I promise. Sam lifted his hand to touch his cheek, and before he could see how not ‘okay’ I truly was, (oh God his fingers were blue!) I turned away and started stalking across those snow dunes, angling myself away from the frosted river and more to the true north, squinting around for the sign of any landmark that might help me find not only my way- but the right way.

But I wasn’t brave at all, and Arial’s threats that I would fall into the water had frightened me further, so I started looking up more than I ought to, mostly to what was left of the canyon’s coastal wall, which was now lying to the south west of us due to the hard left turn we’d taken out of the valley. I was looking for somewhere that I might flutter free to- to some sign of broken trees or turquoise lakes or anything at all- but there was nothing to see but ribbons of snow and mists that were spiralling around me, choking me with every breath that I gasped in now.

I don’t want to die! I thought, hugging myself to keep the wind out of my now open cloak and coat, which I was afraid to re-fasten in case the need to sprout my wings suddenly arose. My legs were aching from struggling through snow that was now almost up to my knees, and my head was feeling light from the oxygen deprivation while my eyes felt like they were going to shatter. I know I said otherwise last week Satan, and I know I haven’t given you any of the faith that you so desperately want from me, but if you’re listening please, help me get these people to safety and I’ll do anything-

But I didn’t get to finish that prayer, because my very next step sent me hurtling over the unseen precipice, and then free-falling into the river below.

Ahhhhhhhhh!

I couldn’t tell how far I was falling or even what direction I was falling in because of all of that white, but I felt the landing sure enough as I smashed not into ice water, but into a mound of snow that was just thick enough to break my fall, but not so thick that it prevented every bone in my body from rattling on impact while the air was punched out of my lungs.

Oh… oh… SHIT! I silently screamed as my left elbow speared me in my own solar plexus upon landing, and my knees drew up to my chest in reflex while my mind spun and my lungs burned. I’d landed on my side, I knew that, but I’d landed in an awkward position, because I’d tried to get one arm out of my cloak on the way down and had failed miserably before trapping it and landing on it. I’d hit my head, shoulder and hip hard upon landing too, and I suspected that the only reason why I hadn’t lost consciousness was because the snow was so cold against my face and neck that it felt like I’d been sprayed with ice water- keeping me TOO alert.

Mother FUCKER that hurt! She said I’d land like a SWAN! How? By swan diving sideways? Crazy old fucking bitch! I’ve had cookies tell my fortune with better accuracy!

Larkin? Larkin what the fuck? I heard Sam ask, as other, real, voices began calling out my name from high above, but I couldn’t respond so I just lay there and stared at my extinguished torch that was lying up near my knees, stunned. Sooner or later I’d probably take a moment to be grateful for the fact that I’d fallen onto snow, not into the water and not onto hard ice… but my gratitude wasn’t going to return until my breath had, so like a fish that had been struck by an oar, I continued to lie there on my side, gaping and panting until I had the sense to flop over the other way and scan the frozen river for signs that I was about to fall through the ice or get eaten by something. There were none, so I gaped and panted some more until finally, I managed to blink and draw in a sliver of icy air.

Larkin? Where are you?!

Sam? I went for another breath and winced when my lungs resisted, then cringed when I spied a few large rocks buried in the snow beneath me. Wow! I’d gotten lucky, all right! I fell. I’m okay, but I need a second… I landed on snow… hard… not water… winded. The water… mostly frozen...

That’s good! But that’s bad! Are you sure you haven’t broken anything? Is the ice you’re on stable? How far have you-

I said I need a second! I thought crankily, and Sam blessedly fell silent. Hold on… I groaned and rolled over onto my belly, before getting my knees up beneath me, and then raising my upper body with the support of my good arm, realizing straight away that I could actually see and hear myself think again, because there was almost no wind down there. And that was because I hadn’t fallen into an open part of the river, but into a tiny pocket of riverbank that had eroded away like the water had taken a bite out of the land instead.

Once I was up on all fours I exhaled before breathing in again, and then gingerly lifted my face to look around, noting that there were rocks imbedded into the embankment’s walls too, which indicated that that little crevice had been there for a while and had fortunately not been created by a massive split in the ice as I’d first feared. Okay getting better- breathing now. Wait… let me try to make sense of what I’m dealing with here…

Okay but hurry! Everyone is very worried and it’s pretty bloody hard to calm them down while I can barely talk!

Give them a thumbs up or something then…

You’re as helpful as Arial…

I resumed looking around, sending a ‘Shush’ his way. I’d been feeling foolish for going over the edge of the canyon, but now when I looked back, I saw that the pocket I was in actually went inland for about ten metres, so it was a good thing that I’d gone ahead because all of us would have fallen into it anyway, no matter how wide a berth they thought they’d been giving the water while shadowing me.

Stop walking. I reached back to grab my torch and then started crawling towards the actual river, through snow so thick that it pushed into my chest and neck, and over rocks so hard and sharp that they cut into my numb hands. The edge I went over is a ditch or something that goes pretty far inland- you’ll need to walk twenty metres to the right in order to avoid doing what I did, and I don’t yet know if there are more like it after.

Okay. So… are you in the lake of your dreams?

I don’t think so. But I should have confirmation for you in a second or two… just be patient. I emerged out in the open, and though the bitter winds were stronger out in that open bowl than they had been in my little cranny, they were blowing back down the river in the way that we’d come, so I could protect my eyes from the stinging snow by keeping my head angled to the north and my gaze to the south.

No, keep your eyes down! Sam snapped, while I was cupping my hand over the top of my torch and willing just one tiny flame to leech out. It did and it held, but it was too vulnerable in that wind to last long. Look at the ice before you step on it! If you can see through it, get off NOW.

Okay, okay… I glanced up quickly, scanning the area, and then down, scanning the ice, which seemed solid to me because snow was piling up on it everywhere and not falling through- mounds that had to weigh a whole lot more than I did. I was on a large ice shelf that was jutting off the embankment now, but I knew it was just a temporary shelf- a recently forged one- because when I looked up, I was able to make out the river freely flowing past me and back towards the south, as aggressive as ever, if not more choked up with the ice and debris that were in transit along it. I could also see much more clearly down there now that the winds were passing well over my head instead of through me, and though I could tell that at least twenty or thirty metres of ice stretched out in front of me- on either side- the centre of the river was holding its ground and looked incapable of freezing solid. The powerful current also seemed to retain domination over the frost all the way to the opposite side, where the other bank still was.

It’s not a lake, I said to Sam then, sighing in disappointment. But I don’t think it’s an ocean either so, that’s a relief. The canyon wall is only a few metres high now, but it’s still over there, and I can’t tell if there’s land, bluffs or a mountain range on the other side of it from here, so we should stick to the right!

Can’t you fly across so you can check it out?

I shook my head, even though he couldn’t see it. Not in this weather- my wings would frost over and I’d crash. I can tell you one thing though- the river gets wider, north of us. I turned and looked that way again, thinking that it looked like a valley unto itself from where I was. The river must be deep and strong enough to keep the current going on the western side, but this eastern side must be a lot broader and shallower, because it’s frozen solid. In fact, if you guys can find a way down here that’s a little less drastic than my way was, we’d probably be a lot more comfortable walking along the river instead of trying to stay beside it. How about you start looking for one while I scout ahead a little more to make sure… and then I saw the broken trees through the snow, and my thoughts dried up.

19.

The Wildlands

Larkin

Broken trees? Sam whipped the thought out of my head immediately. Arial said something to you about broken trees, didn’t she?

She did, and I can see them- well, I think that I can see them but it’s hard to tell because it’s so misty! Heart beginning to race again, I looked back up at the place I’d fallen from, searching for Sam but finding only ice and snow that I was forced to address instead. I’m assuming that’s the way I’m supposed to go, so get everyone down here, okay? If you go to the innermost point of this crevice, you’ll probably be able to walk in just fine because it’s a gradual slope. No jumping though- there are rocks under it all- and no crowding around the edges- you don’t want to cause a cave in.

I can do as you ask but I don’t like letting you go ahead-

And yet, it’s my lot in life, remember? I pushed up to my knees and began to fasten my cloak again, locking my gaze on those trees as I started gingerly walking across the ice towards them. If I can handle it, so can you, my friend. Now, stop telling me how worried you are about me, and let me do what I have to do! I’m scared enough as it is without dragging your fear along with me, got it?

Fine. But be careful Larkin- you’re literally one in ten million.

I looked heavenward as I began wading out of the last of the thick snow and moved onto the solid ice, heading for the trees now instead of the hills. They were the strangest looking trees I’d ever seen, and were growing in an odd little cluster about three hundred metres to the north in the middle of absolute nothingness, making me wonder if they were all grouped together on a tiny island or something because there was nothing to suggest that there was a woods anywhere near them. They were taller than the conifers that had grown in perfectly orchestrated rows back around Arcadia, but twig-like without a leafy bough to be seen. They looked broken due to the fact that there were a lot of short branches sticking out- branches so small that they looked like twigs through the condensed air- and because they were leaning at the strangest angle, every single one of them! It was almost as though the wind had blown against them so hard for so long that they’d begun to tilt like dominoes, before freezing at an angle so sharp that every second that they stayed like that was defied gravity.

There was nothing about that group of trees to suggest that they would come in handy for anything, for those leafless branches would not offer shelter from the elements in any way, but they were definitely a distinct landmark, so I stopped worrying about why I was walking towards them, and just walked towards them, allowing my feet to take over for awhile while I gave the decision-making part of my brain a well-earned rest.

Witch said to walk to trees- I walk to trees.

I could hear Sam muttering his thoughts to himself and bellyaching over the frustrating task of giving seventy people that couldn’t understand him specific orders behind me, but I tuned him out and alternated my focus between staring at the ice ahead of me, and then looking up at the trees again to make sure that I didn’t stray off course. My depth perception was out of kilter thanks to the snow and mist, but it seemed like it was going to take me about five minutes to get to where I was going, and though that wasn’t a long walk by any means, it was probably far enough from Sam to sever our mental link, and that was cause for concern.

You’re still covered… Sam said then, and I smiled. What? You think I’d forget about you that easily, Larkin of Nowhere? But before I could answer, he went back to cursing Trajan for starting a snowball fight, and his thoughts faded in seconds as he redirected them at the disobedient orphan.

Out of curiosity more than anything else, I began to silently call out to Satan instead- testing the communication line between us, if you would- to see if she hadn’t yet generated enough power to at least whisper into my mind... but I didn’t hear anything back from her, and that made me chew on my lower lip anxiously. She’d said that she’d needed a good rest, but she’d gone from being omnipresent to unreachable, despite the fact that I was obeying her orders word for word, and I couldn’t help but wonder if I had already failed The Sequestered so much that they’d lost faith in her completely, evaporating her strength. Was that the case? Should I have been encouraging their orgies and allowing all of that needless animal slaughter to happen too? Or was she just off somewhere, fucking with someone else and paying me no mind?

So lost was I in my thoughts, that I didn’t realise that I was in God’s presence until I damn near mowed him down.

For the first few seconds I was absolutely convinced that I was looking directly at our perfect creator or at least a statue of him, but then I realised that the moving piece of art in front of me was an actual person and every nerve ending in my body fizzled, causing my muscles to seize up and my brain to immediately go into lockdown.

Holy shit!

For lack of a better idea and most of my muscle control, I melted into a crouched position directly in front of the strange man, gaping up at him with eyes that were stretched so widely in astonishment that they were stinging. It occurred to me straight away that I was probably hallucinating thanks to the lack of oxygen and the hard fall I’d just experienced, but when I looked down at the powdered ice I saw the tread of the man’s boots imbedded into it as footprints and I blinked rapidly before crawling back a foot or two, knowing that not even I had the imagination to give a hallucination footprints! What was going on? How was this happening? I’d pinch myself, but I hadn’t felt my skin in over an hour so it wouldn’t prove much.

The man hadn’t seen me yet because he was too busy craning his neck to look over the rim of the lake above and behind me and because the hyperborean air had more form and texture and power than even I did, but I was terrified, and feared that my pounding heart was loud enough to give my position away. Under any other circumstance I knew that I probably would have scorched him with reflexive fireballs, but I’d hit the ground so fast that my scalding fists had actually sunk into the snow beneath me with a hiss that apparently wasn’t loud enough to be heard over the wind. I didn’t know if my torch was still lit or not, but I’d dropped it so that the flame had fallen behind me, and so that hadn’t snagged his attention yet either.

Oh...my...god...who...is…that?! What do I do? Sam, can you hear me? If you can MAYDAY!

But Sam didn’t respond and the man continued to scan the terrain behind and above me with narrowed eyes that were the exact same shade as the bright grey sky, while I remained as frozen to the spot, probably looking like a rime-coated gargoyle thanks to the way that my mouth and eyes were still open in a silent scream.

Stay still! He probably hasn’t noticed you because your fur is pure white, but if you move suddenly, you’ll catch his eye and you can’t risk that! Look at how many blades he has strapped to him! Three... Four? This is a man that’s used to killing things and quickly, and you’re a murderer’s prime target! Stay low, silent and still or the snow will end up stained in your angelic but mortal blood!

Despite my duress, some part of me was capable of noting the fact that terrifying or not, that man just may have been the most spectacular-looking creature that I’d ever seen in my life- even more so than the healer, Heath, back in Eden. Tall and broad as he was, it wasn’t really a surprise that he hadn’t noticed me down there on the snow in front of his knees, and I would have bet good money that he could see all the way to Janiel from where he stood because he was closer to seven feet than six, I was sure of it.

Keep scanning the horizon! I willed him silently as I stretched back slowly so that my belly was resting on my knees. Then, I slowly started to drag my stretched fingers back and hopefully completely out of his sight. Don’t look down please! Do NOT look down!

The man- or God- was wearing a fitted outfit, the likes of which I’d never seen on any other man before from any culture, and it had evidently been tailored to accommodate every one of his muscles because I could make them all out through the supple but tight-fitting leather armour that he was wearing and his skin-tight breeches. Seeing as how I had nothing better to do but bow to the snow like I was on an antiquated prayer rug, I raked my gaze from his bulging quads, up his impossibly narrow hips and over his prominent chest to a face that looked like it had been chiselled from ice and actually felt every part of me shiver in a way that had nothing to do with the cold. I was disgusted by that stupid, female reaction to this mountain of sculpted testosterone (had I learned nothing?!) but I honestly did not think that a heterosexual man would have been less impressed in my position, so I forgave myself for the momentary lapse in sensibility.

Beautiful… I thought, studying him the way I had studied the bear earlier- with shock and awe. Perfect, actually. How many ugly people were born so this guy could claim so much splendour for himself? The beard’s got to go though… I’m not a fan of that.

It was no wonder why I’d mistaken him for God: thanks to his tawny skin and longish, blondish hair he was both gold and silver... and because of his delicate features and formidable size he was both masculine and feminine- but radiating so much primal male energy and heat that I was surprised that the snow wasn’t melting everywhere he looked, beckoning forth the spring. Only days had passed since I’d sworn off romance for life, but when he rubbed some frost off his succulent, blood-flushed lower lip with a thumb the size of three of my fingers and then suckled on it absently as he gazed around with those slate-coloured eyes, I imagined his mouth on me and flushed so much that the snow beneath my fists sizzled again. Beard or no beard, (in his defence it was only a thin, gold and silver one that lined his incredible jaw with a coat of fuzz) I was fairly certain that he was better looking than all of the Barachiels, but then again, in that moment I honestly could not recall what they had looked like and I was glad for it- so glad!

All right God, faith momentarily restored. What else you got?

Then he moved, and fear replaced awe, making me vibrate like someone had run one hundred watts through me. Actually, it felt like Kohén had touched me, and that made my muscles clench up even more. But the man still did not see me there and so I watched, fascinated, as he turned away and knelt on the ice, sweeping snow off the glassy surface of the frozen water beneath it and staring down at it.

‘Well?’ he asked out loud, and my eyebrows lifted in surprise. He was talking to the water? Why? ‘I did as you asked, and you’ve led me to certain death… if this is what you wanted then congratulations, for you have broken my foolish spirit and blackened my soul...’

Sweet Jesus he had an accent, and it was so rich and melodic that it made me feel the way butter feels when it hits a scalding skillet. I commanded myself to breathe, but I could not breathe too deeply for fear that he’d see the mist that would spiral out of my mouth after.

‘… However, you will not claim either my spirit or my soul as your trophies, for I intend to spend my last few minutes on this earth praying for God’s forgiveness. And he will forgive me for following you, Hel- I know that as well as I know my heart!’

My mouth popped open again- was he speaking to who I thought he was speaking to? Why had he called her Hel, though?

‘But before I depart I will remind you of one thing: when I die, you will lose the faith of my crew too! We will freeze to death and soon for their captain’s lapse in judgement and I will take the fall for that, but you will burn to ashes under the heat of our hate once we are all safely in Heaven!’

His men? Captain? Oh my GOD, is he a…? No!

The man slowly rose, kicking the slushy snow back over the ice. ‘Tis your loss and not mine, for the heat of my love and devotion would have set God’s fallen kingdoms on fire! Ask Iana- she understood that better than you will ever have the right to!’ He kicked at the snow. ‘She understood my significance, and it is to your own detriment that you have opted to treat me like a toy!’

Then he was striding away, parting the mist that immediately began to close behind his thick, burgundy cape, and I bowed my head to the snow, forcing it to cool my brow while I took my first long, deep and painless breath in five minutes- a breath so indulgent that my oxygen-deprived head swum. My mind was racing with the beginning and ends of a million thoughts that were swirling like those icy winds, but there was no time to contemplate them, because my instincts were pulling on my limbs like puppet strings and before I knew it I was pushing up off the ground and staggering after the beautiful man- not around the water now but over it, safe in the knowledge that if it could support his weight than it could certainly support mine. As I passed the part of ice he’d polished, I saw that it was shining like glass- like a mirror, and my theory was confirmed. I knew why someone would talk to a mirror and speak of dashed hopes, broken promises and God’s vengeance. I knew it because I had done it before -while talking to Satan.

The man I was following was almost certainly one of my mother’s followers too- or had been until she had led him here.

No, it wasn’t just a man I was following, I knew that now. It was a pirate- and a pirate captain no doubt, and likely a Nephilim too because human men did not come packaged that well. I was also fairly certain that I was foolishly following him over that frozen body of water, not to a cluster of collapsed trees- but to a ship. And if a ship had gotten in here then, well, it was very likely that I was no longer walking across a river- but a bay. We weren’t on the coast yet, but I would have bet good money that we weren’t far off of one!

WHAT? You’re following WHO to a WHAT? Sam’s inner voice had almost no opacity, but his terror gave it the strength it needed to pursue me through the mist. I check out for three minutes and you’re tracking a pirate captain? Larkin this isn’t fucking funny, get back here!

I can’t! I called back, my heart beginning to pound harder again as my breath and steps grew shorter and less certain. I’m supposed to meet him here, Sam, I feel it in my bones!

You’re feeling concussion and whiplash in your bones, not a higher calling! The fact that there’s another person here at all is cause for alarm… but a PIRATE? Red Flag, Whittaker! Retreat!

I’ll be all right Sam, and don’t call me Whittaker! I called back to him, focusing my eyes on the dark shadow of the man through the nebulous gloom before me. He can’t see me, so I can follow him safely-

You’re never safe around pirates, you half-wit! You thought the Barachiel’s were bad? Well these guys won’t have the good manners to wait their turn, Larkin, you’ll be passed around like-

Stop it! I actually spun around and glared back in the direction I’d come from, meaning to shut him up for good. I understood Sam’s concern and yes, I knew that he did know what he was talking about… but something deep inside me told me that the man that I was following needed my help, and that I would be safe if I provided it. I would be careful, of course, and Sam had every right to fret that I would not, but I couldn’t allow him to attempt to control my actions by playing on my fears of being raped just because he didn’t understand what was motivating me to take such a big risk. I’m the leader here for a reason, remember? I-

But I stopped thinking when I realised that I couldn’t see the rim of the bay anymore. In fact, I couldn’t see anything but mist, or hear anything but a low, threatening rumble that sounded like thunder, that was coming from beneath my feet and not above my head. The ground started to tremble then and I yelped and moved back a few steps, hearing the ice groan and feeling terrified that the ice was about to swallow me whole- and then actually gasped in a lungful of icy air when from my right, several large shadows appeared out of the mist and charged right at me,

Oh! I ducked, narrowly being missed by one stampeding hoof and almost following under another, mindful of the fact that other people were shouting out too. Oh hell...!

What? What is that noise?!

Horses! It’s those horses again! I’m being stampeded!

Sam continued to scream things at me- out loud and internally, but I could do nothing but duck and cover my head and pray that I wasn’t about to be crushed. The ice groaned under the weight of the animals as they galloped past me but it held with only a few cracks appearing, and though my heart was beating so fast that I was afraid it was going to fail, I noticed after about twenty seconds that the horses weren’t coming close to me at all, but parting around me. Astonished, I slowly began to unfold and though they continued to stream past me at an awe-inspiring pace, they did not display any aggression or fear towards me whatsoever, and I was rendered thoughtless, breathless and speechless by that.

Wow… I turned when I realised that the herd was thinning out, watching the last leave me in the white dust, enjoying the up-close view that I’d been desperate to see the day before, while thinking that I’d never seen such shaggy horses before in my life! Where had they come from and where were they going now? Just… wow.

Lark? I heard Sam ask. Lark? Are you okay? Where are you? I’m coming-

‘Hey!’ the cry was both startled and distinct against that suddenly very quiet day, and I jerked around to face forward again, a shudder going through me when I realised that the path in the mist was now wide enough to put both myself and the ship in clear view of one another. It was bobbing as though water was still flowing beneath it, but it was lilting to the northeast and seemed to be trapped within the ice that seemingly surrounded it, which was why I’d mistaken its masts for broken trees on a tiny island. A whole bunch of people (all apparently men) were labouring to chip away at the ice, and others were trying to build up a ring of small fires around the vessel as though they hoped to melt it free of winter’s grasp, but it was pretty obvious to me that they were failing in all of their endeavours, because parts of the ship appeared to be frosting over too.

It was a beautiful ship, one forged from timber and sheets of protective steel complete with multiple Baroque-esque masts and embellished with golden details, but what really caught my eye- what made me forget the fact that pirates were spotting me and drawing their weapons in readiness of a fight I couldn’t win- was the ship’s figurehead. It wasn’t a bare breasted mermaid with her hair flowing in the breeze, no- it was a dragon, a golden dragon that jutted out over the ice and made it look less like a pirate ship, and more like a Viking longboat from times gone by.

That should have probably put the fear of God into me for real, (Pirate legends were terrifying enough but Viking ones were horrific!) but as I stared at it, I recalled the conversation that I’d had with Bastien a few days beforehand, about the kind of figurehead that I was aspiring to be: not a mermaid, but a dragon.

I didn’t know if this dragon was pointing in the right direction anymore than I was, but it was pointing northeast, and I’d been intending to keep going northwest. Was this a sign from Satan, at last? Did she want me to help these people, and then lead them northeast- the same way that dragon was pointing?

The voice was barely more than a sigh in my head, but the feel of it was sigh-like as well, almost as though she’d been holding her breath for a very long time, waiting for this moment. The displaced Captain, alerted by the cries of his men, twisted around then, causing his leather cape to swirl in the snowy winds around him, and like so much of everything else in the north, he froze when he saw me.

Froze, and locked eyes with me, and just like that I knew that he needed me and that I needed him. Irregardless of who he was or what he thought-I hadn’t fallen into this bay, I had been pushed into it, but my mother and the fates that she claimed to speak for, because Satan needed both of us, and desperately.

Bingo… was all my mother said to me.

Needless to say, that was all I needed to hear before I started walking again.

20.

The Wildlands

Larkin

The beautiful man drew a vicious-looking sword from his side when he saw me, but although he held it up in warning, he also held up his other hand, signalling to his men to stop rushing me even before they’d really started. I was glad he’d done that because it was clear that he intended to hear me out before he allowed me to be chopped up into little pieces, but the sight of the curved blade of his scimitar and the look of the wild, half-frosted men ambling up behind him brandishing weapons that looked as lethal as his made me quiver in my boots. I’d studied many forms of combat, but I barely recognised any of the weapons that this lot were carrying!

It was obvious that Satan wanted some sort of alliance formed here, and if I could help him out of the ice, an alliance most certainly be plausible… but who in heck was I aligning myself with?

‘Who are you, and why are you following me?’ the man demanded, ducking his head and squinting at me through the snow. Now that he was too far away to be seen clearly through the slanting snowflakes, he looked less like a God and more like a predatory beast. ‘Speak quickly, child, for I-’

‘Do not tell me what to do or how quickly to do it, sir!’ I made myself call back, digging my torch into the ice a little, not as a punctuation mark, but to test how thick it was. I kept my other hand under my cloak and rubbed my fingertips together out of sight, trying to see how much heat I could generate internally, before I made what I could do obvious by manipulating the existing flame. ‘And do not call me child, for as far as I know, I have never been one, and will not be treated thus!’

The man snorted, glancing at the man beside him before casting a scathing look back at me. ‘Well, well, well…’ his posture relaxed as his blade dropped, and I knew that he’d already decided that I wasn’t a person of any consequence at all. ‘We have a live one, comrades! Be careful how you speak to her, or she might send a sweet little snowball our way!’

A few of the men snickered but it was all I could do not to smile. ‘That’s sound advice, Captain, but it’s advice that you too, should heed, for this weather has robbed me of my sense of humour and even if it had not, you are not as funny as you believe yourself to b-be.’

‘That so?’ he asked, and when I nodded, he shook his head, chuckling with his men again before addressing me once more. ‘All right then, oh terrifying and un-amused one, please tell me: who the fuck are you, and why the fuck are you spying on us?’ His voice hardened on those words, but he bowed slightly and mockingly before looking up and saying: ‘Answer at your leisure, of course. I won’t make the mistake of ordering you around again, lest I invoke your dreadful temper!’

I pulled up taller, refusing to be intimidated by the fact that even the sound of him cussing at me was beautiful thanks to that accent of his. ‘You’re acting very arrogantly f-for a man that was practically having a nervous breakdown in the snow back there a few minutes ago!’ I called, indicating to the mist behind me, and I did not miss the way he flushed. ‘I came over here to offer my assistance but-’

‘Offer your assistance?’ the man asked, standing taller again. ‘Are you out of your m-m-mind?’ He was clearly mocking my stutter and I scowled at him for it. ‘What kind of assistance could such a wisp of a being offer me?’

‘That depends on what she promised you, I suppose.’ I kept my fingers sliding against one another, trying desperately to summon my power, but my hands were so cold I couldn’t even feel the movement against my own skin. ‘So tell m-me, Captain, what did she lure you north with promises of? Treasure? Freedom?’ Because if it’s raping and pillaging you desire to do on this land, then I will set fire to your boat and anyone who tries to stop me!

‘Larkin!’ someone with a raspy voice grabbed me before the pirate could respond, and began to drag me back into the mist with a pockmarked, wrinkled old hand that frightened the crap out of me initially- until I realised it was just Sam incognito again. ‘What on earth are you doing?’

‘What I have to do!’ I wrenched one arm out of Sam’s hand and gestured to the Pirate Captain with the other. ‘Satan wants me to help them Sam, I know it!’

‘Devil take you! I know Satan’s a horrible m-mother, but even she wouldn’t stoop to hurling you in a Kingslater vessel’s path for no reason, Larkin! So for the love of God-’ but he cut himself off and finished: ‘I mean for the love of common sense, set fire to his ship and him and then run, okay? Because that’s the only way we’re going to get away from this guy alive- by sprinting!’

But my blood had turned to ice halfway through his explanation and now I couldn’t feel a drop of warmth in my body- only dread. ‘That’s K-Kingslater’s ship?’ I looked over at the Pirate Captain, who was motioning to his own men to spread out a bit without taking his eyes off me- preparing them for an attack while craning his head, trying to hear what Sam and I were saying though that was surely impossible. ‘How on earth can that b-be Paris Kingslater? He was in his fifties when he attacked Arcadia twenty years ago!’

‘I don’t know if Paris Kingslater himself is here, but see the figurehead on his ship? Your beloved dragon? That’s a tribute to the Kingslater family’s Norse ancestry- he puts one on all of his ships so people know when they’ve encountered part of his fleet! Rumour has it that he has over seven in his Armada now, and from what I can recall, the lower ranked the boat- the more brutal the captain will be in his desire to make a formidable name for himself!’

I shot another nervous look back at the pirate, feeling smaller and less assured now. While the other pirate bands concentrated on sacking smaller, less powerful coastlines in the quest for money food and hostages, Captain Kingslater was one of the ones that rebelled against the Barachiel’s claim on the earth- so much so that he was the only pirate that had ever had the nerve to attack an Arcadian fleet in its own harbour while attempting to stage an invasion. The attack had not been a success because the pirates had not managed to penetrate Eden or its electric perimeter fence, but they had sunk two of our ships in the battle, and rumour had it that Kingslater had been trying to build up his fleet since so that when he came back for round two, he’d be guaranteed a victory.

Though Arcadia did not have an army per se, and though Kohén had told me that his father was more concerned about locusts than pirates, I knew there was at least one Arcadian ship, The Ragamuffin, that was constantly scouting the seas in the hopes of tracking Kingslater to whatever harbour he called home so that we could get in a pre-emptive strike- in God’s name, of course- for the sake of safeguarding Arcadia’s perfect shores against attacks from the godless. No one in Arcadia spent much time worrying about pirates because we’d bested the worst already, and because the most persistent, pesky bands tended to attack Janiel, but that didn’t change the fact that we’d spent years trying to track down an enemy that had avoided detection-one that had obviously grown.

One that had spread its reach to a land of ice and snow...

Oh God… is this where Kingslater’s secret camp is? Has Satan sent us into territory that has already been claimed, or did I take a wrong turn and damn us for her? I began to look around again then, snapping out of my thoughts and tearing my eyes off the pirate’s when I realised that his people were converging on us from his side, as mine were stumbling out of the mist on my own. We were in a huge clearing but now only about ten metres of ice were separating the refugees from the pirates, so that was too close for me.

No, that’s not it, Sam assured me. I can’t get a lot from his mind from this distance and because he seems to be thinking about a million different things right now- and not all of them in English- but this land is foreign to him-

‘Hey! There’s even more of them!’ (Pirate).

‘Oh good grief! What sort of knot has this bitch tied us up in now?’ (Lady Lucida).

‘Guards up, now! We protect the ship til it’s last!’ (Sexy Captain).

‘Get back, all of you!’ (Bastien).

‘That’s a Kingslater ship!’ (Papyrus).

‘No SHIT!’ (Martya.)

‘I want to leave… NOW!’ (Damion’s wife, whose name I still had not learned.)

SEXY CAPTAIN? That was Sam, and he paired the question with an incredulous look. You’ve nicknamed that barbarian sexy captain?! You seriously have the worst taste in men for someone that’s apparently off men for-

Get out of my head and into his and help me! What does he want? What does he need? What do I need to fear most from him?

I don’t-

‘Are we going to finish this little tete-a-tete kid?’ the pirate drawled, shouting to be heard over the winds again. ‘Or are we going to attack one another already?’

I whirled on the pirate captain and took a step towards him. ‘No one’s attacking anybody! We weren’t sent here to die, Captain, but to unite, I am sure of it!’ I turned to my own people, including them in my gaze before dragging my eyes across the Kingslater pirates. ‘She has orchestrated our lives to get us to where we are so that we might shake hands, not spill blood! Can’t you see that?’

The Captain turned his face slightly in profile, suspicion filling his features. ‘She?’ The guy next to him nudged him and then asked something I couldn’t hear, but the Captain held up his hand, looking irritated and vexed- and not tearing his eyes off me as he side-stepped closer. ‘I’m sure I don’t know which she are you referring to?’

‘Like Hell you don’t,’ I said clearly, and though it was hard to make out his features from that distance, I saw him stiffen as though I’d run Kohén’s power through him.

‘You’re one of Hel’s damned followers?!’ He drew his scimitar higher as he began to stride across the snow towards me, his features twisting with disgust. ‘Well, praise God! I have one last chance to atone for my sins- by beheading one of HER minions!’

I heard a lot of gasps as my own people drew back and the Captain’s men followed, him, demanding to know what was going on, but I couldn’t move or think through my paralysing fear, because I honestly hadn’t expected one of Satan’s recruits to turn on me so. Martya was pulling on my cloak, trying to drag me away from danger while Sam tried to forcefully push me back from the front, but a vicious snarl suddenly tore through the whistling winds and the next thing I knew, a wolf was flying through the air, and towards the pirate! It swooped out of my peripheral vision, gliding like a ghost in the daylight and sank its fangs into the Captain’s wrist before taking him down, causing the large man to twist, cry out and drop his sword, all in one second. Martya screamed and fell back as ‘old Sam’ jumped and whirled around to see what was afoot behind him, but all I could do was cup my mouth with my hands and gape as the hunter once again, became the hunted.

Oh lord! My eyes were wide and stinging as I watched the pirate and the animal falling through the snow and to the ice. It’s that same wolf from the mountains, and the Wastelands… it’s really FOLLOWING me!

My people were frozen in shock, but the sight of their leader being attacked by the feral pup gave his men the push they’d needed to cross that invisible line in the snow, and so they began to charge forward to help him, closing the gap between all of us further. However, by the time most of them had taken even two steps, the captain had already flung the yelping animal free and was going for his scimitar again while getting up on one knee.

‘Inoborna!’ the captain bellowed, swinging his scimitar through the sir as he got onto both feet. The dog reared back as though nervous, but its ears were flat against its head too, so I knew that it wasn’t going to run off with its tail between its legs like it ought to. ‘I’ll glean no more glory from slaying you than I will the mutt you’re protecting, but if you insist-’

‘Stop it, both of you!’ I cried out, knowing that I didn’t want to see either feral creature fall at the other’s whim, even if this ‘mutt’ was tempted to tear a bite out of the captain herself. The wolf froze and looked at me, ears pricking up at the sound of my voice as I raced forward, and the captain shot me a look as well (the same one that Windsor had sent my way in the past only more loaded) but although I’d bought them both a few seconds, the man that had whispered to the Captain earlier ducked under his master’s arm then and began drawing back a crossbow, training it on the animal.

‘I’ve got it, Captain!’ the man yelled, and fear made my blood boil as I slammed to a halt- I was fairly certain that the wolf pup had just saved me, as the captain had said- I didn’t want to get it killed because I’d distracted it! ‘Stay back while I-’

‘No!’ The fire was tearing out of my torch and streaking across the snow between the pirate and myself before I’d realised that I’d willed it, and then it exploded against the man’s cape before I’d realised that it was strong enough to do that also. The rush of power that I felt as it had surged through me almost took my breath away, but I pointed towards the ship with my free hand and hacked out: ‘Stop it! Stop it now or I’ll-’ but it was too late to stop myself, and before I realised what was happening again, a second fireball was hurtling over the heads of the sailors and towards the boat, causing some of the men to screech and duck like women.

‘Witch!’

‘Demon!’

‘Protect The Iana!’

‘Cover The Captain!’

‘Blot!’

‘Get her-’ but that final command was lost under the whump of my second fireball finding its target- a massive mound of snow near the ship’s starboard side. It was much larger than the first, so when it crashed into the ice it did so with so much force that I felt the ground beneath me tremble, even though I was at least thirty metres away.

People started crying out in horror, (even mine, who probably thought I was going to melt the ground out from beneath us all) but I still saw the ship shudder and heard the ice groan as a crater was punched into it and shock made my entire body tingle- tingle with a prickly heat that was rapidly dissolving the thaw in my frozen muscles and icy blood, because I realised straight away that the fire had not come from my torch, but from my hand.

‘That’s it!’ I heard Sam hiss from behind me. ‘More like that!’

‘Keep going until his ship is ablaze, Lark!’ Papyrus hollered. ‘Show him your worth!’

But I couldn’t- I didn’t want my worth to be weighed in destruction, and I didn’t want to fight with this man. So as the ice hissed and dissolved and people scattered and wailed, I peered through the snow and to the ship, trying to figure out what had happened to it while everyone else was too absorbed by the chaos I’d caused to pay me much mind. It looked as though he’d ended up boxed in, not only by the hardening surface of the water, but by all of the smaller bergs that had accumulated around the hull. I didn’t know how it had ended up on its side like that, but I assumed that it had something to do with the shape of the bay. Had he run aground on something? What good could I do if all of those fires that they’d constructed on it around the ice hadn’t helped?

Shaking violently with the cold now that a wind had picked up again, I stared down at my scarlet palm and wondered: ‘I can’t do anything to help if it’s damaged, but if one fireball could make the ship shake and the ground tremble… then how many would I need to make the ice holding it hostage, break apart?’

‘It will be exhausting…’ whispered that voice again, and my teeth began to clack together. ‘But oh so rewarding, child of mine, I promise! For both of us! I know you don’t want to be associated with pirates but you can’t believe everything you hear, can you? Besides... isn’t this one utterly divine?’

My face flushed hotly, indignation overwhelming my relief over the fact that Satan was communicating with me again. I don’t want another man in my life and you know it, divine or not! In fact, it’s the divine ones that give me so much trouble, and he’s got a mouth on him to boot!

‘But you need strong alliances, so why not accept one with a brilliant view too?’

I couldn’t control the shaking, not at all, and I was tempted to set fire to the sky just to feel its warmth reign down on me. If you like him so much, why did you let him flounder like this in the first place? He’s furious with you, and I’m copping the heat for it!

‘There are people that will grovel at my feet without questions asked, and those that would shake their fist at me in defiance until their last, and I only have interest in the latter. You, Martya, Sam, Bastien... you are the fist shaking kind, and you are powerful for it. If this particular Adonis were not angry with me right now for all the ways he thinks I have disappointed him, I’d think him a fool, so I’m glad for his defiance because it has kept him hot with anger and alive!’

But if he’s so defiant, then who’s to say that my helping him won’t just give him more leverage to attack me in hot blood?

‘Because I have seen inside his soul, Larkin. I have been inside his head: everything that he yearns for in life can be provided to him by forming an alliance with you, and when you save his beloved ship, he will know it.’ She sighed when my thoughts were immediately coloured by skepticism. Perhaps she misunderstood how mad he was with her, or how helpless I felt, to be so certain that this would end well for any of us. ‘No, I’m not. I have not caused the blizzard and I cannot intervene- he overestimates my powers in those regards, and so he is raging at me for things that I cannot control. However, if he’d listened to me and set forth on this mission six months ago like I asked him to, he would have found an easier path to believing in me! But like with you, I could not force him to do anything against his will, and I cannot reverse the winter I created when I was at my most powerful while I am already so exhausted, but YOU can counteract it for all of us! And you are right to believe that you must act quickly- some of the hearts of his men are beginning to fail!’

I hear what you’re saying, but defrosting his boat won’t change the fact that we’re all freezing to death! So are we to sail off on it after, or what?

‘Or what…’

Satan!

‘You’re saving the boat because it is his greatest love and if it is destroyed, he will be ruined with it. However as far as your destination is concerned, stop worrying about what will happen if you follow your instincts, and just follow your bloody instincts to their destination! I have seen only snatches of your future, I don’t have co-ordinates and a map for you to follow!’

How do I know that you aren’t just manipulating my instincts for me? Making them play a tune that you’ve orchestrated?

‘Do you think you’d still be stuck in the fucking ice with a bunch of backwards vagrants to attest for my glory if I was? No! I’d be in my own damn body on earth somewhere warm and candlelit asking permission to board Captain Delicious, and you’d be sent to your room for all of your backtalk! Sam too! You tell him every second he spends trying to talk you out of following your instincts is another second I’m going to keep him and his soul dangling on the line for!’

I didn’t know you still craved that kind of thing, I thought, ignoring the comments about Sam. I thought you were off men for eternity?

‘You too, and yet you added to the ice with your drool when you first laid eyes on him too.’ I flushed and heard her chuckle. I hated the fact that both she and Sam now knew that I’d optically approved of the varlet that had done nothing so far but prove how ugly he was on the inside. ‘Oh it’s nothing to be ashamed of, Larkin- women can’t help but long for a hero, and the more pleasantly-shaped they are, the more intense the longing. You might not think you’ll ever crave the touch of a man again, but Sam’s right- you will… just not until you’ve worked out how to be your own hero first. And that pirate there will throw himself into a stampede for the right woman, so I encourage you to play up to that if given the opportunity!’

He’s a romantic? Ha! He hides it well!

‘He does, but calling him merely a romantic is the understatement of a century! He has had one great love and although it ended badly, and incredibly sadly- it has defined him. He turned to me not in the face of some tragedy, but because he wanted me to heal the hole inside him that her absence created- the hole that God could not or would not heal. ’

Iana?

‘You get a hole in one. ’

I wrinkled my nose. You’re asking the wrong person to use her feminine wiles against a man, Satan.

‘No I’m asking my daughter, remember? If I could seduce a goody two-shoes like Bastien Birch for the good of mankind, you can wrap one measly pirate around your hot little finger, can’t you?’

I snorted, and that snapped me out of my momentary reconnaissance and alerted my attention to the fact that the sailor that I’d set on fire was now being rolled around in the snow and was probably going to be fine. Martya and Sam had dragged me a few feet back with Gabby’s help, but my people had rushed forward to surround me and were screaming advice into my ears, while the pirates that weren’t helping their friend or moving to shield their captain were hollering out things like ‘Demon!’ while pointing my way. It was almost impossible for me to focus on any one thing amidst all of that chaos, but I looked for the wolf to see if it had survived, and dropped my jaw when I saw that it had grabbed the fallen pirate’s crossbow in his teeth and was now dragging it backwards across the snow- towards me!

‘As I was a soul...’ Sam’s voice was audible, even if it was still somewhat croaky due to his disguise. ‘Lark… that’s the same one that’s attacked us twice now! Have you been training the bloody thing on your free time?’

But I couldn’t answer him, because I was looking at the pirate Captain again. He had been looking from me to his men to his ship with stupefaction as I had been looking from him to my own, but the wolf’s movements snagged his attention as it had mine so he twisted to track its actions with his eyes, and the look on his face when the animal dropped the weapon at my feet was priceless. He looked up at me after, brow furrowed in absolute bewilderment, but I tore my eyes away and smiled at the dog instead, accepting another packet of jerky off Arial and holding it out to the wolf who came over, snatched it right out of my hand- and then trotted off to a safe distance so that it could eat while watching the pirates warily.

Looks like I’d found a male that I could count on after all. Inoborna had the pirate called it? I didn’t know what that meant, but I liked the way it sounded and just like that, I named my very first pet.

21.

The Wildlands

Larkin

‘Enough of this insanity!’ the Captain’s booming voice caused us all to flinch, and I steeled myself when I saw that he was striding across the snow towards me again. ‘Who are you, kid? One of her Nephilim leeches? Is it only wolves and fire you control, or will you change into a bat now and suck us dry too?’

‘Leech?’ I repeated, breaking away from my own ranks so that I could meet him in the centre of the divide. ‘Leeches and bats drain life from things, Captain; but I am offering to restore your will to live! All I ask for is your promise that no harm will come to us if I do!’

The captain laughed. ‘You want me to promise that no harm will come to you? We are all currently covered in winter’s breath, and freeing my ship won’t change that!’

Larkin wait! I’m picking up on some stuff now! Memories of his hands covered in blood! Visions of you covered in it too! He’s plotting your death, and your little pyrotechnic display only further convinced him that you are a demon that is deserving of one!

‘From you, Captain,’ I was listening to Sam, but I couldn’t respond and talk out loud at once. ‘I want you to swear to me that if you are given this second chance at life, and that if I restore your faith in Satan, no harm will come to me or my people or another innocent again, thanks to you.’

What good is his word? Sam demanded. He’s a pirate, Larkin! He despises Nephilim, Arcadians, anyone that aligns themselves wholeheartedly with Satan OR God... and the only reason why he wanted to come this far north to begin with is because he’s determined to attack Arcadia from the closest range possible!

How do you know that? Satan just told me that he’s a big ol’ romantic that’s looking to fill a hole inside him thanks to losing his love! Didn’t you hear her?

I didn’t hear a bloody thing, and I don’t know anything about his great loves, but that pirate is finally entertaining fantasies about what he would do if he had that second chance, so I can see all of his plans, past and present, rather clearly right now and none of them seem to involve cuddling up to anyone, but stabbing people through the heart!

But my mother swore-

She’s probably lying to you to get her own way because she suspects- rightfully- that you will rebel if you realise that this pirate is looking to start a war!

My blood began to cool again. With Calliel?

More specifically, with Arcadia. From what I can tell, Satan promised him that he’d attain every personal success that his heart could desire, yes, but his most pressing desire is to bring Arcadia down, and Satan promised him it would be easier to do once he found a safe harbour closer to his enemy’s territory- which you now know is right here! Once he discovers that he can sail south through that canyon and come out just north of Eden, near The Factory and bypass Arcadia’s checkpoints while he’s at it, he’ll start a war!

And do you honestly think that’s what Satan wants?

It has to be! She knows you won’t start one against her enemy of your own volition, so she’s linked you to someone who will!

Fuck! Why the dogged determination to take them down? To prove himself to Captain Kingslater, or to her?

He thinks that Elijah Barachiel ordered his father’s death, and because the assassin was successful, his son has been plotting his revenge since he became one of Kingslater’s captains and got a ship of his own! He’ll kiss your ass if you save his neck today, I’m sure of it, but the second you make it clear that you won’t support him in his quest, he will turn on you too!

How do you know that? Maybe he’ll just be grateful for the fact that I helped him as best as I could-

Because this is a blood feud, Larkin, and pirates take them seriously! The blood will keep spilling until the vengeance has been extracted, and anyone that doesn’t help them is going to be considered to be an enemy too!

So what do I do?

I don’t know! But you can’t do a thing to help him until you make it clear that he will owe you after, and not the other way around!

‘Before I agree to anything, even allowing you to entertain me with your paltry little fire show, I must know- are you citizens of Arcadia? Because if you are, you are natural enemies of mine!’

‘We are refugees from Calliel and regions surrounding it!’ I retorted, taking my hood off my head. ‘We have fled the Barachiel’s rule and seek somewhere that we can live in peace outside of it! And if you try and take that peace away from us- for any reason- we will fight back!’

‘And Hel has led you here?’ I nodded and he smirked. ‘What a benefactress she has proven to be for both of us, no? She asks for your loyalty- and gives frostbite in return!’ He scowled. ‘We will die as fools, whether it as at one another’s hands or kneeling at winter’s icy feet, and God will laugh at us!’

‘Satan has saved my life a dozen times over in the last week, Captain- and the lives of everyone here, and is now encouraging me to extend that same kindness to you.’ I cleared my throat. ‘Mock her, if you’d like, or denounce her- but if you don’t give me the chance to do what she cannot, then you will die a fool sooner than you think- as will your men!’

I saw the pirate’s jaw lock in anger, but he looked back at his miserable, huddled and frosted crew and then back to me before throwing up his hands. ‘Fine, oh miracle-worker, you have your deal! Restore my will to live again, and no harm shall ever come to an innocent on my order… once I’ve settled my score with Arcadia, that is!’

I glanced over at Sam, who was shaking his head, then to the dwindling fires around his boat, then back to the pirate. ‘This isn’t a negotiation, Captain! You will swear to me that no harm will come to anyone at your hand- or by your men’s- from the moment I restore your will to live, or I won’t lift a finger to help you!’

‘But my will to live is tied in with my need for vengeance against Elijah Barachiel!’ The captain swept out his hands, but I could see that they were trembling with the cold now too. ‘So until he’s dead, I will kill whoever tries to stand between me and the justice that I plan to exact!’ He arced his arm around so that he was pointing the tip of his scimitar at me. ‘That includes you, whether you help me or not.’

A sudden thrill paired with that relentless chill made my body tingle all over. Heart pounding, I stepped closer to the captain again. ‘S-so the moment Elijah Barachiel is dead, you will cease to seek reparations against the people who protect and worship him as well as my own? Do I have your word on that, Captain?’

Iana! Make him swear on his love for Iana!

The boat?

The boat was named for the woman he loved, and her name is to him what God’s is to a zealot!

Ahhh… thank you!

‘Yes fine,’ the captain waved his sword. ‘I don’t see what it is you can do with your balls of fire if those actual fires we built haven’t done a thing to help but-’

‘Swear on it!’ I repeated. ‘Swear on your love for Iana, that I can hold you to your vows, and I will show you a miracle indeed!’

‘Satan promised me a lot more than defrosting my boat!’

‘Those promises will be hers to keep! The deal that I am making with you right now is my own!’

‘Fine!’ The captain looked beyond amused, but he stopped and bowed before looking up at me. ‘I swear on Iana’s name- and my own- that I will never harm another innocent… once Elijah Barachiel is dead.’

I smiled, and I heard my people begin to whisper amongst themselves behind me as they too realised what I was doing. ‘And what name would that be, Captain…?’

‘Kingslater,’ the pirate said. ‘Cairo Kingslater, at your service.’

The whispering behind me became a series of choked cries and exclamations, and although a shudder ran through me, I swallowed hard and tried to blot out Sam’s voice, who was now screaming at me inside my mind for me to turn and run while Cairo grinned at me knowingly, not unlike a wolf. He knew his name was enough to send a chill into anyone’s heart- especially a small, girlish one.

Paris and Cairo! Great cities from the past! Sam gripped my wrist, making his own terror obvious. You’re either dealing with Kingslater’s son, or his brother, right?

But I’d already figured that out and now, my brain was frantically raking through everything that he had already revealed about himself, and everything that Satan had revealed for him. ‘Elijah Barachiel killed your father, Paris?’ I asked, wetting my lips. ‘When? As far as everyone in Arcadia knows, he has been alive and terrorising our seas relentlessly since his last invasion!’

Cairo’s face constricted as he straightened. ‘Your king played up his half of the lie, so I have played ours: no one has spoken of my father’s death because as far as Elijah knows, his assassin perished before he could and I did not think it wise to enlighten them otherwise. And how could it be said that Captain Kingslater is dead…’ he swept his arm, gesturing to himself before bowing slightly again like a dancer ‘...while I am clearly alive and well?’

You mean alive and about to die because you’re not so well? Sam thought, and I snorted gently.

‘You inherited his title?’ I guessed, but immediately regretted it.

‘No, I earned my title!’ the pirate pushed through the last few metres of mist towards me, expression infuriated but no less dazzling for it. ‘Pirates don’t have a monarchical system in place, little Arcadian refugee, we aren’t as stupid as to hand power over to the next in line but to the most capable, and since I was thirteen I have been-’ but then his eyes dropped to mine, his handsome features contorted and his pupils dilated. ‘Jesus Christ!’ He ducked his head. ‘Forgive me! Jeg sverger meg selv til deg! Ta meg i armene din vakre jente!’

And then he dropped to his knees in the snow, took my cloak in his hands and KISSED it, and my jaw plummeted along with his airs, graces and bravado. A hush fell over that white wilderness as the massive captain hit the ice, but outraged babble- from his side- erupted seconds later, as they all began to shuffle forward and demand to know what the hell was going on- a sentiment I shared.

Jes- What? I blinked rapidly as he clutched at my cloak, trying to ignore the fact that whatever he’d just said had sounded pretty bloody poetic, even though there was a good chance he’d only said: ‘You stepped in wolf shit. Let me rub it off with your cloak.’

‘H-Hey...’ I stuttered, trying to snatch my cloak back out of the pirate’s grasp, but he relinquished it only to snatch up another part of it, which he kissed reverently. ‘Wh-what are you doing? What language are you speaking? Get up! You’re being foolish!’

I swear myself to you! Take me in your arms beautiful girl! Sam said, coming to my side, and I looked at him, mouth open.

THAT’S what he said? How do you know?

It was Norwegian, and I know some Norwegian.

How?!

I’ve travelled a lot, and while foreign languages are banned within God’s Kingdoms, they are encouraged outside of it. I’m not fluent in anything, but thoughts have feelings that I can anchor to various words, in various tongues, and that helps certain things stick in my memory. Like I said before, the Kingslaters like to pretend their Norse history is still alive and well even though it’s been irrelevant for centuries, and so they try to keep the language alive in the uncivilised world, especially amongst the pirates. Case in point- that was Viking-era woo that he just dribbled out. If my father had just thrown yourself at your feet, he would babbled something in Gaelic.

Impressive. But… I stared back down at the pirate, mind reeling. Why has he gone from threatening to kill me to coming onto me? What changed? I haven’t even tried to thaw out the ice yet!

What do you think? His eyesight changed, that’s what- he zoomed in and beheld the glory that is Larkin of Nowhere: up-close and in her snow-speckled wonder. Now instead of being a fortress of testosterone, he’s a fucking puddle of it.

You have GOT to be kidding me!

Nope! You’ve got him by the balls and buckling at the knees, so hold tight, woman! I see now that Satan told you to encourage this sort of crap and even though I think it’s a dirty tactic, Kingslater likely deserves it! I felt Sam elbow me hard. So long as you remember where to draw the line between enchantress and enchanted, that is. We both know you didn’t fare so well the last time you were overcome by a man’s surface appeal!

I’m not overcome and I’m not encouraging this- look at him! What use is he to me now? How on earth could any self respecting pirate captain surrender at the feet of a girl they find attractive? What sort of battle strategy is that?

The oldest one in existence, Larkin- the one where a man is driven to accumulate all of the power that he can so that he might one day lay it at a worthy mate’s feet and win her affection’s with it. I hate to break it to you, but Satan didn’t just promise this guy happiness… she specifically promised him that he’d find a true love if he followed her lead- one that would make him forget his pain over losing his Iana. He doesn’t know a thing about you, no, but you’re so beautiful that he can’t currently imagine that other women exist at the moment, so he figures that you’re the one! I know the last thing you want to do is play this game but look at his men, Larkin- when a Viking bows at a woman’s feet, so too do his men, whether they like it or not!

I looked up at the Captain’s crew and winced when I saw that every single one of them, though they had been protesting at first, had started kneeling down in the snow behind their Captain, and I was overcome with horror. They were all so frozen already that their beards were crusted with ice! This behaviour wasn’t just nonsensical, it was potentially fatal!

It’s not nonsensical it’s biological! Honestly woman, do us all a favour and find a way to come to terms with how beautiful you are, because the sooner you work it out, the less confusing this world-and every man on it- is going to seem to you, and the better off everyone under your wing will be!

‘Get up!’ I protested to Cairo, leaning down and jiggling his massive shoulders, wishing my people would get a hold of themselves because more than one was tittering and it was humiliating, not just for em but for the pirate. ‘Captain, your men are kneeling in the snow, and they are too close to death for such foolishness. Get up, now, and we’ll-’

‘She was right!’ Cairo whispered, looking up at me with eyes full of adoration- enough to knock the breath out of me. ‘Do what you want with my ship, my lady, just swear that you will be mine!’

Sam was sniggering in my head, and I was growing so hot in the cheeks that I feared I was going to give myself a cold on the spot. ‘I will make no such promise, Captain, but I will hold true to what I did pledge: do you truly swear that you will never harm another innocent soul again, unless it is in self defence?’

‘I swear,’ Cairo began to rise, but he left his scimitar on the ground. ‘I will do whatever it takes to win your heart! I will throw myself off those ruins if that’s-‘

‘What ruins?’ I interrupted him, feeling a spark of something other than humiliation inside me. Cairo turned and pointed to the north- the same way his prow was facing.

‘The thing we almost went over. It seems like there’s a dam over there, or was…. an old hydroelectric one because there’s a tall stone wall covering the cliff beneath a frozen waterfall. The water up there is too frozen to move over it, thank whoever was guiding us, but we came pretty close to ending up in the lake that’s probably on the other side. We tried to turn around and head south but-’

‘Everyone stick near to one another!’ I cried, pushing past Cairo and moving towards the ship and through his men. They were trying to get to their feet, but their movements were weak and clumsy and I knew they were all almost out of time. ‘Pirates back onto the ship and Sequestered behind me! Stay as close to the blaze for as long as you can, but the moment the ice starts to melt, retreat!’

He said there’s probably a lake on the other side. A LAKE!

‘What blaze?’ one of the pirates asked me, hugging himself and almost toppling over as he rose. ‘I don’t see a blaze!’

I set my eyes on the fires surrounding the boat, and although it was clear that they were about to go out, there was just enough warmth coming off either of them to provide smoke and a clear view of The Iana’s hull. I discarded my torch and smiled, feeling the power of the fire fuse with my own inner heat and become an inferno the closer that I drew to it. Then, when I was so warm that I was tingly, I exhaled a breath and drew up my hands and like music responding to a conductor, those tiny sparks and flames rose like a wall of pure, brilliant orange energy that turned the white snow into a sunset- and twenty dying pirates into believers.

‘That blaze,’ I said quietly, closing my eyes and lifting my face to the expanding heat, feeling ‘right’ for the first time since I’d taken that warm bath in Hope Station. ‘Mine.’

*

Within seconds, the ice began to groan and dissolve, and when Cairo ceased screaming out commands to his men and then moved to stand behind me, I didn’t have to look at his face to know that it was full of gratitude- for Satan- and that she was probably as grateful for his sudden, dramatic change of heart and attitude as I was wary of it. Had he honestly presumed that I was his soul mate, just because he found my looks pleasing? It was disconcerting, but it was power and I needed to filter every drop of power that I could get for Satan through myself, so I did not flinch when he pressed his forehead to the soft shoulder of my cloak and murmured something foreign that was probably even more over-amorous than it sounded. My mouth went dry and the muscles on either side of my spine locked up, as though my wings wanted to burst through my clothes and slap him away, but I breathed through my teeth and bore it, telling myself that it was my clothes he was touching not me.

You’re all right, Larkin… I heard Sam whisper into my head, from wherever he’d drifted off too. I’ll tear his hand off before I let him touch you in a way that you can’t handle.

Thank you Sam, I said, and I meant it, thinking of Satan’s reminder about gratitude, and understanding that she’d probably been referring to him too, even if she was kind of pissed with him. For everything.

Wait… what? Satan’s pissed with WHO now?

I smiled and lifted my heavy eyelids, checking on the fire as I silently assured Sam that all was well. The snowdrifts around one side of the boat were melting, and my flames were dancing and crackling in the wind, dissolving the snow that was still falling before it dared to land in The Iana’s vicinity. Like it or love it, my gift was definitely a substantial one, and it had now officially saved more lives than it had taken, which widened my smile.

‘Incredible…’ the pirate breathed, as we both turned our faces slightly away from the overbearing heat that was already throbbing off those incandescent flames. ‘I must have your name, girl.’

‘Larkin,’ I said before yawning, turning back to regard the ship again. It was already getting easier to talk, although the feeling of my skin defrosting wasn’t exactly pleasant, because I was starting to feel how bruised I was from my fall earlier. I was trying to keep my eyes on the flames, but I kept darting my gaze around to make sure that the ice was only melting on the port side of the ship, and not the starboard where its crew were converging. The last thing I needed was for them to go through the bloody ice!

‘Lovely. Larkin…’ Cairo breathed, and I closed my eyes briefly, delighting in the way ‘L’s’ sounded when they came out of his mouth. He rolled them and practically purred the ‘R’s’ so when he repeated my name, it sounded sexier than any other word I’d ever heard. ‘Larkin who? I must know the surname before I deprive you of it, and give you mine in its place.’

I snorted, and then almost sneezed as a result. Uh-oh, on two counts! ‘I’m not the marrying kind, Kingslater. If Satan promised to provide you with a true love here, that’s her prerogative, but believe me when I say that it was not me that she had in mind.’ I smiled gently when I saw the ship shift a little, straightening somewhat as the men that had run to its aid on the furthest side worked to pull on ropes that would help keep it from keeling over. Obviously they’d already tried that once, and had been thwarted by the ice gripping onto the hull’s other side, but now they cried out in excitement and I shared in it with them.

‘I don’t believe you, but Satan promised me that the true love waiting for me in the northern lands was a warrior, and you certainly fill the criteria, so even if you’re opposed to the notion of marriage presently, I suspect that we’ll both enjoy changing your mind.’ He nudged me gently while I chuckled. ‘But still, I want to know your last name. Is it as alluring as your first?’

I sighed. ‘I honestly have no idea, Captain. First I was Larkin Whittaker, then I was Larkin of Eden…now I don’t know who I am or who I want to be, or what true names I have a genetic claim to.’

‘Birch is the only name that I care to carry forwards with me…’ Bastien said, appearing at my other side, ‘and you’re welcome to use that, but it is a false one that I invented for myself, and one that is still rather notorious in Calliel, so if I were you, I’d adopt your mother’s instead.’

I snorted. ‘Because her name isn’t notorious?’

Bastien rubbed my shoulder. ‘Not her surname, no. Do you know what it is?’

‘Actually I don’t…. why is that? I mean, everyone knows who Jesus Christ was...’

‘None of the soul-mates were given surnames by God, only Christian ones because back then, that was all that was needed. But we eventually had them bestowed upon us by the people that loved us enough to gift them to us at different points of our life… as a way of keeping our names distinct from those that were named after us.’ Bastien and I both cringed as the ship shuddered and sank more to the starboard side. For a moment it looked like it was going to overbalance, but it held and beside me, I heard Cairo exhale. ‘Mine was Lazarus, and it meant helper of God.’

Raphael Lazarus… hmmm… I could see why he’d ditched it- it sounded medieval. ‘Probably doesn’t suit either of us right now…’

‘No. But your mother’s was quite lovely: Aztaroth, and though it has several meanings, she was given it to mean: ‘a light in the darkness,’ although it can also mean demonic or Angel of fire. Obviously towards the end of her life on earth, it was more associated with demonology than lightness, but you suit the rutilant mood of it all the same.’

‘Larkin Aztaroth?’ I let the name roll around on my tongue. ‘I don’t mind that…’

‘It suits you.’ Bastien leaned in and kissed my flushed cheek. ‘Ask anyone here right now, daughter of mine, and I’m sure they’ll agree.’ He sighed. ‘And you don’t have to worry about people automatically tying it and its origin together: in her mind, she was always going to be Satan Barachiel one day, so she rarely used her surname, and then after Heaven and Hell both fell and were thus created, no one was named after her anyway so there was no need for distinction anymore. There were hundreds of Raphaels and almost as many Lazarus’s’, and twice as many Miguels and Michaels, but no one else was inspired to name their child Satan after all hell broke loose.’

‘Afsakið?’ Cairo touched my other shoulder, forcing me to meet his gaze just as one of the fires melted the snow under it so much that it vanished into the dark water behind it with a large hissing sound. ‘You’re Hel’s daughter?’

I looked at Cairo, who looked accordingly alarmed. ‘Does that bother you, Paris Kingslater’s son?’ I asked sharply. ‘Do you presume that it defines me in every way that matters? If so, shall I make the same assumptions about you and who you were named after...matey?’

‘No, I just… I don’t know. Maybe?’ He frowned and looked away, half/scratching half/pinching his graceful brows. ‘I don’t know how to feel about it at all, truth be told...’

‘That makes two of us,’ I said nonchalantly. ‘But I’ve only been aware of who my mother is for a few days now, so if it’s any consolation, I was relatively normal before I found out otherwise... I think.’

‘Troubled and neurotic, but normal enough,’ Martya agreed, coming up to us, and I smiled weakly at her. She looked as tired as I felt, though I presumed that being completely human, she probably felt much, much worse.

‘Thank you for saying so.’

Cairo looked from Martya, to me and then to Bastien before his eyebrows tugged together again. ‘And you… are you Satan’s…’ his tongue sounded clumsy around the word that I now understood was foreign to him, ‘...lover?’

‘No,’ I answered quickly, seeing Bastien flush more brightly than my flash fire. ‘He did her a favour that made him my father, but that’s where it ended between them…’ I nudged him with my shoulder, loving the way his face was glowing now that I’d used the ‘f’ word out loud. ‘And he is as good and kind, as my mother is notorious for being otherwise. In fact, there’s a chance that even she might prove to be as good and kind as she is notorious, too. I don’t know for certain yet but you’ve got to admit-’ I nodded towards the boat as it splashed, rocked- and then up righted itself, ‘she’s on the right track.’

Martya smiled at me. ‘As are we, don’t you think?’

I looked over to where Cairo had indicated that the frozen waterfall was. ‘I think so.’

Cairo still looked overwrought. ‘So you’re not evil then?’

‘No more than the next girl.’

‘That doesn’t comfort me much…but I guess time will tell if you’re honest and good or not.’

‘As with you, Pirate Captain Kingslater.’ He rolled his eyes and I smiled. ‘But for what it’s worth, ninety-nine percent of what I’ve said to you so far has been truthful. I think I am mostly good, though like any other human, I can be provoked into acting otherwise. Rest assured, however, that even if I do tell you a falsehood, I will not hide behind it for long. Sooner or later, the truth always slips out of me.’

‘I’m glad to hear it.’

‘Good,’ I smiled slyly as I brushed past him, making my way down to his ship. ‘Because we have to have a little chat about Elijah Barachiel…’

22.

The Wildlands

Larkin

I’d expected Cairo to be infuriated to learn that I’d kept the fact that Elijah Barachiel was already dead out of our dealings, but he was more heartsick than furious, and when I wouldn’t give him the name of Elijah’s assassin, he began to grow sceptical, almost like he believed that I’d made it all up in order to deprive him of his vengeful destiny.

I spent a lot of time trying to convince him that I was on the level as I helped him bail out his ship (waves had filled it with ice-cold froth and frost when they’d crashed over the lilting side) but by the time they had secured it and anchored it in the water that was still flowing heartily, I was seasick beyond belief and he was still unconvinced. We parted on bad terms briefly as I went to prepare my people to resume our trek (I’d ordered the majority of them sit around a few other fires I’d built soon after the first had fallen into the ice along with most of those coughing, sneezing, red-eyed pirates) while he prepared his own men to follow us, but the moment we were off walking across the ice together as one large group, our arguing picked up right where it had left off.

The truth was that I didn’t know why I didn’t give him Amelia-Rose’s name, but I suppose I was afraid that if the news was passed around like Chinese Whispers, someone brave like Ora would learn of it and confront the evil girl, picking a fight that my dear, sweet, friend simply wasn’t vicious enough to win. I didn’t know what had motivated Amelia-Rose to slay her king, but I had a few theories: One; that she’d just been so horrified to see a man of God beg for a courtesan’s forgiveness that she’d lost her pious mind, Two; she had plans to manipulate the Barachiel son of her choice and then hopefully herself onto a throne via a process of elimination, or Three; maybe she was just so determined to rid Calliel of the Companion caste that she’d figured framing one for the king’s murder had been the quickest way to get us all ejected from Eden and out of her hair for good.

Maybe I was wrong on all three counts, but she definitely had an agenda up her prim sleeve, and I wanted that to stay a secret as badly as she did for now, because I knew that so long as she believed that she’d gotten away with it, she was more likely to try something else. And if she did test her ethics again, pass or fail, there was a chance that someone else would witness it next time, so then I’d have more than my word against hers to confront her with if I ever decided to do so.

Then again, maybe I hadn’t said anything because deep down, I kind of hoped she’d go on killing all of my enemies for me. My conscience had been cleared by my sojourn in the underworld, but my hatred for those that had driven me there, and my desire to see them suffer, had not. Like Satan, I was trying to be a good person, but I wasn’t there yet, not by half. The only thing I’d enjoy more than hearing that Amelia-Rose had killed Kohl, would be to hear that her own father had witnessed it.

I could hardly explain all of that to Cairo though, so he forced me to go into a lot more detail about that night and then my time in Eden- probably because he figured that he might be able to pick up on some clues and work the murderer’s identity out that way, although it was pretty obvious to me that Kohl Barachiel was at the top of his suspect list, and I liked it that way even if it wasn’t the truth. Perhaps he’d become so desperate to win my hand that he’d find a sly way to kill Kohl without starting a war...

But unfortunately for both of us, talking about my time in Eden meant explaining that I’d been raised as a prostitute, which to me, seemed like a more abhorrent admission than the one about me being Satan’s spawn was. Companionship was a practice that Cairo had heard about before, but the specifics of how I had suffered for it and the three prince’s so-called ‘affections’ sickened him, and although I’d expected him to immediately withdraw his offer for my hand, it instead inspired him into believing that he was exactly what I needed, because he’d never paid a woman in his life.

He then turned and asked my father for my hand, but thankfully, Bastien had quickly put him in his place by explaining that his daughter was never going to be for sale- as a prostitute or a wife- again, and even if we did believe in things like asking a father’s permission and accepting dowries (which Cairo also offered) who I ended up with would always be my choice and his opinion on the matter would never be more than an opinion.

That conversation didn’t go as Cairo had planned and was uncomfortable for all of us in general, but it had been enlightening, because it helped me understand the fact that people outside of God’s so-called paradises lived very differently to the way we did, and instead of outlawing all religions as we had, it seemed as though most of the Godless embraced different aspects of different religions from throughout history and across the globe, forming a melting pot that was kind of leaking everywhere. I’d seen evidence of that within the people of The Sequestered, but I’d yet to see two wives fight over the ownership of one husband, or be compensated for un-mutated children with gifts of fish, and I secretly hoped that I’d never have to.

For instance, after I’d shot down the marriage proposal, Cairo offered to be hand-fasted and then conjoined, one a medieval practice that I had read about in some outdated love story, and another that was observed by the nomadic islanders near Asiana that hadn’t evolved since the second century, AA. Naturally I’d turned down both offers and that had caused Cairo to grow incredibly vexed (he’d never met a woman that he couldn’t have before that didn’t have being attracted to other women as an excuse) and he stared at me like I was a strange alien creature after, even though I was fairly certain that he was the one that had a lot of evolving to do… or perhaps less.

On the surface, the way he quoted expressions, rituals and customs that the pirates practiced along with most of the Godless sounded romantic and exotic, (especially when explained in THAT accent) but it was clear that most of the codes of conduct that they lived by overlapped one another and caused issues. For example, a pirate could have as many lovers abroad as he wished so long as he remained faithful to his wife when he was at home with her, but a conjoined pirate could have multiple wives in multiple locations so long as he was never unfaithful to them with someone that he wasn’t conjoined with. Also, murder was okay if you had a score to settle with someone, but only if you accepted the fact the family of whomever you murdered was well within their rights to murder you back should they be so inclined.

Those were both pirate laws that Cairo quoted, but apparently most of the world’s ‘free’ population adhered to them because most of them had descended from seafarers, so people from one island in the Mediterranean Sea were likely to acknowledge the same practices as those off the coast of Janiel. But on the other side of the coin, no two colonies were likely to adhere to all of the same ones, or to even get along, so the result was chaos, and the pirates only functioned so well because the hard and fast rule was that once you were on the ship or in their secret, permanent harbour, Kingslater’s word was the only law that mattered.

That was what they called the place that they settled: Colonies. Some colonies has a dozen residents, some had over one hundred and it seemed like the larger they were, the more unstable and unsafe they became, so it was easy to see how even some of the roughest members of The Sequestered had been talked into the idea of forming an actual civilisation again, even if that meant following me. I was young, small and potentially evil yes, but I didn’t beat people into submission like the self-appointed ‘leaders’ of most of the colonies did, which stabbed one white feather into my otherwise blackened cap.

I even started to thank my lucky stars that I’d been raised as a prostitute in Eden, and not a princess by the rest of the world’s standards. Living under God’s finite laws in Arcadia had been limiting, yes, and especially unfair for those that had been born at the wrong place at the wrong time or to the wrong people, but living in a system that made up rules as they seemed doomed to failure, and Sam silently told me that it was even worse than it sounded. Godless people (as much as he hated to admit it because he was one by birthright) tended to be loose, barbaric and irresponsible, which was exactly why they hadn’t managed to form a concrete nation of their own.

Cairo didn’t come off as barbaric (loose, certainly, he’d asked me how I enjoyed making love best as though he was asking if I preferred spring or summer) and I was curious to know why he spoke so well and moved so gracefully for someone that had apparently been raised by the scruff of his neck, but Sam raided those thoughts too and told me that it seemed like Cairo had had a very unique upbringing.

After his mother had died in childbirth, Cairo Kingslater had apparently been hidden inside a noble family in Janiel (Paris’s sister had been smuggled in but had been unable to have children so she’d passed her nephew off as her own) where he’d been given an advanced, early-childhood education amidst Calliel’s nobility. That was shocking to me but Sam assured me that pirates did that all the time- snuck people in and out of the civilised nations so that they could keep tabs on them, just as they had with Martya.

Then around the age of seven, Janiel had been beleaguered by a few independent pirate bands (including the McIntyre’s, although Sam had only been about four then and barely recollected anything) so Cairo’s father had stolen him back for his safe-keeping, but had neglected to publicly claim him as his own son. In fact, he’d treated young Cairo like a slave that he’d passed around from port to port, so by the time the boy had turned ten, Cairo had lived with six different families, in six different parts of the world, and Paris had acted more like a mentor to the boy between visits than a father. He’d even been out and out cruel towards him in front of other pirates, feigning a lack of attachment so that no one would ever learn that the abominable Captain Kingslater’s had an Achilles after all- a son that he loved.

I began to fret that the things that Sam was telling me were too private for me to learn without Cairo’s permission, but Sam was only a little bit into the story before Cairo started opening up about it all himself, quite matter-of-factly. On his tenth birthday, Paris Kingslater had told Cairo the truth in private- that his mother had died in childbirth and that he hadn’t wanted him to be raised without one, so he’d done all that he could to ensure that the boy was raised by people that would care for him, while moving him around so much that he’d be ensured not just one solid education but several: the sort of education that his father would have been too busy to provide him with. He then told Cairo that he’d be coming on board as a cabin boy: a young apprentice pirate that would likely be treated like a slave, and although he’d warned his son that he would be treated poorly and be subjected to a lot of hard work, Cairo was not to complain or reveal his ancestry to anyone, or Paris would have to ship him away again.

Cairo had been fascinated by his father’s might and life and so he had agreed to the terms, and for three years, he had suffered exactly how his father had predicted he would. He’d been beaten by drunks, accused of theft, sworn at, tossed overboard and forced to do the most awful jobs while his father rarely intervened if ever. Cairo had missed most of the old aspects of his former life terribly, but he had learned to sail, and fight, and hold his own amongst the wildest kind of men, and he had also been taken under the wing of Paris’s first mate and best friend, Sandy DeBrincat, who had come on-board not long before Cairo had. In fact, Sandy had been the one that had pushed Paris to involve his son in his life, and had promised to watch over him when Captain Kingslater could not.

Cairo had idolised Sandy, and Captain Kingslater had trusted him more than he’d trusted anyone- a fact that had proven to be the famous Captain’s undoing because late one night, Cairo had awoken from his slumber due to turbulent seas and had witnessed Sandy holding his glowing red palm up to the sleeping captain’s face and demanding to know when he would be moving their fleet through Arcadian waters next: a migratory secret that Paris had never revealed to anyone ahead of time, for fear of being betrayed to an enemy. In a sleep-like trance, Captain Kingslater had given his confidante the answer, and that was when Cairo had cried out, waking his father, and bringing the fact that he was being duped by his Nephilim ‘friend’ to his attention.

Captain Kingslater had tried to jump up and protect himself, but Sandy had slit his master’s throat with his very own scimitar in one fell swoop- the same one that Cairo now carried everywhere- and had whispered to the hysterical Cairo: ‘I am sorry, dear boy, but I am an assassin and your father is my target! I do this for my God and my king, Elijah Barachiel, but I beg forgiveness from you- my friend! Have I not been a father to you, as much as he? Won’t you flee these bloodless, Godless ruffians now with me and return to Arcadian, where I might pass you off as my own?’

Cairo had responded by picking up the bloody scimitar and ripping it through the assassin- from testicle to belly button, and as he relayed this, his handsome face did not betray even a hint of remorse and I couldn’t blame him for that. By the time other crew members had come in in response to all of the yelling and screaming, poor Cairo had been hugging his dead father and soaked in blood of both men, and once they all realised what had happened and who Cairo was (and how bravely he’d acted!) they’d promoted the thirteen year-old cabin boy to the rank of Captain, but had provided him with an elected sub-captain to help Cairo learn the things that he did not yet know about holding such a title. In one second he went from being their whipping boy to their God.

For four years, the people on-board The Glass Maiden had kept the news of Captain Kingslater’s death a secret from all of the other ships in their fleet, and had not revealed the truth until Cairo’s eighteenth birthday, when he was presented to every sailor under the Kingslater banner, and re-elected- unanimously- as their ‘new’ Captain Kingslater, based on the fact that he had become the strongest, most respected captain in the fleet and not just because of his lineage. He’d received his own boat as an eighteenth birthday gift, and he had named it after his childhood best friend from Janiel, The Iana.

The fact that Cairo had accomplished so much (he hinted that there were closer to twenty ships in his Armada than seven) was astonishing to me, but the fact that the pirates that had served him had kept the demise of the first Captain Kingslater a secret from everyone outside of their sect for years was actually rather moving, and Martya and I both had tears in our eyes by the end of Cairo’s story. Even Sam’s snarky thoughts began to fade after awhile and though they weren’t substituted with respectful ones, he stopped glowering at the narrator so much.

Once we’d processed it all, I asked Cairo to tell me the story behind his love, Iana, but the mention of her (not the boat, the person) caused his handsome face to harden and his eyes to avert from mine, and he gruffly informed me that it wasn’t a story he could often get all the way through, but perhaps once I was his wife, he’d find a way to relay it all. Sam had looked at me as if to say: ‘Want me to…?’ but I’d shaken my head firmly. I didn’t mind getting information out of people via his gift if it meant saving lives, but I wouldn’t pry into someone’s most private thoughts just to sate my own curiosity.

But as hesitant as Cairo was to discuss his old flame, he wasn’t easily deterred from trying to rope me in to be his new one, and eventually Bastien, Martya and Sam grew so tired of hearing him try to talk me into adoring him that they made polite excuses to fall back so that they could catch up with or check on other people. I tolerated his enthusiastic, streamlined style of wooing with a smile because he was a fascinating conversationalist (honestly he had a rebuttal for everything), and because Satan had basically ordered me to keep him interested, but as much as I wished as I could fall for a man like him, I knew that I never would and I could not allow him to go on believing that I was his true love, if that meant taking something away from the girl that he was destined to be with. I just hoped like hell that Satan wasn’t lying about that because if she was leading this astonishing man by the heart with the intent of shattering it later, I would cut off my feet before I took another step in her name again.

‘You cannot swear off love,’ Cairo insisted, actually stopping me to turn me, forcing me to look into those bright grey eyes after I’d plead celibacy, ‘what reason is there to live without it?’

‘I’m swearing off romantic love, not turning my back on the concept of love entirely,’ I’d insisted, looking nervously back to the crowd of people trudging along the snow-line behind us. We’d only been walking for about thirty-five minutes along the embankment, and although the falls that he had indicated to being nearby were a lot further away than I’d expected them to be, I was intrigued by just how large that bay was, and scared that we were going to run out of light soon, though I honestly didn’t know if it was four in the afternoon, or lunch. What time had we headed off again? ‘I’m still endeavouring to make room in my heart for family, friends and with any luck- stray wolves, and I think that kind of love will suffice. Hell, it’s more than most people get, isn’t it?’

‘You’re wrong,’ Cairo had bitten his succulent bluish-red lip and looked down at my own with a misted, wanting gaze. ‘Humans feel awful when they are sad and frustrated and hungry or lonely, and elated when they are in love or excited or content… and that is the barometer that we should all live by. Of course some take it too far, but that is why our bellies ache when we have eaten too much, and why we feel dreadful notes being played on our heartstrings when we wrong another: the positive physical manifestations of joy are God’s way of letting us know whether we are living life the way he meant us to, and the negative ones are there to warn us when we are veering off course. Only by acting on the good, and avoiding the bad, can we be said to be living at all, and by ruling sex and love and pleasure out of your life, you are discounting so much of what makes it worth living.’

‘But I don’t feel any positive manifestations at the thought of sex, love and physical pleasure that they inevitable lead to anymore… I feel sick,’ I reminded him. ‘So is that not God’s way of telling me to avoid them too?’

‘No. That is your way of protecting yourself against what you believe to be worse emotions: hurt, loss and loneliness. You think you will be happier by avoiding making yourself vulnerable to anyone ever again, but I’m afraid that all you will feel is empty. Safe, perhaps, but empty.’ He lifted his hand when he saw me open my mouth to protest. ‘I know that right now you’d rather feel empty than vulnerable, and I understand that, which is why I’m taking your refusal to promise yourself to me in any official way with good humour. However, I know that your tide of negative emotions will eventually recede, and so I will ask you to make me another kind of promise: loyalty in exchange for loyalty.’ He raised a brow that was as chiselled as every other perfect feature on his face. ‘In fact, I must insist that you don’t reach for another man until you have first given me the chance to heal you and win your heart.’

‘Why should I have to promise anything like that?’ I demanded, more amused than shocked by the request.

‘Because I believe that you have the potential to be my true love, and I am not going to let you slip through my fingers the way I let…’ he swallowed hard and dropped his eyes to the snow and once again, I wondered what had happened to Iana. ‘I have a lot to offer you,’ he said quietly, ‘protection for your people. Access to trade routes- access to information, money…I said before that I would surrender everything to you if you took me in your arms.’ He pulled up a little and looked me squarely in the eye. ‘But you have neglected to do that and say that you might never, so if I am to help you, then you must give me something to hold you to: your word.’ He glanced over at someone behind me, and then back into my eyes. ‘Promise me that I get the first chance to steal your heart when it is ripe for the taking again, and I promise you that not only will my men and I stay at your side until you have enough food and shelter to see this first winter through, but that we will return periodically to make sure that none of you are wanting for anything.’ He tucked a strand of my hair back under my hood. ‘Least of all, you.’

My mouth popped open. Satan had said that calling Cairo Kingslater a romantic was an understatement, but even that had been understating it. ‘Cairo that’s…’ all of my fears of not knowing how to hunt or build dwellings evaporated, but was replaced by how this man might turn on me if I never reached for him. ‘But what if I never…?’

‘If the damage that the Barachiel boys did to your soul proves to be irreversible, then so be it… obviously that will mean that we are not meant to be, and so I’ll know that my true love is still waiting for me to find her. If you do take me into your arms, but find yourself unmoved by it, then that’s fair enough as well- at least I will know that you gave me the chance, out of loyalty and gratitude if nothing else.’ His grey eyes darkened as he looked into mine again. ‘But if you turn to another while I am elsewhere or worse- right in front of you- after all that I plan on doing to prove my worth to you, then I will see it as disloyal and ungrateful indeed, and I will take back all that I bestowed upon you in the first place.’

I bit my lip. ‘That’s an awfully big risk for either of us to take, Cairo. Especially considering the fact that we barely know one another.’ And it sounds exactly like the kind of primal, pirate law-making that I’m trying to avoid!

‘But one with a potentially very large payoff, no?’ He smiled gently at me, but I could see the desperation in his eyes and not only did that make me feel for him, but it made me remember Kohén when he’d been at his most vulnerable, which was disarming to me. ‘I’m not asking for you to surrender to me, Larkin- only to give me an authentic chance should the opportunity arise, even if all that amounts to is a few kisses or a brief courtship and nothing else. I know you fear that you will break my heart, but I fear never feeling mine pound for a woman again the way it is pounding for you right now, even more.’ He smiled when I flushed. ‘And who knows? Maybe you’ll get lucky and I’ll find my true soul mate before you even need to throw a flirtation my way. Satan promised me that I’d find her after all- and in these parts- so the way I see it, it’s my destiny to stay close at your side, whether we go to bed now or later.’ He tilted his head to the side and treated me to a glorious but lop-sided smile. ‘So what do you say, Larkin Aztaroth… do we have an agreement?’

I wanted to scoff at so much of what he was saying on reflex, but I did not because I could hear the truth in the details. I could not forget how Satan had begged me to keep him hanging on… surely she valued us both too much to ask me to do anything that that would result in us destroying one another?

‘The sooner you work out how beautiful you are, the less confusing this world-and every man on it- is going to seem to you, and the better off everyone under your wing will be!’ I remembered Sam saying then, and just like that, I stood a little taller, knowing that even if men’s perception of me was completely off-kilter, I’d never be anything but a victim of the affect that I had on men unless I started taking control of the way it affected them so.

After all, if I use my hold over this man to better other peoples’ lives, then whose to say that it’s not a good deed that I am doing, rather than a bad one? Helen of Troy used her beauty to create a divide… so is it so impossible to think that I might use my own to bridge one?

Then, just as I silently vowed to change, I felt the ground beneath me flatten out, just as the wind twitched like a whip being flicked, and then started to rush up at me from below. Excitement threatened to ignite me in the physical sense, but I reined it in and decided to redirect it to the pirate, taking a moment to admire how his golden hair was fluttering about his face now that the wind was working it free.

‘We have a deal,’ I said, stopping and twisting to hold out my hand to his, and after he sucked in a little breath, he took my hand and shook it, his gloves cool and firm around my frigid fingers. ‘But you’re wrong about one thing though, of that I am certain…’

‘About what?’ Cairo’s brows drew together, and it was such a beautiful movement that I wanted to trace the line between them with my fingertips. However, I merely leaned in, stretched up on my stiff tip toes and tilted my face up so that my lips brushed against the bottom of his earlobe as I whispered:

‘I’m probably going to throw a flirtation your way sooner than either of us is prepared for…’ I touched my fingertips to his lip and he moaned gently, ‘… and well before your actual soul mate has the chance to steal you away!’

Cairo groaned and leaned down to press his mouth to mine, but I giggled and pulled back, turning to indicate to where our path was about to lead us. The mist was parting due to the force of the winds that were streaming over that sharp precipice, and though those winds were almost enough to blow me backwards and into Cairo’s arms, I squinted into them and down to the rolling hillside below us, feeling tears of serendipity welling in my eyes. I couldn’t see a turquoise lake anywhere near me, but I knew it was there, just as I knew I would find it by sunset.

‘...But not right now though, because I think I have a lot more work to do!’

‘You’re a tease!’ Cairo grumbled, trying to pull me into his arms as he buried his head in the crook of my shoulder, and I felt his warm breath warm my skin through the cloak. ‘An enchantress, that’s what you are! And heaven help me, but I want you more for that.’

But I shook my head and stepped forward, lifting my hand to signal not only that he ought to stop, but that everyone behind us ought to as well. For so many days I’d been wondering how we were going to get through the foothills of the mountains and to whatever was on the other side, but as it turned out, we’d been on the right path since I’d first followed the brook because the river had led us to this dam, and then this waterfall, and now I was staring straight down into the forested canyon that lay on the other side of! A canyon that I knew had been populated once, because not only had Cairo been correct in saying that remnants of a hydroelectric plant were still there beneath us, but because my left boot was now sitting on top of an ancient, concrete stone step- one of many that led down into the frozen spillway below.

Follow the steps of those that came before us all, but never their actions...

Could I have asked for a clearer path than that one? No, and I never would again, not so long as I had my instincts to guide me!

‘I don’t know how to be an enchantress,’ I said, feeling a single tear slip out of my eyes and roll down my cheek as I peered down into the snug canyon below- and into my destiny. Did it surprise me that my wolf was waiting on the fourth of fifth step down, and that it took off the moment it saw me, pausing only to look back and make sure that I was following it? No, no it didn’t, not anymore, and I did not hesitate to take my first step into this new, exciting unknown as I said:

‘But I think I’m finally starting to believe that I might be a leader after all.’

PART THREE

The Book Of Liberation

By Samuel McIntyre

The Coronation

Regardless of the fact that they were cold, hungry and frightened, The Sequestered and the pirates followed their new leader down the fractured and snow-covered steps that led from the top of the concrete dam to the afterbay below with renewed zeal. None of them were new to exploring or to the discovery of ancient ruins, but it seemed as though when they’d passed over the Unnamed Mountains, they’d entered another world- one so removed from Arcadia that it was easy to imagine that they were separated from God’s selected people by thousands of kilometres instead of just over one hundred, which was actually the case.

Ironically, the little canyon that they’d entered wasn’t much broader than the river canyon that they’d been following for days, and the countryside around it didn’t seem that much different to the foothills surrounding Arcadia… and yet there was something ancient and rich in the air, something unlike anywhere any of them had ever been before that made the gentle arctic winds feel like they whispering secrets through the boughs of the trees that rose up above them all on either side, high enough to block out most of what was left of the fog-shrouded sun but without casting the area into gloomy shadows. The Deodar Cedars that dominated those hills were heavily coated with snow, but they were indisputably alive, so for the first time in days, the world was more than shades of white, grey and black, but with flecks of forest green, golden brown and occasionally, in the ice beneath their boots- a feathered streak of cobalt or turquoise.

However, the remnants of the hydroelectric plant at the base of the falls was little more than a collection of ancient, cracked and snowbound structures that were imbedded into the ice, and because the falls weren’t running, the ruins gave off an impression of death- mankind’s death- that was only heightened further by the evidence of natural life that had forged on around them. The falls had been much wider than they had been high and crescent-shaped, and although the concrete wall that they had been reinforced with was still standing, it had obviously not been high or tall enough to withstand God’s fury or mother nature’s inclinations, because the areas that flanked both sides of the falls had been transformed into sloped, snowy embankments by the water that must have broken through the weir at some point. The boulders and trees on the outer edges were sprayed with white frost that looked frothy from a distance, but was rock-hard to the touch, and although the girl melted away some of it with trembling fingertips, she could not melt away they eerie sensation that the entire world had been paused, mid-wave, and that they were the only living creatures still scuttling across its surface now. At any moment they could be snap frozen, just as the white water that had crashed over the banks had been, and if God could see her now, leading Satan’s people against his name, he would most certainly turn her to stone too, or defrost the river and send it tumbling down upon them!

The dark angel had originally wanted to stay and explore the ruins of the water plant, but the wolf that she’d followed down those steps took off before any of them had had the chance to rest, before pausing and then looking back at her, as if to say: ‘Are you coming or not?’ and with a heavy sigh, she indicated that they all should follow it around the river-bend, just in case. The bald, eyebrow-less man Papyrus whispered to his friend: ‘Which bitch are we following through the snow now?’ but no one responded to agree or reprimand him because no one had the energy to not even your narrator, who was suffering an unbearable migraine due to the influx of unprotected, coarse-thinking heathens from the sea, and could barely think straight around it.

Fortunately, it was not as cold on that frozen river as it had been above it, because the snow-capped ranges that flanked it were blocking them from the winds that had been wailing across the plains above them and tormenting them for hours. The storm had finally passed as well, and although it had left a distinct chill in the region that every one of them could feel in their internal organs, it also allowed them to open their eyes wide for the first time since they’d left the first canyon and uncover their ears, which gave them the opportunity to talk amongst themselves again without having to shout. Mostly, they wondered about where they were, and how it was possible for it to be warmer there and more alive, than it had been in the south.

In years to come, the area would be investigated and they would discover that the canyon that they’d followed north had once been a long, rather insignificant river that had meandered through an area called British Columbia, trickling off a great lake that had once dominated the region above it. During Armageddon, a tsunami in the North Pacific had washed away most of the north-western seaboard, forcing the water into cities and mountain valleys, joining lakes and rivers together and completely reshaping the land as it had on so many other continents. Resulting glacier activity had forced a deeper groove through the riverbed and out to the cove in the southeast, just as mountain landslides had created dams and mini tsunamis in the region’s lakes, dividing some up while burying others, (a fate that had caused that one great lake to end up being diced into five smaller ones) while flattening towns, forests and mountains and leaving flood plains or fields of rubble in their wake.

Had they had a proper map of both regions at the time, Satan’s followers would have been able to see exactly where they had come from and where they needed to go, but they did not and so they walked on blindly but with wide eyes, especially the pirates, who were still reeling with shock after having seen their Captain surrender to the odd little witch girl and her demonic mother. They’d only been stranded there for about eight hours, but they had been soaked through so many times that most of their clothes were stiff and frozen, and their long hair and beards encrusted with grime and rime, freezing them alive. They’d had enough supplies on board to keep them going for a few days, but they couldn’t hole up inside the ship because it had been filled with water, and when the blizzard had come across, the fires had become almost impossible to maintain. They had begun to lose all hope rapidly after that because there was only so much cold that a human being could take before their blood froze in their veins, and looking for shelter elsewhere had meant abandoning their fires, and none of them had been willing or able to do that, especially not the captain.

But then Satan’s daughter’s arrival had changed everything. The pirates had baulked at the idea of joining the nomads, especially since that had meant abandoning the ship and going it on foot, but honour commanded them to follow their captain no matter what, and the fire that the girl could produce had sweetened the deal. Besides, they knew that their captain would never leave The Iana unless he was one hundred percent certain that he would return to her as quickly as possible, so they had fallen into reluctant line as always.

The pirates still distrusted Satan’s daughter, no doubt, and their hostile thoughts towards her and her fine beauty put the mind-reader on edge, but he knew that so long as she kept her torch burning they would follow it, so he tried to stay out of their heads, especially their captain’s, whose thoughts regarding their leader and the future that he planned to share with her were far too optimistic for the mind-reader to tolerate in his present mood.

Ahead of them all, the dark angel was feeling as insecure about her capabilities and her alliances with Satan as the pirates were, but she tried to convince herself that the wolf was a spirit guide or guardian angel of some sort, and that it would instinctively lead her to a palace large enough to comfortably house all of them (without her having to build a thing first) on the pristine shores of some fantastical lost lake- just like in a fairytale. However, that daydream was challenged when the wolf suddenly took off after a squirrel and then failed to return, leaving her to her own devices and with sweaty palms again.

Fortunately though, the land was shaped in a way that was relatively easy to manoeuvre through, so the girl kept putting one foot in front of the other by default, following the snowbound river around the bend and then hiking along it for another ten or fifteen minutes, until she reached a place where the river was dammed off by an uneven wall that had been created by the remnants of a landslide. Scaling that hill filled her with trepidation because it was covered with rocks and small trees that suggested that it would made a nice little den for something with razor-sharp teeth or a lot more snakes, but she commanded her followers to bunch together and move more slowly, and only once she was pressed up against the other people did she realise how violently everyone was shaking but her.

Heart pounding with dread, the girl lit her torch again in order to burn off some of the mist and her anxiety while providing the others with a beacon to follow, but the moment that the flames flared up, creating a halo in the descending darkness, the ground beneath her boots suddenly became thick and gluggy, causing her to fall forward while trapping her feet behind her. She awkwardly reached out with her free hand to break her fall, but it too sank into snow so thick and bitingly cold that it made her yelp. She floundered there for a moment, but before your narrator could find her in the mist and help her up, a taller, stronger man swooped down and plucked the dark angel up into his arms, wearing the kind smile that would have flattened any woman on the face of the earth. Anyone, that was, but their angel, because her eyes stayed fixated on the snow that he’d dug her out of and whatever it was that lay in the clearing that was emerging beyond it.

‘Oh! Thank you, Captain Kingslater but…. put me down! At once!’ She bucked and half-fell out of his arms, her torch flaring about wildly with her erratic movements before she staggered forward, wading through the snow on the other side of the tree line like it was a swamp instead. Your narrator clumsily stumbled after her, and when he found himself standing beside her on the slightly raised lip of yet another snow-covered valley, his heart sank because it looked almost exactly like every other valley that they had already crossed -or had avoided crossing- and he did not relish the thought of having to hike across it before they rested again, even if it was smaller than the others had been, and shaped more like a diamond than an oval.

He could see that there was a large, man-made structure looming out of the white-washed landscape too, and that was undoubtedly what had caught his charge’s interest, but he’d seen dozens just like it before so he left it to their leader to get excited, and took advantage of the brief respite by unearthing his last cigarette from the squashed packet in his pocket. He tried to light it with fluttering lips, fingers and flame, but it wasn’t until the pirate captain came over and cupped his hands around it, that he was finally able to get it lit.

‘You w-were an old man before,’ the pirate captain managed, and it was a statement, not a question.

‘You’ll b-be an old man one d-day too,’ your narrator stuttered back, and although the pirate captain looked mildly irritated by the response, curiosity obviously got the better of him, because he tried one more time:

‘Are you actually old, or actually y-young?’

Your narrator drew back on his cigarette and then exhaled it gently into the sailor’s face. ‘What does it m-matter?’ he smiled before he took another drag of his cigarette. ‘She’s too old in the soul, and too y-young in the head for the b-both of us right now, matey,’ he turned away from him, reading Cairo’s suspicion regarding how close he and the girl were loud and clear, ‘so stand the fuck d-down. I’m not a threat to her possible affections towards you, because she has none.’

Your narrator will take a moment to plead winter-madness, to offer that as an excuse for why he was so negligent of his charge and hostile towards her would-be paramour during that pivotal moment, but please understand, reader, that it was hard to hear what our leader was saying over everyone’s thoughts, hard to see her past the daydreams of them that the pirate captain was pulling up out of his head, and even harder to tell through the mist and distance if what their leader was pointing at was another overturned ship, the foundations of a massive factory or anything of consequence at all, so the auspiciousness of the moment was all but lost on your scribe.

Yes, the ruins stood out against that white ground like a hulking giant, but your narrator took little to no interest in them until the world-wearied angel began to lurch towards them, whooping and hollering. Her torch did the dipping and dancing that her drowning feet could not, and because her antics were so out of character for her, a stirring sensation began to run through the crowd and eventually even snapped the Nephilim boy out of his reverie. The members of The Sequestered had seen the distressed angel in enough moods to know that she was full of complex emotions that she was not afraid to express publicly, but they’d yet to see her rejoice, so they were as amused by her behaviour as they were bewildered.

Your narrator will admit that his first instinct was to smile too, which he did, but when the girl fell over again, and then rolled on her back to giggle instead of fighting to get back up, his second was to wonder how hard she’d hit her head earlier that afternoon, when she’d first fallen at Cairo’s Kingslater’s oversized feet. That would certainly explain the idiotic ‘deal’ that she had made with him! But:

‘This is it!’ the girl cried, sitting up and grinning at her followers while wearing a rhapsodic expression. ‘This is my lake! This is going to be our home!’

‘What?’ Martya Rice ambled towards her, and although your narrator and Cairo Kingslater remained frozen in place, like two stone gargoyles manning a gate, those that had had their hopes raised by Larkin’s powerful declaration dashed between them as they raced towards her, ignited by her enthusiasm and conviction regardless of the fact that there was no evidence to support her claims.

‘How could you know that?’ Lady Lucida demanded, picking up her skirts and huffing past, her dark eyes darting everywhere. ‘Surely you don’t believe that those ruins are liveable?’

‘No, but there was a grand building here once, which means the ground beneath it will probably support others!’ The snow-crusted angel got up off the ground, and your narrator smirked to see that her hood was now weighed down behind her graceful neck with ice. ‘There are areas cleared on the edges of the lakes that will be large enough to plant fields upon, unlike the other lakes that were forested to the water’s edge, and the water here must be fresh because look-’ she turned to the east and gestured to something indistinct that had caught her eye through the eastern range. ‘I see two or three smaller waterfalls over there, feeding in to this lake from those mountains!’ She turned around, holding up her hands to the range behind the frozen lake, snow raining out of her hood every time she moved suddenly, making a few people laugh. ‘So all we have to do is wait out the next few months until winter has passed and see if the summers here are moderate enough to support-’

‘Why wait for summer?’ a rich, familiar voice suddenly declared from between Cairo and your narrator, and just like that, Larkin froze with her back to them all. ‘When you have made me almost powerful enough to bring summer to you?’

Their leader’s arms were still upraised, but the flame of the torch had dipped and started sparking, and her knuckles were white around the rod with tension, telling them all that she didn’t need to turn around to know whom had just addressed her. Telling them-us- that she really, really didn’t want to turn around; period.

I’m not ready for this… the girl’s thoughts were staticky as she tried to summon the strength required to turn and face her mother. Am I? Oh god… oh God…

Your narrator had frozen too, and what could only be described as a hot shiver ran through him as he turned to face the pirate captain, but found himself staring across at Satan’s lovely profile instead. He didn’t know how she had appeared or how long she’d been standing there for, but he did manage to witness seeing Bastien Birch flicker- no morph- into view beside her, taking form from fog before resting a hand on her bare shoulder, above the ribbon-trimmed edge of her Victorian-style gown before whispering:

‘You always have to make a grand entrance, don’t you? Just to scare the heck out of everyone?’

Satan lifted her nose, but her eyes danced with amusement. ‘I’ll not be judged by a man that just literally sparkled into sight, Raphael.’

‘Bastien.’

‘My point was made, regardless of which of your aliases I made it to,’ Satan sniffed gently, and Bastien surprised your narrator by rolling his eyes, which was even more out of character for him than his daughter’s gleeful prancing had been.

A hush had fallen over everyone else though- a hush so complete that the mind-reading Nephilim boy could not hear the thoughts of the children through it. But as though they all shared the same reflexes and thoughts, The Sequestered and the pirates turned as one, gravitating to look toward the devil like water being pulled to the moon. Even those at the very back of the pack had seen and heard her, and it was then that your narrator realised that although Satan was standing directly beside him and within earshot of her daughter, Martya, Bastien and Kingslater, her voice had resonated across the valley with equalised pitch and clarity- as omnipresent as the woman herself was.

And as beautiful. Satan’s hair was coiled in onyx springs that bounced with every step that she took, and gleamed with so much health that each curl reflected the light of the snow, giving it the illusion of being constructed from dark glass rather than fibres. Her skin was radiant, firm and plump, not pale but tawny and dewy, and her lips and cheeks flushed with blood and heat. Her body was more ‘womanly’ than her daughter’s was, and one could see by the way that she carried herself that she was proud of her stature, and rightfully so. Her pale green gown hugged an ample backside and full hips but had been tapered in a mermaid shape to emphasise how slender her waist and her long legs were, and her delicate, glittering heels made them look even longer. She was almost six feet tall and willowy, but because her shoulders were so broad, her full breasts seemed to cover a bewildering amount of space.

Wow... your narrator thought, wiping snowflakes off his eyelashes so that he could see her more clearly, and with a curved smile, Satan tilted her face so that she could invite him into her hypnotic gaze without actually tearing her eyes off her daughter in order to do it.

‘Why, thank you Samuel McIntyre of the ill-fated seas…’ she sent the words into his head, and they were painless but weighed down with meaning. ‘You’re pretty easy on the eye yourself…’

A turbulent mix of excitement and dread bubbled through your narrator when he realised that Satan had heard everything that he’d said or thought about her during that journey, despite the fact that she hadn’t given any clue that she was strong enough to listen in while hibernating in Hell at all. He tried to think of something clever and charming to say in self defence, but before he could, Satan’s daughter spun around again, torch carving an arced path of bright golden light through that foggy grey air, and just like that, Satan’s focus shifted again, zeroing in on her only living child in a heartbeat and leaving the mind-reader feeling relieved.

‘You can do that?’ Satan’s daughter demanded, bypassing any sort of salutation or pleasantries in favour of pushing forward. ‘Melt some of the ice away?’

‘We can do that,’ Satan said, and although her breath did not mist in the air like everybody else’s did, the snow beneath her feet began to melt away with every step that she took, so that by the time she was only a few feet from Larkin, she was standing on an emerald carpet of thick, lush grass that looked like a streak of paint across that bleak landscape. People oohed and ahhed, but Satan’s daughter’s eyes did not budge from her mother’s eyes as she closed in on her. ‘I could transform this entire area into a summery paradise that was twice as beautiful as the original Eden, and the palace that replaced it ever was! But only if you work with me, darling,’ she came to a halt a few feet away from her daughter and then lifted her hand with the grace of a dancer before extending it to her, ‘only if you take my hand, and compliment my abilities with yours.’

The golden angel looked down at the hand, then up at her mother, but did not take it, and a few people winced in offence. ‘Why do you still need that kind of help? I’ve done everything you asked me too, haven’t I? Sam has sworn to me that they have all started believing in you!’

‘You have, and I am thrilled with the progress you have made, especially with The Sequestered.’ She turned slowly then, looking to where the pirates had grouped together and were gaping at her, and her perfect nose wrinkled a little. She looked back at her child. ‘But the size of a miracle that I can perform is completely and utterly dependent on the faith of those demanding one, and the strength of those willing to help,’ Satan said softly, looking around more. ‘I have seen your projected fantasies of what this area might look like as a paradise in your mind, but your imagination is so great that it surpasses what I am capable of at this time, especially while the pirates remain so horrified by my arrival. If you want a more temperate climate, less snow and flowing freshwater, I can provide that easily enough. But if you want all of it…well, you’re going to prove that you trust me enough to lend a hand, by taking mine.’

‘How can you doubt my trust in you?’ the girl asked, looking incredulous. ‘I have marched these poor people to the end of the earth for you! What of that?’

‘You complied with my terms because you didn’t have any other ideas!’ Satan protested, ‘and because you didn’t think that you had anything left to lose!’

‘Perhaps that was the case in the beginning, but that has changed!’ her daughter cried. ‘I genuinely want to help them now, and I genuinely believe that you are the one that they need to start praying to!’

‘But what about your prayers, daughter of mine?’ Satan demanded. ‘What about how many times you’ve thought: ‘Oh God help me!’ over these past few days?’ She shook her head as Larkin cringed. ‘You’ve spent the last few days leading these people yes, and you have thanked me for every time you’ve believed that I have intervened... but you denied me first, making it clear that you didn’t know how you felt about any of this, least of all, me! And in addition to that, you’ve spent the majority of your journey trying to think of a way to help these people without involving me at all!’ Larkin’s pale face flushed. ‘That’s not infallible faith, is it? That’s grasping at straws! Had God offered up one, how do I know you wouldn’t have given him your hand and without hesitation?’

‘I would not take God’s hand any faster than I would yours! I hate him for not having offered one before now, and my feathers are proof of that!’ the girl snapped, and her father blanched. ‘But I will not be chastised for doubting you and your intentions, either! Perhaps you have a perfect course chartered in mind for me to navigate my life along- but you had another one in mind before I was born too, and look how that plan turned out!’

‘It turned out better than you can currently conceive of, but although I understand that you cannot step outside of yourself for long enough to see that right now, you have to understand that you cannot blame me for the choices that you made that steered you off course!’ her mother returned. ‘Isn’t it just like a human to demand free will, and then cry foul when exercising it gets them into trouble?’

‘Isn’t it just like a deity to claim responsibility for every stroke of good fortune and happiness that a human experiences, but shirk the responsibility of all the unfortunate consequences while labelling it ‘fate’?’ the girl retorted back, and everybody shrank back a little leaving your narrator, the Shepherd, the pirate captain, the hunter and the academic girl on the inside ring, while the twin Nephilim sisters jostled their way through to their leader with shining eyes. ‘How can you praise my intelligence, but then condemn me for not questioning your motives?’

‘I don’t! I’m just telling you that I need you to shelve your fears and smarts right now and exercise faith in me instead, because only once it’s provided to me, can I meet your needs in return!’ Satan stepped forward more and rested her hand on Larkin’s, the one that was holding the torch and we all gasped as a flume of fire erupted from it, shooting some twenty metres high into the sky. ‘I know all that you fear child, and I understand why you fear it- but you have to understand that I fear it too!’

‘You fear what, exactly?’ Larkin’s voice was cracked and brittle, and suddenly I could see past her stiff upper lip, and to the vulnerable tremble in her lip beneath it again. ‘Failure? Being stuck in Hell forever? Disappointing a whole bunch of people that are dependent on you? Trust me- I get how that feels!’

‘No! I fear proving to God and all of his followers that they were right to distrust me! Of proving how much better off the world was, because I was stripped from it! Of proving that blighting me off the face of the earth was a fair punishment for one minute’s lapse in judgement, despite how many millions of minutes I’d lived piously for before then-’ Satan’s voice cracked, but she whirled around to face us all. ‘Yes, I want control of the earth, but I’ve only wanted that since God made it clear that Heaven was his priority, and earth was the afterthought that he never finished! But this world and the people on it are my highest priorities- I can finish what God started when he envisioned the perfection of the human race, I know it!’ Satan held out her hands helplessly as she spun back to face her child. ‘But I cannot do that unless you believe I can, don’t you see? So tell me that you believe in me! Tell me, and I will make it so!’ She rested both of her hands on top of Larkin’s where she was still gripping the torch, eyes velvet, voice hoarse as she whispered: ‘Tell me that you believe that the name Satan is one that could be rejoiced one day rather than reviled, my angel, believe it, and it will be done!’

The girl swallowed hard, and then shook her head, but then looked around quickly before looking back to her mother and asked: ‘I’m standing here, aren’t I, mother? As Larkin Aztaroth- the girl that has given you every drop of faith that she has left, and has taken your name though she is still too afraid of herself to offer her hand?’ Her throat moved as she swallowed hard. ‘My faith might not be substantial right now- but it is all yours, and never will be God’s if you watch over these people as both you and God ought to have watched over me from the beginning!’

‘You’ll forgive me?’ Satan asked hoarsely. ‘If I give you all you dream of now, will you forgive me for all the ways that I have failed you?’

Her daughter swallowed hard. ‘I will, so long as it’s understood that I will only allow bygones to become bygones, mother.’

Satan made a small noise then, almost like a sob, and your narrator saw her rest more of her weight on Larkin’s hands as she bowed her head to the snow. The pirates and the refugees began to whisper around him, as amazed as he was to see that the devil had just been somewhat flattened by a kind word and such a lukewarm declaration, but he did not take his eyes off Satan, which was how he was able to see the single, significant tear slip down Satan’s face, roll off her jaw and then fall to the snow. Not a bloody tear- a crystal one! As pure as a human’s, and almost impossible for someone without a soul to produce!

Your narrator did not see where the tear landed, but he heard the hiss of its gentle impact, and then suddenly, a ripple, not unlike that created by a pebble being thrown into a great lake- began to cause the snow to shiver and roll back from that spot, revealing more green grass beneath, as thick and luxurious as Satan’s showy path had been but on a much grander scale. There were gasps as the snow retracted from where that tear had burned through the ice, peeling back slowly and gradually to reveal more and more land, but the shivering substance dissolved as it shifted, not accumulating the way a watery wave would, but becoming one with the low mist before that began to withdraw from the devil’s reach too.

The whispering sound became an excited one then, especially when the chill in the air- that frigidity that had been inescapable for so long- began to recede in tandem with the snow and mist, and when that bloom of green passed under your narrator’s feet, he was rendered breathless by the sensation of heat and warmth that rose up from the earth beneath it. He spun, as so many others did, turning to watch the winter retreat from the valley, and brought his hands to his mouth to muffle a moan of astonishment when he saw the trees shiver, thicken, become brighter as what looked like morning light swept across the plain that we were standing on and illuminated first the foothills, then the forests, then the mountain tops that encircled them, making your narrator’s breath catch in his throat.

Devil be with you! Where is all of that cold going?

The devil is with you, Satan shot into your narrator’s head then, and dear ol’ Calliel is about to have the wildest, most hard-earned winter in history!

Your narrator would have laughed, but he didn’t even want to blink lest he should miss even one second of the miracle that he was obligated to record, so all he managed was a crooked smile as he twisted to look back the way they had come, to where the river was defrosting. Everyone had been astounded to see hints of green and gold in the last valley, but people began to sob with joy as every colour that mother nature had in her palette began to emerge from those fields, grasses, plains and eventually, the sky. When the clouds and mists had receded enough for it to be revealed above them, your narrator grinned to see that it was not powder blue or even blackened by night, but streaked with wisps of amaranth, gold, treacle and lemon- a testament to the fact that sunset had only just commenced even though it had felt like night had been falling all day.

Wildflowers began to shoot up out of the earth and bloom around clusters of rocks next, and then, just as the scents that were suddenly surrounded them started to invade your narrator’s senses, making him feel dizzy and overwhelmed, he heard a telling crashing sound and spun to the right to see a flume of water start whooshing over the lip of the mountain ridge not far from where they stood before fresh, white water began to tumble over the mountain, taking a path that it had worn in the past, but had not utilised in an age.

‘A waterfall!’ someone cried in delight, as someone else exclaimed over flowers. ‘A running one! My…. Goodness!’

No one had said a word up until then, but the moment those first exclamations broke the ice, a dozen others began to shout out in chaotic chorus and your narrator turned back to face his friend, grinning like a damned fool. But Satan’s daughter had turned in the opposite direction to watch winter’s retreat… and was now clutching her heart with one hand and covering her mouth with the other as the ice coating the lake dissolved before her entranced eyes, leaving brilliant, turquoise water behind.

It’s happening! She thought. Everything I imagined of paradise is coming to life, and it’s all because of Satan!

No, your narrator said to her, moving forward in the hopes of basking in her delight, the likes of which he would never feel again until he had his soul. It’s all because of you, don’t you see? Your faith in her worth holds more weight than that of one hundred others’ combined!

But if she registered his directed thoughts, she gave no sign of showing it then, so lost was she in the beauty of the world around her. It was a deep lake, glorious and sparkling, but the eyes of those that had been watching it emerge were suddenly drawn to their leader’s form instead, because she’d undergone a transformation of her own at Satan’s behest. In the blink of an eye, her daughter’s white cloak had vanished, and suddenly she was wearing a soft, billowy and periwinkle-hued gown that was the second most delicate, most superbly crafted thing that any of them had ever seen.

The first of course, was the girl in it.

The ethereal beauty was unaware of what had happened, of course, or of the way that her father was rubbing her mother’s shoulder encouragingly as they both fondly watched her, because she was too wrapped up in her own delight to realise that she’d become the source of so much of it. So, oblivious to the way that her gold and platinum ribbons of hair were swirling around her, or how that warm sunset was staining her skin a luminous rose gold, the girl spun in delighted circles, turning her face up to the sky, while glittering tear tracks slipped down her rosy cheeks for all to see.

‘Paradise!’ the angel proclaimed, before Satan could respond. ‘This truly is a paradise!’ Her skirts swirled around her as she twirled, a dozen layers of fabric so soft and petal-like that they fluttered like wind, and then her wings unfurled too, and although the pirates began to cry out with a mixture of awe and alarm, the Pirate Captain fell to his knees at Satan’s side, making your narrator wonder how bruised they would be by the weight of his stupid passion by the end of the day.

‘Make her my soul mate, and I will swear myself to you for eternity!’ the pirate rasped, grasping Satan’s train, as everything that he was about to say ran through his mind in an archaic tongue before it came out in English: ‘I’ll do anything! Just swear that she will be mine, and mine alone!’

‘Earn her faith in you as I have, and everything you dream of shall be yours,’ was Satan’s quiet response before she tugged herself free and began to stumble after her daughter, and your narrator glowered over at the starry-eyed pirate as he grinned beatifically and pushed back up to his feet, thinking that paradise or not, this new land already felt awfully crowded.

‘It’s perfect!’ Larkin rejoiced, snagging his attention again. ‘It is exactly what I wanted-’

‘Not yet, it’s not!’ Satan protested, taking her arm from Bastien’s and turning to face the ruins, which your narrator could now see was a collection of old, grey-ish bricks that had been stained by mould and grime and overcome with ivy. ‘There’s one last thing I have to do-’ but when she held up her hand, all of those that had been staring at it gasped to see that translucency had started eating away at her form from her fingertips, and by the time her daughter had seen it too, it had swallowed up her entire hand. ‘Oh!’ Satan looked crestfallen, but she glanced to her other hand with a hopeful expression that dissolved in kind, because her skin was practically translucent all the way to her shoulder on that arm too. ‘Oh dear, I thought I’d have enough strength left to build you a home-’

‘I will build a home for all of us!’ Larkin declared, fluttering to her mother’s side, alarm written all over her face now. ‘Just hold onto all the strength you have left for as long as you can so I don’t lose contact with you again-’

‘No!’ Satan stepped by her, eyes narrowing in determination as she focused on the ruins once more. ‘God gave Miguel so much, but he wasn’t as pure or as worthy as you! It is your turn to be a queen, and a queen needs a palace-’

‘I don’t need a palace, and I don’t even need to be a queen!’ Larkin cried, reaching out and grabbing her mother’s other hand, and just like that, the world pulsed and throbbed before exploding with light and fire and flames and stars, expanding from the precise point where Larkin’s hand had clutched Satan’s. People screamed and ducked as an aftershock of invisible power reverberated against them, shaking the very ground that they were standing on while a sonic boom resounded in the atmosphere.

She did it! Your narrator thought as he fell back onto the grass beneath him, and felt his fingers sick into warm, moist soil. She took her mother’s hand!

But as overwhelming as that surge of energy was, it only lasted for a matter of seconds, and as soon as the noise and the light of the cataclysm began to ebb away, your narrator became aware of three crucial things- that a giant structure had appeared in the clearing where the ruins had been, that Satan and her daughter were both gaping down at the place where their hands touched, the place where that radiant wave of conjoined energy had come from, and that everybody was cheering.

‘But you are a queen,’ Satan whispered, looking up into her daughter’s eyes and smiling fondly, and even though her daughter did not notice it, the people that had followed her across the snow for days were slowly starting to bow in the meadow to and around her. Satan was translucent all over by then- barely there at all- but Larkin still held her tightly, and that seemed to be keeping her tethered to the world. Correctly sensing that she had overextended herself, the mother brushed a tendril of her daughter’s hair over her shoulder and said quickly and softly: ‘I cannot change that, I wouldn’t dream of it and I hope that in time, you will understand that it is not a burden that I am handing you,’ she nodded to the building that she had created, ‘but a blessing and an opportunity comparable to none.’ Her lip twitched. ‘God created man in his image- but woman was created in mine. Let’s see what happens with one that is as strong as she is compassionate at the helm, hmm? Especially one that would never be so foolish again, as to lose sight of everything that matters for a man…. right?’

The girl turned to look at the palace that had just been blinked into existence by their concentrated strength, and as soon as she saw it, the dark angel’s now periwinkle-hued eyes overflowed. The castle that was sprawled across the valley was grand, white and glittering, reflecting the pink and gold hue of the sky on one side, and then casting its own reflection onto the lake on the other, and the picture was so lovely that even your narrator was moved by the sight of it. At least one hundred shiny windows glistened in that golden sunset, and ivy was already crawling over the walls and balconies on the southern side, slithering around a turret on a wing that looked somewhat unfinished- as though even their combined strength had not quite been enough to live up to Larkin’s idle but fantastical daydreams. Unconcerned by that minor flaw, Satan’s daughter wiped the tears off her face and wet her lips, and the first words that she said out loud proved exactly why she had been destined to rule:

‘We can all fit in there, can’t we?’ she whispered, astonished. ‘Not one single person will have to sleep in the cold again, so long as it stands!’

Her question was met with a chorus of enamoured sighs, and that was when the girl finally looked around and saw that there was a carpet of people literally on their knees in front of her- one that included the pirates too. Satan’s daughter flushed crimson, and when she stood up and realised that she was dressed differently too, her face grew redder yet. She whirled around, preparing herself to give her mother a hard time about putting her in a party dress, but before she could articulate the phrasing, her eyes fell on the delicate platinum crown that Satan was holding out to her- one that was encrusted with the same strand of diamonds that had been wrapped around her throat- and her eyes dilated briefly before turning the brightest lilac.

‘No,’ Satan said, smiling. ‘Not a single person in your kingdom will suffer so long as you are at the helm, of that I am certain. The question is though, do you accept responsibility for all of them this day?’

Your narrator smiled then, for he’d been inside the girl’s head enough to know that Larkin wouldn’t have been more impressed if she’d been handed the moon, and when she swallowed hard and nodded gently, succumbing to the only lust that she had left- a lust for rare things that sparkled- her mother smiled too.

‘I will,’ the girl looked around, suddenly nervous. ‘That is, if they are willing-’ but she’d barely finished saying that, when everyone began to clap and cheer thunderously. The object of their affection pursed her lips in a humble smile, but her eyes were shining with delight, and when Martya Rice started an impromptu kick line in celebration, a giggle escaped her lips too. Your narrator chuckled, and hearing it, his charge- his future queen- blessed him with an affectionate and very inclusive smile that was even warmer than the fading sunlight was.

Your palace is unfinished, he said to her, jerking his head towards where the ivy was slithering over the roof, and taking advantage of her attention while her people went on celebrating to acknowledge this miraculous moment as nonchalantly as possible. But I’m pretty handy with a hammer and nails… want to keep me around for a while longer so I can fix it up for you?

It’s made of stone, so you’re not as handy as you think you are, she sent back to me, winking. And it’s not unfinished- Satan left it that way for me because in my fantasy, I had a space of my own that I could retreat to, where I’d never be completely surrounded or trapped by walls again. She bit her lip. But still, you’re more than welcome to stay, Sam- forever, if you’re so inclined.

Good. Your narrator tapped his notebook, which unbeknownst to her, was filled with as many drawings of her as it was with descriptions of her actions. Because something tells me this story isn’t finished yet- not by a long shot.

And it won’t be, until you’ve received your soul as payment for all you have done for me.

Your narrator bowed his head to her then, glad that he did not have a functioning heart, because she surely would have stopped it with those words. Still, he had an ego so he flushed with the pleasure of appreciation.

‘Raphael Lazarus…’ Satan said solemnly then, her wings unfurling and fluttering as her daughter’s did, betraying nervousness as everyone else quietened down again. ‘You are one of God’s archangels, and are therefore, entitled to a kingdom on this earth. Do you accept this throne on this unclaimed land this day?’

‘I do,’ Shepherd Birch leaned over and kissed his daughter’s scarlet cheek. ‘And I happily abdicate it to my only daughter, Larkin Aztaroth.’

‘Then I declare you will henceforth and ever be known as Queen, Larkin Aztaroth, ruler of the country of Raphael,’ Satan said, and as she placed the crown on our angel’s head, your narrator captured the moment in his memory- the real beginning of this new world, before he too started to bow. ‘Rule kindly in my name, treat all as equals- but live as humans were meant to; happily, and wholly, with fire in your soul.’ She looked into her daughter’s eyes, and there was fire within them too. ‘Rejoice in my name child, but spill no blood for it. And never forget- there is no such thing as good, or evil-’

‘Only different coloured feathers,’ Larkin said quietly, ‘that are as equal to one another in worth, as night is to day.’

And then the crown was on Larkin’s head, and life as we all had known it evaporated as quickly as the devil had, leaving only potential for heaven on earth at Satan’s behest behind.

23.

Eden Palace, City Of Arcadia

Kohén Barachiel

May 4th, AA647

I’d expected to be assailed by unpleasant emotions on my return to Eden, and had been dreading stepping foot into that palace all night because I knew for a fact that the sovereign still loathed me... but I had not expected to find the new king looking almost exactly like the faded portraits of the old one, and I was so rattled by my brother’s altered appearance that I came to a halt that was so sharp that my boots squeaked against the marble floor. I cringed, first at the noise my boots had made, then again when the guard behind me ran into the back of my legs and cursed audibly. I’d hoped to enter Eden smoothly, leave quickly and hopefully do both somewhat covertly, but not only did every in the room look our way when Saul-Yin cussed me out, but a few even chuckled.

Fortunately, I was too astonished by my elder brother’s transformation for my embarrassment to resonate too strongly with me in the moment. People had warned me that Karol had become more withdrawn and joyless since I’d left Eden, but the majority of the memories that I had of him had been unpleasant ones anyway, so I was more overwhelmed by the physical manifestation of his misery now than I was by the way he scowled despondently at me upon my approach because at least the latter had been anticipated. His withered appearance, on the other hand...

‘What’s the matter with you?’ Saul-Yin hissed from behind me, but I couldn’t answer my comrade without drawing even more unwanted attention our way and so I forced myself to walk forward a few more paces and down the low marble steps that connected the foyer to the throne room, willing my palms not to spark inside my thin leather gloves when Karol’s glare intensified, and praying that the other guard knew me well enough to know when to shut up, because my mouth was too dry to even whisper the command- like it had been stuffed with cotton wool.

My head felt the same way too, and it was hard not to rub my eyes to try and scrub away my disbelief. I had a few faded memories of Karol as an adolescent from before I’d lost my memory, fewer still of him being a broken, angry and freshly-minted king that had just turned thirty after... but now he looked like the ghost of a slain king and the father that I’d barely known instead of the man in his prime that he was supposed to be, and that was beyond unsettling. In fact, it sort of seemed like the golden vines that snaked around his throne had held him bound to the same spot since I’d last visited Eden, six months beforehand, because there was no evidence that he’d moved, changed his clothes or showered since then that I could see. No evidence to prove that he’d done anything but fade in my absence at all.

Karol’s beard had not yet been touched with grey, but it was wiry, un-braided and unkempt, and because everyone in Calliel groomed their beards except for the Sheps, it made him look more like a Godless man than the most powerful man on the planet. His green eyes were flat and moved lethargically, and although our family had South American lineage, you wouldn’t have picked it from looking at the king then, for his complexion was sallow and sickly. On top of all of that, he’d gotten dangerously thin, which made him look drawn around the eyes and cheeks.

Is he unwell? I thought, pausing to bow at the edge of the grassy path that formed the carpet that led up to the throne, and nudging Saul-Yin with my boot to indicate that they should do the same. I didn’t have to bow like the other guard did, but it felt right and it gave me the opportunity to hide my reflexive wince so I held it for longer than necessary while I collected myself. When did he last eat? Smile? Turn that face up to the sun? How could a healer wither so in such a short amount of time?

‘Kohén Barachiel of the Third Arcadian Division…’ someone I did not know droned, announcing me, and the murmur of surprise that rippled through the courtiers present did not go unnoticed by me. I didn’t know why they were surprised by that little introduction because I’d spent the last two years feeling like the most visible, despised person in Calliel every time I visited Arcadia, but I felt my cheeks heat and my sparks intensify in response to their blatant astonishment. Sun was streaming through the atrium ceiling above us and washing the entire room with golden light and making it glitter, but my name had been lost in the shadows for years and I felt the pronunciation of it chill the entire room now.

Yes, I’m the one that ruined the kingdom... I agreed silently, reminding myself to keep my grip on the scrolls relaxed so I wouldn’t buckle and smudge them with clenched fists. Line up with your rotten vegetables people, the ‘bad’ prince has returned to stain your paradise with his presence again!

‘I don’t think an introduction is necessary,’ the King drawled his hate for me piercing me like bullets from his eyes. ‘But then again, Kohén has been known to forget himself on occasion and mistake himself for his twin, so perhaps it is only wise to remind him of who he is and what family he is representing every time he enters this palace, isn’t it? That way, he’ll remember to conduct himself accordingly.’

His little dig pissed me off, but I knew that he was trying to get a rise out of me and I was not going to rise to bite back- especially not publicly. I could hide the sparks in my hands, but there would be no concealing the glow in my eyes if he pushed me too far, so it was up to me to get my job over with and then get gone before a scene was made in front of the nobility that were assembled there. After all, they were already scared of me and what I was capable enough as it was! Also, it was obvious to me that Saul-Yin had not taken a breath since the king had spoken, and I wouldn’t be held responsible for a member of my division passing out on the throne room floor from fright, so it was up to me to keep the situation- and all temperaments- under control by getting out of there as soon as possible.

‘Your highness…’ I bowed again, and then extended the scrolls to him. ‘It is good to see you again, and in such high spirits. I thank you for being so concerned with my health but I can assure you that my short term memory at least, is still working well. I do not question who I am, and even if I did, other people- like yourself- have gone to great lengths to ensure that I never forget myself again.’ Or live it down, I silently added. Despite how hard I’ve worked to become a person of worth!

‘And who are you?’ the king asked, looking at me and the scrolls I was holding like I’d just tracked dog shit across the golden rug on the throne room’s floor and was now handing him a steaming fistful of the same foul substance as an offering instead of military dispatches.

‘Just a soldier, your highness,’ I said quietly, and a look of satisfaction smoothed out his puckered expression while the courtiers around him visibly relaxed, pleased to see that I was hanging my head as I ought to and opting to give myself the title of ‘just’ instead of ‘Prince’. ‘One that has two very important messages to deliver you: One from the General, and one from Guardian Forsyth.’

‘Why has your Guardian sent you as a messenger?’ was the king’s response, and the emotions that should have had me trembling before my king swirled around inside my gut for the last time like wet cement, and became concrete instead. Then, when he included the innocent guard at my side in on his look of reproach, that concrete cracked just enough to let some of my charged anger burn through. ‘I made it very clear that you were not to be given any special privileges-’ his eyes flicked up and down the young, terrified guard, ‘-at all.’

If any other man had just inferred what my eldest brother had inferred, I would have knocked their teeth down their throat, but my brother was the king of Arcadia and striking him would have gotten me whipped if not killed and I had better things to do with my time, so I silently apologised to Saul-Yin as I straightened, not giving Karol the satisfaction of believing that he’d landed a vocal blow in any way. Eighteen months ago, a comment like that would have had me rushing to defend myself if not apologize profusely for my imagined crimes, but that was no longer the case- a fact I hadn’t been aware of until just now, when he had challenged my honour so.

I’m not scared of him anymore, I realised then. There’s nothing awful that he can say about me that I do not already think about myself, and no punishment that he can bestow upon me that will hurt more than what I’ve already endured in the Corps!

Besides, it was easy enough to spin offence into amusement, because messengers were ranked even lower than guards were, so what privilege was I being allegedly being granted by stepping outside of my normal duties and into the king’s presence? The pleasure of his company? The opportunity to wear that constrictive formal uniform? I thought not. I’d sooner ride a message through gunfire to the devil herself, then spend a second longer with my caustic brother than necessary, and he ought to know as much because it was a sentiment that he obviously returned!

‘My being here in his stead is not a royal perk granted to me, your highness, but a matter of course and protocol.’ I rather forcefully handed the scrolls to the king before standing back, feeling relieved to be free of them at last. They were just rolls of paper, but they were both so weighted with significance that I was exhausted from having carried them up to Eden, and eager to pass the burden on to someone else even if that would put me in a ‘shoot the messenger’ position instead. ‘The smallest scroll is an apology from Guardian Malry Withers, penned not three hours ago, meant to explain my presence here. Originally, he was supposed to accompany me here this morn, but his wife went into labour late last night and not long after we’d returned to the barracks, and because she has not yet had the baby, he cannot leave her side.’

‘That’s more than understandable,’ the king grumbled, and I saw his gaze soften somewhat because he and my superior, Guardian Forsyth, were good friends that went a ways back. I hoped that would not change after the king read what his friend had penned about his little brother. ‘What is the other?’

‘I believe it is a confidential progress report regarding national security, your highness. I expect that you’ll want to discuss the contents of both scrolls with me,’ I wet my lips, afraid of how his reaction to my own news would effect the nobility’s opinion of us both, ‘but I would suggest that you’d consider doing so in privacy.’

My brother’s eyebrow arched up at the warning, which he’d clearly taken as a challenge. ‘I have no secrets from my people,’ he said, and I almost laughed out loud. As far as I knew, our mother was still locked up in the basement and he was so fixated on tracking down whatever imaginary threat that Larkin Whittaker supposedly posed that he barely did anything but glare at the security monitor in his office, making many people question his sanity… but pointing out those facts would get me killed so I bit my tongue to keep a grimaced grin in check and shrugged. I didn’t want this to happen public or privately and in a few minutes he would understand why, but I’d warned him and that was all I could do.

‘Of course your highness,’ I nodded gently towards Amelia-Rose Choir as she and her father melted away from a gathering of people to our right and drifted our way, both bearing thin but warm smiles for me. ‘Do as thou will.’

‘Thank you for your permission…’ the king drawled, unfurling one of the scrolls. The rest of the nobility began to creep forward, watching him while he read it, and I felt Saul-Yin step closer to me, either seeking support silently, or offering it, I did not know.

At the same time, Amelia-Rose mouthed: ‘You look well,’ and I did not doubt that she meant that, because she eyed me the way an esuriant person eyes a piece of cake- the same way she seemed to eye every male member of my family- and it made me downright uncomfortable. I understood the pressures that were on young women to marry well, so I usually wouldn’t have been so judgmental of a noble girl that was obviously on the hunt for an eligible prince to marry... but I’d learned since I’d last seen her cosying up to my twin brother that Amelia-Rose was undertaking an apprenticeship as a Shepherd at her father’s side, and Shepherd’s could not marry, so what motivated her to batt her eyelashes so at us? It was clear that the girl put more weight on God’s opinion of her than any man’s, so was it her hormones that had her reaching for us with her eyes like that, or did she have an ulterior motive behind them?

But the King’s face clouded over then, and Amelia-Rose slipped from my mind as easily as Kohl had apparently slipped from hers the moment I’d walked in the door as I turned my attention back to him. I’d been dreading that moment all morning, and when my eldest brother looked up from the correspondence, his cold stare confirmed that I’d been right to, because it was very clear that absence had not made his heart grow fonder, and time had not healed any of his wounds- least of all, the ones that I had apparently inflicted upon him.

And that he wasn’t ready for anyone else to be over them yet, either.

‘You’ve been promoted to Guardian of your division?’ a fraction of the king’s glow surfaced in his green eyes in response to his incredulity while the people surrounding us began to gasp in astonishment. ‘How is that possible? Was Guardian Forsyth drunk when he wrote this or-’

‘Your highness!’ Shepherd Choir interrupted softly, and although Karol did not look at him or apologize, I saw my brother stiffen as I already had, suddenly conscious of the fact that we were surrounded by witnesses that would judge him if he acted as Godlessly as everyone believed that I had, by cussing myself and his friend, Malry, out. ‘Perhaps Guardian Barachiel was right, and this is a discussion that ought to be conducted behind closed-’

‘Guardian Barachiel!’ my brother practically snarled, flicking the scroll with the fingers of one hand while he shot me a poisonous look. ‘What a joke. I heard that you were bounced from one division to another after you enlisted because you couldn’t manage to get along with any of the other soldiers at all, and yet suddenly, Forsyth has decided to force one third of them to look to you for leadership? Did he draw your name out of a hat on his way back to his spouse, or what?’

‘His decision making process was a bit more sophisticated than that, your highness,’ I said calmly, my voice a quiet contrast to his despite the fact that the charge in my hands was now threading through the nerves in my arms, causing them to practically hum with repressed anger. ‘In actual fact, I was promoted to becoming his second in command months ago, after Guard Chisholm contracted Malaria in Asiana.’ I folded my hands together behind my back and stood tall when he rolled his eyes, reminding myself that his opinion of me as a soldier counted for nought, because he was not a soldier himself. ‘Protocol states that every guard is entitled to paternal leave for a period of three months, and that every Guardian must defer his title to his highest-ranked subordinate should he need to take a leave of absence for any reason- so the buck has naturally fallen to me now.’ I wet my lips. ‘I am not shocked by your disbelief, and it is true that I had issues settling in with the first and second Arcadian divisions, your highness... but things are different for me within the Third Division. I have found my footing and my equilibrium there, and Guardian Forsyth is pleased with the way I conduct myself within the military.’

‘And how have you managed to find your feet?’ Karol’s jaded gaze drifted around the room, inviting the rest of his subjects into what ought to have been a private conversation. ‘After all, you were sent to the Corps to be disciplined, not decorated, so I’m sure that I’m not the only person here that would like to know how you’ve managed to sway so many people into not only forgiving you, but bowing to you again- despite the fact that the members of the first two divisions apparently despised you.’

‘I suppose it is because of the kind of people that are in the third division, your highness.’ My charge was angrily vibrating through my biceps and the back of my shoulders now, but I reined my sparks in if for no other reason than to prove that I could, and Karol motioned for me to go on while eyeing the dozens of badges that decorated my sash. ‘Division One is made up of youths from the upper castes in Calliel who did not score highly enough on their PCE’s to get into the apprenticeships of their choice, so they resent the fact that there is a need for more Corps draftees at all-’ I darted a nervous look to the surrounding courtiers, wondering how many of them were related to the spoiled brats in Division one and taking offence, ‘-thanks to my actions, of course, because they probably would have become Blue Collars otherwise. And Division Two is full of men who enlisted willingly a long time ago and resent me for how much more dangerous their duties have become now that they are used primarily as soldiers, rather than as salvagers as they always were before.’ Which is your fault, but a burden that I must bear because you don’t need a fucking army at all and we all know it! ‘So both of those first groups took an exception to being saddled with the one who created a need for an army in the first place -me- and they demonstrated their offence by rebelling against my presence constantly.’ I swallowed hard at the memories of having snakes and spiders stuffed into my swag and rucksack, of being challenged to fist fights (usually three against one), or being spat on while I slept. My nose had been broken twice, and I’d been rushed to a healer after having my food poisoned, but I’d survived all attempts against my life, which meant that I could survive any further against my character now. ‘But the guards in Division Three are third-borns, convicted criminals and foreigners that have been picked up from various missions: mostly Godless or branded folk that the army hopes to rehabilitate. As far as they are concerned, they would have been doing hard labour regardless of what mayhem I incited, so they can separate who I was from who I am now much more easily than those that hailed from Arcadian provinces could, because it has not changed who they were always fated to be. In fact, some of them are happy to be earning a wage for serving the crown, instead of being indentured as slaves.’

‘So you’re the Prince of the thieves, is that what you’re saying?’ the king demanded, and my stomach tightened.

‘No, I am no prince at all to them, sire- that’s the point. Despite the notorious Nephilim’s dark influence on me, they would have been living miserable lives anyway, so they don’t care if my backside is on a throne or leading them into a pirate raid, so long as I do my best to keep them alive.’ I narrowed my eyes at him to punctuate that. He could piss all over my lesser crown- the one that he was holding hostage until I turned twenty-one- and how I’d apparently exploited it to my advantage as much as he wanted to, but he could not shit all over everything I’d accomplished to earn Guardian Forsyth’s trust because I’d earned it through blood, sweat, prayer and tears. ‘And may I point out that being third-born does not make someone a thief, Sire; a fact that you ought not to forget consider that our younger brother is one of them. Yes, there are convicted criminals in my Division but that does not make the entire Division unworthy of your respect, because they work hard under the Arcadian flag to make amends for whatever wrong turns they have taken. That is the point to their servitude, isn’t it? Repaying their debt to society and finding their way back into God’s light?’

Just. Like. Me. Only as far as you are concerned, I’ll never be able to atone for what happened with Larkin, will I? You call her a demon, but treat me like I’m the very devil that created her, even though you made sleazy deals with her too!

The king’s eyebrows shot up. ‘I suppose it’s no wonder that you’ve found your place there… I expect you are as eager to forgive them their sins as you are to have your own pardoned, yes?’

‘And because he works hard, treats everyone fairly, takes on the most dangerous jobs himself, sire,’ Saul-Yin said quickly and rather sharply, and I smiled at her gratefully. I knew she was intimidated by my brother, but she was speaking against him on my behalf and that took guts- especially seeing as how she was a third-born girl, a foreigner and a convicted criminal, which meant that she wouldn’t have a leg to stand on in her own defence if he turned his assessment to her character. ‘We respect him, Your Highness, as does Guardian Forsyth, and if you would finish reading the letter, you would understand that.’ Her voice was soft, but she spoke carefully in her Asianan accent, so people either heard her, or moved forward more so that they could. ‘Just last week in St Miguel, he risked his neck to go under the earthquake debris and rescue a newborn baby from a collapsed hospital despite the fact that the mother of the child slapped him when she first recognised him.’ She paused, allowing a few people to process that while I flushed more deeply. ‘He also divvied up his water between everyone else’s canteens in the Monument Valley last year when us human soldiers began to suffer dehydration, and he gave up three months worth of wages during a pirate raid in Tribeca when he first joined us, so that he could trade a pirate for the hostage he’d taken.’ She lifted her sharp little chin, narrowing her almond eyes at my brother and reminding me of why I wanted her to be my second now that I’d been promoted: even when she was terrified, Saul-Yin always acted fearlessly. ‘On top of that, he’s been teaching all of us to read, your highness. None of us want him with a harem at his disposal any more than you do now that we’ve heard of how it influenced him…’ she winked at me, and I knew I was the colour of a tomato, ‘but we trust his judgement in every other area.’

I snorted gently, as did a few others, but the people in the room were looking at me with less suspicion now and heightened interest. My brother was not one of them, and I could not tell exactly what he was thinking because his expression was shuttered behind those flat grey eyes and that bushy beard. But he spoke quickly, clarifying the matter in his usual way: bluntly.

‘You rave about your new commanding officer, young Guard, and it is brave of you to speak up so passionately on his behalf without first being asked to bear witness to his character. However… please forgive me for asking but I must know: do you vouch for my brother’s reputation as a soldier, or as a girl in love?’ He leaned forward, peering at her shoulder, which she was not allowed to cover up while she was on Arcadian soil. ‘I see you’ve been branded for promiscuity in the past, and I’d hate to think that you learned nothing from whatever trial you endured, or that you’re letting your desires overcome your sensibilities again. My brother may not be living as a crowned prince ought to right now, but he still has certain laws and values to uphold, and dallying with a co-ed instead of an official Companion would be flagrantly breaking them.’

A blush bloomed on each of Saul-Yin’s sharp cheekbones, but I stepped in front of her and spoke in her defence before she could. ‘She speaks as my second-in-command, your highness, and I will have not it inferred otherwise.’

The king’s head twisted around to glare back at me. ‘Since when do you get to police what I do and do not get to infer?’

‘When you are wrong,’ I said quietly, and I knew that my eyes had started to glow, just as his had. I patted my fiend’s shoulder reassuringly while she stared at the ground, humiliated, no doubt, by the sheer amount of people that were currently staring at the brand she bore- the one that told the whole world that she’d had sex before being joined or married. ‘Say and presume what you will about my character, your highness, but do not let it call Guard Saul-Yin’s into question.’

‘Or what?’

‘Or know that you’ll make yourself look like a hypocrite,’ I said matter-of-factly. ‘You cannot blame me for how Larkin Whittaker reacted to getting a brand, and of how terrified she was of being judged for it- if you yourself are one of the ones that would assume that a person is worth less than others due to the markings on their skin?’

Amelia-Rose made a face. ‘You’re very noble for rushing to this heathen’s defence, Prince Kohén, but those brandings are dispensed to-’

‘They’re not dispensed, Amelia-Rose, they are burned into a person’s skin,’ I turned towards her, feeling my own scar burn in memory- my first memory of this new life. ‘They are marked for an eternity for one mistake, which would be fair and just, I suppose, if they were given to everybody who broke laws, and not just those that are caught.’

‘They are given so people can be warned about an individual’s lack of self-control and character!’ Amelia-Rose protested, eyeing Saul-Yin’s gleaming black hair as though it were writhing with snakes rather than neatly braided back from her pretty face. ‘They are given to criminals that hurt God with their decisions!’

‘That’s a fallacy, because if everyone who has pre-marital sex is a criminal then Karol and I would be as covered in brands as thoroughly as our Companions were once covered in gold!’ I snapped, making the members of the nobility that were watching us rustle with disconcertion. Yes, I was afflicted with lust as apparently all Barachiels were, and I couldn’t sleep most night for the dreams that I had, or cross the path of a Companion without thinking: ‘I could have her right now and numb so much of my torment!’ (as I was entitled to do until the harem was rebuilt and I reinstated as the official crowned prince) but I hadn’t even kissed a woman since I’d left Eden, I had no memory of ever actually being with one in any way, and I didn’t plan on rectifying that until I’d found one that I could truly love. So Karol could cast as many stones my way as he wanted to for the bad choices that I’d made in the past, but I would be damned if I’d let him insinuate that I was still making them, especially if that meant that Saul-Yin would get investigated too!

‘So you’re just co-workers, then?’ Karol demanded. ‘Nothing more?’

‘We’re co-workers and friends, your highness,’ I corrected him tersely. ‘And there are thirteen others that I call the same in my division that will attest to that, if need be; including Malry Forsyth. I do not blame you for assuming otherwise because as far as you know, I have done nothing to earn anyone’s trust, but that is not the case in the Third Division, so if you will not take me at my word by all means, seek a second opinion and know that I will welcome an investigation into my sexual conduct with a clear conscience.’

My brother squinted at me as though trying to see through my lies, but everything I said was true so I returned his stare with an unwavering one of my own. Maybe it was unwise to speak to the man that was holding my crown hostage like a brother rather than a king, and perhaps everyone in that kingdom had decided that the only way I was going to earn that crown back was by grovelling to them all... but although I remained a stranger to my old self, I’d become well-acquainted with the new Kohén, and I knew one thing for sure: I was no prince, and I never planned on pretending to be one again. So I didn’t care if in two years, Karol Barachiel returned my crown to me or held onto it out of spite, because I planned on passing it right over to my twin brother as a twenty-first birthday gift, anyway. Then I was going to leave Calliel and my hateful family, and never look back.

And if God didn’t like it, well, he’d better step out of the pearly gates and do something about it, because nothing short of an act of God was going to change my mind about the fact that I’d sooner be alone in the world, then surrounded by my deplorable, and ‘wholly’ shitty family.

24.

Libertie City, Raphael

Larkin Aztaroth

May 4th, AA647

‘Larkin, what in heaven’s name are you doing?’ Miriam Caldwell demanded, lifting her skirts and stepping over one of the steel pipes that were lying scattered across the ground. She bent by the rocks where I’d placed my things, lifted the manuscript that I’d abandoned and shook it at me accusingly. ‘You said you’d get your edits back to me by lunch- that’s an hour away!’

I lifted the protective mask off my face and lowered my flaming hand before stepping away from the pipes. ‘I was working, I promise! But Watt said they were having a problem soldering these joints-’

‘Watt’s the foreman for this site, let him and one of his employees handle it with an actual soldering gun instead of waylaying my copy-editor. Jessley is under the weather and Marlowe is getting ready to leave on a hunting trip, so if you drop the ball too I’ll be trying to fill a library by myself, and I can’t do that!’

‘I’ll bet you could,’ I teased her, wiping my blackened fingers on my pinafore before I headed over to her, leaving the dam constructing to the dam constructers and crossing back to the woman who I knew could read at least three books in one day. Not before I cast one final look back at the two pipes that I’d just joined however, making sure that the metal had been fused where it was needed to, and not melted elsewhere. But it seemed all right, so I waved to Watt when he poked his head out of the office, and then reluctantly moved to take the handwritten pages from Miriam’s hands, hoping that that was all that he had needed me to do. ‘But don’t worry, I only came down here to read in peace and quiet for awhile in the first place, and I only have a few chapters left-’

‘This looks like more than a few chapters, and don’t you dare put your icky fingers on these pages- I can’t produce paper out of thin air you know and while we’re on the subject, what were you thinking, leaving this so close to the river? What if the wind blew the pages right into it while you were off playing Blue Collar? You can get peace and quiet on high, dry ground too, you know!’

I sighed and moved to stuff the rest of my belongings into my straw bag, biting my tongue so I wouldn’t make a crack about how wetting old paper was exactly how we produced new paper, and that I’d personally welcome seeing the manuscript that I was reading ground up into a pulp so that the author could try again. Miriam had a lot of wonderful qualities, but a sense of humour wasn’t one of them, not when it came to work, anyway!

Besides, I knew that I was being a bit harsh on the poor, anonymous writer that had penned ‘The Mistral’s Mistress,’ anyway because really, the story-telling was beautiful. It was just the grammatical errors and the graphic content that bothered me, because it was the first story I’d ever read by a bundle of hormones that obviously hadn’t read many books before, which meant that it was chock-full of heated scenes described by someone that didn’t know how to spell ‘euphemisms,’ but wasn’t shy about using them.

Deep down, I knew that Miriam was right to berate me for taking too long to read it, because really, I had been stalling finishing it on purpose. The characters were wonderful and the story engrossing, but it was borderline erotica and I honestly didn’t know how I was going to get through reading the climax of the story now that the sensuous singing hero had the heroine melting onto a pile of hay in her family’s barn in anticipation of a climax of her own- after chapters and chapters of them ALMOST getting there. I would have put the entire thing on the ‘Pass’ pile the day before, if not for the fact that the author had a way of describing yearning that was poetic without being pretentious or over-wordy. I wanted them to get together, desperately… I just didn’t want to read about the climax they’d experience together once they did.

But I was the only copy-editor that Miriam had, and only twelve manuscripts had been submitted to her publishing house thus far, so I needed to encourage all those that would dare to submit to do exactly that by giving them the best chance I could to see their name in print-and not scare them off because the copy-editor was a prude that had been traumatised as far as intimacy was concerned. It was bad enough that I still hadn’t managed to move on from the wounds that had been inflicted upon me while I’d been in Eden- I wouldn’t make the written word suffer with me by wrinkling my nose up at every love story that passed under it too because whether I liked it or not, love stories still appealed more to readers than every other kind of story did, even to me.

‘I’ll remind you that we’re all expected to help one another when that help is requested,’ I said instead, taking the manuscript out of her hands but keeping my three sooty fingertips curled away from it, wondering how she could be so bothered by fingerprints when the entire thing was covered by notations and ink stains, ‘and that I promised you that I’d have this finished by the end of the day and not by lunch. That leaves me with four hours, you know, not one.’

‘Actually, I know for a fact that you won’t be reading this after lunch, which is precisely why I came down to crack the whip on you,’ Miriam said haughtily as she began to lead be back to the castle like a naughty child. ‘I won’t be waiting another week to see if this is publishable or not-’

‘Why won’t I be reading this after lunch, or for a week hence?’ I demanded, suspicious, surprised and hurt. I would never have backed Miriam’s idea to start a printing press/publishing house of her own if I’d known that I would have been roped into getting the thing off the ground, considered instrumental to the efforts, and more criticised for how I handled my job as copy editor than I was as queen! ‘I’ve never allowed the work that I do for you to fall to the wayside, even in the face of crises, and I’m offended that you would imply otherwise-’

‘Perhaps you have not allowed a crisis to come between you and your day job, but you have allowed Cairo Kingslater to distract you enough to affect the quality of work in the past, so forgive me for saying so, but I will not have his sudden arrival put this novel’s production in jeopardy.’

His name was like the clanging of bells inside my head, and memories of him heated me even more than the most graphic scenes of the manuscript ever had. We were passing the row of stone lakeside cottages that we had built along the northern shore, and I came to a halt right there on the path. ‘What?!’

‘What do you mean, what?’ Miriam rolled her eyes. ‘The last time you were proofreading in the pirate captain’s presence, I was left with an apostrophe apocalypse, remember?’

‘I do not need to be reminded of that matter, for you shamed me well, but I will demand clarification for everything else!’ I all but dropped everything as I clasped her wrist with one of my hands. ‘You speak of Captain Kingslater’s presence here as though it for certain. Does that mean that The Iana has been sighted off the coast this morning? He’s not supposed to come back until next week!’

My boss smiled knowingly before her wispy grey eyebrows lifted. ‘What would you say if I refused to answer that until you’ve finished the book?’

‘I would say that you have forgotten yourself, Lady Caldwell, and the fact that I have wings, and that I will now use them to get to the truth of the matter myself!’ I cried, hugging my belongings to my chest as I began to race along the path that led from the northern rim of Lake Libertie, and back to the village on the East shore. I’d only taken four steps before my wings sprouted and lifted me from the ground, and had only flapped them three times before I was carried over the town square and headed for the city gates.

He’s back! I thought, dizzy with delight. Cairo’s back!

‘Hold onto that book tight and finish it or I’ll demote you to MY position, which believe me, is no fun!’ Lady Caldwell called after me, incensed, but I only laughed as I hugged the novel tightly to my chest and beamed down at the village below me. I always loved soaring over it and seeing all of the progress that we had made in twenty-eight months… but this was the first time that I’d flown above it in the middle of the day in spring since we’d constructed the greenhouses, and the sight of all of that polished glass winking up at me in the midday sun delighted me to no end, because those tiny building sparkled like diamonds but were even more precious to me than diamonds could ever be, because they were what would keep us not only alive but thriving next winter.

We’d survived the last two, yes, because Satan had adjusted the environment around us just enough to take the chill out of our bones if not out of the air between October and February… but the next Winter might just prove to be as pleasant as every spring and summer had been because this time, we would have enough food locked away in the stores to keep our bellies full and our systems nourished, which meant that we wouldn’t almost starve again, even the icy waters prevented The Iana from coming to our aid, like they always did.

Cairo wanted to visit us then anyway of course, and insisted that he’d gotten in once so he could certainly navigate a path through the icebergs again if it meant getting to me when I needed him most, but I’d put my foot down on the matter in order to keep him and his loyal crew alive. It made the winters seem longer than they really were, but daydreams about seeing him again in the spring when it was safe for him to return to us got me through it and luckily, he’d never stayed away for more than four months in a row.

The air was warm but it still had a crisp edge to it, and I loved the way it tingled my nostrils as the smell of lilacs in bloom delighted them. A few people were sword-fighting on the common, partaking in one of the combat classes and though I could not wave back to them when they sighted me without dropping my things, I nodded and smiled, and then shot forward more speedily, heading towards the river’s mouth and towards the harbour that we had constructed for The Iana. The first hydroelectric dam that we had restored was churning thunderously where the river crashed into and over it, but the misted water that sparkled off it was not thick enough to block my view of Cairo’s ship as I passed above, and my entire being lit up at the sight of her: proud and undamaged and headed straight for the docks with the golden dragon’s nose pointed right at the château.

He’s not supposed to be home for another week! I thought, beside myself with excitement, and grateful for the fact that Miriam had let me know that he was docking in private because I would have been mortified by the way I’d reacted to the news if she’d made her announcement publicly. I wanted to do so much before he got here! But… oh well, I’ll take him over anticipation of him, any day!

As embarrassed as I would have been for people to see me, flushed and breathless over a man, I couldn’t help my reaction so I did not try to suppress it. I had not fallen in love with Cairo in the traditional sense- in the all-consuming way that he claimed to love me- but in the two years that I’d known him, my world had opened up like a rose in bloom and I could not deny that for all of the things that he had delivered unto me, the joy that I experienced every time we were reunited, and the faith that he instilled in me was what I had needed the most because it kept me and my people going while he was gone. Though he was still as cocky and lecherous as he had been since the first moment we’d met, Cairo Kingslater had also been my hero, my confidante, my informant, my friend, my champion and my link to the outside world… and though he swore black and blue that I would have been just fine without him and that it was he that was dependent on me and the safe harbour that I had provided him with, I suspected that I would never be able to pay him back for all of the blessings that he had bestowed upon me.

Well, that was what I had been thinking for years, but there had been developments of late and now, I had to admit that I might be able to start repaying my debt to him after all. First, with the treasure that we’d discovered and then, well… my cheeks heated when I spotted The Iana, and then the man standing at the helm of her, blowing me kisses from the deck, and just like that, I went from being delicately offended by the manuscript in my hands to excited. So excited that everything inside my lower stomach suddenly felt warm and gooey.

But despite how beautiful he looked, even from fifty metres away, and despite how my nerve endings had sung the moment that I’d learned of his arrival... the idea of those massive hands clamping tightly around me froze my blood into ice in my veins as soon as I had imagined it. Excitement was replaced by dread and the notion that I couldn’t breathe properly and suddenly, all I could think about was how big Cairo was- how strong he was, and how those massive hands could crush me if I failed to keep up my end of our bargain!

And just like that, I became terrified of the man that kept me safe- the man that I was indebted to once again, due to a bargain that I had made in a moment of desperation. What if I had fallen for someone else, despite the fact that I’d sworn not to? What would he do to me? What could he still do, if he decided that he couldn’t wait another minute longer to find out if we connected as well physically as we had as friends?

The air was always thinner up there when I was flying but suddenly, I couldn’t drag in a breath at all, and my eyes stung with tears that had nothing to do with Cairo, and everything to do with my past. The man, though kind and exciting and generous, was too big and too passionate, the manuscript in my hands was too heavy, I was dirty and damaged and he deserved better than me, and as soon as I remembered that, and as soon as I’d launched myself off the ground, I coiled my body and then turned away from the incoming ship, heading straight back to the castle- to my tower of moss and ruins that I was free to leave whenever I wanted to- but imprisoned within all the same.

*

My ill-feelings, though strong, were only a product of my imagination and rarely lasted very long, so I’d only been back in my private chamber for a few minutes before my breathing evened out and my incendiary panic subsided. I paced the grassy strip at the eastern edge of the top floor, wringing my hands if only to smother the last of my nervous flames, while I muttered to myself about snapping out of it. I didn’t know how much of myself I could offer Cairo this time again, but I knew that he didn’t deserve to find me in this state.

We almost kissed last time… I thought, touching my cheek as I remembered how he’d kissed both of them during our last farewell, but instead of kissing my real cheeks, his lips had glanced off the smile lines on either side of my mouth, teasing me. I’d locked up when he’d done it, terrified that he was going to press his mouth to mine, but since he’d left, I’d often thought of how good it would have felt to turn my face just slightly to the side, offering my lips willingly, instead of fearing that he would clamp his own around them. Would I be able to do it this time? Would he give me the opportunity to, or had I scared him off by stiffening so?

And why was I obsessing more about what displays of affection he would offer me, when what I ought to be thinking about was what news he would bring? I was a queen, for heaven’s sake, not a swooning moron! I ought to be thinking about how his return would affect our lives in the village, not my heartbeat! Had he gotten us any more sheep? What of the books I’d asked for about practicing medicine?

My chamber was technically half of the entire upper floor, only Satan had only restored one side of it to its former glory (apparently, a massive Château had stood here in the time before, and she’d merely recreated then exaggerated its structure to make it more palace-like) so the only enclosed part was the southern corner, which was a tower that she had converted into a bedroom with a private washroom for me. It had an arched door that led out onto the rooftop, but I rarely closed my heavy wooden door or the windows, because the exterior of that bedroom was where I spent most of my time.

Sam called it my landing strip, because I’d used the long, narrow path along the top as a launch-pad for my earlier flying lessons, but it was really just a long, narrow terrace that stretched from one end of the palace to the other, allowing me to remain elevated above people and isolated when required- keeping my claustrophobia at bay- but without actually cutting me off from the outside world. Some of the crumbling, grey brick façade was still standing and there was enough of it left to serve as a perimeter wall, and that kept my klutzier, non-winged friends safe when they visited me, but it was mostly open to the elements and covered with soil, thick, lush grass, crawling vines and flowerbeds in the warmer months- and snow in the winter. As a result, my room was draughtier and a bit less sparkling than the rest of the palace because my grey-brick walls were bare, but I had a giant fireplace in there to keep me warm, and even though two years had passed, I’d yet to be overcome by the urge to move into the main section of the palace where the rooms were twice as large, twice as warm and much more luxurious.

Martya, Bastien and sixty percent of our population still lived in and loved those rooms, which were rather spectacular, but I was obviously not the only one that craved a haven of my own, because we’d built seventeen little cottages along the lakeside the summer before, and now had a list of requests from fourteen other people that were eager to procure a home of their own. Most of those requests came from families, or would-be families, but some came from individuals that had confessed to me that they were still struggling to adjust to being part of such a tight community, and needed room to breathe- including Sam, whose cottage I visited on a semi-daily basis.

Not me though- I was happy exactly where I was, and would continue to be content with my lot so long as half of my lot was open to the sky. In fact the only thing that bugged me about my room at all was the fact that the furniture didn’t sit flush against the rounded walls.

I should have Satan make me some curved furniture, I thought as I passed my bedroom door, but I immediately grimaced. Surely such thoughts were a sign that I was going mad!

I could have spent hours pacing the terrace and willing myself to calm down, but I heard a shout and twisted around to see that the guards that we kept at the true city grates were waving to people that were obviously rounding the riverbank, and that snapped me out of my shock. I didn’t know how I wanted to greet Cairo, but I did know that I didn’t want him seeing me like that- flushed, my hair lazily knotted and my hands and apron covered with soot- so I ducked through my tower door and made a beeline for my tiny washroom and began stripping off my clothes as I ran the water that we were pumping out of the river. Thank goodness he’d arrived in the middle of the day, when our solar heating system was at its strongest and the least in demand, because I needed a hard, hot shower desperately, especially after trying my hand at soldering again.

I couldn’t help it though- everybody in the kingdom had to be prepared to lend a hand when one was required, and I’d made it clear from day one that no one would be excluded from grunt work- not even their precious queen. And though I enjoyed my copy-editing job most of the time because I still loved reading, I had to admit that I enjoyed working outside almost as much now. Not just because hard work was cathartic, but because I felt so much more included when I did. Not like a monarch, and not like a delicate woman- but like an equal.

I could have stayed under that hot water forever, allowing it wash my anxiety out of my muscles, but I’d been looking forward to Cairo’s return all winter and couldn’t bear the thought of wasting a second in his company preparing for him rather than enjoying him, so I made quick work of lathering myself up with my favourite orange blossom soap, and then rinsing it off and rushing back into my bed chamber so that I could rifle through my free-standing wardrobe- which looked somewhat different to how it had five minutes ago. I stiffened after I opened one of the doors to see that my clothes were sitting at a strange angle, then my mouth dropped open when I realised that the inside of the cupboard was now crescent-shaped and that the outside of it was pale grey timber instead of the brown it had been before.

Huh?!

I spun around and gasped to see that while I’d been in the shower, all of the furniture that I’d had for two years had been switched out with matching grey pieces that were just curved enough to fit my walls, including my bed, which was now twice as large, circular, and boasting four poles that connected to a canopy! That canopy was draped with gathered, periwinkle silk that matched my new drapes and grey timber poles that had vines crawling up them that exploded with tiny jasmine blossoms, filling the room with their fragrant aroma. The change was so striking that I couldn’t believe I’d made it this far across my room without noticing that it had been turned into a garden of white, lavender and grey! Everything had been dark timber and a deep violet before!

‘What in the…?’ I began, and then rolled my eyes and closed my cupboard mirror again, smirking when I saw Satan reflected in there, beaming at me. I groaned and pressed my fingers to my forehead. ‘I used your name in conjunction with my furniture woes, didn’t I?’

Satan mimed slapping her elbows like a genie, punctuating it with a salacious wink. ‘Ask you shall receive, baby doll, and I love it when you ask for something fun!’ She bit her lip, and I saw immediately how transparent she was- weakened already from the renovating. ‘I was going to give you some wallpaper too, but I ran out of steam. Methinks I need a few more weeks rest before I have another crack at giving you a room that’s befitting for a queen!’

I snorted. ‘I think you’ve done enough for now. Honestly… I looked around the room again and chuckled to see that there were now small chandeliers hanging from my ceiling that were wrapped up in vines, and a thick green fur rug on my floor that resembled a patch of wild grasses. Where did she dream this stuff up? ‘You’re too much.’

‘One of these days you’re just going to say ‘Thank you,’ when I do you a good turn, aren’t you?’ my mother asked, pouting a little.

‘As soon as I know that there’s not a giant IOU list accruing because I didn’t read the fine print in the furniture catalogue,’ I confirmed, and she rolled her eyes.

‘Some days, I can’t even believe that you’re my daughter.’

‘Those are probably the days when I piss off people the least,’ I joked, and then opened the door again. ‘Thank you, now leave me alone! I have-’

‘Pirates to fawn all over?’ I heard her tease, but the end of that sentence was so faded that I knew that she was already gone. Shaking my head, I went back to clothes-hunting, hoping that I really wasn’t racking up a cosmic debt with all of the ways that she’d helped me!

I should have asked what she did with the rest of my furniture, I mused. Someone else could have really used it.

Someone’s bound to pick it up outside! Satan chirped in response, and I went to the window, looked out of it and laughed, shaking my head to see that she’d deposited all of it on the castle’s lawn.

Oh well, waste not, want not.

25.

Eden Castle, City Of Arcadia

Kohén Barachiel

‘He speaks the truth, Karol,’ Amelia-Rose suddenly piped up, practically beaming at me now, trading her devout expression for a warm one like she was switching hats instead of personas, ‘and I think that’s plain to see. You knew that enlisting him in the army would be the best way to rehabilitate him and you were right, so stop trying to look for evidence that the devil retains her hold on him, and marvel in how clever you were to think of a way to get him out of her grasp, and of how glorious God’s light is now that it’s shining upon him again!’ the girl sashayed over to the throne and squeezing the king’s shoulders supportively, and much too intimately. He stiffened under her touch, but everyone in the room relaxed to see such a display of affection. ‘These are glad tidings, indeed, aren’t they father?’

Shepherd Choir stepped forward, smile as warm and lucid as always. ‘They are my child, they are. Pray, you read the second message quickly, King Karol. Your brother has travelled quite a distance from St Miguel and is probably eagerly looking forward to a hot shower, a fine, home-cooked meal and a night in his own bed-’

‘Actually, Shepherd Choir, though I thank you for thinking of me, I have decided to spend my furlough in the barracks rather than in Eden,’ I said quickly, and everyone turned back to gape at me again- everyone except Karol who was already unfurling the second scroll while wearing a practiced expression of indifference.

‘Again?’ Amelia-Rose looked up, crestfallen. ‘But you stayed there during your last two trips: first because you suspected that you were sick and again because you claimed to have a lot of training to do... What excuse could you have for denying yourself your right to sleep in your own bed this time?’

I looked at Karol, saw the twitch in his jaw and took it as a cue to proceed. ‘Perhaps it is the amnesia to blame, but the barracks feel more like home to me than the palace does because I have spent more time there. In addition to that, I still feel undeserving of all of the luxuries that this palace has to offer, and because so many of my comrades are from overseas and have no home to return to here, it only seems fair that I stay with them during the break, especially now that Guardian Forsyth is pre-occupied with family matters.’

‘How noble of you, son,’ Shepherd Choir said, but his smile was still fragile.

‘It’s not noble, it’s just.’ I cleared my throat. ‘I still refute the ugliest claims against my nature that were made as far as the indentured dark Nephilim was concerned, and my twin assures me that most of them were vile rumours... but it is obvious to me that my spoiled fixation with a dark angel put a lot of lives in danger. So, I will live as a member of the Corps for as long as it takes for my king, and the public that got caught in the crossfire of my enthralment to decide that I have atoned for my sins.’

Amelia-Rose pouted and turned to look at her father, clearly about to beg him to change my mind, but Karol groaned gently then and so luckily, all eyes turned to him before Amelia-Rose could get her way. I knew what he’d just read, and Malry had warned me that he was likely to lose his temper over the news, but I didn’t dread his imminent explosion because for once, I wasn’t the one responsible for his woes.

‘Everybody leave the throne room, please- I have confidential military matters to discuss with Guardian Barachiel only. Matters regarding the co-ordinates of certain enemies, you understand...’ the king announced then, and without so much as squeaking in protest or muttering in disappointment, the room emptied. I turned around to look at Saul-Yin, nodded to her to excuse herself and with a sigh of relief, she turned and slunk back out into the foyer/courtyard, moving as lightly and lithely as a cat and making me wish that I could leave with her. Not that she’d actually abandon me there- odds were that she was just going to wait outside with Theodore now, like the loyal friend that she was.

Amelia-Rose watched my friend go with a guarded expression as she attempted to wriggle into a sitting position on the armrest of the golden throne, but Karol shot her a loaded look and after expelling a sigh, she curtsied and headed off down the steps as well, looking sorry for herself. However, when she tried to take her father’s arm on her way out, Karol held up his hand and beckoned him closer.

‘I’ll have you stay, Shep,’ he said tightly. ‘Not only to disarm gossips about what is about to be discussed later, but for counsel.’

‘Of course, son,’ the shepherd said, including me on his warm but sad smile. I knew that he saw the rift between us and hated it, but I also knew that he distrusted me almost as much as Karol did. Apparently he was opposed to the Companion caste as half of the kingdom was, only he despised it for what it did to the girls and not for the way it ‘corrupted’ men like me. The corruption, he believed, was our doing, and I didn’t disagree with him. My shrieking hormones were barely tolerable, but if I had managed it for two years, who was to say that I couldn’t do it for a decade?

Who was to say that Companions were needed at all, least of all by direct descendants of God?

‘This report is from General Alvarez?’ Karol asked as soon as the door had closed behind Amelia-Rose, sitting up and looking up at me as he leaned more over the scroll.

I nodded. ‘Yes, your highness.’

‘How old is it?’

‘I picked it up from Rachiel just yesterday.’

‘Good.’ Karol rubbed his forehead. ‘It says here that a small settlement of Godless people has been spotted living in the north, and that they appeared to have quite an established village there… but it does not go into much detail about the settlement at all. How is that possible? It’s protocol to collect as much information on enemy camps as possible.’

‘Because it was spotted from the air, Sire, by one of Tariel’s pilots on a test flight and their protocol on such missions differs from ours.’

Karol looked up at me, eyebrows hoisted. ‘Can you or anyone else tell me more than what has been notated here?’

‘A little. I spoke to the man that spoke to the pilot mentioned in the report when I was stationed in St Miguel,’ I said quickly, and Karol’s eyes narrowed, signalling that I had his interest. ‘But I’m afraid that there is not a lot more to say than what made it into the report. It was their first test-flight at such a high altitude, and it did not go well. They barely made it over The Sleeping Giant’s ranges before they started to run low on fuel, and the cloud cover over most of the land was as dense from above as it always appears to be from the coast.’

‘But he spotted evidence of people living up there somehow?’ He frowned back down at the correspondence. ‘And buildings?’

‘Through the fog and snow,’ I confirmed. ‘The pilot cannot be sure if the buildings that he sighted have been constructed in recent years or if they are simply ruins from the time before, because the entire area was covered with ice-’

‘They have to be ruins,’ Karol said quickly, and I nodded in agreement.

‘I concur. But apparently the pilot saw enough signs of life down there to indicate that they are being used for shelter regardless, so they must be in better condition that most of the other ruins that we’ve come across... and he concluded that the people inhabiting the area obviously intended to stick around for awhile. He spotted fires, some livestock, and what appeared to be areas that had been cleared for either planting, or grazing.’ I nodded towards the paper. ‘He could not even begin to estimate how many people were down there because they looked like blurry ants to him, but he thinks that there were definitely more than twenty of them, at least-’

‘Which makes them a colony. An outlaw colony, on Callielian soil.’ The king leaned forward, incensed, and I drew back, startled. ‘How did this happen?’ he demanded, as though it were my doing. ‘I’ve spent thousands of dollars trying to scrape similar camps off the northern coast of Janiel like the barnacles they are, only to learn that I have one setting up next door to us since…’ he squinted down at the paper. ‘When was this sighted again?’

‘Back in February,’ I said quickly. ‘The pilot would have mentioned it sooner, but his plane had to make an emergency landing in Yael on its way back to Tariel, and he was stuck there for months while it underwent repairs. Then, after he learned of how many colonies have set themselves up on the islands off the coast of Yael, he decided that the one in the north couldn’t possibly cause us much trouble, given how tiny it was in comparison to the southern ones.’

‘I don’t care how big it is,’ the king grumbled, staring wrathfully down at the paper. ‘I’ve spent a lot of time and money working to chase the Godless out of our waters- and I didn’t do that so that they could wash up onto our shores and establish colonies on our damned land instead!’

‘Well, technically it’s not sovereign land is it? So it’s not like they’ve breeched your borders or defences, your highness,’ Shepherd Choir said quickly. ‘Besides, I’ve been traveling the world for most of my life and I can tell you, those tiny, isolated colonies tend to get attacked by others like them, or wiped out by a pandemic by the time they’ve managed to grow a crop of lettuce. More often than not, they’re nomadic tribes trying to survive after a shipwreck, and if it’s that small, I doubt they survived the tail-end of the winter, given how brutal the last two winters have been.’

Karol glanced up at him. ‘You think?’

‘It’s a wasteland up there, your highness. It’s one thing for these pirate colonies to thrive in tropical locales… but north of here?’ He shuddered. ‘I doubt that they want to be there any more than you want them to be there, trust me, and if they’ve survived this long, it would be a miracle.’

‘That is true…’ Karol sighed and rolled up the paper. ‘Still, I don’t like the idea of a colony of godless setting up anywhere near to us- it makes us look weak, especially considering the fact that they’ve managed to find a way onto a portion of land that we’ve failed to penetrate at all.’ He signalled me forward. ‘I need to send an expedition into the north to find them. One by ship when one is available, I think, as this mentions that the colony was settled close to the coast, and one by land. They need to be located, assessed and then dealt with accordingly.’

‘Dealt with?’ I asked, raising an eyebrow.

‘Captured, or exterminated, depending on how hard they resist arrest,’ Karol said quickly, like it was so obvious. ‘If I send word to General Alvarez to get the second division headed for the northern lands by the end of the week, can I trust that you will deliver it for me? I know you’re about to go on furlough, but you still have one day of service left, don’t you? That’s more than enough time for you to ride a message to him in Rachiel.’

‘The second division is already on furlough, sire,’ I said quickly, my backside aching at the idea of riding to Arcadia’s new military headquarters and back in under twenty-four hours after just having come from there. ‘They contracted a few cases of a mild pox virus off the coast of Janiel and are being quarantined for the next two weeks. Then, even after they’ve healed, they’re entitled to take their actual month’s rest, which is why the third division’s furlough has been moved forward, so that we can cover them when they’re on leave.’ I pointed to the scroll. ‘It’s all in the report.’

‘And the first division is in St Miguel now aren’t they? Taking over with the disaster clean up where your own troupe left off?’

I nodded. ‘They won’t get back for at least two weeks, even if they leave at once because the earthquake damaged the railway line.’

‘I couldn’t move them anyway, the people of St Miguel need all of the help they can get and we need the train back up and running. Damn it. Earthquakes, pox plagues... what’s next- a reprise of the locust song?’ Karol sagged back into his chair again, studying me carefully. ‘Well then, oh brave Guardian of the Third Division, I suppose this mission falls to you and yours now, doesn’t it?’

‘What?’ I asked sharply. ‘Why?’

‘Well you’re all healthy and well in the third, and I can’t very well take one of the foreign squadrons that are defending Janiel and Asiana’s borders without all hell breaking lose, can I? So yes, I need you and your men to handle this situation as soon as possible.’

I felt my blood heat. ‘You want to deny my soldiers their break and send them into the Wildwoods instead to tackle twenty vagrants on the off chance that they’re not already dead?’ Translation: You want me to get eaten by a Salt and Pepper Bear, don’t you? You wouldn’t ask the first division anyway, because their rich parents would raise a rebellion!

‘It’s the spring, so there’s no better time to send anyone north than now, is there? Besides, you seem rather determined to prove yourself worthy of my respect, so how could you pass up such an opportunity to earn it?’

I glowered at him because earning his respect was not only impossible, but the least of my concerns. ‘If it was just my welfare at stake I wouldn’t pass over an opportunity to make sure that the people in this kingdom sleep soundly at night... but it’s not. The guards in my squadron have been working their asses off in St Miguel for weeks, and all over the country for months before that and they’re entitled to a reconnaissance. And even if I could deprive them of that right, what point is there of trying to get to the north from here? It’s impossible, isn’t it?’

‘Obviously not as impossible as we thought if a wrecked ship can manage to crash there and survive after. Besides, you’re a tenacious little thing- if anyone could find a path north, then I don’t doubt that it would be you. In fact, you used to daydream about doing exactly that.’ He smirked at me, leaning back into his throne. ‘Come on, little brother, where has that heroic, pioneering spirit of yours gone?’

‘How should I know that I ever had such spirits?’ I asked testily, ‘When you tell me only that I was a sleaze and a coward?’

‘You were more than that before you got your little prick wet. In fact, you and that creature talked about exploring the world in search of places to plant cotton and pineapples incessantly.’

I swallowed hard, for it was not often that Karol spoke of the old me without scowling, and I was anxious to find some sort of connection between who I was now, and who I had been before I’d gone off the rails. ‘Really?’

Karol nodded. ‘The Barachiel’s have always suffered wanderlust- ever since Miguel first flew out of paradise, and settled in the place that came to be known as California. Truth be told, I wouldn’t mind doing a little exploring myself, but the tracking device that we’ve got on the fugitive has been transmitting a near constant signal from the coast between here and St Miguel for almost a week, so I was just about to write General Alvarez a letter asking him to head up an expedition to the south before you walked in with your dispatches. Obviously, I can’t go anywhere until the matter has been investigated, and I have no regent to leave here to act in my stead...’

My eyebrows shot up and a spark cracked against my palm hard enough to sting. ‘You think you’ve got her?’

‘Finding her and trapping her are two very different things. Yes, it seems that she’s growing comfortable with visiting this one particular spot, so my chances of trapping her are high if I get the First Division to meet me there and help me to set a net... but no, I won’t have her until her wings have been clipped.’ He smiled cruelly. ‘Or ripped off; whatever’s easier.’

I winced to here such sadistic words to pass over such pious lips and beside him, I saw Shepherd Choir do the same. ‘Your highness…’ my voice faltered as his eyes flashed brightly. ‘I know that you despise her, and I know that you once considered her to be a threat to national security… but is this hunt for her still warranted? I mean, she’s stayed away for two years now giving us the chance to heal and rebuild, so why are you still so convinced that she craves hurting us more than she craves her freedom?’

‘I don’t know what she wants, Kohén, but she doesn’t deserve to exact vengeance or to enjoy her freedom,’ Karol practically growled, and I was very glad that his power was a healing one, because if he’d had mine, I didn’t doubt that he would have pierced me through the heart with a lightning strike just then. ‘She killed the King of the free world and has given the Banished hope that God’s kingdoms can be overrun and she will pay for that. Perhaps you do not remember the family that she destroyed enough to revere it or seek justice for it, but I do, and I will see this matter through until at least one of us is dead, understood?’

‘And if it’s your death that comes first?’ I asked quietly, letting my eyes drift from his hollow cheekbones, to his trembling hands. ‘I can’t be the first person to tell you that you look dreadful, can I? Or to draw your attention to the fact that your fixation with her is making you miserable, and if that you do not snap out of it soon, misery might be all that you’ll ever know again? Is that not handing her yet another triumph over our family on a golden platter? Why do that, when you could opt for happiness instead- when you could opt to survive her?’

He slitted his eyes at me. ‘No, you’re not the first one to point out such things to me, but you’re the first to say it who just happens to be as responsible for my misery as she was so that’s an unpleasant twist that makes me want to take you by the throat and shake you for being so-’

‘I don’t know how many more times I can apologize to you Karol!’ I exploded, losing my temper at last. ‘But I have been told enough about what happened back then to understand that you were almost as under her spell as I was, so how can you blame me for cushioning your fall into her trap? How can you inflict so much ‘justice’ upon me, but be left with so much to spare her?’ I shook my head. ‘At least people assure me that I was well and truly in love with the girl, that I desired to make all of her dreams come true and that I was willing to sacrifice everything to make it so. But you- you fucked up for want of one moment’s gratification with a girl fourteen years your junior! So why aren’t you punishing yourself? Or is that what you’re doing, by allowing yourself to deteriorate so?’

‘Prince Kohén-’

‘It is Guardian Kohén, for I am prince of nothing, and I will not be silenced!’ I snapped at Shepherd Choir without taking my eyes off my eldest brother. He’d lusted after Larkin Whittaker to his own detriment too, so how dare he act like he was superior to me in any way but by title? Hell, Kohl had confessed to me that Karol had even penned Larkin a letter, offering to release her if only she’d come to him first, so what made him the martyr in this fucked up situation when apparently, that letter had been what had caused me to fly off into a jealous rage in the first place that fateful night? ‘They say the pen is mightier than the sword but in this hell hole, the cock makes more decisions than both those and the sceptre combined, and I will not stand here and be blamed wholly for the fact that the Companion system failed the monarchs that enforced it and the poor girls that were sucked into it! Especially not by a man that apparently didn’t have enough Companions of his own, so he sought to use and discard one of his little brother’s underage-’

‘You are GOING into the Wildwoods and I don’t give a fuck if you come back or not, you ungrateful, thoughtless little cretin!’ the king roared, looming over me, but I did not back away because I did not fear him, at least not physically.

‘Tell me something I don’t already know!’ I snapped, pushing him back on to his throne, and because he was so weak, he feel easily. ‘And I’ll tell you something that you don’t know: you cannot, not even by royal decree, force my soldiers to undertake a mission such as this while they are entitled to time off! I will go, because like fuck I want to sit around here and rot like you have, and because I’m certain that a feral wolf will have a better disposition than you do... but if you expect me to take anyone with me, you’re going to pay for it, your highness, in the form of overtime, which will start the day after tomorrow, and continue on until we have returned and have been dismissed, with a guarantee that every cent we earn will be forwarded onto our dependents, along with a pension, should anything happen to any of us!’ I stepped back again, balling my fists around my electric rage, ‘On top of that, know that I will only be taking those that volunteer to go, got it? And that I will reserve the right to deny anyone to partake in this quest of yours if I do not deem them to be physically capable of it. And because sending us into The Wildwoods is as good as a death sentence, I demand all of the guns, swords and food that we can carry in order to protect ourselves with, and if it proves to be impossible to find a passage through The Wildwoods to this alleged colony, we will be pardoned from the mission and you’ll just have to find some other way to accidentally get me killed that doesn’t put a whole bunch of soldiers in jeopardy at my side, understood?’

Karol surprised me then by crackling out a laugh. ‘That’s the first time you’ve straightened your royal spine to me since you lost your mind, Kohén Barachiel… and it’s impressive.’ He leaned back in his chair, quite at his leisure, and stroked his beard thoughtfully. ‘If only you’d taken such a tone with your whore- you might have brought her to a heel before she could slaughter our father.’

‘And maybe if you and our father hadn’t been so obsessed with making a woman heel, you wouldn’t have provoked someone to slaughter him in the first place!’ I snapped, stepping back again, and my brother’s eyes hardened like emeralds hidden in murky caves.

‘I agree to your terms, Guardian Barachiel,’ the king said evenly, turning back to his scroll and flicking his hand back at me. ‘But I will not suffer your tone. Report yourself to my guards, or allow them to hunt you down, I don’t care- but you will be whipped for your insubordination this day.’

The Shepherd blanched as I’m sure I did. ‘Karol-’

‘It is Your Highness, Shepherd Choir and I am not being unreasonable so don’t start with me. It is my duty to keep my people under control, and screaming in the King’s face is as good at screaming at God, so the Guardian will receive ten lashings for his lack of decorum and if I am pushed on the matter, I will extend it to twenty.’

The shepherd grimaced and my blood rushed to my head, but I would not give my brother the satisfaction of seeing my fear, so I balled my fists and asked tersely. ‘Will I be tended to by one of the palace healers after, your highness? I can’t very well be expected to lead men anywhere after suffering ten lashes, can I?’

Karol did not look at me. ‘You just lashed out at me as best you know how, and now you expect my sympathy, or for me to use my healing ability on you?’

I snorted, looked at the Shepherds anguished, conflicted expression and then began to retreat. ‘No, I wouldn’t expect that, your highness. That would be something that an older brother would do- not a heartless king, and it’s pretty clear which of the two you have decided to be.’

And with that I turned and strode towards the guards that were positioned on either side of the door. I did not look back to see if Karol’s eyes were on me or not, but I felt them, and they burned more than the crack of a whip against my skin ever could.

*

I was taken to the construction site of the harem for the lashings, and something told me that I was the first to receive a royal punishment there. The Blue Collar workers were dismissed for a lunch break while I was seen to, meaning that there was no one but my guards present to witness my pain and humiliation- no one but Amelia-Rose and Saul-Yin, who both found excuses to slip in: Amelia-Rose to read off my official ‘sentence’ and to pray for my soul, and Saul-Yin as my support person- the one that would help me back to my bed in the barracks after.

Saul-Yin’s dark eyes stared daggers at the King’s Guard as he strapped my wrists to the posts with leather. ‘How can you do this?’ she demanded quietly, gripping her leather water bag tightly. ‘How can you take home your wages at the end of the week, knowing that they were earned with bloodshed? Knowing that you split the skin of someone that has done nothing to you?’

The guard was a handsome man in his late thirties, but his expression was so hard that it did not flinch. ‘I usually despise this job, and I go home every day that I’ve administered lashings, sick to my Goddamn stomach…’ he didn’t look at me as he tightened a knot harder than necessary. ‘But I must admit, I expect to take some pleasure out of administering these particular lashings today, Guard.’

I glanced at his profile. ‘Because of what I did to earn them today?’ I asked, my mouth dry. ‘Or because of whatever it is that you think I did two years ago?’

‘Because of what I know you did to our little swan,’ the guard moved onto my other wrist, still not looking at me. ‘And because my family and I are being held here as hostages until she is found, punished for the simple fact that she loved us, and because we loved her.’

‘You are being punished for more than that, Coaxley,’ Amelia-Rose snapped then, coming over and shooting me a reassuring look when she saw the horror written all over my face. ‘You are being punished for the fact that you tried to smuggle a third-born child out of the country.’

‘A crime that Karol was more than happy to look the other way on, when he was a prince that had something to gain from it- a crime that the old king pardoned, and that the new king tore up!’ The guard looked at me finally, and his pale blue eyes were devoid of empathy. ‘I didn’t smuggle a child out of the country- your brother helped smuggle my pregnant wife out so the child could be legally born in a country with more lenient laws at Larkin’s behest. He traded the right to punish us for breaking a law for that Locust Panacea and a promise that Larkin would come to him when she was freed... but when she was forced to flee this place in order to escape your clutches, he took it all back!’

‘What?’ I asked, flabbergasted.

‘You heard me. King Karol initially invited us here to celebrate her liberation because we were the only loved ones that she had… but then when things went sour for him, he kept us here as hostages after you deprived her of her liberty: five lives for one. For two years I have been atoning for my own sins by whipping other men that have fathered third-born children and have been brave enough to try and get their families out of here and counting down the minutes until my youngest daughter turns five and is taken from me, so believe me when I say that the only thing that I hate about today is the fact that I only get to whip you, and not the king as well!’

‘A King’s Guard should not admit to wishing ill upon his king unless he is willing to suffer the-’

‘The king knows that I would kill him where he stands if granted the opportunity, Miss Choir,’ the guard said tiredly. ‘I have screamed it at him more times than I can count. But he knows that I will not follow through on my threats so long as my wife and children live and prosper so he keeps the leash that he has on me short, golden and unbreakable.’ He scowled at me. ‘Much like the one that you used on Larkin.’

I felt like I was going to be sick, and Saul-Yin’s face was grey. I hated the way she looked at me then- like I was a monster. ‘She was a dark Nephilim…’ I managed to stutter out. ‘She had wings, they say- onyx ones.’

‘That doesn’t change the fact that she had a heart of gold, Guardian Barachiel, and that despite everything that you have heard she did behind your back- she loved you every day of your over-indulged life.’ He tightened the final knot and stepped back, dragging his eyes off me and casting them towards his whip. ‘As all of your people once did- myself included.’

My testicles tightened at the sight of the cat o’ nine, but my heart seized up at the guard’s tone. ‘You and I knew each other well?’

‘I used to stab imaginary monsters in your robe at night in order to give you the peace of mind to sleep,’ his jaw flexed. ‘God help me, I never imagined that you would become one of them.’

My eyes burned, and I wondered if this was the guard that I could remember from my early childhood. A handsome guard that had given me piggy back rides as his pleasantly plump wife had looked on. ‘I’m sorry…’ I managed through my tightening throat. ‘I don’t remember.’

‘I know,’ the guard walked behind me, so that I could not see him, and a chill ran down my spine. ‘And I’m glad for that because you don’t deserve memories of any of us- especially her.’

‘As soon as she returns, you’ll be free, Guardian, and she will suffer her own punishments,’ Amelia-Rose said primly. ‘Then perhaps you’ll realise how generous the king has been to keep you close by and inside God’s grandest palace, instead of subjecting you and your wife to a whipping as well!’

‘I hope she never returns,’ Coaxley said coldly, not looking at Amelia-Rose. ‘Unless, of course, it’s to raze this grand palace to the ground!’

And then the whip cracked, and I was in such a state of guilt that I didn’t feel the first.

But by God, I felt the next to the last, and what was worse was that I knew that I deserved to.

26.

Libertie City, Raphael

Larkin Aztaroth

I had a lot more clothes than I had the right to own, thanks to my darling mother, who’d made a habit of materialising in front of my closet while I was out and stuffing it with the kind of garments that I was supposedly expected to wear as a monarch- just as she had just traded up my furniture- but I opted for a pale lilac sheath dress that had been hand-stitched by our kingdom’s most talented seamstress Riesling, instead. The clothes that Satan had created for me were lovely, but every outfit had an agenda of its own (or rather, hers) and I was in an indefinable mood, so I wanted something that would not make a declaration about my state of mind without my permission. The sweet dress was pretty enough to communicate the fact that I was going to some effort, but not so dressy that it would be obvious that I was going to too much effort, and that seemed exactly right.

Besides, I thought, as I wriggled into a delicate, short pair of bloomers (no skimpy panties for me, I took off in flight too often!) and a matching balconette bra, Cairo likes me in lavender...

The dress had a plain A-line shape, with spaghetti straps and a simple bodice that showed the fullness of my bust without an excess of cleavage, a sash around the waist that allowed me to cinch it in, and lots of thin, almost transparent layers of soft lilac chiffon that fell in a swishy, handkerchief hemline around my knees and thighs. It was a delicate, girly garment, but it was soft, comfortable and very ‘spring’ and as soon as I felt those skirts swish around me, I knew that I wouldn’t have chosen differently even if I’d had a week to prepare- as I’d originally hoped to have.

Once I had it on, I slapped my silver cuff back over my shoulder to cover my brand, stepped back into my favourite ballet flats, and then began to run my heated hands through my hair, drying it with warm fingers and detangling it as I went. Cairo had brought me several pairs of fancier shoes back from his excursions, and Satan had included a different pair for every outfit that she’d given me, but I found it hard to maintain balance around Cairo as it was, without adding high heels into the mix! Besides, heels were harder for me to land in than they were to dance in!

Oh! I snapped upright and moved towards my countertop, fumbling around for my tiny pot of lip gloss with one hand while the other continued to work through my half-damp mane. Cairo’s birthday is next week, and I was going to throw him a surprise ball! But how can I make it a surprise if he’s-

I heard Inoborna howl then, and my knees went weak. The pot of lip gloss clattered to the bottom of my sink after I’d dabbed it on only the lower one, but I rubbed my lips together as I turned and rushed back to my bedroom window, half-kneeling on the manuscript on my bed as I leaned over my iron bed head and scanned the promenade. I saw my wolf loping along the cobbled road in front of the carts that had been loaded up in the harbour, and although my jaw dropped to see how many packages the Pirate Captain had brought us this time, (one was full of just banana trees!) my heart seized up when I realised that I couldn’t see the Pirate Captain himself. I recognised most of his crew, who were riding in on the carts or walking alongside them and beaming while they returned the waves of the townspeople that had come out to greet them as exuberantly as always, but none of the men were tall enough, broad enough or golden enough to be Cairo, and I started to fret that I’d offended him so much by turning tail instead of flying down to greet him, that he’d decided to stay on the ship and stew for awhile.

I have to go find him, and apologize! I decided immediately scooting back from the headboard and sending a handful of pages fluttering to the floor. I’ll just say that I looked a fright and-

‘You can’t just burst into her room!’ I heard Sam snap then, accompanied by the sounds of footsteps skidding on stone, and I whipped around just in time for the door to do exactly that: burst open so that two tall figures could barrel through. Cairo was panting after having run up the stairs and his arms were full of parcels wrapped in brown paper that were falling everywhere, and Sam was red-faced for having chased him and because he was clearly ticked off.

He’s not hiding from me! Joy bubbled up inside me, as warm and cathartic as immersing oneself in the hot springs was. He raced up five flights of steps to see me again!

Cairo was at least twice the other man’s width, but Sam snatched a fistful of the pirate captain’s cloak and used it to reel him back, eyes bright with indignation, and Cairo could not fight back without dropping what I assumed were his gifts for me so he allowed it. ‘You know how much she values her privacy, Kingslater! So if you value your neck at all, get back down to the throne room so that she can receive you accordingly!’

‘Who made you her private guard?’ Cairo demanded, trying to duck under Sam’s arm now that the smaller man had dragged him back onto the landing and was attempting to barricade the door with his outstretched limbs. The pirate could have easily barged through, of course, but fortunately for Sam, he’d retained enough of his senses to behave civilly. ‘I am well by the way. Thanks for asking- it is nice to see you again too, McIntyre.’

‘It’ll be nicer to see you in the throne room-’

‘I’ll receive him here!’ I cried then, and both men froze and twisted to look at me as I hobbled off the bed, straightening my skirts.

‘Your highness!’ Sam turned to face me as I smoothed my dress and attempted to pull myself together. He bowed slightly, and I almost rolled my eyes when Cairo moved to do the same thing. I spoke to Sam at least five times a day and I could not remember the last time he’d bowed to me, so what the heck was going on? ‘I’m sorry for the intrusion. Captain Kingslater was rather excited to see you but I know how you feel about-’

‘I thank you for trying to protect my personal boundaries, Sam, you should know that I value you both too much to expect one of you to serve me like a butler, or the other to observe formal customs when it comes to paying me a visit.’ I wanted to rush to Cairo and throw my arms around him, but it felt awkward with Sam there, so I clasped my hands together in front of me and squeezed them together as tightly as I longed to squeeze him as I ventured forward another step. ‘I thought it went without saying that you are both welcome to call on me informally, but for future references, consider it said. And on that note, I’ll have none of this your highness business either- from either of you.’

‘Thank you, Larkin,’ Sam said respectfully, standing taller as he moved away from Cairo, and when he looked around my room then, it occurred to me for the first time that he’d never actually been in there before, not since we’d first explored the Chateau together anyway. ‘This is nice…’ he moved over and stroked the edge of a curved roll top desk while Cairo put his packages down on my dresser, and I cringed when he looked sideways at me. ‘Where did you get curved furniture from, though? I don’t remember this room having more than a bed and a bureau when she first created it?’

I wrinkled up my face again, embarrassed by the fact that I’d been so spoiled, but grateful that he didn’t know just how recently I’d been spoiled. Luckily for me, Inoborna chose that moment to dart through the door and start circling my feet, so I reached over onto my bedside table and pulled out a strip of jerky, which gave me something to do with my hands. ‘Uh, it’s a long story…’

‘You mean: ‘Once Upon a Time there was Satan… The End?’ my friend asked, smirking, and I tittered nervously, glancing at Cairo, who had not taken his eyes off me yet.

‘Okay,’ I smiled as I rubbed the thick, luxe fur on the back of wolf’s neck, ‘not so long then.’

‘I thought so.’

Something about that moment was beyond awkward, and I kept looking from Cairo to Sam, waiting for one of them to say something, but Cairo was too busy staring at me, and Sam was still looking around like he was appraising the craftsmanship, which made me feel bad. He and I had spent a lot of time on the terrace, yes- we’d passed hours and hours away up there, talking, but he’d never actually crossed my threshold and only now that he and Cairo were both standing on either side of it, did I realise how odd that was. I’d never ruled that my private chamber was off limits to anybody, but Sam must have picked up on my need for a safe space out of my thoughts at some point, so although he was every bit as dear to me as Martya and Bastien were, he never called on me the way that they did.

I might have noticed that sooner, but Sam had moved into a small cottage on the outskirts of town over a year ago in order to distance himself from unguarded thoughts, so when we spent time together now, we tended to pre-arrange rendezvous points in the throne room, my terrace, the lakeshore or his house. I felt safe having him in my bedroom because he was ‘my’ Sam, but it seemed as though I’d neglected to say so and had inevitably put up a bit of a wall between us- a wall that he seemed pretty eager to keep Cairo on the other side of now as well, because while I’d been thinking about how awkward everything was, he and Cairo had locked gazes and were now engaged in a stare-off. I sighed, hating the fact that two of my favourite people had never found a way to get along.

But just when I thought I was going to have to clap my hands to snap them out of it, Inoborna went over and snuffed at Cairo’s boots, licking one in greeting before moving over to Sam for a head scratch, and as though the wolf’s acceptance of my guest had reassured Sam in some way, Sam blinked and said stiffly:

‘My apologies, Captain Kingslater,’ he patted the wolf’s snout and stood taller, while I thanked my furry friend for equalising the mood of the room. ‘Our kingdom is indeed indebted to you, so I hope you know that I meant no offence by following you up here.’

‘I know that you meant well and I am grateful to you for safeguarding her in my absence,’ Cairo straightened up and took a step towards me, his smoky eyes scorching trails over me before they burned into mine. ‘But I would very much like a moment alone with the queen now, if that’s all right with her, for I have matters to discuss with her that are explicitly confidential.’

I felt Sam’s eyes on me, but I couldn’t speak past the lump of anxiety in my throat or tear my eyes off Cairo, so I swallowed hard and nodded and with a sigh, Sam began to retreat- no mind-reading necessary- with Inoborna trailing behind. I often thought of Inoborna as being ‘my’ dog because he spent his winters curled up in my tower room with me, but the truth was that he belonged to nobody but himself, came and went where and when he pleased when weather permitted and never came when he was called. In fact, Lady Lucida always jokingly referred to the lone wolf as the palace’s cat, because it had the indifferent nature of one along with a penchant for all things comfortable.

‘I’ll wait downstairs,’ Sam agreed, his tone as chilled now as it had been panicked before, and I wondered how long it would take for him and Cairo both to realise that what had made their father’s dislike one another had nothing to do with either of them. ‘But I won’t go far, so if you need me …’

‘Thank you Sam,’ I managed, and it wasn’t until Cairo turned to close the door behind my friend that I broke into a hot sweat. Having Cairo in my bedroom was very different to having Sam in there, especially now that we were alone, but it was a privilege that he’d earned after two years of having conducted himself like a perfect gentleman in my company, so I refused to let the fact that he was closing the door cause a claustrophobic meltdown in my central nervous system. I was still anxious though, and because the moment to throw myself into his arms for a welcoming hug had already bypassed us, I wrung my hands instead, at a loss for anything else to do with them.

This is all wrong! I thought, as Cairo turned and leaned his weight against the door, eyeing me frankly while I twisted the amber ring on my finger that Sam had carved for me. I feared him being too forward, but at least I know how to handle him when he’s like that! This stiff and formal Cairo feels like a stranger!

‘I have to tell you something,’ he began, crossing his arms and appraising me openly instead of reaching for me as he usually did, and just like that, the fear that he would level me with his passion was replaced by the fear that he never would, and I found it hard to breathe, ‘about our arrangement, and about how circumstances have changed for me.’

‘Oh Heaven’s grief…’ I hugged myself, feeling my eyes sting with tears. ‘You’ve met someone else, haven’t you?’

Cairo frowned at me. ‘You jump to that conclusion so swiftly, your highness. Should I assume that you long for the day when I would make such a declaration?’

‘No!’ I exploded, and his eyebrows shot up. ‘I mean, no I don’t think… I just know that… you meet a lot of people.’ God damn it, I was shaking! ‘You pledged to be true to me until it became an impossible mission, and because you can have anyone that you so desire… well… you must be growing weary of my hesitation yes? And eager to be repaid for all that you have done for me-’

‘You think I return here every spring in anticipation of payment for services rendered?’ Cairo practically growled, pushing off the door and stalking towards me. ‘Is that what you think I desire from you, my queen? Is that the kind of man that you think I am- one that forces his men to serve a queen, to help her build up a kingdom- just so that he might one day have carnal knowledge of her?’

I wrapped my hands around my bedpost, pressing my flushed face to the cool wood and closing my eyes against the sight of his angry face. ‘N-no I don’t think that’s what this is about- I know that you are good and kind and heroic!’ I opened my eyes just as he was about to reach me, and I confess that I shrivelled up a little, clasping the pole like a lifeline. ‘But you said yourself that the only reason that you have gone on living is because Satan promised you a soul mate-’

‘Actually, that’s no longer the case, and that was what I was about to clarify before you wounded me so.’ Cairo grasped the pole, one above one of my hands, one below the other, and stared down into my eyes with indignant ones. ‘Yes, I still long for a soul mate, and I am certain that you are her. But by serving you and your people, I have tapped into something inside myself that I had thought had died with Iana- the will to live. The desire to create, and most shocking of- the need to settle down and belong to an actual society, after years of shunning all of them but the ones under my command on the ocean.’ He dropped his hand to my cheek, and I hummed at his touch, breathing in the jasmine deeply. ‘I am happy, again, Larkin. My life has purpose, and that is because of you- because you have inspired me to look beyond the horizon and into the future.’

I was feeling dizzy from the sight of all of the emotions swirling through his eyes coupled with the intense aroma of the flowers. ‘What are you saying?’

‘I love the ocean, and the freedom that comes with it, and I will continue to procure everything that you and your kingdom needs so long as there is wind in my sails…’ he swallowed hard and brushed some of my hair out of my face. ‘But the seas no longer call to me in my dreams, my darling- you do. I will not ask you to marry me again, and I will not even ask that you kiss me again… but I must know, does our annual separation pain you as it does me?’ He rested his head against my hands and stared into my eyes. ‘When the waters glaciate in November… will you consider asking me to stay, rather than sending me off in search of warmer ones?’

I could scarcely breathe. ‘Is that really something that you and The Iana’s crew would consider doing? Settling down here in a permanent way?’

Cairo smiled warmly. ‘My crew love you and the Utopia that you have built here almost as faithfully as I do. They have families that they want to ship here- children that they want raised in a land of hope, especially now that Callielian ships have started besieging the coasts that they used to avoid-’

‘What?’ I demanded, stricken. ‘Why are they doing that?’

‘We have much to discuss, that is certain but for now, just let me get this off my chest, all right?’ I closed my eyes and nodded and he went on. ‘The bottom line is that the Godless need my help even more than you do now, and that there are hard times ahead for all of us until I have done so. I will have to undertake several voyages in order to bring those seeking refuge here because they are scattered all over the world, and I anticipate that getting them to co-exist peacefully here will be challenging and will put quite the strain on all of our resources...’ He brushed his pinkie against mine. ‘But I am willing to put in the hard work to bring the people that God has forgotten here if you are willing to receive them as warmly as you have, me, and if you will allow me to linger here through the winter after in order to help build them houses and settle in.’

I did not feel intimidated by the prospect of inviting Cairo’s people to live with us in Raphael, because he’d already brought a few boatloads of people with him that we had integrated into our society, and I was not even slightly worried about the matter of procuring food and supplies for them all, because we’d overcome larger challenges before.

But I was a nervous wreck all the same, so I lowered my eyes. ‘I don’t want to ask you to stay for the winter…’ I whispered, and he sagged dispiritedly, ‘not if that means that I will see less of you between then and now.’ I looked up into Cairo’s suddenly exuberant face. ‘Can’t another ship in your fleet fetch some of your crew’s families, so that you might stay by my side during the spring as well?’

‘Heaven’s grief Larkin, you damn near stopped my heart!’ Cairo pried my hands off the pole and clenched them tightly in his, holding my knuckles up to his lips as his eyes sought mine over the top of them. ‘Mean you to say that you missed me as I have missed you?’

I kissed his knuckles tentatively. ‘I miss you yet,’ I confessed, trembling, and he sucked in a breath. ‘I am still frightened by you, Cairo, and afraid that I will never be able to give you all that you want from me…’ I extracted one hand and ran my fingertips along his scruffy jaw, ‘but I fear you telling me that you want it from someone else more now.’

Cairo’s expression was pained as he kissed my knuckles again. ‘I have not even looked at another woman, Larkin. You are my queen and I your humble servant- in every way. If I could afford the timber, I’d build a harbour big enough for all of my ships to dock in and call this my home!’ He kissed the back of my hand now, and my heart fluttered. ‘I love you, that you already know, and I want you to feel the same way for me.’ His expression clouded over and he drew back. ‘However, I’ve been thinking over the matter these past few months, and it has occurred to me that you cannot love me, not in any real way, because I have not been completely honest with you about who I am, and how I came to be that way… or about why I turned my back on God.’

‘Because you lost your Iana,’ I whispered, nodding.

‘I didn’t lose her, she was taken from me, and I …’ he bit his lip and stepped back, his grey eyes darkening. ‘I do not want to ruin the first few moments of our reunion by discussing evil, but I know that I must make my confessions to you soon, because it is plain that you have come to regard me as your white knight when the truth is that I have been as tarnished by the world as you claim that you were. I bring you food, and cloth, and spices and you call me your benefactor, but I am a pirate, Larkin, and I have done unspeakable things as one. I said once, that I would not tell you about Iana until we were wed, but I see now that I couldn’t marry you in good conscience without having first explained-’

‘You cannot marry me at all, Captain Kingslater,’ I said smoothly, crossing my arms over my chest. He wasn’t going to like this, but it had to be said. ‘The law that I wanted to make passed in January, you see, so all unions that were made in the eyes of God before we settled here have been dissolved now, except for a few special cases-’

‘Married, joined, promised, bound, ravaged…’ his voice deepened on the last word, and my abdomen tightened, ‘you will be mine in some official way, my queen, but not until you know me.’ He stepped into me again and took my hands pulling me closer. ‘May I meet you here later tonight, after we have had the chance to unpack and relax? Will you hear my confession before that besotted buddy of yours pries it out of my brain and flings it at you hard enough for it to sting?’

I made a face. ‘Sam is not besotted-’

‘Larkin, please, that is another discussion all together!’ Cairo shook me gently. ‘May I call on you tonight and bear my soul?’

I looked at his succulent mouth, and then back up into his eyes, filling with a sense of foreboding. I feared what he had to tell me, but mostly because it would change the dynamic between us. He wasn’t the only one that had secrets, but keeping our truths from one another allowed us to keep our odd relationship on the mysterious, exciting and fleeting shelf. He did not pity me for what I had gone through in Eden because he did not know the goriest details, and I did not judge him for being a pirate, because to me he truly was more like Robin Hood, than Blackbeard. If he found out that I was infertile, and that I had loved my keeper passionately, or if he confessed to me that he had once trapped a woman the way that Kohén had trapped me, well, everything would change- it might even become too real and too ugly to be considered special again.

‘I will hear you,’ I said softly, squeezing his hands with mine. ‘But you will not be calling upon me, because I do not plan on leaving your side until we can be alone again.’

Cairo’s brows knitted together. ‘But I have to go back down there and unload the carts.’

‘I know. And like I said, I will be at your side.’

Cairo clucked his tongue. ‘Do you mean to tell me that despite my best efforts to spoil you, you still toil away like a Blue Collar day in and day out?’

I smiled. ‘I had a shower and changed my dress after I spotted you, because what I was wearing before then was stained with soot and my hair was in disarray after working down at the new dam.’

Cairo raised an eyebrow, looking me up and down again. ‘I’m disappointed to learn that you still have to work as hard as ever, but encouraged to know that you wanted to look nice for me. However, there is something that you ought to know, before you try to make yourself look appealing to me again…’

‘What’s that?’ I asked, locking up a little again before he leaned in to kiss my cheek. Was he meaning to imply that I didn’t look appealing to him?

But Cairo only whispered into my ear: ‘When I dream of reuniting with you, your hair is always in disarray because it’s wrapped around my hands, and you’re not wearing a stitch of anything at all...’

I almost began to hyperventilate. ‘Cairo… You mustn’t say such things…’

‘I said you’d hear my truths, and that’s one of them.’ He looked me in the eye. ‘I’m a pirate, Larkin… a barbarian by upbringing, if not by nature. I can restrain myself from touching you so long as you maintain the fact that you don’t want to be touched, but the second you change your mind…’ he placed another kiss closer to my ear, and I shivered as he said: ‘I’m going to make damn sure that I conquer you so thoroughly, that you never let another man touch you again.’

I pulled back and looked up into his eyes, realizing that this could be it: the moment where I finally gave in and admitted that some of my fears regarding men had abated just enough to allow a truly glorious one to slip through my defences. I looked at Cairo’s perfect mouth, then back up into his eyes, and the air around us was so thick with hope and lust and possibility that I could scarcely draw a breath.

Kiss me, I thought weakly, collapsing into him a little. Kiss me please, make me want more and smash down the walls that I built up after the last! Because I can’t tear it down by myself!

But Cairo shook his head, gently and touched my fingers to his lips. ‘Only when you want it so badly that you’re the one that kisses me,’ he whispered. Then he caught my hand and dragged me downstairs with him, and I was glad for it, because I was too dizzy with lust to have been expected to find my own way.

27.

Libertie City, Raphael

Larkin Aztaroth

The crew of The Iana had brought us so many supplies that some of my people were weeping with relief, but I knew that I could not get too excited about it all because Cairo had said that he had up to seventy people that were in need of refuge out in the lawless world, which was half of our existing population. What he’d brought would help, and what we had already was impressive, but if we were going to have to support over two hundred people there in Libertie, then we would have to make a lot of sacrifices before and after they arrived. Not in every way- food was not an issue now that our crops were flourishing under Martya’s guidance, but our daily workloads were going to have increase if we were going to be able to accommodate so many as far shelter, clothing and resources were concerned!

‘I brought back most of the seedlings and plants that were on your list…’ Cairo said, passing me a small banana tree sapling from the back of one particular cart. ‘But I’m afraid to say that I could not get a lot of the fabrics that you requested. Not only is silk harder to smuggle out of Asiana now due to the Arcadian presence in the waters, but because I had to buy the plants first and they cost more than I thought.’

‘No one would trade with you for the preserves I sent?’ I asked, passing the tree along the line to Martya, who was repeating the plant’s Latin names to Trajan as she passed them along. As excited as I was to see Cairo, and as light-headed as he had made me feel in the privacy of my room, I was relieved to be performing such mundane tasks with him now while surrounded by people because it made me feel more at ease in his presence.

‘No. I was able to trade them for some of the books that you said you wanted to get your hands on, but most people want money for their wares right now- so they can buy their families passage out of wherever they are and to the south, where God’s so-called presence is less overbearing.’ I gritted my teeth when he handed me a larger banana tree, but I smiled gratefully anyway because this particular crop looked much healthier than the last had, so I embraced its weight. ‘Plenty of people swore to give me all of the fabric that they have produced if only I could get them to wherever it is that I keep disappearing to… but I didn’t have the room for them and their wares on the ships I had handy, so they’re holding them hostage until I return.’

‘And why has God’s so-called presence in open waters fluctuated so suddenly?’ I asked, passing the banana tree to Martya who, to my irritation, barely seemed to register its weight as she bypassed Trajan and took it over to the side of the promenade herself, to where some of the younger kids were sorting the supplies that had already been unloaded into categories. She had to be the fittest academic in the world! Not that there were bound to be many botanist/teachers/warriors out there in the world for her to compare herself against...

Cairo glanced at me, then went back to his work. ‘They’re looking for you.’

My insides knotted up, but I struggled to look unperturbed. I shouldn’t have been so shocked to learn that because I’d been waiting to hear that there was a warrant out for me since the second I’d slipped out of Karol’s grasp… but it was chilling to know that other people were being terrorised because of me now. ‘Well… took them long enough to organise an actual hunt for me, didn’t it?’

‘It’s not funny, Larkin,’ Sam said, inching between Cairo and I and taking the next plant off the pirate captain, bypassing me like I was a little kid like Trajan. ‘It’s your life we’re talking about here.’

‘He’s absolutely right,’ Cairo agreed, surrendering the plant to Sam before looking back to me. ‘There’s a million dollar ransom on your head- ordered by the King of Calliel and word of it is spreading fast- despite my best efforts to pass it off as a rumour to discourage interest.’

‘There have been worse rumours spread about me, believe me…’ I said as I swallowed back bile. Sam slipped between Cairo and I again to take the next plant and I let him do it. I was annoyed to see them trying to spare me hard work again while there were teenagers around carrying heavier stuff, but too distracted by Cairo’s news to put up much of a fight.

‘Not ones that are this dangerous, though,’ Cairo said ominously, dragging another plant across the edge of the cart. ‘From what I can tell by picking through these guy’s brains, the warrant for your arrest has been out there for some time- but the hunt for you has become downright feverish since last October.’

‘Why? What happened last October?’ Sam demanded, and I wondered if I was actually needed around to partake in this conversation or the unloading. Was I the Queen, or just in everyone’s way?

‘The two year anniversary of Elijah Barachiel’s death came and went, and the state of mourning was lifted from Arcadia.’ Cairo looked from Sam then back to me. ‘That should have allowed the people there to breathe easier for once, except some of the Banished apparently returned to the spot where you were last seen, constructed a likeness of the king out of straw and broken Wildwoods branches and then burned it in effigy… while chanting your name.’ My mouth popped open and he grimaced, nodding. ‘Needless to say, that stirred up a lot of hate and in response to that little celebration, the crown ordered all of them to be slaughtered for their disrespect.’

‘Fan-fucking-tastic,’ Sam grumbled, loping off with the biggest tree of all- so big that even Martya held up her hands in surrender as she stepped back and out of the way, allowing Sam to carry it all the way over to the greenhouses himself.

I felt sick to my very stomach. ‘Why would they do that?’

‘To get the rebels under hand, of course-’

‘I don’t mean why would Karol order their deaths, because that doesn’t surprise me in the slightest, but I mean why would people celebrate such a gruesome occasion in such a gruesome fashion? What could burning a likeness of Elijah in effigy possibly accomplish but piss off his heir?’

‘I don’t know, Lark,’ Cairo’s tone was clipped now as he returned to his work, avoiding my eyes. ‘But I’m rather sorry that I missed the bonfire… given how it celebrated the death of the man that killed my father.’

I winced, for this was not the first time that I’d inadvertently inferred that people were wrong to hate Elijah so. I stepped forward and lowered my voice, glad to keep everyone else out of this particular twist in the conversation. ‘Cairo-’

‘I know, you don’t classify Elijah as a murderer because he sent an assassin to do his dirty work, but that didn’t change anything for me when I was thirteen, and it hasn’t changed anything for me now, even if you have spent the last few years trying to convince me that his kind streak was as dominant as his tyrannical one.’ Cairo jumped up onto the Cart, picked up a sack of something unlabelled and dropped it to the ground at my feet before he began moving over a bunch of smaller plants. ‘He was a killer, he deserved to die, and if his son tries to take you from me as he took my father then I won’t bother constructing an effigy of him to burn- I’ll tether him to one of the figureheads of his ships, set the man himself on fire and then send the whole thing crashing into their fucking docks.’ He saw me wince and frowned deeply down at me. ‘What? You don’t approve?’

‘Of murder? Seldomly if ever. Though you do get points for pyrotechnic creativity as far as staging one is concerned…’

‘Would you stop trying to act as though this isn’t awful news?’ Cairo jumped off the cart, landing gracefully and right in front of me and pulled me closer to him with one dirty hand around my wrist. ‘If my men weren’t so trustworthy, anyone of them could have sold information about your whereabouts by now! Hell, I still fear that any one of them could- one million dollars for a whisper in the ear is more than you or I can promise them for their discretion right now, isn’t it?’

‘Yet it’s a surprisingly small ransom given the accusations made about me, don’t you think?’ I asked, trying to keep the mood light. ‘And taking into account the value of the necklace that I liberated from them, it’s borderline stingy! So they can’t be that scared of me, can they?’ I chuckled. ‘Or maybe I just cleared out their treasury when I took it, huh?’

‘A million is the price offered in exchange for your head, Larkin,’ Cairo muttered, picking up the sack of the ground and beginning to walk off with it, forcing me to follow as he carried it over to Will- the oldest and largest of all of the teenage boys. ‘Five is what is offered for you alive and well… fifteen million Cadians if you’re returned with the necklace.’

Every muscle in my body locked up as I came to a halt in the middle of everything, gaping after him. ‘Five million for my…?’ My hand went to my throat, and I felt cooler, softer but equally dirty hands come up and rub my arms as Cairo passed the burden over to Windsor.

For my body! I realised. I wonder what they think the four million difference is going to buy them, hey?

Cairo’s mask of anger fractured as he returned to find me looking so stunned, allowing me to glimpse how scared he felt beneath it.

‘How can they justify that?’ Martya demanded, and I blushed when I saw some of the younger ones looking my way with concern, pausing in their work to ponder what on earth was wrong with the queen.

‘Because that’s what it has already cost them to fund the army that they have created to hunt you down with,’ Cairo grumbled, wiping his hands off on his leather slacks as he squinted down at me.

‘So if she remains at large for another few years-’

‘Even the people that don’t fault me for how I handled myself in Eden will want me dead for the strain my continued presence is putting on Calliel’s budget…’ I said sadly, cutting Martya off. Cairo nodded, looking grave, and when I saw Sam heading back over with a concerned frown on his face, I realised that I couldn’t stand to be looked at with pity for even one second longer.

This is not something that should be discussed in front of teenagers! Move away from them before they see you cry!

‘Well…’ I swallowed, pushing both Martya and Cairo away as I turned around and grabbed a smaller plant that I did not recognize from the back of the cart, feigning aloofness while I put some distance between me and the adolescents helping. ‘If nothing else, I’d go down in the records for being the highest paid courtesan after my capture, wouldn’t I?’ Under my breath I muttered: ‘At that going rate, every man in Calliel would be able to have a stab at me-’

‘Do not talk like that! You’re not going to go down in any way,’ Cairo snapped, taking the plant out of my hand and cupping my face so that I had to look up into his, but I could barely see him through the tears that were pooling in my eyes. I knew that Karol would remain angry with me after I’d left Eden… but not to this degree. Hadn’t Ora told him how shaken up I’d been? How oblivious I’d be to the fact that he’d been about to propose? ‘You hear me? The Godless that have never met you think that most of what they’ve heard of you has been fabricated, and the ones that have aren’t allowed out of my sight for long enough to reveal your presence!’

‘Then why are you so worried by this news?’ I croaked. ‘If it’s no big deal, shouldn’t you be joking as you scold me for doing?’

‘Because it ups the ante of how well we have to treat people in order to keep them on your side, that’s all.’ Cairo took my grubby hand, and kissed the cleaner back of it. ‘Your people are too happy to turn against you, Lark, and as far as everyone outside of this particular crew is concerned, Raphael does not even exist, remember? All we have to do is keep you concealed from the rest of the world for a few more years, and then Karol Barachiel will have to throw in the towel, pretend that you were found dead to save face- or go bust. Once he does that, it won’t be long before the story about what the black-winged Nephilim apparently did on the night Elijah Barachiel was slain will become a legend, trust me- stories of my many adventures have been distorted by time and word of ill-advised mouth as well.’

I raked my teeth over my bottom lip, desperately wanting to believe him for the sake of all of the people under my care, but knowing that I’d never be able to keep this place a secret forever. ‘But what about your current adventure? If there are Arcadian armies getting around out there by ship, then it’s only inevitable that a net is going to close around your harbour soon too, right? I mean, that is why you want to stay here this winter, isn’t it… to disappear for a while?’

Cairo raised his eyebrows. ‘I sound like less of a predator and an opportunist when you spin it that way so sure, let’s say that’s the reason.’

I slapped his shoulder playfully. ‘Cairo…’

He cupped my face, and it was like the whole world drifted away. I knew that they were looking at us, but I didn’t care. ‘Larkin…’ He made his eyebrows dance. ‘Look don’t worry, my main harbour is secure enough for now, and if I get a year of hospitable seas, I should be able to get my personal treasury up high enough to-’

The bell rang once, signalling the hour, and like clockwork, the adolescents that had been unloading the carts stepped back, picked up their lunches and then began to move over towards the common where most people ate during the warmer months, Trajan, Martya and Sam included, who either had classes to teach or attend after lunch. Sam didn’t look like he wanted to go, but Martya tugged gently on his arm so with a frown he nodded to me and I nodded back, signalling that I was okay and still perfectly all right with being alone with Cairo. I touched my amber ring, letting him know that I’d take it off if there was anything imperative to communicate, and he smiled warmly, some of the tension going out of his eyes.

The doors of the college opened up a moment later and the senior students began to hurry out, eager to not only have their own lunch, but to greet the returning sailors and as they moved, the people that had taken their lunch at noon stood up, stretched, and then moved over to assume unloading the carts, picking up where the teens had left off. Cairo watched with me as the Inn doors opened and Lady Lucida strode out, wiping her delicate hands on a terry towel, looking every bit like the commanding chef that she was by day, and nothing like the courtesan she’d demanded to be able to be by night. She scanned the promenade, found me, indicated towards the pirates and I nodded, thinking of how busy she was going to be over the next few days while she helped the sailors ‘settle in’ and trying not to grimace. With a curt nod of her own she went back inside to fetch the platters of sandwiches that I’d asked her to quickly prepare when I’d come down, and Cairo chuckled.

‘What?’ I asked him, smiling, thinking that Lady Lucida definitely had men figured out, feed them and fuck them and then relieve them of their woes and their riches! It still blew my mind every day to know that she and the two girls I’d permitted to work for her were happy to make money that way, but how could I judge her for finding happiness in a profession that had traumatised me? Her inn was lovely, the food amazing and the money that she had invested back into the crown had allowed us to build the salt mine the previous summer, so as long as she and her employees continued to behave like ladies, I couldn’t fault her actions. In fact, I’d sort of forgotten about the fact that I’d kept her around because she was supposed to save the life of someone I loved one day, and if that turned out to be a false promise then I probably wouldn’t even care. There was still a lot of tension between us because sex was the most important part of her life and the least important part of mine, but she and her courtesans belonged here just as surely as I did.

The Pirate Captain shook his head, then swept his arm across the common. ‘Everything just runs so smoothly here. Do you have any idea how many commands I would have to shout in order to get so many separate crews to rotate duties? You didn’t have to breathe a word.’

I shrugged. ‘I think it’s different- you have to shout commands because your men work for a set wage, and can get a pay off by working slowly, preserving their energy or conveniently forgetting that they have somewhere else they have to be. Mine have a reason to look forward to every stage of the day, and know that taking too long to move from point A to point B will cost them something that they really want to do, later.’ I turned back to him. ‘But don’t change the subject- I want to know exactly how diminished your treasury has become.’

Cairo smirked and motioned his head towards a nearby maple tree, and I followed him to stand under the speckled shade. ‘Before I answer that, I should probably know: Could you love a man that had no money but a lot of boats?’

I didn’t think it was funny, and I could tell by the tightness behind his eyes that he didn’t think so either, and that got me to wondering how much he valued money himself. ‘That depends. How much of your money did you fritter away on buying shoes for me?’

Cairo chuckled. ‘The shoes weren’t so bad- I have a friend in New Rome that makes them. The glass, on the other hand…’

I winced. ‘You used your own money to buy it? Cairo! If I didn’t have enough you should have just let it go!’

‘I only covered the difference between what I told you it would cost, and what it actually ended up costing now that prices of things on the black market have inflated. Old books, plants, shoes… those are still very affordable, but building supplies, fabric and livestock are a different story. If I’d spent your money on the latter first, it would have been all right. But unfortunately, I bought a lot of non-essentials before I leaned how expensive the other things had gotten, so the money I made from selling your goods was already halved before I got around to pricing what you really needed. Then, when I got back to my main port, I learned that my other ships have been beleaguered by attacks over the last year and as a result, I had to purchase a lot of new weapons and gunpowder to keep everyone safe during the next.’ He shrugged, squatting on the ground and reaching for his flask. ‘But it’s fine. Now that you have so much of what you needed, you’ll find yourself to be twice as self-sufficient here as you are now by this time next year, won’t you? So you’ll need less. And I’ll recuperate what I spent by charging people passage and stealing what I can’t afford, like I always do. It’s just going to take longer to mobilise, while there are Callielian ships patrolling the waters everywhere.’

I sighed, leaning against the tree behind him and watching the people that had gathered around the carts carry on with the unloading. I wasn’t overly concerned about his financial problems because I knew that I would be able to help, but it perplexed me to learn that he’d gone out on so many limbs for me without my having asked him to. We were technically just friends, and yet he’d been treating me like a princess for almost three years- his princess- and that made me feel awful because I still couldn’t work out if I wanted to return his affections, or hit him with a piece of wood every time he mentioned them.

‘I am confident that Raphael will be almost completely self-sufficient by this time next year, and I swear to you that I will reciprocate your kindness…’ I said slowly. ‘But you know I wouldn’t have asked for so many provisions if I thought you’d use your own money to get them, and I can’t help but feel guilty that you did.’

‘Well you shouldn’t- because of you, my men have gone from being seasonal workers to all hands on deck for over two years, and they’re thrilled with how fat their own purses have grown since their boss made up his mind to impress a woman. Scant or not, I have enough to pay all of my fleet’s wages at the end of this season, so that’s good enough for me for now- only when I am in a deficit, will I worry.’ He wiped the sweat off his brow, squinting down the road that led to the bay, where his Iana was moored. ‘I could have come up with more, but I’ve just been too busy to scavenge around the way I used to.’ He paused, taking a swig from his hip flask- and the blissful expression that spread across his face told me that he had more than water in there. ‘I know it’s trite, but scavenging was almost all of what we used to have to do to get by. You’d be surprised how much wealth my father amassed by finding the right places to dig.’

I leaned over him and rubbed his shoulders gently. Yes I wanted to touch him, but mostly it was about hiding my knowing grin. ‘I wouldn’t say I’d be so surprised,’ I began casually. ‘We dug up a little gold ourselves a few weeks ago. I’m not sure what it’s worth, but it’s more than I’ve seen in my life, and I’d be happy for you to take at least half. You know… as payment for services rendered.’

Cairo chuckled, twisting to look at me. ‘You know if you marry me, we’ll each be entitled to half of what the other has, right?’

‘Not here in Raphael…’ I reminded him, ‘not anymore.’

Cairo rolled his eyes. ‘You’re a hard woman, you know that? And no, I won’t be taking half of whatever spare change you have to offer- save that for extending the schoolhouse, like you’ve been planning too.’

‘Actually if you want to get technical, I’m still just a girl.’ I squeezed his shoulder blades that little bit harder. ‘And you’re too old for me. Or at least you will be next week, when you turn twenty-two.’

Cairo made a face at me. ‘If you’re going off the traditional markers, I became too old for you last year when I turned twenty-one and became an official adult.’ He leaned back against my chest and whispered: ‘And that’s right about the time that you started putting those delicious hands on me, so where does this too-old folderol come from, hmm?’

His face was so close to mine that I could have bent down and kissed him, but I drew back and touched my hands to his treacle-coloured hair, which he’d slicked back into a short ponytail. ‘Well, I only just now noticed that you’re getting grey hairs-’

‘I am not!’ he barked, sounded offended- truly offended- for the first time in ever and I couldn’t hold in my laughter. He rose to his feet and pushed me back against the tree, wagging one of his obnoxiously-large fingers in my face, and I giggled harder. ‘Admit that you’re lying!’ But he self-consciously touched his other hand to his head, and my laughter increased. ‘You are lying, right?’

I struggled to get myself under control when I saw the genuine fear in his eyes. ‘You have the hair of a six year old,’ I said, crossing my heart, and he made a face- clearly not liking that comparison any better. ‘And it’s perfect.’ I touched his facial hair. ‘This thing, on the other hand…’

‘Lay off the beard, all right?’ Cairo ran his fingertips and thumb down along his chin. ‘You try being responsible for a bunch of grown men at thirteen. For the first three years of my reign, these whiskers were the only testament to credibility that I had!’

‘Well, if you care more about what they think of it than I do, stop complaining that I’m not in love with you because what I want in a man differs from what a limey pirate expects from one.’ I smiled innocently. ‘After all, I’m still only nineteen, remember? I can’t be seen fraternising with an old, full-bearded pirate! What sort of example would that be setting for the girls that look up to me?’

‘Full bearded old pirate... I…’ Cairo’s face was flushed with indignation, but he blinked suddenly, and then he was smiling. ‘I don’t believe it…’ he whispered, touching my cheek softly and immediately, my stomach flipped.

‘What?’ I asked, made uneasy by his tender smile, which was completely out of context with the teasing conversation.

‘You’re flirting with me,’ he stated softly, and my tummy tightened now. ‘The first year you practically sprained your eyeballs rolling them at me, last year you began to take my gentle teasing with a bit of a sense of humour and when I left, I knew that you would miss me…’ he swallowed hard. ‘But I figured it would be years yet, before you defrosted enough to actually flirt back… to put your hands on me because you can’t help it.’ He moved closer, so that our bodies were practically touching in every place, and his bright grey eyes glittered down into mine. ‘Might this be the year that I finally get to steal our first kiss?’

I’d been wondering the same thing since he’d last departed, and I’d even started hoping that the answer would be yes. But now, while he was standing so close… while he was breathing my air, and holding me to the tree…

Just like that, I was thinking of first kisses, and the way that Kohén had pressed me against a tree- how he’d stared at my mouth.

‘So do I just… do I keep my lips closed?’

‘At first,’ I practically whispered, lifting my face to his like a sacrifice to an executioner’s axe. ‘Stroke my lips with yours-keep them soft and gentle at first- and then sort of slip your tongue into my mouth and I’ll…’ I was going to faint, I was sure of it! ‘I’ll touch it with mine and then…’

‘And then?’ Kohén was practically panting.

‘Then we’ll seal off the kiss by closing our lips and pulling back,’ I stared at his mouth as it lowered toward mine. ‘But in a real kiss, you’d move your hands and then part her lips with your tongue a few times and kiss her deeply-’

Kohén had sighed and pressed his mouth gently against mine and I breathed in through my nose, inflating my lungs as his silken lips touched mine tentatively…

Something inside me wobbled. It had been a ‘real’ kiss for Kohén all along, and I’d been too blinded by my ugliness to realise that he’d loved me already, despite it. I sobbed and ducked out from under Cairo’s shadow, experiencing a full body convulsion borne from both fear and sorrow, and I heard Cairo groan.

I messed everything up with Kohén, I realised, pressing my heart to my chest and trying to get a hold of myself. And I’ll mess things up with Cairo too, I just know it! I don’t understand myself, let alone understand men!

‘Larkin I’m sorry, I wasn’t going to-’ Cairo grabbed my arm and pulled me back, but he was flushed and his eyes were glassy beneath his disappointment, and I knew that even though he hadn’t intended to kiss me, one encouraging sign from me would have changed that.

And I’d been only heartbeats away from giving such a signal. My guard was slipping, and although that should have felt like a blessing because it meant that some of my Eden-induced trauma was fading at long last, the truth was that I’d be clinging tightly to that sexual trauma because it distracted me from what lay beneath it... from acknowledging the fact that I had loved Kohén Barachiel my whole life, and that whatever torch I’d carried for him at the age of five hadn’t yet gone out, not completely. How could it have? When we’d parted ways, we’d parted ways as two strangers, not only to one another, but to ourselves. I’d saved the life of the ‘bad’ Kóhen… but where had all of the good gone? What was his character made of now that Satan had taken his feelings for me out of his heart? Had his kindness dissolved as Kohl’s had, or was he a good kid again now that his obsession with me had been pulled out of his soul like a weed?

And on the other side of the coin- what if his feelings for me had been what had made him a good kid all along? What if now, without my influence, he was as spoiled and self-pitying as Kohl had proven to be?

I hated the crowned prince of Arcadia, yes. I’d almost killed him and most days, I wished that I had for how he’d hurt me… but he’d been such a big part of my life that even now, the absence of my best friend felt like a missing limb- in a way that I could not mourn or miss the ‘good’ Kohl because the foundations of our bond had been forged on letters, not time spent, and had been burned away by that fucking branding iron. Kóhen had intended to brand me too, but at least he’d agonised over the decision for the better part of a decade before going through with it! At least he’d tried everything else first before he’d decided that his happiness mattered more than mine! Kohl had done it so quickly that he’d proven that he could fall in and out of hate as he could love! That he could switch from angel to demon in the blink of an eye!

Kohén had acted like a demon in his last hour too, and I never wanted to see that side of him again, but I did miss the boy that had moved the Statue Of Liberty from one coast to the other for me to prove his devotion. The same boy that had given over Pacifica’s greatest asset, just to show me that there was no price that he would not pay for my approval. He’d cheated on me- he’d cheapened our love by giving into his urges, yes- but hadn’t I done the same, when I’d begun writing to Kohl? When I’d sold myself to Karol? I could hate Kohén for an eternity for the fact that he’d tricked me into giving up my virginity, had been willing to brand me in the end... and because he’d considered sharing me with his twin... but he could have chosen to hate me time and time again for the ways that I had hurt him and yet, he had always forgiven me.

So somewhere along the line, I’d started to forgive him too- even if it was against my better judgement. And because of that, my feelings for him were now in a sort of purgatory that I suspected would not abate until I’d seen him again and had deduced that it was only Satan’s conspiring that had made us feel so connected in the first place and that if he could, he would go back to the day that he’d realised that he’d loved me, open the door, and encourage me to flutter free.

But I couldn’t know what he was like now, or how that last night had changed him, because no one ever mentioned him at all, not even Cairo’s secret sources that had managed to find out that Amelia-Rose Choir and her father were still living in Eden, and that my brother and his family had moved to Tariel. I had a feeling that Kóhen had been hidden away, or possibly even shipped off to Pacifica with his twin (it was incredibly difficult to get news from Pacifica via the pirates now that they apparently had a very sophisticated naval base) but I did know that even if I kissed Cairo that spring, it would still take me years to get Kohén Barachiel out of my head and heart enough for me to be able to love someone else, and that was one of the main things that kept me from falling into my pirate’s arms. I needed to tell Cairo that there was more to my aversion to romance than my sexual hang-ups but I didn’t know how to admit to that without jeopardising his high opinion of me.

‘I have more than some spare change, Captain Kingslater,’ I said stiffly, shooting Riesling and her girlfriend Quilline a dirty look when they walked past, making smoochy faces at me behind Cairo’s back. I smoothed my skirts and hugged myself. ‘But I don’t know how much it is worth in the lawless waters, or if there’s enough there to restore your treasury to its former glory… so how about you meet me up on my terrace at six so you can assess what was found, hmm?’

Cairo frowned. ‘Meet you? I thought you said you wouldn’t leave my side for the rest of the day.’

‘That was before I knew there was a bounty on my head,’ I lied, backing away. ‘You assure me that only those that are loyal to my crown are aware of my existence and my location, but like you said- fifteen million Cadians is a very tempting offer and would challenge even the most faithful subject’s loyalty, so I’m going to go speak to the coven about binding spells- perhaps there is something that they can conjure up to guarantee that loose lips will not get the chance to sink ships...’

Cairo sighed and shook his head, hiding his hurt behind a sardonic mask. ‘Why do I get the feeling that the only binding spell you’re after, is one that’s going to keep your blossoming feelings towards me under control?’

‘Because you’re getting cynical in your old age,’ I returned, before I shot off along the promenade, turning my back on him before I could see the knee-melting smile that was sure to have accompanied his sexy chuckle.

28.

Eden Palace, City Of Arcadia

Kohén Barachiel.

I almost lost consciousness to the fire that was burning across my back, but the pain was too intense to grant me such a release and so I writhed on my stomach for what felt like hours in a dark room in a dark place, until I felt something hot begin to scrape along the edges of my raw, torn skin. Because I was sure that someone had let a feral cat into my room to gouge my wounds open before they could begin to heal, I bucked and screamed and sweated and cursed until the burning heat became a throbbing warmth and finally, a whisper like a summer wind. People were talking in low, urgent whispers- no, bickering- but I didn’t know either voice well enough to recognize anything except the fact that one voice belonged to a man and the other, a girl.

Saul-Yin? I thought drowsily, as those swipes became focused strokes. Theodore? Did you take me back to the barracks? Have you medicated me? Or am I dying?

I didn’t get any answers to my questions before I finally passed out from exhaustion, but when I awoke, the room I was in was almost pitch black except for the dull glow of a nearby candle, and the only voice I could hear was a young female one that was speaking to me in a soothing tone. She was using some sort of herbal ointment on me, and I knew that because I could smell lavender strongly enough to make me feel dizzy, and could feel it being slicked across my back in wet streaks while she talked to me as though we’d been actively engaged in a conversation for hours.

‘I had our resident healer come in for you… the one that fixed you up after Larkin almost killed you… we’ve needed him a lot. Yes… Karol is a healer, but he expends almost every drop of energy that he has on your mother. I told him that it’s a waste of time: if she hasn’t come to in these last two years of being seen to by him daily then she never will… but he rarely listens to me. He goes down to that god-awful dungeon every morning and night, holds her hand and wills her to wake up restored...’ The girl sighed, and I felt that across my back too. ‘I know he prays for her, as we all do, but what’s the point, I ask you? She was born a demon and she died one, even if Karol can’t bring himself to let her physical being go…’ More oily, fragrant, paste was spread across my back, and I flinched when I realised that my nurse wasn’t just applying it to my wounds, but rubbing it into them. I tried to protest, but when I moved I realised that although my back ached like I’d been sung-stung in the worst way, it didn’t actually feel like I’d been shredded anymore.

‘Don’t move,’ my nurse said, quietly but firmly as she pressed my head back down into a pillow sham that was so soft and slippery that it defied description, and that was when I finally groaned: not because of my injuries, but because I knew now that I was still in Eden, where fabric was luxe, and flames were often used for lighting now because the castle had lost its two largest transformers in one day: my father and I. ‘The healer healed your skin, but your flesh will still ache for a few hours yet, so it’s best if you don’t do anything to agitate it further.’ Several fingertips tickled a gentle, soothing path down my spine, causing my body to go limp again. ‘That might sound overly cautious because it seems as though the healer did his job- but your skin is so beautiful, Prince Kohén. It would be a shame to see it marred by your brother’s jealousy.’

I licked my lips. ‘Amelia-Rose?’ my voice was so hoarse that I sounded more like my Uncle Ewan than I did like myself. Goodness… how much had I screamed? ‘What are you talking about? Where am I?’

‘You’re in your old bedroom,’ she said softly. ‘I brought you here the moment your punishment had been seen through, and you have been healing here since.’ Her fingers brushed over my tailbone, and I stiffened then because I realised that the only thing between her fingertips and my bare ass was a thin satin sheet. Where had my clothes gone? And why was a young, unmarried, saintly woman being allowed to tend to a naked and apparently sexually dangerous royal?

‘Karol allowed that? Why?’

‘Because he loves you and I told him that if he did not get you help, he would know my wrath.’

I almost snorted, for Amelia-Rose’s ‘wrath’ was not dissimilar from a feisty puppy chewing on the hem of someone’s pants. ‘You have a temper, do you?’

‘A mild one, but more than that, I have been a great help to your brother over the years, and though he’ll never come right out and admit that or even thank me for all of my assistance, he knows that it’s in his best interests to let me get my way sometimes- especially when it comes to caring for God’s most kindred spirits.’

I lifted my eyebrows. ‘And you think that I am one of them?’

‘Yes- all three of you are,’ she declared with conviction. ‘Satan has broken the bonds that used to hold you and this crown together and the kingdom is suffering for that and the sins that were committed under that Nephilim slut’s influence… but I don’t care what you did back then, Kohén: you were always divine and you will be again, and the only reason why Karol can’t stand to look you in the eye or call you brother now is because he sees his weaknesses reflected in you.’ The strange girl sighed again, and my eyes fluttered shut at the feeling of it against my skin. ‘He punishes you because he has run out of ways to punish himself.’

‘He punishes me because I cannot punish myself,’ I argued bitterly, turning my face to the side so that I could stare over at the opposite wall. ‘I cannot be adequately mortified by all that I did under Larkin’s influence because I cannot remember it-’

‘Don’t say her name,’ Amelia-Rose whispered quickly. ‘It is a grievous sin here. Better you call the flightless devil herself, than the winged beast that served her earthy works.’

My brows drew together. ‘Since when?’

‘Since The Banished celebrated your father’s death last autumn out by the Tidal Falls. Karol had always flown into a rage whenever he heard her addressed by her Christian name- as though she were still deserving of such a thing- but after hearing it chanted like that on the eve of his thirty-second birthday…’

‘Oh.’ I swallowed hard, thinking of the amount of times I’d used it that morning, and wondering if that was what I’d been really whipped for. ‘I’ll try to remember that.’

‘Please do. It’s important that we rid her not just from our day to day conversations, but from our hearts, minds and memories. You have forgotten her completely, and Kohl is flourishing now that he is a safe distance away from the kingdom and his family’s misery… but if we are ever to know true peace and happiness again, then we must find a way to ease your eldest brother’s pain as well.’ She slid her warm, oily hand slowly up my back. ‘And that is why I healed you: because I saw that as he watched you be whipped through the window, he wept.’

I widened my eyes, and saw the gallery of black and white photographs of my twin and I that had been framed on the opposite wall. ‘You believe that he feels guilty for punishing me?’

The bed dipped a little as Amelia-Rose climbed onto it and straddled my lower back. I was about to protest that it was inappropriate, but then both of her hands were rubbing my shoulders and I couldn’t speak. ‘Of course he does. You were never as close as you ought to have been, because you had those awful Companions forced between you, but although you and Kohl looked alike, your nature was always more like Karol’s.’ She rubbed her hands further down my back. ‘You were both more ambitious, more outgoing, and more Godly than Kohl was. Don’t get me wrong- I know that Kohl has a good heart and has the ability to succeed at anything if he tries hard enough, but he has had an unhappy relationship with our maker since he was taken from this place, and that has put a chill in his heart.’ She rubbed lower and my back arched. ‘But you and Karol… you were both so vibrant and alive. So full of conviction that you would both succeed and prove God’s Glory! I know that after the witch cast her spell on you, you started to grind on one another’s nerves, but there was no questioning the fact that you would work well together once you both had more official duties to occupy your idle hands and minds with, and that your people would adore you.’ Her fingers curled around to caress my obliques, and I felt my stomach tingle in warning. ‘And they will, yet, just as soon as we put that dark Nephilim behind us. Karol has been angry with you since you convinced your whore to turn down her freedom in favour of servicing you, but he envies you now because your lack of memories about her have made it easier for you to move on with your life. On top of that, I know that he was thunderstruck to see you waltz in here earlier looking the way you did, because everybody in the court realised the same incredible truth as he did: that by punishing you and depriving you of your golden spoon, the king has made you into a man.’

So that was why people had gasped to hear my name? Because they hadn’t actually realised that the Guardian delivering correspondence from the General was actually the same adolescent kid that they’d chased out of their paradise? I actually smirked then, wondering how stark the differences were- differences I wouldn’t have noticed because I rarely used a mirror. One of my comrades Theodore had a weird ‘thing’ about mirrors, and every time anyone looked into them, he slapped it out of their hands and crossed himself. He’d even gone as far as to cover up the ones in the barracks, and even though people moved it to shave and check their appearance, they always covered it back up after to refrain from setting young Theodore off. I used them while shaving, but I rarely looked anywhere but at my jaw, and I’d be lying if I said that Theodore’s weird little superstition hadn’t rubbed off on me, because I felt uncomfortable whenever mirrors were in the vicinity now too.

Not that looking myself in the eye had been a lot of fun before I’d met Theodore, either. And who knew how awful it was going to be if I ever got my memories back?

Oh well, hopefully the next time I look in the mirror-really look- I’ll see someone other than my twin, right?

Amelia-Rose reached my hips and kneaded them firmly then, shocking me out of my thoughts as the movement and pressure of the massage caused my naked cock to slide against the slippery sheets, generating a sweet friction. ‘But you shouldn’t worry yourself too much about it, your highness. Karol will find the demon soon, I know it. He’ll find her, then kill her, and then once that is done, his own personal demons will dissipate and soon enough, he will find a way to be a brother to you again.’ The girl slipped down so that she was straddling my thighs and pressed her thumbs into the sensitive joints at the tops of my ass, causing my body to hum with charged delight. ‘But until he does, I will make it my business to heal you both from the wounds that you inflict upon one another, so that there is less guilt and angst for you both to deal with after, and less frustration widening the gap between you until then.’

I groaned lightly, enjoying the massage thoroughly. ‘I haven’t inflicted anything upon him since I left-’

‘You’ve prospered as he has withered,’ Amelia-Rose said, her voice softening. ‘He’s done everything to keep the kingdom stable that we could have asked him for so from the outside, this kingdom still glitters as though God created it yesterday... but success in the face of such adversity has a price, and Karol has paid it with his happiness. He barely sleeps, he never does anything recreational, he does not socialise, he rarely eats… it’s just work, work, work all day long, and it, along with the grief and the relentless monitoring of that damned tracking device has aged him.’ She tugged the sheet down my hips a little more, and moaned softly. ‘Whereas you… you have become so tall and proud, Kohén. Karol was once thought to be the most beautiful Barachiel heir there ever was but you have eclipsed him, and that has wounded his pride. Your eyes still blaze with conviction, and your physique…’ she moaned gently again and kneaded both of my butt cheeks with her hands. ‘Look at you. So tanned, so firm and muscular. Why, I’ve never seen such a perfect-’

‘Amelia-Rose!’ I reached behind me, grabbed the sheet and firmly ripped it up to cover myself before I rolled over and drew my knees up, forcing her to quickly hop off my thighs so she wouldn’t be thrown clear. ‘What are you doing?’

‘I’m healing you,’ she said, eyes earnest but somewhat glassy. She was wearing a nightgown like she was getting ready for bed, but her hair was still styled as it had been earlier that day so she looked more coiffed than comfortable. ‘I thought you would be grateful for that!’

‘I am,’ I said, sitting up a little and wincing when I felt that deep ache that was not only obvious beneath every muscle in my back, but also in my balls. ‘But you’ll get us both whipped if someone walks in and find you massaging me in your nightgown while I’m naked now that my lacerations have vanished!’

Amelia-Rose’s hazel eyes flashed. ‘No one would dare make such an accusation, Kohén Barachiel- I am virginal and pure of spirit and everybody knows that I’d sooner kill a man than let him break through my hymen before marriage.’ She got up onto the bed and grasped my knees through the sheet while I reeled. Break her hymen? Who spoke like that? ‘But there is more to healing you then simply closing over your wounds, and I can lift your spirits and take some of your other frustrations away, if you let me…’ she began to tug down on the sheet, peeling it away from my knees so that I felt the cool evening air drift across my stiffening cock.

‘Wh-what are you talking about?’ I asked roughly, too shocked to do anything but gape at her and cling limply to what I still had of the sheet with one hand.

Amelia-Rose’s eyes sparked. ‘I know that you have not been going to the whores, Kohén, and I know how that must pain you… to keep your charge and lust and energy and pain all bottled up inside you like that...’ With a firm jerk, she wrenched the sheet down my calves before reaching between my knees and grasping my hips. Her hands were warm and soft, as were her eyes, and because I was so stunned by the close contact, she was able to manoeuvre her way between my legs so that she was bowing over my thighs and abdomen before I’d taken another breath. ‘And I want to take your pain away, Kohén- desperately. You’ve been brave to resist temptation… but your will must be wearing thin by now, yes? Especially with that pretty little Asianan harlot in your face, day in… day out?’

My entire body buzzed from scalp to toe, both with offence on Saul-Yin’s behalf and excitement. This had to be a dream right? Or some twisted nightmare? ‘I’m managing,’ I said hoarsely, watching with fascination as she began to open my thighs wider with her elbows. ‘You don’t have to do anything-’

‘God wants me to…’ Amelia-Rose breathed, and I felt her words glance off my cock, making it throb gently. ‘He wants me to kiss you, Kohén- to kiss you all better.’

No, no this could not happen, and if she thought that kissing my manhood was as innocent as kissing my mouth, then she was in for a rude shock when the time came to meet our maker. ‘Amelia-’

But something warm and wet wrapped around the head of my cock then, and I sagged back against the pillows behind me, the fight going out of me immediately. I knew this was wrong on many levels, but I groaned when she all but sucked me into her mouth and out of reflex, my hands grasped her hair.

Shit! I thought, clenching my jaw and my feet as pleasure swept over me. This is like nothing else!

‘Oh, Kohén…’ Amelia-Rose’s voice was throaty and coloured with lust as she delicately licked me along my seam. ‘You’re so big…’

I grunted in response, especially when I felt her little hand cup my scrotum and squeeze it gently. I was certain that I’d been kissed like this before, and I’d often daydreamed about how it would feel to have one of those beautiful Companions that were stationed at every barracks take me into their mouths… but I’d had no idea that it would feel this good and I could not believe that the pleasure was being inflicted upon me by the purest girl in Calliel. It made me feel both powerful and dirty, like I’d somehow corrupted her, and I hated myself for enjoying both feelings. She was such an uppity little thing, especially on the subject of lust, so it was rewarding to see her gagged with, well- sin. Sin that she swore that God approved of!

But you know better! A voice inside my mind pointed out. You know this is wrong and that it’s the power in you that’s she’d drawn to, not the man, so get out of here, now!

‘Mmmm…’ Amelia-Rose hummed, and that was when she moved so that she was straddling just one of my legs now. Her thighs squeezed around mine and within seconds, something slick and warm was grinding against my leg, confirming my theory that I wasn’t the only one feeling edgy due to my lust. Good lord, this girl was afflicted! ‘Oh, Prince Kohén… I could do this for you all week if you stayed here...’

A shudder went through me to understand that I was being both serviced and used by a virgin that was wet for me, but although the light, wet pressure of her mouth against my genitalia felt like a delicious tickle that was radiating through every cell in my body, only a few more beats passed before I became aware of the fact that whatever it was that she was doing wasn’t enough, and that her actions were only enhancing my frustration- not taking the edge off it.

Come on! I thought, growing impatient as the attentions started to feel monotonous and underwhelming. Come on!

But nothing changed, and that only compounded my exasperation. I felt like there was a gauge inside me- something that measured my pleasure- and whatever she was doing wasn’t getting me even close to where I wanted to be anymore.

More! I dug my fingertips more deeply into her hair and when she complied by sucking on me more firmly, I almost cursed out loud to understand that the tension inside me was building in my jaw and toes and stomach than it was in my cock now. I pressed my hands over my face and moaned in exasperation, and when I caught a whiff of her exotic and fragrant scent on my hands, something inside me switched off completely because I hated Patchouli. I growled and looked down at where the Shepherd’s daughter and I were connected, and saw to my dismay that my manhood has started to wilt so much that she was using her hands to grasp it so that it wouldn’t fall out of her mouth. Fuck! Was I impotent now? No, I couldn’t be… I had wet dreams all the time!

It’s not impotence… it’s karma. You almost ruined the kingdom the last time you corrupted an innocent girl with your sexuality so now God is wilting your erection, making damn sure that it doesn’t happen a second time! You don’t need to get off with this girl- you need to get as far away from her as possible!

My spirits had been flagging all day but now they crashed completely. It was hard to use my hands to pleasure myself because when I needed it most, my sparking hands were capable of seriously injuring me, but I’d been waking up wet in my army cot for two years, imagining that a sweet, faceless virgin was doing this kind of stuff to me… yet now that the fantasy was coming true, my body was reacting like I was being violated by a dirty old man by not only failing to rise to the occasion, but by withering up! What if I was like this for life? What if I’d never be able to marry, or father children?

And what if I deserved it? I’d taken away my Companion’s ability to make babies, hadn’t I? So what kind of God would allow me to have the kind of happiness that I’d prevented so many others from knowing?

Amelia-Rose was panting now as she began to jerk my flaccid member off with her eager little hands and buck against my leg like she was riding a bull, but none of it was doing anything but piss me off and with a groan, I turned my face away from her, feeling humiliated for the both of us. That was when I saw the pictures of Kohl and I again, and my heart and lungs crumpled as I remembered how he’d wept in Amelia-Rose’s arms… and how he’d feel if he knew what we were doing. The urge to vomit overwhelmed me, and I sat up quickly, pulling my legs out from under her and causing her to topple forward onto the bed.

‘We have to stop,’ I said woodenly, standing up and looking around for my clothes. ‘This is wrong.’

Amelia-Rose gasped. ‘Wh-what? But you were so close-’

‘It doesn’t matter,’ I said, deciding to save her feelings by allowing her to go on believing that she’d been having any sort of effect on me at all. She’d obviously never been with a man before and therefore, she had no idea that the favour she was doing me would wear the skin off my knob before it granted me release. ‘I don’t deserve to know such pleasure or to be so soothed. You are right to say that I have abstained and that I am suffering for it, but I deserve to suffer Amelia-Rose, it is my penance.’ I found my silk formal cargo pants and moved quickly to step into them, keeping my back to her so she wouldn’t see how tiny my member had become. ‘I thank you for trying to help me, and for healing me so- you are gracious and kind and indeed, filled with God’s light...’ I got my zipper up and turned to face her again. ‘But you are destined to do greater things than service me, Miss Choir, and I won’t derail you from your holy path by taking advantage of your kindness.’

She frowned gently, but her cheeks were still pink and her eyes were very glassy, betraying the fact that she was more frustrated than offended. ‘I am undertaking an apprenticeship as a shepherd, your highness, but I am not one yet.’ She began to crawl across my bed and towards me. ‘My path is not set in stone, and if I believe that I could be of greater service to God by loving a Barachiel-’

‘Exactly,’ I said quickly. ‘I saw you and Kohl kissing before I left, and though I can understand why you’d feel confused about your feelings in my presence given how alike we look, and because it’s probably been months since you saw him last- the sad truth is that he would not be so understanding.’ She’d had the grace to look embarrassed when I’d mentioned the fact that I’d already seen her coming onto one of us, but her eyes flashed resentfully when I hinted that Kohl had some sort of claim on her and just like that, I knew that I’d glimpsed more than her lustful nature- but her agenda.

Amelia-Rose was to turn twenty-one sometime soon, I was certain of it, which meant that she had only a few months before she had to pick a course- find someone to marry, or enter into a regular apprenticeship and the joining lottery and pray that she found someone to be with that would make giving up a lifetime as a shepherd worth it, because once you became a shepherd, you were not allowed to get married or leave. That was why most Shepherd’s waited until they were retired to pursue the career and why young apprenticeship Shepherd’s were rare- undertaking it before you’d lived your life would make you a martyr yes, but only after some major sacrifices were made.

People admired Amelia-Rose for having undertaken such an apprenticeship when she was only eighteen, but if she’d just done it in order to make someone rich and powerful pursue her as his bride, then the clock was ticking for her now, for sure. Had she come on to Karol too? Was there a single, unmarried member of the nobility that she wasn’t draping herself all over once she had isolated them from the pack? Somehow, I doubted it.

‘Why should Kohl-’

‘He loved her too remember, and she chose me. He hides his pain better than Karol does, but it is surely still there, and I won’t hurt him like that again.’ I saw my black leather shirt and sash and wriggled into those too before reaching for my boots and my golden belt. ‘So I’m sorry for having blurred any lines tonight while I was half out of it, Miss Choir because it was unfair to both of you. I am in your debt for how you have seen to my healing, but I think it is for the best that we do not see each other again for awhile… at least until the lines between us have become clearer.’

‘You can’t be serious!’

‘I am. You are a shepherd’s daughter, a member of the nobility and an apprentice shepherd... but I am a Guardian of Arcadia’s army and an outcast,’ I had to fight to keep a straight face as I added: ‘I have strong urges yes, but you’re above servicing them and you know it. But if you do not believe that God has a higher purpose for you then sucking my cock, ask your father, or both of my brothers for I’m sure they’ll all agree.’

‘I don’t belong to any man but God and I do not seek anyone’s approval!’ Amelia-rose sniffed, finally getting the hint and crawling off my bed and back into her own satin nightgown. ‘I was trying to help you tonight, Kohén- not offering myself up as a sex slave or a potential bride. And I love how apologetic you are after you’ve gotten what you needed!’

There was so much I could have said in rebuttal to that, but I wasn’t in the mood to put her in her manipulative little place- but to put Eden’s fence between us! ‘Actually what I really need is to get back to work and head north, before my jealous, withered, resentful older brother finds a more dangerous mission to send me off on.’ I saw my sword and my pistol sitting on my old desk, and I collected them up in my arms instead of putting them on in the interests of getting out of there sooner. I hated that room- so much that I sort of wished that the fire Larkin Whittaker had sent had burned it beyond repair too, and could not get out of there fast enough. ‘So thanks again, and good night.’

Amelia-Rose sighed. ‘And when will you return from this little trip north?’

‘I have no idea,’ I said, moving towards the door and bowing slightly to her before I opened it. ‘But feel free to pray that I do.’

Then I shut the door between us before I had to hear her answer.

I wasn’t surprised to see Karol standing there when I stepped out into the hallway and looked up but I was surprised to see the odd little half-smirk on his face as he appraised me while leaning against his door, quite at his leisure.

‘Do you feel better now that you’ve been healed by the most eligible girl in the kingdom?’ he asked carefully, and I frowned in confusion.

‘She’s the most eligible girl in the kingdom?’

Karol shrugged. ‘That’s what she tells me…’

I almost smiled- almost. ‘Then God must have told her so, and who are we to argue with God?’ I tucked in my boot laces and then shoved my small hand-held pistol into my pocket. ‘I have been healed, thank you, but the next time that you’re left with two options: to let me bleed to death or send that crotch-hound after me... act like a brother for once, and let me bleed to death, all right? Or at least send a chaperone in with her?’

I didn’t look back at Karol as I swaggered into the foyer of the royal suite, leaving him in the hall, but his chuckle followed me all the way out onto the landing, warming me a little on the inside because to the best of my recollections, that was the first time that my big brother had laughed with me instead of at me in my whole life.

29.

Libertie City, Raphael

Larkin Aztaroth

I did go to the coven to speak to the witches about a binding spell to keep my kingdom and its secrets, secret, but all they could do was promise me that they would think the matter over. They were very powerful witches- especially when all fourteen of them worked together- but silencing two hundred people on one subject without accidentally robbing everybody in Raphael of their voices was going to be a difficult undertaking, and Arial was quick to warn me that it would require a very large, very precise sacrifice.

Needless to say, I left feeling more nauseated than when I’d gone in, dizzy over my whirling feelings for Cairo. The last time we’d had to make a sacrifice to one of their many dark deities, I’d ended up sprayed with salt and pepper bear blood and Inoborna hadn’t come near me for two weeks after for the lingering stink. I’d done that in order to work a simple protection spell- one that kept bears out of our territory- so what was I going to have to do in order to keep an army away from it? I shuddered to imagine it!

Everybody in the kingdom was in a wonderful mood due to the fact that The Iana had returned with a full wooden belly, but I felt too anxious to shake off my unease and re-join them, so after I left the isolated little cabin that the coven lodged in on the south shore, I retreated quickly to my room, sighing when I found five notices in the cubby hole on my door. One from Lady Lucinda, asking if I still planned on throwing a ball for Cairo’s birthday so she could start planning the menu and picking costumes for her and her girls, a second from Martya asking if I’d finished the manuscript yet so we could ‘Toast the Sunrise’ the following morning, (which was a very unsophisticated tradition we’d stared one winter by getting drunk before six a.m.) one relocation request from a girl that had ended her betrothal and wished to move out of their cottage and back into the castle, a fourth from Windsor, reminding me that he would be departing on one of his hunting excursions the following morning to look for the salt and pepper bear that had been terrorising the barracks for the past few weeks, and a final one from Miriam, which said only: ‘Tick Tock.’

Smiling, I sat down and quickly scribbled notes in response to all of them, and then pulled on the little bell by my door. Vanessa arrived a few minutes later, red-faced and breathless, took the notes, asked me if there was anything else I liked and when I said no, she went happily on her way, leaving me alone with no choice but to finish my manuscript before Miriam could come up and finish me.

We didn’t have servants in the palace, but we had castle employees that saw to the day-to-day management of things, and Vanessa had opted for that vocation right back in the beginning because it allowed her to keep close to her daughter Larkin all day long. Almost everyone in Libertie participated in the roster system that I had instigated back in the beginning, which meant that they spent a few hours of every day participating in educational, vocational, recreational and communal activities on a rotating basis, but there were some exceptions and Vanessa was one of them. Vanessa, a few other single mothers and anyone over seventy-five, who were allowed to do whatever they wanted to do whenever they wanted to do it- much like Inoborna who was a law unto himself.

Vanessa was one of the ones that worked ‘full time’ in the one place, on the condition that as soon as Larkin was old enough to start schooling, her mother would enter the system herself. Not only would this ensure that she kept learning and growing and challenging herself, but it might possibly one day lead to her undertaking a less banal career. Lady Lucida had a similar role to play because her Inn was one of the only places in Libertie that was open all day long (for meals, she was forbidden from taking clients in while the sun was up), but I’d refused to allow her to live like a courtesan without furthering her education so she had to participate in classes and recreational activities once a day like everybody else did -including her two employees, who I secretly hoped would tire of their night jobs once they’d discovered that they had other things to offer the world aside from their bodies and Lady Lucida’s delicacies.

I didn’t participate in the roster system myself, because my monarchical duties kept me hopping, but I earned the exact same wage that every other full-timer did or rostered citizen did, and I’d taken on the duties of Copy-Editor for the print press in the hopes of earning more. Sure, my mother could gift me practically anything I wanted- but that wasn’t how I wanted it and so, I’d become quite the multi-tasker in order to keep myself in books, sweets and scented soaps.

I didn’t know how long the roster system would be in place for, and I knew from Cairo that it was an unorthodox practice, (he called the roster system: ‘Life School’ in jest) but Libertie was still a small city and it just worked for us because it helped me make sure that everybody’s needs were being met in a way that was beneficial to the kingdom, because it kept it and its people moving forward. We had everything that every other functioning city in the world did, but we had them on a much smaller scale, and after only two years of living in that tiny community, I’d all but convinced myself that that was exactly how every community should be: so small that the person in charge of it knew every resident by name, and could be certain that they were all being properly cared for.

People only needed three hours of school a day in Libertie, because they got two hours of practical work that was educational in itself too, and shop owners only needed to open and staff their shops for as many hours a day, because there weren’t enough people to warrant them being open from morning to night. No one needed to shoulder the burden of being labelled as a cleaner, because everybody in the kingdom was allocated three sanitisation tasks a week, and nobody was overweight, overworked or underfed, because exercise, recreational activities and periods of rest were worked into the roster as well.

Perhaps Martya would have fared better if she’d gotten the chance to attend a ‘real’ school like the ones in Calliel, but everyone got to go to school here- right up until they retired- and the older ‘students’ absorbed knowledge like sponges, even the ones that hadn’t known how to read before they had come here. In fact, most of them looked forward to school the way that the adolescents looked forward to lunch!

And that was exactly why it was important that I finish ‘The Mistral’s Mistress,’: it had been written by someone that probably hadn’t read a book until 644 AD, and if I could get it published, then I would not only be changing someone’s life by making them an author, but changing the lives of everyone that came along to read it after. We had a tiny library attached to the school house, and Cairo had done his best to fill it with books for me, but I wanted my people to be able to access thousands of them and there simply just weren’t that many left in print. Most of the ones that we had were books from the time before that had been re-typed in places like Rabia and New Rome and then smuggled out after, and I knew for a fact that many of the storylines had been ‘tweaked’ in order to make them less scandalous, and that cheapened them a little. I kept them in circulation as the Barachiel kings had to serve as cautionary tales more than anything else, but there were plenty of cautionary tales to be told from the point of view of people in the new world too, and I was determined to get as many in print as possible- to prove that God had failed us when he’d abandoned us and left men that thought they were Gods to rule in his stead. The only way to shed some light on the situation was to get people whose stories were considered the least savoury and most scandalous published, even if they didn’t know how to write well yet- and even if their stories were bound to be censored in every country that still fell under God’s protective Barachiel banner should they ever escape our shores.

Even if those stories were going to make me more uncomfortable than they would ever make any of the Barachiel heirs.

So I read the steamy manuscript until the light began to stream through my rear window, and until it began to be muted by shades of pink and burnt gold. I turned page after heart-wrenching, lip-biting, breath-stealing page, until I was so fully immersed in Rian and Medley’s world that it felt as though a thick fog had settled over me. I read seventy-two pages, but gave up on the seventy-third when someone knocked on my door- just as I’d been about to start writhing in frustration or slashing: ‘Why are you torturing me?!’ into the margins with my red marking pen.

Taking the intrusion as sign that I was in way over my head with this copy-editor nonsense, I tossed my red marking pen over the edge of the bed and onto the stone floor before burying my face into my new, periwinkle and honey-hued comforter so I could muffle my groan of frustration. It was Cairo at the door, I just knew it, and I also knew that I was in no state to be expected to handle that well, not when I’d just been reading about how expertly Rian handled Medley’s sex with the tip of his tongue! Honestly, I was practically hyperventilating! What had inspired the anonymous author to dream up such a passionate scenario?

‘Larkin?’ Cairo called through the door. ‘Are you there?’

‘Just a minute…’ I called out, rolling onto my back and drawing my feet up so that I could take a moment to compose myself. I rested my hands on my lower stomach and attempted to knead some of the butterflies that had come to life within it into a deep slumber while I drew in a deep, full breath, but the warm touch of my hands only made it worse, and drew my attention to the fact that there were other areas close by that could do with a bit of fondling too. ‘I’ll be right-’

But the door open then and with a squeal I bolted upright and then immediately began to tug my skirts down from where they’d gathered around my hips while I’d been reading. I’d done it in order to deflect any unsolicited attention from the area, but my frantic movements drew Cairo’s eyes to my bare thighs immediately, and he didn’t even try to hide his delight as he raked his gaze from them and up to my flushed face.

‘Holy shit!’ he leaned against the door and assessed me frankly while I shoved my cuff back up over my brand. ‘Prayer works.’

‘Well start praying for a long, happy life because you’re about to be deprived of one!’ I stood up, smoothing my skirts more forcefully. ‘I said, ‘Just a minute,’ you know! Since when does that mean barge in?’

‘When it’s mis-heard as: Come on in, which is what I thought you said.’ He rapped on the door with his knuckles as he leaned against the jamb and said. ‘This is thick wood, your highness, and it’s breezy out there so I could barely hear you at all. And although I know that it’s customary to apologise in this sort of circumstance…’ his eyes flickered up and down me, and I felt like I didn’t have a stitch on. ‘I’ve got to admit that I’m not sorry at all. In fact, I’d very much like to know what you would have done in the following minute, if I’d left you to your own delicious devices…’ he waved his hand at me. ‘Feel free to demonstrate it too- I’d very much like to know how to drive you wild.’

I scowled at him, turning to neaten the two stacks of the manuscript so that I wouldn’t lose my place. The larger half was what I’d already read, and the other stuff, which was only about eight pages thick, was all I had left to go. ‘I wasn’t doing anything that would appeal to your dirty mind or drive me wild,’ I said crossly. ‘I was just trying to finish this book that I’m editing and-’

‘Is it a Cookbook?’ Cairo asked, sauntering into my room. ‘I know that when I’m reading cookbooks, I like to take breaks so that I can touch my-’

‘I wasn’t touching anything,’ I snarled, whirling on him and poking him in the nose before he could get close enough to see what I was reading. ‘I had a sore back and so I was stretching it when you-’

‘Interrupted?’ Cairo bit his lip and hoisted his brow as he stepped in closer, and the moment I smelled the wine on his breath, I knew I was done for. He’d obviously been at the Inn while he’d been waiting for our rendezvous, and that was going to make talking to him a nightmare because I knew from past experience alcohol completely and utterly deprived him of his inhibitions, in addition to making his accent heavier and sexier. ‘Well I can help- just show me where to rub and-’

‘Captain Kingslater, you are forgetting yourself,’ I said firmly, and a bit of the silvery sparkle faded from his eyes as I took him by the hand and led him out my door. ‘But the wind on the terrace ought to be crisp enough to bring you to your senses while we-’

‘I’m not drunk,’ Cairo scoffed, yanking his arm out of my grip, but taking my hand and kissing it. ‘I’ve had three wines- it takes a lot more than that to write off a man my size, you know.’

‘But it takes half that to loosen that tongue of yours enough to get you into trouble,’ I reminded him as I led him across the gusty catwalk and towards the central tower. It had been closed off inside the castle so no one could get up there, but I’d made good use of the cavity under the floorboards so now, it was a safe. ‘And if you want to prove me wrong, then act like a perfect gentleman for the next half an hour, and try not to fall off the edge, okay? It really is windy up here and only one of us has a set of wings.’

Cairo cocked his head as I released is hand and knelt by the bolt on the floor so that I could slide it back. ‘Are you saying that you wouldn’t catch me if I fell?’

‘I don’t know if I could,’ I said, lifting the trapdoor and motioning for him to look inside it too. I smiled a small, warm smile as he knelt, peering into the dark cavity below with unfocused eyes. ‘But how’s this for a safety net, hmm? Like I said, it’s considerably more than spare change, but the question is… is it enough to restore your treasury to its former glory?’

Cairo leaned more over the hole, gasped, and then reached it, retrieving one of the gold bars and holding it up to the light. ‘Is this real?’ he demanded breathlessly.

‘My hand got covered with a nasty rash after I held it in my hand to test its weight so yes, I think they’re all real.’ I wet my lips and realised that my heart was pounding hopefully. ‘There are thirty of them in total, and each one is stamped to say that it is one hundred grams. They’re all a bit dented and worse for wear as that one is, but they’re still worth something, right?’

‘You have thirty of these in here?’ Cairo was as white as a sheet. ‘Larkin, do you have any idea what that’s worth?’

I bit my lip. ‘Hundreds of thousands, I hope.’

‘Try just over two million dollars!’ Cairo put the bar down and grasped my shoulders over the hole, forgetting his strength in his exuberance and damn near lifting me off the ground. His smile was ear to ear, and my heart began to race with excitement- he really was as thrilled as I’d hoped he would be! ‘Where did you find this?’

‘Back in The Wastelands,’ I admitted, as Cairo pulled me across the void and onto his knee, which was bouncing happily. ‘Last summer, a group of us decided to go for a hike back the way we’d come, wanting to see how much of the land had changed thanks to Satan’s intervention. The wastelands had been covered in snow before, but it’s more like a marshland now thanks to the thaw, so there are a lot of ruins to explore. I think a harbour had been there once back in the time before, because there were a lot of rusted old boats lying around... but we found a truck buried in the mud that, although dented and ruined on the outside, seemed to be almost completely sealed shut. We were able to break into it, and that was where we found the gold, all packed away in odd little containers that were sealed too. There was other stuff in there too- some jewels that were mostly tarnished, some old guns that were completely ruined and a lot of pulpy stuff that Bastien said would have been paper money once-’

‘It was a secure truck- meant for transferring precious items,’ Cairo said quickly, and I nodded because that was the conclusion that we’d arrived at also.

‘Bastien said back in the olden days, humans used them all the time. Only it would have been rare to find one with bars of gold stored inside it, because those things rarely left their vaults.’

‘Someone would have been trying to transfer their riches to wherever they were while the world was falling apart,’ Cairo agreed. ‘Only they never received them. Wow.’ The pirate leaned over me, staring down into the safe again. ‘This is amazing, Larkin. I mean, I’ve heard of people finding more than this, but not often and not recently.’

‘And you really think it’s worth over two million dollars?’ I asked, and Cairo nodded quickly, squeezing me tightly.

‘At its current market value, maybe even more than that.’ He turned to me, grinning dopily but looking a lot more sober now. ‘This is quite a find, your highness. I could buy anything you desire for you now- and then some!’

‘I desire to repay you for the way you have helped me!’ I pointed out. ‘So tell me honestly: what was your treasury worth before you used your own money to make my ends meet? Is half of this going to be enough to square us off, or do you need more?’

Cairo drew back, eyebrows lifting. ‘You’re not serious! Larkin, I know you joked about giving me half of your finds before but that’s the most preposterous thing I’ve ever heard!’

‘Why?’ I demanded, tummy tightening at the way he accented my name. ‘You helped me get on my feet, didn’t you? I wouldn’t have had the time to go exploring The Wastelands in the first place, if you and your crews hadn’t returned to Raphael to help us construct everything we needed so! Hell, I’d still be trying to construct huts out of mud and sticks!’

‘That was not a million dollar’s worth of work-’

‘Actually, I think it was rather more than that,’ I said quickly. ‘Kohén might have left me out of important matters back in Eden in the end, but I read the newspapers, you know. If it cost the Barachiel treasury four million to construct Nitika in the desert, then this place is worth at least six; especially if you take the mines that you helped us establish into consideration.’

‘Satan did most of the hardest stuff though, and your people worked every bit as hard as mine did, and more constantly! Reward them.’

‘I do- every day of their lives.’ I cupped his face and forced him to look into my eyes. ‘Now I want to reward you.’ Cairo’s eyes dropped to my mouth and though I stiffened, I didn’t draw back. ‘No, I’m not going to reward you like that,’ I whispered, for I wasn’t going to give him a kiss as payment any faster than I would sell off the Barachiel diamonds because both acts were forms of prostitution in my eyes. ‘I want to do something for you that will improve the quality of your life, not complicate it further.’

Cairo looked down at my mouth again, then up to my eyes. ‘A freely given kiss from you would help me sleep at night… is that not improving the quality of my life?’

I drew back, making a face. ‘Are you seriously telling me that you’d trade a million dollars for a kiss from me?’

‘Are you seriously acting surprised, given how the last men that fell under your spell evidently traded eleven million dollars worth of diamonds for a lifetime with you?’

I scowled at Cairo, thinking of the crown that I only wore on formal occasions. ‘That wasn’t a sensible trade, you know.’

‘I concur.’ Cairo brushed my hair over my ear. ‘You’re worth so much more than that- you should have demanded a crown.’

I averted my eyes, not wanting to think about Karol’s engagement ring and of how close I had come to being offered the position of Crowned Princess of Arcadia. Cairo got a lot of updates about what was going on in Calliel, so I’d heard reports to indicate that Kohl was thriving in the Corps in Pacifica, that Karol was a very high-handed ruler and that Kohén had disappeared from the headlines completely… but I’d never heard the fact that Karol had been about to propose to me mentioned, so I assumed that it was being kept a secret by Karol, Ora, and whoever it was that he’d gone to for permission to marry me. And so long as they were keeping it a secret, so would I.

I suppose I could have raised hell in Arcadia and exposed the Barachiels for what they were if I spilled all of their secrets to every ship in Cairo’s fleet in the hopes of getting the rumour mill churning against them, but I’d held my tongue on the matter, even amongst my own people, because I knew that it would be easier to keep up the pretence that I was dead or at least, harmless, if the rumours that circulated about me and the Barachiel’s continued to be told from their point of view only without a counterpoint ever being made that could be traced back to Raphael. Yes it bothered me to know that they’d twisted around the entire situation to make it seem like it had been completely my fault, and it bothered me even more to know that Amelia-Rose and her father were living in Eden permanently now when she deserved to be rotting in jail, but revealing the sins that had been committed by Calliel’s so-called nobles would put my people in danger and that would bother me a hell of a lot more so I kept my mouth shut. A lot of people in Raphael still wanted to start a war with the rulers of Calliel one day, (once we were strong enough to do so) but a lot more didn’t, and so I took a lot of measures to keep my secrets and the peace; safe in the knowledge that the majority of Libertie’s citizens agreed that the best revenge was to live well.

For instance, everyone that entered Raphael had to be scanned by Sam when they departed to make sure that they had no intention of mentioning me and my kingdom to anybody, and every resident had memorised a ‘fake’ history of our city to offer as an explanation to anyone that might happen by, by chance. We had contingency plan after contingency plan in place- right down to emergency exits and weapon’s stores- and I’d even gone as far to decree that every building erected in Arcadia had to look rough and unfinished from above, just as the palace did, so that it would look more like ruins from the air than the blossoming Utopia that it was.

People had laughed when I’d ruled that, but a plane had flown overhead at the end of winter and it had put the fear of God into everyone- inspiring them to plant rooftop gardens and to build their various businesses into clearings that were nestled amidst leafy trees. Luckily for us, the entire region had been blanketed in snow so it and the heavy mist had hopefully concealed our roads, fields, and lake from above that morning, but none of us had slept very well until April, when three months had passed without another plane returning. If they’d seen us, they apparently hadn’t seen anything worth investigating and until I had an army of my own, I wanted to keep it that way.

Yes, I’d made a lot of progress with the land that Satan had defrosted for me, and I felt a little prouder every day about what I’d accomplished, but the fact that I’d built my kingdom upon a stack of favours kept me up at night the way Cairo swore that fantasies of kissing me did. The Captain was right to say that my people and I had worked hard to get Libertie to where it was, but how would we ever be able to feel truly proud of what we’d accomplished, knowing that Satan had done so much for us in the beginning, and that a gang of pirates had chipped in to help us finish off the rest since? It would be different if they lived here and got to reap what they’d helped us sow, but they’d done all that they had done for a slightly increased wage and their Captain’s respect, and I knew that they deserved more compensation than that.

Cairo frowned then, examining my face closely. ‘What’s going on in that head of yours, Larkin? I’ve told you that I want you to keep the money, so as the ruler of an independent nation, that offer ought to fill you with joy and relief because it will help you to provide for them for decades to come. Yet, you pucker your face like I have said something cruel…’ He tilted my face up to his, frowning. ‘Did I upset you by insinuating that your affection could be bought with money? By reminding you of how the Barachiel’s did the same?’ His brows nudged together. ‘Or were you hoping that by paying me off, you’d release yourself from the private transaction we made back when we first met?’

I sucked in a breath, meeting his gaze directly. ‘Cairo, no, I wouldn’t do that. I remember the transaction that you speak of, and I assure you that it has never occurred to me to try and weasel out of it.’

He raised an eyebrow, looking sceptical. ‘Really?’

‘Really,’ I insisted, for it was the truth. ‘I’ve made an arrangement like that before, and though I kicked myself for making it every day after, I swear to you that that is not how I feel about ours: If it ever occurs to me to get myself a romantic entanglement, I would be lucky, indeed, to have a man like yourself to get myself tangled up with, and I’m more than aware of that.’

Cairo’s face tightened as he searched my eyes again. ‘So you truly haven’t developed feelings for anyone else?’

I frowned. ‘Who on earth would I develop feelings for? All the boys here that are close to me in age treat me like I’m their boss not their peer and I’m glad for it, because I haven’t taken interest in any of them.’ I touched his face, puzzled by how relieved he looked. ‘Besides, every woman in the kingdom wants you, you know, and with good reason. I am afraid of falling in love and terrified of physical intimacy- but I’m not blind or stupid.’

‘Good,’ Cairo said shortly, making me laugh. ‘I’d hate to think that my considerable good qualities were completely lost on you.’

‘They’re not,’ I assured him, but then I bit my lip. ‘But I still want to repay you financially to make what is between us feel like more than a transaction, and I’m afraid that I will not be talked out of it. So you have two options- take at least half of these bars of gold off my hands, or know that I will get someone that is not allergic to them to dispense them between your men.’

Cairo snorted. ‘That’s not being generous- you know damn well it’ll all go back into your Inn.’

I sighed. ‘Then take it yourself!’

‘No.’

A frisson of irritation ran through me. ‘Take it yourself... or I’ll tell your men that you turned it down!’

‘Do that if you must- but I don’t think you’ll feel very good about yourself or your generosity after they beat me to a bloody pulp... do you?’

‘Right now I can’t say that I’d object to seeing your ass kicked!’

Cairo chuckled and pulled gently on my hair. ‘Go on then…’ he leaned his head into the crook of my shoulder and made a big deal of inhaling my scent. ‘Feed me to the wolves, your highness. In fact, I’ll throw myself at their fists, safe in the knowledge that you’ll feel so guilty after that you’ll probably come to my deathbed in order to kiss me goodbye…’

I tittered to think of how many men it would take to beat Cairo to death. ‘Are you sure you were born to be a pirate, and not an actor?’

Cairo looked up into my eyes, and his grey ones were soft and warm. ‘Which career is more likely to impress you? I’ll do whatever it takes.’

‘Neither. I’ve had my fill of men that are manipulative and overdramatic.’ I pushed him off me, and got to my feet, thinking the matter over. I had an idea, but it was making me tingle with dread and something else I wasn’t eager to label.

It’s only inevitable…. right? If I do it now, I’m lighting a fuse, of sorts. But the longer the fuse goes unlit, the more explosive the whole situation is becoming...

‘What?’ Cairo asked, his tone guarded. ‘What’s going on?’

‘I’m just thinking…’ I walked to the edge of the terrace, stared down at where the Artisan dancers were putting on a scarf dance for the sailors that were enjoying their dinner out on the common, and then turned back to Cairo, smiling over how easy it was for a woman to work a man into a malleable lump by popping her hip suggestively. Back in Eden, I’d resented my so-called ‘gift,’ but I’d been trying to own my beauty since Cairo and I had met, as Sam had suggested, and I’d discovered that the things that made a woman weak in a man’s eyes were precisely what challenged a man’s strengths.

‘About…?’

‘What if I agreed to kiss you in exchange for you taking the money, right here, right now?’ I asked softly, and Cairo stood up so fast that he thunked his head on a rotted, low-hanging beam.

‘Can you say that again please?’ Cairo stepped out of the small tower, rubbing his head and squinting at me in suspicion. I felt for him because a hit like that would have put out my lights, but it was only my empathy that forced me to hold back a triumphant smile. ‘Because it sounded like you just offered to give me the kiss I’ve been dreaming of for the past two years and a cash bonus- and that’s just insane.’

‘It’s not insane,’ I said, my lungs and throat tightening as he closed the gap that I’d opened between us. I cocked my head to the side, allowing my hair to fall over one shoulder so that it would be stained by the last, pinkish rays of the sun and so it would most certainly bring out my eyes. ‘I’m very proud and ambitious, Captain Kingslater, and I want to be able to look back on the establishment of this kingdom and know that even though I accepted help from outsiders, I was able to compensate them in return- to stand on my own. I’ll never be able to undo or outdo what my mother did for me when she built this place, and that’s a hard enough pill to swallow on its own… but I can repay you now, and I desperately want to.’ Cairo was still creeping up on me and the closer he got, the more I had to lift my head in order to hold his gaze. That was intimidating, but I help my ground and craned my neck accordingly. ‘So if you’re willing to give up the white knight shtick and actually admit that you could use the money- that I can help you in some way- I’ll help you sleep at night as well.’

All of the softness had left Cairo’s eyes, and now they were as hard and as glittering as chrome. ‘I told you that I don’t count myself as one of the good guys, your highness.’ He caught my hair between two of his fingers and gently slid it down, tugging on it so gently that my scalp tingled. ‘I’ve done all I have done for you in the hopes of winning your favour- and your powerful mother’s- with it. It’s a manipulation, straight up, and I expect it to pay off considerably one day. So why would I want to waive my right to be called your hero, when I enjoy playing the part so much?’

‘Because you know that I’ll never fall in love with you, so long as I feel obligated to, or paid for,’ I whispered, pressing my hands against his chest and feeling downright cocky when I felt how hard his heart was pounding. ‘And because agreeing to my terms will give you what you really want…’ I stretched up and whispered: ‘My lips, on yours right now...’

I felt a shudder go through the massive pirate, as his arms clasped my hips. ‘If we do this…’ his voice was strained, his expression agonised. ‘If we connect… it’s going to change things between us, you know that, right? Get me as addicted to the taste of your lips as I am to your redolent scent, and I’ll probably never pull up my anchor again.’

I did know that, and my hands were trembling, but I wet my lips and ever-so-gently nudged the bulge between Cairo’s legs with one of my thighs under the pretence of shifting my weight, and smiled inwardly when I saw his jaw knot. ‘How can you be so certain of that?’ I whispered, pulling out every doe-eyed, lash-fluttering, lip-trembling Companion trick in the book. ‘Maybe I’m a horrible kisser.’

Cairo’s eyes slitted. ‘I suppose there’s only one way to find out.’

He’s so big! I thought, mindful of the fact that what I’d ‘accidentally’ bumped into, had been about the length of my forearm. So strong. If he loses control...

But I smiled coquettishly. ‘There is- and if you want to find out, you’d better agree to my terms, Captain Kingslater, before I rescind the offer. Take half off the money and invest it back into your Armada, and we’ll seal the deal with a kiss.’

Cairo did not take his eyes off my mouth as he whispered brokenly: ‘You have your deal, you manipulative brat…’ he wet his own lips while I went limp with relief. ‘Though I can’t help but feel like I’ve been duped, and that this is your clever way of getting kissed without admitting that you want it as bad as I do.’

I looked up into his eyes. ‘Does that upset you?’ I demanded softly as I wrapped my arms around his neck and willed the knots in my stomach to dissipate. ‘To know that I’ve been fantasising about your mouth on mine all winter?’

‘Oh sweet Jesus…’ Cairo groaned and moved one hand up to cup the back of my neck, and I knew that he was lost to himself. ‘How long do I get to kiss you for?’

My wings coiled tightly, preparing themselves to burst free, but I was light-headed from arousal all the same. ‘Until it becomes something that we can’t handle,’ was my breathless return, and then the pirate captain was crushing his mouth against mine and I was holding onto him like a drowning woman.

30.

Libertie City, Raphael

Larkin Aztaroth

For so long as I’d feared that the chemistry between Cairo and I was completely dependant on the anticipation that kept it from becoming anything real, but as soon as his mouth slanted against mine, I knew that he and I were more than a little compatible. I could not compare the kiss to any that I’d had before because the circumstances and the man that I was kissing this time were completely different to the others, and the feel of his beard against my sensitive skin was strange and unfamiliar... but within seconds the movement of his lips against mine went from being tentative and exploratory to messy and desperate, and my emotions mimicked that raw beauty.

I can’t handle him… I realised, my fingers twining through his hair as his curled into fists in mine. He’s not even a Nephilim and yet I feel completely overpowered!

And I was. Cairo Kingslater was not a prince that had been raised to ‘woo’ a woman with a gentle touch and a polite approach, but a rule-breaking, lustful barbarian that took what he wanted when it occurred to him to want it without apologising after, and that was how he kissed me. He did not play with my face or stroke my hair and back the way Kohén had- he twisted me away from the ledge, backed me into the tower and slammed me up against the wall so hard that the entire thing shook, showering us with a coat of dust and crumbling stone. I groaned as the movement caused the bulge between his legs to press into the apex of my thighs and through my skirts, and although that changed the intention of the kiss, it ignited my body from the inside out with a blistering heat that must have raised my body temperature considerably because Cairo grunted and ran his hand down the back of my shoulders.

‘You’re so fucking hot,’ he gasped, before swirling his tongue around mine and squeezing my buttocks through my skirts before he hitched one of my knees around his waist, ‘and sweet.’ He slid his tongue against mine as he claimed my mouth again, massaging it so deeply that my sex spasmed in response. I wasn’t getting kissed- Cairo was fucking me with his mouth and I was more than willing to surrender myself to it because I hadn’t felt that alive in years. He tasted like wine- a perfect mix of sweet and bitter, and when he pulled his mouth back, softening the kiss somewhat, I mewled and kissed him back aggressively, taking advantage of the opportunity that every woman in Libertie would have gladly traded a limb for, by sliding my hands down his chest and to his stomach. I moaned when I felt his prominent abdominal muscles fill the palms of my hands even through his linen shirt, and I probably would have started tearing off his buttons so that I could caress them more intimately, but Cairo chuckled then, making them tense in my hands.

‘It’s becoming something we can’t handle,’ he whispered hoarsely, lacing his gigantic fingers between mine and squeezing my hand in warning. ‘I want to respect your boundaries, your highness, but the feel of your hands on my skin is-’ he groaned when I slid my other hand under the tail of his shirt and caressed the chiselled ridges of his lower back.

‘Sorry… but you’re just so perfect...’ I whispered, parting his lips gently with my own and capturing his erotic sigh. I couldn’t believe how perfectly at ease I felt to be in his arms, and I supposed that was because for once, I had been the one to initiate the intimacy. Also, it didn’t hurt to know that if he went too far, my escape was only a flap of my wings away. ‘In every way.’

‘Stop!’ he pleaded. ‘I’ve never been this hard before in my life!’ he grasped my face and looked me square in the eye, panting when he asked: ‘Perhaps being aroused by me is a new experience for you, but I’ve been besotted with you since the moment I first saw you-’

‘So was I,’ I admitted, caressing his jaw. ‘Before we spoke, when I saw you in the mist…’ I smiled bashfully. ‘I thought you were God in those first few moments... did I ever tell you that?’

‘What?’ Cairo hissed, pulling back, grey eyes wide with shock.

I nodded, giggling gently. ‘You were just standing there in the snow, and even though you didn’t know it, I was on my knees before you, gazing up at a being so divine that I thought you were heaven sent,’ I leaned in and kissed his lips gently before I whispered: ‘and now that I know that you are exactly that, I don’t see how I can be expected to fight my attraction to you anymore. I want you to take me back to my bed and-’

‘Larkin, stop.’ Cairo’s voice wasn’t angry or hostile, but it was cool enough to snap me out of my trance. He put me gently down on the floor and backed away, holding up his hands, and for a moment he looked so like Karol in those last few awful minutes in the tower that my stomach twisted. ‘I can’t hear these things, all right? You’re killing me.’

I pressed my hand to my wildly hammering heart. ‘What things?’ my voice pitched somewhat shrilly. ‘You’ve been asking me for two years to say such things- to admit that I am falling for you! Was it a game? To bring Satan’s daughter to a heel-’

‘I love you, Larkin Aztaroth, and nothing would give me greater pleasure than to hear that you feel the same!’ Cairo twisted away from me, raking his hands through his hair, and it was only then that I realised that I’d pulled it out of its ribbon so that it was hanging sexily around his shoulders. ‘But if you believe that I am like a God or a Saint or have anything in common with such entities, you are surely mistaken: both in your impressions of me, and of the feelings that they have evoked within you.’ He looked back at me, holding out his hands. ‘You are Satan’s daughter yes, but you are the kindest, most generous, fairest and humane soul that I have ever met. I mean, you’ve already been through hell and back- your soul is as pure as a newborn babe’s is!’ he rubbed at his face before he looked up at me, and when he did, I saw how exhausted he was. ‘But I am a pirate, Larkin. I have been good to you, but only because there was something in it for me, and we both know that. That’s not usually my way though, make no mistake of it. I have been cruel to others- vicious even- and I won’t hear that you are falling for me until you know that it is me you are actually falling for. Me with all of my sins and baggage and…’ he leaned back against the tower wall and kicked the trap door shut with a crack that made us both grimace, ‘my criminal history. Do you have any idea how quickly the old me would have slit your throat for that gold or the diamonds on your crown if you weren’t so goddamned kind and desirable?’

I swallowed hard. ‘You’re a good man now, Cairo, and my kingdom’s treasures are safe in your hands. Everybody thinks so, and even if you have committed a few sins, I’m sure that you’ve atoned for them by now with all the good things you have done for us, yes?’

Cairo scowled at me. ‘All you did was make love before you were married and tell a handful of white lies to save other people... and yet your father tells me that you practically imploded from the guilt that plagued you after. So how am I to expect that you’ll forgive me for the atrocities that I have committed, when I know that you couldn’t even forgive yourself for a few misdemeanours?’

I arched an eyebrow. ‘I watched a girl get murdered by the twins and never told a soul. That’s a bit more than a misdemeanour, don’t you think?’

Cairo met my challenging glare with a look of derision. ‘I slaughtered an entire family by myself, Larkin- in one night. And not only did I take a lot of pleasure in ending all seven lives, but I felt no remorse after- not then, and not even now, though I know that my soul has been stained forever by my actions.’

Seven people? A whole family? I knew that I must have gone as white as a sheet because Cairo’s expression flattened out in defeat. ‘Wh-why did you do that? Were they pirates or-’

‘No, they were nobles from Janiel. My friends and neighbours… a family that I’d once hoped to marry into one day…’ He sat back on the squat brick edge behind him- the remnants of the opposite wall of the tower- and glowered at me. ‘They were Iana’s family, Larkin- and I killed almost every last one of them.’

The sky was darkening, and the wind suddenly felt so cool that I inched to the right so that my back was against the very wall that Cairo had pinned me to just moments ago. I was shocked by Cairo’s revelation, but I was not as inclined to judge him for what he’d done as he’d obviously assumed that I would be, because I knew that he’d loved his Iana, and wouldn’t have hurt anyone that loved her without good cause.

‘What did they do to her?’ I asked softly, and something inside Cairo relaxed a little. I scratched at my jaw a little, and knew instantly that his facial hair had irritated my skin. ‘I must have all the facts.’

Cairo crossed his arms across his chest and stared down into the safe with a pinched expression, and I knew that he was staring into his past. ‘I grew up believing that my aunt and uncle were my real parents, as did everybody in Janiel, and so I was treated like a noble child every day of my life. I had the best education, I went on wonderful trips, I got to rub elbows with other noble children...and at my side, always, was my neighbour, Iana Selimpor.’ He smiled gently. ‘She was the only girl my age in our entire neighbourhood, and so we grew to be the best of friends. She kissed me when we were four, and I told her that I would marry her when we were five. We told everyone, and no one doubted it. When they laughed, it was in fond agreement, because she and I were like two halves of a whole.’ My chest grew tight, because I’d had a bond like that with someone once- or so I’d thought. ‘When my father came for me, he pretended to be a wealthy benefactor. Everyone was told that I was being sent to New Rome for an advanced education, and because he was afraid of being exposed, I only had just under an hour to pack and accept the news. I ran out my window and told Iana and we wept, but there was nothing to be done about it. We were torn apart under the pretence that I would return soon, but it wasn’t until we were sailing away that Captain Kingslater admitted the truth; that I would never live in Janiel again: that I was an orphan from a pirate wench that he’d sneaked into Janiel. He claimed that she’d owed him a debt when she’d perished, and because it wasn’t uncommon for sailors to weasel spies in lawful society, he’d sneaked me in to be raised by his sister. I’d get to keep the name I’d been using for years: Cairo Fischer, and I’d even get to return to Janiel for visits so that I could serve his purposes- but first I needed to be made into a man.’

‘So that’s why you ended up being shipped from one colony to the other in various parts of the world?’ I asked.

Cairo nodded. ‘My upbringing was harsh compared to that of Blue Collar children because I worked all day long, but there were wonderful moments too. When I flip through my memories, I see that I have seen and done things that no one else has ever been lucky enough to experience, and I thank my father for giving me that life even if it came with a lot of hard work, even if some of the things that he did did not always sit well with me.’ He sighed. ‘But I never stopped longing for Iana. I was allowed to visit her three times over the course of the next seven years and every time I went I was scrubbed off, dressed up and sent back into Callielian society like a trophy of accomplishment. I’d grown taller and stronger than the others by twelve, could speak several languages, and so I was the envy of every other boy my age. My aunt and uncle were congratulated for seeing to my education so thoroughly, and Iana’s parents made it clear that as soon as I was old enough to settle down, they’d agree to a marriage between Iana and I. Not a joining- an actual marriage, and though Iana and I should have been a bit bewildered by that, we were not. We still loved one another, you see, and time had done nothing to diminish that.’ He smiled sadly. ‘She was so beautiful, Larkin. At first glance she was quiet and shy and well-mannered, and I always came across as being the outgoing one. But the truth was that she had a mischievous streak that was beyond compare. The craziest things we ever did together were her suggestion, and even at the age of six, she had me skipping class so that we could go on adventures. When we were caught I’d take the fall and be chastened about being a bad influence on sweet little Iana, but we weren’t caught very often because of her genius scheming.’ He was glowing so much that it was as though the last of the sunset was being channelled through him. ‘Her looks left me breathless too. Her hair was black and curly and thick, and her eyes were the lightest shade of violet…’ He looked up at me. ‘That was what first dropped me to my knees when I saw you, you know- your violet eyes. I’d never seen another pair that shade since I last saw her…’ he shrugged. ‘I figured it was a sign that we are destined to be together, and I still haven’t been convinced otherwise.’

I hugged myself, not exactly thrilled to learn that he’d been drawn to me because of the colour of my eyes, for that was surface appeal that spoke less about his feelings for me, and more about the fact that he hadn’t gotten over her. Besides, my eyes still changed colour all the time, and I could count on one hand the amount of times that I’d seen them look truly ‘violet’.

On top of that, I was more than a little bit jealous. His description of Iana’s nature had called to mind memories of Ora Camden, who I dearly missed but had always envied. I’d have given anything to be thought of as a fun and mischievous free spirit, but I was the exact opposite of those kinds of girls, which made me wonder if Cairo really did love me, or if he’d just talked himself into believing that he did. But: ‘Go on,’ was all I said, scratching at my jaw again, wondering if it was the beard that had irritated me, or the fact that he’d handled the gold before handling me.

‘Anyway…’ Cairo sighed heavily, and most of that light that had been radiating from inside him became muted. ‘Time passed and my life changed. I was taken onto my father’s ship, told the complete truth, and then orphaned before I’d had the chance to come to terms with any of it. I was already acting as the captain but only his crew knew it, and when I was sixteen, I returned to Janiel again. Everything was the same at first, but Iana saw that something inside me had changed and asked me to bear my soul to her- so I confessed it all.’

I cringed. ‘And she told her family?’

But Cairo shook his head, and his sentimental smile returned along with the faraway look in his eyes. ‘She was excited, Larkin. She’d always dreamed of travelling the world, and couldn’t imagine a more thrilling existence then as a pirate’s wife.’ He reddened then. ‘Her passionate response- her complete acceptance of me- knocked me off my feet, and as though I hadn’t already been feeling seven feet tall-’

‘Aren’t you seven feet tall?’ I interrupted, and he snorted gently.

‘Six-seven, actually… but I was only five-nine then, and her devotion robbed me of my senses. Evidently she felt the same because we, well…that night...’ he looked uncomfortable, and I held up my hand.

‘It’s fine, Cairo, I understand what happened next.’

‘Um, okay…’ he shot me an embarrassed look, and I knew that he was now feeling as uncomfortable with the subject matter as I was. ‘We thought we were careful, but we weren’t careful enough. I had to leave the next day and all was well, but when I returned three months later…well, she’d gotten plumper, mostly around the waist.’

‘Oh.’ I pressed my hands to my face and squinted at him through my fingers. ‘Oh no…’

He nodded, and shadows had come to his eyes now. ‘I was panicked, but thrilled. I took it as a sign that we were to commence our new lives together that night, and made plans to take her along with me so that we could be married by a Shep in Asiana at once.’

‘If she wanted to be married by a Shep, then she worshipped God, yes?’ I asked, confused.

Cairo nodded. ‘As did I. Our thoughts about him differed a little, but both of us were certain that being married and raising children together was exactly what God wanted from us, so we were determined to do it right. We behaved normally that first day, and her family treated me as they always had… but when I went off to make her travel arrangements, her older brother followed me without my knowing it.’ Cairo’s eyes narrowed. ‘He was always the funny one, and I don’t mean to say that he had a good sense of humour- he was two years older than me, and the bigger and stronger and more educated I became, the more resentful he got. His parents had always doted on me like I was one of their own and he was jealous of that too, and I don’t suppose he looked forward to the idea of always living his life under the shadow of mine. Or his sister’s actually- because she was such a lovely singer that King Bronx had already had her perform for the court three times in an official capacity.

Benjamin was quite handsome, but all he could do was wrestle and he didn’t excel at it. He desperately wanted to qualify for the Athletic caste, but he only just made it into an apprenticeship when he was seventeen, and the harder he trained, the more apparent it became that he was never going to do better than fourth place… so as his hopes began to decay, so did his character.’

My gut flipped again. So Iana had been as beautiful and as talented as Kelia, but with Ora’s carefree nature? Jesus Christ, I hadn’t even locked in one major talent yet, unless you included knife throwing… what the hell did he see in me? I definitely felt like a ‘Benjamin’ in comparison to Iana!

‘Anyway, I went down to the dock to organise passage for Iana on one of the finer ships, and Benjamin overheard me referred to as ‘Captain Kingslater’, which he went back and reported to his family at once. As soon as I’d finished making the arrangements, I returned to Iana’s family’s home and prepared myself to wow them with a lie to say that I’d gotten her a singing apprenticeship in Queen Selafiel’s court… but I was only a few words into it when Iana’s father Lauren told me to stop lying because they knew everything,’ he paused to wet his lips. ‘I knew that we were in deep trouble, but I didn’t realise how bad it was until Benjamin got up and started screaming at me- saying that as soon as people found out that she was carrying a Kingslater bastard, she’d been tried and branded for promiscuity, and the entire family would be ruined by association anyway. He said that he wasn’t going to lose his only chance at attaining an athletic scholarship because his sister was about to be regarded as a pirate’s whore, and threatened to slit both of our throats on the spot if their father didn’t immediately make arrangements to have the pregnancy aborted. I saw red and stepped forward to knock his lights out, but Iana being Iana… she raced forward to wallop him first.’ Cairo’s voice broke. ‘He grabbed her and threw her Larkin- clear across the room.’

‘Oh my god!’ I wanted to rush forward to comfort Cairo, but I stopped immediately when I saw him throw up his hands in a defensive gesture, and that was when I saw that they were trembling with rage. ‘Cairo-’

‘That would have hurt her enough as it was, and possibly would have killed our child because of the force that he hurtled her at the wall with...’ he went on quietly, ‘but she missed the wall and went right into the fireplace, which was both sizeable and alight.’

A moan escaped me and I clutched my stomach, feeling every drop of my own fiery power freeze into ice in my veins. ‘No.’

‘She was wearing a beautiful gown,’ Cairo whispered, ‘one that she’d put on to look her prettiest for me, and it and her hair went up in an instant, making her scream and…’ he dropped his face into his hands. ‘I ran towards her to help, but Benjamin yelled out to everyone to grab me, and I guess they were too panicked and at a loss for anything else to do, because they decided to go along with his plan. Her uncle and her two male cousins, Arlo and Jacque, ran at me, along with Iana’s father, and Benjamin…’ his fingers curled into claws around his kneecaps. ‘He went over and hit Iana across the back of her head with the fire poker- knocking her out just to silence her screams. Then, he came after me with it.’

Tears were pooling in my eyes- I’d never heard such a dreadful story, not in my whole life! ‘So you’re telling me that four male relatives of hers opted to wrestle you into submission instead of helping their own kin?’

Cairo traced the pad of his thumb along the edge of his lower lashes, flicking away a tear. ‘Exactly. Her mother and aunt could have come to her assistance while I was fighting off the men, but her mother fainted from fright, and her aunt ran after her youngest son, Teddy, chasing him from the room to spare him the sight of his beautiful cousin being burned alive, and to safeguard him from me, which was laughable because I’d yet to cause anyone any harm.’ His voice was low and raspy now: ‘I tried to get to her Larkin, I swear it- but there were too many of them, and I was only sixteen years old!’ he shuddered. ‘I won’t go into detail about what happened next, but the men holding me were too soft and disorganised to hold me for long, as most nobles are, and as soon as I got my hand on the handle of my sword, every one of them was done for. I was lost to myself, and I behaved rather brutally, but my true love had just died a ghastly death because of them and my unborn child had perished with her- a child that would have been loved unlike any other.’ He shielded his eyes with his hand, like he didn’t want to feel my gaze on him as he concluded his tale: ‘When the women worked out that I’d overpowered the others, they tried to run for it, screaming for help and threatening to tell the world who I was, and I couldn’t allow them to expose my father’s death like that, so I ended them too. I didn’t hit them very hard though, and later on I found out that they’d died from smoke inhalation rather than blunt force trauma.’

I winced. ‘Teddy too?’

But Cairo looked up at me then, his eyes clear and earnest as he shook his head, and I loosed the breath I’d been holding. ‘No. No, he was only a child of ten, and the teeniest little wisp of a boy you’d ever see! I heard him crying in the pantry, and I told him that I was going through the open kitchen window and that if he wanted to live, he better follow me through it.’ He rubbed his hands down his face, looking chagrined. ‘I also might have mentioned that if he ever told anybody ANYTHING that he’d heard that night, I’d send every ship in my fleet back to hunt him down and kill him- even if it was twenty years from then. It was a horrible thing to do, I know, because he was so young and soft in nature… but I didn’t want the world to find out that there was a new Captain Kingslater or that Iana had been pregnant, so I scared the life out of him and from what I can tell, it paid off. Iana has been remembered as a sweet, pure virgin that was kidnapped from her family home, and no one knows why the Selimpor’s were massacred after- only that Cairo Fischer must have done it because he and his family vanished without a trace that night and haven’t been seen since.’

‘You took them all with you?’

He nodded. ‘I wrapped Iana in a blanket to smother the last of the flames, and then carried her out into the night. Our street was very close to the harbour, and my fake parents had been prepared to make an emergency exit with Iana and I that night anyway, so by the time the fire was out and the bodies were found, we were on my ship and headed into open waters.’ He sat up and punched one fist into the palm of his other hands. ‘And we haven’t been back since. I buried Iana at sea that first night, and I was a shell of a man for the next two years- until I tried to take my life, and Satan intervened, promising me that I would know true happiness and a love that would eclipse what I’d had with Iana, if only I would find a way to forge an expedition north.’ His face twitched in a sad smile. ‘The next day I turned eighteen, was gifted The Iana, and declared to be the true Pirate Captain of my father’s entire Armada. I remained miserable, but I clung to Satan’s promise like a light at the end of the tunnel, and just when I thought that I’d been well and truly exploited…’ his grey eyes lifted to mine, softer now- dreamily framed by his beautiful, gold-tipped lashes, ‘there you were… my true love, burning with life as brightly as my Iana had burned in death. How could I have seen anything but a new beginning?’

My brows drew together. ‘Cairo…’ I couldn’t think of the right thing to say, so I tried again. ‘You-’

‘Oh God…’ Cairo rested his elbows on his knees and tented his finger over his mouth and knows, staring up at me with fear. ‘I’ve repulsed you, haven’t I?’

I shook my head hard enough to snap it off my neck. ‘N-no!’ I curled my fingers into the wall behind me, feeling heavy and disjointed. ‘I care for you, very deeply, and that story… it has not changed how I feel for you, not even a little.’

He cringed. ‘Yes well, I left out the parts about how I killed them, and of what I did in the next two years with a heart of steel that convinced three hundred men that they were safer under my flag then on the other side of it… but I can swear to you that I haven’t taken another life since, except in self defence.’

‘I don’t care about that stuff, I swear it,’ I insisted, before biting my lip. ‘But the depth of your devotion to your Iana troubles me, and I cannot deny that.’ I let go of the wall and took a step towards him as he rose, looking bewildered. ‘How can I believe that anything that you claim to feel for me is real, or that you’re not just transferring what you felt for her to me… when it’s clear that you are still in love with her?’

Cairo frowned, and it made him look even handsomer because his eyebrows and cheeks slanted at the same sharp angle, displaying the perfect symmetry of his facial features. He caught my chin with his fist and lifted my eyes to his.

‘This isn’t about how much I love you, Larkin… this is about how undeserving you feel of love, and how little faith you have in it now. If you knew yourself- if you saw yourself the way the rest of us do- you would see that it is impossible not to adore you.’ He brought me closer and gently kissed the tip of my nose. ‘You have not replaced her in my heart and I would not expect you to believe me if I claimed otherwise. My heart has simply grown bigger since we met, so there’s room inside it for the way I feel for you and the cherished memories that I have of her. She will always be with me here-’ he gently placed his other hand against his heart. ‘But it is you that I know that I want at my side now. I was turned to ashes when she caught on fire, but when I saw you blazing with those violet eyes, I was cleansed by it.’

I dropped my eyes again. ‘I know that you believe that and I’m sorry for letting us down by being so pessimistic about it all... but it was hard enough for me to think of myself as a person deserving of such a man’s love before I heard you explain what Iana was like- and how different she was from me.’ I sniffled, lifting my eyes to his again. ‘I want to see where this goes between us, I do! But I’m terrified because every man I’ve ever heard declare his love for me has turned against me, eventually! And the sweetest ones turned the sharpest. I can’t get hurt like that again, Cairo. I just…’ I sobbed and leaned against him, shaking. ‘I fear that once you work out that I can’t replace her, you’ll turn on me too. So I’m hesitant to begin a romance with you, because so long as it has not started, it cannot end. Does that make sense?’

Cairo pulled me into him, clasping my hands in one of his as he cupped the back of my head with the other. ‘I do, Larkin, and if that’s what you need to feel secure until you have dealt with your own past, then this is how we shall stay: as two friends that are falling towards one another, instead of as two lovers that might soon be ripped apart.’

I felt my being flood with relief. ‘Really? But we just… that kiss was-’

‘That kiss is going to happen a lot, you’re right about that. You’re going to get kissed so often and so passionately that your lips are going to be bruised. However,’ he held up a finger, eyes sparkling. ‘I won’t expect anything from you beyond that, Lark. I said I was willing to wait for years if that was what it took for you to heal, and that will not change. It’s going to be harder for me though, so because I am willing to grant you a stay of execution from matters of the heart… I hope that there is something you are willing to do for me, in order to keep my own insecurities at bay?’

‘Anything,’ I assured him, and he smiled.

‘Anything including letting me build a harbour here for my entire fleet, now that I can apparently afford it?’

I sucked in a breath. ‘You’d all move here… permanently?’

‘The ocean will still call to me, but after I answer it, this will be the home I return to, yes. Not just for me, but for all of my men and their families.’ He traced the rash on my face with his fingertips, and I shivered. ‘It’s something I’ve thought about every day since we sailed away the first time, because your harbour is not only massive, but it is even better concealed than my current one is. I thought it would take me a decade to save up the money it would cost me to instigate such a migration, but if you really plan on giving me half, then I can’t think of a better way to invest it, can you?’ His eyes shone as he ran his fingers down the side of my neck. ‘We’d have a haven that no other ship in the world has come close to discovering, an actual city to call home and you, Queen Aztaroth, would have an actual navy at your disposal.’ He licked his lips again. ‘So… what do you say?’

My heart was racing with excitement and fear, but my dread hadn’t yet left me. Cairo had spilled all of his secrets to me, but I was still holding a few of my own close to my heart, and one of them was awful enough to deny him access to my heart, and I couldn’t allow it to stay between us another second longer.

‘I…’ I clasped my hands to my chest. ‘I… I wasn’t just traumatised in Eden, Cairo, and you need to know that. I’m afraid to be held by a man for long, that’s true, but that fear was instilled in me by Kohl Barachiel, not Kohén.’ My eyes burned hotly. ‘I loved Kohén, very deeply, right to the last moment of his last life. He was my master yes, and my captor- but he was also my best friend, and I’m afraid that he broke my heart so badly that I’ll never recover from it enough to love you the way that you deserve to be loved.’ Tears slipped down my cheeks as Cairo’s eyes flashed, wounded. ‘That’s why I swore off matters of the heart… I simply could not imagine ever feeling as strongly for anyone as I did for him.’

‘Is that still how you feel?’ Cairo asked gruffly, clasping my wrists and pulling me closer to him, and he was flushed red with arousal. ‘Are you looking into my eyes, and wishing I were him?’

‘No,’ I whispered, shaking my head as my appetency for him caused my mind to start spinning again. I opened my hands and curled my fingers up in the soft fabric of his shirt, pulling him closer. ‘No you’re the better man, and there’s nothing in the world that I want more than to fall desperately in love with you!’ I leaned up and nuzzled my nose against his, gently dragging my lips against his. ‘And nothing more that I want right now than to feel you inside me. I just don’t know how to ask for what I want after so many years of convincing myself that it’s the last thing that I need.’

Cairo groaned, and I felt his need for me pressing against the place where I needed to feel him the most. ‘Are you asking me to rob you of your senses, my Queen?’ He slipped his tongue between my lips, parting them, as one of his hands began to gently rake the soft fabric of my skirts up my thigh. ‘To push through your… inhibitions?’ His finger left my skin and gently rubbed against my sex through my underwear, making me gasp. Too out of my mind to do anything but throb all over, I nodded, opening my mouth to accept his tongue completely. He tangled it around mine and gently dipped his finger inside me while he grunted, making me cream. I couldn’t think ‘Oh God!’ and I wasn’t about to think ‘Oh Satan!’ so I moaned and let my knee fall open more, welcoming my sailor home. ‘Are you sure?’ Cairo gasped, retreating his finger a little and making me sob. ‘I’m a big man you know, and this is such a hot, tight little-’

‘Cairo!’ I pleaded, reaching down and pressing his hand into me again, and he shuddered before wrenching himself away from me. ‘Please-’

‘Good!’ But Cairo removed his hands from my body and cupped my face instead, grey eyes sparkling as he whispered: ‘Then let the courtship begin as it ought to between soul mates: with romance, patience and respect for one another’s boundaries.’

Then his lips were on mine again, more gentle than before but more erotic for it. It was frustrating but still lovely and I sighed, letting my arousal wash through me as his fingers threaded between mine. This time, the kiss felt less like falling into a cloud of lust, and more like falling in love, which was still not what I wanted, but probably the very thing that I needed- and the only way that I was going to get closure for my feelings for Kóhen.

31.

Arcadian Barracks, City Of Arcadia

Karol Barachiel

I spent the remainder of Monday night buried in my cot in the barracks and shooing off all of the people that wanted to pepper me with questions about my reunion with my brother. Saul-Yin had come back long before me and had reported everything that she’d seen and heard, of course, but I’d only had the briefest moment with her before I was marched off to be whipped to explain the mission that we’d been charged with to her, so naturally there were more questions about the mission than there were about my punishment.

No one was too concerned about my welfare because they’d all seen me return looking perfectly fine if not a bit drowsy, and had just assumed that I’d had a healer work a miracle on me. And to be honest- that sort of bugged me because in any other caste (or division) the fact that I’d just received ten lashings would have guaranteed me a few extra smokes and a lot of awe and sympathy, especially in Division one where they counted removing a splinter as an act of bravery.

But I was with the other kind of Callielian citizens now- the hardened ones- and because there were only two guards amongst us that hadn’t been whipped before, they were less than staggered by my ordeal. Saul-Yin had received thirty lashings once, Theodore had taken fifty the year before when he’d been only sixteen, and Jent had lost count of how many times he’d been whipped in general, so the fact that I’d only been given ten lashings and had been healed directly after had apparently only further cemented the fact that I was a spoiled brat with them, at least when I was at home. In fact, the only thing that did get them riled up on my behalf was the notion that I’d been subjected to those lashings because my elder brother was an even bigger spoiled brat that didn’t have the balls to fight me like a man when it was clear that that was what he wanted to do.

That’s right… I’d thought, rubbing my face with my hands and groaning in response to the ribbing I was copping about my ‘pretty’ lavender scent. Give me hell! I’m too beastly for the palace, but not beastly enough for the army! When am I EVER going to find somewhere that I fit in without being the butt of some joke?

I wasn’t too bothered by their teasing though, because I knew that I would have given any one of them a similar amount of grief if I’d had the chance, because that was simply how we bonded in the barracks. And after I threw my alarm clock at Clay’s head, the others realised they weren’t going to have a healer handy to cure them of whatever wounds their Guardian inflicted upon them, so they stopped giving me a hard time about my lack of battle-scars (and I actually had quite a lot of the ‘real’ kind) and started in on me about the Northern expedition.

I repeated to them what I’d already said to Karol as I began to check out of consciousness, and though everyone claimed that they were going to ride back to the palace just so they could tell my brother to go fuck himself and his mission, when I woke up in the morning I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I had nine willing volunteers who valued money and honour more than they valued their lives. It was only half of my division but to my relief, they were most of the strongest ones- all except Monty Plath, who said he was going to spend the wage that he had already earned in one of the city’s harems until we got back, and that he wasn’t the least bit sorry about it because quote: ‘Like a hot Satan fuck am I going to hunt bear instead of Arcadian beaver.’ End quote.

Each to their own. After my close brush with an Arcadian Beaver the night before, I was personally more willing to embrace a bear. The only positive thing that had come from my time with Amelia-Rose was the fact that she’d officially taken the wind out of my sails; I probably wouldn’t fantasise about sex for a week and wasn’t jealous of Monty’s itinerary at all.

So, despite the fact that my back was still aching and that I’d barely slept for nightmares of getting whipped and then healed, I started rallying my troops as soon as the sun rose, confident that a party of nine was all that was needed to fulfil the third division’s obligations, and relieved that more hadn’t volunteered because that meant that I was less likely to get my entire squad killed.

Arcadia had always run the Corps in a military-like manner, so there had already been a barracks in every major city in Calliel to accommodate the caste before AA644, including two major ones in Pacifica and Rachiel, which had served as on and offshore headquarters. However, the amount of enlisted citizens within the caste had almost doubled after Karol had created the Royal International Defence Force, so major changes had been made to the way things were run.

The biggest change was the fact that Atticus Hartley had lost most of his authority over the military. He’d originally been promoted from General of the Pacifican fleet to Prime Minister because ninety-five percent of the citizens in Pacifica had been Corps recruits anyway, and because at the time, seventy percent of our Corps caste had been stationed there so it made sense that the person in charge of them ought to just be put in charge of everything.

But although he’d been offered the promotion to Guardian General after the inception of the new military, he’d turned it down. Accepting responsibility for the entire reimagined Callielian Corps would have meant giving up the role as Prime Minister his little island nation, and Atticus had not been willing to do that so he’d opted to keep the lesser titles of Prime Minister and General of Pacifica, and had handed absolute power over to Guardian General Aldous Alvares from Tariel, who had put his hand up for the job.

Kohl had not been happy about that development because instead of becoming the second most powerful guard in the world, he was now equal in rank to every other Lieutenant General (there were several of them) but Pacifica’s branch of the Royal International Defence Force was still the largest because it included army and navy personnel, and when he wrote to me, Kohl bragged about how powerful his five divisions were and of how certain he was that one day, he’d end up as Guardian General of the entire RIDF because Atticus apparently delegated most of his work to him.

I wanted to write to him to let him know that I’d been promoted to Guardian of my own division because I knew that he’d heard about my struggle to function within the military at all and I desperately wanted to earn some dignity back, but I had decided to let him find out from someone else because I had the feeling that whatever he said in return would make me feel worse about myself and not better.

Just like Karol had.

I’d only spoken to Kohl’s superior, Atticus once (that I was aware of) and that had been one of the most uncomfortable interactions of my life. We’d been forced to take a meeting together with the king and a mediator the day after my father’s funeral service to discuss the subject of the missing eleven million dollar necklace that Larkin Whittaker had absconded with, and it had been a meeting full of grief, cussing and awkward silence. Atticus had been the grieved one, Karol had been the cussing one and I had been the speechless block of humiliation at the other end of the table. Apparently he’d gifted some priceless necklace to me to gift to Larkin as a bargaining chip that would lock her in as a Pacifican resource in the future, so now that she was gone, the country was without its two most valuable assets and it was all my fault.

My Companion had evidently had a ‘thing’ for growing crops and a dream for growing cotton in addition to a love for precious jewels, and because every king, queen, lord, lady and duke had been trying to get her to agree to sign a contract with them to work in their kingdom’s after her release, (the pre-emptive release that Karol had orchestrated) Atticus had agreed to promote Kohl to his 2IC in order to win Larkin’s favour. Larkin had already liked Atticus and Pacifica, and she’d been desperate for Kohl to be elevated above his lowly third-born status after his own release, so she’d taken the deal.

But then I had come along, learned that she’d favoured Kohl and had tricked her into believing that I was him so she would sleep with me and get herself good and stuck at my side. That sleazy move had rendered her free will null and void, and in a mad panic, Atticus had come to me, explained that he needed Larkin around even if she wasn’t a free woman anymore, and had pledged to do whatever it took to get ME to move to Pacifica anyway, because apparently wherever I went, she had to follow.

I’d been mad as a mother-fucker that Atticus had gone behind my back and had promoted Kohl for my girl’s sake without my knowing about it, (though Atticus swore that she’d only done it because she felt sorry for Kohl, not because she was in love with him) and I’d been looking for a way to win my Companion’s forgiveness, so I’d suggested the trade- the diamonds to butter my love up with in exchange for my moving to Pacifica one day with my hopefully happy slave if my father offered me the lesser crown there.

Yes, what a prince I had been! The scar on my chest had throbbed the whole time, stretched by my rapidly pounding heart.

I only learned of this as I’d sat there in that heinous meeting, of course, and I’d listened to Atticus explain what had happened while holding onto my own hair as though I could wrench my soul out of my body. Atticus had been angry, yes, but he’d been angrier at Karol’s suggestion that we use the army to hunt the necklace down because it would inevitably end up costing us more. He had hidden behind the defence that if the Barachiel men had not driven Larkin Whittaker out of her mind, Pacifica would have known only profit from the odd bargain because no matter what, the necklace had always still belonged to the small nation- he’d only allowed Larkin to wear it, and if she’d moved to Caldera, it would have stayed in Caldera. By that logic, he had not lost the necklace- we’d driven out the girl wearing it because we’d failed to safeguard it and her, so who were we to lump all of the guilt on him? Perhaps Arcadia could no longer count the necklace amongst its assets, but it was Pacifica that was going to be handicapped for the financial loss because it was practically broke now, and building the treasury up again was going to fall to him not us.

It had been a disaster of a discussion. Atticus had been mad at me, but he was also in trouble with Karol for slyly making the deal, and Karol was in trouble with the rest of the monarchs for releasing Larkin in the first place and causing all hell to break loose after, so it had been like sitting at the bottom of a sliding scale of corruption. In fact, the only reason I think why we hadn’t started shitting in our hands and flinging it at one another was because Ora Camden had been present to mediate.

The lovely daughter of the president of Rabia had barely been able to look at me, but she’d been the one to suggest that we simply offer a reward for the precious stones to give anyone lawless and Godless that might be hanging around with Larkin incentive to hand it in. We didn’t have that sort of money to give up as a reward, but we’d certainly be able to wheel some sort of land and house deal as a package that could be considered to be of equal value.

Then, she’d said that the next time it occurred to us- to any of us- to try and make a private bargain that would affect any of the kingdoms or their citizens, we do so in a meeting full of people for the sake of keeping things above board... and out of our pants.

No one had left that meeting feeling any better about themselves or one another, but we’d come up with a bit of a solution and had left physically unscathed, and I knew that we had Ora to thank for that. Without her, I probably would have been thrown off the Statue Of Liberty and onto the rocks below as a human sacrifice. It was ironic too, because I got the feeling that she resented me more than anyone did.

Needless to say, I was rather relieved to hear that Atticus Hartley had turned down the Top Dog spot in the RIDF after that, because it meant that he and I would not be forced to deal with one another directly because I would not fall under his Guardianship as an Arcadian recruit. I hadn’t confessed my relief to Kohl though, because I’d already felt like I was on thin ice with him... but I got the feeling that both of them were relieved to have some distance from me anyway, just like Ora, who had decided to stay in Calliel until Larkin was found, but had moved in to my uncle’s castle in Nitika until she was- during my last visit. Apparently she’d been in an apprenticeship as an ambassador for Rabia since she was sixteen and once she’d turned nineteen, she had become qualified to work under another ambassador’s guardianship for an actual wage. Originally, she’d intend to finish her training in Eden, but she’d had a change of heart and had accepted my uncle’s offer to learn the ropes under the guidance of Nitika’s ambassador instead.

No Arcadian regiments had been sent to Pacifica yet, and because I was in the third division that was made up of criminals, it was likely that I’d never be sent abroad because of the whole ‘flight-risk’ thing. That was okay with me so long as we still got to roam the continent that we were already on, but I felt bad that my squadron were constantly treated like second-class citizens despite the fact that they worked hard and were probably the most efficient crop of guards that the RIDF could claim to have. None of them wanted to escape the military- they were too proud to belong to something real for once to dream of it!

I sure hoped that wouldn’t change after our expedition north though, because if they decided the going was getting too tough and got going, I’d sooner hang myself in The Wildwoods then return to HQ without my guards because they’d gone AWOL. Not only would that be almost as embarrassing as the whole harem kerfuffle, but it would be an experience that I’d actually remember.

But for now I had a handful of my soldiers with me, and we were bound for Rachiel, which was the new ‘official’ RIDF headquarters. After accepting the promotion, Guardian General Alvares had decided to make the existing barracks in Rachiel his new base camp, and he had doubled the size and the sophistication of the facilities there since, making it practically impenetrable and fitting it out with a lot of advanced equipment. The Rachiel Barracks was where each division went for their initial weapons training, so the majority of the rifles and ammunition that the army had in its arsenal were stored there, and seeing as how there was no way that I was going north without making sure that my people were armed to the teeth first, I’d decided to enter into The Wildwoods via Rachiel, instead of right there through Arcadia. Taking a detour northeast to stock up on weapons instead of heading northwest was going to add some time to our trip, but what did I care? We were all going to be on overtime as of that morning anyway- might as well get my soldiers every extra coin that I could manage!

Besides, it was a bullshit mission anyway and everyone knew it. There was a damned good reason why no country had yet to conquer the wild northwest, so if someone had managed to establish a tiny colony there back in February, it was unlikely that they’d lived long enough to even contemplate threatening us, let alone actually doing it! Really, it was only the wildlife and the Devil’s Claw that we were wary of.

There was only one major road that led from Arcadia to Rachiel, but taking it would cause an even larger detour, so after studying a map for a while, I realised that we’d be able to get to Rachiel faster if we cut through the farmlands that lay between the city limits and our sister city. To my surprise, things like map-reading, orienteering and strategizing had come very easily to me right from the start, and it wasn’t until I had visited Kohl the previous October (we’d met at the base in St Miguel when our squadrons had traded off on coastal patrols) that I’d found out that all of that stuff came naturally to me because I had already studied it in detail.

Kohl had told me that he’d always had to fight to learn that kind of thing- usually by reading whatever old book he could find whenever he could find one- but my education had been first rate. Yes I’d studied public relations, diplomacy, history and fencing: all of the typical royal stuff that was more or less fluff, but I’d been determined to beat Karol’s score on some exam so I’d had tutors helping me every day of my life in addition to my mandatory courses- doggedly hunting down knowledge like it was sport.

Kohl hadn’t been able to hide the fact that he’d envied my education and I couldn’t blame him for that because it was clear that he, too, was academically minded and would have benefitted from all that I’d been gifted, but that had been the first thing I’d learned about myself that I actually liked; that I had a thirst for knowledge. It was unfortunate that I’d apparently been motivated by sibling rivalry but still, it said a lot about my intelligence, didn’t it? I’d behaved like a brute when it came to sex, but was it possible that I hadn’t been as one-track-minded as they’d all led me to believe? I sure hoped so!

I also liked the fact that a lot of what I’d learned had stuck with me too, because it meant that my entire existence up to that point hadn’t been a complete and utter waste of time. Sometimes certain smells or scenes would trigger a sense-memory of sorts, but they were never related to people or places, just feelings- but my physical memory was more precise and a lot stronger. I’d read a book, and would know how it ended by the first chapter, or I’d see a house, and then know where the street led. I’d hear a song and chime in with the lyrics halfway through, or I’d pick up a bow and arrow, feel its weight in my hand, and then instinctually just know how to get the arrow into the bull’s-eye even though I could not recall ever seeing a target before. It was like my brain had been divided into two parts- one half that started a sentence and another that finished it, and I just knew that if I could get the first half to recognise the second instead of the other way around, everything that was missing- everything that I’d been doing or thinking when I’d acquired the knowledge- would come rushing back to me.

Just like I knew that every missing thought I had must have been connected to Larkin Whittaker in some way. I’d picked favourite foods with her, I’d studied with her and I’d learned song lyrics at her side. Everything that I needed to know about myself was tethered to her, and when she’d broken my heart- and I hers- my sub-conscience must have gone into panic mode, and had scooped her right out of the centre of my head- taking the roots of my personality and therefore, my entire history, with it. And if she ever returned… God, what would that do to me? Surely I’d recognise her on sight, yes? Would I still crumple into a heap as I’d always feared I would, or had God given me two year’s worth of clean slate so I’d have the chance to forgive myself and become someone that could face her again?

That was another thing- I didn’t know how to feel about Larkin Whittaker at all! I’d learned so much about us, but so much of it was still a mystery, so all that I did know for sure was that I wouldn’t know a moment’s peace until I’d looked into her eyes and had had the chance to decide: Was she public enemy number one… or just the product of my family’s corruption? I didn’t know but it drove me to distraction, just like the whole chicken and the egg thing did. I was fairly certain that it was the chicken, but I couldn’t remember why...

Oh well. It would come to me soon enough.

*

We took the route out or Arcadia that I’d charted, and although people didn’t line up to scream ugly things at me like they had the first time I’d gone off with the Corps, they still made a point to keep their heads down, making me wonder if it was me they were hiding their faces from, or the line of reformed convicts that I was stringing along behind me. Theodore made a huge point of walking with a stupid smile on his face and a loopy gate, to keep up the pretence that he was a big, blonde, idle-minded ogre, and Jent shaved his beard as he walked with his hand knife, making him look positively lethal. The opposite was true because Jent was an aspiring poet and had been branded for having extra-marital sex- with a duchess’s male spouse whom he was now in a long-distance relationship with- but he had a flare for the dramatics and had learned early in that gay men fared a lot better in the Corps if they pretended to be straight ones. No one had ever given him a hard time about the fact that he was attracted to men because that wasn’t rare or a big deal in any way, but homosexuals were still renowned for being soft and feminine and that was what would get your ass kicked amongst the wrong crowd.

Saul-Yin didn’t mind being seen as soft and feminine though, because they were traits that she exploited ruthlessly. One of our best party tricks was to dress her up in a gown and hurl her directly into the epicentre of any pirate brawl. The biggest, meanest, horniest guys would grab her so she wouldn’t have to give herself away by grabbing them, and she’d have them good and stabbed through the throat by the time they’d managed to get their hand on her arse or into her purse. And as far as life in the Barracks went, no one messed with Saul-Yin or our only other female guard, Paisley. Paisley was absolutely defenceless, but she had Nephilim blood in her veins and like my brother, possessed the ability to heal. Her power was nowhere near as strong as his was, but she was handy to have around when it came to things like headaches and infections, so even the most brutish guys, like Monty, Macklin and Templar, went out of their way to be nice to her- and to keep her gifts secret. She didn’t have enough Nephilim in her for it to have shown up in her blood tests, but it was definitely there, so keeping her at our side meant keeping our mouths shut.

We were all very different from one another in the third division, but because we had a lot to prove to outsiders, we worked hard together and well. No, not all of them had volunteered to come along but as far as I was concerned, the ‘right’ ones had and so I felt fairly confident that we’d be able to keep one another safe in The Wildwoods, even if we didn’t get very far into them.

The original plan had been to ride our horses to Rachiel, then leave them there in the stables and then go on by foot over the border, but we were still in Arcadia’s suburbs when my well thought out itinerary took an unexpected twist. I’d been trotting along, counting the rings and rings of neighbourhoods that circled out from the town square and wondering if the fact that all of the houses were absolutely identical was beautiful or creepy, when we crossed the final street, and saw something that was shocking to me- evidence of evil, right there in our Utopia.

The houses in the city centre were taller and grander than the ones on the outskirts were, because Blue Collars were housed on the outer rim and the nobility got the more central neighbourhoods, but I’d been admiring the tidy little cottages anyway and thinking that I’d prefer them because they had larger, less shadowy yards- when I saw one that was in such a state of disrepair that it actually startled me a little. All of the houses in Arcadia had been re-painted at the start of the spring, so they had bright white walls and slate-blue-tiled roofs now, but one had been not so much overlooked as it had been overrun, because the roof was sagging, the grass in the yard was higher than my knees, and despite the fact that a massive official sign had been nailed to the front fence that read: ‘Condemned, No Trespassers By Order Of The King!’ people had obviously ignored that warning because graffiti was scrawled over every inch of it.

Oh shit… I thought, wiping sweat off my brow that had nought to do with the heat. What’s this now?

Some of the graffiti was downright ugly: words like Whore, Slut and Demon had been painted in bold colours on the exterior walls and even the stucco fence, but some of it simply read: ‘Liberty for all!’ or ‘Power to The Oppressed!’ or ‘The Godless are already HERE!’ and those slogans made me feel as ill as the nastier ones had, because those were some of the things that people had used to shout after me when I’d been shuffling by- those were signs that the propaganda that The Banished and The Sequestered had been circulating was still being echoed by my own people.

Feeling my charge begin to hum inside me, I pulled up my horse near the garden gate and stared at the mournful old place before asking quietly of no one: ‘Does anyone know who lived here before it was condemned?’

Templar was the one to come forward, and even though he was the most aggressive of us all, he clearly sensed that now was not the time to rub anything in because he said: ‘I’ve never called this city home, Guardian Barachiel, but I’ve heard it said that this was her house, once.’ He nodded towards it. ‘Her family lived in it for a while after she came to live with you, but the whole lot of them left town after the mother died. It’s been empty since because no one wanted it- they all said it was bad luck.’

I looked at him, confused. ‘How could a house be bad luck?’

Templar shrugged, lighting a cigarette. ‘Like I said, I don’t knows anything for sure… but people reckon the girl’s family had a rough trot, of sorts. Not only were they cursed with a third-born that turned out to be a demon, but the father was hurt bad right before she was born while working on the palace’s bridge, the mother was killed at the palace’s fence, and the son was escorted out of the fence once- kicked out of a ball for behaving poorly- and there were whispers that not one of ‘em liked the other anyway. Only one that did all right for herself was the eldest sister, but I heard that she’s miscarried three times since she got wed, and that she and her husband are very unhappy. On top of that, the dad died not long ago from a stroke and because the siblings were getting so much grief over their sister’s antics, the boy packed up his family and moved to Tariel, claiming refugee status that the other kingdom accepted- after he’d taken a blood test, that is.’

I looked at him. ‘For someone who never lived here, you know an awful lot about this saga.’

‘He spends a lot of time with companions, and those girls love to talk,’ Saul-Yin said, sauntering up to me and leading her horse behind her. I followed her lead and dismounted, while she shielded her eyes from the sun, took a drink from her bottle of water and then said: ‘I don’t care who lived here- the fact that people that claimed to be holy would use language like that is beyond appalling.’ She glanced back at me. ‘How long do we have to stand here for? I’m getting sun-stung, dry mouth and goosebumps.’

‘It’s not just the house they shy away from, it’s the location.’ Templar pointed to the backyard, which was unfenced and shared a clearing behind the street with every other house. There was a fence at the very back of the clearing, but it was the electric one that encircled the entire city, and served as a barricade between Arcadia and The Wildwoods. A small child’s playground had obviously sat there once between the house to my right and the old Whittaker place, but it’s amusements had been taken out of the ground leaving an unfriendly-looking sandpit behind and one park bench- which was also covered in graffiti despite the fact that the lawn around it had been neatly manicured, as every other lawn on the street had been. ‘That part of the fence backs right onto the river, and it’s constantly damaged from Banished folks trying to get in. It’s patrolled now to be safe-’ he gestured to a small guard tower closer to town, where I could see a man watching us from a distance, ‘but this whole section of the road is considered undesirable and dangerous. The other places look as fine and dandy as the ones one block back do, but I’ll betcha good money that they’re empty too.’

‘You’re telling me that Arcadia has an actual slum?’ Saul-Yin asked, feigning shock as Theodore came up beside me and started crossing the park in step with me. ‘That’s preposterous!’

I agreed, and I was sort of shocked that Karol had allowed The Whittaker place to deteriorate so, poisoning the neighbourhood around it. I didn’t think that it ought to have been bulldozed or anything, but if the Banished were on the other side of the fence and screaming to get in, then didn’t it make sense to at least try to give a few of them a roof over their heads seeing as we had empty ones that our own people turned their noses up at? I’d been out and about amongst the Banished, and I knew for a fact that some of them were decent human beings that only wanted a second chance.

Feeling a bit sun-stung and shivery myself, I began to approach the most north-east corner of the fence where it was clearly sagging despite the obvious fact that it had been repaired numerous times, and noted that Theodore was moving just as slowly and carefully as I was, adhering himself to my side. He was so tall that he actually cast a shadow over me, and I was both grateful and nervous regarding his proximity. Theodore usually only shadowed me like that when we were in a dangerous predicament because he was always ready to serve as a human shield for the prince of Arcadia, but where was the danger here? I could see through the chain link fence and clear into The Wildwoods, so what was he sensing that I was not?

‘That’s odd…’ I said, pointing to the damaged part of the fence, and Theodore nodded, lifting the scarf that was attached to the side of his combat collar and draping it over his head like a hood. People made a habit of climbing over it there, no doubt, but how did they manage to do it without dying? The voltage in the fence was so intense that my own body began to hum and generate a pale blue light by the time I was within metres of it, and I noticed that Theodore’s thick mop of straggly blonde hair was begin to lift and fizz from static energy too, so how had people managed to scale it?

But there was more to the energy there than a sense of foreboding. More to the charge in the air, than electricity. I knelt by the base of the fence and peered around as Theodore did, looking for signs that anything was amiss or that someone was watching us, but I saw nothing- just a dense thicket of Devil’s Claw straining towards us from the other side of the river. The river was little more than a stream that could probably be leapt across by long-legged and courageous types, but the current was still raging beneath between the banks so fiercely that a massive tree stump whipped past while we were standing there watching, and vanished from sight as it continued east on its way to the Tidal fall in a matter of seconds. I looked up at Theodore, who nodded to indicate that he was also impressed, and then looked back at the clearing that ran behind the houses, frowning as I tried to imagine a little Larkin Whittaker growing up there- and then when I saw Saul-Yin sidle up to Ambrose and rub his arm, whispering something that looked less than soothing, and more branding-worthy. It was almost impossible to imagine Larkin Whittaker at all because I’d heard her described in so many different ways that I couldn’t tell if she’d had golden or grey hair, or had been six feet tall or petite, or muscular or curvy… but I did get a sense of something significant in the air: of a whisper like a breathy giggle on the wind that wasn’t coming from Saul-Tin for once- just as I looked across the river and saw where it sort of broke off and trailed away through a denser thicket of trees: not just something, but a voice.

‘I heard that stream starts tiny and gets bigger and bigger, so those who can stand the cold long enough to follow it get to a real paradise…’

I was so shocked by the memory of that voice- that tiny, delicate, voice, that I almost fell forward and touched the fence by accident. Theodore stood to attention, whipping out his gun and Macklin called out to see if anything was wrong while he began to jog over, but I held my hand out and shook my head, holding a finger to my lips as I tried to collect myself. I didn’t know where that voice had come from- whether it had been a memory resurfacing from my amnesia, or if it had just been something that had been said around me before I’d turned five… but it had been a real recollection, and it had electrified me.

Someone’s found a way north before… I thought, squinting through the trees and over at that tiny little stream that had broken away from the river while Miguel, Templar and Paisley began to gravitate my way, drawing their own weapons. And someone told me about it once! We thought it was a story, but it could have been true! Karol’s sent me on this mission to keep me out of his hair and in danger, but what if I return from it not only alive, but as a conqueror? My guards and me would go from being the black sheep of the village, to its heroes! They say there’s oil up here, yes? If we could find it first… if I could stake a claim… we’d make enough money to make up for what I lost with that necklace, right? Twice that, even!

I’d heard Amelia-Rose speak of callings, and I’d always rolled my eyes because the notion had always struck me as being self-indulgent, but dear God, I felt a calling now, and just like that, all of my plans dissolved and were replaced by a new, crazy one. I stood up, not taking my eyes off that tiny stream across from me, already feeling the muscles in my thighs coiling tightly in anticipation of taking a leap- of faith.

‘We’re going this way,’ I said hoarsely, and though Theodore had every reason to knock me out for suggesting that we follow a trail that had been forged by The Banished, he merely nodded, patted my shoulder and began to beckon over the others, following me blindly. Not because I was a Barachiel, but because I was Kohén, and I was incredibly grateful for that.

I only hoped that neither of us would come to regret it.

PART FOUR

32.

Libertie City, Raphael

Larkin Aztaroth

May 11th, AA647

The next week passed in a radiant blur of stolen moments, willingly given kisses and a whirl of frantic party planning and before I knew it, it was the day of Cairo’s twenty-second birthday party, and I was getting dressed in the dress of my dreams for the man of everybody’s dreams. We loved celebrating special occasions in Raphael and there was no end to the amount of parties and festivals we had a year, but I’d never anticipated one the way I’d anticipated the fairytale ball, and as a result I felt like I was shimmering from the inside out- every cell in my body alight with nervous energy.

We had at least eight hours to go until the ball started because it was still only noon, but we only had a handful of stylists in Libertie to help everyone, so everybody was taking their time and making a day of it while helping one another. I’d already had a sleep-in and a long brunch with Cairo, Bastien, Sam and Martya, and now Cairo was having a few beers out on The Iana with his male friends and had promised to stay away from the chateau until it was time for the ball, and Martya had joked that the entire day so far had reminded her of the pre-wedding celebrations in Calliel, only with less praying and more drinking.

‘Sam says that everyone’s so excited that they’re all thinking extra loud and with exclamations points!’ I babbled as I held out my arms, giving my dressmaker Riesling the chance to make the final alterations on my ‘dragon’ dress, which had taken her three solid days of hard work to craft. To match me and the fairytale theme of the ball, Cairo was going as a knight. ‘I hope I don’t disappoint them! I hate the fact that it’s all been so rushed! I thought I’d have weeks to prepare, you know? But with Cairo heading off to get more of his people next week…’ my excitement dipped at the reminder that Cairo would be leaving me soon, but I took another tentative sip of my champagne, being careful not to spill it on Riesling, who was crouched by my legs and pinning the hem which was still too long for me.

He’ll come back! He always comes back and this time he’ll sail even faster than ever before because he knows he’ll get kisses when he returns!

‘Everything will be fine, Larkin’ Martya assured me, though I could see in the mirror that she hadn’t looked up from the manuscript in her hands. I’d warned her against reading the book that I’d already re-read three times, typed up and had now bound with a comb so that it would be ready for Miriam’s final inspection, but she’d had nothing else to do while her toes were drying and she couldn’t get into her poufy princess dress until her make-up had been done, so she’d ignored me and continued reading. ‘You’ve literally got one hundred people pulling their weight to make sure that tonight’s a night we’ll never forget. I mean, if we can build a city in two years, we can throw a party together in one week, yes?’

‘I know…’ I held out my champagne flute again, keeping it away from the dress. ‘But I just want it to be perfect, you know? Not just for Cairo and me, but for everyone.’

‘That’s exactly how I feel about this dress. That being said…’ Riesling gave my champagne a pointed look and just like that, Quilline came over and pried the flute from my fingers before going back to my desk, where she’d been busy pinning flowers into Martya’s pastel pink powdered wig, the creation of which had sparked a craze because from what I could tell, our poor wigmaker hadn’t slept over two weeks because her services had been in such demand. ‘Thanks hon.’

‘Anytime…’

‘Sorry,’ I mumbled, feeling guilty and checking her rolled hair for wet spots. ‘Did I drip on you?’

‘No,’ Riesling’s words were muffled because she was holding pins between her lips. ‘I’ve just worked too hard on this dress to see it ruined before anyone else gets to see it on you.’

‘Then you might want to make sure that Cairo sees it last,’ Martya joked, leaning over to touch her freshly-painted toenails before settling back down with the book. ‘Because I’m pretty sure the moment he sees her in it, he’s going to shred the thing, dragon-slayer style.’

My face heated in embarrassment, but my pulse accelerated at the idea. ‘He wouldn’t dare,’ I promised Riesling, seeing the look of worry flit across her features. ‘I’ll make sure that I take it off before we-’ my mouth went dry when I realised what I’d been about to admit to, and the three women cracked up laughing.

‘Listen to you!’ Quilline hooted, while Riesling spluttered out her pins. ‘And here I was thinking that you were going to join our camp!’

‘No she was starting a celibate camp of her own!’ Riesling giggled. ‘Population her, Sam… and everyone under eighteen in the village!’

‘Hey!’ Martya piped up, but she was laughing too. She pointed to herself. ‘Virgin, remember? I’m a member of the celibate team too!’

‘That’s what you say now,’ I teased, and the designer and beautician cracked up laughing when I finished: ‘But if you keep reading that wonderfully filthy book, you’re going to be looking to switch teams soon enough, trust me.’

‘Oh I believe you because this is scintillating,’ Martya was flushed as she sat up, ‘But don’t you even try to switch focus of this conversation, your highness. You basically just admitted that you’re going to strip before you allow Cairo Kingslater to have his wicked way with you tonight, so how about you elaborate on that, hmm? Are you actually going to this ball, or are you guys going to sneak off to have a private fireworks display while we’re all eating his cake?’

I lifted my head primly. ‘A lady doesn’t kiss and tell.’

‘A lady doesn’t leave scorch marks on a ship’s steering wheel either, but I’ve heard you did exactly that yesterday,’ Quilline said, and I gasped as the others cracked up laughing.

‘Who told you that?!’ I demanded hotly, but I was somewhat distracted from the conversation now that Riesling had moved to pin my other flared sleeve, allowing me to get a look at myself in the dress in the mirror across from me. My cheeks were flushing at the idea of everyone knowing that Cairo and I were about to drop anchor in the biblical sense, but one look at the way the scaly green dragon dress hugged my every curve had every other part of me heating up too. I’d never looked so blatantly oversexed before in my life!

Holy shit- Cairo really might shred this! I thought, twisting slightly as I was overcome with horror and expectation. The dress was WAY too much, and I too much in it! I didn’t know how that was possible seeing as how every inch of me but my upper chest and shoulders was covered by the pale green, scaly fabric but I looked less like a dragon, and more like the very personification of sin.

‘Oh it’s getting around…’ I heard Martya say, and I moaned and covered my face with my hands. ‘It’s also getting around that instead of getting mad, he said that he was going to make sure you burned handprints into every single wooden surface of his precious boat starting with his headboard-’

‘Stop!’ I begged, and the others kept on laughing. Oh my God! How did they know he’d said that to me? My hands were hot against my face- hot enough to melt my make up off so I wrenched them away and tried to look indignant. ‘Where did you hear that?’

‘Sam, of course,’ Martya said, her eyes running up and down my dress enviously. She looked back to her manuscript and tried to sound blasé. ‘Cairo’s friends were reflecting on a conversation they had with him at the The Lady Inn, and Sam mentally overheard.’

I made a face at the mirror, watching the dress go from tight around my breasts to downright lethal. ‘Cairo was bragging after a few drinks, you mean?’

Martya snickered, getting up and moving over to the mirror when Quilline finished with the wig and beckoned her over. ‘Pretty much.’

‘You can’t blame the guy though,’ Quilline pointed out, pulling out her make-up but putting the sparkly stuff she’d used for her and her girlfriend’s mermaid princess costumes aside. ‘He’s been waiting for how long to get into your royal snakeskin?’

‘I’m a dragon!’ I protested, but they all just laughed again and I knew they were right- the dress was wrapped around me like a snakeskin and I was going to have a hard time explaining to everyone that night that I was supposed to look like the figurehead of Cairo’s ship and not the fictional asp from the fictional Garden of Eden. ‘Well, I’ll look more like one when I have the mask and wings on, anyway… I hope...’

‘I don’t care if you tell people that you’re a snake or a dragon- this looks incredible on you,’ Riesling said, standing back to admire her handiwork. ‘Or it will once I take in the rest of it.’

I glanced at her, concerned. ‘Will you have time to do that and finish getting yourself ready hon?’

She nodded, and her pale green eyes were reflecting the green fabric of my dress prettily before she glanced over at the clock on my wall. ‘Yeah, it will only take me five minutes to sew those seams up and we’ve got hours left. Just try not to shrink anymore before eight though, all right? This gown has been difficult enough to make as it is without you dropping a pound every day!’

‘I really do appreciate your hard work, I swear, and I’m sorry about the weight. When I’m excited or anxious, I find it hard to eat, and I’ve been running around like crazy too…’ I looked back at myself, trying not to wince at the way my bust was exploding out of the top of the gown. I’d known it would be clingy because of the sleek mermaid shape I’d requested, (you could not see it from the front, but I had a few dragon spikes going from my rump and down the sleek train to the floor) but I hadn’t realised that I’d look so voluptuous in it, and I was starting to feel a bit panicky about the whole thing. Did I look like dragon queen… or a Companion?

It’ll be fine… I thought, swallowing hard and trying not to panic at the idea of Cairo actually pouncing me. I wanted him to make love to me, yes- I was fairly certain that tonight was the night… but I didn’t want everyone to take one look at me and read my dirty mind! Nor did I want Cairo to be so overcome that I’d be pounced rather than seduced because judging by his build, I was going to need a lot of foreplay.

‘Don’t apologise- I’ve enjoyed the challenge,’ Riesling said, looking me up and down with shining eyes. ‘And I’m certainly going to enjoy the reactions you’ll get to this dress tonight!’

‘Yeah?’ I asked, trying to look hopeful while feeling overwhelmed with self doubt. I didn’t want Riesling’s feelings to be hurt, but I was nowhere near as in love with the dress on me now as I had been when it had been on her tailor’s dummy. At first it had looked amazing, but the harder I stared, the more I began to worry that it was playing up my flaws more than it was playing up my assets. My hair, eyes and skin all seemed to be the wrong hue for that particular shade of green, and I felt like I looked shorter and plumper than I was despite the fact that I’d lost weight and was standing tall. Lindy had always made me tight dresses that showed even more skin than this one did, and yet she’d made them in pieces with layers, so the final product had always come across as being soft and feminine... However, Riesling had glued on leather scales like fringe in perfect rows and that gave the dress one long unbroken silhouette that didn’t seem to be doing me any favours at all.

I need to try and get more of a blue mood in my eyes before I go out in this tonight… I mused, glancing at the mirror and trying not to let my anxiety show as I got up on my tip toes to check that wearing heels would elongate me and stop me from looking so top-heavy. And possibly some sun. That’ll help, right?

‘Are you kidding me?’ Quilline demanded, not looking up from Martya’s face, which she was covering with base make up. ‘It’s hard enough to not be attracted to you as it is-’

‘Oh hush up or she’ll be wearing a burlap bag and going as a fairytale kingdom’s bag of wheat,’ Riesling said, and Quilline chuckled.

‘You know I only have eyes for you, sweetheart,’ she dusted powder over Martya’s face while winking at me. ‘I’m just admiring your handiwork, is all. If I were you, I’d expect a massive flower delivery from Captain Kingslater tomorrow morning.’

‘Really? Because I don’t expect him to leave our queen’s bedroom until next week,’ Riesling giggled, and I swatted at her as best as I could without falling off the velvet ottoman that she’d posed me on.

‘That’s enough!’ I cried. ‘I’m feeling self-conscious and nervous enough as it is! The last thing I need is for everyone to gossip about my sex life all night long!’

‘Agreed,’ Quilline picked up a kohl pencil and began to fill in Martya’s eyebrows deftly. ‘But you better find a way to sneak some amber into this outfit or Sam will realise that you’re hot for Cairo too and the next thing you know, you’ll be breaking up a fight instead of making love!’

My heart skipped a beat. ‘What?’ Riesling sucked in a breath and gave her girlfriend a sharp look, but Quilline went on, oblivious to how astonished I was- and how Martya had stiffened in front of her.

‘Oh come on Larkin, everyone in the kingdom knows that Sam McIntyre is as much your personal guard dog as Inoborna is. He’s tolerated Captain Kingslater until now but he’s been turning as green as this dress this week since you started actually kissing his rival-’

‘Quill! Hush!’ Riesling hissed while my stomach flipped. ‘That’s not-’

‘What?’ I demanded. Rival? Quilline thought Cairo and Sam were RIVALS? ‘What are you on about? Sam and I are just friends!’

‘No, you’re just Sam’s friend- but you’re the object of his desires, and everybody knows it so ipso facto, he and Cairo have been rivals since day one.’ Quilline gave Riesling a dirty look. ‘And what are you hushing me for? We were talking about this just last night and you said-’

‘They want you to shut up because they’re afraid my feelings are going to be hurt,’ Martya piped up, not opening her eyes, but I could see that her knuckles were curled tightly around her knees and that made me feel awful for her. Quilline had muted all of her features with the thick make up, making her expression unreadable. ‘Because I’m in love with Sam and it’s unfortunate for me that he cant see me beyond his obsession with my best friend.’ She slid her eyes to me without moving her face and said: ‘Don’t get all frantic on my behalf, Lark- unlike you, this isn’t news to me.’

Riesling moaned softly under her breath while Quilline’s mouth fell open. She looked from me and then back to Martya and then cringed, withdrawing the kohl pencil. ‘Oh… Oh hell…Martya, I’m so-’

‘It’s fine,’ Martya closed her eyes again and though she did look fine or at least, composed, her fingertips were still digging into her knees. ‘How about we just change the subject, hmm? This is Larkin’s big day and I don’t want to ruin it for her. Besides, I’ve been looking into the whole Lesbian thing for a few months and I think I’m ready to come on-board anyway, so I double my wardrobe if nothing else...’

But my day was already good and ruined, and I was so thrown that all I could do was stare at Martya in horror. I knew that nothing had progressed between Martya and Sam in the romantic sense since she’d last spoken of her feelings for him, but they’d gotten very close in a friendly way, so I’d sort of assumed that she’d either gotten over her crush, or had been just biding her time until he got his soul back so she could pounce accordingly.

But now it sounded like her torch had been burning bright this whole time, and the only reason why she hadn’t had any success with him was because she believed that he had a thing for me. It wasn’t true, not at all, but I was appalled that she thought that was the case! How was I going to convince her otherwise when she seemed so set on her opinion? And why did everyone presume that Cairo and Sam’s issues had anything to do with their feelings for me? They were from opposite pirate bands- it only made sense that they would be cold and suspicious towards one another, right?

‘I’m sorry too,’ Riesling said quickly, standing up, ‘for the fact that the only thing blunter in this room than my girlfriend is are these scissors, so hold still for a few minutes all right? I need to go down to my sewing room and fetch a different pair.’ I nodded dumbly as she patted my shoulder and made a hasty retreat.

‘Actually, I need to think of a reason to leave you two alone for a moment too… so how about I go cough my foot out of my mouth, hmm?’ Quilline was bright red as she scurried off after Riesling, her black ringlets bobbing with every step that she took. They closed the door quickly behind them, but I could still hear Riesling scolding her for being tactless as they hurried down my exterior stairs.

‘That was subtle,’ Martya remarked dryly as she opened her eyes and turned to face the mirror over my dresser, avoiding my eyes. ‘Do you think they plan on coming back? Because if they don’t, I’m going to need you to finish my make up, you know.’

I awkwardly twisted around so that I could look directly at her. Well, at her back, anyway. ‘Sam and I are just friends, Martya, and I wish you’d come to me sooner so I could make it clear that we’re not in competition with one another over him!’

‘I know we’re not in competition,’ Martya said, appraising her reflection sadly as she began to run a brush through her long russet hair. ‘How could we be, when you come in first for everything without even trying?’

My brows pulled together as tightly as her words pulled on my heartstrings. ‘Don’t be absurd! You have so much more going for you than I do! You’re smart and funny-’

‘You’re those things too-’

‘Not to the same degree-’

‘Who cares?!’ she exploded, throwing her brush down and tuning to glare at me, and I was overwhelmed by horrific feelings that were washing over me, reminding me of what it was like to live in a harem with several girls that were all jostling for one male’s attention. ‘Maybe I tick one or two boxes with a slightly bolder stroke than you do, but you tick them too along with seventeen others, and you’re beautiful to boot! No, not just beautiful- incomparable! And don’t tell me I’m exaggerating or that Sam doesn’t agree because that’s the exact word he used when describing you to me once! The word he used when he showed me all of the wonderful illustrations that he’s done of you to compliment his bloody work!’

Whoa! Is she saying that he was drawing me that day on the trail? Is that why he never lets me see any of his pictures? OH Sam… what were you thinking? We’d be horrible together! My stomach tightened and when Martya saw my reflexive wince, she smirked.

‘Exactly. So don’t waste your breath trying convince me that I can hold a candle to you in his eyes, when he’s already admitted that nobody on the face of the earth can!’ She held up her hands. ‘It’s not your fault Larkin and I don’t want you to apologise or feel sorry for me because it makes it worse. Just do me a favour and take me at my word, all right? Because if you make me sit here and list all of the things he’s said and done that have convinced me that he’s besotted with you, I’ll end up crying my make-up off.’

I’d been about to demand further proof so that I could obliterate her arguments, but her plea pulled me up short and made me think long and hard about something I’d tried not to put much stock in over the years- Sam’s flirting. Since the first day we’d met, he’d dropped a lot of hints about taking me to bed, but I’d always written them off as him just being soulless and oversexed, as he’d always claimed to be. But what if he hadn’t been joking that whole time? What if I was the only woman that he said that kind of thing to?

I cleared my throat as I tentatively stepped off the ottoman. ‘Does he ever flirt with you?’

Martya’s face softened a little, and she looked down at her hands. ‘Sometimes,’ she confessed quietly. ‘But it’s not enough, Lark. Earlier last winter I was determined to kiss him, just to see what happened because it really felt like we were sparking.’ She sighed. ‘But then you walked in and-’

‘I’m sorry!’ I cried. ‘I’ll never interrupt you two again ever, I swear it!’

But she glowered at me. ‘Being interrupted isn’t the issue hon. It’s the way he forgets that I exist when you walk into the room that bothers me because it’s like me and my spark completely vanish.’ She looked me up and down. ‘If you don’t believe me, just watch his face when you enter the ballroom tonight, all right? Then you’ll see what the rest of us do- and what you’ve been trying to ignore for so long- his utter enchantment.’

I crossed my arms across my chest, feeling naked in the dress now. How was I going to be able to look at Sam to assess his reaction towards me while I was fairly certain that I was never going to be able to look him in the eye again after this conversation? ‘If you’re right- and I’m not saying you are- enchantment is all it is, Martya. He can’t possibly be in love with me so when he gets his soul back, everything he thinks he feels now will change- including the value he puts on all of this,’ I gestured to myself. ‘Just like I’m sure Kohén, Kohl and Karol snapped out of their supposed infatuations the moment that I stepped out of their sights.’

‘Maybe you’re right, because I know the fact that Sam thinks of your personal aversion to love as something that the two of you have in common,’ Martya said, picking up my champagne flute and coming over to hand it to me, and I took it eagerly, suddenly desperate to be drunk. But the glass was halfway towards my lips before I remembered how drinking had unravelled my life in the past and I lowered it reluctantly, opting to hold onto the glass for dear life instead. My best friend was in pain and numbing myself to that in order to make myself feel less uncomfortable was wrong and foolish. ‘Or maybe when he gets his soul back, all of the things that he likes about you now will simply be amplified, you know? And why shouldn’t they be? I adore you and not only do I dislike most people, but I’m not attracted to you at all so that’s saying a lot.’

I looked down at my glass, shaking my head. ‘I’ll still be barren when Sam gets his soul back.’ I lifted my eyes. ‘Perhaps I tick a lot of shallow boxes, like you said… but not the one that counts the most when it comes to men choosing a mate.’

Martya rolled her eyes. ‘You don’t know that your infertility is permanent-’

‘I haven’t bled for two years!’

‘That’s not so long.’

‘Maybe it doesn’t seem that way to you, but it feels like an eternity to me!’ I snapped, turning away from her as tears filled my eyes, clouding the sight of the Fallen Forest out my window. I didn’t want to be having this stupid fertility conversation, not today! I wanted to tell Cairo that I was falling in love with him and I wanted to start contemplating a future with him the way he daydreamed about sharing one with me… but we had to have a discussion about my infertility before that happened, and I was so afraid that he was going to turn on his heel and run when he learned that I probably wouldn’t be able to give him a Kingslater heir to carry on his father’s impressive legacy that I couldn’t stand it.

I wanted to convince Martya that Sam would lose interest in me the moment he started thinking about having a family, but by doing that, I was also talking myself into believing that Cairo would do the same thing because unlike Sam, I knew for a fact that Cairo wanted a lot of kids and would jump at the chance to start right now. That was only a given considering what had happened to his first child in utero, wasn’t it?

I knew I should have had that conversation with Cairo a long time ago, or had at least clarified the fact that not only had I had the poison in my bloodstream, but that I’d taken a knife to my womb in order to cut it out and had most likely done a lot more damage in there than good… but Satan had asked me to lead him on initially and I had assumed that hell would freeze over before I imagined sharing a life with a man again, so my awful little secret had stayed a secret this whole time. Cairo knew that there was a very good chance that I wouldn’t be able to have kids for awhile, but I had been convinced by other people’s stories that it was pretty much impossible and because I truly did care for him, I knew he deserved to know the truth before things got too serious.

I was now just afraid that they’d gotten too serious already and once my truth was out, there would be no coming back from it.

33.

Libertie City, Raphael

Larkin Aztaroth

Martya rested her hand on my shoulder, gently shaking me from my Cairo worries. ‘I’m sorry Lark,’ she said softly, sighing. ‘I knew this was a bad day to have this talk- I could kill Quilline for running her mouth and forcing us to have it.’

‘It’s not her fault,’ I sniffled, wiping at my eyes so I wouldn’t wreck my own base make-up, which Quilline had already done. ‘Apparently everyone in the kingdom knew that Sam…’ I groaned, I couldn’t even say it! He was my best friend! ‘God, I feel so stupid.’

‘I don’t think you’re stupid,’ Martya said loyally, squeezing my shoulder. ‘I think you knew all along, and you just pretended you didn’t because it was easier to stick your head in the sand then to deal. Besides, it’s not like Sam follows you around reciting sonnets and showering you with rose petals, is it? His idea of flirting seems to be telling you what a pain in the ass you are, warning you off Cairo and occasionally suggesting that you accompany him to an orgy, so it would be pretty difficult to take him seriously.’

I turned around, raising an eyebrow at her. ‘Wait- so he doesn’t even jokingly invite you to those rituals?’

‘Never,’ Martya said sadly, going back over to my vanity while taking a long sip from his champagne. ‘I wish he would though- my answer might just take him by surprise.’

I sucked in my breath. I’d never been to one of the orgies but I’d snuck up to take a peek at one once, and it had been like watching an erotic nightmare. The darkness, the firelight, the drumming, the frenzied dancing… I’d not been surprised to see some of the women from the coven there, Lady Lucida and her girls or most of the single men that hung out at the The Lady Inn because they were all very open about their sex drives- but if I’d recognised my sweet, sensible Martya in the crowd I probably would have fainted from shock like a scandalized little old lady in need of smelling salts.

However, that would have been a knee-jerk reflex, because there was more to Martya than met the eye, and this was not the first time I’d glimpsed a sliver of her wild side. I wouldn’t have imagined her participating in an orgy prior to today, no, but I wouldn’t have imagined her demanding her release by bribing the king or faking her own death after having formed an alliance with bloody Satan either, but she’d done both of those thing which meant that she was capable of almost anything- maybe even of making good on her threat to switch teams. That darker Martya was unpredictable, unapologetic- and very much in tune with her wants and needs (even if she did do a good job of hiding it) and she was not to be underestimated. Sure, she’d rebelled against the entire Companion Caste as I had, but that didn’t mean that she wasn’t sexual or that she was a shrinking violet, did it? It just meant that she wanted to be in control of her own destiny, like I did, and was smart enough to keep her cards close to her chest.

‘Are you saying that you’d…? Even if he can’t make a commitment-’

‘I don’t care if he never gets his soul back and I don’t care if he never loves me in return,’ Martya walked over to where her dress had been laid over the armrest of my reading chair by the window and picked it up, hugging it to her chest as she stared out my window. ‘All I know is that when I’m around him, I feel like stars are exploding inside me. I want his hands on me, Lark, his mouth…’ she closed her eyes and sighed, leaning back against the wall. ‘And I want him to feel the same way about me- even if it only is for a few minutes.’ She opened her eyes, cheeks colouring. ‘Is that so wrong?’

I shook my head. ‘Not wrong, no. Just a little surprising.’

‘Because I’m not sexy, I know-’

‘That’s not what I said,’ I exclaimed, horrified by the way the glow had suddenly faded from her face. I teetered towards her, trying not to step on my pins or all of Riesling’s sewing stuff that was scattered across my floor. ‘And how can you even think that? You’re beautiful, Martya!’

‘Oh I am not- I’m ordinary and I always have been. In fact, after how awkward I looked in my teen years, I’m grateful to qualify as merely ordinary now.’

‘You are NOT ordinary!’ I exclaimed, stunned that she would think that of herself, and she blinked a little. ‘You’re tall and fit- way fitter than any other girl around here and not in a gross muscly way either but long and lean! Your hair falls so straight that you always look like you’ve just brushed it, and just look at your complexion!’ I reached out and traced the back of her creamy hand. ‘You were so worried about acne and cellulite when we were younger but that’s all gone now and I envy your skin every day!’ I held my arm against hers. ‘I have to go out into the sun at least ten minutes a day or my arms look like they’re made of rice paper, but yours is creamy and even all the time, just like Adeline’s always was- and it’s lovely.’

Martya bit her lip. ‘Really?’

I nodded and touched her nose. ‘See these freckles? Cairo told me that one of his astronomy-obsessed crew members swears you have a constellation in those freckles, but he won’t tell Cairo which one it is, so the man I have a crush on actually spends a lot of time studying your nose- which he says is perfect in its symmetry.’

Martya covered her nose and her eyes crinkled up. ‘That’s why he stares? Heaven’s grief, I’ve always worried that he was counting blackheads or something!’

‘Well he wasn’t,’ I raised my eyebrows, ‘and he’s not the only one that finds your face fascinating, by the way. I already know what constellation the sailor was talking about, because Kohén spotted it years ago: it’s the astrological sign Cancer, right here…’ I reached out and quickly touched the corresponding stars, pushing back memories of Kohén pointing them out to me in the pool room in Eden. ‘And they’re beautiful.’

Martya wrinkled up her nose. ‘That’s not my sign.’

I shrugged. ‘You can get crabby though, so it’s not without relevance.’ Martya giggled, blushing further, and I caught her hands, squeezing them, finally allowing myself to smile again. ‘See? You’re worth staring at, Martya, and I’ll bet Sam thinks so too.’

‘Maybe some people think I’m pretty and a lot think I’m smart- but I’m not sexy Larkin, and you know it- not the way you are, or in the way I need to be to get Sam’s attention. My mind is in the gutter every second that I spend with him, but when I open my mouth to say something forward or flirty, I get shy and end up relaying a fact about a dung beetle or something stupid like that and it just kills the mood.’

I shrugged. ‘Sam babbles when he’s over stimulated too, you know.’

‘I know,’ Martya scowled at me, ‘because he does that when you’re around and I’ve witnessed it more times than I care to count, including right through brunch this morning.’ She took another drink from her wine and began waving around her other hand while I internally writhed in discomfort. Dammit Sam! Why hadn’t he just been more upfront about everything to begin with? It would have saved them both years of frustration and me a lot of awkward conversations now! ‘There’s other stuff too, you know. I end up debating stuff with him and that’s the exact opposite of what we were taught to do in the harem-’

‘So do I!’ I pointed out.

‘But you’re sexy so it doesn’t matter! I know you don’t mean to flirt with Sam, but you just have this teasing way of conversing with men that’s utterly beguiling and contrary, and that comes across as flirting because even if they don’t agree with you in the end, they wish they did. Whereas when I debate people I’m blunt and inflexible so although I win the argument- I do it by acting like a know it all and scaring them off!’ She walked out from between the wall, and me getting all worked up now. ‘And the way you hold yourself and dress… ugh! Do you know I could primp for three hours and still not come off looking half as good as you do after ten minutes of running through a fucking paddock after Inoborna?’ She whirled around and held out her hands in exasperation. ‘And you’re so graceful and commanding that you always end up being the centre of attention without even trying to be! When you walk into a room it’s like a dance, but when I do it’s like playing musical chairs, and don’t shake your head at me your highness, because I have proof of how tragic it is!’ She gestured to the empty space beside her, going into pantomime mode now. ‘At my birthday banquet last year, Sam pulled out a chair for me, but when I sat down and said thank you, you walked in and he was so busy running over to greet you that he forgot to push me back in! He just left me sitting there like, three feet out from the table! It was mortifying!’

I gasped. ‘He didn’t!’

‘He did!’ Martya insisted, bringing her empty glass to her mouth again. ‘And what was worse was no one else even noticed so birthday girl or not, I had to drag myself over to the table with the fucking chair!’

‘I would have told him off,’ I said, pissed off on her behalf, and ashamed to think that I’d inadvertently stolen that moment from her, ‘and you ought to have done the same. Maybe you’re not getting Sam’s attention because you don’t demand it the way you do everything else.’

‘Or maybe I’m not getting Sam’s attention because there’s this bright big fucking halo shining off you that the rest of us get hidden behind,’ she groused, sinking down onto my bed and looking crabby again. ‘So until you find a way to dim your light, the rest of us are fucked. Or not fucked, I should say- not by him, anyway.’

I snorted. ‘That’s not a halo- it’s Companion training. Would you go back in time and trade your freedom for the chance to learn how to walk in six inch heels without hunching your shoulders for balance, and how to make eye contact with a man even when they’re trying their hardest to ignore you just to score Sam’s attention now?’ I struck a pose in the middle of the room, holding out my wine flute delicately. ‘Would you have liked to learn how to drink from crystal ware without accidentally allowing your company to see your magnified mouth through the base of it?’

Martya looked horrified. ‘They did not teach you how to do that!’

‘Oh, but they did!’ I turned my profile to the side and made my free hand hover prettily while I ducked my face to the glass as I recited in a parody of Maryah’s voice: ‘A lady will never lift her glass above her jaw, for fear that her lips and teeth will show through the bottom. Instead, you should angle your face down to the glass and ever so slightly tilt the flute up so that a trickle of wine will pass slowly over your lower lip-’

‘Okay stop!’ Martya cried out, laughing. ‘That’s ridiculous! What a waste of perfectly good memory space!’

‘No, it’s pretty and feminine,’ I corrected her, sliding my eyes to her and winking. ‘And if done right, enchanting- apparently.’ I leaned back against my jasmine-wrapped bedpost and threw the glass back, drinking from it the way a man would and Martya giggled as I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and burped. ‘This way’s a lot easier though.’

‘Okay, okay… I see what you’re saying. You actually did look a lot more graceful the other way, and the smouldering eyes thing was sexy too.’ She made a face. ‘I just didn’t realise that you walk and talk and stand that way because of all of those stupid classes. Weren’t you supposed to be rebelling against by blocking it all out it like I was?’

‘I tried to,’ I admitted, ‘but I guess a lot of it stuck anyhow, especially towards the end when I was trying my hardest to blend in so no one would work out that Constance and I were plotting my escape. Don’t get me wrong- I’m not about to scarf dance to impress Cairo or anything, but for the life of me I can’t wear underwear that doesn’t match, pass gas in front of a man or bring myself to eat with my fingers and I’ll bet that’s the stuff that I do that makes me stick out that little bit more. I mean, I know I’m always struck dumb by how graceful the correctly trained companions are, and why shouldn’t we be? They’re the Geishas of the new world for a damned good reason.’

‘God I wish I could stick out to Sam- just once, you know? To walk into a room and feel his eyes on me the way he usually looks at you…’ her voice trailed off, and she looked at me sadly. ‘I wanted to get dressed up to the nines tonight in a costume that made him go: ‘Wow!’ but now that I’ve seen yours, I know it’s hopeless. I also know that Quilline’s right about him and Cairo too- you may have been oblivious to Sam’s lust for you but Captain Kingslater isn’t and they’ve been on the brink of throwing punches over you for awhile. If Sam gets to thinking that tonight might be his last chance to bed you…’

‘Don’t,’ I groaned, pressing my hands to my scaly stomach, feeling sick when I imagined Sam cornering me to make some big move. ‘This is Cairo’s birthday party- I can’t have him getting into a punch up with anyone, let alone poor Sam! And I certainly don’t want you suffering either!’

Martya shrugged. ‘What can you do? Nothing short of you going as a dung-covered bag of wheat is going to change the fact that you’re gorgeous, and nothing short of a lobotomy is going to change the fact that I’m flirtatiously-challenged, so the way I see it- you should probably just let them duke it out. Then, when Sam’s unconscious and Cairo is slightly bruised-’ she smirked when I snorted, ‘-we could play nursemaid respectively and get them alone that way.’

‘Dung covered bag of wheat, hmm?’ I asked weakly. ‘I guess I could rustle up a costume like that if it saves Cairo one or two bruises and Sam from certain death.’

Martya laughed. ‘And waste Riesling’s dress? That’ll go over well… it’s not like she’s almost gone blind trying to sew it by flickering light this week or anything!’

‘True. It cost me two weeks in editing wages too...’ I glanced over at Martya’s powdered wig as the wheels in my head began to turn. It was stunning, but it was going to make Martya blend in more than ever unless there was a lot more to her dress than what I’d already seen. ‘What are you going as?’

‘You promise not to laugh?’

‘No.’

‘Funny girl.’ Martya was pouring champagne and she made a big display of extending her middle finger my way. ‘But if you must know, I couldn’t think of anything to go as alone, so I went and asked Lady Lucida for tips because she’s been helping others out, and in the end, she asked me to be the fourth in her quartet, so I’m going as one of four eighteenth century princesses.’

My eyebrows lifted. ‘Your dates for the ball are three prostitutes?’ And so the sliver of darkness becomes a lunar eclipse!

‘Ironic, huh?’ She nodded towards her dress. ‘She has a thing for corsets so she’s gone all out making dresses, and she wanted me on board because with a fourth she could theme every dress to a season. I had my reservations because I assumed she’d make the redhead autumn and I’m sick of always being the token ginger, but when I said so, she said that my hair would be covered so I could choose to be whatever I wanted, and she’d give me first pick because I was taller than her so for once, she’d be able to wear heels without feeling like the token giraffe.’

I made a face. ‘That’s nice, but that’s not going to help you stand out is it?’

‘But going along with the courtesans makes it clear that I’m not the token prude slash bookworm either, so cheers to that!’ Martya tittered and took a sip of her drink ‘And who knows? Maybe a handsome pirate, or a drunken lesbian, will mistake me for a sex worker and take my virginity off my hands for a cash bonus, hmm?’

I frowned at her. ‘You do not want to lose your virginity to a stranger, Martya, and certainly not for cash.’

‘No,’ she agreed, ‘I want to lose it to Sam, but it’s becoming very clear to me that if I keep waiting for him I’m going to be waiting forever, and life’s too short to sit on the sidelines and watch everyone else have all the fun while I pine after someone else. If I can’t get under him then I need to get over him, and having a heated encounter with a masked stranger seems like a good way to go about it.’ She looked at me carefully. ‘Sex is fun, isn’t it? That book certainly made it seem that way!’

I snorted gently. ‘That book is a best case scenario. Not everyone gets that sort of earth-moving connection, hon.’

‘But you’ve had it, haven’t you?’ she asked softly. ‘With Kohén?’

I looked down at my glass and nodded, feeling that pang in my heart again. ‘Yeah. I hated myself for that but it was…’ I blew out my breath, remembering the way Kohén’s touch had electrified me. ‘In my defence though, a woman would quite literally have to be made out of rubber not to be affected by his charge.’

‘But you think you’ll enjoy sex with Cairo too… right? Even though he’s just a human?’

I snorted again and looked up at her, feeling the butterflies in my stomach. ‘Let’s just say that they weren’t lying about the handprints burned into his steering wheel.’

Martya moaned. ‘See, I want that!’

I believed her, but I didn’t think she was going to feel it with just anyone, not while she was so hung up on Sam. And if what she was saying about his fixation with me was right then it was pretty clear to me that the only way she was going to get his attention was if I made it my business to disappear. Well, not to disappear, but to blend in for once while forcing her into the limelight instead.

‘Fine,’ I said quickly, putting my glass down on the ottoman and moving to unpin my dress. ‘You want Sam’s attention? Then you’re going to get it! But first you need to take that robe off because class is in session and you are improperly attired for it, Miss Rice.’

‘What are you on about?’ Martya asked, looking wary as worked my arms out of my sleeves. ‘What class?’

‘Companion class, of course.’ I began to wriggle out of my dress, taking care not to stab myself with one of the pins. ‘I’m going to teach you some of the stuff you missed in Eden- like how to be the belle of the ball.’ I got my left arm out of one long sleeve, and then moved on to the right. ‘Years ago I would have thought it doing you a disservice, but now that I see how desperate you are to be seen as a sex object for once, then how can I not do all that I can to help you achieve your goal of seducing Samuel McIntyre?’ I motioned for her to stand. ‘So strip, Rice- the clock is ticking and you’re too smart for this shit, so your lobotomy is going to take a while.’

‘Wh-what?’ Martya asked, hazel eyes wide. ‘Why should I strip?’

‘So you can try this on, of course. Pulling focus at a major event starts with having the dress that everyone talks about- trust me.’ I snorted. ‘Kelia got so mad at me out of jealousy of a dress that Lindy made for me once that she stabbed my soccer ball to death.’

‘She didn’t!’

‘She did and believe me when I say that was a kiss on the cheek compared to what she got up to later in life…’ I batted my eyelashes. ‘But that didn’t stop me from getting the prettiest dresses or the princes eating out of the palm of my hand, so get up, Martya- every ball needs a Cinderella and tonight, that’s going to be you.’

Martya watched my movements, a horrified expression on her face. ‘You can’t let me try that on, Riesling will kill you!’

‘Not if it looks as good on you as I suspect it will. It’s a little long for me, and the colours not doing my blonde hair or purplish eyes any favours anyway. But on a girl with fall colouring…?’ I slipped the dress down over my hips and winked at her. ‘I have a feeling it’s going to look amazing. And if it fits, Riesling won’t even have to take it up again so it’s a win for her too.’

Martya was watching every move I made as though transfixed by the sight of the dress, but she was still shaking her head. ‘Larkin, no-’

‘Consider it a royal order, my faithful little subject,’ I said, scooping the gown up off the floor and thrusting it into her hands as I took her glass. ‘It’s your dress now so get it on already, won’t you? Time’s wasting!’

‘Shit. Okay! But only because it’s an order!’ Martya stretched out the dress so it wouldn’t get screwed up and made to dash off to the bathroom, but I grabbed her wrist and held her firmly to the spot. ‘Hey-’

‘Not in the bathroom. Get changed in front of me here. Stand tall and do not be shy about it.’

Her face scrunched up. ‘Why do I have to-’

‘Because Sam goes for confident woman and that’s you in every area of your life except for where your sexuality is concerned, and that’s stupid because you have a fantastic figure.’ I drained my glass and moved over to refill both of ours, certain that getting Martya a little bit tipsy would help with the whole lobotomy thing. ‘So get dressed in front of me without blushing or trying to hide yourself, and you’ll stand taller in front of Sam when you’re clothed later on, I know it.’

Martya cursed as she tried to get her feet into the gown. ‘But if I wear this, what are you going to wear?’

‘Your dress, of course, or Lady Lucida will be the one flipping out,’ I said as I poured myself a fresh glass of champagne and then moved to top up hers. My palms were sweating at the very idea of dressing up to match other Companions- again- but Martya was so shocked by the announcement that she forgot to be shy and turned around as she dressed, gaping at me. I was right- every muscle in her body was defined, and flexed prettily as she wriggled into the tight-fitting gown. If Sam saw her like that in her pale blue strapless bra and matching thong it would get his blood pumping to all the right places, I was certain of it!

‘You can’t dress like a prostitute!’ she protested, looking stricken. ‘That goes against every fibre of your magdalene being!’

‘It’s a masquerade- we’re supposed to put on a mask, right?’ I shrugged as I walked back to her, handing her her own flute back and she took it and drank greedily. ‘Besides, maybe it’ll be good for me, yeah? I can own my upbringing the way you need to own your sexuality- without being ashamed of it because I know that it doesn’t define me anymore.’ I clinked my glass against hers as she rolled her eyes. ‘While we’re back on that topic, there’s other things that have to happen. For starters, I’m going to enter before you and blend in with the others, and I’m going to get you to announce Cairo when he makes his grand entrance, because that means you’ll get to make one too. Also, though I want you wearing your amber for the start of the evening in order to generate some mystery, I want you to take it off at some point so you can try your hand at generating a bit of heat.’

‘Should I be writing this down?’ she joked, but I knew it was only a joke because Martya never forgot anything.

‘Nope, just listen and learn. First, you’re going to ignore Sam, okay? You’re going to talk to every man in the room, dance with whoever asked and make it clear that you’re having a wonderful time.’ She nodded and so I continued on. ‘Then, just when he starts to notice how much attention he’s suddenly not getting from you, I want you to approach him and think something that is downright salacious, got it? The filthier the better- you need to make it clear that you want him to take you to bed and that you don’t care if it only happens once so long as he makes it worth it. Not only will that communicate that you’re all right with a fling, but it slips in a little bit of a challenge there and men love a challenge.’

Martya’s face was bright red as she nodded again, but the dress was rolling over her long silhouette exactly as I’d hoped it would- like a second skin and already I knew that my crash course in seduction was working because she was practically vibrating with excited energy. ‘Like what?! You have to tell me something that I can remember or I’ll choke like I always do!’

‘Hmm…’ I moved behind her and moved to the clasp of her necklace, undoing it so that I could make it longer while I thought that over. When I came around her front again, the amber lavaliere was sitting snugly between her breasts- guaranteeing that any man that looked at her jewellery would get an eyeful of her assets. They weren’t anywhere near as full as mine, but her shoulders were broader so they were keeping the dress up, and her breasts were squished up by the binding fabric so they looked ripe; feminine and appealing compared to mine, which had looked over-abundant and fleshy by comparison. ‘Okay, but are you sure you can handle this?’

She nodded so hard her hair bounced. ‘Yes! I’ll say anything!’

I smiled, pleased that she was this worked up because I hadn’t loved the idea of dragging her downstairs while she protested because that wouldn’t have been sexy at all. ‘Okay, fine, here’s what you’re going to do: think of some excuse to lean over and kiss his cheek, all right? Doing it while dancing together would be ideal, but any chance you get do it, and when you do, think to yourself: ‘Fuck, he smells so good...if I got on my hands and knees and begged, would he let me see if his cock tastes as good as I think it will?’

Martya sucked in a breath, eyes popping out in shock. ‘I can’t think that!’

I cocked my head, slitting my eyes. ‘Why not?’

‘Because I might scare him off!’

But I laughed. ‘I doubt that. Odds are that he’ll get hard straight away. However, there’s a chance that he’ll be too thrown to know how to respond, so the moment you say it I want you to walk away- slowly. Think: ‘You heard me,’ and then go out to one of the balconies alone, but imagine giving him head the whole time. If he doesn’t follow you…’ but I stopped and chuckled. ‘Forget that- he’ll follow you, I’m sure of it, and if he passes me on the way I’ll bet he won’t see me at all.’

‘But what if he doesn’t?’ she demanded. She slipped her arms into the sleeves and once again, they were the perfect length for her. ‘The rejection will be too much to take!’

‘If he doesn’t take you home tonight, he’ll be taking you home in his fantasies, trust me,’ I adjusted her shoulder, making sure that everything was where it ought to be, ‘and that would be something right?’

‘It would be- thank you!’ Martya crushed me against her. ‘Not just for the advice, but for letting me wear your dress! You’re such a good friend!’

I couldn’t help but think that if I was such a good friend I would have noticed Sam’s feelings for me and her morose feelings concerning them for me earlier, or that I’d be trying to talk her out of having casual sex with a man that didn’t have a soul... but I didn’t want to say anything that would bring her down so I just responded: ‘Look at yourself Martya and tell me that it wasn’t your dress all along, hmm?’ I released her and turned her to face the mirror, and no sound in the world had ever delighted me so much as her gasp did then.

‘Oh!’ She held out her arms and twisted her hip, looking at herself from the side on and grinned. ‘Look at it! I look so tall!’

‘It’s a perfect fit,’ I agreed, stepping away so that her reflection was the only one that she’d see while glancing out my window, wondering if that was Inoborna that I could hear howling. ‘The mask and wings are hanging up on the hook on the bedroom door- let’s get them on you before we work out what to do with your make-up and hair, okay?’

‘Okay!’ Martya exclaimed, practically bounding across the room and I had to giggle because with every loping step she took, her tail lifted and fell, thumping the ground. ‘I’m so excited! I just pray that Riesling doesn’t lose it when she sees that her costume is going on a botanist instead of a queen!’

And her prayers must have gone to the right person because minutes later when Riesling and Quilline returned to make sure we hadn’t killed one another, all they could do was exclaim over how good Martya looked in the dress. In fact, they were so excited to help her finish getting ready that they seemed to forget that I was there at all, and that was heavenly. Not only because I’d made my best friend happy, but because I was starting to think that finding time to slip off with Cairo alone was going to be a lot easier while I was in the shadows, and Martya was basking in the limelight that she so deserved.

34.

Libertie City, Raphael

Larkin Aztaroth

Martya’s dress was too big on me, but luckily the corset made it easy to cinch it in, and the sleeves had been designed to sit low on the shoulders anyway so you couldn’t really tell that it had been made for someone taller. At first it bugged me that you could see my Companion brand, (the dragon dress was off the shoulder too but not as low so the golden symbol had been tucked away) but I breathed through my initial panic and reminded myself that I was trying to be okay with myself and my past, so that meant making my peace with the brand’s visibility too and leaving the cuff off. Besides, I wouldn’t be the only ‘bigwig’ with one in my little group, because both Lady Lucida and Claress had been Companions in Calliel before they’d decided to become courtesans in Raphael, and would be displaying their brands with pride as they always did. Jessamyn, on the other hand, was a new recruit. Like with the other two, she didn’t have a brand, and so I forced her to continue her studies every day too, to make sure that she knew she had options. But that was all I could do for her without flexing my strength over her free will, and day after day, she showed up to ‘work’ at Lady Lucida’s Inn, free will in hand and a smile on her pretty face.

I heard Inoborna begin to carry on again while Quilline was painting my face, and when I asked if anyone knew what was wrong with him, my stylist just laughed.

‘It’s all the costumes, I think,’ she said, smearing so much gloss on my lips that I felt like a glazed pastry. ‘Everyone’s getting around in these wigs and masks out there as they rush from house to house borrowing stuff, and I think it’s scaring him a little.’

‘I hope he doesn’t bite anyone,’ I fretted, vowing to whistle for him as soon as she was done- not that that had ever worked before.

‘I doubt it- people keep throwing him treats to shut him up so soon enough he’ll be too heavy to move.’

I chuckled, lifting up the overskirt on my dress. ‘I know the feeling.’

The dress itself wasn’t anywhere near as original as Lindy and Riesling’s designs were, but it was pretty in its own heavy, Rococo way and sort of reminded me of the gowns that Constance and my mother had always favoured- which were simpler versions of this period’s over-constructed style. It had a corseted bodice made of pale pink silk that had been embroidered with soft lilac flowers and curl details, matching sleeves that fit snugly to my elbows but were capped with flared, frivolous frills and a full skirt that went all the way to the floor. The overskirt was split down the middle and allowed the ruffled, white linen underskirt to peek through and though it was a little too long for me, Riesling ran her scissors around ruffled lacy hem and took a few inches off so that I wouldn’t step on it.

I look like Marie Antoinette! I thought, stepping up to the mirror as I added a simple string of pearls to my ensemble and thanked Satan that I didn’t have to wear a hoop under it. Let’s just hope that heavy wig doesn’t make my neck snap like hers did!

I did have one moment of vain panic when I realised that the new dress was hiding my figure as much as the old one had amplified it, (I wanted Martya to have her moment, but I didn’t want her to steal Cairo’s attention too!) but as soon as I had the wig on, I felt a lot better. I didn’t look as sexy as I had before, but I still felt pretty, and the tinted lavender hair brought my eyes out more than ever. They weren’t violet like Iana’s had been, thank God, but they were a bright periwinkle and swirling brightly, and I knew that Cairo loved my eyes when they did that.

‘So… this worked out well, hey?’ Riesling asked, looking from Martya to me with a bright smile. ‘You ladies look extraordinary- our work here is done!’

Quilline and I clapped and cheered but Martya didn’t- she couldn’t tear her eyes off her own reflection and I could not blame her. I’d been right to say that the gown had been made for her to wear, and now that Quilline had twisted her hair up into a high French roll and had added dramatic eye make-up and dark, burgundy lips, she looked incredible. Everything worked, as though Riesling had sewn it for her all along, and I couldn’t help but wonder if this moment- this exchange- had been fated. I couldn’t wait for her to put the mask on, and yet I sort of hoped that she didn’t leave it on all night because her smoky eyes were killer! Sam wasn’t going to recognise her!

I didn’t look like myself either because I’d been powdered white and then rouged within an inch of my life, but I liked it that way and that was the point of a masquerade, wasn’t it? To step into a dream?

‘Larkin…?’ Martya asked, sounding nervous when she caught me staring at her. ‘What do you think?’

‘I think you look incomparable,’ I said, and she clutched her hands to her chest and squealed.

‘You’re not just saying that?’

‘You’re a vision, and if Sam’s jaw doesn’t hit the floor when you make your grand entrance, then he doesn’t have any.’

Martya giggled but Inoborna came barrelling through then, and there was a moment of bedlam as we all gasped and moved to hitch our sparkly, dangling, chew-worthy skirts and baubles out of his way. But he went straight to my window, put his front paws up on it and began to howl like someone was dying, and I forgot my panic over my dress and moved after him quickly as panic over other imagined things set in. Had someone been hurt? Had a salt and pepper bear wandered out of the Fallen Forest and into the town square again?

‘What’s the matter with him?’ Riesling called out over the top of his mournful lamenting.

‘I don’t know, Inoborna, down!’ I clapped my hands together and picked up my skirts, hurrying after him. ‘What’s wrong, fella? What’s going on?’ But the dog couldn’t answer with words so he continued to howl, and I dropped my skirts and covered my ears as I came up to the window behind him, squinting out into the afternoon’s glare to try and see what was amiss. At first everything looked perfectly normal (aside from the excess of powdered wigs, that was) but then I heard a sound that set my teeth against one another and I knew that the dog was right to be carrying on. I’d only ever heard that sound twice before in practice drills, but one wasn’t scheduled that day so the sound of someone’s gun firing precisely five times made me contort in a full body cringe.

‘Oh my God!’ Martya pushed past me and half-leaned out the window, staring towards the dock. ‘Was that five shots?’

‘The signal for outsiders?’ Quilline demanded, as my heart seized up in terror. ‘Get out of here! Who on earth would be visiting us?’

‘It’s not just the signal for outsiders!’ I gasped, pushing Martya and Inoborna out of the way so that I could see out the window again. ‘It’s the tocsin for Callielian outsiders, specifically!’ I turned to Martya, my face crumpling. ‘Oh my God, they’ve come for me, haven’t they?’

Oh, everything’s going to be ruined! Not just the ball, but our entire existence here could be at risk from this day out!

Martya grasped my shoulders and looked straight into my eyes. ‘It doesn’t matter if they have, Larkin, they’re not going to get within six feet of you! We have contingency plans, remember? You go into hiding and Bastien becomes King Raphael. Everybody knows what to do- we’re prepared for this.’

‘But there could be hundreds of-’

Inoborna began barking again and I whipped around once more, crying out when I saw a single red figure with bright red hair racing towards the castle from the direction of The Fallen Forest while staring up at my window. Gasping, I pulled off my amber ring and hurled it across the room, and Sam’s thoughts slammed into me like a stampede of racing horses immediately and painfully.

Soldiers! Ten of them! Arcadian! His mind was racing as fast as he was, making his thoughts disjointed, but I picked up on every one of them regardless because he was practically screaming them at me. It’s a squadron, Lark! They came to investigate a suspected colony of outlaws and are absolutely stupefied to find a kingdom instead! They don’t know who we are, where we came from or who is in charge of us, but they want to find out and are demanding to be let in and granted refuge!

How heavily are they armed? I asked, but Sam had drawn too close to the castle for me to be able to see him from up there anymore, and I turned to Martya and madly signalled to her to hide. She looked at me, bewildered, but Quilline and Riesling picked up on what I was trying not to say or think and damn near frog marched her into the bathroom, hissing at her to take the dress off and put her glasses on even though she hadn’t been wearing them since she’d put her book down. I didn’t know how this day was going to play out now, but I wasn’t giving up Martya’s chance to knock Sam’s socks off at an opportune moment without a fight!

Barely at all! In fact, they’re in worse shape than we were in when we first got here because it’s taken them a whole week to get this far north so-

That’s good! So all we have to do is take them out and we’ll be fine!

I don’t think we can take them out Lark, not without more being sent in their stead!

Why? How important could a band of soldiers be if they only sent ten- But the door slammed open then, cutting me off just as Quilline slammed the bathroom door behind her, and then Sam practically staggered into my room, looking like he’d decided to own his own shameful past too because he was dressed like an eighteenth century pirate and looked so dashing that even the two women that weren’t attracted to men looked taken aback. His eyes widened when he saw me and I’m sure mine did the same in alarm, but he came over to me and grasped my wrists with his clammy ones and panted: ‘Well…!’ he swallowed hard as he fought for breath. ‘Their leader- who introduced himself as their Guardian- seems to go by the name Kohén Barachiel, Lark so I’d say… pretty damned important!’

No!

I clamped my hands over my mouth to hold in a scream and almost set myself on fire with the panicked flares that shot out of my palms. Immediately, Quilline began to lose it.

He’s here! Kohén is here, oh sweet Jesus my life is over-again!

‘Shit!’ Sam tore my hands away from my face and then pulled me to him, holding me tightly against his deep blue embroidered jacket and white ruffled shirt, and shocking me further with his sudden display of protectiveness and compassion. ‘Don’t you hurt yourself over him, Lark! I know you’re scared but hold your fire until it’s pointing at him, got it?’ He pulled me back and looked into my eyes. ‘He can’t hurt you, not anymore and better still- I don’t think he’ll even want to.’

I coughed out a laugh. ‘Are you kidding me? Even if he does feel guilty enough to let me live, for fifteen million Cadians-’

‘That’s the reward offered for you, and you’re not here, remember? No one in Raphael has met Larkin Whittaker, and we are peaceful people that would never harbour a known murderer, remember?!’

‘That’s right!’ Quilline gasped. ‘And you’re in disguise-’

‘She still looks enough like herself to be recognised by someone that knew her intimately,’ Sam argued, taking my hand and pulling me towards the door. ‘But if she borrows my cloak she can look like anybody she can dream up, so start thinking hard about a familiar face that Kohén will not recognise, okay? Even if you just twin me, you need to be able to hold onto the mental picture in order to keep its power in place.’

‘What? You’re taking her down there?’ Riesling demanded, looking thunderstruck. ‘That’s insane!’

‘No, insanity would be assuming that we’d be able to keep her contained at such a moment,’ Pirate Sam scoffed as he donned his tri-corner black felt hat again, and I nodded, knowing that I’d kill anyone that tried to prevent me from doing whatever I could to protect my people myself. ‘You ladies need to stay up here though, all right? For now there’s no danger- we have them outnumbered three to one and barricaded on the other side of the gates, but though they’ve been polite so far, they’ve basically said that if we don’t let them in to prove that we aren’t outlaws, or if they don’t return we’ll end up with Callielian guards crawling all over the place in a matter of weeks. So I think we need to stick to the pre-arranged plan and try to sell them on us being as God-fearing as they are in the hopes that they go away quietly.’ He didn’t wait for a response before he was hustling me out the door and though I could barely feel anything below my knees for the fear, I managed to stumble down the stairs after him while Riesling picked up Martya’s casual clothes from earlier and shoved them through a crack in the bathroom door.

‘How are we going to convince that we’re not Godless, with a Kingslater vessel sitting right there in our harbour-’

‘They haven’t seen the ship or the harbour because they’ve come from the southeast! They literally just fell out of the Fallen Forest near behind the schoolhouse, saw Inoborna running at them and ran for their lives so I don’t think they’ve even seen the lake yet.’ We’d already entered the internal stairwell and Sam’s voice was rebounding off the stone walls as we took the ancient steps two at a time. ‘Kingslater was down at the Inn organising a few more barrels of ale to take back to The Iana, so he shouted out to his men to surround them but Kohén’s soldiers didn’t even try to run- they were too shocked, I think, and that gave some of our people the chance to snap out of their shock and remember protocol.’ We burst out into the second-floor hall and I almost sobbed with relief when I saw my knight running towards me with Trajan the explorer hot on his heels, and when I saw that his beard had been barbered away, my knees almost melted with badly-timed delight. Goodness, he looked delectable! What had he been thinking, when he’d allowed that perfect, sharp and utterly masculine jawline to become concealed by fuzzy golden hair?

Cairo’s eyes bugged when he saw my costume too, but that was probably because Lady Lucida and her two courtesans were following them and they were already dressed identical to me, only with their masks in place. Lady Lucida looked more shocked than anyone, but she didn’t say anything as I flung myself into Cairo’s arms, and he jokingly asked if I had three matching knights for him. This wasn’t the entrance I’d wanted to make, but it didn’t look like we were going to be having a party after all, so all that mattered was that he was safe.

‘Where’s my father?’ I demanded. ‘Did K-’ I sobbed, unable to say the name yet. ‘What has that bastard seen? Said?

‘A lot, on both counts!’ Cairo pulled back and lifted my face to his, and though his eyes were bright with anxiety, he shook his head and wiped away one of the tears that had started rolling out of my eyes already. ‘Calm yourself, my love, everything is under control! I just escorted Bastien to the throne room myself and four of our guards are watching him while a fifth is trying to find him a fake crown that will fit. He’s a bit stunned, but he knows what role he has to play and I have faith that he’ll be able to do it well. We’ve also herded up anyone that might be recognised from Calliel and have had them taken to the most remote cottage to keep them out of sight. Everyone but Martya that is, but I assume-’

‘She’s up in my tower, and Quilline and Riesling are with her,’ I said quickly, not missing the way Sam sighed with relief beside me as I turned to Serif, who had just shocked me by apparently shooting up another three inches that day. When had all of the boys in my life started becoming men? ‘Could you please go up there and ask them to stay put until the situation is under control please?’

‘Yes, your highness,’ Serif said quickly before taking off. ‘You look beautiful by the way!’ and although Cairo chuckled and murmured something softly, I didn’t acknowledge the compliment at all. Who cared about how I looked at such a time? I wanted to be dressed like a warrior, not a damsel! Oh, why hadn’t I done more about keeping our borders secure? My aversion to fences could be the death of us!

Cairo squeezed my upper arms and leaned back, looking fierce and beautiful in his chrome-plated armour, which had been glued to a silver mesh lining, giving him the ability to move naturally. ‘Well, everyone else is assembling in the throne room and awaiting a debriefing so that’s all going to plan, but I don’t think we need to worry about a battle breaking out today. In fact, I don’t think that Barachiel scumbag poses a threat to us at all.’ He glanced at Sam. ‘Did you tell her what you heard?’

‘Most of it,’ Sam stepped forward and squeezed my shoulder with one of his leather gloves, and I turned to look at him. ‘Remember how I said they’ve been sent here to investigate a colony? Well, that appears to be the only reason why they were sent here- we were sighted in the winter just as you feared we were, and from what the pilot of the plane saw, he deduced that we were just a bunch of Godless shipwreck survivors trying to stay alive in a land of ice and ruins and this little pack of soldiers assumed that they’d find little more than human remains by the time they arrived. Naturally, they did not anticipate finding arable land up here either, much less a thriving civilisation, so your old friend is gobsmacked to say the least and incredibly intimidated but trying to look tough. He can barely think cohesively at all but I do know one thing for sure- you have not crossed his mind once.’

That was astonishing to me. ‘Are you serious?’

Sam nodded. ‘Not your name, not your face and certainly not your reward so breathe Larkin please- you’re not being hunted this day and if we stick to the original contingency plan, there’s a chance we could diffuse the threat smoothly.’

‘We should kill them right now!’ Lady Lucida snapped, eyes flashing behind her mask while I wilted again Cairo with relief. ‘Before they get the chance to tell anyone else what they’ve seen!’

‘I concur!’ Cairo said, but I shook my head and took off towards the stairwell again, beckoning to the people that were milling around in the hall to follow me.

‘Though there’s nothing more that I’d like to do than incinerate that bastard kid where he stands, murdering him and his men is not a decision that I’ll be making in hot blood. I don’t know why Karol would sent his baby brother on such a dangerous mission, but if the crowned prince fails to return home, then I’m certain that more soldiers will be sent looking for him and until our border is more secure, we can’t risk that.’

‘Would you take him as a hostage then?’ Sam asked, and I shrugged, feeling flushed and sweaty and clammy as I hurried down the grand staircase that led to the foyer and out into the throne room. My father saw me and jumped to his feet, racing across the room to greet me and I held him tight as he wrapped me up in the kind of embrace that would have stopped my heart two years ago. He was already in costume too but luckily he’d dressed as the King of hearts anyway and looked handsome and fierce- curly-toed shoes aside.

He’s safe for now! I thought, glancing at Lady Lucida over his shoulder and seeing her blink with surprise to realise, as I had, that this might be the day when she fulfilled the prophecy about saving someone that I loved. And he’s going to stay that way! I have accepted her and that is clear so now, she will do the right thing by me!

‘This is madness!’ Bastien pulled back and shook his head, looking pale. ‘Absolute madness! Of all the people to send...!’

‘It doesn’t make any sense, your highness,’ I said pointedly, and he grimaced before nodding reluctantly and staring down at his shoes, probably feeling foolish indeed. ‘But it will…’ I turned back to Sam and Cairo, almost laughing when I saw that Inoborna had sat beside them like the third musketeer. ‘We need to know everything that Kohén Barachiel and his soldiers know, from where he stands on the issue of killing me, to how many soldiers are in this so-called army of theirs, before I decide how to proceed, all right?’ I turned from the knight, to the pirate. ‘So I suppose it falls to you to save the day, while I listen on from a safe distance, doesn’t it?’

‘You want me to give him a massive headache?’ I nodded and he grinned wickedly, bowing to me, and I didn’t miss the way Cairo frowned when Sam lifted my limp hand and kissed it gently before squeezing it. ‘It would be a pleasure to fuck with Barachiel’s head for you and then relay all that I extract from it, my queen.’

‘I’m not your queen today- you’re the King’s Guard and I’m just one of four courtesans so I’d like you girls to stay with me too, please,’ I said, including Lady Lucida and her girls in on my gaze. Sam straightened and shrugged before giving me my hand back, and the courtesans nodded and shuffled forward, looking nervous and just a little bit self important. ‘The only monarch here is the one that God left to inherit the earth, and mentioning Satan, her daughter and her wrath is strictly forbidden, all right? Make sure that everyone remembers that! We must prove to these soldiers that we are a peaceful, merciful and strong nation that has been built on a foundation of love for god this day and adheres to most of Calliel’s laws- or we will go to war, and I’d very much like to avoid that.’ I stood taller as my insides clenched in determination. ‘At least until we know that we are strong enough to flatten anyone that would dare take us on.’

‘I can’t believe this is happening now,’ Lady Lucida grumbled, ‘I’ve been looking forward to this ball all year!’

But I shrugged, trying not to look as scared and unhappy as she obviously felt. How wonderful it would be if for Cairo’s birthday, I could give him myself once I’d finally gotten my much-needed closure! ‘It was only ever going to be a matter of time before we were discovered, so now that we have been, we need to stop worrying about hiding from the rest of the world, and concentrate on deceiving them instead and if you’re lucky, that might just include going ahead with the ball later tonight anyway.’

‘That sounds like a plan!’ Cairo said, taking my hand and yanking me to his side and this time, I did not miss the way Sam’s brows pulled together in resentment, and that made my heart skip a beat. Oh boy, how had I not noticed how possessive he was of me until now? And how was Martya going to steal Sam’s attention while I had her locked up in a tower? ‘I hope it goes without saying that my crew can be counted on to fight at your side if it is required, yes?’

I turned my face up to him and cupped his freshly-shaven jaw gently, hoping he didn’t feel the tremble in my hand. ‘What do you mean your crew, Captain Kingslater? They are citizens of Raphael now and that puts them- and you- under my complete command, doesn’t it?’

‘That’s exactly right,’ Cairo purred, and despite all my fears, the look in his eyes made something inside me feel radiant again. ‘So tell me what it is that you would have me do, and it will be done.’

I’d have him behead Kohén then take me back to his ship for a private celebration to make me forget that the rest of the world existed, but it wasn’t a smart plan or the kind of thing that I wanted to say in front of my father or Lady Lucida so I simply guided his face down to mine and kissed his jaw gently, eliciting a pleased hum from him. Sam groaned and twisted away, either disgusted by my thoughts or my actions, but I fought to hold on to my composure, mindful of the fact that although there were a lot of things that I shouldn’t be thinking or feeling in front of my ‘friend’ just then, my feelings for Cairo needed to be flaunted, not concealed. Not just so that Sam would understand that I belonged to someone else, but so I would not forget that when I was forced to meet my former master’s eyes, should that moment come.

‘Just stay close to me until I get the chance to wish you Happy Birthday properly, Captain Kingslater- and to thank you for the wonderful job you did shaving today,’ I said, stepping back and taking his hand before leading him down the staircase, and though I felt a very pronounced absence of Sam’s thoughts as he laboured to conceal what he was thinking from me, I was comforted by the sound of his footfalls as he followed me down the steps and out into our new reality, because falling in love with Cairo had not changed the fact that I adored and depended heavily upon my best friend.

I just hoped that friendship would prove to be enough for Sam, because in about two minutes he was going to learn what happened to the men that decided that they were entitled to more than what I was willing to give them of myself.

35.

Libertie City, Raphael

Larkin Aztaroth

We made our way to the guardhouse, ushering everyone that was still loitering about the grounds back towards the Château, and though Sam offered me his cloak on the way, I declined it and reached over to snatch Lady Lucida’s elaborate lace fan instead. Reading my mind, Cairo turned and politely asked Jessamyn for her mask, which she handed to me.

‘He won’t be able to see me approach because there are no rear windows on the guard tower, and Cairo assures me that my eyes are a dark blue right now so if I hold this up in front of my face, I should be disguised enough for the time being if I’m accidentally sighted, right?’ I said, motioning for the other courtesans to hurry up. ‘Especially if they stay with me and do the same.’

‘I understand the logic of hiding a book in a bookshelf,’ Sam said, looking perplexed as he reached out and grabbed my arm, making my gold brand wink in the bright early-afternoon sunlight. ‘But what about this, hmm?’

‘I can help with that!’ Jessamyn rushed forward, reaching into her little satin tote and pulling out a tiny pot of face paint. She’d dressed up as winter and so her gown was a pale blue that was set off by white and silver highlights, but instead of wearing a mask, she’d painted a metallic silver and white one onto her face like I had before my last ball- the one I’d never gotten around to attending. Her own brand was silver (marking her as a former Companion but one that had been released and not a favourite), but when she smeared the silver paint over my gold brand, it took on a platinum appearance to match Lady Lucida’s. The others had stopped to watch, and they murmured their approval as I was transformed from being a favoured Arcadian Companion, to a Janielian one.

‘There,’ she said, stepping back to admire her handiwork, and I exclaimed how impressed I was with the others until Cairo ducked down to gently blow on my arm, making my skin sing and my mouth go dry. ‘That should set hard enough and stay on until you shower next so long as you don’t get it wet.’ She put the paint back into her bag then draped her purse strap over my head. ‘But you’d better keep that close by, just in case you sweat a lot.’

‘Oh, she’ll sweat it off,’ Cairo remarked, lifting his eyes to me and making my sex clench with a single look. ‘Just as soon as we’re done with this Arcadian clown-’

‘Can we focus please?’ Sam snapped, yanking on my wrist and propelling me forward. ‘Maybe you’ve got a one track mind, but if you care about her at all you’ll think less about making her sweat and more about keeping her alive!’

‘I’ll not be lectured about keeping my feelings prioritised by someone that doesn’t have any, matey,’ Cairo retorted tersely, and I groaned, shaking off Sam’s grip and putting my mask on before I whipped out my fan.

‘Both of you can knock off the squabbling,’ I fanned myself, zeroing my gaze in on the approaching guard tower as we stepped off the common and onto the esplanade that led towards the gates. My heart was pounding so hard that I was sure it was going to bust open my too-tight corset. I could not believe I was striding towards Kohén Barachiel- I’d sooner go for a second round with a salt and pepper bear! ‘Honestly, you sound worse than the brats that I grew up with in the harem!’

‘Amen to that,’ Lady Lucida whispered, falling in step beside me and we exchanged a genuine smile under the shaded reach of the Fallen Forest- the first genuine smile that we had ever exchanged.

We made it to the tower that was nestled between the corner of the forest and the spiked brick wall that cordoned off the city gates without any more arguments, but by the time we were there, I was too nervous about seeing Kohén again to register that Sam and Cairo were present at all. Sensing that I was having a minor panic attack, Sam took charge of the situation, ordering all of us to stay outside except for Cairo, who would stand in the door and look threatening without revealing who he was- keeping his mask down of course. Then he positioned me on the top step so that I’d be able to hear everything that was said out loud in addition to listening in on Sam’s thoughts while remaining safely out of sight. Then, once the other Courtesans had perched on the steps beneath me, Sam drew his sword and marched into the room, leaving me on the sidelines for one of the most pivotal moments in my life.

Everything happened much too fast for my liking, but I forced myself to sit on the top step and breathe deeply, clutching Claress’s hand when she offered it to me in silent support from where she sat from the next step down. We looked so odd- four flouncy, frilly little statues sitting behind that giant knight, (Kohén was going to think he’d stumbled straight into a fairytale!) but I felt our strength and determination course through us as succinctly as I felt the connection between the witches in the coven whenever I was in their presence and I knew that even though we were not all pure and like-minded in Raphael, we were equal and united in our desire to keep our homeland safe.

‘What’s going on?’ I heard a low male voice demand the moment that Sam entered the room, and a jolt of recognition ran through me at the sound of it. Was that truly Kohén? He sounded so different! ‘I asked to speak to your king, not a guard again!’

‘The king will give you audience, Prince Barachiel, but only after I, the King’s Guard, have cleared you-’

‘I am not to be addressed as Prince Barachiel! I am Guardian Barachiel of the third Arcadian division of the Royal International Defence Force and I have surrendered to you only on the grounds that my wounded soldiers will be cared for! Please, provide us with food and medical care immediately, or know that I will have no choice but to report back to General Alvarez that we were mistreated at your hands and after a surrender, which is considered to be a war crime!’

My mouth popped open. Where the hell was Kohén, and who was this commanding stranger inhabiting his body? What if it isn’t him at all? I tried to sneak a peek around the corner, but it was too dim in there and too bright outside for me to make out more than a few shapes, and Cairo gently nudged my face back with a shining, armoured leg anyway then tossed Sam's cloak at me, making me pout. This damsel thing was already going to his head! I’d bite him, if he weren’t wearing metal!

‘We have no intention of mistreating you, Guardian Barachiel,’ Sam said quickly and flatly, while I gazed to my right and towards the bridge that was the real entry into town morosely, ‘but rumours of how your army have been ransacking villages that do not fall under your sovereign’s banner have made their way back to us, so I’m sure you can understand why we need to make sure that you are truly surrendering and not attempting a Trojan horse attack this day before we allow you within a stone’s throw of our king, yes?’

‘We have been ransacking hostile, Godless villages, but if this is a legitimate, God-fearing kingdom like you say it is, then we’ll have no grounds to attack you on, will we?’ Kohén snapped, and his scepticism regarding our claim to this land was obvious. ‘Introduce me to the heir of your Archangel’s crown right now and if I am convinced that what you say is true then we would be delighted to bow to him!’

‘It is not the heir of a guardian angel that you will be bowing to, Guardian, but the guardian angel himself-’

‘What?!’ Kohén sounded aghast, and I couldn’t help but smirk. ‘Surely, you’re jesting! There’s no way that one of God’s originals could have stayed on earth this long- God commanded them all to return as soon as they had established their kingdoms!’

‘Well, Raphael took his time establishing one so-’

‘RAPHAEL LAZARUS?!’ Kohén thundered, and I saw Cairo stiffen. ‘You expect me to believe that this kingdom was created and blessed by the Raphael Lazarus? And you say that he still LIVES?’

‘Yes-’

‘No! I’ve heard enough! And I retract our surrender!’ Kohén snarled, and suddenly, I heard the sounds of a commotion inside. I moved to get up and defend my new best friend from my old one, but Sam silently assured me that he was fine and that Kohén’s soldiers didn’t look fit to peel themselves off the floor, let alone rush anyone, so I hovered somewhere between sitting and crouching while I gripped the steel rail that edged the steps, feeling like a feral cat ready to spring while Kohén continued on with his tirade as he tried to urge his soldiers to get up off the floor. And as he rambled on audibly, Sam started relaying the things that Kohén wasn’t saying to me:

He doesn’t believe us, not one little bit, but he’s scared Larkin- he’s really scared. These soldiers aren’t more than just his comrades- they are his friends- and because there are two women with them, he’s afraid that something awful will happen to them if they don’t get away from people that would tell such vicious lies.

Ha! I thought, eyes bugging out of my head. Kohén Barachiel wants to protect women from being raped? That’s new!

I know and I agree that it’s a laughable notion, but his fear for them appears to be genuine. He doesn’t know where they’ll go because he’s certain that they’ll drop dead if they’re forced to walk back home, and though it’s me he is audibly telling off, he’s mentally congratulating his eldest brother for getting him killed.

Say what?

Well, I can’t make out a lot of the things that he’s thinking because he’s got quite the inner tirade going on, but I can tell that the relationship between himself and his brother has completely deteriorated, and that Kohén believes that the king sent him on this mission in the hopes that it will be the death of him.

My mouth fell open. But that’s too heartless a plot for Karol to be capable of orchestrating! He’s an oversexed asshole, but he was always protective of Kohén!

I don’t know how much of it is true, but that’s what Kohén believes, Larkin. So how do you want to proceed from here? Please tell me you want me to knock him out- nothing would please me more.

My mind was racing, but no matter how many laps it did around the facts, nothing changed the fact that it didn’t know what conclusion to arrive at. I was fairly certain that we’d have to kill them all but if we did, it couldn’t be here and now- we’d have to make it look like a wild animal attacked them and possibly scatter the bodies back in the foothills of The Sleeping Giants, which were still frozen in an eternal winter. Karol would probably send another plane over to investigate our colony anyway once the bodies were found, but at least we’d be able to attempt the charade again without them believing that we’d slain the crowned prince, right? And that way we’d have a few more weeks to prepare.

We could take them as hostages like I said? Sam suggested again. Possibly even take them in as guests, act hospitable and respectful to their crown, but then poison the lot of them at once via the food and medicine he’s demanding? The witches will be able to think of a poison to do it with that will dissolve from their systems by the time we leave them for the wild animals, right? That way, we avoid a scene today and our asses are covered.

I nodded, standing up and holding up my hand in surrender to Cairo when he moved to block my entrance to the tower again. ‘Yes, I like that,’ I whispered, letting him know that I was speaking to Sam and that I had my wits about me, and he relaxed somewhat. ‘Well, I don’t like it, but it seems the safest plan. How about I go speak to the witches now, while you pretend to give in to Kohén’s demands, all right? We have that hospital set up in the palace’s basement to lock them up in-’

He won’t take kindly to being led down into a basement!

Who cares, once he’s in there? I demanded. Bastien will be able to lull him into a false sense of security, I know it, and that’s all we need to keep him from running. Besides, those cellar rooms don’t look too bad now that we’ve fixed a few up and got the bathhouse working- he won’t even know that he’s a captive until the door locks behind him. I smirked. And he’ll know his death is nigh once I reveal myself to him anyway, because there’s no way I’m allowing him to leave this earth until he realises that I survived him and his fucking ‘love!’

So you’re going to confront him? Good!

I don’t think confront is a powerful enough word to describe what I’m going to do to him for ruining this day with his arrival, I thought meanly, standing up and dusting off my skirts. But yes, we’re going to have words- just as soon I’ve switched these high heels for rubber boots that will protect me from his powers!

‘Guardian Barachiel, please calm yourself-’

‘Don’t tell me what to do!’ Kohén retorted hotly. ‘I’ve stared death in the face almost every day for two years and so I’m not afraid of you or that gargantuan knight over there now! You will let us go, or I’ll-’

‘Kohén, please…’ a papery female voice demanded. ‘You’re in no shape to fight these people-’

‘I will fight for all of you until the only shape I’m in is a puddle of my own blood!’ Kohén snarled, and I lifted my eyebrows in surprise as I motioned for the girls to retreat down the stairs with me. Wow, he’d gotten feisty in his old age! Not that he’d ever been a pushover, but it struck me as odd that he’d become the throw himself on the sword sort after years of being taught to believe that preservation of his life and his precious bloodline was his only priority.

‘A puddle of blood is what you’ll be if you don’t sit the fuck down and listen to reason-’ Cairo began as he advanced, but then there was a flash of blue light and I watched with horror as my knight went flying back over the railing of the staircase and landed in a heap on the grassy ground with a heavy crash of armour. The bolt of electricity that had struck him was nowhere near as bright as Kohén’s most powerful outbursts had always been, but it was twice as terrifying because it was Cairo that it had hit.

‘No!’ I screamed, vaulting myself over the fence and landing by his side in the shadow of the fence. He was groaning and still moving, thank Satan, but he had to be badly hurt or at least stunned because he couldn’t seem to get up. I reached down and yanked off his helmet and gasped when I saw how pale he was, and that his eyes were practically rolling back into his head. ‘No!’ I pulled him into my lap, leaned down and clamped my lips around his, breathing into his lungs when I saw that he was struggling to do it himself. He choked and wheezed and for a moment I thought I was going to scream in terror, but when I did it again, his mesh gloves tangled in my ruffled sleeves, hanging onto me and life.

‘I’m okay!’ he gasped, wrenching his face out of my grip so that he could splutter out a cough away from my face again. ‘Just winded… the fall…’

‘Are you sure?’ I sobbed, looking up when I saw movement near the tower door. ‘He hit you with-’ I sensed the movement behind me before Sam screamed into my head to look out, and whirled around just in time to see a man dressed in a black leather jacket, hood and black combat pants run to the railing and lift a gun, training it back on the door as a line of dirty, scared and weak-looking people in matching, dirty uniforms hobbled out behind him. His face was half-blocked by the way he’d draped his scarf around his head like a hood, but I knew that profile anywhere, even under all the dirt.

Kohén!

‘Let them by!’ the hysterical prince screamed, bounding over the edge of the railing so he could get us all within his sights like a bloody Kangaroo, his voice hoarse and his eyes wild, and because he’d changed so much in the two years since I’d seen him last, I could scarcely believe that it was him once he straightened to his full height. He’d passed the six foot mark and though his uniform was filthy and covered in tears and bloodstains, his physique beneath it was muscular enough to inspire awe. ‘I mean it!’ he clicked the trigger, and I heard the telling slide of the bolt being activated, making my blood boil. ‘Let us all leave unharmed, and you’ll all survive it too! Fight me again, and you’ll-’ his eyes slid to me, and his jaw dropped, and I felt every cell in my body turn to dust. This was it! The moment I’d waited two years for! The moment when he looked at me and either hurtled himself at me like a wild animal, or collapsed into a pile of guilt.

‘Or you’ll what?’ Cairo snarled, and my own physical reaction to Kohén’s fucking royally superior tone caused me to clench my fists tightly, because I’d learned that bottling up my fire that way would ensure a more powerful flume of it to explode from my hands when it was finally released.

Come on! I silently screamed at him, amazed that he was just gaping at me. Tell me you’re sorry, or tell me that you’re sorry that you ever met me… let me see your true worth now that you no longer have your crown and your fence and your mother’s skirts to hide behind!

‘Imprison us?’ I prompted him, my voice breaking. ‘Rape us? That’s what you do best, Prince Barachiel, is it not?’

Kohén’s brilliant blue eyes were spider-webbed with red lines, but they widened as he lowered the gun, looking astonished. ‘What? My lady… no!’ He pulled the scarf back over the stiff half-collar of the asymmetrical jacket and I saw that his thick dark hair was dusty and covered with debris, and his jaw covered with dark stubble. ‘No that’s not who I am, not anymore!’ His face collapsed in grief as he looked from Cairo and then back up at me. ‘I don’t want to hurt anyone! I just want to protect my friends! Is that so wrong?’

‘My lady?!’ I repeated, bewildered. Oh My god! Who did he think he was kidding?

SOMEONE HE DOESN'T RECOGNISE SO SHUT UP LARK! Sam bellowed into my head so loud that I flinched in shock and pain. My friend appeared on the landing of the tower with a gun trained on the back of Kohén’s head, and I was so relieved to see that he was unharmed that I could have sobbed. HE’S GAPING AT YOU BECAUSE HE THINKS YOU’RE THE MOST STUNNING CREATURE HE’S SEEN IN HIS LIFE, AND IT HAS DISARMED HIM! BUT HE’S NOT LOOKING AT YOU AND SEEING LARKIN WHITTAKER- HE’S LOOKING AT YOU AND FEELING LIKE A HEEL FOR HAVING MAIMED SOMEONE THAT YOU OBVIOUSLY CARE ABOUT!

What?! I looked from Sam to Kohén, feeling like I was generating a bit of an electrical charge myself in lieu of such a denouement. Kohén looked from me, to my brand then over to the women that had huddled behind me, and his face softened- his blue eyes becoming glassy.

‘I know what I did to my Companion- and obviously you’ve all heard about it too,’ Kohén bent down and put his gun on the ground near Cairo before holding his palms up in surrender and just like that, his pride and his survival instincts seemed to dissipate even though the metallic golden strip that concealed the zipper on his jacket gleamed in the sunlight, communicating who he really was, even if he didn’t know it. ‘But I have no memory of it, my lady, and I have been working hard to make amends. I don’t blame you if you cannot believe that given how atrociously I have just behaved, and I don’t know what rumours you have heard all the way up here… but I’m a soldier of God’s now, and I only want to do what is right.’

What the fuck? What does that mean?

I don’t know! Sam responded. I’m trying to dig up truths out of his head but there are black spots everywhere! The last time I encountered a mind like this, it belonged to someone that had been badly concussed!

I wet my lips, tensing when Cairo sat up and scowled over at Kohén, making his disbelief apparent. ‘You have no memory of what, exactly?’ my pirate demanded, and the man that had grown to take the place of the adolescent prince that I had once loved and hated in equal measure held up his hands helplessly.

‘Of anything between the ages of five and seventeen,’ Kohén said softly, and I saw from Sam’s widening eyes that he was telling the truth. ‘I almost died at my Companion’s hands, and deservedly so, from what I’ve heard… but although I survived that night, my memories of her and everything that happened while she was in my life did not.’ He frowned over at Cairo. ‘You haven’t heard that?’

Cairo shook his head, while I turned to ashes from the inside out, incinerated by my own shock. I’d asked Satan to remove Kohén’s feelings for me so I’d expected him to hate me now and wish death upon me- but if she’d simply erased me, then where did that leave me and my memories? My feelings? My shattered soul?

‘It leaves you at an advantage, and gives you a second chance to do what you failed to do the first time!’ Whispered a voice in my mind, and I turned to ice when I realised that it was my mother’s voice, not Sam’s. It didn’t hurt my head, but my heart felt like it was being crushed by a curled fist. ‘I have not sent Kohén to you to die, my child- but to provide you with a Barachiel heir that will not only break the malison against them, but guarantee the safety of your kingdom!’

My knees turned to jelly. What? No! You have to be kidding me! I can’t get pregnant anyway, and I’d sooner die than-

Lark! What’s wrong? You’re turning white!

‘I’ve seen it, Larkin!’ Satan spoke over the top of Sam, blocking him out. ‘I’ve seen you holding a tiny Barachiel baby girl, and although I know you will be very cross with me for forcing your hands to reach for him, it is my duty to keep you and your fate, on track for the good of mankind. So it is with a heavy heart that I-’

Don’t! Please!

‘-order you to seduce Kohén Barachiel by sunrise-’

‘NO!’

‘-or face the consequences of refusing to grant my wish!’

No! No, NO! Tears filled my eyes, and though Cairo reached for me, I couldn’t feel his touch at all, or see him through my misery. No, anything but that!

‘You mean- you’d sooner end up in the ocean in front of Eden two years ago, then uphold your end of the deal?’ Satan asked, and I felt every cell in my body shut down as I realised that my demonic mother was exactly that, and that I’d been a fool to ever believe otherwise. ‘No, I don’t believe you will.’

‘Is that girl okay?’: was the last thing I heard Kohén ask, before I turned and raced back towards my tower room, fighting to keep my wings concealed with every step that I took, but I did not hear his answer.

I was crying too hard to hear anything over my pounding heart.

*

‘You can’t do it!’ Cairo hissed in response after I’d caved in and had hysterically explained what it was that Satan had asked me to do. He’d been following me around my room as I wore a path into the stone floor, but his grand hands caught my shoulders then and yanked me back against him. ‘You can’t!’ I moaned when I felt his lips rake across the back of my neck coupled with his hot breath against my skin when he sobbed: ‘I won’t let you! You’re mine now!’

I bent and twisted myself out of his grasp, clutching at my heart. God wasn’t it bad enough that I had to go through this without dragging poor Cairo through hell behind me? The guilt was excruciating! ‘No! You don’t get a say in this because I’m not yours…’ I did an about-face and regarded him tearfully, croaking: ‘I’m hers, and I will be until I’ve repaid my debt to her- and I have no one to blame but myself! I knew the other shoe would fall- that I’d never get a fairytale ending!’ I dragged my hands down my face and shook my head at him. ‘I knew it,’ I croaked, ‘and yet I tried falling in love anyway.’ I swallowed hard and stepped back away from him as his beautiful grey eyes went from being like a thunderous sky, to an overcast one. ‘I am sorry, Cairo. I wanted to say three different words to you today… but I am sorry are the only ones that I can offer you now. That and ‘I told you so,’ because I did warn you that I wasn’t the happily ever after type.’

‘No…’ Cairo sounded so desolate that my lungs tightened. ‘No, this can’t be how it goes! You may have promised her two more wishes, but she promised me a soul mate and I know that you are her!’

‘Maybe that’s true,’ I shrugged. ‘But how long did she promise you’d have her for, Captain Kingslater? When did she specify that we’d marry and make love and have a family and grow old together? She didn’t, did she? She said you’d find me- she never said you’d get to keep me though, did she?’ I arched an eyebrow at him, and he winced. ‘There’s always a ‘but’ with her, always fine print, and always an agenda. You get this- but you must take this with it…’ I pressed my hands to my heart again. ‘Words cannot express how happy you have made me, Cairo, but happiness cannot be measured by time- only depth of contentment, and it’s so often fleeting.’ I sighed. ‘I have known that kind of happiness with you, but if I learned anything from the Six Books Of Creation, it’s that nobody can wound you quite as deeply as your soul mate can and that sometimes, two halves of a whole are happiest when they are separated.’ Like Kohén and Kohl!

Cairo’s face grew tight. ‘So that’s it?’ he demanded, aghast. ‘You’ll tell me better to have love then lost and then just give up?’ He launched himself at me, gripping my wrists tightly and shaking me. ‘Listen to yourself! Where has my fearless warrior queen gone? Where is your defiance? Why won’t you fight for us the way that you’ve fought for your people? Do I mean so little to you that you can just cast me aside with a proverb or two to soften the blow?’

‘I am still fighting for my people, Cairo! When I agreed to be their queen, I swore to protect them before myself!’

‘I am one of your people too Larkin so protect me! Say no to her, and we’ll weather the consequences of that together-’

‘WE CAN’T!’ I exploded, and he jerked back when my hands burst to flames inside his. ‘If I say no to her, time reverses, remember? How will you fight at my side when the clock winds back to the night I left Eden? You were probably halfway between Pacifica and The Bay Of No Return, and I was caught up in a tsunami of Kohl Barachiel’s anger that was about to propel me right at his feet, and his soldiers too! If I say no to this demand, I’ll end up right back there and you’ll end up too far away from me to help, and without any idea that I even exist... don’t you get it? If I refuse her, all of this-’ I motioned to my tower room, ‘-goes away! And if you’d have me do that, you don’t love me at all!’

‘Of course I don’t want you to do that!’ Cairo cried. ‘But-’

‘There’s no but!’ I shook out my hands and hugged myself, sobbing. ‘It’s Kohén now, or Kohl then and I won’t be vilified for choosing the lesser of two evils!’ I turned away from him, staring at my stupid, perfect furniture and realizing that Satan had given me so much because she’d known how much she was going to take back, and for no other reason. The clock on my wall said that it was two in the afternoon, but it felt as though sunrise was rushing at me more quickly than the sunset was, and my heart was ticking more quickly than the second hand could ever hope to move. ‘This isn’t a choice I’m making,’ I said quietly. ‘It’s an order that I’m following. It’s a stupid, thoughtless order that won’t change a fucking thing but how much I hate myself… but now that it’s been given, it cannot be retracted, and when I think of why I know it won’t change anything… I can’t help but think that’s maybe it’s for the best that this has happened.’ I swallowed down bile. ‘Perhaps this is the reality check I needed in order to remember myself- and cut you free before I can hurt you any more than I already have.’

‘What’s that supposed to mean? Larkin… you’re speaking in riddles.’

I wiped my tears out from under my eyes and turned back to face the man that had saved my soul. ‘I’m not going to be able to get pregnant tonight because I can’t fall pregnant, Cairo.’ I was trembling again. ‘Not with a Barachiel heir, and not with a Kingslater one, either.’

I was not surprised when he turned grey, and then red at my words.

36.

Raphael

Kohén Barachiel

I watched in shock as the beautiful courtesan turn and fled from us, taking my breath with her. I’d been beside myself with grief just moments before, but now I was beside myself with shock. Who was she? Why had I looked into her eyes, and suddenly felt my will to live being restored to me?

And why had it felt like when she’d looked at me, something inside her had recognised something inside me as well?

The massive knight that she’d been tending to got off the ground, shot me a lethal look and then hobbled after the girl, crying out to the King’s Guard to: ‘Keep him out of my fucking sight unless you want me to start a war!’ and I swallowed hard, wishing that I’d chosen someone smaller and less dangerous-looking to piss off. Then again, if I’d hit the pirate with the same dose I probably would have killed him, so it was probably for the best that I’d electrocuted someone massive enough to withstand what was left of my charge.

Knight, pirates, beautiful maidens… where the hell was I? What kind of enchanted, magical bubble did this land exist within? Arcadia was beautiful, no doubt, but this was an absolute paradise that was practically drenched in romance. Snow capped mountains dipped to kiss the emerald green foothills that led to the storybook-looking village, which was equal to Arcadia in majesty without the too-uniform infrastructure, and lake water the colour of glacier ice shimmered behind a chateau so grand and glorious that it robbed me of my breath, even though I was still hundreds of metres away from it.

That lake… I shook my head in disbelief now that I was really seeing it. That’s the lake I was meant to find, right? I was on this path all along!

And the people… my God! Everybody in Arcadia always looked clean, healthy and tidy, but the people here dressed so beautifully that I expected that at any moment, a page would turn beneath me, flipping me out of one fairytale and into another. Oh, and their companions! Never had I imagined that I’d meet a Companion that would make the Arcadian ones look underwhelming in comparison but here they were- powdered, coiffed, rosy-cheeked and… running from me.

Fuck! Why was I considering running after that strange girl? What the hell was wrong with me? I rubbed my pounding head and groaned, telling myself to pull it together. That was when I realised that a lot of other people were thinking the same thing and so I looked up, trying to get a grip. I expected to find them all glaring at me but instead, they seemed to be having meaningful conversations with one another using only their eyes while my own soldiers wilted on the grass around the tower, giving up completely now that they’d seen me drop my weapon. Macklin was rubbing his head and wincing at the way his fingertips came away coated in blood, and poor Paisley was vomiting onto the grass while Saul-Yin crawled to her aid so that she could hold her hair back. Saul-Yin was so dehydrated that her lips were white and cracked and bleeding, and she was trembling so hard that she collapsed by Paisley’s side, panting for breath. I needed to get them help, but who was going to want to assist us now that I’d let my temper get the better of me?

‘I’m sorry…’ I said weakly, gesturing after the girl who was only just now disappearing from view, and nodding in thanks to our youngest guard Ambrose when he went over to Templar’s assistance, keeping his hands up in surrender. ‘I honestly didn’t mean to upset anyone, and I certainly didn’t mean to attack that man-’

‘I know you didn’t, Prince Barachiel,’ the older Companion said, side-stepping around two of my men and making a beeline for me, wearing a radiant smile that did not make sense under the circumstances. The pirate watched her move towards me looking as incredulous as I felt, but she shot him a loaded look that clearly said: ‘I’ll handle this,’ and he made a frustrated noise and stepped back, holding up his hands. ‘And we certainly didn’t mean to put you on the defensive. I can see, plain as day, that you’ve pushed over the edge of reason during your journey, and you can be certain that King Raphael will receive you more warmly than our guards have.’ She came to a stop in front of me, clasping her hands together, and gave me a pleading look. ‘Please, understand that we have heard about Calliel’s troubles, and we have been going to great lengths to make sure that we stay as removed from the situation as possible- that means being careful about who we let through the gates, lest we should accidentally allow in a band of evil pirates, a group of desperate soldiers- or one of Satan’s mercenaries, like the one that infiltrated your own kingdom not long ago.’

I stood up straighter, mindful of the fact that the redheaded pirate was now watching me like a hawk. Like so many other people I’d met, his attitude towards me had seemingly soured when he’d realised that I had no memories of my criminal history, and had gone from being full of assurances, to full of poison- taking it upon himself to rub in what a jerk I had been seeing as how my mind had spared me the self-realisation. ‘Has she tried to come here? Larkin of Eden, I mean?’

But the courtesan shook her head. ‘No, your highness, she has not, and we thank God for that every day.’ She stepped forward and rubbed my shoulder. ‘But that is a heavy subject to discuss while you look like you’re apt to be knocked over by a feather. Please, accompany us up to the castle and I will get you an audience with the king, all right? I’m sure he can answer your questions and convince you of his legitimacy much more eloquently than I can and after that, we’ll see to getting you something to eat and finding somewhere for you and your soldiers to sleep tonight, though judging by the look of them, most probably are going to wind up in the hospital.’

The woman had taken it upon herself to soothe me and though I was aware of the fact that she was buttering me up, I was more than happy to be manipulated so because it felt like an eternity since a stranger had last smiled at me with such kindness in their eyes. She was right to say that my soldiers needed hospitalisation too- every one of them was suffering from dehydration, exhaustion and exposure, and almost every one of them had some sort of serious injury. Saul-Yin had fared the best because she was used to going a long time without food thanks to her tiny appetite, but she couldn’t go any length of time without water and was drying up like old paper. Theodore was our largest, fittest guard, but his massive frame had made it harder for him to navigate through the patches of Wildwoods that we’d been forced to clear a path through more than anyone, so he was covered in lacerations from the thorns and lying on the grass with an arm slung over his face to protect himself from the sun’s glare.

I was feeling desperate for them, but being reminded of the fact that Raphael Lazarus, the most kind-hearted, most reserved archangel of them all was apparently alive and well and sitting on a fucking throne in this odd little part of the universe had my defences rising again. Were they trying to pull a fast one on me? Or did they honestly believe that their king was divine? Everyone knew that Raphael had abandoned the earth long before God had- everybody! He hadn’t even been mentioned in the Six Books Of Creation! In fact, I hadn’t even known that I’d known his name until it had been said, thanks to my selective memory, but I did know enough to understand that of all the Archangels, he’d accomplished the least on earth.

But I supposed it didn’t matter if there was a deception going on because the fact remained that whoever was sitting on their throne in their castle was their king in their eyes, and if I went in there all scorn and scepticism, me and my pack of defeated soldiers would probably be thrown straight back over the fence and left at the mercy of the sharp-toothed monsters that roamed the landscape in those parts, and we couldn’t take that again, not now, so I had no choice but to play along. Keeping this in mind, I nodded gently in acquiescence.

‘Thank you, I’d appreciate that very much.’ I winced. ‘Please, don’t refer to me as Your Highness though. I have been stripped of that title until I turn twenty-one, and do not wish to misrepresent myself while I am here. I have come as a representative of the army and as an ambassador for Callielian government by default, but not as a monarch because until I have redeemed myself in my brothers’ eyes, I am no more a member of the Noble caste in Arcadia there than you are.’

‘Of course, Guardian Barachiel I apologise- it has been a long time since I last lived in Calliel, so I have forgotten how strictly you people adhere to caste labels and the laws that can come with them.’

My brows lifted in response to the somewhat condescending way that she’d said: ‘You people,’ because it suggested that my people and her people were very different and that was a red flag. If this kingdom had been built by an archangel on unclaimed land in God’s name then it was as valid as my own was, and the people that lived there were allowed to govern it however they liked so long as it was fair and just and adhered to God’s laws.

However, if she was turning up her nose at our caste system, then that suggested that they didn’t have one of their own and that was strange because the citizens of Calliel knew for a fact that we had established the most successful, most peaceful and most evolved kingdom in the history of mankind. Sure, it wasn’t without its flaws, but I found it very hard to believe that ‘these’ people had found a way to do it better! Had they been hiding from us because they wanted to avoid conflict with the outside world as we in Arcadia once had when we’d first built Eden- or had they been shunning us?

The first would be understandable- Rabia, new Rome and Asiana had taken a century or two to link their kingdoms to ours in an official way, and Rabia had somewhat defected when they’d become a republic… but the latter suggested that the people here in Raphael looked down their noses at us and that was a very bad sign that made me feel as I had when we’d first been detained: like I’d been trapped by an enemy that regarded us as being inferior to them.

‘Are you telling me that you don’t do the same thing here?’ My eyes fell to her brand, and I saw her lips twitch in a smirk. ‘I assumed that because you have people here from Calliel, you would have upheld our laws-’

‘We have refugees here from Calliel, New Rome and Asiana, Guardian Barachiel,’ the Companion said, smoothing her skirts and folding her hands primly in front of herself, ‘but they are citizens of Raphael now and adhere to our own system, which is both simpler and more complicated than the one that the Barachiel throne enforces under their own banner. You are correct to assume that I was a Companion before I came here, and you are correct if you have presumed that I still serve as one now, but I do so willingly, not because I was commanded to, and everybody here has the chance to pursue their own interests in a similar fashion.’

My lips parted around a sharp inhalation. ‘Refugees? You mean to tell me that you have taken in the people that have been ejected from our kingdom regardless of what crimes they have committed?’ Shit! Does she mean to say that this entire kingdom is infested with Godless murderers and whores?

‘We give anyone that arrives on our doorstep the second chance they were so desperately seeking when they made their way here,’ the Companion moved to pick up my gun off the ground and when she straightened, she arched an eyebrow at me in a silent challenge. ‘We figure that anyone who undertakes that perilous journey from your kingdom into ours must have been desperate to find some sort of salvation at the end of it, don’t you agree? Isn’t it only fair that we ignore their brands- within reason- and give them a fresh slate?’

‘I don’t know if I’d use the word fair, but it certainly is as dangerous as it is generous!’ My head was throbbing with a headache now. ‘You could have a kingdom full of malicious people that only pretend to want a fresh slate!’

‘Actually no, we have ways to safeguard against that sort of malarkey, Guardian Barachiel,’ the Companion shot the redheaded pirate a sideways look and he smiled smugly at me and nodded curtly, making me wonder who the hell he was and why his knight hadn’t thought twice about leaving him to stand against nine soldiers with nothing but a sword and a very small gun. My palms began to sweat- was he a Nephilim? A warrior? A sorcerer? A demon? I had no idea! ‘And in the interests of keeping our people and king safe, I hope you understand that before we take you into court, we’re going to have to bind your hands behind your back to keep your powers in check.’

My stomach flipped and though I looked over at Saul-Yin for comfort, she was rubbing her temples like she had a migraine too and obviously not paying attention to anything that was being said. I looked back at the older whore, wary beyond belief. ‘I-’

‘It’s not necessary, Lady Lucida,’ the pirate said quickly, eyeing me off. ‘What he threw at the Captain was the last of what he had, and it will take him the better part of an hour to regenerate enough to shoot down a wasp, let alone an archangel.’

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. Wasp? Had he seriously just said wasp? ‘How do you know that I’m allergic to wasps?’ I asked, getting worried now.

‘I just do.’ The pirate glanced over at the other companions and said: ‘Ladies? I can count on you not to be shy about patting the soldiers down, can’t I? Please, relieve them of their weapons and lock everything you find up in the guard tower while I check Guardian Barachiel myself.’ He began to walk towards me, smiling a hostile smile that was a little lopsided, and I quickly unsheathed my sword from the sling across my back and threw it to the grass between us, beating him to the punch and wishing that I’d gone to Rachiel for extra weapons after all because we seriously didn’t have enough bullets left between us to be able to fight our way out of this situation if it got out of hand. ‘No offence, Kohén, but I’m sure you can understand why I’m not about to let you within arm’s reach of one of our lovely Companions, yes? I may not have ever set foot in Arcadia before, but I’ve heard enough about what goes on there to know not to trust you.’

No offence? If I’d had an inch of power left I would have fried him! But I retracted a grenade from one of my stuffed pants pockets and handed it out to him, which he took. ‘I told you, I’m not that-’

‘Yeah yeah…’ the pirate stepped closer to me, looking me up and down while I stiffened, but he made no move to actually touch me. ‘Save it for your creator and our monarch, Barachiel. From what I’ve gathered, they’re a lot more likely to give a holier-than-thou pervert a second chance than I am.’

My internal alarms were going off now! My creator? If God was my creator, then who was his? I wanted to run, I did, but my soldiers’ wants and needs mattered more, even more than my own life did. I didn’t have any other weapons to speak of, nothing except the tiny blade that I’d sewn into the hem of my pants that I knew he’d never find that I kept hidden away for emergency situations, so I wasn’t too worried about being manhandled by this creepy pirate or being left completely defenceless. But when he chuckled and bent down, drew a pen knife and slashed through the hem of my pants, cutting the concealed blade free, I could have blacked out from shock.

‘You can read minds!’ I croaked, watching in stupefaction as the pirate stood up and pocketed the blade. This was insane! What kind of nightmare had I led my people directly into?

‘You’re not as dumb as you look,’ was the redhead’s curt reply, and then he clicked his fingers and motioned for me to walk towards the castle. ‘But you’ve proven that you make some pretty poor decisions in the past, Guardian Barachiel, so a word of advice?’ I felt sharp pains stab into the back of my head as his voice trespassed into my brain without a word being spoken:

‘Use the word whore here again- even think it- and it will be the last fucking thought you have, understood?’

I was eager to agree, to do or say anything to get that pain out of my head, but I was too weak and it was too intense, and the last thing I saw was that perfect, lush green grass rising up to meet me as I collapsed face-first onto it.

*

When I came to I was very aware of the fact that I was being carried on a stretcher and that I felt weaker than I ever had felt before in my life. My headache had diminished somewhat though and my ears were working just fine, so I kept my eyes closed and my face slack and listened to the whispered conversation that I could hear going on behind me.

‘You have to be mistaken!’ the pirate man hissed, sounding irate. ‘She’d never ask that of her- NEVER!’

‘She would and she did and I’m not surprised in the slightest, Sam,’ a woman whispered in response. ‘It was on the agenda all along, wasn’t it? More fool the both of you if you didn’t realise it still was.’ She sighed. ‘I can see how it would be upsetting to you-’

‘UPSETTING? It’s despicable! Unthinkable! And if it seems that way to a guy that doesn’t have a soul than I can only imagine how SHE feels right now-’

‘It’s also a means to an end- an act that could undo years of damage, resentment and despair,’ the woman said quickly.

‘How? You know the state her body is in! How will this even work?’

‘Via a miracle, I suppose,’ the woman responded, and the pirate snorted. ‘What, you don’t believe in those? Look around you, Sam, our existence here is one. Besides, it has been seen.’

‘It was seen before she was born! Before the path she was fated to follow took a hard right! This could be an exercise in absolute futility!’

‘Or it could be the answer to many prayers.’ The woman sighed. ‘No one wants the poor thing put in this position, not even me, but there are ways to take the edge off her torment, and her mother has asked that I encourage her to undertake them.’

Undertake what? I thought, beyond confused. Who were they talking about?

‘Some mother!’ the one named Sam spat out. ‘She-’ and then he stopped silently and said quietly: ‘Hush, he’s coming to.’

‘Oh!’ I felt us stop. ‘Guardian Barachiel? Are you with us again?’

I groaned and nodded, trying to sit up and when she tried to push me down, I held up m hand and shook my head. ‘Please, let me walk. I appreciate the assistance, but I’m feeling a bit seasick.’

‘Of course Sam- lower your end.’

‘Sure thing.’ I was half-dropped onto the ground and though it hurt, I did my best to hide it. When I opened my eyes and crawled off the stretcher, I found myself not only staring up at the front steps of the palace in the fading sunset, but surrounded by curious onlookers. I turned around and saw that my comrades were following me and were either being carried on stretchers of their own, or leaning on strangers in order to walk themselves. I felt humiliated by the state of my division, but there was no shame in our condition, not really. We’d fought feral animals, circumnavigated mountain ranges and survived avalanches and torrential rains in order to get where we were, so I needed to remind myself that though we had struggled, we had survived.

Division one, on the other hand, would have lost half of its soldiers at the initial jump across the river.

‘This place is incredible…’ I glanced back at the hospitable Companion, then remembered that Sam had overheard my thoughts just a moment ago, and assumed it was safer to be honest and openly curious than considered an eavesdropper or a spy. ‘But can I ask what you two were just talking about?’ I turned to study the pirate’s face as he studied my mind. ‘Seems odd to me that a place so lovely would have citizens so miserable as the mother and daughter that you were just discussing seem to be.’

Sam scowled at me. ‘What business is it of yours, big ears?’

‘Sam, stop being so hostile,’ the companion said, stepping around to rub his shoulders reassuringly as she dazzled me with a bright smile. But I was okay- I had even almost laughed at the irony of being called ‘big ears’ by a mind-reader. ‘I apologise, Guardian Barachiel. Poor Sam is simply worked up over a friend of his- one that is dearer to him than he has the guts to admit.’ Sam snorted and she hurried on. ‘She is about to go through a trying time and because he is powerless to help her, he feels out of sorts, and because I have told him that I’ve recently spoken to and have decided to side with her mother in contradiction to his own opinion on the matter, he is cross with me.’

‘Oh,’ I furrowed my brow, finding it difficult to imagine that the mind reader could manage to care for anyone, and he bristled when he picked that thought out of my mind. ‘Pray tell, what trial is she about to be subjected to?’

The Companion linked her arm through mine and began to lead me toward the palace steps, and I blinked when I saw a line of little girls dressed as witches scurry out of our way. ‘Rehabilitation for an injury that she sustained a few years ago, Guardian. She lost the ability to, uh, walk properly for awhile, and now it seems like there’s a course of treatment that she’ll be able to undertake in order to gain her life back; a sort of physical therapy, you know?’ I nodded in understanding. ‘Most of us, including her mother, think that it’s a blessing and are encouraging her to work through the pain for the sake of getting her body and her future back, but those closest to her like Sam here, fear for how she will suffer before she finds her stride again.’ She glanced over at Sam and smiled gently as he flanked my other side. ‘His concern for her welfare is touching, but I believe that he needs to keep his eyes on the bigger picture, don’t you?’

I glanced at Sam. ‘Do you have a healer to help ease her pain?’

‘No such healer could exist…’ Sam grumbled, but the Companion tugged on my arm again.

‘No, we don’t have Nephilim healers here, like you do in Arcadia, but there are ways to alleviate her discomfort, and I was just trying to convince Sam that the most supportive thing he can do is to be positive and offer her comfort, not compound the multitude of reservations that she already has by rebelling against the treatment entirely.’

‘And I was just telling her that some treatments are just demonic!’ Sam snapped back. ‘And that the poor girl has already been through enough!’

‘I see where you’re coming from, but like I said, you’ve lost sight of the bigger picture too.’ She paused. ‘And if the girl’s father gives his consent, well, who are we to argue what’s right with him, hmm?’

Sam muttered something about rocks and hard places but didn’t say anything audibly, so I wet my lips before weighing in:

‘I agree that it’s probably in her best interests to work through the pain…’ I mused, wondering if my own healer would be able to help out once she’d recovered from the concussion that she’d sustained during the avalanche. ‘But it also depends on how painful the treatment is. If it’s beyond excruciating, perhaps all of you need to ask the girl what it is that she wants. If she’s happy to go on living with her handicap, then perhaps you should leave her be.’

‘I can’t believe I’m saying this-’ Sam jerked his thumb at me. ‘But he’s making my points, pointier.’

I swallowed hard. ‘Then again, I don’t know anything about the situation, not really… what sort of treatment are we talking here?’

‘I can’t imagine it would be so terrible…’ the Companion said, and Sam snorted.

‘Lady Lucida if she was willing to do everything that you’re willing to do, she wouldn’t be in this fucking mess in the first-’

‘Enough, Sam!’ the Companion snapped, baring her teeth and tugging on my arm, causing me to trip up the stairs. ‘Honestly, it’s like you were raised by wolves sometimes.’

‘Well we can’t all be hand-fed by princes in gilded cages, can we honey-bunny?’

I wanted to disappear. I didn’t know what these two were truly saying to one another but it was clearly more than they were articulating and I was getting a headache from trying to decipher it all. I turned to Lady Lucida and said quietly: ‘This girl… the one with the injury… it’s not that lovely creature that ran off before, is it?’

Lady Lucida looked up at me in surprise. ‘Did she seem like her physical being was impaired in any way to you, Guardian?’

I flushed because her physical being had been flawless from eyelash to her bare toes, but then cringed when I felt Sam strike me hard across the back of the head. Fucking hell! How did they tolerate having this weed crawling through their heads all the time? Was nothing sacred?

Look who’s asking?

‘No,’ I said, lifting my hand to rub the back of my head, but not after scowling back at my jailor. ‘She just seemed very upset, is all. I thought I had angered her from the way she spoke to me, especially after I hurt that man that she tended to, but her concern for him seemed to dissolve very quickly and after, it looked as though she were trying to run away from him, too.’

Lady Lucida pressed her lips together and looked ahead, averting her eyes. ‘You are right on all counts, Guardian Barachiel. Though she is not the one we were talking about, that particular Companion has issues of her own. She would have been very shaken by your arrival, yes, but her relationship with the man that you struck is a complex one at best, so he’s probably the last person that can comfort her in her current state.’

My stomach rolled. ‘She is scared of me then? Because of the rumours?’

Lady Lucida nodded swiftly as we ascended. ‘All of us are somewhat wary of you, Guardian because yes, we have heard that you tortured the Companion that you claimed to love while she was in your care… but it’s more personal for her because although you clearly don’t remember it, your paths have crossed before.’

I sucked in a breath. ‘Where? How? When?’

Sam snorted gently again. ‘Oh goody… story time.’

Lady Lucida gave him a mean look but then turned her attention back to me and shrugged. ‘I don’t know the specifics, only that you were much younger and visiting the palace in Janiel while she was still a member of the harem there. She told me once that there was a ball held in your father’s honour, and because her own master was abroad studying at the time and because she was still underage, she was at her liberty to attend as a guest. That night you danced, you flirted and apparently she was enchanted by you after, so much so that she couldn’t believe the rumours when they first reached us the year before last because she’d always thought of you as the ultimate prince charming, you know? The fairest of them all.’ Sam snorted again while my face heated, and I hoped he couldn’t hear the way my heart was racing. ‘I believe that she had high hopes of meeting you again one day when you were both of age and able to, uh, make a more intimate connection… but that never came to pass. She was kidnapped by pirates and taken from Janiel and you went on a bit of a rampage of your own within your own harem and so she is probably very shocked to meet you again under such alien, unfavourable circumstances. And the fact that you attacked her new master-’

‘Master?’ I demanded, looking around for the knight again as my heart flip-flopped in my chest. ‘That was a prince?’

‘No- that was the pirate that kidnapped her. Well, he kidnapped us from the worst pirates that stole us initially, so though he took us further away from our homeland, we owe him our lives. He brought us to this harbour, and we have lived here since.’

‘You’re prisoners here?!’

‘No,’ she patted my arm and smiled reassuringly. ‘Not at all we wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. The captain still calls the ocean his home, has no jurisdiction over this kingdom and only visits this harbour periodically, but although he technically released us both, he is rather obsessed with Erika, so he spends every available second that he has here at her side. He cannot marry her and claim her as his own because she was rendered barren by her initiation into Janiel’s harem and because most marriages aren’t permitted here anyway-’

‘WHAT?!’ I demanded, stricken. They couldn’t marry here? God would hate that!

‘-but but he regards her as his all the same, and pays her a handsome sum annually to ensure that she does not have to um… be unfaithful to him. Not that she’d be able to anyway- every man here is so scared of the Captain that they’d soon jump off his plank than touch what he considers to be his prized possession.’

‘That’s extraordinary!’ I said, winded to hear that the lovely Erika was off-limits despite the fact that she was a Companion. I didn’t want to admit myself that I’d already considered propositioning her, but I had and now I felt ill inside. I’d never allowed myself to seriously entertain the notion of bedding a Companion before, but now that I’d seen that breathtaking beauty, I couldn’t get her, her spectacular eyes or the amount of gold that I had stashed away in my bag out of my head. What would a girl like that cost in a place like this? And why was I still thinking about it?

‘It’s a difficult situation for her,’ Lady Lucida agreed softly. ‘But the Captain is a very charming man and he’d throw himself in front of God himself to protect her, so she cannot help but feel affection for him in return- hence her vexation just before when she found herself in the presence of her childhood crush, while he attacked the lover that her destiny has allocated to her. I suppose she didn’t know how to handle her emotions so she fled for fear of having a breakdown in front of everyone, because she’s been rather fragile since those McIntyre bastards in Calliel grabbed her and tried to have their way with us before the captain intervened.’

‘That poor thing,’ I said, thinking that I had to find a way to get her alone, first to apologise to her for not recognising her, then for disillusioning her with my past behaviour, and then, to assure her that I was trying to redeem myself. ‘It sounds like a difficult situation indeed.’

‘I know,’ Sam said, patting my shoulder hard enough to be considered to be series of smacks. ‘Disgusting, isn’t it? To think that a woman could be bought and sold like that? Good thing you’ve taken a vow of abstinence, hmm? Or she might just tempt you into making your royal prick a priority above all else again.’

I slitted my eyes at him. ‘I suppose you’ve taken a vow of abstinence too, yes? A man must have, to judge another man so harshly for a few lapses of judgement in is youth while under the influence of a fucking succubi?’

Sam drew back, and his blue eyes were sparking steel. ‘That’s what you’re telling yourself, is it? That your Companion was the demon in that little scenario? How convenient!’

‘No, it’s not,’ I looked forward with trepidation as Lady Lucida steered me through the palace doors. ‘But I’m doing my best to avoid acting like a demon now, and pray every day that Larkin Whittaker is doing the same thing because I’ve heard that she was determined to lead me into temptation as I was willing to be led.’ I turned to Lady Lucida again as I was hustled down the carpet that led across the bright, sunlit throne room. ‘Who is the captain anyway? What’s his name?’ Because even if he did save her, he’s still forcing her to spend time with him, and I’d very much like to become her new saviour! That would help me atone for my past sins, wouldn’t it? Breaking another man’s hold on a Companion the way I wish that someone had broken my hold on my own before it was too late?

‘Kingslater,’ Lady Lucida whispered. ‘Captain Kingslater.’

‘Son of Paris Kingslater,’ an elbow jabbed into my ribs hard from Sam’s side. ‘You’ve heard of him, yeah? Bit renowned, isn’t he?’

My legs went numb but luckily for me, I was able to hide it by falling to my knees at the King’s feet. There were TWO Captain Kingslaters? And this kingdom had ties with one of them? It was unthinkable! Paris Kingslater was listed as public enemy number two after Larkin Whittaker, so what on earth was his son like?

‘Well, well, well…’ a soft voice whispered as my mind reeled, ‘a Barachiel that would bow at another man’s feet? Now I think I have seen everything.’

I looked up at the king, and as my widening eyes swept from his violet ones, across his perfect, golden features and then finally came to a rest on his gigantic, tattered but snow-white wings, I was struck by the understanding that this man wasn’t exaggerating at all.

He was Raphael Lazarus, and he had, indeed, seen everything.

37.

Libertie City, Raphael

Larkin

A million emotions streaked across Cairo’s face after I dropped the bombshell that I knew would disintegrate us, but optimistic as always, he settled on looking frustrated and impatient instead.

‘Because of that stupid elixir you girls had to drink? Don’t be daft! Your country wouldn’t have s many third-borns if it was so infallible-’

‘I did not drink an elixir, I had a vial of the poison injected into my uterus, where it stayed, poisoning me for two years- two years of the fifteen that it was built to last for!’ I cried, and his brows drew together in confusion, creating dimples above them so darling that I remembered why I tried to annoy him on purpose as often as I could. ‘On the night I left Eden, I learned that it had a tracking device connected to it so I took a knife and cut the thing out of me, and though Satan assured me that she’d healed me after, and that I’d begin to menstruate normally again soon enough, I haven’t done so yet. I haven’t even had the slightest sign that I might soon, and after speaking to Lady Lucida about other Companions that she knew that did something similar, I know that there isn’t one case of a woman going on to have a healthy baby afterwards but if I’m lucky, it might wear off in time for menopause to kick in!’ Cairo had gone white and sensing that I’d finally found his Achilles, I took a step back his way, cornering him with my ugly truth and certainty. ‘So you can see why I’m beside myself, can’t you? Satan wants me to sleep with Kohén in order to get pregnant because she saw me nursing his child in a vision once… but she had that vision not only before I was inducted into that harem, but before I was even born. She saw me as his queen too- on an Arcadian throne, and though I’m thunderstruck that she cannot see how blinded she has become to my actual potential for the glory of my projected potential… I am nonetheless obligated to go through with this ridiculous charade in the name of humouring her anyway.’ I swallowed hard and reached up to touch his smooth, glorious jaw, and my eyes filled with tears when it flexed at my touch. ‘I don’t want to do it, but I think I should if it means finally convincing you that you deserve better- that all you will ever know is misery, disappointment and fine print if you continue to bind your life to mine!’

Cairo’s entire face drew tighter and harder than I’d ever seen it look before, and he caught my wrist again before my fingers had had the chance to glance off his perfect skin. ‘You can’t have children?’ he asked in a hoarse, coarse tone, and when I shook my head, he tossed my wrist aside and stepped back, looking betrayed, and I felt like he’d stabbed me right through the heart with one single look of dismay. ‘And you kept that fact from me, even though you knew how badly I wanted to have a family with you? All this time I should have been scouring the world for healers and herbs and scientific minds to help heal you with, but you had me fetching you old romance novels and panes of glass instead?’

I frowned at him and reached for my champagne to have something to do with my hands, hurt but not surprised by his reaction. ‘I knew it was unlikely that any remedies would-’

‘Bullshit!’ he snapped, and I jumped, splashing champagne over my own wrist. ‘You knew it was impossible, because in your mind, being happy- truly happy- is impossible for you! Your heart is too broken to be given to another! Your womb is too damaged to allow you to be a mother! Your life is too set in stone for you to be able to change its course, your body too traumatised by the Barachiels for it to ever feel pleasure again, and your responsibilities too great to be put aside for your own human wants and needs!’ he raked his hands back through his long, ash-blonde hair and shook his head at me, at a loss. ‘And so long as you believe all of these things are true, they will continue to prove to be true, and though I knew that making you happy would be difficult for me to do, I didn’t truly believe that it would be impossible until just now when I realised that you are cursed to lead a miserable, lonely, and martyred existence- cursed by your own nature!’ His hands came down and became helpless claws. ‘By your refusal to think positive and to wish for all that you want instead of convincing yourself that YOU SHOULDN’T WANT IT!’ He came at me and poked at my chest, eyes alight with conviction as he declared: ‘It is not your womb that is barren, Larkin, it is the place in your heart where hope and blind faith ought to reside!’

‘That’s not true!’ I cried, swiping his hand away. ‘I wish for things! I’ve worked towards them- I’ve prayed, Cairo! For happiness, for freedom… for you!’ Tears were streaming down both of our faces now and I put down my flute again, reached out and took his hands in mine, desperate to hold onto him more now that I understood that I could not. ‘But life is about balance, and no one gets everything they want and I have had too many dreams ripped out of my hands to survive dreaming up any more!’ I released one of his hands and gestured outside. ‘I never wanted a kingdom! I never wanted to be a queen! I wanted to grow cotton and live barefoot in a house surrounded by books and fat children of my own with my best friend and husband at my side, but I got glamour, and glory and bananas!’ I took his hand again and tugged him towards me, forcing him to look me in the eye. ‘They’re not my dreams, but they are blessings and I must find a way to be content with my lot because we have more here than most have! And if you can’t be content with me as I am- Satan’s barren daughter that must take another man to bed for the greater good-’

‘But you are not content! You are sexually traumatised, emotionally scarred and terrified of being happy lest it should be taken from you!’ he argued, and I saw red.

‘Why shouldn’t I be, after all I have endured? When I first met you, you were in the exact same state of mind, but worse! In fact, you were suicidal, remember?’

‘But I changed my state of mind after we met, Lark,’ Cairo said, the light fading from his eyes even though his grip on my hands tightened. ‘My love for you is powerful enough to weather anything, even this…’ he swallowed hard and his face crumpled as he released my hands and stepped back. ‘But your feelings for me aren’t as strong, are they? You’ve already given up!’ I shook my head to protest no, but I could not bring myself to make a sound because deep inside my heart, I knew that giving up on him was the right thing to do. Moaning, Cairo jerked his hands away. ‘When he touches you- all that will be left for me to hold after is ashes, and I can’t stand around and watch it happen. I’ve already seen one woman that I love reduced to char… I can’t go through that a second time, Larkin.’

‘Then I think it’s best if you leave as soon as possible, Captain Kingslater,’ I said woodenly, knowing that he wasn’t giving up because of my heart- but because of my flawed body. I’d upheld my end of the deal and had graced him with my affections the moment it had occurred to me to want to embrace a man again, but he owed me nothing and soon enough, he would be glad that I had severed the bond between us. It was Satan’s daughter that was breaking his perfect heart, but it was Raphael’s daughter that was pushing him away and that was what made me fit to rule, wasn’t it? The ability to do what was right for him, even if it felt oh so wrong for me.

Ashes to ashes… I thought, trying to control the way my face was contorting with grief. Dust to dust...

‘Larkin-’

‘I mean it, Captain.’ In order to make the break easier, I turned my back to him and made my way over to my vanity, picking up the white paint that I would need to use to touch my make up with now that I’d cried it all off. ‘Take your money, take your men... and get as far away from me as you can before you too, develop a hole in your heart where joy and blind faith used to reside.’

‘Too late,’ was all my white knight said to me before he opened my bedroom door and walked out of my life, leaving me alone in my tower. Understanding that I’d just lost the most loyal, most loving and most devoted companion that I’d ever had in the true sense of the word, I collapsed over my vanity, knocking most of the make up to the floor in the process, and wept.

*

I only had two minutes alone before my door burst open and Lady Lucida barged into my room, peeling me off my dressing table and urging me down the stairs. Kohén and his squadron had been taken to the throne room, and she needed me there because the masquerade that they were trying to pull off would be an impossible mission without my complete participation and focus. I was in no shape to go anywhere, least of all out in public, but I re-filled my champagne glass before I let her haul me out of my room because I knew she was right: our survival depended on me keeping my wits about myself.

And my survival depended on me getting drunk.

As we walked down four flights of stairs, Lady Lucida explained to me that the moment that I had run from the guard tower, Satan had wormed her way into her mind as she had done in the past, and had told her what she’d told me; that I had a very specific job to do and that I would need Lady Lucida’s help. I didn’t know how the older Companion felt about my gruesome agenda, but she’d apparently come up with a cover story to explain my duress and to cover my ‘Whittaker’ tracks, and I had to admit that I was somewhat in awe of her composure and her quick thinking. Then again, she wasn’t the one that was about to attempt to seduce someone she loathed for absolutely no reason so it wasn’t so surprising that she was functioning on a higher level than I was, was it?

Bereft as I was, it was hard for me to take in everything that Lady Lucida was saying but by the time we’d reached the second floor of the palace, my mask was in place, both figuratively and physically. I was Erika of Mossgrove (Janiel’s palace) I was twenty years old and like Lady Lucida, I had been kidnapped by pirates only in her retelling, we’d be stolen away from the McIntyre’s by the Kingslater’s, which had saved our lives. She had been taken from King Elliot Bronx’s section of the harem and I had been taken from his younger brother, Prince Philip’s own crop of girls, but instead of being ravaged by savages, we’d been salvaged by Cairo, and then deposited here in one of Cairo Kingslater’s many safe harbours.

That had been a risky lie to tell because Prince Philip Bronx was only nine years old so of course, the girls in his harem wouldn’t even know what their own destinies were yet, let alone look anything like me… and because the real kidnapping of Companions from Janiel had happened decades before which made sense with her age but not mine… but she’d had to make the lie fit my platinum brand and she’d counted on Kohén not knowing much about the less significant royals anyway, given his service in the army and his amnesia. She’d gambled big but apparently it had paid off because Sam said that Kohén had accepted every word she’d said as being the truth without batting an eyelid.

To my surprise, she also told me that she’d stopped a desolate Cairo on the stairs on her way up, and had warned him that she’d used his real name and his semi-permanent presence here in order to cover our asses and make Kohén feel threatened. I was cross with her for exposing the ‘real’ Captain Kingslater like that, but apparently Cairo had agreed that it was about time that he stopped trying to be something that he was not. He’d apparently gone on to swear that he would do whatever it took to keep me safe until I’d made it through the ‘unspeakable act’ if Bastien didn’t slit Kohén’s throat to spite Satan himself, but had looked very upset when she’d revealed that she’d turned him into my new ‘master,’ as part of the deception as well. I couldn’t blame him because that didn’t sit well with me either, but Lady Lucida insisted that it was the only way that she’d been able to think of a cover story that would explain my unstable loyalties to my over-attentive benefactor once I sought Kohén out- as I had to do.

I felt sick to the stomach at the idea of seeking Kohén out, but I was grateful to Lady Lucida for having coughed up that story out of thin air with only a few seconds warning from Satan. As far as Kohén knew, I was loved and controlled by the intimidating pirate captain- showered with gifts and attention but guarded jealously, which ensured not only my loyalty to him, but my fear of him. The tall tale was also a mirror image of the very relationship that Kohén had had with his own favourite Companion, and because he was obviously ashamed of that now, she did not doubt that Kohén would immediately feel obligated to ‘save’ me from a man as twisted and obsessive as he had once been now that I’d already caught his eye, and that would give him an excuse to approach me. Evidently that gamble had paid off too because according to Sam, Kohén was already thinking of ways to steal a few moments of my time and offer his empathy and assistance in the hopes that one right would undo two wrongs.

He was fucking wrong- about everything- but he was playing right into our hands and now it fell to me to close my legs and my fist around him and his family’s fucking throne. The thought made me want to vomit up my champagne but I had to admit, it was a smart plan and if I did get pregnant, we’d have Arcadia by the balls after via their firstborn heir. We wouldn’t have to hurt the rest of the hostages either, or even cancel the ball because going ahead with it would give me the perfect opportunity to first enchant and then seduce Kohén.

There was one more important layer to the web of deceit she’d spun- and Lady Lucida actually blushed when she told me that she’d explained my odd reaction to Kohén away as hysteria- that I’d once had a ‘thing’ for Prince Barachiel, and had entertained fantasies of one day meeting him again after our paths had crossed in Janiel during a visit from him in my teenage years. I made such a twisted face that Lady Lucida actually laughed and said:

‘Come on now dear, I know you were taught to hide your disgust for your would-be lovers better than that,’ and I’d muttered a string of words that would have made her, Cairo and Papyrus blush as I’d stormed past her and out onto the second floor landing. The central wing of the palace had a perfect sphere cut into every level, so that people all the way up to the fifth floor could look down at what was happening in the throne room below and because I was only one floor up now, I could see Kohén almost as clearly as I had when I’d been outside with him, and I wasn’t enjoying the view at all. In fact, I very much wished that I could fly through the domed skylights and towards heaven because if I could make it past a few thousand feet, that was where I’d be going- as far from my mother’s reach as possible, and further still from Kohén’s.

‘Why did Satan have to ask you to help me?’ I demanded grouchily as I looked for Martya, who’d fled my room the moment Cairo had stormed in dressed in plain clothes again, pointing out that if Kohén couldn’t remember me then he certainly wouldn’t remember her so she was going to get a front row seat in order to best watch him writhe. She hadn’t mentioned the ordeal that I was supposed to submit myself to because she’d barely had the chance to ask if I was okay before Cairo had bellowed at her and the other girls to get out, but I didn’t want to discuss it with her anyway because I knew damned well that best friend or not, this was her family’s curse that I had a second chance at breaking so she’d probably be the only person that loved me that wouldn’t try and talk me out of it.

And she knew what was going on too, because apparently once she’d informed me of my mission, Satan had started reaching out to every mind in Raphael that had ever been opened to her, revealing her grand plan while beseeching them all to support her and I alike. There were at least sixty people in Raphael that were too innocent to have received such a message, but those old enough to understand were quickly spreading the word to those not in the know: that Kohén Barachiel was not to be killed but manipulated in the worst possible way. I didn’t know how they were all taking it, but Kohén hadn’t been killed yet and there were a lot of people that wanted to kill him so as far as I could tell, Cairo and Sam were the only ones objecting on my behalf. Surprise, surprise! I’d built a nation for them and yet somehow, what was between my legs still counted more than what was inside my heart! Being a woman sucked.

Well, God’s firstborn son had been crucified for the sake of the people… is it any surprise that Satan’s daughter would get nailed by betrayal too?

‘Why do I have to take him to bed to try and fall with his child- which won’t happen- at all? Can’t we knock him out so you ladies can milk him of his essence while he’s unconscious? I’ll pay you well! Fuck... my kingdom to whoever can devise a way for me to be artificially inseminated!’

‘I thought the curse had to be broken by him impregnating a woman that he loves?’ Lady Lucida asked, looking confused. ‘Somehow I don’t think that artificial insemination is going to cut it- even if we had perfected the science… which we haven’t.’

‘He loves me as much as he loves any other Companion right now…’ I grumbled, lowering my voice as Sam and Bastien finished conferring quietly, leaving my father free to acknowledge the fallen prince again in front of an expectant and silent audience. ‘Hell, he doesn’t even know me...’

‘But his soul recognised yours, Larkin, and they are not only well acquainted, but connected in an eternal way.’ The older Companion squeezed my hand when I moved to hit her with it and slid her eyes to mine. ‘No, you cannot deny it, or hate me for saying it… how do you think he found his way here, Larkin? Sam told me that the only memory that Kohén has had resurface yet, was a whispered conversation that he had about a little girl… about following a stream through a forest and over the mountains- to a valley that contained a lake of turquoise.’

A wave of prickly heat rolled over my body as I watched Martya, Channél and Siria whispering in a cluster on the other side of the room and looking too excited for my comfort. ‘No…’ I breathed, but Lady Lucida nodded and I squeezed my eyes together and bowed my head, trying not to cry.

‘He heard it, in his mind, and for reasons he cannot explain, even to himself- he followed that stream here. It was an ill-fated journey and thrice as hard on them as our initial migration was because they came from the east where it is still very frosted over… but here they are, and that is rather miraculous, wouldn’t you say? How can you turn your head away from fate, when she is screaming in your face and demanding recognition?’ She waved out to the people gathered below us. ‘When you can see how much faith they have in you bringing a blessed child into the world that could be a harbinger of peace?’

I sniffled, wiping at my eyes again and not knowing what to think. How was it possible that the one, tiny anecdote that I’d shared with a five year old boy so many years ago had ended up defining my entire existence?

I sighed in resignation as Bastien started telling Kohén about the origins of Raphael- or rather, the false history that I’d written myself with Sam’s help, and had encouraged everyone in Raphael to memorise. Until Sam finished his true recount of how Raphael had come to be (boy, I sure hoped he wasn’t going to have to witness the next disgusting chapter!) the official story was that King Raphael had herded up a bunch of believers that had not been able to make it to the safety or Arcadia one hundred and seventy years ago, and had established a village here. Much like Arcadia, our people had bred and thrived and built and evolved, and although we were aware of Calliel’s existence, we had neglected to make contact with them, because over the years, we’d acquired too many of the sovereign’s Banished citizens that had migrated here by accident, to believe that we’d be accepted by our neighbours as we were. According to God and Callielian law, we were well within our rights to create a civilisation of our own and even to offer amnesty to their law-breakers, so long as we respected their laws too, preached God’s word and loved him accordingly.

We didn’t do the latter, of course, but no one needed to know that and if we played this right, no one ever would. It wasn’t like King Barachiel could just swarm over us and demand unification- we didn’t have to let him or his people in, and he couldn’t try to force us to do things his way without starting a war, which was a larger sin against God and would give us grounds to overthrow him and his throne anyway.

Calliel would be able to take issue with the fact that we traded with pirates, but although the former Captain Kingslater had been a thief and a murderer, his son was less like a pirate, and more like an importer/exporter that just happened to travel around by boat. Cairo didn’t steal things- he bought and traded them, and if he and his men ever killed anybody, it was in the name of upholding an ethical code of conduct, not because he didn’t have any ethics of his own. Sure, Cairo had been determined to assassinate the king of Calliel and that had made him an enemy of the crown once, but he wasn’t anymore on either count, so what could Karol do but scold Bastien for choosing poor friends? Nothing- he had no grounds to stand on, not here.

But the lack of danger of having Kohén there did not change the fact that I didn’t want him there- not in my kingdom, and certainly not in my bed.

‘Fate needs to learn to compromise,’ I said to Lady Lucida, watching as Kohén stood and began to explain how they’d gotten here, and how we had nothing to fear from him so long as were living in God’s light while his people moaned and passed out or begged for water on my polished marble floor. I rolled my eyes at the idea of being scared by him at all, then, especially when I saw that the largest soldier was completely unconscious. ‘My mother got pregnant with me via Gabby’s body… can’t she or one of you hop in me for a joyride so I can pretend that I’m elsewhere?’

‘Gabby and Siria can be used as vessels, but she has no real power of her own. If you want to let another woman into you, you’ll have to grant your mother access, and that’s exactly what she asked me to beseech you to do to prevent you from suffering. You remember how you felt after you took her hand, don’t you? How charged you were-’

‘You think I’ll feel less grotesque about having sex with an old flame that I can’t stand... if I share the experience with my goddamned mother?!’ I shoved her gently, making her multiple layers of pearls clack together. ‘You’re more perverted than I thought!’

‘No!’ Lady Lucida’s eyes bugged and then it was her turn to screw up her face. ‘Absolutely not, what a heinous suggestion!’ She pulled me back from the railing and hissed. ‘But I am suggesting that you take her into you, just for a moment, and let her fill you with her power. It’s like flying, Larkin- no opiate or alcohol in the world can compare to divine possession!’

I cocked my head to the side, slitting my eyes. ‘You’ve done it?’

‘During my rituals, of course- when she’s strong enough, I take Satan into me, and it is a singular and utterly euphoric experience.’ She smiled a secretive smile that made her dark eyes gleam. She always looked beautiful, but the contrast of autumn leaves that had been threaded into her pale gold powdered wig made her cocoa skin glossy and supple-looking, and her eyes sparkle like onyx. ‘You will soar high above your body, but you will feel every touch divinely. You will remember it all after, but your recollections will be fuzzy around the edges, the way one remembers waking from a dream, or writing themselves off on champagne. Only there is no comedown after and there are no regrets either- she dissolves from your system gently, and her residual strength and power can stay with you for hours, days or weeks, depending on how long she was in there for.’ Lady Lucida clasped my hands, and I wondered if she could feel the blood throbbing in my pulse points. ‘I know you don’t trust me girl, and I know that this is a big ask…. but going off with that boy sober and heartsick is already the worst case scenario, isn’t it? So what do you have to lose by making it an out of body experience? Why be violated by her demands, when you could enjoy it, and feel at peace with yourself after? Especially if…’

‘If…?’ I raised my eyebrows, shocked to realise that I was actually considering it.

‘If it works,’ she said softly, eyes shining as she reached up and cupped my face. ‘If Satan gives you the miracle that the whole world needs- a Barachiel daughter that would not only break the curse against their family, but unite Heaven and Hell at last while making you a mother.’

I reeled back from her, mind spinning. ‘You believe that I could fall pregnant too?’ I’d assumed she’d only been trying to talk me into it because she liked being a pain in my ass but now I saw that the glow of faith and hope in her eyes was brighter than even Martya’s was when the subject of breaking the curse was raised. ‘But you’re the one who told me how improbable it was, in addition to being the most cynical person I’ve ever met in general!’

But Lady Lucida just smiled tightly. ‘I’m the second most cynical person in Raphael,’ she chided me, coming after me and sliding one of her hands around my waist before leading me back over to the railing. ‘But you are the first, your highness, and cynicism is a disease of the mind, not the heart. I’ve managed to thrive despite my own tendency to see the glass half full, but that’s because I tell myself that I deserve every last drop that’s in there, and because I love Satan dearly. But you- you see the glass half full and share it with others because you don’t believe you deserve a sip of it, and that’s wrong. You preach that all should be equal, and yet you treat yourself as an inferior and until you can rise above that, you will never know true happiness because you are simply too selfless to invite it into your life. And in a way, that’s selfish because you’re making those that want to love you suffer by keeping them at arm’s length.’

I worried my lower lip, thinking of how ironic it was that both she and Cairo had said the same thing to me that day, but from opposing sides of the same argument. Was it true? Had I become a pessimist in my old age that made her own life harder than it had to be?

Lady Lucida pointed to Kohén. ‘I know you’re sickened by the prospect of making love with him again, but he took your ability to have children, Larkin… so why not take it back? Why make this about doing what Satan wants, when you could be viewing it as doing what you deserve instead?’

I frowned at her, half-listening to Kohén explain about the stream he’d followed from the east that we had no knowledge of because we made it our business to avoid the Fallen Forest for fear of getting crushed by one of the thousands of ancient trees that had been rotting out of the ground there since Satan’s thaw. Fortunately, he didn’t know that I’d followed a stream here, and considered his discovery a lucky break pushed by a repressed memory and little else. ‘How would letting Kohén use me rob him of anything?’

‘Because Satan says Kohén will only ever have one child.’ She slipped her hand up and squeezed my shoulders tightly, whispering into my ear. ‘So take it from him, my queen. Give the world a Barachiel princess, but on Raphael’s throne, and show everyone that ever hurt you just how wrong they were to treat a third-born girl like she was worthless!’

I felt a tiny flame crackle to life inside me then, and I pursed my lips together, gravitating back towards the railing and looking down over my people- forcing myself to look at Kohén. Getting a child out of him would be a more adequate form of compensation than anything else that he had offered before, especially if he ended up suffering for it after… but could I do it? Could I take him inside me again without bursting into hell fire? I wanted to be a mother desperately… but at what cost?

As though feeling my gaze, Kohén’s head twitched my way then, and his neon blue eyes found mine and practically throbbed with power, making my heart skip a beat and all at once I realised that I couldn’t take him to bed because he was Kohén- I couldn’t bring myself to touch him because right then he reminded me far too much of Kohl now that he had that haunted, black-sheep look about him, coupled with the sense of pride that one only developed after learning how to stand on their own two feet.

‘I am not the grudge-holding type, Guardian Barachiel, so although it is clear that your presence here is making my court nervous, I will take this moment to remind them that this is a kingdom built on love, understanding, equality... and second chances,’ my father pronounced then, folding his wings away as he leaned forward to look into Kohén’s eyes which thankfully stole Kohén’s focus away from me. ‘I have been in your position before, young man, and although I understand that you are actually guilty of most of the crimes that you have been accused of committing in a way that I was not, the fact remains that I built this place to be a haven for those seeking a second chance so...’ Bastien’s eyes flickered up to meet mine, and though I saw pain and anguish within them, I also saw what I’d expected to see- his resignation, his willingness to let me fight my own battles- and his absolute faith that Satan’s plan would benefit me more than it would torture me in the long run. ‘...I will not deny you amnesty, assistance or the chance to be treated as an equal this day, even though certain members of my counsel are beseeching me to turn you out due to the fact that you have already attacked one of them-’

‘That was an accident, sire,’ Kohén said quickly, cheeks pink as he searched the room for Cairo. ‘If given the chance, I will apologise profusely to Captain K-Kingslater, and I will swear to both of you right now that it will not happen again.’

‘Good.’ My father nodded curtly. ‘Then you and your soldiers may stay here and recuperate until you are ready to make the journey home, but only on the condition that you will behave yourselves according to our laws, treat my people as fairly as I know they will treat you-’ he gave my court a warning look and most nodded in acquiescence, ‘and speak highly of both my kingdom and its people after.’

‘I will, your highness,’ Kohén said, nodding eagerly, and though Sam’s face was still red with indignation, his expression did not flicker the way it did when he heard a lie spoken in accordance to a contrary thought. ‘I am already impressed with your beautiful kingdom, and anticipate that I will have nothing but wonderful things about it to report back to my own king after.’ He pressed his hand to his heart and looked around, snagging my gaze and then smiling fondly up to the glass ceiling, whispering: ‘I feel God’s light here more than I have ever felt it anywhere before!’

Sam coughed then to cover a laugh, but Bastien smiled tightly as he rubbed his temple, making me wonder what sort of violent thought Sam had just smashed into his mind. ‘That’s good to hear. I know that you’re tired and hungry, but your arrival here just so happens to coincide with a special occasion. We are having a masked ball tonight to celebrate an ally’s twenty-second birthday, and those of you that are feeling up to attending are welcome to attend.’ He sat up taller, looking my way again. ‘However, I must insisted that you at least attend as my special guest, Guardian Barachiel, even if your comrades are too out of sorts to join you. I am very curious to hear how Miguel’s people are faring in the wake of that dreadful episode with Larkin of Eden, and I am sure that you have many questions about Raphael that you would like answered as well, yes?’

Kohén looked a little bewildered, but he nodded. ‘Of c-course, your highness. I would be honoured.’

‘Excellent.’ Playing the part of the overburdened king expertly, Bastien waved his hand and two of the villagers that were dressed up as guards stepped forward to attention. ‘Take the soldiers down to the hospital, please, and make sure that all of their needs are met at once.’

‘Thank you, your highness.’

‘God be with you, Guardian Barachiel.’

As soon as he had excused Kohén, I pressed my hand to my stomach and whirled around to face Lady Lucida, feeling light-headed from how rapidly dread was being pumped through my heart and then out to the rest of my overheating body.

‘I can’t do it… but I know that I have to. If you can… if she can help me in any way…’ my eyes filled with tears. ‘I’ll do it okay? I’ll do anything, just so long as I don’t have to feel like myself when I do it!’

‘Of course, Erika,’ Lady Lucida took my hand, and began pulling me back towards the stairwell. ‘Follow me to your mirror, and then let the masquerade begin.’

38.

Château Aztaroth, Raphael

Kohén Barachiel

Nothing was as it seemed in Raphael, and this proved to be even truer than I’d first thought after we were led down an ancient set of stone steps, into a windowless basement- and into one of the dimmest, warmest spaces that I’d ever seen in my life that looked like little more than an underground tunnel.

‘This is your hospital?’ I asked of my escort, and he gestured in both directions.

‘Yes, but there’s more to it than that. This cellar runs the entire length of the castle, you see? There’s a wine cellar up the other end that’s not accessible via this wing, a series of storage rooms and meat lockers up the other that link to the kitchen, and the most popular part…’ he paused to open an arched, solid wood door off the corridor, making me gasp when a cloud of steam billowed out of it that smelled like incense and sulphur, ‘the hot springs are in here.’

A few of my soldiers came to life then, but I was the only one close enough to get a quick look inside the small, dark and steamy room. I could hear water gurgling, but couldn’t actually see it due to the opacity of the air. ‘Surely you don’t mean to say that that’s a natural hot spring in there?’

‘Of course I do- this entire area is littered with them but this one is special. It’s only small and that’s a relief because if it were any bigger it would compromise the integrity of the chateau’s foundations, but it’s deep and hospitable- and quite a lot warmer than the others because the heat stays trapped inside by the stone walls.’

‘That’s amazing…’ Ambrose breathed, seemingly recovered from his intense migraine and malaise.

‘It is. It was little more than a cave until last summer, but we’ve recently renovated it so it functions like a bath house, with benches to steam ourselves on, and a freshwater shower to rinse off under before and after.’ Our tour guide pulled the door shut and motioned for us to continue on while behind me, my division murmured in astonishment and I wiped sulphur-scented sweat off my brow. ‘I doubt you’re in any state to really enjoy it right now, but that’s where you’ll be taken to wash off soon and I urge you to take a long soak while you have the chance- it works wonders for the muscles.’

‘It’ll put me right to sleep!’ Saul-Yin breathed from behind me, taking another frantic gulp from the large urn of water she’d been given upstairs. ‘But I don’t care. Kohén, this truly is a paradise! Have I thanked you yet for dragging me through hell in order to find it?’

I glanced back at her, taking in how dirty, scratched up and pale she was and smiled tightly. Hadn’t she noticed how low the ceilings were? The lack of windows? How heavily we were being guarded? How many death looks I’d gotten from people? ‘How about you thank me after we manage to make it out of here in one piece, hmm?’

‘Make it out of here?’ Saul-Yin looked at me like I was an alien, and I was startled by how quickly she was recovering her wits now that her body was getting what it needed again. ‘I’ve only been here half an hour and I’m already convinced that I never want to leave!’

‘That’s disloyal,’ Macklin grouched from behind her, shaking his head in consternation. ‘We’re soldiers of Calliel, little one, and they’ve treated us well. Show your homeland some respect, won’t you?’

‘Pardon me, Mack,’ Saul-Yin rolled her eyes and drooped again, grumbling to the ground: ‘How dare I forget to reaffirm my loyalty to the king that called me a whore and then sent me off to die?’

My guard turned around, eyebrows shooting up. ‘Is it customary for your ruler to treat his soldiers so appallingly?’

‘No,’ I said, trying not to flush. ‘We’re just special.’

And that was the end of that conversation.

We were led to a room that resembled the small hospital that we had in the barracks in Rachiel, only it was smaller, warmer and more colourful. There were no flat beds with starched white sheets, no bright lights and no funky medical smell to speak of- instead sets of bunks were covered in soft looking quilts in rows, kerosene lamps illuminated the room with a cosy glow and there seemed to be as many books in there as there was medical equipment. It was empty when we arrived, but two nurses and one doctor came in just as I helped Theodore hobble over to one of the lower bunks, and I was commanded to sit and await my own inspection and not to exert myself in any way by one nurse, and I did so until the ‘doctor’ (who was oddly dressed like a Warlock) came over and asked me for a full report on the worst injuries, as well as the names of the patients, their ages and their medical history- if I knew any of it.

I knew it all and though he seemed surprised by that fact, he jotted down everything I said while Saul-Yin and Ambrose (the least injured aside from myself) were handed robes, towels and soap, then asked to go straight down to the hot springs to wash up while the worst cases were triaged. I explained that Macklin was a diabetic that was going to need something to eat almost straight away, but that aside from being severely dehydrated from the last leg of the journey, his only injury was a massive lump on the back of his head from where a rock that had bounced off it at the beginning of the avalanche. Paisley’s injuries were avalanche related as well- we’d escaped being buried under the brunt of the landslide, but Paisley had leapt from one rock to another while escaping and had missed, coming down in the gap between them and snapping her arm in half when it had struck the rock she’d been hoping to land on. In addition to that, she’d jarred her neck and had gotten a bad cold during the first leg of the journey when we’d trekked through that stream for two days in ice water, so she was in a pretty bad way and had run out of the strength to heal herself two days before. Naturally though, I did not mention the healer part.

Theodore had seventeen lacerations that I knew that would require stitches, and a multitude of superficial ones that were beginning to look infected after days of being covered in sweat, grime and slush despite my best efforts to keep them clean. I didn’t know if he was dehydrated or malnourished because he was sort of like a camel given how big he was, but I had to quickly explain to the doctor that he was a decade younger than he looked and that he wouldn’t be able to tell us what else was wrong with him unless he was given a pad and paper because he was a mute. No I didn’t know why he was mute because he didn’t like talking about it (or writing about it), but he definitely had a tongue still and his hearing worked just fine. The doctor walked over to Theodore to ask him if there was anything else wrong with him that he’d like to write down, but the massive boy was already snoring again so the doctor let him be and ordered for a drip to be put in his arm too.

Jent wasn’t injured at all but he had the worst cold of any of us and had been having hot sweats for the past day, and so he was given a cool sponge bath there on the spot before someone inserted a drip of fluids into his veins, and though Templar’s own illness wasn’t quite as dire, he had been attacked by a massive wolf earlier that morning and had a twisted, badly chewed-up ankle as a result. The medical carers didn’t seem too worried about any of us until they saw the state of Templar’s ankle and then, Miguel’s calf muscle, because he’d been the unluckiest of us all- not only had he been bitten by a snake in his slumber the night before and now had one leg that had swollen to twice the size of the other, but a male salt and pepper bear had attacked him after he’d woken up screaming, leaving four perfect scratches across him from the single swipe that had raked him from one side of his neck to the opposite shoulder.

‘Sounds like you had quite a night!’ the doctor said, abandoning me before rushing over to the bed where Miguel was lying, prone, his usually gleaming black skin shredded and juicy with blood and flesh. ‘I’m surprised that you made it through all of that; period. How on earth did you handle the bear?’

‘I shot it,’ Raithe said in his funny little voice, sitting up and swinging his stumpy legs over the edge of his bunk. He scratched at the crimson, pustule-covered rash that had creeped under his matted beard then gestured to himself, an incredulous look on his face. ‘But its roar got me good, I tell yah. I thought only my balls shrunk up in fear at first, but when I woke up, I realised that I’d lost a good two feet in height too!’

I snorted and the doctor impressed me by playing along. ‘That’s unfortunate, I must say. Though I can’t pretend to know how to cure spontaneous dwarfism, I would recommend that you avoid the hot springs. If you shrank two feet from fear, then you’re likely to shrink to the size of an ear in that hot water.’

I chuckled but Raithe pretended to be deep in thought. ‘Do you have a professional degree from the Academics caste doctor? Or should I seek a second opinion? ‘T’would be a shame to miss out on a dip in those springs!’

‘I don’t have a professional degree in medicine that your nation would recognise, but my spouse runs the laundry here in the chateau so she knows her stuff when it comes to shrinkage.’ The doctor winked at him as he accepted a tub of ointment from the nurse’s hands and began to examine Miguel’s calf muscle closely. ‘But if you insist on going for a bath anyway, just make sure you go with a regular sized person, all right?’

‘I can swim!’ Raithe insisted, indignant.

‘I do not doubt it. However, the knob on the door is fairly high, so you might not be able to access the bath house to begin with.’

We all cracked up laughing then, and I saw Raithe’s bright green eyes twinkle with approval to understand that he would be accepted here. Likewise, I felt more at ease in that odd little cellar room after that too, especially when the doctor assured me that I’d done a good job of irrigating and bandaging up my soldiers’ wounds, and that he was sure that everyone was going to be fine because he hadn’t seen anything in my squadron that he hadn’t already treated before. I didn’t know a whole lot about medicine, and was disappointed to realise that they honestly didn’t seem to have a Nephilim healer, but everything they were doing to treat us seemed above board and so once I realised that there was nothing else I could do for my people but stay out of their way of the people tending to them, I excused myself to go down to the hot springs, leaving a protesting Raithe behind with an apothecary that was dressed like a troll. I wanted to take him, I did because after Saul-Yin and Theodore he was definitely my closest friend and always lively company to keep thanks to his terrific sense of humour, but he was covered with a rash from having slept in poison oak two nights before and I knew that immersion in hot water was probably the last thing that he needed.

The hot springs were hard to figure out because it was so dark and cloudy in there, but I was glad for the darkness because apparently one of the rules was that you couldn’t get in there while wearing clothes for fear of contamination, and you even had to wash off under a limp, warm shower before you were allowed in, which I did in the corner as Saul-Yin chattered away. My dainty, excitable friend had been in a few different kinds of hot springs before in the past and pronounced that these ones were mineral heavy, meaning that they’d do us a hell of a lot of good, and although she was so relaxed that she was slurring, she quizzed me about all that she’d missed when she’d been in a daze, and demanded to know what I thought of Raphael so far- really.

I didn’t know if we were being spied on or even if that Sam guy was lurking somewhere nearby, reading our thoughts, but as I did my best to rinse dirt and blood out of my hair, I answered as honestly as I could without going out of my way to insult anyone. I didn’t like the look of Cairo Kingslater, not at all, and from what I’d heard of his reputation there was nothing to like… but then again, the Kingslater captain that I’d always heard referred to had been named Paris, not Cairo, so there was a good chance that I didn’t know a thing about him except for the fact that he’d closed his fist around the beautiful Erika. Sam had definitely rubbed me the wrong way too, but that wasn’t a surprise to Saul-Yin because she’d overheard some of the less-polite things that we’d said to one another out loud, but she was eager to give him a second chance to make a better first impression because apparently he was ‘almost as fine as you,’ though she did elaborate enough to say that Sam was taller and redder and more dangerous-looking, which made her ‘all tingly down there’.

I was embarrassed to be naked in front of her while she was apparently drunk on testosterone, but it wasn’t the first time we’d all been naked together while discussing inappropriate things and it wouldn’t be the last because in the Corps, you showered where you had to with whoever you had to, or you didn’t shower at all. As a result, I’d seen Saul-Yin’s naked body once or twice before and she’d seen mine, but I’d been at half-mast since I’d seen the Companion brand on the beautiful Erika’s shoulder, and remembering that moment put so much wind in my sails that I actually began to throb with barely suppressed desire as I wondered what it would take to make Erika ‘all tingly’ for me.

If that pirate wasn’t here, I could proposition her, and she might even say yes! It would be safe, it would be legal… and it would be the best night of my life, wouldn’t it? God forgive me, but she’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen! How can I not imagine what taking her to bed would be like?

My thoughts weren’t helping diffuse my situation, so I covered myself by pretending to scratch the opposite thigh as I climbed into the water, keeping my cock pointed down as I made a casual remark about how intense the scents in there were. But Saul-Yin liked embarrassing me so she made a show of whistling as I slid into the water anyway, splashing me as I lowered myself onto a narrow, rocky shelf. Wow, baths sure put her in one hell of a mood!

‘I keep forgetting how muscular you’ve gotten, your highness…’ she purred while I splashed her back, feeling instantly light-headed from the heat of the enclosed space and the almost unbearable temperature of that dark water. ‘Maybe you’re a bit more dangerous-looking now than you were after my last full body inspection...’

‘Keep it forgotten,’ I joked, groaning as I eased my torso under the water. ‘You’re more focused when you’re high and dry and not on the prowl. And enough with the your highness bit, Guard- it’s never felt more like an ill-fitting label than it does here.’

‘I get that…’ Saul-Yin sighed in the darkness, before taking another sip from her glass urn. ‘I mean, compare yourself to this king, and how could you possibly feel like anything but an inferior royal in contrast? He’s so tall and golden, those eyes are full of such wisdom, and his ass… wow!’

‘Saul-Yin!’ I used my forearm to send a wave of water her way and she shrieked and then spluttered before giggling. I ducked my head under the surface and then came up again, wiping water out of my eyes and sighing at how nice it felt to be in a warm bath again. ‘Show some respect! That’s an archangel you’re mentally violating!’

‘Sorry. I’m just so relaxed right now…’ Saul-Yin sobered, studying me while wearing a thoughtful expression. ‘So you believe it? All of it?’

‘I do… I think…’ I looked over at her, watching her recline back against the rock wall behind her, and enjoying the sight of the tips of her tiny little breasts surfacing through the haze as she arched her back while being grateful that I couldn’t see anything from her waist down. I didn’t make a habit of eyeing off Saul-Yin because what we had went much deeper than physical attraction and I was determined to keep it sacred- but she was incredibly attractive and I was so worked up that I snuck a peek anyway, telling myself that if she was allowed to drool all over me, I should be allowed to check out her tits from time to time, especially seeing how much she enjoyed showing them off. In response, my hands throbbed a pale blue under the water and I groaned, slinging my arms across the rock wall on either side of me so that I wouldn’t accidentally kill us all. ‘What about you?’

‘I believe it, and I’m so jealous of the way they live here that I can barely stand it. You should ask them if we can stay, Kohén- seriously. Did you see the May pole that they were decorating out front? The costumes they’re wearing for this ball? How blue that bloody lake is?’ she was running a bar of soap along one of her arms idly, her expression wistful. ‘How pretty the houses were? How adoringly people regarded their king, and how they seemed more curious about us than horrified? No one ever grants us the benefit of the doubt back home, ever- and yet they invited us and your reputation right into their palace! It’s just so…. gracious.’

I leaned over to make sure that Ambrose was still alive (he’d been silent and staring at the ceiling but on closer inspection I saw that his body was still moving with his breathing) and then motioned to Saul-Yin to hand me the soap, but she declined in favour of moving over to ‘wash’ Ambrose instead while he moaned gently. ‘Most of them do seem to be very gracious, but I’d like to learn a lot more about them before I decide how I feel about this place in general. I’ve learned that when something looks too perfect to be true, it usually is, and a lot of things strike me as being odd here. Why do they uphold our Companion laws even though Lady Lucida told me that they have no castes to speak of? How could they possibly have accepted so many branded people into their kingdom without serious issues arising? Where did they get that mind reader from if we’ve never found one? Does the king have a harem, or a wife? How could Cairo Kingslater be treated like a God despite the fact that he’s clearly manipulating a woman that he kidnapped into servicing him and him alone, and why do some of their Companions bear brands from other nations, while others have no brand at all?’

‘Okay, so four of those questions were regarding Companions, and you didn’t even brush on why the supposedly ancient king looks thirty-five, how on earth this region and the ones surrounding it are experiencing spring despite the fact that the rest of the continent is still buried under ice, and how the hell did a pirate get here when your own nation’s ships have declared the entire sea around it perilous?’ She splashed me with water again. ‘Those are pretty big questions for a Guardian of the RIDF to overlook so tell me… got something on your mind, Barachiel? Something powdered, pink and pouty, perhaps?’

I splashed water into my face and rubbed it in to conceal my flush- not that it would have looked out of place in there. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about… those were just the first of many questions that came to mind.’

‘Oh, who are you kidding? You took one look at that Companion and actually laid your weapon at her feet- and you’ve been thinking about her, talking about her or looking around for her since.’ Saul-Yin giggled while I wished for the hot spring to swallow me whole. ‘Don’t get me wrong, I’m relieved that you surrendered at the sight of her because like hell was I running anywhere after we finally got the chance to sit down and die… but though I might have appeared out of it, I didn’t miss the way you pumped that African beauty for information about her the moment she bolted. So what’s the deal? Was it love at first sight, or are you remembering meeting her when you were younger or something?’

‘I don’t remember going anywhere, meeting anyone or doing anything at all from that period of my life,’ I motioned for the soap again and she sighed and got up, moving towards me with it and causing Ambrose to moan again. ‘But I feel like I know her or something. Is that weird?’

‘Nah. Memories are more than visual recognitions, you know. They have smells and sounds and sensations, and that means they’ll leave a residue in places other than your mind.’ Saul-Yin tossed me the soap and I caught in clumsily. ‘And I don’t blame you for being somewhat stunned by her. Even in that dress and wig… she’s a real beauty, isn’t she? Five times as striking as the other three.’

I felt a little relieved, but I glowered at her slightly. ‘You’re not going to make a play for her, are you?’

Saul-Yin snorted. ‘No. I couldn’t afford her even if I wanted to, and I don’t like my chances of winning a duel with Captain Kingslater either- at least not until I’ve had the chance to get my strength back.’ She cocked her head to the side, slitting her eyes at me. ‘But would it be a problem if I did, Kohén? We all know that you’re not interested in casual sex, so it’s not like you’d get jealous if I offered a pretty girl a few coins in exchange for a kiss or two... right?’

I imagined Saul-Yin kissing Erika, and stiffened under the water. Damn, that was an erotic image! And yet- the idea of anyone else touching Erika in front of me and leaving me out of it made me feel cold inside. ‘Don’t even kid about it…’ I grumbled, rubbing the bar of soap between my hands viciously. ‘Kingslater would annihilate you.’

‘Maybe…’ Saul-Yin giggled. ‘Or maybe he’d invite me to join them, hmm? I could suggest a moonlight swim in that lovely lake...’

‘Saul-Yin!’

‘Oh calm down, if I was going to share her with anybody, it would be you and you know it. You know between the two of us, we could probably take him out. Then we could pool our resources and take her back to her harem so that we could-’

‘Okay, that’s enough!’ I got up, twisting around so that she wouldn’t see how engorged I’d become, and hoped that the fact that I was practically panting wasn’t as obvious as I feared it was. ‘This water’s too warm- I’m going to go see if they have an actual shower that I can use-’

‘You’re hanging on by a thread, Kohén!’ Saul-Yin called after me as I reached for my towel and wrapped it protectively around myself. ‘And it’s only a matter of time before you snap. You know that I think you’ve suffered long enough, and I think it’s about time that you recognised that too. Abstinence does not make the heart grow fonder, Guardian, it exasperates the body and when a Nephilim body is exasperated, it becomes a danger to everyone close to them. Don’t you think I know what I’m talking about here? My needs are less demanding than yours and yet they drive me to distraction every second of every day! I can’t even imagine how out of alignment you are on the inside by now.’

I turned around to stare at her as I knotted my towel, feeling beyond exasperated. ‘So what would you have me do? Admit that they’re all right about me by giving in to my base desires? Pay a Companion to take my pain away, even though everyone knows that I still owe my last prostitute a debt that I’ll never be able to compensate her for? No. I’m a Nephilim, not an animal.’

‘But these girls have chosen to do this, Kohén- they want to be desired, and they want to make a living fulfilling other people’s desires. It’s not the same situation as the one you bungled up; it’s an opportunity for you to see how important consent is and what a difference it makes. I’d never touch one of Eden’s Companions again if I were you, given the fact that have no choice but to bow naked before you, but it’s different here.’

‘You don’t know that,’ I pointed out, ‘we don’t know how brainwashed they are, or if there’s something else they’d rather be doing with their lives-’

‘Lady Lucida swore that they’re here by choice-’

‘Yes well, Companions lie- that’s something that I do know. They’re taught how to make us believe that they want us but deep down… the real them could be so buried under their training that there’s a chance that they don’t even know that they’re being raped against their will.’ I shook my head. ‘I can’t take a woman to bed unless I know for a fact that she wants me as badly as I want her, and even if I could… the only one I want already has a master, and I won’t start a war out of lust when having my needs met is as simple as practicing delayed gratification, and waiting to find a wife!’

‘That’s a sensible plan, Kohén, and there’s only one problem with it…’

‘And what’s that?’ I asked, stepping into the furthest recess of the room so that I could towel dry my hair in privacy.

‘If you allow yourself to go on believing that sex is a shameful act and that no woman can ever truly consent to unless she’s married… you’re only further propagating the belief that men have the right to decide what’s best for women, and that they are incapable of knowing their own minds, or making judgements about what God wants for them themselves.’

I rolled my eyes as I wrapped my towel around myself. ‘That’s not what I’m about.’

‘Actually yes, it’s what all of you Barachiels are about; bridling others because it makes it easier for you to control yourselves.’

I shot her a dirty look. ‘How could you possibly be so sure of that?’

Saul-Yin vaulted herself up over the edge of the dark pool, making me suck in a breath as she exposed her entire, naked torso to my glowing gaze. ‘Because if you believed that a woman has the right to make her own decisions- you would have taken me up on my many attempts to seduce you a long time ago without fretting that you would be taking advantage of me.’

I grit my teeth together and turned away from her. ‘That’s not why I don’t take you, Saul-Yin… it’s because it’s illegal and because you’re my friend, and you know it.’ And a bad influence, to boot!

But Saul-Yin only chuckled. ‘That’s your other problem: you don’t believe that a man and a woman can be both friends and lovers… so how the fuck can you ever expect to make a marriage work? You don’t have what it takes to join with a mortal woman, let alone pledge your eternal devotion to one!’

‘And what’s that?’

‘A human spirit. It’s overrated, but necessary when it comes to finding true love with another human.’

I glowered back at her. ‘And you do?’

A bright, pink light evaporated off my friend through the water and she arched back, slapping the water hard with her tail before she dove under the surface and then re-appeared at the edge, smiling in amusement after she flicked back her long, jet-black hair.

‘No. But then again, I only pretend to be something I’m not to stay alive… not because I’m blinded by my own divinity. Now, if you’re not going to have a real talk with me, buzz off, why don’t you? I want to take advantage of Ambrose’s attraction to me while we have a little privacy.’ I groaned, and her laugh followed me as I opened the door, leaving her alone with the overwhelmed guard and trying not to imagine how it would feel to be in his position, which was currently under her dazzling tail. ‘Don’t worry- I have six inches of his consent in my palm, right now, but if you don’t believe me, you’re welcome to watch, as always…’

I slammed the door behind me hard enough to make it shake, and flipped the ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign over on the door, though I was about as disturbed - and as aroused- by my mermaid friend’s antics as anyone could ever hope to be.

39.

Château Aztaroth, Raphael

Kohén Barachiel

I was concerned about returning to the ward in the condition that I was in, but I had only just walked in before someone dressed like a Magus came up to me and informed me that there were only six bunks in the room so my things, along with Ambrose and Saul-Yin’s, had been relocated to three guest rooms on the fifth floor. I wasn’t eager to leave my soldiers in the hospital ward without me, but the medical stuff were working on all of them and there wasn’t anything I could do to help but worry, so I got dressed into a robe and allowed the Magus to walk me up a cramped, internal staircase to the fifth floor. I was in a lot better shape than the rest of my division because of the fact that I was a Nephilim and therefore, hardier, but that hike up the stairs made my thighs burn and by the time I was let into a room in a long corridor, I only just managed to collapsed face first and naked on my bed before I passed out from exhaustion.

I slept for what felt like years, undisturbed the raging glow of the afternoon sun thanks to the fact that thick velvet drapes had been drawn across the windows, but my dreams were full of mermaids and powdered princesses that were begging me for my assistance… begging me to give into temptation while they ran their hands and mouth all over my burning body. When I woke up I was covered in sweat and the crack of light that had been peeking between the windows was gone, and although I was angry at myself for having let my guard down so completely, I was glad that I’d been given private accommodations because I had a raging hard-on that would not go down.

What time is it? I thought, rifling through my bag for the golden pocket watch that Amelia-Rose had given me on my eighteenth birthday- one that matched Kohl’s. Have I overslept and missed the ball? Why is it so quiet here?

But my pocket watch said it was only six in Calliel, so I knew it couldn’t have been that much later there in Raphael, so I sighed and stood up, moving to open the drapes a bit more and to let the bright moonlight in before I searched for light switches, hoping that I had time to check on my friends before I had to front up downstairs. It was a lovely room- simply dressed in pale blue linens and fitted out with dark timber furniture, but I was still too out of it to take in the finer details so I made a beeline for the private bathroom and showered for so long that by the time I emerged, my room was bright with torchlight, not only from sconces on my wall, but flickering outside on the lawn that led over to what had to be the city’s common.

Beautiful… I thought, opening the drapes wider once I’d knotted a towel around my waist and gazing down to see the groups, couples and individuals that were trickling over the lawn and towards the main entrance to the Château beneath me. It looked like I’d stepped into a painting that had been created with brushes that had been dipped into metallic paint: all fuchsia, gold, silver and a forest green in the periwinkle twilight. Absolutely beautiful… how blessed these people must be, if appearances here are not as deceiving as I fear they are...

Once I had my bearings, I pulled on my dirty pants and went to check on Saul-Yin and Ambrose, but they were both lying in bed and enjoying a bottle of champagne, and seemed as comfortable as Saul-Yin assured me the others were. Jent was in the next room down and napping off his exhaustion, Theodore was still in a deep sleep because they’d sedated him, but he’d been stitched up and declared infection-free, the snake that had bitten Miguel had been identified as relatively harmless and his bear wounds had been sutured as well, and Macklin had been patched up and had already slept off his mild concussion. In fact he was in the bathhouse right then apparently, scrubbing himself up in anticipation of joining the party. Raithe wanted to go too because he was up and at ‘em, but he was covered in calamine lotion from head to toe and waiting for a child’s costume to be fetched for him before he could leave his new room.

Saul-Yin then told me that Templar’s ankle was in a bad way so he wouldn’t be able to walk on it for weeks, but it wasn’t gangrenous and he hadn’t had any major arteries severed so that was a relief too… but the news took a turn for the worse when it came to Paisley. Sadly, they’d had to re-break and set her arm, and because the pain had been too great for their medicine to stave off, she’d passed out during the process and had come back to it, screaming. Once it was done, they’d given her a lot of pain-killers, and had started a course of natural antibiotics via a drip for her cold, but evidently her cold had become pneumonia so making her comfortable was turning out to be a challenge. She’d be fine in a few days, they’d said, and she’d been moved to tears by the lengths they were going to treat her, but she wouldn’t be going to the ball that night and didn’t care to move anyway.

Then, once she’d added that Ambrose and herself were fine, Saul-Yin had shooed me off, explaining that Ambrose had just woken up from the nap they’d taken together with a hard on and so, she had to take care of it again before they could be expected to go anywhere, least of all in clothes. Naturally, I couldn’t get out of there fast enough, and once Ambrose assured me that he was in good hands, I locked the door tightly behind me. Poor kid! He was never going to find a woman to please him long-term, after having his first sexual encounters with someone that insatiable! Talk about a succubi! I’d try to wrestle him out of her grip but I valued my own life far too much to become between Saul-Yin and her needs.

I hope she leaves him some strength… I thought as I re-entered my room, turning on my light and moaning in desire when I saw that a tray of food had been left out for me while I’d been in the shower. I was still only wearing my dirty pants, but I sat down at the small table for two and devoured my roast beef and gravy and sculled down my pint of spiced ale, not bothering to check it for poisoning because I was going to die if I didn’t eat anything while I was there anyway. Besides, no king in his right mind- secretly sinister or not- would kill such a powerful hostage without first pumping him for information about his own kingdom, so if he was going to poison me, I knew he wouldn’t bother until after he’d had the chance to converse with me at the ball and after he’d given his Nephilim guard the best opportunity to pry every secret that I had out of my head.

That was unfortunate because I knew that given long enough, Sam would be able to discover that I had a mermaid and a healer with me and they were valuable hostages indeed, but he’d be able to find that out if he read their minds anyway and I was certain that he would so in the end, the responsibility of keeping everyone’s secrets secret was not my sole burden to bear anyway.

I was still ravenous after I’d finished what had been left out for me, but there was a bucket of ice chilling a bottle of champagne and a pot of coffee too, so after I’d had a glass of each I felt a lot better and finally, moved to get dressed. A costume of sorts had been laid out for me- a tuxedo with a mask- but I had my formal uniform still rolled up in the bottle of my rucksack so I fished that out instead and dressed quickly, pleased with how strong that orange blossom soap smelled on my skin a good hour after I’d rinsed it off. I usually felt ridiculous in that formal uniform because it made me stick out, but compared to how the others were dressed in Raphael that day, I supposed that the tuxedo would have looked more out of place so opting to wear it in order to represent my country with a little bit of dignity seemed like the better option.

My formal uniform was a black, long-sleeved top made of a thickly-woven mesh that was flame retardant, and though the sleeves and back of it were mesh too, the chest and torso was covered by a thin, supple leather that was finely ribbed. It was a constrictive garment, made to feel like a second skin and it was definitely too tight to feel comfortable in, but it made me look muscular and I appreciated that for the first time that night because when I’d stood before Cairo Kingslater, Sam and King Raphael earlier, I’d felt a little like I’d come down with a case of spontaneous dwarfism myself! Honestly, what was in the water here that made its men grow like weeds? I was almost as tall as the king had been and only an inch shorter than the mind-reader, but due to my sagging spine, I’d felt like a mouse being batted around by lions. And Kingslater… yikes! If Saul-Yin wanted to help me take him, she’d have to tackle one end while I went for the other because he was the biggest man I’d ever seen! If Karol was jealous of me and how I’d grown, I could only imagine how quickly he’d have Kingslater taken out, evil pirate or not!

The top had a pair of black combat pants to go with it, just as my everyday uniform did, only these ones were made of a thick, silk-blended linen instead of black denim, so they felt softer and allowed my legs to breathe more than in their tighter, less formal counterparts, and had a black leather belt to match that was adored with golden spikes- real ones. It was secretly my favourite part of the uniform because it made me look a bit like a bad-ass, but I knew that it was a waste of money so I always felt guilty about liking it so much.

Once that had been clicked shut around my waist, I retrieved some wet toilet paper from the bathroom and quickly polished my boots until they gleamed and once they were on I added the final touch: my golden sash, which was supposed to be worn across my chest. I always felt too much like a show off when I did that though, like a ribbon-winning horse on show, so I’d taken to wearing it on my hip when I was out of my superiors’ sights, securing one end of it to my belt loop and tucking the other into the waistband at the back of my pants, allowing the ribbon and all of the badges on it to drape a little over my thigh and around my hip. That made me feel like a bit of a tough guy too because it was one of the few ways that I’d ever managed to successfully rebel against my older brother’s rigid rules, but it must have looked as cool as it felt because the other soldiers had started doing it too, so I was a bit of a trend-setter I guess; black sheep or not.

The uniform was attractive-looking and I knew that I looked good in it, but it served more purposes than met the eye, and I’d hated it because of them and wore it as seldomly as possible as a result. There were golden details everywhere, from the spikes on the belt, to the zipper on my fly to the gold-plated tread on the bottom of my boots and the zippers on my numerous pockets- not to mention the wrist cuffs, rings and chain that I was supposed to wear with it, and every single detail mocked me because they were a thinly-veiled reminder that I needed protection against Larkin Whittaker- especially as far as access to my pants was concerned- because she was allergic to gold. Yes, every time I zipped up my pants, I was reminded of how much I’d fucked up, and of what lengths Karol would go to, to keep me and my libido in line, and to make it that much worse, he’d gone and announced his reasons for plating the fastenings in gold when he’d unveiled the uniform publicly, so everyone else in Calliel knew it too and ribbed me accordingly.

But there was a chance that no one would learn about that embarrassing fact here, so I rebelled against my brother’s distrust of me by forgoing the jewellery that I was supposed to wear with it, and donned the mask that had been left out for me instead. I’d spent the last two years feeling like I was being paraded around in a costume in order to be mocked, but this was the first time that I’d get the chance to prove that I was more than the mask I wore, and I was looking forward to taking advantage of that and of fostering a good relationship between this seemingly great nation and my own.

Spritzing on the only cologne that I’d ever liked enough to wear, I downed another glass of champagne and moved my mask into place over my eyes, telling myself that the only thing that stood between me and a fresh slate here was my throbbing dick- I had to keep it tightly zippered away and keep my hands, eyes and thoughts off the beautiful Companion, even if that meant giving in and knocking on Saul-Yin’s door after and asking Ambrose if he’d mind sharing her for an hour or so.

But it won’t come to that… I thought, setting my jaw in determination as I stepped out into the hall once more. I’ll go see Paisley and the others now to remind me of how much they depend on me doing the right thing, and after the ball, I’ll pay them a visit again and sleep at Theodore’s side like a dog if that’s what it takes to keep me temptation-free!

Feeling defiant and determined (albeit exhausted and scared) I turned to the left- and found myself staring directly at the wild beauty that I’d just been swearing off and just like that, the only part of my body that I was more aware of than my dick was my suddenly pounding heart. She was being pressed up against the wall by the knight, only now he was dressed like the pirate he was, and had his large hands wrapped around the girl’s shoulders as he shook her gently.

‘What’s come over you darling? Explain yourself!’ he glanced back up the stairs and past her as Sam bustled out of the curved stairwell at the end of the hall above them, looking vexed.

‘What do you care?’ Erika adjusted her mask so that it was sitting on top of her coiffed, pale pink wig and for the first time I wondered if she was a blonde or brunette beneath it. ‘You’re leaving me, remember?’

‘You know I could never leave you!’ Cairo exclaimed. ‘I was hurt and upset and I needed a minute to process it all... but I don’t doubt our connection the way you do, and I won’t let either of you convince me that I should!’

I felt completely and utterly exposed, and yet none of them spotted me there so I froze, not knowing if it was safer to stay frozen, or flee. He’d left her? Over her reaction to me, or over some other quarrel? It would be joyous news to hear, if only he’d stayed gone! If only she hadn’t so lovingly reached up to touch his black velvet eye mask then and whisper:

‘You want to eat the cake too, don’t you?’ she threw out her arms and giggled. ‘Let them ALL have cake! Didn’t Marie Antoinette say something like that?’

‘Who cares about what nonsense Mario Antoinette spouted, when you’re behaving this way?’ The pirate cupped her delicately beautiful face and stared down hard into her eyes. ‘I’m not kidding my love, I want to know- what did you take?’

‘You don’t want to know Cairo, so just leave it, okay?’ Sam said, looking resigned. ‘She’s happy and calm if nothing else and I won’t begrudge her that, not today.’

‘Thank you Sam…and I must admit that I feel fantastic right now!’ The girl closed her eyes and tilted her face towards the ceiling, smiling loosely while wearing a rhapsodic expression. Gone were the tears, and her make-up looked as if it had been airbrushed back onto her perfect face, and I couldn’t help but wonder where she had just come from, and if the harem was on the top floor because I’d only counted five from the ground earlier. ‘Besides, I’m not your love Cairo… I’m your treasure, remember? You’re inadequate pay off for a job well done!’ She opened her eyes and grasped his face in hers, smiling an enchanted smile. ‘And you don’t want to love me… you want to pillage me. To take me back to your ship and-’

‘I’m going to make you walk the plank on my ship so the freezing cold water snaps you out of this state unless you snap put of it yourself, right now!’ Cairo shook her again, and I felt my charge return to me as my concern for her welfare increased. ‘Tell me why you’re acting so strange! Are you drunk? Stoned? What did Lady Lucida give you?’

‘Can’t I be both?’ the Companion shoved Cairo gently and stood up, smoothing her skirts. ‘You two get to let your hair down all the time, so isn’t it only fair that when I finally do it, I get to do it thoroughly?’

‘I don’t get drunk!’ Sam protested, looking irate. ‘Not in front of you anyway, so don’t drag me into this.’

‘No… you can’t get drunk in front of me, can you Sam?’ She giggled and turned my way, running her hand along the stone wall as though it was made of silk that demanded caressing. ‘If you did, you’d probably end up hitting on me too, right? Then you’d be the one that Cairo has pinned to the wall, and being worried about Calliel discovering us would be the least of either of your problems…’ she was still laughing when she saw me, but her eyes widened and her mouth fell open in an ‘O’ while behind her, her two friends remained completely oblivious to the fact that I was witnessing the entire exchange.

Oh shit… I thought, as our eyes locked and my body throbbed. This is going to be the longest, hardest night of my life, isn’t it?

‘You came onto her?!’ Cairo demanded, sounding outraged and suddenly, very far away for the blood rushing to my head. ‘I left her alone for what, ten minutes while I tried to get my head together! Talk about moving fast!’

‘What? No! I’ve never said a word to her about-’ Sam stopped talking as soon as he’d started when the Companion girl snapped out of her shock and threw her head back, laughing uproariously while pointing at me.

‘Oh! Oh I never…’ she clutched her stomach and collapsed into the wall beside her, and suddenly I wanted a share in whatever she was high on too. ‘It’s prince Kohén, guys, live and in the delicious flesh!’ the other two broke apart and came staggering after the Companion, but she hurried over to me and to my shock, dipped into an elegant curtsy. When she looked up, her eyes were on mine, but mine were looking down her dress and glassing over as a result. ‘Good evening, your highness- I apologise for my current state and the conversation that you just overheard, it’s just that, as I’m sure you’ve already learned…’ she straightened and stepped into me, resting her hands on my shoulders and pressing her lips to my cheek as she whispered: ‘I haven’t forgotten how your lips felt on mine as you have, so I tried to get drunk enough to make myself forget, you see? Now everyone’s upset with me because apparently, they’d like me better if I could forget my history too.’

Whoa! We’d kissed? Jesus, I’d been quite the little multi-tasker, hadn’t I? Where had poor Larkin been while all of this was going on? Hadn’t it been enough for me to have a bevy of beauties waiting for me back in my own harem when I’d been fourteen? Where had I gotten off, stealing a kiss from another prince’s favourite?

And yet, my self-loathing did nothing to smother the desire streaming through my blood, and I was so breathless with need that it felt like all of the air had been sucked out of the room. I was very aware that Cairo was stalking up behind Erika and looking to break us apart, and possibly break my face apart too, but I couldn’t help but ask:

‘Did it work?’ I searched her eyes, and glanced longingly down at her mouth against my better judgement. ‘Have you forgotten what my lips felt like on yours, my lady?’

In response, her eyes narrowed, and she smirked, like she’d expected me to say something exactly like that. ‘No.’ Erika fell back from me, and did not fight Cairo as he snatched her arm and dragged her past me, heading towards the grand staircase and out of my reach. But she called back over his shoulder: ‘And I’m starting to fear that I never will, no matter how hard I scrub them!’

And then she was gone, and I was left alone in the hallway with Sam, who looked nothing sort of heartsick as he gazed after her. Erika was right, and I couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen it earlier- Sam was so protective of the Companion girl because he was head over heels for her too!

‘You too, hmm?’ I asked, and was not surprised when he shoved me into the wall hard as he stormed by, pursuing the not-so-happy couple.

‘Your fly is undone... golden-boy,’ was all he said, and that was all it took to snap me out of my own temporary state of euphoria, because it was proof that even in this kingdom full of second chances, I was still destined to be the exception to God’s ‘equality for all,’ rule.

Oh well, if I was going to do the time anyway- why not do the crime? Forgetting to give a fuck about what anyone thought of me- ever again- I sidled off after Sam, wondering what my chances were of stealing a second kiss from the most beautiful girl in the world.

But only if it was given willingly, of course.

40.

Château Aztaroth, Raphael

Larkin Aztaroth

I didn’t so much walk as I did whirl, and I didn’t so much drink as I did giggle down breathless mouthfuls of fizzing bubbles, and although that I knew, deep down, that I was going to be very embarrassed by my ostentatious behaviour when I sobered up, I clung firmly to the simple truth that I deserved this happiness- this complete and utter ecstasy, and if my subjects didn’t like it, then fuck ‘em. They were my subjects, after all, and the fact that I hadn’t fucked them all already put me ahead of every other leader of the free world, didn’t it? Lord knew what Karol had poked his prick into since he’d been given absolute authority over Arcadia, but I got the feeling that when he was prancing about Eden on the prowl, even the dogs hid!

That mental image cracked me up and I snorted a few bubbles out of my mouth, catching my father’s eye over the top of the dinner table. There were no words to describe the way he’d been looking at me since Cairo had practically slammed me into my seat at the head of the table beside him, tucking me like a child at bedtime, but ‘bemused’ and ‘startled’ would have been a good start! He knew what I’d done of course, because good ol’ Sam had already run his mouth about me playing patty-cake in the mirror with my wench of a mother, and although I knew that he was as dismayed by the turn that the night’s agenda had taken as I had been earlier, I was apparently entertaining enough when I was drunk on hellfire to warrant a smile or two despite his distress.

Taking Satan into me had been a lot less invasive than I’d imagined, and I was a bit shocked to realise how quickly I’d probably do it again if this was what the end result was. I’d been too angry to look at her or even talk to her when I’d gone through with it, but I’d lifted my hands to touch her palms through the looking glass under Lady Lucida and Siria’s instruction, and then it had felt like static energy had streamed right through me while susurrus, and indecipherable voices had started whispering through my mind- whispering ancient secrets I could not translate as Satan had stepped through the glass and more and more into me. Within seconds, every appendage had gone numb, even in that special place where I always felt my wings now, and then as soon as that numbness had washed over me, it had begun to retreat, making every cell in my body feel buoyant with energy- so buoyant that I’d been certain that I was floating off in a bubble. I could still remember everything that was unpleasant with the world, but I just couldn’t bring myself to care, because there was so much wonder to behold anyway.

Then, once Siria had assured me that the dreaded moment had come and gone, I’d staggered back from the mirror, staring into it and expecting to see my mother there, but all I’d been able to see was light- rainbow swirls of light, and sparking stars. I’d gasped, looking around me, tracking those swirling constellations and feeling like I’d been trapped inside a kaleidoscope, but before I could become too disoriented or motion sick, everything had snapped back into focus. I’d been in my room again, only I’d seen and felt everything more clearly than I ever had before- the scent of the Jasmine blooms, the fact that Siria’s teeth were whiter than Gabby’s, the fact that my furniture was pearl not white and most importantly at all- the realisation that I loved every single thing and everyone in that room, even the stuff I hated.

Too moved to verbally communicate that, I’d flung myself at Lucinda and had stroked her bare shoulders whispering that she was pretty, and Lady Lucida had snorted before palming me off to Sam, who had been watching me the whole time from the corner of the room, telling us that this was the stupidest idea that anyone had ever had and that we were all going to regret it.

‘Oh Sam…’ I clenched him tightly in my arms- so tight that he eventually yelped for me to knock it off. ‘You’re pretty too.’ I tugged on his hair. ‘Can I scalp you and wear this like a collar? I’m sure Riesling would be able to turn it into a stunning cloak!’

But before he’d been able to say anything in response, Inoborna had come in and started barking at me, so I’d chased him down for a hug and had been devastated when he’d snarled at me and then had turned, racing out of the room. I’d followed him, demanding to know why he was being a killjoy and that was when it had occurred to me that I could barely walk or move, so heavy was my body, and so light was my head.

‘She’s had too much,’ Gabby had said quickly, coming to scoop me off the floor. ‘She needs to sleep some of it off before she tries to go downstairs.’

‘How could she have had too much?’ Siria had demanded. ‘Satan was only in her for a blink!’

‘Yes but they’ve already got the same blood, so I guess Lark-’

‘Erika-’

‘Right, Erika, is more susceptible to the thrall of her mother’s energy than we thought. See how Inoborna went off at her? Animal’s pick up when something’s not right with a person, so it’s safe to say that our queen isn’t just high on her mother’s energy, but drenched in it on a cellular level.’

‘That’s strange- I would have thought she’d be more immune.’

‘Who are you calling a light drunk?’ I’d demanded, but I’d allowed myself to be carried to my bed. ‘And when will my puppy like me again?’

‘Everything will be fine in a day or so, Erika, and being overdosed will only make this day easier on you not worse, so close your eyes and just enjoy the bliss all right? We’ll wake you up when it’s time for you to join the party and hopefully by then, you’ll have your wits about you again.’

I’d done as she’d said and had allowed the kaleidoscope to consume me and drag me away from my reality, but even as I’d slipped away from the women that were assuring me that the effects were only temporary, I’d been secretly wondering if they had to be. And that desire to stay good and liberated from myself had not diminished hours later when I finally found myself at a pre-party banquet for the king and all of his men.

And one whore.

This is must be what it feels like not to have a soul… I mused as I scrawled ‘Happy Birthday’ to Cairo on the rim of his dinner plate, using his balsamic vinegar dressing and the tip of my finger. What I really wanted to do was stand up on the table and sing it, but I knew I had to fight to retain some composure. It was lovely to feel so segregated from my inhibitions and my good conscience, but if I couldn’t reign in my exuberant mood, then Kohén would probably run from the room convinced that I wasn’t in my right mind and then I’d have to have him tied up in order to do what I needed to do and I’d sooner die then become a rapist! Wow! Could I sell my soul to Satan in exchange for getting out of having sex with Kohén tonight, you think? I think I’d much, much rather have sex with Cairo. Although… I slid my eyes Kohén’s way, sizing him up with the rose-coloured appreciation of someone that did not give a fuck. He was sitting diagonally across from me at my father’s left hand side while they discussed our caste system (or lack thereof) which was funny because usually that was my father’s seat and the king’s, was the queen’s. Naturally we’d done some reseating in order to keep up the ruse and as a result, I’d been bumped down in rank after Cairo, only sitting as close to the head of the table as I was because I was supposed to be there as Cairo’s escort and nothing else. I did like it when he did that vibration thing... Cairo’s got talents, but I doubt he can do that…but I was knocked off memory lane when Sam, who was directly across from me, started spluttering on the mouthful of wine he’d just taken and looked up, glaring at me.

Where the fuck is your amber ring? I do not get paid enough to have to listen to this shit!

I suckled on my finger and smiled knowingly at him. Too much, hmm? Does that mean you won’t be taking notes outside my fake guest room later? Phew! I’d hate to see you actually drop dead with jealousy- FRIEND!

But Sam’s features evened out, and he took another sip from his wine again, rubbing a residual drop of it off his bottom lip as he sent back: Jealous that you feel obligated to screw both of these clowns? Honey, if it were me that had to fuck you for the greater good, they’d be the ones in need of taking notes. He wriggled his eyebrows while my mouth fell open. Mind reader, remember? I’ve already mapped out exactly what I’d do to you and believe me when I say you wouldn’t need demonic possession in order to enjoy it...

I shivered because I couldn’t help it, but I dropped my eyes, telling myself to rise above for poor Martya’s sake. I was NOT attracted to Sam. I was NOT attracted to Sam. I was not… very… attracted to Sam… He was beautiful though, and I’d never been as keenly aware of it as I was then while my blood was already simmering.

Excuse you? Sam bit into my mind then and I winced when I heard him slam down his glass. What the hell has Martya got to do with… oh you’re kidding me! You’re going to keep me at arm’s length because of her crush on me? How is that fair? What about what I want?

I looked up at him quickly, knowing that we’d both hurt a lot for this tomorrow but also very aware that it was the least I owed him. The one you want doesn’t want you back, Sam. I love you, I do and that’s more than you can claim to feel for me… but I don’t desire you.

Sam’s forehead creased. But you just shivered when I-

I’ve been turned on by lamplight, a sip from Riesling’s coffee and this salad dressing since I took Satan into myself! I informed him, imaging Sam and Martya holding red-headed babies in the name of positive thinking. Of course, in my vision, he had a soul. The fact that a bit of dirty talk gave me goose bumps doesn’t mean what you think it does! In fact, there’s not a man in this room that I’m not attracted to- I saw a midget in calamine lotion amble up to my father and bow before taking his hand and thanking him exuberantly for all of his help, and I pressed my lips together to keep from giggling. Okay, except for those two. They’re doing nothing for me, thank Satan!

I’m relieved to hear that but Jesus Christ- save the positive thinking for someone else, hmm? I don’t want to have a family with Martya! I want to have fun with you- the only girl in the world that I actually respect! Sam’s eyes were cold and hard, and his expression looked as hurt as it ever had before. I wanted to feel guilty, I did- but I simply did not have the capacity for it.

How could you not respect Martya? I challenged him, narrowing my eyes. She’s amazing!

Yeah well she’s selfish enough to be excited about this evening’s coming events, so she can go to hell as far as I’m concerned! Her and her family started this, how DARE she encourage you to finish it? Do you have any idea what doing this will cost you?

I dropped my eyes to my barely-touched plate because I did know what it would cost me: Cairo.

Only for a little while. Sam said quickly, reassuring me even then and I looked up, my being flooded with relief. The guy is in such torment that even I feel sorry for him, but the way he sees it, a soul mate stands by their other half through everything. It’s going to be difficult to get him to step aside, but he’ll do it- for you. And then, he’ll come back to be a bigger pain in my ass than ever before and at least try to rise above it- not that I think he’ll manage to but who knows? Miracles do happen.

I could scarcely contain my relief. How can he stand it though? To sit here on his own birthday and watch the girl he loves being sacrificed up to the man she reviles like this?

He wants the same thing Satan does, Larkin: you, pregnant. You successfully scared him into believing that your reproductive system is shot, so he figures that if anyone’s going to knock you up and give him hope that he could do it too, it’s the Nephilim that Satan delivered to your door. He shrugged. Besides, what can be done about it? We either let you go through with this or push you to refuse and lose you forever. I am very, very angry with your mother right now and she fucking knows it, but she’s played this very well and I know when to fold. I just refuse to let you to play god too, especially where my own private affairs are concerned. If I wanted Martya I’d go for her- but it’s you I want and believe me when I say that now that some idiot’s clued you in on the effect you have on me- took you long enough you daft bird by the way- you should consider letting me have an effect on you. I may not be a prince and I may not be rich like Cairo, but I’m the only person in this room that accepts you EXACTLY as you are and won’t ask more of you than you can give. If you don’t desire me, it’s because you don’t think you’re enough either, not because I’m lacking in any way.

I never said you were lacking! But for the longest time, all you’ve wanted from a relationship is sex, and I’ve wanted is, well, nothing! We’re wired differently, Sam. The impulses I’m feeling now are Satan’s, not my own! I’m the least sexual creature on the face of the earth, and you just might be the most!

Sam looked up at me again and smiled crookedly. Tell yourself that if it helps you sleep at night, but you were in your own mind when you re-read my book three times this week, not hers, and when I finally get the chance to set you on fire with my passion with caresses instead of words, you’ll be out of your mind after. I sucked in a breath and Sam winked. You heard me. And now that I’ve received your silent edits, I know exactly how I’m going to fuck you, Larkin.

That was NOT your book! That thing was a mess and you write beautifully! I’ve seen it!

Sam wiped at his mouth with his linen napkin, but met my eyes dead-on. I know, but I like the idea of you having to correct the spelling of such words… and of taking your time while doing it.

No! I couldn’t feel a lot of emotions, but embarrassment was connected to my pride and because that was one of Satan’s Achilles, it was mine now too and my face flushed hotly. But it was written from a woman’s perspective! No man could know how to… but Sam arched an eyebrow in a challenge and included me in on a fantasy of him going down on me while he slowly slid one finger in and out of me and I groaned and twisted my face away, burying it into Cairo’s shoulder and gasping for breath. This was so wrong! And what was even worse was how excited I felt!

Stop it! I pleaded with him. Please, if you’re my friend, really, then just stop! I’m in love with this man, how dare you try to force me to be more unfaithful to him than I already have to be?

But you’re not, Larkin. You’re in love with the way he makes you feel about yourself, and because his optimism counter balances our pessimism. I am grateful to him for that and for how he’s helped build up this kingdom, but I won’t believe that he’s your soul mate until I’ve received my own soul back, and you’ve had the chance to compare the two. And that’s why I want you- because you’ve made me feel like a human again after years of feeling like a demon, not just because your breasts defy gravity. It’s not love now, but I don’t doubt that as soon as I can look upon you with human eyes again, it will be. He shrugged. You don’t have to believe that now, and you can tell yourself that it’s Cairo that’s reinstated your passion for life, but I think we both know that it was the mistral that did it, and that makes me more than the narrator in this story, hon- but your future protagonist too.

You’re wrong. I love Cairo.

We’ll see. Nothing’s over until I write ‘The End’ remember? And I’m the kind of guy who wins races because he paces himself.

Cairo squeezed my hand then, drawing my gaze his way and quietly asked : ‘What are you two talking about?’ and I sighed at how large and warm his hand was. I traced the strong life lines that had been etched into his palm, imaging them cupping my breasts and trying not to moan as Sam also imagined doing that too, and whispered:

‘How much I wish this could have been a nicer night for you…and of how desperately I wish we could be alone together,’ and his eyes softened, becoming dove grey again as he leaned in and kissed my forehead.

‘For what it’s worth, I appreciate the trouble you went to and I can tell that this would have been the best night of my life,’ he gestured to his plate. ‘My favourite foods, my favourite wine…’ he lifted my chin with the tip of his finger and said: ‘Let’s do it again next year, hmm? For my twenty-third? The future will be a little more certain then and contrary to what you currently believe, I’ll still be a part of yours.’

I cocked my head to the side, using my giant wig to block Sam and Kohén’s view of us and muffle our whispered conversation. ‘How can you know that? You stormed off before determined to throw in the towel if I was, but then you came back full of concern and-’

‘I went and saw Arial,’ Cairo dropped his eyes to my chest, tugging on the pearl choker that I was wearing while we both reflected on the hours that we’d been separated for after he’d taken off on me. I’d been so drunk on Satan’s power that I’d passed out and slept, but no one had been able to tell me where Cairo had gone and I’d been assuming that he’d set sail. ‘To ask her if Satan had been lying to me all along.’

I swallowed hard, feeling hopeful. ‘And she denied it?’

Cairo nodded, lifting his eyes to mine. ‘She said that I have two homes; one on the ocean, and one on the land, and that whenever I feel like time is passing too slowly on one, I should turn to the other to make sure that I stay on course, and that I don’t force anybody else off theirs because that will only delay them from finding their way back to me.’ He traced the skin under my choker, tracing the little bust that had been glued there, and smiled sadly. ‘I think she was trying to tell me to be patient, don’t you? To go get my people and bring them here, and that when I return, you’ll be a little more ready for me then you are now.’ I closed my eyes as his fingers stroked underneath my chin, and moaned softly when they glanced off my lower lip.

‘But I’m ready for you now…’ I breathed, dizzy with arousal that had nothing to do with Sam. I opened my heavy eyes and kissed his fingertip delicately, forgetting that the rest of the world was there, so lost was I in his beautiful features. ‘Tonight I was going to-’

Cairo silenced me with a gentle kiss, cupping his hand around the back of my head and making my body explode with light. ‘Don’t make this harder,’ he whispered hoarsely against my mouth. ‘You don’t belong to me yet, my love- but you will.’ He released me and drifted back, and I practically fell into his lap, so heavy was I with gravity. He cleared his throat, and I saw that he was also struggling to breathe and speak though I wasn’t sure if it was lust assailing him or emotion. ‘And while we’re on the subject of travel, it came to my attention that a beautiful ship is being built in the Mediterranean, one with a steam engine twice as large as any that I already have.’ He took a sip from his wine and nodded towards my father, who’d turned his attention Cairo’s way. ‘I’m thinking that I might go and sell off a few of my older ones and purchase her while I’m away.’

‘You kids wouldn’t believe me if I told you about the massive ships that were built in the last few centuries of the time before…’ Bastien said, smiling a dreamy smile as he gestured with his hands. ‘They were incredible! They had pools, lots of them! Casinos, restaurants…’

‘Sounds like something I’d like to see,’ Cairo agreed.

‘I’ve seen pictures of them,’ Kohén said them, and we all turned to look at him in surprise. ‘Postcards, actually- old ones that were found in Yael. They’d been preserved in a scrapbook in the cellar of someone’s home, and they were quite magnificent.’

‘Bigger than the cruise ship that’s in the Wastelands?’ I asked, excited. ‘And what was Yael like? I’ve heard that they were starting to grow cotton but….’ my stomach cramped up in realisation as suspicion flickered across Kohén’s face.

Oh Larkin FUCK! Sam thought, but he covered his shock and horror well by throwing back a mouthful of wine and looking casual as all heck as he did it. Why don’t you sprout wings and flutter about now, hmm? Spell out your real name on his plate in salad dressing?

‘You have an interest in cotton reproduction?’ Kohén asked, forehead creased in confusion, and I knew that he’d been told that Larkin of Eden had shared a similar passion and that I’d just put myself and my little mission in grave danger. I’d been trying for years to repress memories of Kohén, but I’d been foolish to forget how sharp his mind was, and how hard it was to lie to him!

But although I was as horrified with my faux pas as Sam and Bastien obviously were, I was still too numb to the edges of my emotions to let it take me over so I smiled a shy smile and ducked my head as I toyed with the lace edging around my bust.

‘I don’t know a thing about that kind of reproduction, but I’ve recently become a fan of the fabric. Cairo brought me home some lovely under things from his last voyage and I think they’re cotton, aren’t they?’ I looked up at Cairo, the picture of innocence. ‘The pale blue ones with the ribbons? I’m wearing them right now and they’re so soft. It barely feels like I’m wearing panties at all!’

Bastien moaned in barely-concealed dismay and took a long drink from his own chalice while everybody else present gaped at me. And though the look in Cairo’s eyes told me that I was going to get spanked -hard- for making him an accomplice to this ridiculous seduction, he was enjoying watching me save myself from a slip of the tongue with a slip of the wiles and that was evident.

‘That’s right, darling, they’re cotton- as is this shirt.’

I reached up and slid my hand down his chest, and my reaction to the feel of him under my palm did not need to be exaggerated. ‘It feels divine…’ I looked back at Kohén, who looked equal measures jealous and riveted. ‘Are you growing it in Arcadia yet? If so, I’ll encourage our king to establish a trade relationship with yours in order for more lingerie like this!’ I wet my lips, aware of the fact that Cairo had stopped breathing when my hand had begun to slide lower and lower down his long, muscular torso. ‘Is there anything in Raphael you’ve seen that you might like in exchange for such a luxury item, your highness?’

‘I need to use the men’s room,’ Sam said abruptly then, standing up and striding away from the table, his face as red as his hair, and I couldn’t help but smile as I squeezed Cairo but sent after Sam:

Good idea. Get a hold of yourself, hmm?

Look who’s talking!

It was clear that I’d successfully diverted Kohén’s attention from my words to my charms, because he leaned forward with glowing blue eyes and said softly: ‘There are a lot of beautiful things that I’ve been dazzled by since I set foot in this kingdom, Erika, but unfortunately, Arcadia hasn’t attempted to grow cotton yet and Yael’s first crops were eradicated by boll-weevils, so I have nothing to offer you. However, I can imagine that a woman in your line of work would enjoy the luxury and feel of silk between her thighs so if you’d like-’

‘She doesn’t have a line of work, and I provide her with everything she needs, so may I suggest that you gift your own Companions with silk underwear, and leave the girls here alone.’ Cairo snapped, slapping my hand way from his hips before I could test the ‘effect’ I’d had on him, and then taking it firmly in his, resting our intertwined fingers on the table for all to see. ‘Especially this one, though you’ve made it rather plain that she’s caught your eye.’

Kohén pulled back, but he didn’t look as intimidated as he ought to have been, and I wondered how much booze he’d had. ‘I don’t have a harem right now, Captain Kingslater- it’s being rebuilt and obviously the army needs the funding more than Eden does, so until it’s finished being constructed, my brothers and I have been awarded the same rights as every other man in our nation: we can allow other Companions to see to our needs, so long as the girls that we bed are from Calliel.’ He glanced at my brand again and no one missed it. ‘It’s not an offer that I’ve taken advantage of… yet… because I’ve been trying very hard to corral my Nephilim urges… but I’m starting to fear that I’ll become a danger to myself soon, or someone else, so although I mean no disrespect, I’m rather disappointed to learn that this beautiful girl already has a master, for she’s the first that’s turned my head in years.’

‘I’m not her master,’ Cairo said quickly, and I ducked my head in feigned embarrassment. I knew that Cairo was playing up the jealous and possessive role in the hopes of baiting Kohén further, but that didn’t change the fact that he’d sooner die then let me go to another man, and the fact that he had to was probably killing him. I only felt the slightest twinge of empathy now, but when Satan’s thrall wore off, I’d probably remember this moment, and how I’d used him to turn Kohén on, like a punch to the stomach.

‘Really?’ Kohén asked. ‘Your behaviour would suggest otherwise.’

‘There’s a difference between being her master, and the man in her life,‘ Cairo pointed out. ‘There’s a lot that she can’t do thanks to your kingdom and the way they treat their third-borns, but she doesn’t make a living on her back, Guardian, and she won’t so long as I’m here to shield her from it!’

‘Then why does she dress like a Companion if she is not one?’ the little person asked, pulling up a chair on the other side of Sam and giving me an appreciative once over. ‘Why does she show off her brand with pride?’

‘Because she refuses to allow herself to be treated like she’s more than that because of what your country allowed to happen to her!’ Cairo snapped, and I saw my father begin to look worried. ‘She can’t marry here, and she can’t have children so I cannot make her my wife or persuade her into believing that she can be anything to me other than a Companion because of how her brand stained her soul, not just her skin. Believe me, there’s nothing I’d like more than to whisk her back to my own part of the world and become her mate in an official way, but she’s been so brainwashed by her upbringing that she will not allow it and so I have no choice but to stay here and try to abide by everyone’s rules even though I’d very much like to hunt down the man that branded her and press a hot iron to his balls for ruining her so in the hopes that it would snap her out of it!’

‘Cairo… please…’ Bastien said, but tensions were building and Kohén’s spine straightened in response to the accusations made against his part of the world.

‘It’s all right, your highness, this is not the first time I’ve been forced into a discussion like this, and I will say to Cairo what I have said to every other man that has insulted the Companion system: I hate it too.’ He lifted his eyebrows. ‘It turns innocent girls into prostitutes and the men that use them into whores, and there’s nothing I’d like more than to see it dismantled. You can blame me all you want for my kingdom’s one flaw and the mistakes that I made when I had a harem of my own, but I will remind you that it is not actually my kingdom anymore and that I do not make the rules- I am only charged with making sure that they are obeyed. I do not like doing it, but I am grateful to live in a place with such a low divorce rate, where women that work in the skin trade are celebrated for how clean, safe and content they keep us, not judged for the pleasure they give because let’s face it, this line of work has existed since the dawn of time and will continue to exist long after my family’s laws have been abolished.’

‘But what happens when it becomes your kingdom, Guardian Barachiel?’ I asked softly, and he turned to me, still looking suspicious, but with softer eyes. ‘You’re not in line for a crown right now but that will change soon if you continue to behave yourself, right? So what will you do about your kingdom’s one flaw then?’

Kohén took a sip from his own wine glass and shook his head. ‘You’re right to say that I will be offered my title as crowned prince back when I turn twenty-one, dear lady, but you are wrong to assume that I’ll accept it.’

There were a few quiet exclamations of shock- from everyone but the dwarf, who clearly already knew where his Guardian stood on the matter and was too riveted by the plate of steamed and spiced greens that he’d been offered to care.

‘What?’ Cairo asked, eyebrows knitting together. ‘That’s unthinkable!’

‘That I don’t want to be a prince?’ Kohén reclined in his seat and gazed at me openly, making no move to hide how blatant his admiration was while Sam slipped back into the seat next to him, looking around in confusion as he tried to catch up on what he’d missed. ‘Only someone who has never been a prince can be surprised to learn such a thing. I have not spent much time in Eden, but I am glad for it and I intend to keep it that way. The future that I’d have in that position would be so limited and miserable that I’d think myself blessed to receive a Companion brand over a crown.’

There it was- my red hot hate, throbbing deep inside my stomach like coals in a fire. ‘Excuse me for saying so, your highness, but only a man that’s never had his freedom truly taken from him would think that.’ Dammit! Nothing eroded a good thrall like discussing sex and politics did!

‘And only a woman that has never been whipped, beaten, egged, spat on, chased, disinherited, shunned, ridiculed- and damn near sodomised by a pack of drunken, monarch-hating soldiers, could assume that the life of a prince is just like it is in the fairytales, and safer than it is in a harem,’ Kohén retorted quickly, and the lumps of coal in my stomach fizzled out like someone had poured ice water onto them. ‘At least under my king’s watch, that is.’

I felt nauseous, and what was worse, when I looked into Kohén’s burning blue eyes, I felt compassion for him too and I hated it. Why was I at this dinner? I was much happier when I was whirling around in my kaleidoscope! ‘But King Karol would never-’

‘Not himself, no…’ Kohén met my gaze dead-on and added: ‘But he’s more than happy to turn a blind eye while the people that hate me do it for him, and after what I did to that poor girl…’ he winced and looked away. ‘Believe me when I say that there’s no one that hates me more than I hate myself, all right? I know I don’t belong in a castle- I belong in hell.’ His eyes flitted to Cairo’s. ‘So don’t waste your breath trying to make me feel like shit, Kingslater. I’ve been at capacity since the moment I came to on the night I got my father killed, knowing nothing except for the fact that everything was my fault.’

An awkward silence followed that sentiment- a silence so long and pronounced that we all became keenly aware of how many people were beginning to drift past the corridor on their way to the ballroom, and looking at us with barely restrained expectancy. I looked down, afraid to look at Kohén now that he’d divulged so many painful truths, and even more afraid to admit to myself that I wasn’t so sure that he belonged in hell anymore. In fact, it kind of seemed like he’d already gone through it and had survived only to re-emerge taller, stronger… and unrecognisable.

He wasn’t my best friend anymore, and he wasn’t my enemy, but he was a stranger and suddenly, I was pretty sure that there wasn’t a demonic possession, drug or drop of champagne in the world that was going to help me be okay with what I was about to do to this poor, lost and damned man.

41.

Château Aztaroth, Raphael

Larkin Aztaroth

‘They did that to you?’ Bastien asked, his features flooding with concern that was not only genuine, but being mirrored on Sam and Cairo’s faces too. ‘Whipped you? Tried to… Good God.’

‘That’s fucked up,’ Sam whispered, wincing as he rifled through Kohén’s worse memories.

‘Unthinkable…’ Cairo agreed, and I almost snorted out loud. Men talked such a big game about dominating women for pleasure, but when it came to the idea of being dominated by another man, they shivered like trees in a blizzard!

‘Yes. But note that I said tried with the last offence- mark that.’ Kohén’s eyes flashed. ‘I was getting out of there even if it meant stabbing my way out, but luckily I was rescued by three other soldiers before it came to that; a man and two women, ironically.’ He waved his hand as he drank from his glass again. ‘I endured the lesser tortures on an almost daily basis for the past two years, until three months ago when I was moved and then put in charge of this division, working with people that have endured the same trials themselves and therefore, know how important it is to judge a person on their character, not their reputation- a sentiment that I am pleased to see mirrored here.’ He turned to the king while we all sat silent, digesting what he’d just said. ‘Bearing that in mind I must inquire into your own kingdom’s flaw: I’ve heard it said multiple times already that marriage is impossible here, and I must say, this perplexes me and I know my brother will not take kindly to hearing it. Why would a direct descendant of God like yourself choose to ban such a wonderful, holy union?’

Bastien thawed out and sat up, allowing a server to take his plate away. ‘It’s not banned, Kohén. It’s merely restricted and heavily policed, as it is in your own kingdom, but in a different way.’ He leaned forward again. ‘Marriage is supposed to be an unbreakable pact made between two people, but human beings have proven time and time again that it is difficult to find that one person that they will happily be tethered to for the rest of their lives. I know that in Arcadia, you encourage people to find a true love and stay with them through thick and thin, and reward those brave and hopeful enough to bind their names together in the name of God and that’s very clever… but here in Raphael, we believe that love- true love- cannot be proven or declared absolute until the couple’s bond has withstood the test of time. You acknowledge the pre-marital custom of engagements there, as do we, but in our case the couple that are betrothed are expected to stay betrothed until thirty-five years has passed without them becoming disenchanted by the union. Only when thirty-five years have passed without either of them falling out of love, harming the other or committing adultery can a couple be declared ‘married’ here, and it is considered a triumph above all others. They get the rings, the celebration, they exchange vows to praise their love… they just don’t get it until they have proven that their love is worthy of such praise.’

Kohén’s eyes widened. ‘What about procreation though?’

‘Betrothed or rather, promised couples are encouraged to procreate, but if the parents do not stay together, so be it. Men can raise children alone, as can women, but the citizens here have been taught how to get along even in the face of adversity so they know that once they have a child together, they will be expected to work together as a team of some sort for the child’s best interests until that child is grown, even if they can only work together as friends rather than as lovers. We have several separated couples raising children together in this kingdom, but because the majority of our citizens still live in the chateau together, we don’t have many cases of broken homes: just new room arrangements. I can see from the look on your face you believe that’s crazy, but with all respect, your highness…’ my father’s handsome face twitched with a smirk. ‘We don’t have a caste full of unwanted children that are actually wanted, or homeless people trying to break down our non-existent fences, so perhaps there are other ways of keeping people united as one that don’t involve erecting electric fences, hmm?’

Kohén blinked a few times, processing it all, and I actually smiled when Sam subtly communicated to me that I was on a winning streak, because Kohén respected our kingdom even more now, and thought that the idea of delayed marriage celebrations was genius.

You’ve got him Larkin. Not only is he in love with Raphael, but he’s absolutely enchanted by you and can’t get your ribbon panties out of his mind. It pains me to say this, but you’ve only got one obstacle standing between you and a successful seduction here… Cairo.

I wrinkled my nose. He’s afraid that Cairo will thwart his advances?

No- I am. Kohén respects this place more now which is great, but he doesn’t want to dishonour himself or the king here by pissing off the guest of honour, so the ball is in your court.

But I can’t be serving up balls of seduction! I’m supposed to be sweet, demure, scared of him AND involved with someone else! If I pursue him, I’ll look like a slut and he’ll wonder what my angle is!

I know. And as resigned as the guest of honour is to all of this… I’m afraid to say that Cairo has no intention of leaving your side until absolutely necessary, and wants to try and celebrate his birthday with you for as long as he can manage to. That’s understandable because I don’t even know how I’m even going to be able to walk away and let this happen, but Kohén’s not anticipating having a late night, Lark. You’ve got about two hours before he plans on excusing himself to go and check on his wounded soldiers, and I don’t see how you’re going to be able to encourage his flirtations with Cairo hanging off your arm the whole time. And obviously if you just go and knock on Kohén’s door in three hours, he’s going to get real suspicious, isn’t he?

I sighed, pulling out my fan and fanning myself. I was worried that would happen. Is it bad that I felt better when Cairo was off hiding and upset? I don’t want to scare him off from his own birthday party, but if this mood that I’ve acquired keeps wearing off like it is, I don’t see how I’m going to be able to go through with this at all!

Well… I have an idea and I’m fairly certain that I can scare him back into hiding, letting you off the guilt hook because it’ll be my doing, not yours. You’re not going to like it, but it’ll be good for Cairo in the long run, trust me.

I slit my eyes at Sam over the top of my fan. What is it? Will it ruin his birthday?

It won’t save you from feeling guilty if you know what I’m going to do, will it?

Don’t be so sure! Guilt seems to be my middle name!

Well, it’s time to get rid of it, like you did the others, Larkin ‘Guilt’ Whittaker of Eden! And before I could object, Sam turned to Kohén and asked: ‘How are your soldiers doing? That large one looked like he was in pretty bad shape earlier. I heard he’s in and out of consciousness, and cannot talk.’

‘Theodore? Yes, he was ripped up by thorns in The Wildwoods.’ Kohén allowed the server to take his plate too, but I noticed that he’d averted his eyes and had grown more tense at the mention of his soldiers. ‘But the voice thing is-’

‘He’s mute, I know,’ Sam said quickly. ‘Quite the ordeal he went through, isn’t it? I’m not surprised he couldn’t speak again after either.’

‘Why?’ Bastien leaned forward, frowning. ‘What did he go through?’

Kohén blinked, reeling back. ‘I have no idea, he never talks about it.’ He turned slowly to Sam. ‘How did you…’ his eyes widened. ‘Oh Christ, you read it in his mind, didn’t you?’

Sam nodded. ‘Bits and pieces of it. He’s unconscious so what I saw presented itself more like nightmares than memories because he was very young when he was traumatised, but … they’re repetitive enough to suggest they’re horrific memories that are almost always at the forefront of his mind, not dreams.’ He made a face. ‘They’re pretty awful, worse even than my own from when I was younger- and I was older than him when I went through my own ordeal too.’

‘Can you tell me what happened?’ Kohén asked, alight with concern now, and he was softer then- more like the boy I’d once known. ‘I know it’s an invasion of privacy but Theodore’s one of my best friends, and it kills me that I don’t know what caused his eternal silence.’

Sam nodded, feigning concern. ‘I can see that so I’ll share it with you so you understand that it is a psychological impairment and not a medical condition, but please, don’t let him know that I told you, all right?’ he looked around at all of us that were listening intently as we nodded in quick agreement. He turned back to Kohén. ‘He witnessed his entire family get murdered one night. His mother, his father, his cousins...all at the hand of a family friend.’

‘WHAT?’ Kohén gasped, and I felt all of the blood drain from my face as Sam nodded and went on:

‘Theodore saw all of it. He was spared because of his age, but I get the feeling that sometimes, he wishes he wasn’t because he’s been haunted by the event since.’ He gestured with his wineglass out the doors. ‘He wasn’t banished from Janiel for fleeing, as he’s led you to believe- he fled because he didn’t want to grow up being known as the poor little boy that survived the Selimpor Massacre.’

My mouth popped open in shock and beside me, I felt Cairo go rigid in understanding. I understood too, as did Sam, and I was blown away by how depraved and manipulative my best friend’s words were- how they’d been carved out of absolute maliciousness and then turned into a weapon.

‘No!’ Kohén breathed. ‘That’s awful!’

Sam nodded. ‘He can barely remember the man’s face because he was so young, but he remembered his final words to him: ‘Never breathe my name to another, or I will hunt you down and kill you, even if it’s twenty years from now.’ Sam’s gaze slid to Cairo. ‘And so he hasn’t spoken a word since, and has been too afraid to return to Janiel. He’s afraid that if he does, he’ll scream the man’s name so loud and so repeatedly that he’ll beckon the hunter right to him to make good on his threat.’

‘What was this demented bastard’s name?’ Bastien breathed, oblivious to the fact that Cairo had gone white and that his eyes had taken on a sheen of tears.

‘Fisher,’ Sam’s eyes moved to mine, sparing Cairo. ‘Someone Fisher, from Janiel.’

Cairo Fisher, of course. And the man that was unconscious in our hospital ward had obviously once gone by Teddy. Sam had read Cairo’s story through my thoughts, and had picked up on Teddy’s half through his own, and had brought them together like puzzle pieces that fit to create a pirate flag: a Kingslater Pirate Flag.

The screech of the chair was the first sound I heard to indicate that Cairo had snapped out of his shock, and the way he turned his face away from me was the only way that I could diagnose his horror.

‘Excuse me,’ he said roughly, and I caught the sight of one tear running down his cheek before he managed to twist his profile away. ‘I need to go get a stiffer drink…’

‘Take your time…’ Sam called after him, before fixing his bright blue eyes on me. ‘The party’s only just beginning…’

But Cairo did not respond. I wanted to chase after him, but Sam had scared him away in order to give me the chance to manipulate Kohén, so if I went to comfort Cairo instead, it would all have been for nothing and I couldn’t deal with that. Poor Cairo! And poor Teddy! What a blessing it was that Kohén’s friend had been too out of it since he’d arrived to realise that the man that had slaughtered his family was present here.

Asshole! I thought, glowering at Sam. Soulless bastard! Evil fucking genius!

Takes one to know one!

There’s more to that story than Theodore has reflected on, you know! The people that Cairo killed weren’t innocent- they deserved what they got!

I know Larkin- I’m not a complete monster, and I know that Cairo isn’t either. Still, you didn’t want him to witness you coming onto Kohén and he won’t now, so I’ve actually spared the bastard going through an ordeal of his own, haven’t I? And that’s more than I can do for myself so what you should be saying is: ‘Thank You Sam!’

Thank you Sam- but if you think I’m pissed about this now just you WAIT until my humanity kicks back in! This was supposed to be one of the best days of Cairo’s life, now it’s going to be the worst!

Actually I think given the nature of the story I just shared, we already know that the worst day of his life has come and gone and if he survived that, he’ll survive this too. Besides, that’s what Tomorrows are for, isn’t it? I suggest all three of us just do what we can do to get through today, and have faith that after tomorrow, we’ll never have to go through any of this again. He sighed. And don’t worry- he’s going off to drink his body weight and cry and to try to think of a way to make things right with Teddy, not to do something stupid.

If you’re lying to me-

Larkin please! Like I don’t have better things to do then to lie to save your bloody feelings- or his.

Like what, write erotic books?

Why? Are you ready for part two? Sorry honey, you’re going to have to hold out for the real thing. No one’s gonna buy the cow, you know…?

‘You know, I think I heard about that massacre, years ago,’ Bastien mused, staring at the glass he was idly twirling while wearing a disconcerted expression. ‘Horrible mess it was- I think a girl was kidnapped that night too, and the house with all the bodies in it burned to the ground.’

‘What kind of a monster could do such a thing?’ the dwarf asked, sighing sadly. ‘Poor Theodore.’

‘Agreed,’ Kohén said, and I was moved by how concerned he suddenly looked for his friend. Moved- and worried. What if he left the party now out of guilt?

‘Oh no...’ a female voice purred then, and I rotated in my seat just in time to see a vision in shimmering green slink her way down the stairs, taking her time as I’d instructed her to, while holding her head high. ‘Have I missed dinner?’

Sam turned around and blinked. ‘Holy shit!’ he furrowed his red brows at me. ‘Is that who I think it is?’

‘Yep….’ I smacked my lips together on the ‘p’. ‘She looks good, hey? One might even say… incomparable?’

Sam gave me an odd look, but Martya sighed then, pressing her hand against her flat, narrow waist while pouting and Sam’s head jerked back her way. ‘Damn, I’m famished! Is there anything left?’ She leaned against the bannister at the foot of the stairs striking a casual albeit striking pose, and a giggle threatened to bubble up out of me like a fountain to realise that she was using all of my tips- at once. That was Martya Rice: all in. ‘I don’t want to put anyone out, but it just took me so long to get into this… I can’t even imagine how long it would take me to get out of it later on…’

‘I’ll help you!’ the dwarf stood up and raised his hand. ‘Whatever you need girl. My food, assistance undressing- my eternal devotion...’

‘Raithe!’ Kohén smacked him over the head but Martya giggled. ‘Cool it!’

‘Big words for a little man,’ Martya teased as she pushed off the bannister and stood tall again. ‘But I’m feeling a bit wild tonight, so how about you flag down a waiter to get me a drink, and we can get this party started, hmm?’ then she turned to say hello to a few of our friends, who’d spotted her and had run over to admire her gown, ignoring Sam completely even though he was practically leaning over the table in his need to get a better look.

‘You’re on!’ Raithe clapped his hands together and beckoned over a passing server. ‘Good man! Five bottles of whatever will make me look taller to her!’ and Bastien and I laughed again, first at his wit then again when Kohén suggested a booster seat or stilts. I realised that Sam still hadn’t spoken a word, and when I glanced over at him again and saw that he was still straining to gawk at Martya, I almost hooted with laughter. I couldn’t read his thoughts, but I could tell that it wouldn’t take him long to get Martya out of that dress- not long at all and I was so relieved that I actually sagged down in my chair and fanned my face languidly, trying to stay as invisible as I could for my best friend’s moment in the spotlight, while my other so-called best suffered accordingly.

‘Dear God…’ my father said, blinking after Martya with shock. ‘Where did Emm get that gown from? She’s going to be fighting beaus off with a stick in that thing!’

Good! I thought, triumphant, not only that Martya had made a splash, but that Bastien had remembered to use the alias we’d quickly picked for her that afternoon. I hope Sam gets hit in the head with it in the process, so she chooses someone else! Would serve him right!

‘I won’t disagree,’ Kohén whispered as he sat up straighter, and I was annoyed at myself for feeling a flash of jealousy. ‘What a stunning girl.’

I nodded my head in agreement as I looked back, for Martya truly did look incredible: statuesque, lean, busty and sparkling. Her broad shoulders shimmered with the glitter that was being shaken off the tiny set of wings, and her tail had been fixed to an elastic strap around one of her wrists so that it parted her skirt a little more at the slit, flashing a glimpse of the longest set of legs in Raphael that were smooth and perfectly carved. She was an absolute vision, especially while she was talking and laughing and glowing from the attention like that, and as soon as it had occurred to me to be jealous of her, that jealousy turned into awe and bliss. How lovely it was, to know that I had helped someone else shine! How peaceful it was in my mind now that Sam had been torn from it!

The tense conversation that we’d only just had about the Selimpor Massacre had taken some of the euphoria out of my body temporarily as my brain had been forced to rise up to the surface of my being, but I shimmered happily again now and finished off the rest of my champagne, wondering if this was how my father felt when his flesh pixelated, and if his flesh pixelated from utter joy because he’d performed so many good deeds in his life. Now that I’d just performed one of my own, I was rather eager to keep doing it!

‘I’m utterly in love!’ the dwarf turned to Bastien and asked quietly: ‘Is she spoken for? If not, I’d like permission to commence woo!’

But it was Sam who responded flatly as he yanked the fresh champagne bottle out of Raithe’s hands, and drunk directly from the neck of it, before getting up to walk over to Martya. ‘Permission denied.’

*

I slipped my amber ring back on once Sam had successfully managed to pull out a chair for Martya (and slide it back in after her) for I had had it under the napkin on the spare plate next to me all along. I was nervous about making any sudden movements, but I stood up slowly, moved to my father’s side and bent in a curtsy.

‘Thank you for inviting me to dinner, your highness, but I must confess, the sounds of the music in the other room are calling to me.’ I stood up straighter. ‘May I join the others at the ball, now? I’m desperate to dance!’

‘Of course, my lady,’ my father nodded his head. ‘Go on, dance up a storm! I’m sure Captain Kingslater will make his big entrance soon and you’ll be tethered to his side all night by obligation, so enjoy yourself while you can.’

‘Thank you, your grace.’ I curtsied one more quickly, then turned to bow to Kohén. ‘Your highness. It’s been… illuminating.’

Kohén stood up so quickly he almost knocked his chair over, but I hid my smile and pretended not to notice it. ‘Are you allowed to dance with other people? Even though you came to dinner on the arm of another?’ he caught up to me quickly. ‘In our country, that’s frowned upon.’

I looked over at Kohén haughtily. ‘In our country, we allow women to consent to spend time with whoever they consent to spend time with, and as Captain Kingslater has already explained, I don’t belong to him… he is the man in my life, not my jailor.’

‘What does that mean exactly… the man in your life?’ Kohén gently touched my elbow as he guided me across the room. ‘Do you love him? If you took a shine to another… could you act upon it?’

I twisted my lips into a pursed smile as we approached the ballroom. ‘Take a shine to another?’ I whipped out my fan again and fluttered it in my face. ‘What a notion! What man in the world could possibly compare to Captain Kingslater?’

‘That’s not answering my question.’

‘That’s because your question is incredibly personal, your highness-’

‘Would you stop calling me your highness, please? How many times do I have to explain that that’s not who I am anymore?’

I lowered my fan and looked at him, allowing a bit of fake vulnerability to shine through. ‘I’m sorry, Kohén,’ I reached up and touched his jaw tenderly and almost mewled when I felt the spark between his skin and mine. ‘But I’m afraid that in my memories, you will always be the prince that…’ I closed my eyes and shook myself off, walking forward and raising my fan again. ‘Never mind. You’re not that boy anymore, you’re right- I will endeavour to call you Guardian from now on.’

‘Erika, wait!’ I sucked in a breath when Kohén caught my hand and then yanked me out the door onto the terrace. I waited for my man-hating claustrophobia to rise up around me like a cloud of soot, but when he backed me into the corner, I felt only amusement- and a bit dizzy.

‘What are you doing?’ I glanced over his shoulder as he forced me into a nook between a potted topiary and the white brick wall. ‘Do you have any idea how much trouble you’ll get in if Cairo walks out and sees us like this?’

‘I’m not scared of Captain Kingslater, but your threats that I ought to be only further convince me that you are.’

‘Well I’m not,’ I snapped, determined to keep his name clean even while it was being thrown around amidst such filthy lies. ‘People like to speculate about our relationship, but only he and I understand how it is and I assure you, he’s been a guardian angel to me.’

‘Then why would I get in trouble if he walked out here and saw us together?’

‘Because he wants to protect me from men that would do me harm,’ I crossed my arms across my chest, ‘as you’ve already said: your reputation precedes you. If he sees me backed into a corner by a known sex offender, he’ll throw a fist first, and ask questions after.’

But Kohén stepped forward more, entrancing me with his hypnotic eyes. ‘I’m not trying to force myself on you and I’m fairly certain that I never actual did anything to Larkin that could be considered a sexual offence, but I would very much like to talk to you alone. If I am wrong about Captain Kingslater’s overbearing personality than I apologise, but your co-worker, Lady Lucida, confessed to me that my arrival has sparked Cairo’s jealousy because apparently, you’ve admitted to having a crush on me in the past- one that you developed after we kissed that time.’ He paused, wetting his perfect red lips. ‘Is that true?’

I flushed from embarrassment, not bashfulness, but all Kohén saw was the flush and his eyes sparked with excitement. ‘So what if it was?’ I asked lightly. ‘That was a long time ago, and as I explained to Cairo- things have changed.’

‘Really?’ Kohén squinted at me. ‘Because it kind of seemed like you were flirting with me earlier… both in the hall, and at dinner.’

But I rolled my eyes again and waved my hand. ‘Oh so what if I was? I had a few tokes of a Devil’s Claw joint earlier to take the edge off my nerves and that made me feel a little scatty-’

‘What? How can you smoke that vile weed?’

‘Because I don’t have to worry about producing heirs, remember? I can enjoy how dizzy it makes me, and not have to worry even a little about the consequences- except for this one.’ I patted his shoulder. ‘I’m sorry if I mislead you into thinking that I was trying to make some spare cash for the night by servicing your poor, neglected royal cock but don’t worry, the haze is fading from my mind right now and I’m certain that I’ll never flirt with you again.’

The sparkle faded from Kohén’s eyes then. ‘Because of… what I did?’

I arched an eyebrow. ‘Would that story not cure any woman of an unhealthy fixation with a ticking time bomb such as yourself?’

‘I understand.’ Kohén sighed. ‘But I hope you can understand that I’ve changed since then, Erika. I am desperately trying to atone for how I mishandled that situation, and make no excuses for it. And I am sorry if I hurt you too- it’s not fair that I have left so many people suffering nightmares due to my actions, but am spared any personal recollections of them, and the guilt that ought to come with it.’

‘Hurt me?’ I drew my brows together. ‘It was a kiss, your highness, one that was freely given. I hurt myself when I assumed that it meant more to you than it did, and when I built you up to being a God in my head, that’s all- and Cairo will hurt you tenfold if he discovers us discussing it so intimately now!’ I pretended to look around, acting skittish. ‘Ugh I am very cross with Lady Lucida for sharing such a secret with you!’

‘But that’s all we’re doing- talking,’ Kohén stepped into me more. ‘And you said that was okay, right...?’ he bit his lip. ‘So please, can’t we talk about the last time we met? I have no memories of my youth, Erika, and am desperate to salvage any that I can! What did we talk about that night? How did I act?’

I frowned up at him. ‘I thought you said you’d changed? That you know that it’s wrong to force yourself onto a girl?’

Fear flitted behind Kohén’s eyes. ‘I have, I swear it!’

I pressed my hand to my chest. ‘Then stop trying to force me to feel for you, please? I can’t bear it. I’ve done all I can to get through this evening without breaking down, but if you keep…’ I lowered my face and made to move past him, but Kohén caught my arm and spun me around, then turned himself so that we were facing one another again, this time with him in the corner. Once he had his gaze locked on mine, he released me and lifted his hands.

‘I won’t touch you,’ he swore, keeping his hands up, and his eyes were an earnest, neon blue that made my heart skip too many beats to count. ‘Just tell me… was I gentleman? Was I tender, at least?’

I stared at him, confounded. Seriously, who was this guy? ‘Tender?’ I repeated, taking a step back towards him. ‘You want to know if you were tender with me? Will that make you feel better about how you treated that demon girl?’

Kohén’s face crumpled and he shook his head. ‘No,’ he croaked. ‘No it won’t. But it might give me hope to think that there was more to me, then what I’ve been told. That I was more than just a barbaric monster.’

My heart felt like it had been folded in two, and when he turned away to face out to the lawn, gripping the railing and starring up at the Fallen Forest in the distance, I wasn’t sure if I sighed out of resignation, or empathy. ‘You were more than a barbarian, your highness,’ I said softly, coming up behind him to rest my hand on his shoulder. ‘In fact, I was told that you were quite the romantic, not just in matters of the heart, but every aspect of your life. Gentle, loving, clever… you worked very hard, trying to become the man that everyone expected you to grow up to be, and you spoke warmly of Larkin of Eden when we met. In fact, you told me that you kissed me because you feared what kissing one of your own girls would change.’

Kohén turned around, his beautiful face full of angst. ‘That seems like a cruel thing to say, not tender.’

But I shook my head and smiled warmly. ‘No, it was honest and considerate. You’d made a deal with her to get her out of there long before you fell in love with her, and you were determined to see it through, regardless of how tortured you were by her proximity. In my eyes, you looked like a hero for my kind, and until I learned of how you slipped in the end, I went on believing that was the case, so the crush developed organically- you did not force anything on me, not at all.’ I came to stand at the rail beside him. ‘I have been furious with you since for giving into the temptation and hurting her beyond belief, but I wanted you to kiss me that night we met, Prince Kohén. I wasn’t going to get out of my harem and I hated it, but for the first time ever, I craved the touch of a prince’s mouth against mine, and when you did it…’ I closed my eyes and hummed softly, and when I opened them again, I could feel the intensity of his gaze burning down my profile and neck. ‘God… it was like an answered prayer.’

The world was becoming heavy and foggy, but Kohén turned and cut through that fog so that it broke apart and then enshrouded us. ‘Really?’

I nodded slowly, reaching out to touch his lips, and they parted around an inhalation as his eyes fluttered shut. My fingers remembered the touch of his skin, and my other senses were drunk on his scent, and although my mind was screaming that it was all in my head- that there was no good here- the sight of his thick, black eyelashes resting against his olive skin did things to me that were so illicit that he didn’t have to touch me at all for me to feel his charge. Damn Satan for making what felt so wrong feel so right!

‘Really…’ I whispered. ‘And when you pushed me against that tree, there was nothing tender about it. It was hot, and breathless and thrilling and… oh God…’ Kohén’s eyes snapped open as I staggered back, clutching my heart. ‘No! No this was exactly why I didn’t want to talk about this! How dare you just bust into my life again and make me feel this way? I have to go, now! Before you can make me feel one more thing for you that you don’t deserve!’

‘Erika, wait-’

‘No! Captain Kingslater takes wonderful care of me, so I’d be the cruel one if I allowed myself to be tempted into your bed!’

‘No! Please, don’t go!’ Kohén caught my wrist and dragged me back, searching my eyes with his. ‘I know I don’t deserve you and you’re making it very clear that Cairo does. But I want you, Erika- I’ve scarcely been able to think straight since I first saw you. I’ve had six glasses of wine since then, but I’ve been drunk since the second we met and I don’t want to sober up!’ he lifted my hand to his lips, kissing it. ‘I know you’ll laugh when I say that this behaviour is out of character for me, but it is! I’ve had the chance to go to other girls but I’ve lacked the desire to actually solicit a Companion’s services… until now.’

‘Is that so?’ And something inside my chest felt all wobbly when he nodded. This wasn’t the first time that he’d used that kind of line on me and it had turned out to be true the last time, so was that still the case? Did Kohén still struggle to get aroused by anyone but me, even with the amnesia robbing him of his memories of Larkin? Incredible!

‘It is,’ Kohén said earnestly. ‘Look, I don’t have much gold on me now, but I know that I’m wealthier than Kingslater is, and I can defend myself just fine if he takes an issue with you agreeing to partake in such a transaction-’

I pulled my hand back, fanning myself again. ‘I find it hard to believe both claims. Cairo’s a giant, and your own powers have been depleted-’

‘I’ve taken out men scarier than him before in worse shape than I’m in right now,‘ Kohén said, and his eyes flashed dangerously. I fanned myself harder, and told me that he hadn’t just completely turned me on.

‘Regardless of your self-declared might, I know about the financial strife your kingdom is in and would wager that we have more in the treasury here- thanks to Captain Kingslater, of course. There’s no way you could offer me even a fraction of what he can!’

‘I have two thousand on me now!’ he cried, and my eyebrows lifted in shock. Two thousand was four times the going rate for an evening with a highly ranked companion. ‘Will that buy me a night in your chamber? An hour? A kiss? Please… I usually hate being called Prince Kohén but every time you say it, it makes me that much harder...’

My stomach sucked in under my corset. ‘You’re out of your mind!’ Well, at least my going rate has gone up from when he threw a silver coin at my fucking feet after our first kiss… ‘There are three other girls here that will cure what ails you for two hundred and fifty an hour and if you’re as exasperated as you say you are, a minute and a half ought to-’

‘No one but you will be able to cure me of what ails me, I know it, and even once you have, I fear that I’ll be twice as drunk on my feelings for you after,’ Kohén moved after me, reached over me and pulled the french doors shut behind me, and I cringed as one of those bad suppressed feelings of being trapped by this man resurfaced in my soul. ‘Don’t run from me, beautiful girl… just tell me- what will it cost me to secure some time in your company? Everything I have and broken legs for Kingslater’s peace of mind after? I’ll pay whatever price you set!’

I looked down at his perfect, panting mouth and then up into his perfect blue eyes. ‘Even if I was inclined to sell them, my affections sure as hell can’t fight their way through a locked door, and neither can your reputation!’

Kohén blinked and then sighed, reaching around me and opening the door again. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said, his expression conflicted. He turned away and rubbed his face then tore at his hair, looking like he was crawling alive with ants for the aggravation, and they were sparking around his knuckles even though Sam had pronounced him sapped. ‘Shit! I guess I’m every bit as obsessive once obsessed as they say I am right? Fuck… I’m… I’m just sorry.’ He waved his hand, and a comet’s worth of sparks shimmered from his fingertips. ‘Please, just go.’

I arched an eyebrow, intrigued. The old Kohén would have kissed me anyway, especially once I’d looked at his mouth- and I’d sort of been counting on him doing just that. Did the new Kohén have a stronger sense of self? Or was he just being more careful with me because I’d threatened his reputation? Confused, thrown off my own course and afraid that he was going to call it a night, I sighed and began flapping my stupid fan again, wondering how to proceed. I hadn’t been counting on him showing restraint… how was I going to get him to believe that he was the one doing the seducing while he was trying so hard to rise above it?

‘I cannot take you to bed without hurting Captain Kingslater, or leading every man in Raphael to hope that I’m willing to prostitute myself out after all…’ I said softly, leaning against the door. ‘But you just acted like a gentleman even though it’s clear that it’s the last thing you feel like doing, and that has earned you a bit of my trust, Kohén. My trust… and perhaps a dance or two? If you’d like to dance with me, that is.’

Kohén looked over his shoulder and smiled at me. ‘Why would you want to dance with me, Erika? I’ve just made an absolute fool of myself.’

‘Because dangerous or not, you’re still the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen, Prince Kohén…’ I bit my lip as I rolled off the doorway, giving him a coquettish look over my shoulder as I moved back towards the ballroom. ‘And because though I lack the courage to say it to the man in my life… I very much want your hands on me, even if it only is to spin me around the dance floor. What will it cost me to secure a dance or two in your arms?’

Kohén’s eyes sparked, and a foolish, utterly disarming and boyish grin made his face crinkle up with joy. ‘For you my lady? It’s on the house.’

‘That’s very generous, your highness. Just don’t keep me waiting, all right?’ Then, with a wink, a smile, and another flutter of that ludicrous fan, I sashayed off into the ballroom walking my Companion walk, safe in the knowledge that he was following me.

42.

Château Aztaroth, Raphael

Kohén Barachiel

I was having the absolute time of my life and I never wanted it to end, and once all of my able-bodied friends had joined me in the ballroom and had toasted our survival we were all in agreement: I had led us to paradise. Not just any paradise, either, but a bold one unlike any other. To a place where the lights flashed in colours and the music throbbed so hard and loudly that you could feel it reverberating right through your being. It was like nowhere I’d ever been before, and given how formal the banquet that had preceded it had been, I was completely shocked. We’d never thrown a ball like this in Arcadia, never! Where did they get this music from? How had they learned to dance like that? Why were kids permitted to attend given how wild everything was, and what had influenced this place? Outside everything had looked like a fairytale, but inside, everything was like a fantasy, and I couldn’t bring myself to believe that the demure, soft-spoken and kind-eyed archangel Raphael had dreamed it all up. The stone cottages, yes- the bare-breasted Artisans allowing people to do shots off their stomachs in the dark ante-room, no.

I wanted to spend every second at Erika’s side, inhaling her scent and listening to her breathy giggle that did things to me that no woman’s touch ever had, but regardless of how meek and frightened she’d seemed when we’d first met, I discovered that she was quite the butterfly, and flitted from one group of people to the next, making conversation and accepting offers to dance in a dizzying swirl of spring pastels and sparkling eyes, and every time she swirled my way, I found myself breathless. I tried to follow her as much as I could without making it look like I was gearing up to commit another sex crime, but as much as people gawked me, and as often as I received the odd poisonous look from behind a mask or two, no one seemed to be paying me or Erika much mind, and all appeared to be as swept up by the thrilling festivities as I was. Mind you, it would have been pretty hard to keep a close eye on anyone with those lights bouncing around like that, palpitating between splashes of colour, to shadowy darkness and back again at the speed of eyelids fluttering in REM.

‘You’re not dancing,’ the beautiful Companion remarked at one point, sidling up to me with her stunning friend Emm on her arm with Sam trailing glassy-eyed behind. At first I’d thought he was making a play for Erika seeing as her date hadn’t yet returned, but it didn’t take me long to realise that it was Emm’s tail that he was chasing, not the Companion. Not that the pretty redhead seemed to notice though because like Erika, she’d been fluttering from group to group, paying her redder-haired shadow no mind.

‘No, I’m not,’ I nodded to the complicated-looking dance that the people were doing behind her in the centre of the room, to music that was unlike nothing I’d ever heard, to a tempo that no one in my division was in any state to attempt to keep up with. Back home most of our music was slow and performed by string instruments but this kind of music was more percussive and amplified so loud that you almost had to shout over it, and though my fingers had been itching to go pick up one of the guitars that a musician was using, I knew I wouldn’t be able to play the way he was, and I certainly wouldn’t be able to sing given how raw my throat was from yelling, so I kept my hands in my pockets and my wistful eyes on the bandstand. ‘I wouldn’t know how to join in on all of that. But I am enjoying watching, my lady.’

Erika glanced behind her, then back to me and grinned while Saul-Yin bounced over to us, so high on Ambrose’s attentions that she was practically vibrating with vitality. ‘It’s quite the sight, isn’t it? It took me a long time to learn, but it’s less graceful and technical than the dances that we had to learn in Mossgrove, so it’s easy enough to pick up on- you just sort of have to fling yourself in and move to the rhythm and eventually, it all falls into place.’ Erika turned to Saul-Yin, and extended her hand. ‘Hello. I’m Erika, and you are...?’

‘Saul-Yin, Kohén’s 2IC.’ Saul-Yin lifted Erika’s hands top her lips and kissed it. ‘And you’re lovely!’ She elbowed me. ‘I can see why Kohén here hasn’t been able to shut up about you all afternoon.’

‘I’m lovely? I’ve been green with jealousy over your hair since you walked in!’ Erika stepped forward and ran her hand down Saul-Yin’s sleek black hair while Emm smiled shyly at my petite friend, and I lifted my champagne to my mouth, not missing the way that Saul-Yin’s eyes sparkled with excitement. Damn her for putting the idea of sharing the lovely Companion with her, and damn Erika for being too high to notice that Saul-Yin was looking down the front of her dress. ‘It’s so smooth and long- like a mermaid!’ She pulled back and gave me a funny look when I started choking on my bubbles. ‘Are you all right, Guardian Barachiel?’

‘He’s fine,’ Saul-Yin beamed up at Larkin as Emm reached over and brushed her fingers against Saul Yin’s knee-length curtain of hair as well. ‘Just a little overwhelmed, I think. It’s been a while since any of us were invited to a ball, so we’re not used to people this pretty, food this good, or music this amazing.’

‘How long?’

‘Forever. Well, forever for most of us, about two years for this one.’ She lifted her chin. ‘We’re mostly ex-cons or imports in our division, you see, so we’re not really welcome anywhere back home even though legally, we’re supposed to be.’

‘Well, most of us are ex-cons or imports here too, so consider yourself welcome, and please, enjoy yourself as thoroughly as possible, and as equally as the other citizens are!’ Erika responded without batting an eyelash, and I saw Ambrose and Jent stand a little taller and smile a little more widely before the Companion winked at me. ‘See you on the dance floor later, Guardian Barachiel?’

‘So long as it slows down to a pace I can manage,’ I said, feeling tight in the chest. Goodness, this woman was bewitching me!

‘I don’t like your chances of that happening! This is a Raphael party- you keep up with everyone, or step aside!’ she said, and then she snatched Martya’s hand, whispered something in her ear that made them both giggle before taking off again, leaving four dumbstruck morons gaping after them in her wake. Not Raithe though- he’d been doing shots at the bar with the people that had been our waiters two hours before that had actually turned out to be our guards from earlier. Now that they’d clocked off, a bunch of women dressed as witches had taken over as the servers, and were handing out exotic-looking cocktails and shots at a rapid rate.

‘She wants you,’ Saul-Yin said, not taking her eyes off Erika until she’d been swallowed up by the crowd. ‘I don’t care what arrangement she has with this invisible pirate… that girl wants you bad. Can’t you feel the energy and body heat radiating off her? She’s so hard up that if you don’t go dance with her soon, I will.’

I reached for one of the shots that was being bussed by us, watching with amusement as Sam actually yanked Emm away from her prospective partner and dragged her over to the edge of the crowd, looking like he was lecturing her while she laughed and fiddled with the amber pendant that she was wearing.

‘You feel that energy too? Well, I guess that’s a good thing, I was starting to worry that it was just me projecting how fucking badly I want to…’ I groaned and threw the shot back before I could finish that sentence, gasping when it burned a path down my throat that tasted like roses and rum but with a creamy aftertaste. Erika was dancing again, this time swinging herself around on the arm of an older, black man, before she was whirled into the arms of a gangly teenage boy with snow white hair that had dressed up like an explorer. The boy frowned up at her as they went through the couply-steps, and though Erika’s expression creased in consternation at whatever he was saying, she eventually leaned down and kissed the boy’s cheek before shaking her head and saying something in a very firm but obviously assuring tone.

‘Everything will be all right,’ I saw her mouth as her turn came to be spun away again, and though the boy still looked troubled, he nodded and then turned to smile tightly as he caught his new partner- a girl that was actually his age, and I wished I knew what had been said- I wished I knew how King Raphael had made this place work; a kingdom where a boy of about sixteen could be concerned for the welfare of the most popular Companion, and where she would care enough for him in return to treat him not like an under aged admirer, but like a dear friend and an equal.

‘I feel your pain,’ Saul-Yin said, watching Erika as closely as I was while smoothing the pencil skirt that went with her own formal uniform. ‘She’s really something, isn’t she? In fact, if it weren’t for the brand and the outfit, I’d assume that she a noblewoman or a school teacher, not a Companion. She’s so warm and evidently admired- have you seen how many people have turned to invite her into their conversations? It’s not like that back home, is it? They’re treated with reverence, but they’re never really included, and you rarely see them embraced by women and children!’

‘She’s a princess,’ I agreed. ‘Though mind you, she’s got a mouth on her. I don’t imagine she talks to those women and children the way that she talks to me…’

‘Lucky man. What’s she said?’

‘In a nutshell? Come and get me, but don’t touch me,’ and Saul-Yin chuckled.

‘Well… what are you going to do? Go and get her and try to make her instigate the touching? Or are you just going to give your money to one of the other girls and pretend that you’re not falling madly in love with Miss Untouchable?’

‘What other girls?’ I asked, taking another shot off the busboy/witch again before I strode across the dance floor and after Erika, desperate to see if I could feel like I belonged here too. I watched peoples’ feet carefully, wondering if my own could keep up to the rhythm that was pulsing through me in a more familiar way now. ‘There aren’t any, are there?’

My friend’s laugh followed me across the room, and because she was laughing fondly and not in derision, it gave me the push I needed to break into the pack of bodies, and catch Erika just as she was spun my way, tinted pink all over by the fuchsia light.

‘Oh!’ she breathed in sharply when I crushed her to me, and I could see the whites of her eyes behind the eyeholes in her mask. ‘Guardian Barachiel! I thought you were going to wait for a slower song?’

One of my hands caught hers as my other flattened across the flat of her back. ‘I decided that I’d waited long enough. Besides, the last time I waited too long for a girl, I drove myself right off the deep end, and I don’t want to put anyone in danger, so here I am, flinging myself into the fray as requested!’

Erika laughed, and I fought to keep my eyes on her face even though her cleavage was practically bouncing with every light step that she took. ‘I’m glad that you’re thinking so rationally regardless of how many shots you’ve had.’

I cocked my head. ‘How do you know how many shots I’ve had?’

Erika wriggled her eyebrows. ‘Because every time you take your eyes off me I feel it, and then I can’t help but take advantage of the opportunity to watch you.’ She giggled when I blushed in pleasure. ‘And I like watching you do shots. I like watching you eat, too, and laugh with your friends... you’ve got such a sensual mouth…’ she dropped her eyes to my lower lip and just like that, I was throbbing. ‘Damn. Maybe I’m the one that’s had too many shots, hmm?’ she looked up at me bashfully through the mask and from beneath her lush lashes. ‘Sorry. I’ll try to watch my own mouth from now on.’

‘Please God, don’t,’ I whispered. ‘I’m shooting up another inch with every flattering word you say.’

‘In height?’ Erika asked softly. ‘Or length?’

‘Do I look taller to you?’

‘No.’ Erika giggled, and I picked her up in time with the others and spun her, feeling like my feet had left the floor as well. When I put her back down again, she twisted to put her back with me as the other ladies did with their own partners, and I gnashed my teeth together to feel her rump pressing against my hips and groin. ‘Yikes! It’s getting a bit warm in here so... subject change time! You have a female 2IC…?’

My abdomen tightened defensively now. ‘I do… what of it?’

‘That’s… unusual.’

‘If you saw Saul-Yin in action, you’d know otherwise.’

‘Is that so?’ Erika looped under my arm, facing me again and when I nodded, she shrugged. ‘Good to hear that a woman can rise above the rank of nurse within your army’s service, even if she cannot rise above her brand. She’s awfully pretty though. That must be distracting…for the other men. Especially seeing as how she’s been branded for promiscuity.’

I scowled at her. ‘If you’ve got something to say-’

‘I’m jealous,’ she said quickly, panting from the effort of talking while dancing so quickly. ‘Seems like every time you waltz through my life, you have another woman that is very important to you on a pedestal elsewhere. I’m also rather jealous of her brand and the freedom that must come with it. How liberating it must be to know that you can never belong to anyone but yourself, while being free to make connections with whomever you want, within reason.’

Her confession was as thrilling as it was rankling. ‘Saul-Yin’s liberated all right, but not only is it illegal for me to touch her- it’s just not something that I’m inclined to do. Sometimes, when my charge gets the better of me I think about it, and she’s made it clear that she thinks about it all the time, but at the end of the day, she’s just a friend that happens to be pretty.’

‘Pretty… and frisky?’

‘That’s an understatement. Let’s just say she earned that brand fair and square and sometimes I suspect that she even did it on purpose.’ Erika laughed, and I felt a little more at ease. I didn’t know why I was telling her this, but it was too late to stop now so I rambled on, wondering what was in those shots. ‘Maybe other men would cross a line for the chance to get what they could from her, and I know that a third of our division has-’ Erika giggled and that made me grin. ‘But I have too much at stake so I don’t.’ I pulled back. ‘And as far as pedestals go, how can you take exception to the relationships that I’ve made with women in the name of obligation, when you’ve been similarly bound to another man both times that we’ve met too? First a prince, then a pirate.’

The girl thought it over, then shrugged. ‘Touché. I didn’t choose to be bound to anyone though; they chose me, and I’ve been obligated to comply.’

I held her closer as we twirled in a box formation, sweating with the effort that it took for me to keep focused on the conversations and the movements of the other dancers. ‘Well for what’s it’s worth, if given the choice, I’d choose to put you on a pedestal- as would Saul-Yin.’

Erika blinked. ‘She’s gay?’

‘She swims both ways… but you’re undeniably the most attractive looking creature that has ever walked the face of this earth so fuck yes, she’d choose you. Who wouldn’t?’

The Companion laughed, blushing. ‘Well that’s flattering on both counts, but Saul-Yin isn’t my type. Were I gay I don’t doubt that she would be, but I like men. I think…’ I didn’t know what she meant by that, but she bent and hitched her skirt then for the hop-kick part of the routine, and I ceased to think once I’d gotten a good look at the legs that she’d been cruelly hiding under her petticoats. She was wearing little ballet flats instead of heels, and although her long legs were bare and golden and not covered by pantyhose, she had a pale blue garter adorning her left thigh, and the sight of it caused me to shoot up and out another inch. It was a bit crooked, and although I bent with the intention of snagging it and jerking it up a little on reflex when she lifted her leg and kicked it high, the feel of the heat radiating off that perfect leg overwhelmed me and I straightened up quickly, heart racing and balls aching as she snapped her leg down and twirled in my arms again, oblivious to the fact that I’d just come close to cumming in my bloody pants.

‘You move well!’ she gasped, looking bright and exhilarated, and for the first time, I noticed that her pupils were very dilated. Was that the effect that I had on her, or the joint she’d smoked?

‘I’m a fast learner.’ The time to spin her to the next gentleman was fast approaching, but I couldn’t bear the thought of letting her go so I coiled her in, spun her out- and then spun thrice as fast beside her so that by the time she’d prepared herself to be caught, the lights had flashed green and then blue, and I was already waiting to do the catching. I stopped her before she could rotate all the way around, taking her in my arms once more and grinning behind the safety of my mask as the people that had seen the manoeuvre whistled and clapped in appreciation. Erika’s mouth dropped open while I nodded to those cheering me on in humble acknowledgement for the dance move that I had just completely pulled out of my ass. Thank God for my lessons in Eden! Turns out that fast dancing was just slow dancing- only faster. Besides, keeping balance while whirling like that was very easy when you had a beauty like Erika to track with your eyes for the sake of spotting.

‘How did you…?’ she glanced behind her to the man that was clapping along with everyone else, but I whirled us around in three long circles, skimming the edge of the crowd and waltzing her right out the door until we were on the terrace and panting. The humid night smelled sweet, perfumed by a nearby night garden and an abundance of orange blossom, and the girl in my arms was flushed with what I hoped was exhilaration. ‘That was breaking the rules!’

‘But not any laws, and that’s what matters, yes?’ I slowly spiralled Erika out from under my arm and then lifted our joined hands over another potted topiary, but I did not let her hand go after, using it to tug her to the edge of the terrace again which was gratefully deserted up this end. ‘And you told me that I’d earned a dance or two, so how could I bear to let another man cut in now?’

‘This is not dancing, Guardian Barachiel.’

‘Yes it is.’ I pulled her into me again, closed my arms around her and gently began to sway. ‘I just want to slow it down a little so we can talk more.’

Erika appraised me sceptically through her mask, and I knew that she was feeling self-conscious and shutting down now that I had her alone again. ‘I’m no fool Kohén, and I can feel your increased length against my hip right now- talking is the last thing on your mind.’

‘That’s not true,’ I assured her, still swaying. ‘I want to talk to you- more than you could possibly know.’

‘About what?’

‘About you.’ I lifted my fingers and gently pushed her mask up onto the top of her head. ‘I want to know everything there is to know about you and your kingdom.’

‘That’s not a fair topic,’ she pointed out, but her tone was softer now, less challenging. ‘You can’t ask a lady to participate in an exchange of anecdotes when you have barely any to offer in return.’

‘Hey, I have stories to tell that have nothing to do with the missing years. I had a childhood once, you know, and I remember a bit of it.’ I glanced up over her shoulders out at the girls that were dancing around the maypole on the palace lawn, knowing that I’d seen that before too, a long time ago. ‘I’ve made two more years worth of memories since my amnesia developed too, and I think I’ve experienced more things in the last two years than most people get to in a lifetime, so I have anecdotes, all right, and not all of them involve me being persecuted for my crimes or end in tears.’

She winced. ‘So you try to see the glass half full, then?’

I nodded. ‘I do. It would be easy to dwell on the injustices of life- the ones I’ve brought upon others and the ones that I have suffered from in compensation, but I know that God wants me to rise above my despair. If I squint my eyes and take my awkward encounters with people that hate me out of the equation, I can see that my life has been full and exciting and full of wonder, travel and discovery since the night Larkin left me for dead- so why should I let what happened before then define my entire existence when I have the chance to make a new past every day?’

‘Tomorrow is another day… a powerful sentiment, and one I have learned to appreciate.’ Erika ran her hands up my arms. ‘Well, you have my interest and my attention, and I do love stories... so tell me one of yours, Prince Kohén.’ Her sapphire eyes were shining as she squeezed my biceps. ‘And please, start with the most exciting one!’

My heart fluttered at the look in her eyes as my dick twitched in response to the way she’d called me by that infernal name. ‘How can I share the most exciting memory I have, when I am still only halfway through making it?’ She slitted her eyes at me in warning, but I laughed. ‘Seriously, I had to wrestle a wolf off my friend this week so I can regale you with that encounter, but that doesn’t change the fact that nothing’s ever got my blood going more than when I first laid eyes on you.’

‘That you know of,’ Erika whispered, but I shook my head, smiling gently. God, her mouth was just inches from mine, and if I leaned in…

‘No, I’m certain I’m right,’ I traced the outline of her eye mask that had been slightly imprinted into her make-up. A true artist had applied the rouge and powder, but the skin beneath it was every bit as flawless as the fake coverage was, and when I tracked a path down her neck, I realised that her clavicle was the exact right shape for my lips to press into. Imagining doing that made my mouth go dry and then very, very wet. ‘If my heart pounded any faster than this, I’d drop dead.’

‘Don’t tempt me,’ the girl breathed, robbing me of my breath when she slid her hands back up my arms again, giving me a wicked smile. ‘I might try and over-excite you just to extricate myself from this hold you have on me.’

‘My dance hold?’ I asked, but she shook her head.

‘No.’ She bit her lip and I wanted to do it too. ‘The one that’s making me wish we were more alone than we are…’

I moaned softly. ‘Don’t,’ I whispered to her, running one of my hands down from the nape of her neck to the back of her dress, giving in to the temptation to caress the carved muscles on her back, which had been drawing my eye all night long. The last girl I’d seen with a back like that had been an Artisan dancer that was so skinny that she’d looked liable to snap- but Erika wasn’t like that at all. Her hips and bust were full and womanly, but the rest of her was lean and perfect, making me wonder what she did to stay in shape. ‘If you’re not going to take my money please, don’t take my breath. I’m trying to get to know you before he whisks you off to bed, sweet girl...not to treat you like a thing, like he does, or to black out from desire before I’ve had the chance to hear one of your stories too.’

But Erika pulled back, frowning. ‘Captain Kingslater doesn’t treat me like a thing, Kohén, he treats me like I’m precious.’

I bowed my head in reluctant resignation. ‘Well good. He’d be a fool to be rough with you-’

‘No I don’t mean he’s gentle with me- I mean he won’t be whisking me back to bed later because we don’t share a bed; period.’

I could scarcely believe my ears but my God, I wanted to!

43.

Château Aztaroth, Raphael

Kohén Barachiel

It took me a minute to get my head around the notion that Erika wasn’t joking, and in that minute, I flapped my jaw at her like a fish out of water. ‘Do you mean to tell me that you don’t…? What? Ever?’

‘Never.’ Erika pulled out of my arms and moved to the thick stone railing again, smoothing her skirts. ‘I’ve had exactly one lover in my lifetime, Kohén, and it’s not Cairo Kingslater. I enjoyed making love while I was obligated to because my prince knew how to make a woman respond, even a reluctant one, but when those brutes tried to…’ she closed her eyes and shuddered delicately. ‘It changed things, and I’ve been too scared to go to bed with a man since, despite how desperately I crave a man’s touch sometimes. Cairo would like it very much if I gave into his seduction and he makes no secret of it- and we are close…and getting closer every day...’ she looked at me quickly before turning her face back to the dancers. ‘But we’re not lovers, Kohén, not yet. Not while I’m a Companion that cannot bring herself to have sex, but a girl infatuated that cannot have children with the man that loves her…’

I couldn’t believe it. He’d never taken her to bed? How long had it been since she’d last been touched? Or kissed? ‘I’m so sorry!’ I burst out, feeling like a heel. ‘I never would have offered you money if I’d known you weren’t already taking it for-’

‘I believe you and don’t worry, you’re not the first person to be confused by my situation.’ Erika was watching the girls dance with envy in her sapphire eyes, so I supposed like in Calliel, it was a dance that only single, fertile girls were allowed to partake in. ‘But unusual or not, that’s how it is. Cairo takes care of me because he’s trying to talk me into becoming promised to him… but I’m hesitant to bind my life to his in that way because I’m unable to give him children, and because he’s unable to stay at my side for more than a few months in a row anyway. For now he’s convinced that all we’ll ever need is right here between us, but I know that will change, so I resist falling into his arms for his sake as much as I do for my own.’

I swallowed down a lump of guilt that had become lodged in my throat at the mention of her infertility. Not just because I knew it was my family’s fault, but because her infertility was what made her a perfect match for me and what had drawn me to her side. Had she been a regular girl, I wouldn’t have dreamed of bringing up the subject of sex with her or grabbing her the way I had, and would have initiated a courtship instead- one that could be expected to last for years without sex being raised as a topic of conversation at all.

It had always felt incredibly limiting to me from my end and for the noble girls that I was expected to court, but now I saw how limiting it was for the Companions too, and I hated my family just that little bit more for having made the rules that this girl was forced to live by. Why was Companionship a lifetime sentence? Shouldn’t they be released at a certain age, moved to Rachiel with the other singles and permitted to find love too? This girl had been born to be worshipped! ‘You can’t just sail off with him?’ I asked, for lack of anything else to say. ‘I’m sure he’d love that.’

‘No, I really can’t and he wouldn’t let me anyway. The life of a sailor is rough, and dirty and dangerous- that man won’t let me go out in the rain without an umbrella for fear that I’ll catch sick and die, so I don’t imagine he’d handle having me at his side during a squall well.’

‘Oh. No, I can’t imagine I’d be all right with that either. Then again, if you were mine… I can’t imagine that I’d be able to sail away from you either.’

Erika looked at me sideways. ‘Flatterer,’ and I shrugged. It wasn’t a line, but she wasn’t going to believe that. She sighed. ‘Maybe I will want to marry him one day because he’s certainly earned my devotion, but I cannot do it here or in his colony until rules in Calliel change, and the Companion caste is abolished, you know? So there’s nothing to do but wait- for him to retire, for my feelings to grow more certain, for laws to be amended...’ I must have looked confused, because she gestured to her brand with her folded fan. ‘Getting married while bearing this brand will mark me as an outlaw in my homeland and apparently in the eyes of God, and I won’t stand for that, especially not now that foreigners like yourself have started charging north, investigating us to make sure that we are not breaking your rules.’ She met my eyes and for a moment, it looked like they were as black as onyx. ‘I care for Cairo, but I won’t be branded a second time, certainly not for being an outlaw, and I won’t jeopardise my chances of getting into Heaven either. It doesn’t matter where I live or what rules I am governed by: this brand has marked me, and God sees everything, even if I can manage to hide it from other human spies.’ She sniffled. ‘I do not agree with the laws set by the Barachiel throne, but God wanted us to live by their judgement and trust in it and so, I must.’

I was moved by how devout she was, but still baffled by her relationship with Kingslater. ‘So he pays you for what? Your company?’

‘It’s all very complicated and I don’t feel much like discussing it in detail with you now, Kohén, but let’s just say that Cairo makes sure that I never want for anything and as a thank you, I don’t accept gifts, coin or advances from other men. He has not forbidden me from doing so because men are not allowed to order women around here, but he’s discouraged every man in Raphael from pursuing me and until I tell him that I’m in love with someone else, or declare that I am ready to resume working as a Companion, he will continue to guard me like I’m his own.’ She rubbed her arms, still gazing out at the dancers that were winding their ribbons around the pole, and my nose wrinkled up when I scented a strange smoke. I glanced to my right and saw that a bunch of people were passing around a cigarette, including Emm and Sam, and raised an eyebrow. Was there anyone in this kingdom that wasn’t high? Or that worried about their fertility?

‘I know he’s come off as bossy and hostile and controlling this day, but you have to understand that he’s never felt threatened by anyone else before because I’ve shown no interest in anyone else before, so he doesn’t know how to deal with his jealousy. I wish he didn’t know about the crush I developed on you all those years ago, but when I told him that, I never thought I’d see you again, you know? But here you are- more beautiful than before, swearing that you’re trying to atone for your sins and seemingly incapable of taking your eyes off me, so he’s worried that the torch I carried for you once will flare to life again… as am I.’ She looked down. ‘And I think it goes without saying that the last thing any man wants to do on his birthday is watch the woman that he loves swooning over another man.’

Excitement rippled through me. ‘Are you saying that I have rekindled your affections for me, Erika? Don’t give me a coy response, and don’t play games…’ my lips were tingling with the desire to press them to hers. ‘Be honest with me, and tell me… do you want me as much as your flirting suggests? Do I have a shot at breaking his hold on you?’

Erika looked up at me, and though her lip curved in a sad smile, she shook her head. ‘I want you more than my flirting suggests, Kohén, but I will not concede to do anything but dance and make conversation with you this night. If you lived here and were interested in romancing me the way he does it might be a different story… but I cannot dishonour Cairo or myself for a passing fling. I will make love with a man for free if I ever fall in love with one, or start taking money from them again if I decide that I can’t love anyone, but there can be no in-between.’

I groaned. ‘I’d love to move here and romance you the way that you deserve to be romanced...but I can’t.’ The lights inside dipped and the music slowed down, creating a romantic mood that made the moment feel even more bittersweet than it was. ‘Not only would that be a betrayal to the country that I am forced to show loyalty towards, but I’m indentured to the military until next July. To leave now would make me a deserter, but to leave at all, especially for a, um-’

‘Prostitute that can’t give you heirs? I know, Kohén, you don’t have to spell it out for me. The title of Companion is supposed to be one that is celebrated, but only so long as the Companion doesn’t try to be anything other than that, especially as far as Princes are concerned. It’s not news to me, remember? In fact, it was the very first thing we were ever taught...’ Erika’s lower lip trembled but she flicked her wrist and stood taller, fanning her face rapidly, and my heart caved in when I saw that her eyes were glistening with tears. ‘Oh well, I dreaded you bringing me out here alone in case you provoked me to cross some line, but I’m glad that we’ve had this conversation now while the night is still young, because it has only reaffirmed the fact that neither of us can afford to cross any lines, least of all, together. We’re at an impasse, but at least we’re both aware of it, so neither of us can be accused of misleading the other, can we?’

‘I’m glad that you feel better- I feel markedly worse.’ I frowned when I saw Emm looking my way while she exhaled a cloud of tinted smoke. The other people in their group had gone back inside, leaving just she and Sam behind in the furthest corner, and though they looked like they were having as intimate a discussion as Erika and I were, for a moment there in the flashing lights, it looked like her face had contorted into a hateful scowl that was directed my way. Spooked, but trying to convince myself that I’d imagined it, I looked back down at Erika. ‘Worse than I did after the whipping and the altercation with the wolf that attacked Miguel, even.’

She smiled a trembly smile at me and stepped closer, lowering her fan and stroking my nose, just beneath my mask, and even that feather-light touch made my body spark. ‘I have faith that we will meet again,’ her eyelashes fluttered, ‘and maybe you’ll actually remember me next time, hmm?’

‘Maybe?’ I demanded, pulling her against me and knocking her fan out of the way. ‘There’s no maybe, Erika- I’m absolutely enchanted by you, and if I can come this way next July, I intend to prove that.’

She rolled her eyes. ‘Oh who isn’t?’ Those beautiful eyes narrowed at me now. ‘Enchantment is a charade, just like this one, and I have no faith that it will last beyond the sunrise, let alone until next July. You like the way I’ve been trained to walk, to talk, to dress, to flirt…’ she walked her fingers up my chest and then tapped the end of my nose, and the amber ring on her finger caught my eye, momentarily distracting me. What was with this place and amber? Had they found nothing more valuable to mine? If I were Cairo Kingslater, I’d have her covered in every precious gem in the world in every pastel colour! ‘It’s the Companion in me that has you responding so passionately, Prince Kohén. You know that I was taught how to fuck, and so when you look at me, fucking me is all you could think about.’

Holy shit she was melting every muscle in my body but one. ‘No,’ I shook my head, ‘it’s more than that. There’s something in your eyes… more emotions than I’ve ever seen in a girl’s eyes before, and I’m hypnotised by trying to track them- to identify each.’ I rubbed the pad of my thumb under her eye. ‘It’s this tiny freckle here- so small, hidden by make-up, but I want to kiss it. It’s the way you try to hold in every laugh like you’re ashamed of your wicked sense of humour, so they sort of bubble out of you in a gasp that goes straight to my head.’ Erika sucked in a breath, but leaned more into me. ‘It’s the way you dance- every move you make is sexier than everyone else’s, sexier than every Companion or Artisan dancer I’ve ever seen move, and it’s so alluring because it’s clear that you’re honestly not trying to look sexy at all- your body just moves in a way others cannot.’ She whimpered and I inhaled the breath she’d let escape, feeling like I could taste her sweetness in the air. ‘And your back… has anyone ever told you how spectacular the muscles in your back are? You have wings without having wings and you don’t even need feathers to feel like an angel...because you’re skin is softer than any feather could ever dream to be.’ I ran my fingers up the delicate skin of her neck to the silken underside of her jaw. ‘The question is not, how could I have been moved to trap Larkin Whittaker so… it’s: how the fuck did I kiss you, and not have the sense to trap you after instead?’

‘Kohén, stop-‘

‘No. You made an accusation, and I am well within my right’s to defend myself.’ I leaned in and nuzzled the tip of my nose against hers. ‘Yes, I want to fuck you, very much. But I think I want to kiss you more- possibly even forever,’ I leaned in and placed a gentle kiss against her collarbone. ‘Starting here, and then…’ I didn’t kiss her chest, but my lips hovered over it, and her flesh lifted in goose pimples in response to my breath. ‘Well, I don’t think I’d run out of places to kiss this body, do you? And I’ll bet every one of them tastes as sweet as your breath does.’

‘Oh God…’ Erika closed her eyes and tilted her face up to the stars while she threaded the fingers of her free hand through my hair. ‘Prince Kohén, you’re making me so wet…’

I was done for after that. She hadn’t asked me to kiss her, but she’d made it clear that her body had consented so I straightened, leaned over her and then raked my mouth against hers, not tenderly at all. She gasped and her lips parted, and when I felt her tongue immediately sweep across mine, I groaned a guttural groan and almost buckled at the knees at the surge of ecstasy that flooded my being. It was more than anything in the world had ever been, and when she gasped and drove me back into the furthest shadows, tightening her grip on my hair, I got so excited that I felt my cock twitch and hum in a way it never had before and it was as alarming as it was intensely erotic.

‘Oh God…’ Erika pulled back and shook her head, eyes wide with awe. ‘I can’t believe it… I want you, Kohén. I want you inside me.’ She brushed her mouth against mine again and whimpered before reaching up to touch my lips. ‘How is that possible? Have I lost my fucking mind?’

I gulped down a breath and opened my mouth to assure her that she wasn’t the only one that was making a very bad decision that they couldn’t justify to themselves, but she mewled and leaned back into me then, stretching up on her tiptoes for another kiss. As she did, I heard something clatter to the ground, and then suddenly her other hand was not only empty, but tugging on my belt, drawing me further into the darkness and farther from sight of the rest of the world.

Oh shit! I thought, panting to understand that the rules were changing. Where’s this going? Do I need to stop it? Should I? Can I? But they were stupid questions to ask because it was pretty fucking clear that I was helpless to resist her, and when our lips met the second time I was so excited by the way her hand was still wrestling with my belt buckle that I actually gasped into her mouth and began to slide my tongue against hers, getting drunker and drunker with every taste of her. However, just as she slipped her fingers into my belt buckle and got the catch free, a commotion broke out somewhere nearby then suddenly, people were calling out ‘Happy Birthday!’ and blowing horns before the band broke into an upbeat rendition of the birthday song that I knew well.

My heart sank when the girl in my arms hissed and then grew rigid, yanking her hands away from my belt while all of the colour drained from her face and just like that, I knew that the most exciting moment of my life was already over.

‘I can’t do this…’ she sobbed, breaking past me, and although I was out of my head with every emotion there was, I did not miss the fact that the couple at the opposite end of the terrace hadn’t been interrupted by the birthday’s boy’s grand entrance at all. No they were in a clinch so passionate that I got the feeling that Emm’s lovely green dress was going to reduced to a sprinkling of scales in a matter of moments, and I was sick with envy and barely-repressed electrical rage. Not against Erika no, but against God. ‘And the fact that it feels so natural just goes to show how twisted I am, doesn’t it? This isn’t high- this is… this is senseless! Dangerous and… and evil.’

I had no idea what to say to that but as it turned out, I didn’t have to say anything because just like that, she flicked her fan open again and bolted back into the ballroom. I felt like I could barely walk, think or breathe, but I re-clasped my golden belt and tripped in after her, just in time to see Cairo stagger into the centre of the room and hold his hands out to her:

‘There’s my queen!’ he cried. ‘Are you coming to give your hero a birthday kiss, my darling one… or have you been off fulfilling your own destiny with little regard to how it will shatter my own?’

Erika sobbed but bent her head and moved faster through the crowd, which parted for her quietly- so quietly that all of us could hear her sobs. ‘Not now…’ she croaked, lifting her skirts and running faster. ‘Devil be with you if you put me through this now!’

‘The devil is-’

‘Cairo!’ King Raphael reached out for the microphone cord, yanked the thing from the drunken man’s hands and then cupped it so they could say whatever it was he had to say to the angry pirate without being overheard. The pirate’s face spasmed in anger and then hurt, but he nodded and sat down, burying his face in his hands.

‘I’m sorry,’ I heard him say as I hurried through the wake of open space that Erika had left behind her. ‘I just can’t go through this again…’

That made two of us. I did not miss the way people scowled at me as I took off after the crying Companion, but they did miss the way that I stopped in the open foyer and watched her run up the eastern flight of stairs. I needed to go that way too, but I couldn’t trust myself to be so near to her, so I swung to the right and took that flight instead, hoping that it would keep me away from her- hoping that this path would lead me away from temptation, seeing as how I clearly didn’t have the conviction to steer my own course away from it!

Damn it! Damn you! Damn everything! I cursed under my breath as I ran up the four flights of steps, and exhaled in relief when I saw that my corridor was empty. I knew it was wrong to come onto her, but I had come onto her anyway! There’s no excuses for that! I don’t know Cairo, but I’ve ruined his birthday. I don’t know Erika, but I’ve probably ruined a lot more than that for her, and for what? How am I going to be able to leave this kingdom with my head held high after proving- after only a few hours- that I am a predatory monster after all? I want to become the ‘new and improved’ Kóhen but how can I while my blood is screaming at me to give into the same lustful urges that drove the old one out of his mind? I can’t even plead ‘temptress’ this time, because Erika is as sweet and pure and innocent as Larkin Whittaker was manipulative! So the verdict is I, isn’t it? It’s all my fault!

I unlocked my bedroom door with sparking hands, wincing as the steel knob conducted my charge and caused it to bite me back. I left my lights off because there were too many mirrors in that room for my liking and charged over to the french doors, wrenching them open and striding out into the night again, which no longer felt humid and sweet, but cold and unfamiliar. I wrapped my blue, static hands around the railing of that half-moon balcony that matched every other empty, dark balcony like it on that floor and pressed my fingertips into it, growling in frustration. After all of that I was still hard, still aching- still a lump of worthless nothingness! I should have gone to check on Theodore, and I should have gone to the stage and apologised to Cairo- even to let him hit me if that would help- but I’d followed that girl to both of our detriments and I had nothing to show for it but a throbbing cock and an aching heart.

It hadn’t felt just like lust though, not the way I felt when I was stirred up and Saul-Yin took it upon herself to stir me up further. I’d looked into Erika’s eyes and had been soothed by the way she looked back at me; comforted, like I’d finally found my way home. Like that stream in the forest had led me not to this kingdom, but to this other half of myself. I didn’t just want to make her moan- I’d wanted to make her giggle and smile, and I’d wanted to chase that haunted look out of her eyes. I’d wanted to dance and rejoice after years of feeling like I wasn’t entitled to wanting anything at all, and even now, as humiliated and ashamed as I was… I wanted to know that she was going to be all right.

But I couldn’t check on her. I didn’t know where she was and even if I did, I didn’t trust myself to be alone with her again. Not because I was afraid I’d force myself on her, but because I was afraid that if I beheld her again and saw all that I could not have, I’d leap off the edge of this balcony and end it.

Feeling my chest constrict painfully, I sagged back against the wall and rubbed at my face, pushing away my threatening tears in agitation and thinking that what I needed right now wasn’t a girl to lose myself in, but a shoulder to cry on. A mother, a father, a big brother… a twin… someone that would accept me for who I was, or could at least admit that they’d gone through it too so I’d feel a little bit less, well, alone.

Am I alone? I looked up at the stars, wiping away another tear. Would this world be better off without me? Will I ever meet someone that needs me the way I need them, God? Or have you given up on me too? Do you exist AT ALL?

The door to the room next to me crashed open than and I flinched when a figure sheathed almost only in moonlight rushed out of her own room and collapsed over the balcony rail, sobbing.

‘Oh God… Oh God…’ the girl wept, and although I was electrified at the sight of her, I could barely process that it was her that I was looking at all, because that would have been miraculous, wouldn’t it? And guys like me didn’t get miracles, did they?

No! No that’s not her! That can’t be her room! I’m hallucinating, yeah?

‘What should I do?’ the girl lifted her perfect, tear-streaked profile to the heavens and implored the stars: ‘What should I do? I’m trying to live the life you allotted to me, God, but it’s so hard! I’m so lonely.’ Her voice was a whisper but I heard every word, her though I knew her limbs were golden, they were pearlescent in that moonlight, as was her wig, and her face. The night had drained her of her colouring as it had her surrounds, but her shape it could only illuminate, and I was so lost at the sight of her clad only in lingerie and her wig that I’d reduced to be a living being at all and was nought but a spectator.

‘So lonely…’ she tore off her mask and tossed it over the edge of the railing, but her garter was still in place, her feet were deliciously bare, and her brand was winking at me like it knew all of our secrets. ‘Too lonely…’ she whispered, straightening up and hugging herself, fingering the satin bows that were punctuating both of her hips and nestled between her breasts. ‘I can’t go on like this. I know that Cairo Kingslater is my champion…. but I cannot love him. Not so long as Kohén Barachiel lives… Oh God… Kohén…when he looks at me...’ She stumbled back away from the railing, sagged against the glass doors and slipped one of her hands into her panties, fondling herself. ‘When he looks at me, I cease to be…’

And on the other balcony across from her, I ceased to be anything but a mindless worshipper, not only of God, but of the goddess across from me.

44.

Château Aztaroth, Raphael

Kohén Barachiel

My jaw dropped so hard that I was sure that I had dislocated it, but Erika did not see me- did not look my way once, so overcome was she. Her eyes fluttered shut as her searching fingertips found their mark and she moaned, pressing her thighs together and sliding a little further down the wall. ‘Oh… oh…’ she bit her lip and arched her back and it was like someone had taken every thread of electricity in the world and had run it straight into my fucking heart before throwing a lever.

IS THIS REAL LIFE OR DID I INHALE TOO MUCH SECOND HAND CLAW SMOKE?

‘I shouldn’t have run from him… sex isn’t a sin!’ Erika panted as her other hand reached up and began to toy with one of her nipples through that stunning strapless bra and when it hardened, I realised that I couldn’t: I could not possibly get harder than I was right then and now that I was seeing this, there would be no coming back from it. I would be hard for the rest of my life, which wouldn’t be long because my heart was going to fail if she made one more goddamned erotic sound-

‘Oh… God please… tell me what to do…?’ she bit her lip and moaned, drawing her hand out of her panties and suckling on her fingertips, before starting the erotic slide of wet fingertips against hot flesh back down towards her pussy again, while I watched every movement as carefully as one reads the words in a line in a book. Her stomach was muscular and tight and though it was marked from where her corset had been laced up, I couldn’t see how the garment had altered her proportions at all, and was fascinated by the tiny dangling of diamonds that had been pierced through her navel. Her breasts were as full and heavy as I’d knew they’d be, and even though they’d been pulled together and held there with nothing more than a scrap of cotton and a satin bow, they sat high and proud, paying gravity no mind. Her legs were long and sculpted, but her ass was full and tight, and never in a million years had I seen hips that dipped at such sensual angles, which was exaggerated by the thick silken bows on either side of them. She was more than perfect- she was every kind of ultimate there was, and I knew just like that that Captain Kingslater was hands down a better man than me or very, very gay, because I was going to fuck her and conscience be damned so long as she consented.

‘Do I follow my heart and chase him down?’ the girl asked the stars. ‘Or follow my head-’

‘I’m fairly certain that God is telling us both that we needn’t be alone right now...’ I said in a voice that was husky with lust and emotion as I stepped out of the shadows and into the moonlight. I rested my hands wide against the railing that faced the curved edge of hers, not bothering to hide the way I was leering at her when I added: ‘But if you insist on going through your torment alone, will you at least allow me to watch in the certainty that doing so will ease my own?’

The Companion had gasped and flinched when I’d first spoken, but she’d turned her head to identify me across the two metre gap between our respective balconies, and when those eyes had widened further in recognition, I’d seen her beautiful body go limp just as her nipples had tightened beneath the thin cotton bandeau.

‘Kohén…’ she breathed, and my nerve endings began to spark all over. Surrender swept through her just as obviously as it had swept through me, but she’d been trained to handle such situations with poise so instead of losing her wits, she simply drew her hand back out of her panties and exhaled the words:

‘Touching myself isn’t easing anything, Guardian Barachiel- only making it worse.’ She wet her lips and slowly rolled over her shoulder to face me. ‘I know you don’t remember what it’s like to be with a woman, but if you’d like to try your hand at easing my torment, I’d be very grateful for your assistance.’

Shit I was going to turn the railing in my grip into plaster dust. ‘How grateful?’ I asked roughly and warily. Not that it mattered, I supposed. Even if she wouldn’t open her legs for my manhood, opening it for my fingers to explore would take care of me just fine- and the memories of it would continue to take care of me for the rest of my life.

‘I have no idea…’ Erika arched an eyebrow. ‘But if you give me a minute to unlock my bedroom door, I’m sure it’s a mystery that we’ll be able to solve together.’

‘You can take a minute to go barricade your bedroom door,’ I said, backing up and motioning her out of the way. ‘I can’t wait a full minute to-’

‘Kohén, oh my god, no!’ she cried, but I raced forward, pushed down off the bannister and then launched myself up and over it while Erika cried out in horror. I went sailing over the five-storey drop that had separated us, clearing her railing with a foot or two to spare and landed in a crouch, pivoting to grin wickedly at her and not even trying to hide how cool I knew I was after.

‘I love it when you gasp Oh God like that…’ I drawled, leaning back against the railing and grinning at her like I totally jumped from one building to another all the time. I didn’t, but I had started to jump a lot of late, since I’d made the initial leap from Arcadia’s boundary fence and into The Wildwoods over the river. It wasn’t something I’d started doing on purpose, but sub-consciously, and now part of me was always on the lookout for the next opportunity to make a leap of faith that would test my faith. It was a bit of a foolish habit to develop, especially for a leader because Paisley probably wouldn’t have fallen between those rocks if she hadn’t seen me go the fastest but most difficult way first, but it was thrilling and made me feel a little bit like I was flying. If I missed and fell flat on my face or died, the world would be all right without me in addition to having one less fool, but every time I made it, I knew I was landing as a stronger, more courageous person and I liked that. And who knew where it could lead? Saul-Yin had started matching some of my jumps so who knew what hurdles the rest of my division could learn to clear together if they became as determined to fly as I?

‘You scared the life out of me!’ Erika was pressing her hand to her lovely chest, and although mine was racing with an influx of adrenaline too, I knew it had less to do with the jump I’d just made, and more to do with the way her body was heaving as she struggled to breathe. ‘Do you have any idea what could have happened to you?’

‘Yes,’ I said, pushing off the balcony railing and stalking towards her, jerking her off her door and curving my arms around her like vines. ‘But I was more afraid of what might never happen for us if I didn’t bridge that gap and now that I have… tell me that it was worth the risk!’ I cupped her porcelain jaw in my hand and jerked her face up to mine, falling into her eyes as they widened and dilated. ‘Tell me that my prayers have been answered?’

The girl’s beautiful face contorted in agony. ‘Tell me that you’re going to kiss me again, and answer my own!’

I practically growled as my arms seized up around her, crushing my mouth to hers, her breasts to my chest, and my throbbing cock into the wondrous gap between her tight thighs. Erika sighed into my mouth as she slipped her hands up between us and dug her fingernails into the soft ribbed leather of my uniform, and she played as hard to get with her tongue as she had with my mind, sweeping it beneath mine, then up and around it, then retracting it before closing her teeth gently on my lower lip. I gasped in exquisite agony and frustration, but Erika swept the tip of her tongue over the stinging flesh, soothing it and killing me all at once. I growled again and cupped her face, pushing her back up against the wall and trying to make it clear that she wouldn’t be keeping any part of her immaculate being away from me, even if I had to force her jaws open, but Erika chuckled low in her chest and licked a sweet path between my lips, coaxing my tongue back into a false sense of security just as she lowered her hand, gently pinched the base of my outthrusted cock and ran the tips of two her fingernails up along the length of it.

It was the most delicate, most erotic tickling sensation I’d ever experienced and something about the way her fingertips glided up over me through the silk was so satiating that I shivered to the point of convulsing, then gasped for oxygen when she ran out of shaft to taunt and gently teased the tip of my cock instead. I’d just been about to tangle my tongue around hers but my cock throbbed and beaded with pre cum and the way I gasped gave her the opportunity she’d needed to evade my tongue once more.

‘You’re such a fucking tease…’ I groaned, pressing my hips into her hand and grinding against it. ‘Will you ever submit to my advances completely? Or am I to spend the rest of my life on the precipice of pleasure at your will?’

‘Submit to a man? Never again, your highness.’ She looked up at me, eyes gleaming. ‘But don’t worry… I get the feeling that getting you over the precipice of pleasure is imminent. In fact, you’re so responsive, I’m sure that my prediction that you would need less than two minutes in a Companion’s company is going to prove to be more or less accurate.’

I raised my eyebrows. ‘You dare insult the crowned prince of Arcadia? If we were on Callielian soil, I’d be well within my rights to spank you, you know.’

Erika stretched up and kissed the underside of my jaw, and my throat tightened. ‘You’re not the crowned prince of Arcadia… you’re the Guardian of a division of ex-cons, remember?’

‘I know,’ I ducked my head and whispered against her lips: ‘And that position commands even more respect. But if you don’t believe me…allow me to demonstrate.’ I slipped two of my fingers into her panties and almost detonated when I felt her smooth, hairless and warm secret flesh against my fingertips. It was hot, hotter than I’d ever thought a woman could feel, and it was so velvety soft that I felt like I’d just slipped my fingertips into the petals of a rose- one that shivered in efflorescence at my touch. I groaned, proving just how bloody responsive I was but luckily for me, Erika cried out so loudly that she covered the sounds of my own gratification with her sweet voice.

‘Oh! Oh God-’ But I silenced her by slanting my mouth against hers, twining my tongue around hers at long last and massaging it arrogantly as I eased one fingertip down over her nub, and then pressed it so that it curled gently inside her. She was so wet already that my eyes rolled back into my head and I wanted nothing more than to penetrate her more deeply, but that would be more likely to send me over that precipice that we were both teetering on and I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of being proven right, when I could give her a more poignant kind of satisfaction.

While still making love to her mouth with slow, firm strokes of my tongue against hers, I slipped my finger back out and then found her nub again, pressing into it gently and hoping like all hell that I was hitting the right spot because nothing about this was coming back to me or familiar in any way. I had instincts, and I’d heard stories and had even read a few of Malry’s dirty books, but I was very much a virgin and so when Erika shivered and clenched her thighs around my hand, I didn’t know what to think. Suddenly insecure I began to retract my hand from her panties, but she caught my wrist and growled into my mouth, holding me there, and it was with breathless excitement that I resumed kissing her ardently while toying with her bud, closing my eyes and trying to read her responses to me as I alternated between dipping my fingertip into her, and then sliding her own wetness around her tight, silken epicentre. Erika continued to kiss me back in a frenzied manner for about twenty seconds, but before I knew it she was releasing my hand, gripping onto my hair and gasping for breath as she held her forehead against mine.

‘Yes… yes… yes…oh, Kohén…’ she threw back her head and I watched her mask of control slip away and be replaced with one of ecstasy. ‘Oh, oh…I can’t take it!’

‘Guardian Barachiel!’ I reminded her, suckling on her lower lip and worrying if the friction of her husky cries against my senses was all that it was going to take to send me sailing over the precipice with her. I tugged on her little nub, elongating it, and she spasmed so fiercely that she bucked my hand free. Her eyes flew open and filled with desolation, but they dilated when I pushed my glistening finger between my lips and hummed in pleasure. ‘You’re about to come due to Guardian Barachiel’s attentions, my lady,’ I reached down between us again and pulled the front of her panties to the side, exposing her flesh to the night air and my greedy gaze, which I did not attempt to conceal as I knelt before her, ‘and I want to make you cum very, very hard, so indulge me with a little patience, all right?’ I grinned up at her as I leaned in and ran the tip of my nose between her folds, inhaling her heavenly, private scent deeply. ‘This is all still very new to me.’

‘It doesn’t seem that way-’ she began, but I heard the Companion’s breath catch when I pressed a soft kiss to her velveteen labia. ‘What are you…? You don’t have to-’

‘Oh, but I fucking want to. Everything in Raphael has tasted so exquisite, so it’s no wonder that I want a second helping of the desert that I just sampled, is it?’ I shook my head in admiration of how pretty and pink and smooth her pussy was, and then felt everything inside me swell when I saw the trail of moisture that were glistening on the inside of her right thigh, leading almost all the way to her garter. I’d done that to her, me! Moaning as she did, I leaned over and delicately licked at her secretions, feeling her thighs tighten under my hands as my tongue lazily slipped up the inside of her thigh until there was nowhere left to go but inside her. Erika made a hissing sound as my tongue lapped at her folds, parting them before I groaned and leaned into her, penetrating her and almost blowing my load when she whimpered and raked her fingers through my hair.

‘Ohh…. please… it’s too much…!’ her hips bucked though and so I reached around behind her and dug my fingertips into her smooth rump, squeezing the flesh in my hands as I fluttered my tongue against her. First her delicious slit and then, her pulsing clit. She writhed and I buzzed from head to toe, increasing my oral assault until my tongue was aching and coated in her, and when she started actually crying out my name over and over again I looked up and saw that she was as lost to herself as I was in her.

‘It’s too much!’ She covered her face with her hands and gasped while I began to flick the tip of my tongue against her clit in an ardent manner before I ducked to lap up her body’s response to me, determined to catch every drop of her sweet arousal with my ravenous mouth. She tasted like secrets, sin and surrender, and when her hips began to jerk to and fro, I hitched one of her knees over my shoulder and then moved in for the kill, clamping my lips around her little bud and sucking it desperately while I pistoned just my pinkie finger in and out of her frantically. I felt her convulse as my dick cocked like a shotgun, but I pushed her over the edge first and held her in place while she danced for me again, feeling so radiant with triumph and delight that I knew I’d never been closer to god than I was in that moment, when she held onto my hair and climaxed hard against my tongue. Her tight centre cramped around me and I gasped when she threw back her head and half-sobbed, half-screamed, and then went slack, beginning to slide down the wall behind her.

‘Oh… your highness…’ she released my hands and pressed her hands to her face again. ‘My heart!’ She wasn’t the only one. Vibrating with anticipation, I ducked out from under her thigh and then rose quickly, scooping her up in my arms. She was gasping, and her eyelids were shut, but before I could begin to fret that I’d done such a good job that I was going to end up going back to my room alone while she slept it and all she’d had to smoke and drink off, she moaned and opened her eyes, blinking slowly and heavily at me before she sat up a little and slung her arms around my neck. ‘You are so fucking beautiful…’ she whispered, literally taking the words out of my mouth and robbing me of my breath when she traced my brow with her fingertip, before running her finger back down my nose. That wasn’t the first time she’d demonstrated an appreciation of my nose, and I sent a silent, heartfelt message of thanks to the healer that had fixed me up after it had been broken. I’d not gone in there looking for cosmetic surgery- just the ability to breathe again- but Heath had clucked his tongue and murmured something about the destruction of perfect symmetry being a crime against art, and had sent me out looking almost like my old self again. Almost, but not quite because apparently, the bridge of my nose was now a little bit more delicate than my old one had been. I didn’t care, and had even taken some comfort from the fact that I was no longer identical to Kohl. Unfortunately though, the change was too subtle for anyone to have noticed but me so I was alone in my relief.

‘Thank you for saying so,’ I said softly, feeling some of my blood begin to pump its way back up to my heart again now that she was looking at me like she was as mesmerised by me as I was by her. ‘But there’s not an adjective that will express how extraordinarily beautiful I think you are.’

‘None that don’t sound ridiculous anyway, I know- I’ve checked the thesaurus for similes to extra beautiful and have come up splendiferously unmoved,’ Erika smiled while I chuckled, touching the end of my nose. ‘This is new though… I like it.’

My eyes widened. ‘You can tell?’ I was blown away. ‘That’s surreal! My own twin can’t even see it!’ I frowned at her, wondering if I should be concerned that this strange girl had somehow managed to retain a perfect memory of my face after meeting me once in a decade. And since when did Companions spend their free time perusing thesauruses? There was so much about her that I didn’t know, and that pained me because I wanted to know everything! ‘How long ago did we cross paths again?’

‘Too long ago.’ Erika tilted her face back into mine and kissed me gently. ‘And we don’t know how long we have together now Guardian Barachiel, so please… can you take me inside?’

I gulped. ‘Inside your room?

‘Well if what you just did to me is anything to go by, we’re about to make a lot of noise together, and noise travels in the night, doesn’t it?’ she nuzzled her nose against mine. ‘You can fuck me out here if you’d like, but I think our chances of being heard and interrupted will decrease if we take this into my chamber, don’t you? Besides, there’s a lovely fire in there…’

Sweet Jesus… have I died and gone to heaven this day?

I could barely hear her over the blood rushing through my ears. I knew she’d intended to repay the favour I’d just done her, but I hadn’t dared hope that she’d already decided to let me penetrate her! Stunned but excited anew, I moved through her doorway, watching her fingers reach out to stoke the drapes out of our way while wondering how high she still was.

‘Moonlight, firelight… I don’t care where I have you, my lady but I must first ask: are you consenting to this in sound mind?’ I carried her over to her bed and gently deposited her on the edge of it, noting that the room was as plain and impersonal as my own- and practically identical. ‘Before you made it sound like you weren’t sure, and I don’t think I can express how mortified I’d be tomorrow if you wake up feeling like I took advantage of you.’

‘I think we both know that I was lying, to you and myself, when I said I didn’t know if I’d be able to do this...’ Erika folded her legs under her and reached out, pulling me closer by the hem of my shirt. ‘But I can’t deny it anymore: my whole life has been building up to this moment, Kohén. Everything I’ve done, every move I’ve made… it’s been orchestrated to get me here, in this place, in this state of mind- by a higher power.’

Oh God I felt the same way, and it blew my mind to know that she was there with me. ‘You think so too?’ I breathed, and she nodded.

‘I don’t understand why…but I don’t think it’s going to matter once you’re inside me, do you?’ she began to reel me in by my shirt, tilting her face up to mine and beginning to close her eyes dreamily. ‘All that will be left of either of us, is pleasure...’

It was hitting me hard now: this was happening. I’d been led into a Companion’s chamber by my desires and even though it was a dream come true, the flickering of the fire across from us was reminding me of the last time I’d almost made love to a girl that I could not let go, and of how it had ruined my life. My Nephilim urges needed sating and there was no denying that, but what would become of me if I lost myself in this girl? Would the last two years and the character that they had re-instated inside me disintegrate? By doing this, was I acknowledging my throne’s claim that a Barachiel man could not possibly abstain for the greater good and thereby, required a crop of girls to be gifted to them like flowers in a bouquet? Flowers that might came to wilt?

‘Fuck…’ I was practically hyperventilating when I leaned down and kissed her, then stroked her cheek. ‘Fuck… this is so dangerous. I’ve never been so aroused- and so apprehensive- in my whole life.’

‘You’re afraid that you’re going to hurt me?’ she whispered. ‘That you’ll be lost to the lust again?’ I nodded and she bit her lip, nodding. ‘So am I,’ and my gut clenched like I’d been socked. But then she smiled a secret smile that was every bit as mysterious as the rest of her, and brought my face down to hers by wrapping her hand around the back of my neck while caressing me intimately with the other, making me thicken and harden that little bit more. Her breath was shallow and uneven too, but she locked her sapphire eyes on mine and whispered: ‘But it’s all right, Kohén… maybe Larkin Whittaker didn’t have what it took to keep you in line… but I do.’ Her eyes flashed as she roughly dragged her mouth against mine while squeezing me firmly through my pants. ‘If I say stop, and you don’t-’ she flicked her tongue against my parted lips, ‘-it’s going to be the last fucking thing that you ever hear, got it?’ A chill ran through me, but then she kissed me before I could even finish nodding and suddenly, the heat was back, and so were her hands- sliding in under my shirt and caressing my clenched lower abdominal muscles adoringly. ‘Good…’ she moaned and bent down, kissing just above the waistband of my pants and my stomach pulled in in response to the ticklish pleasure that her lips invoked. ‘Then take your clothes off…you’ve tasted me, now it’s my turn to run my lips over every hidden inch of you.’

My cock twitched, but my inhibitions returned. ‘Can I ask how you feel about scars first?’ she looked up at me, blinking. ‘I’m enjoying the way you’re been looking at me all night- to see disappointment in your eyes when I undress would be devastating for me.’

Erika blinked again. ‘Why? What kind of scars could a Nephilim who has near constant access to a healer have?’

‘Only the one I chose to keep- after the ordeal with…’ I couldn’t bring myself to say her name during such a vulnerable moment so I diverted her attention from my sudden handicap by reefing my shirt over my head and then peeling it off my arms. Erika’s eyes searched the flesh I’d already revealed with the kind of lustful gaze that made me feel like I had gotten taller, but when I discarded the shirt and gestured to my chest, she paled. ‘It’s my brand; my reminder that I was the most destructive force to ever live within Eden’s walls.’ I stepped forward so that the slash of moonlight streaking across the room would illuminate the brand, which was less noticeable now that I’d spent years doing manual labour and combat training. Once it had been very obvious to me- red and slightly puckered and exposed on my less developed adolescent chest, but now that my pectorals were so prominent, the scar had sort of slipped over the inner edge of my left one and into the groove of shadow that it shared with the right. ‘It’s unsightly, I know, but it’s a part of me.’

‘Oh fuck…’ Erika sat up, slipped her hands around my ribs and peered at my chest in disbelief, and though I felt more self-conscious than I ever had before, I swallowed hard and closed my eyes, opting to concentrate on her touch and not her obvious horror. ‘You kept this on purpose? Why? I’d do anything to have my own brand removed!’’

I nodded. ‘I’d do anything to have never received it in the first place… but I earned it, and though I don’t remember how, I do know why and it’s not a fact about myself that I should be allowed to forget.’ Erika looked up at me with glassy eyes, and I stroked her cheek, moved that she looked so concerned for me. Not revolted- perplexed. ‘My mother branded me while calling me a whore, Erika, and it’s one of the few sordid details of that night that is not public knowledge. She did it to save Larkin, but even that didn’t stop me- I branded that poor girl anyway.’ I swallowed hard as a tear slipped out of the corner of her eyes and streaked her make-up. ‘After everyone else that could be saved from that disaster had been saved, I was healed too, but I hid this wound from the people tending to me. Not only to remember how foolishly I acted and how many people I had let down…’ my throat was getting tighter, and the horrified expression on Erika’s face was doing nothing to ease my insecurities. ‘But for Larkin. I don’t know where she is or who she is now- or what she thinks of me- but if she must bear the mark of my stupid fixation with her for life, then it’s only fair that I should bear one too, isn’t it?’

‘You don’t hate her…’ Erika said softly and though it was not a question, I shook my head.

‘How could I? I don’t remember her at all, but I know myself now or at least I’m beginning to, and I know that for me to have acted that way, I couldn’t have just been afraid of losing a Companion- but my world.’

Another tear slipped down Erika’s cheek. ‘You speak like a man that’s still in love.’

I pressed my lips together, feeling myself prickle all over with emotion, especially behind my eyes. ‘I cannot feel love for someone that I do not know and cannot recollect with my damaged soul, but my body, my heart, my soul… they feel the absence of her every second of every day. If all of that black nothingness inside me is the negative space where she once resided, then it could be said that she is more my other half- my soul mate- than my twin is.’

To my horror, Erika sobbed, dropped her face into her hands, and then began to weep, and panic flared through me as I realised that in being completely honest with the sweet Companion that had moved me to the point of absolute honesty, I had just made her feel inadequate in comparison to the girl that I could not even remember.

‘Oh sweet girl, please don’t cry! I am only telling you this- only exposing myself like this- because I want you to know me.’ I knelt by the foot of the bed and pried her hands away from her eyes. ‘I’ve never told anyone this before, but I’m telling you now because… because there’s been less nothingness to me today. Food tastes sweeter, the sound of laughter has rung clearer- the entire world has been bathed in shades of grey for me for two long, lonely years, but then I saw you, and it’s like everything exploded with light, and sound and joy.’ My heart was racing and I unzipped my pocket as I kissed her wet lips chastely, then drew my coin pouch from my pants and rested it gently on her lap. ‘They say that money cannot buy happiness and I know that’s true- but if it can buy your time, then it will be the first sliver of happiness that I have managed to secure for myself since the night that she left me. Not because you’re a Companion, but because you’re you.’

Erika opened her hands, looked down at the purse and sobbed again, looking up at me. ‘I can’t take this,’ she picked up the purse, flung it across the room and then rose up, cupping my face and leaning her forehead against mine, inhaling deeply. ‘You have paid for my submission with your soul, Prince Kohén, so kiss me, take me, and make love to me- and know that the world will be exploding with colour for the both of us as you do.’

And then she was kissing me again, and my panic dissolved and was replaced with concentrated passion once more.

45.

Château Aztaroth, Raphael

Kohén Barachiel

Erika crushed my lips under hers and I groaned in satiation as I felt her skin press against mine. One of her hot little hands reached down and palmed my brand and I gasped as feelings of acceptance and forgiveness washed over me along with passion. I broke off the kiss and pushed her back gently onto the bed, moving to unclasp my belt for her so it wouldn’t present itself as an obstacle again. She lifted up on her elbows and watched me in fascination, making me feel like a man three times larger than Cairo in stature when she gasped at the sight of my manhood springing free.

‘Oh devil take me…’ she scurried back up the mattress so that her wig could rest against the excessive pillows and then reached down between her legs and caressed herself. ‘You’re so perfect. Every inch.’

‘I’d say the same for you…’ I stepped out of my pants and rested one knee on the edge of the bed, stroking myself indulgently while I eyed her. ‘But I’m the only one that’s completely naked, so to be sure that you are as flawless as I suspect you are, I think I’m going to have to undo the ribbons on my voluptuous little present.’ I got my other knee onto the bed and crawled over her, catching her garter and tugging on it. ‘Except for this. This can stay. It’ll give me something to hold onto.’

‘What about these?’ Erika’s fingers reached between her breasts and tugged on the bow that was nestled there, and I actually felt myself bead and then drip onto her inner thigh when her bandeau fell away to reveal the most glorious set of breasts that had ever been created to my astonished gaze. ‘You can hold onto them, if you’d like?’ she caressed her breasts for me in demonstration, and I watched in delight as her pink nipples stiffened in coy, silent response to the heat of my gaze. ‘And you don’t have to worry about hurting them, your highness. My prince was fascinated by them and played with them constantly, so they respond very well to a heavy hand.’

I growled, crawling up over her and dragging the tip of my cock along her inner thigh as I reached out and palmed her right breast, kneading it firmly. ‘Don’t talk about what other men have done to you right now, Erika. I’m possessive, remember? I’m trying to keep my urges under control, and if you taunt me by pointing out that other men have pleasured you before, I won’t leave you or this chamber alone until every single person in this kingdom has heard you screaming my name,’ I tugged on one of the bows at her hip, loosing it, ‘and thus understands that no man can do to you, what I can.’

Erika chuckled. ‘I see that someone’s confidence has returned?’

‘It’s a work in progress,’ I unlaced the other bow, and then kissed her hipbone. ‘And you’re giving me a lot to work with.’ I pulled back, surveying her, and then gently peeled the fabric between her legs back, moaning when I saw her velveteen mound again, and her glistening pink slit, which I stroked gently before rubbing her emollient slickness into the head of my cock for good measure. ‘Too much, some might say…’ I allowed my gaze to roam over her perfect, tight but womanly body and then lifted my eyes to hers, heart skipping a beat to see the vulnerability in their sparkling depths, the pink flush staining her cheeks beneath the make up, the shadowy fluttering of her eyelashes, and the sight of her biting her generous, pillowy lips with her perfect white teeth. I looked back down at her breasts, which were a little bit paler than the rest of her golden figure, and then reached out to stroke her stomach, noting that the marks from her corset had already faded, leaving her unblemished from head to toe. An actual sweat broke out on my brow as I wondered how I was going to do be able to go any kind of distance with someone so divine, while my cock began to pulse like I already was. ‘Jesus… do you know how beautiful you are?’ I looked at her again, wondering if her hair was as perfect as the rest of her, though I liked the wig and the way it drew out her blush. ‘Do you have even the slightest comprehension?’

Erika toyed with her belly button ring. ‘Yes,’ she said softly, then beckoned to me with a curled finger. ‘Like with your confidence, it has been a work in progress, and for the longest time, I resented the way my looks entered the room before I did… but I’ve stopped worrying about men that assess me and decide that I was built for the sole purpose of being conquered by their cocks, and have started enjoying the conquering that I can do, while they’re too busy ogling my breasts to notice how they’ve been overcome.’

I chuckled, straddling her knee and drawing up over her. ‘Vixen. Should I assume that I’m being conquered thus? That every time you touch me, it’s a slight of hand that’s distracting me from the fact that someone else is stealing my coin purse and golden belt?’

Erika nodded with chatoyant eyes. ‘Oh, absolutely, your highness…’ she purred as she reached down between us and stroked my erection with hot finger tips, forcing every muscle in my body to seize up. ‘While you’re cumming inside me, I’ll be dismantling your kingdom, brick by brick, and you won’t know it until it’s too late.’

‘Shit…’ I leaned down and kissed her breasts, taking her nipple into my mouth and stiffening at her reflexive moan. ‘How cruel, and twisted you’ve proven to be...’ I feathered my tongue over her nipple and looked up at her face as she looked to the ceiling and gasped, closing her hand around my cock and making me shudder when she began to pump me gently. I’d never had another woman do that before, not unless you counted Amelia-Rose and I did not, so I made a keening sound as the delicious friction brought me right to the edge of that precipice again and only just managed to gasp out: ‘Oh well I’ve got nothing left to lose in that kingdom, so dismantle it, my darling...’ I got a hold of myself and then steered it up between her thighs, almost blacking out when the head of my cock nudged open her hot, wet slit. ‘While I invade yours.’

And then I rocked forward and as I’d predicted, prayed and hope, Erika’s legs closed around me and then, she was screaming my name.

‘Fuck!’ the curse broke free of me as I sank into Erika’s tight, humid sex and felt it part to welcome me. I’d only meant to penetrate her shallowly, but she was slick and I too senseless and inexperienced to have any clue about how this worked, so my sharp entry became a complete impalement. The girl beneath me screamed out a second time and I shuddered with fear even while my cock convulsed inside her, drawing back and trying to make my lips form the least heartfelt apology they’d ever made while I strained to draw a breath and keep myself from exploding. But she arched her back and closed her legs around my ass, drawing me back against her, and when I fell into her, my cock thrust forward harder and more deeply, so deep that it hit something on the other side. She flinched and I started to worry that I was the clumsiest lover in the world, but she squeezed her legs around me again while her head twisted from side to side. ‘Again!’ she cried. ‘More! Harder! Deeper!’

But she didn’t have to worry about giving such instructions- I did not know what to do but my body sure as hell knew what it wanted to do and so I withdrew on instinct, grasped the bedhead above the pillows and then thrust into her again with more intent and precision, backing off before I could hit her limit and curling my toes when she arched her back again and then flicked up her hips, meeting my thrust with a counter-thrust that rocked me. Shit, not only did she look like a fantasy, but she knew what she was doing, and I began to sweat with the effort it was taking to resist climaxing. Her taunt about me taking less than two minutes danced through my head as I thrust into her again, and even though I knew that she was probably right, I’d be damned if it wasn’t going to be the best two minutes of her life too so I suckled on two of the fingertips of my free hand and then reached down to fondle her clit again a I withdrew a little, tweaking it gently and grinning when her hips jerked up to meet my touch wantonly.

‘Oh… Kohén…’ she breathed, opening her eyes and gazing up at me in a star struck way as my cock thrust forward and parted her silken folds once more. ‘How do you always just know?’

I had a theory, but I could scarcely breath let alone talk, so I plumped her again, then stretched down to suck on her right nipple. Once I’d found my balance point and was certain that I was pleasuring her three ways at once, I rocked into her that little bit more, lifting her ass off the bed as I strained to kiss her and muffle her cries, because although every sound she was making was music to my ears, Kingslater jealously banging down the door would not be. However, when her thighs lifted and parted, allowing my hips to rest against them, I found a new depth to sink to inside her and moaned in dismay as ecstasy coursed through me and threatened to spill out of the tip of my cock. She was furnace-hot and fucking me just as surely as I was fucking her, and when her tongue began to dance with my own and her moans began to resonate inside my mouth, I tore my face from hers and plunged it into the valley between her breasts instead, giving up on the concept of pleasuring her with my hands now that I had found a new, erotic territory to chart. She whimpered when I crushed her breast in my palm and then began to fuck her more rapidly, using the bedhead for leverage and support, and then gasped when I squeezed her nipple between two of my closed fingers and then tugged on it frantically, elongating it, exploring her and her limits. My cock sparked when I felt a fluttering spasm around my shaft, and when she practically screamed in response to my charge and tore at the bedspread beneath her in a frenzy, I recoiled, out of my head with fear, especially when I saw the sparks shimmering around my hands and crackling off the tender flesh of her sumptuous but vulnerable breast.

Oh no! Anything but that!

‘I’m sorry!’ I was overwrought. I’d hurt her! All I’d wanted to do was pleasure her, but I’d let my power slip out of my control and now she was-

‘No, don’t stop Kohén!’ the girl’s eyes flew open and I almost gasped when I saw them flash the brightest shade of lilac in the dim light because only Nephilim’s could change their eye colour like that, but her pupils dilated then, flooding her eyes with sapphire again, and when she clawed at the sheets a second time I realised her eyes hadn’t changed colour at all- they were simply reflecting the purple bedspread and the canopy above us. I’d been so lost in her that I hadn’t even noticed what colours the room had been decorated in until now, and when she writhed beneath me, begging me to stop torturing her, I forgot again.

‘You liked that?’ I whispered, thrilled beyond measure when she whimpered and nodded, writhing a little more. I shoved myself back inside her, hitting her limit on purpose and shuddering as I was rewarded with ecstasy that resonated through my shaft like fireworks. ‘You want more of it?’

‘Yes!’

I withdrew and pumped into her again, striking hard and deep and clamping my hand over her mouth when she opened it to scream. ‘Yeah?’ I rocked into her again and let my power course through me and into the very centre of her. She keened and nodded, wide-eyed and flushed. ‘How much can you handle?’ my ass flexed as I gave her another dose of my gentle electric charge, and then another, then another, and now she was the one whose eyes were rolling into the back of her head and I was most certainly the one doing the conquering because by relinquishing my power, I’d managed to regain control of some of my more human reflexes and now, I was fairly certain that I’d be able to fuck her into the next century without climaxing, and that that might feel even better than emptying myself into her would. ‘Good…’ I said softly, sliding my hand from my mouth and down to her sex so that I could resume kissing and fondling her again. ‘Because I’ve got a hell of a lot more power where that came from.’

Erika’s sex began to pulse around my shaft again, and because I didn’t want to wear her out before I’d had her every way that a man could have a woman, I curtailed my energy once more and started fucking her more rhythmically, grunting every time her heat made me sweat inside her and exploring her mouth so thoroughly with my tongue that my jaw began to ache and my lips began to feel raw and bruised. I supposed it was always overwhelming for men to know that a woman was completely and utterly submitting to them, and by that logic I would have enjoyed what we were doing and how she was folding with anyone... but she was so beautiful and wild and unattainable that her submission to me made me feel more than overcome, and more like a God.

I could see how I’d lost control in my past life; could understand how I’d gotten addicted to this sort of complete possession of another being, but what I couldn’t for the life of me understand, was how I’d been able to touch Larkin Whittaker without her consent. The most erotic thing about being with Erika was how desperately she wanted me- how tall and powerful and needed I felt in her arms, so what was sex without it? How was it more than servicing oneself with a hand? It was her consent that started to unravel me again- the way she panted and reached for me and caressed my skin and whispered my name like a plea that inspired me to fuck her harder and deeper and more absolutely. It was that joy when she threw back her head and shouted while her sex spasmed around me that made me feel like a man, and it was only when she strained up to kiss me and whisper that she remembered why she’d fallen in love with me in the first place that my decision was made. I gave up trying to pleasure her, and allowed myself to believe that maybe I deserved to know pleasure and happiness as well.

Maybe my kingdom didn’t think I was a man of worth, but this angel did, and now that I’d found her- I was never going to leave her side.

‘God… Erika… my love…’ I shivered and hummed as my cock jerked and then spilled into her, and I heard my companion hiss in victory as she crossed her ankles under my rump and held me tightly in place, forcing me to remain completely imbedded inside her as spurt after spurt of my hot seed flooded her barren body. I jerked and cursed and saw the light for what seemed like forever, and though I tried to keep my mouth on hers, I felt my very essence fading as my seed pooled inside her, taking my strength with it. My trembling limbs gave out and I collapsed on her, gasping and wondering how I’d gone an hour without this sort of pleasure let alone a day, and though it felt like I could lose consciousness right there and then, Erika began stroking my back then, re-wrapping her legs higher around my hips and holding me tightly.

‘Was it all you thought it would be?’ she asked softly, and I groaned and shook my head, resting my head against her pillowy breasts and exhaling cathartically. She was breathing so heavily that my head was rising and falling with the rapid contractions of her lungs.

‘It was more, my love.’ I reached up and stroked her brand, wondering how many healers it would take to remove it from her skin now that it had had so long to set. ‘What about you? Did I perform well enough to inspire you to let me inside you again?’

She closed her eyes and chuckled. ‘Greedy, aren’t we? So like a prince...’

‘No, you’re just that enchanting,’ I touched my fingers to her lips, ‘so like a princess, one that ought to be worshipped like a queen.’

‘Hmm…’ Erika closed her eyes and sighed long and softly. ‘I think I just was.’

Grinning, I pushed up so that I was supporting my weight again and loomed over her, feeling drunker than I had before. ‘I mean it though…’ I rocked into her gently, and our silken juices felt like warm milk that was swishing around my softened shaft. ‘I’ve climaxed and it was heavenly, but I am nowhere near to feeling sated. I’m unclear on the code of conduct here so please, enlighten me: when is it all right for me to instigate that again? Do you need a cooling off period?’ I strained into her a little more, seeing her eyes flutter. ‘Are we supposed to shower? I don’t suppose this…’ I slid in and out of her a little, luxuriating in the consequences of our passion, ‘feels anywhere near as satisfying for you as it does for me, does it?’

‘Actually it feels warm and comforting- at least until you make a sudden movement and then it’s going to get messy, I’m afraid.’ she opened her eyes and smiled. ‘Why do you think I’m holding you inside me?’

‘Ah. Well… it appears that we’ve reached another impasse…’ I leaned down and let the tip of my nose drift across her breasts, and my cock thickened inside her. ‘I don’t want to move and risk making a mess, but if I stay where I am, I’m going to start making love to you again soon and that’s going to make an even bigger mess.’

‘That is a conundrum…’ Erika bit her lip, squeezed her legs around me like a vice and then lifted her ass off the mattress, supporting her weight on her elbows so that she could start to slide up and down the length of me again. Her eyes sparkled with mischief as she worked me. ‘Whatever are we going to do?’

I sat back into a crouch but grasped her hips and back and flipped her upright, caressing her beautiful back and moving in for a kiss. But I’d jerked her too hard and she cried out, catching her wig but not before it had already toppled off her head. The front sections of her hair had been pinned up in little circular curls that kept them flat against her head, but the rest of her hair had apparently just been tucked up in a flat bun, and my heart shimmered when I realised that I’d been right in my instincts- she was a blonde, and twice as stunning out of her wig as she had been within it.

‘Oh!’ Erika’s eyes widened in alarm as her hand went to her hair and for the briefest moment, she looked absolutely terrified of me. But I reached up, pulled on the large pin that I could see at the crown of her head and gasped as glorious golden locks, in every hue of blonde from ice, to champagne to sunshine tumbled down around her shoulders and then swished against my other hand, which was cupping her rump. Like everything else in this palace they carried the scent of orange blossom, but there was jasmine in there as well and most importantly, that sacred perfume that was all her. The front of her hair had gotten a bit messy and sweaty but I used my fingers to flick a few of the curls free that were almost falling out anyway, leaving a few pinned curls in place, which she wore like a crown.

‘Sweet Jesus….’ I wrapped some of her hair around my wrist and then dragged it over her shoulder, inhaling it so deeply that by the time I’d filled my lungs, my cock was harder than it had ever been before and she was wriggling on it, gasping as she tried to adjust. And as though I weren't already fully ensconced in a spectacular fantasy, fireworks began to explode then outside the french doors over the palace grounds, and although I knew they weren’t for me, it felt almost like they’d been set off for us. I opened my eyes, saw the shimmering stars exploding outside, then slid my gaze to hers, and I knew that my eyes were glowing more than they ever had before because everything was tinted blue, and hers were wide with disbelief. ‘You’re an angel.’

And then I thrust up into her, and I didn’t stop until long after the music did.

*

I had Erika every way that I could conceive of taking her until I couldn’t tell which way was up or even what part of her suite we were in anymore. At one point the sheets grew so wet and sticky that she ended up insisting that we remake the bed, but the sight of her bent over like that made me drop all gentlemanly pretences, and as a result, she ended up on all fours on the rug by the fire, climaxing so violently around me that I was sure her hot little centre was going to cut off all circulation to my shaft. But she got her own back when we went to shower because after she had lathered up, rinsed off and then sucked off my spoiled member, I ended up collapsing on the tiled floor on my knees, begging for mercy. As though she were granting it, she’d mounted me and had finished me off by wildly rocking her hips while hot water had cascaded down around us.

Every second of that night eclipsed the last as being the best moment of my life, but the most satisfying bout of lovemaking was the last, when I spooned her and took her from behind again, gently and slowly because both of us were too exhausted to move much at all. I don’t think I orgasmed that time because the sheets were warm and dry around us when I woke up, but such a technicality had ceased to matter by then. Getting off with her wasn’t what the ultimate goal anymore- spending my life with her was.

It was grey when I came to, feeling dry in the mouth and wobbly in my limbs, but all was quiet and peaceful around us and I knew that even though it wasn’t yet sunrise, the party was over and my new life had begun. Erika’s back was still to me, bare and sensuous, so I lazily began to write my name on her flesh, smiling when her skin erupted in gooseflesh, and her back arched in pleasure.

‘Hmmm…’ she reached behind me, her fingers seeking something to tickle in return, but I chuckled and pressed myself into her rump, barring her access. Yes I was hard again and eager to finish what we’d started before, but I couldn’t stay in bed now, not without feeling like a heel.

‘Stay asleep…’ I whispered to her, kissing her earlobe. ‘You deserve it, and I think I should leave anyway. I don’t know if anyone heard us up here tonight but if they didn’t, there’s a chance that you could still keep your chaste and untouchable reputation intact.’

Erika rolled over in my arms, knitting her brows. ‘You can’t honestly believe that no one heard us?’

‘Well, no… but they don’t have to know who it was making all that noise, right? Not if I’m not seen leaving via your door. This is the guest wing after all and I know we weren’t the only ones making use of such an anonymous facility in the spirit of the masquerade and Cairo was so drunk when we saw him last that he probably thought there were three of you running about after.’

Erika shrugged and yawned, covering her mouth in a ladylike way. ‘So you’re leaving me for the sake of my reputation, and not your own?’

‘Hey if I could walk out with you on my arm I would do so and with great pride, my lady, but I’m not the one that’s got a jealous would-be lover nursing a hangover and a wounded pride.’ I sat up, pushing her hair out of her eyes. ‘Besides, I need to go check on my injured soldiers, especially Theodore. There’s a chance that he woke up in the middle of the night and he’s very protective of me- he’ll be worried sick if he talks to anyone else and finds out not only did I piss off the gigantic birthday boy, but that I’m nowhere to be found.’ Erika nodded, smiling tightly, and I could see the worry over Cairo’s mental health in her eyes, and I hated the fact that she was assuming that I was leaving her to deal with him alone. ‘Besides,’ I leaned down and kissed her shoulder. ‘I have some travel arrangements to make as soon as possible if I am to leave today.’

Erika’s eyebrows lifted. ‘What do you mean, leave today?’ she lifted herself up on one elbow and clutched my shoulder. ‘Kohén, I know you’re eager to brag that you were sent off to die but discovered a paradise, but you’ll be too exhausted to start making your way back to Arcadia today, and your soldiers will either be too hungover, or completely incapable of it!’

‘I know. That’s why I’m going alone.’ I rolled out of bed and grinned when I saw her eyes bugging. ‘Don’t worry, my darling, I’ll be safe. I’m not exhausted, I’m invigorated! And there isn’t a bear or a wolf in this world that will be able to take me down now- not now that my will to live has been so re-enforced.’ I bent to swipe my pants up off the floor. ‘And don’t worry, I’m not going home to boast about this kingdom- I’m going home to report that the mission was a failure, that the north even harder to navigate than we’ve always assumed… and that by the time me and my division reached this place- all that was left of the human colony that had been here was their remains; human remains that had not even been buried, but left to rot in the ruins and picked over by scavengers.’

Erika gasped and sat up, and I looked down at my zipper, knowing that the swaying of her breasts was going to make a liar of me because I wasn’t going to make it to my shoes if I looked at her again, let alone Arcadia. ‘You’re not going to tell them about this kingdom?’

‘Our kingdom- if your King will permit me to take in myself and my soldiers as his subjects.’ I heard the bed creak and looked up to see her sitting all the way up but smartly holding her sheet tightly to her breasts. ‘And if you meant it when you whispered that you loved me last night.’

Erika cringed. ‘Part of me will always love you Kohén, but even though I caved into my desire for you last night, my circumstances have not changed-’

‘They will.’ I reached for my shirt and began to turn it the right way out. ‘I’ll go back, report that there was nothing here to be found and that I only survived but by the grace of God and my Nephilim strength. I’ll hang my head in shame and be accordingly mocked by Karol for my many failures, and he’ll insist that I take the break that I am entitled to. I’ll write a letter explaining my grief and apologising, but slamming the Companion system for ruining God’s men. I’ll confess everything that the public does not know- mostly about how Karol was overcome by her too, how Yael tried to bargain for her, how Martya Rice mysteriously vanished after demanding her freedom, and how in her last moment, my mother branded me as a whore and said that she’d do the same to Karol and Elijah too.’

Erika frowned. ‘You’re not saying that Karol was in love with her too-‘

‘No, I don’t even know if he’s capable of love, but he wanted her, all right, and if my name has been thus tarnished by what I was willing to do in order to love her for eternity, his will be tarred and feathered when they find out what deals he made for the sake of having her under him for just five minutes.’

Erika looked down. ‘Oh…’ she peeked up at me from under her lashes. ‘Is there a woman in his life that he might lose by this revelation?’

‘Not anymore, not unless Amelia-Rose Choir has run out of Prince’s to hump and has flung herself at the king’s sceptre again...’ I swallowed hard, body humming in thrilled anticipation. ‘And no one will have him once I’m through with him, not even Amelia-Rose, and though my name will never be cleared, it will be used for good! I’ll state that my dying wish is to see the caste obliterated and the brands to be healed from the shoulders of the women who should get their freedom back…’ Erika’s jaw dropped and I winked at her. ‘Then I’ll post it to the newspapers, and take my own life, shaming my family that little bit more so that when the people learn what has happened and make their demands, Karol will have no choice but to either free the women in your caste- or be overthrown.’ Erika was cupping her cheeks and gaping at me as tears spilled out of my eyes, and I rushed forward, pressed my lips to hers, delighting in how red and bruised they were before adding: ‘Then I’ll return to you, and spend the rest of my life not only shielding you from harm, but this place from anyone that would disturb it.’

Erika leaned back and shook her head, eyes wide, fiddling with the amber ring on her finger. ‘It won’t work, Kohén! Planes will still fly this way-’

‘Then I guess you’ll need a few convenient bolts of lightning striking about at odd times, won’t you?’ I asked, wiping away her tears. ‘Don’t worry, I’ve spent all night thinking this through. I meant it when I said that my life has brought me to you, and I won’t be swept off course again, not while I’m so convinced that this is what God wants. My soldiers are as enamoured with this place as I am, and though I am about to go ask their permission, I know it will be granted. And don’t you open your mouth to say there is no future for me here with you because you can’t give me children… I don’t want children, Erika, especially not from my bloodline- I want you, and I will do whatever it takes to keep you at my side.’ I kissed her and she winced slightly, and sensing that her lips were hurting too much to tolerate my passion so soon, I got back off the bed and began to stuff my sleeves back into my shirt, watching her take off the ring and place it on the nightstand before she began running her fingers through her knotted hair. My heart quickened at that- had the ring been a gift from Cairo? A link that she was severing? ‘And unless you’ve been lying through your teeth for the last twelve hours, I think you want me too, so what’s it going to be?’

But Erika looked nothing but vexed. Pale, worried and heartsick. ‘You can’t ask me to ask you to give up your entire life for me, Prince Kohén.’

‘If my friends stay with me, I’ll be giving up nothing but a lot of dirty looks, awkward conversations and a crown that I do not want. Sure, I know I’ll experience some of those here too, but I won’t have to contend with my brothers and that’s what I’m really running from. And some of the people here have asked for forgiveness for bigger sins than the ones that I have committed, so if they’ve been more or less accepted than I’m sure that I’ll find a way to make sure those that distrust me accept me too- even your sidekick with the flaming hair.’ But she didn’t look convinced, so I sighed and held out my hands. ‘I don’t want you to force yourself to welcoming me into your life if I was just a passing fancy, so tell me, beautiful girl please… can you love me? Do you want me in your life?’ I pulled my head into the neck hole and tugged my shirt down, kneeling before her and frowning when I saw a shadow shift in one of her mirrors that spooked me because it didn’t seem to correlate with my movements or hers. Damn Theodore and his stupid superstitions, and damn me for having had so much to drink! My head was beginning to pound again and because Sam was nowhere to be soon, I knew it was self-inflicted. ‘Do you want this place kept secret?’

Erika shook her head, still lost in her disbelief. ‘That’s not my decision to make! And even if it was, I’m much too clouded in the head to be expected to make it! You must speak with the king and give him the chance to confer with his advisors-’

‘I will not allow any man to make such an important life decision for you again, whether it be me doing the deciding, or an archangel.’ I tilted her face to mine, searching her eyes. ‘So tell me… honestly… what would you have me do?’

Erika leaned forward and kissed me, whispering against my mouth: ‘Do what it takes to keep my home a secret, Kohén of nowhere… but nothing that would jeopardise your safe and swift return to me. And when you do return, and if it turns out that your plot to expose the corruption within the Companion caste has successfully freed me of my bonds… we will see what we can do to make a home and a life for ourselves together here, as God intended.’

And then we were kissing, and this time, the fireworks were exploding from inside my heart.

Finally, I’d found a place where I belonged.

The Book Of Liberation

By Samuel J McIntyre

Prelude To A War

There are certain moments in one’s life when their faith is tested, and the great pirate found his at the bottom of his thirteenth pint of beer. He couldn’t come to terms with the turn that his fate had taken, could not believe that he had just been forcefully escorted out of his own birthday party and scolded by the archangel that had started feeling like a father to him for endangering them all- and he could not believe that when the clock struck midnight, he felt one hundred years older than he had the morning before last- not one year.

His life had become a living nightmare- again. His angel was upstairs in the arms of another, his past had come out of the kitchen pantry and was lying unconscious in the infirmary, and the people that would have usually offered him comfort were so busy celebrating the possibility that the woman he loved was about to be impregnated by a man that they all hated, that they viewed his presence and his horror as negative energy that might impair their miracle- not as natural reaction to a broken heart. And what was worse was that soon enough, this kingdom would stop being his secret haven, and start being a target. Maybe having a Barachiel heir would safeguard them from Arcadia, and maybe it would start a war but either way, the peace in that demesne was about to be shattered nonetheless, because as soon as Raphael was inked onto a map, every ship in the ocean would make a beeline for it, looking to take what they could from it and leave only anguish and humanity at its worst behind. How could he bring his people here now? What was the point or trying to make a better life for a mass of people, when the darkest souls among them, no matter how small their numbers, always found a way to ruin life on earth for everyone else? Why cut off a Barachiel’s head, when a Yael or another Barachiel’s head grew back in its place and in its seat of power? Maybe God had been wrong to save the world- maybe he should have just wiped out mankind in its entirety, and replaced them with butterflies? Queens like Larkin could make a difference, sure, but they still had to take off their clothes for vile princes in order to do it in this new world, so what was the point?

Yes, Cairo had known darker times than this, but he could not take comfort from that, or use his past as some sort of perspective because he wasn’t so sure that he had survived his past. Most of the time, he was all right. Most nights he could sleep without being shattered by nightmares of Iana’s final moments, and sometimes he could go for weeks at a time without thinking about it at all… but when the shadows from his past did creep up on him, they chilled him to the very bone, and that’s what news of Teddy’s presence there had done; frosted not only over his bones, but his heart. How was he going to look inside himself and find the ability to forgive Larkin with ice in his chest? And how was he going to be able to linger here for even one more hour, when he knew that at any moment he could turn a corner- and come face to face with the little boy that he’d terrorised? It wasn’t like he could even turn to Larkin for solace- she was going to be a complete mess once her thrall wore off and probably looking to lean on him and what could he do? How could he tell her that everything was going to be all right, when he didn’t believe it?

He couldn’t, so he wouldn’t. He squinted down at his lap and picked up the gun that Kohén had surrendered, before clicking back the safety. The fireworks had started to go off, and by the time he’d wriggled forward closer to the edge of the dock and inhaled his last lungful of ocean air, four cracks had already sounded, meaning that probably only eighteen remained. He couldn’t know that for sure, but Larkin was a sentimental little thing and had an exquisite eye for detail, so he would have bet every cent he had- or every block of gold that he’d just slipped back into her safe- that she’d specified that there should be twenty-two fire crackers released in his honour.

Smiling at her thoughtfulness as the numbers approached twelve and began to grow larger, reaching a crescendo that he could feel reverberating through his chest even though the kingdom was little more than a feint glow in the distance then, Cairo closed his eyes, pictured her stunning face, then Iana’s, whispered to Satan and God to go fuck themselves- and then leaned forward, determined to leave the smallest mess behind as possible, while ensuring that he got the burial at sea that he had earned.

‘Do you know what happened to me when my parents realised that as the third-born triplet, I was to be Given?’ a quiet voice asked and Cairo twisted around, squinting into the darkness with burning eyes and a racing heart as a silhouette almost identical to Larkin’s, but taller and darker and leaner, emerged from the shadows at the edge of the dock. In the washed out night and to his hazy, drunken gaze the gown was the same, the hair was the same and the timeliness was certainly familiar… but the woman walked differently, exaggerating her female-ness, and when she stepped into a beam of moonlight, her skin gleamed rather than glowed, and he sagged in disappointment. Of course Larkin wasn’t coming- she had other things- and men- to do. ‘Or should I ask… do you know what my father did?’

Cairo was too stunned for words, so he simply shook his head dumbly, but kept the gun pointed at his temple. He knew what this was and although it wasn’t going to work, he was too intrigued by her sudden appearance to do anything but stare. Why was she out here? It was a half hour’s walk back to the Château!

‘He started working with me- teaching me how to act like a proper little lady, hoping that I would be lucky enough to be chosen by King Bronx… who was just Prince Elliot then.’ The Companion continued to walk towards the pirate as languidly as she walked anywhere, but he didn’t move to run, because he knew that she wouldn’t bother with trying to physically restrain him from doing anything- she hadn’t the nature. If anything, he supposed that she was just looking to get a front row seat to the kingdom’s biggest scandal.

‘Things were different then, of course. Janiel hadn’t yet lifted the restrictions on how many children one family could have, and everyone was so poor that the idea of being Given was regarded was more of a blessing than a curse. Yes, your child would grow to prostitute herself, but before then and after, she’d have a fuller belly than most, and more protected from the pirate invasions than anyone… or so they thought.’ She sighed and rested on the pole at the end of the dock next to him. ‘My mother and father both wanted me to be chosen, but my father wanted it badly. So, he started teaching me how to pleasure a man early on. I think I was two before he first forced himself into my mouth, and around about my third birthday, he started trying to pleasure me. He didn’t break my hymen of course- couldn’t have that, but there were ways to have me that didn’t involve vaginal penetration, and he had a merry old time showing me just how much ‘fun’ it could be, and what my body had been built to… take.’ She held out her hand, studying her bejewelled fingers. ‘I was glad to be chosen- glad to be taken from him. But being the attentive daddy that he was, he continued training me after- every time I was sent home for a visit, he’d take me somewhere private, and continue my education while my sisters were kept distracted playing with all of the wonderful things I brought back from Mossgrove to share with them. Jewels, toys, sweets… I shared everything with them until the age of thirteen, everything except their innocence and my pain.’ She looked at the pirate. ‘I eventually told Alton, and do you know what happened?’ she smirked and looked away. ‘He took me first, and gave me his favouritism in exchange, and when I had enough of that power, I used it to get my father branded and Banished.’ She snorted. ‘That’s why I enjoy sex so much, Cairo- I’ve learned that if I give men what they need, I’ll accumulate power in return, and so long as I have enough of it, nobody will ever be able to hurt me again.’

The frost in the pirate’s heart had become a hot sweat that had moved to every one of his limbs, and he was fairly certain that he was about to throw up. ‘Words cannot describe how fucking appalling that story is,’ he said, his teeth actually chattering in his rage.

‘I know, yet I survived it and now, I know happiness every day.’ She looked the pirate up and down, and then curled her lip in judgement before turning away. ‘But I’m sure your situation is worse, isn’t it? Satan forbid you know one day’s unhappiness in two years, or be given the chance to apologise for the one thing you’ve done wrong in your whole life…’

The pirate hissed in annoyance, getting to his feet. ‘Pain, is pain. You cannot compare one person’s suffering to another’s.’

‘No… but I can compare one person’s spine to another’s and the way I see it, Kohén Barachiel is twice the man that you’ll ever be, as is McIntyre, because there’s no limit to the things that they will forgive that girl for.’

‘Because they don’t love her! Not really! So they can’t be as hurt by her actions as I can!’

‘And yet you do…? Funny way of showing it. Farewell, your highness, I’ve had over fifty lovers in my bed but now that you’ve had the same one twice with a gun to your head, and even though we weren’t actually seeing one another either time, I’m going to put one to my own, pull the trigger, and compound your grief and guilt.’ She clapped her hands together slowly. ‘Nice work, soul mate. Why don’t you just save her the agony, and blow out her brains, huh?’

The pirate wiped tears from his eyes. ‘I -’

‘Don’t give me excuses. I’ve lived a long time and I know a lot of men, and the straight ones can be broken up into three categories: the ones that like hurting women and think it’s their right to, the ones that try to do the best they can but occasionally fuck up… and the ones that love women, and champion them no matter what.’ She wet her lips. ‘You’ve lived most of your life in the last category, but if you slip into the second now, who will protect her from the ones in the first, like my father?’ She shrugged. ‘Do what you like. I’m sure Larkin’s evolved enough to protect herself...but don’t curse how evil some members of the human race are, while you were about to give up fighting against them. If you die this night, you’ll be remembered as a hero and possibly even a martyr...’ she picked up her skirts and sashayed off, lowering her voice when she saw two giggling girls racing over the hillside and to the shallows of the bay, hand in hand and absolutely oblivious to the fact that they’d just narrowly missed out on sharing the water with a corpse, ‘but eventually, Larkin will realise, as I am about to, that you were only masquerading as one the whole time, and Sam will end up being the father to her child that you aren’t fit to be- soul or not.’

The pirate growled in fury and turned around and kicked the side of the boat, hard enough to hurt every bone in his bare foot, but not so hard that he could distract himself from the agony in his heart. He looked at the gun in his hand, then over at the girls that were stripping off and frolicking in the water, and realised how despicable his plan had been. He groaned again and then hurled it out into the water before dropping to his knees and sobbing in grief. All night tears had been trickling from his eyes in a never ending stream but now he clutched the dock and howled, cursing Lady Lucida, and hating himself more for it, all the while trying to muffle his sounds as much as he could, so as not to detract from the fun that the skinny-dippers were having- the fun he should have been having.

The kind of fun he’d never know again, if he didn’t take destiny in his own hands once more.

*

In the shadows up the hill, your narrator watched as the striking older Companion flounced his way, her jewels winking in the moonlight, her lips parted in a pant as she hiked up the dewy grass in her ridiculously formal shoes to where he was waiting with her horse.

‘That was quite the pep talk, Lady Lucida,’ your narrator shook his head and chuckled, impressed beyond measure as he handed her the reigns and bent down to rub the scruff of Inoborna’s neck. ‘Why didn’t you just shoot him in the balls?’

‘And make your life easier? Stop exaggerating the soulless thing, McIntyre, I’ve been there, and I know just how much emotion gets through- you pretending that nothing but anger does is getting tiresome.’ She put her foot into the stirrup. ‘I know you like the man- you wouldn’t have asked me to go for a midnight fucking ride to save his ass if you didn’t.’

Your narrator shrugged, bending to give her a boost up into the stirrups. ‘He’s a powerful ally and once Arcadia learns of this place’s existence, we’re going to need all of the allies that we can get. Besides… you were right: his death would have hurt Larkin more than she’s already been hurt, and I won’t abide that.’

‘Even if they are soul mates and by saving his life, you’ve screwed yourself out of a fiery romance?’

Your narrator shrugged. ‘Wouldn’t be the first time.’

The Companion looked over at the place where the two naked girls were now locked in a passionate embrace in the dark water. ‘Do I even want to know what happened there? Less than one hour ago, you and that girl were going for it on the terrace- we were all placing bets to see if Riesling was going to come over and cut you for tearing the dress. But now it seems like Riesling would have gotten her out of it more adeptly than you would have?’

Your narrator chuckled. ‘There’s no shame in losing to a woman as attractive as that little Asianan minx is. I gave it my best shot but what can I say…’ He heard the pirate captain sobbing and winced, then bent down and gave Inoborna a swift pat on the backside. Obediently and against his maverick nature, the wolf took off in the captain’s direction in order to offer him the sympathetic company that your narrator could not. ‘When I’m beat, I’m beat and Saul-Yin’s evidently a dragon slayer.’

Lady Lucida’s dark eyes sparkled down at your narrator as he straightened. ‘No seriously… what happened? That girl’s wanted you for years. Were you just leading her on in order to keep your mind off other girls?’

‘Actually no. Turns out, Devil’s Claw smoke works as birth control in more ways than one. The interest was there, the dress was coming off and the sparks were flying… but sadly, I could not rise to the occasion.’ Your narrator blushed, which was against his nature but what could he do? That had been embarrassing. ‘She got upset, accused me of using her to numb my Larkin pain as you just did- then ran off into the girl’s bathroom crying. Apparently, there was a girl in there that could make her feel a lot better about herself and so naturally… I came to watch her do it in the hopes that the smoke would wear off in time for me to interrupt them and offer to lend a hand.’

Lady Lucida chuckled. ‘Has it worn off?’

‘Alas no, but don’t worry, if at first you don’t succeed… forgo the smoke the next time, and enjoy the show in the interim.’

‘Anything to keep you away from the queen’s chamber, I suppose…and from overhearing anything that your pride can’t handle, even though you haven’t a heart to suffer.’

Your narrator smiled tightly. ‘And there’s that.’

Lady Lucida shook her head. ‘You’re a piece of work, you know that?’

Your narrator patted her horse’s neck, meeting her gaze. ‘And you just saved the life of someone that Larkin loves, fulfilling your debt to Satan. How does it feel?’

‘I’m sure you’ll know, soon enough.’ Lady Lucida grinned at the mischievous Queen’s Guard and then flicked the rains while digging her stirrup into the horse’s flank. ‘Ha!’

And then just like that, the horse was taking off and your narrator was alone again.

Sighing as he wondered just how long he was going to have to wait to know any sort of personal success or joy or release at all, he dutifully began to retrace his footsteps back to the chateau to bear witness to the greatest tragedy that he’d ever known. He didn’t want to overhear anything that would hurt his pride, but if Larkin ended up in danger…

But then he thought of all his queen had already endured, and smiled, knowing that the queen did not need his protection. In fact, she didn’t need a knight at all.

*

It was four in the morning when the queen stumbled out of her shower and into her own bed in her chamber, head spinning, heart still skittering- body still aching from the attentions that it had just endured. She didn’t feel as wrong as she knew she ought to, but she didn’t feel right either, and she didn’t know if she would ever feel ‘right’ again. Satan’s essence was still billowing through her like wind through lace curtains, filtering her unpleasant emotions and letting the ones like triumph and euphoria and excitement rise to the surface of her soul, but even Satan suffered from hurt, pride, regret and anxiety and Larkin could feel the fingers of those combing through her thrall, letting her know that if they could touch her now, they were powerful enough to shred her later. Letting her know that she’d never escape the fact that she’d sold herself tonight, even if she hadn’t taken a cent off the man that had purchased her.

I won’t think about that today… she was Scarlett O’Hara, and she had to be: now more than ever. I’ll think about it tomorrow...

Luckily, the fuzziness of her mind, the lassitude in her body and the lucidity of her conscience were all conductive to sleep and so she fell more deeply into the thrall than she had yet, erasing Kohén Barachiel’s glowing eyes from her mind, and imagining fields of cotton flowers that stretched to the horizon instead. But when her fingers brushed against them, she felt Kohén’s hair in her fists, and when the sun baked her golden skin, it was the warmth of Kohén’s body that was heating her… heating her so much that she whimpered softly and reached down to touch where she was raw and sore, but still pulsing.

Her door creaked open just as she realised that what she was doing was going to wake her up more than it would relax her, and before she could begin to hope that it was Inoborna coming to retire under her bed and offer his forgiveness, she heard the heavy footfalls and understood that it was a man. Her visitor moved as quietly as possible, but clumsily, and her eyes filled with tears when she realised who it was, and smelled the alcohol that he had probably rolled around in following him like a cloud and souring even the jasmine that she’d gotten used to dominating the air in there.

Oh no, oh no, please, Cairo… not now… I’m not ready to deal with your anger…

But the footfalls stopped and for the longest time, all the trembling queen could hear was his breathing. She could feel his gaze burning into her though, and despite her best efforts to remain as still as possible in order to feign sleep, the unpleasant emotions that she had left got the better of her an she curled into a protective ball and sobbed to understand that this crazy, awful, exhilarating and surreal night wasn’t over yet. Not for her, and not for the poor pirate.

The bed creaked and dipped under his weight, and though her muscles clenched in fear that he would try to get his birthday gift out of her after all, all he did was lift the blanket and curl up around her, slipping one arm under the pillow that her head was resting on, and draping the other over her waist. He tucked his face into the back of her neck and breathed her in, but he did not kiss her, and when his large, warm hand slipped around and cupped her lower abdomen, she felt it jerk away from him in reflex surprise. They were both fully clothed, but it was an intimate hold and it was the first they’d ever had in her bed together, and when he began to rub her tummy, her feelings of confusion increased.

‘What are you doing?’ she whispered, ever curious.

‘Praying,’ Cairo sighed against her neck and she felt that his face was wet with tears that he had transferred to her prickly skin. ‘For a miracle.’

There was nothing more to say then, so they both cried themselves to sleep while in the corridor, your narrator sat with his head in his hands and his stomach in knots. And when Larkin awoke, she was alone, and there was a note on the bed besides her scrawled in handwriting so messy that she could hardly believe that it had been penned by her scholarly beau.

Larkin,

Arial told me that when time feels like it’s passing too slowly here, I should leave this home and seek out the ocean so that I do not knock my destiny or anyone else’s off course… so I have taken her advice on account of this being the longest night of my life.

By the time you awaken, I will be gone. I am sorry if this pains you, for that is not my intention, but I fear that I will hurt us both more- and every chance we have of being happy together- if I stay in my current state of mind.

But I will return, Larkin, and when I do, it will be with the intention of never leaving you again, on a ship that will be named not for my long lost love, but the one I am sure is fighting to find her way to me.

I hope you prove me right.

Your devoted friend who would be your everything,

Cairo Kingslater.

*

The queen had dark circles under her eyes when she finally staggered down to the throne room the following morning at Sam’s side, but she was not supposed to be a queen, so no one reacted to how exhausted she looked or how oddly she was dressed the way they usually would have because like her, they were still wearing their masks- in the metaphorical sense, anyway. No one said it out loud, but they were taken aback to see the queen looking so off colour. They’d presumed that she’d had a late and taxing night, of course, but hadn’t she been protected by her mother’s energy? Shouldn’t she be thrilled to know that she could be with child already?

But the truth was that the queen wasn’t exhausted from the night she’d had- she was feeling her brain fragment and then get re-arranged by the man that was apparently helping her down the stairs, because he was actually overdosing her with such an influx of information that her head was throbbing. She already knew that your narrator knew what most of her intentions were- she’d started screaming for his help with her mind the second that Kohén had suggested his plan, but Kohén had worked quickly to make his plan a strategy and now, she had to hurry downstairs to deal with without looking like she was the one dealing with it at all. On top of that, she was nervous about seeing Kohén again- nervous, excited and terrified, and when he grinned at her when she entered the room, he didn’t even bother to hide it, not even when your narrator scowled in warning.

‘Good morning, my lady,’ Kohén bowed to her. ‘I trust you slept well?’

She’d barely slept a wink, but she curtsied and whispered a good morning before turning her attention to her father and smiling shakily, very conscience of the fact that Sam’s hand was still resting lightly and a little too possessively on her hip while Kohén’s eyes were seeing more than she was showing. Her poor father! Devil knew how many feathers he’d malted in worry the night before!

‘And to you, your majesty…’ she curtsied again, holding out the skirts of the formal dress that her mother had blinked into her closet a year ago- one she’d never worn. It was simpler than the one she’d been wearing the prior evening, but similar in style, and she’d chosen it because the long sleeves and skirts hid the tiny bruises and rashes that were scattered across her skin. ‘Sam said that you wished to speak with me?’

She’d actually sent a note asking her father to do just that and to block Sam from his thoughts until his ‘decree’ had been made, but your narrator was unaware of that at the time, and her father played the part well, nodding and gesturing to Kohén.

‘Guardian Barachiel has already explained his plan to you, no doubt?’

A blush crept up her neck to her cheeks. ‘Yes, your highness. It is a very courageous plan indeed.’

‘I agree.’ Bastien smiled warmly at Kohén, and the queen felt bad because she knew that smile was genuine. ‘But I’m afraid that I cannot in good conscience, allow him to make this journey alone and on bare foot. I intend on sending one of our guards with him, and though Kohén has expressed reluctance to involve anyone else, I have insisted. He has told me that the people in his division are outsiders to the people of Arcadia, and that one of our guards will have no issue with assuming the identity of the newest recruit, Ambrose Selleck, because he only just joined them in St Miguel, and with their former Guardian on parental leave… there is no one in Eden that will be any the wiser to the switch.’ He cleared his throat. ‘The guard we send will be well-acquainted with the beaten track that we have carved out that will get Kohén home faster and more safely than he could go without a guide, and I was hoping that you would lend two of your horses to the mission, in the interests of getting them in and out of Eden as quickly as possible.’

The queen smiled. ‘That sounds like a very clever idea. Of course- the travellers can take my two fastest steeds.’’

That sounds like your idea… your narrator mentally muttered, catching on, but instead of acknowledging that she concentrated on thinking about how the fallen prince beside her was smiling at her, and how foolish he was.

‘You like horses?’

‘Like? No she loves horses- everyone that knows her even a little knows that,’ your narrator said, and Kohén’s eyes flashed.

‘I suppose you know a lot about her that no one else could dream of figuring out, hmm? That must make you feel very special… and not at all like a busy body,’ and the queen almost giggled when she saw her father roll his eyes.

‘Gentleman please… act like it.’ The archangel stood up straighter while your narrator ground his teeth together. ‘And please, try to find a way to get along- because it is you that I am sending with him, Sam.’

Your narrator sucked in a breath and the girl beside him cringed as bolts of steel that were shaped like expletives slammed into her head while the fallen prince laughed, held up his hands and tried to politely decline. But the archangel slapped his hand on the armrest of his throne and barked at them to shut up loud enough to make everyone in the room flinch, including your narrator.

‘Enough! Not only is Sam the most seasoned traveller that we have, but he is the best horseman. He knows things about survival that cannot be taught, he has a cloak that will allow him to look like whoever the hell he wants to look like should either of you need an emergency escape, and although I thought it was a rather obvious point- he can read minds.’ The archangel turned to your narrator and glowered at him while he called the queen a traitor and a dictator and accused her of trying to ‘off’ him because he’d gotten too close. ‘This is a risky plan son, and I’m sending you because I trust you to handle yourself better than anyone ever could, and find out things that others cannot. Karol may suspect that Kohén is lying, but if Sam can get close enough, he’ll be able to tell for sure. He’ll also be able to sense if anything else is about to go wrong, so you can regroup should the need to think of a Plan B arise.’

Your narrator boiled in anger, but knew that there was nothing that he could say.

‘I am not exactly excited about this development…’ Kohén hedged. ‘But you make a good case.’ He turned to your narrator. ‘I would be incredibly grateful for your help, guard.’

‘I would be travelling as your equal, Prince Guardian Kohén the fourth, or whatever you are.’ Your narrator crossed his arms, standing tall and addressing the wall. ‘I won’t take orders. I won’t polish your boots, I won’t do all the hard work and I will not tolerate your bullshit.’

‘I never get anyone to do anything for me, and as soon as we leave the city gates, I will cease to be anyone but plain old Kohén Barachiel,’ he paused. ‘And when we return, I might even do something about the surname. May I ask what yours is?’

‘No.’

‘All right.’ Kohén sighed and muttered under his breath. ‘This is going to be fun…’ and the queen snorted, earning a dirty look from both of them.

‘Your majesty, is that all you needed from me?’ the queen asked. ‘If they’re in a hurry to leave, I’ll need to go and prepare the horses at once.’

Don’t you go too far, little lady! I’m going to get you for this! You said you can’t stand him and that you never want to see him again after last night… but you saddle me with him and send us off into the fucking Wildwoods? Wow, you’re a great friend!

It wasn’t my idea, it was the king’s, and his word is absolute-

Oh shut the fuck up, this is got evil genius written all over it and at best, Bastien is kind and vacant. I’m sorry if you’re not attracted to me in return, but my attraction to you has not prevented me from doing what is right by you! I never put myself first! I’m not in love with you, Larkin! You DON’T have to distance yourself from me!

‘Of course,’ Bastien said. ‘You’re excused.’

‘Thank you,’ the queen curtsied quickly, and then moved over to Kohén, glad that Sam was screaming at her in her head because it made this moment so much easier on her. ‘Guardian Barachiel… it’s been lovely meeting you again. I will pray for your safe return, and welcome you gratefully when you do.’ She took his hands and squeezed them, sort of astonished that neither her voice or her hands were trembling. She clung to her mother’s energy like strength, wrapping herself in it, knowing that she could not do what she was about to do, unless she pretended to be someone else.

I’m not distancing myself from you Sam. Okay yes, I am… but you have to see the logic in the plan right? You’re the only one that can help Kohén pull this off and-

‘Erika, you’ve been more than a pleasure…’ Kohén’s eyes were sparkling as he lifted her hand to his lips, and kissed her ring finger. ‘I will return safely, be certain of that, and I hope that when I extricate myself from my country’s hold on me, I will pry you free as well.

‘God be with you,’ the queen whispered huskily, and your narrator was glad that her back was to him because he knew he couldn’t stand to see the adoration in her eyes for the fallen prince, even if it was fake.

‘And with you.’

And with me- because I’m going to throw up right here on the floor! Your narrator raged. I can’t believe after all I’ve done for you, you’d repay me like this! You’d send me away? Do you have any idea what a city that size is going to do to my head?

This isn’t a punishment Sam, it’s a reward. The queen picked up her skirts and turned to face him, her smooth expression betraying none of the radiant heat that he suddenly felt burning off her. She met his gaze and he saw that her suddenly black eyes were shining, and smiled serenely as she mentally replayed a memory of Kohén from the night before, eyes burning with indignation as he’d whispered: ‘There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to keep you at my side!’ Then, she’d let him feel how much that had terrified her- how many awful memories that had brought burning back. She’d forgiven the boy she had once loved, and she’d even acknowledged that he’d worked off a lot of his sins, and was no doubt still a person of worth.

But he wasn’t getting a second chance if what he intended to do with it was prove just how far he’d go to keep her at his side again.

I don’t want you to bring him home safely once he’s completed this task, Sam. Her eyes flashed, and then flooded with violet as she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. I’m giving you permission to kill him en route home, so Satan will never be able to ask me to whore myself out to him again!

And for the first time in years, your narrator as filled with joy. Are you sure this is what you want to do?

No. But like everyone’s said… this isn’t about my wants or needs, is it? Just please, if you can… make it quick and painless, and bury him after… The queen wiped a tear out from under her eye before she turned away, but not so quickly that your narrator didn’t see that it was bloody. He sucked in a breath, but she was already moving away, and he knew that to go after her would only make it worse. Maybe one day, I’ll get to take his daughter to the site, and tell her what a charming prince her daddy was, and of how he sacrificed his life to save our kingdom.

You’d lie?

No. That’s what hurts me the most… I don’t have to.

‘Be careful Sam,’ she choked out to your narrator. ‘I can’t afford to lose my best friend again.’

And then with a rustle of skirts and a duck of her head, the second-coming, was gone, and so was your narrator’s breath as he realised that he had to stop fighting to become the man in her life.

He already was, and her friendship, however agonising, was enough for him.

Epilogue

Eden Palace, Arcadia

Karol Barachiel

‘Buried alive… in an avalanche?’ I stared at my youngest brother, absolutely thunderstruck. ‘All eight of them?!’

‘Oh God…’ Ora Camden sank into the chair beside my desk, and Shepherd Choir came over and rubbed her shoulders. ‘Oh God…’

‘No, only the last four met their end in that particular travesty,’ my brother’s bright blue eyes were veiled by his eyelashes as he gazed down at the floor in shame. ‘Guard Paisley Branch developed pneumonia, Guard Templar McEvoy was attacked by a wolf…’ his forehead became pinched and he looked up at me while wearing a pained expression. ‘All of the details will be included in the report, your highness, which I’ll fill out the moment I return to the barracks according to protocol. But I will say now, that I would not recommend that anyone be sent into the north again. It is as wild as it is rumoured to be, and more; a breeding ground for poisonous weeds, feral animals that have no fear of humans, inhospitable ground that is too hard and frozen for planting or mining to be viable, and death. I don’t know if the people in that colony were killed by the land or one another, but from what I could tell, they were the first to make it that far, and I pray that Guard Ambrose Selleck and I here, will be the last.’

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I looked to the youth that was standing silently beside Kohén and winced to see that his eyes looked decades older than his face did, and that he was covered in scratches and bruises that would take me an hour to heal, as was Kohén. I looked back to my dust-covered, morose-looking brother and shook my head in amazement to think that they had survived such a murderous wilderness. I’d thought him weak in every sense of the word but now I wondered if he was stronger than I was, because I didn’t know what kind of shape I’d be in if I’d endured such a trial.

‘How did you escape the avalanche, Kohén?’ I asked, pained to see that Ora was wiping tears out from under her eyes. What a day she’d picked to visit us again! ‘Must be quite the tale!’

‘I jumped,’ Kohén said flatly. ‘Over a ravine, and I managed to catch Ambrose’s hand when it looked like he was going to fall short.’

‘You’re a hero…’ Amelia-Rose breathed, but Kohén and the boy beside him exchanged a loaded look, that Ambrose broke away from first, wiping dust and blood off the cover of the large leather satchel that he was holding. It was an odd-looking thing, more like an Artisan’s portfolio and less like a backpack, and I wondered how he’d survived at all if he had an Artisan’s nature for they tended to be very soft.

‘No. I’m just part of a team, and Ambrose here has saved my life as well.’ He turned back to me. ‘But the other’s couldn’t make the same leap, your highness, and either fell to their deaths, or were crushed.’

I sighed sadly. ‘I’m very sorry to hear that.’

Kohén’s eyes had been neon since he’d entered my office, but now he raised an eyebrow. ‘Which part? That they didn’t make the jump? Or that I did?’

My abdomen sucked in, flinching as blades of guilt stabbed into it while Ora began to weep again and Amelia-Rose crossed herself. I opened my mouth to protest that he had me all wrong, but I knew he wouldn’t believe me. Yes I’d wanted him out of sight and had been endeavouring to keep him that way for years, but I’d never wanted him dead. Maybe I’d said things in anger that had led him to believe otherwise, but I still loved the little shit! He and Kohl were the only family that I had left! Shouldn’t he just be able to sense that?

I knew why he resented me for working him so hard, but why couldn’t he understand that I had the weight of the world on my shoulders? And that the only way that I could preserve any part of his reputation, was by making it public knowledge that I was forcing him to atone for his crimes? Besides, I could only imagine how he’d feel, if I’d successfully turned Larkin Whittaker towards God and away from him by taking her into my arms! Jesus! He probably would have electrocuted me on the spot and kicked my corpse for good measure after!

Yeah but the difference is… he doesn’t know what you lost that night, does he? And you’re going to great lengths to make sure he doesn’t find out for fear that not only will he electrocute you anyway, but that he’ll be well within his rights to!

He didn’t know how to make her happy!

No one here did! That’s why she left!

The voices in my head were killing me, and it was no surprise that the one attacking me sounded a lot like Ora’s. ‘Kohén-’

‘If you’re satisfied that you know every pertinent fact, may Ambrose and I please be excused?’ Kohén interrupted, cutting me off and holding a hand up to Shepherd Choir when he attempted to approach him. ‘I’d like to return to the barracks, wash that hell off me, have a solid meal, complete my report- and then commence my leave. A sentiment that I’m sure my comrade shares.’

I looked to the Guard beside Kohén, embarrassed, and a bit chilled by the wrathful way that he was staring at me- like he could see into me and all of my fears and flaws and insecurities. God, what had Kohén been telling his soldiers? That they were being killed, one by one, because they had the misfortune of being saddled with him?

‘Request denied, Guardian,’ I said, sitting up straighter and trying to look more composed. ‘Though I’m confident that you’ll fill out an adequate report, there are things that I’d like to know about the north that I’m sure you will not think to mention. On top of that, it is plain that you have had a very difficult time, and I must insist that both of you stay here in the comfort of the palace while you recuperate.’

‘Thank God,’ Amelia-Rose whispered.

Kohén’s brow knitted. ‘I don’t-’

‘That’s an order, Guardian.’ I glanced over at Ora again and was rewarded with a small, watery smile. ‘In addition to the palace’s hospitality, you will both be receiving twice the wages that you were promised. And the families of the soldiers that were lost will receive that too, as well their medals for valour, and a bonus of one thousand Cadians for bereavement.’

‘You’re being very generous, your highness, and if it is a command, Guard Selleck and I will stay for fear of being whipped for disobedience… again.’ Kohén stood taller, smoothing his filthy uniform. ‘But please, do not fritter away another Cadian in compensations for the lives that were lost, there’s no point-’ he shot me a baleful glare before he turned and moved towards my door, ‘-no one that went on that mission had a family to return to anyway.’

He opened the door, waved Ambrose through it, shot me one final look of loathing, and then slammed it so hard behind them and between us, that the walls shook.

*

I tried to do what I could to establish some kind of rapport with Kohén over the next two days, but it didn’t matter how many delicious meals I had sent to him, how well I healed his ailments or how hard I tried to heal his spirits, he retreated further and further into himself, shutting down like a gate dropping.

I wasn’t the only one that tried to connect with him, but not only did he refuse to speak with Amelia-Rose or her father at all, but he scolded Ora so badly for trying to soothe him when he knew how much she loathed him, that she ended up running from the room in tears. He called her a fake just like every other member of the noble caste, and said that she and Amelia-Rose both would waste less time if they focused on comforting the monarchs that would actually hold some sway over the world someday- his two brothers- because he had no intention of inheriting a crown, and would lob it out the same window that Larkin Whittaker had flown off through if one was ever forced upon him.

Naturally, I found that incredibly alarming. Sure, Kohén had a lot of weaknesses, but even when he was on his knees and being beaten, he’d demonstrated that he possessed the dignity, graciousness and piousness that the men in our family were famous for maintaining, and I knew that once he’d grown into his body and his hormones, he’d prove to be a damned good ruler. Though our youngest brother had a strong character and a spine to match, I’d never looked at him and seen a future king because he was definitely more likely to serve his own wants and needs before others. I didn’t think poorly of him for that, because some of the things that he wanted were selfless, kind and fair… but he was easily influenced, and a liberal in every sense of the word, and was apt to stand up to a sea of God-fearing faces for one thieving, God-hating underdog simply because he felt for the man’s plight. And even if he wasn’t like that, the fact was that Kohén had had twelve years of education and training that Kohl had not, so if Kohén refused the title of Crowned Prince, I wouldn’t be able to go ahead with my plans of turning Pacifica into a sovereign of its own the following year, because I’d be the only legitimate heir left.

Naturally, I sought Kohén out after that, hoping to appeal to his common sense for the good of the world, and had found him holed up again in our private library in the royal suite, where he’d spent most of the weekend with his new second in command Guardian, Ambrose Selleck. As always, Ambrose was in the furthest, darkest corner sketching away, but instead of reading, Kohén was at the desk and writing something. I watched them for a moment, thinking things over, then thought about the way that Kohén’s eyes had been glowing all week. What if it wasn’t me that he was upset with… what if he was merely frustrated in a way that onlyI could understand?

What if he didn’t need a king to talk to, but a brother?

‘Hey,’ I said, coming up behind him and peering over his shoulder, but Kohén covered up the page before I could make out anything but the fact that it was a letter. ‘Can we talk?’

‘No, this is a library.’ Kohén pointed to the books over the top of his desk, just in case I was a complete fucking moron. ‘You’re supposed to be silent.’

There was no such rule in our private library because I’d built it for Shepherd Choir and not for public use, but I opted to placate him rather than point out that he was wrong- again. ‘Then let’s talk outside,’ I said through gritted teeth, and with a sigh, he’d folded the paper up, stuffed, it into a book in his bag, and then had followed me out into the hall and towards our private stairs. Ambrose looked up, eyebrows raised, but Kohén merely shook his head, so his comrade went back to what he was doing, unmoved.

We descended into the hall and then out into the private throne room, and I sighed knowingly when I saw Kohén stare out at the construction sight of the new harem and scowl while turning away from it and quickening his step. The throne room was full of people listening to Shep’s Sunday evening sermon as we strode through it, and although they all turned to watch us with interest and even sympathy, Kohén did not take his eyes off the ground once.

‘What’s with you, kid?’ I asked, nudging his shoulder. ‘I know things have been strained between us for the past few years, but I’ve been trying to make an effort this weekend, and you’re growing even more antagonistic and withdrawn. Are you upset with me for sending you on that mission? Or upset with yourself for how it went?’

‘Am I supposed to pick just one?’

I made a face. ‘No, but I get the feeling that there’s more to it than that, and I’m worried about you.’ I turned him to face me, stopping him in just before we reached the corridor that led past the ballroom and out towards Miguel’s cottage, not wanting this conversation to take place where our last deep and meaningful had because like my former chamber, Larkin’s old garden and the area around the Statue Of Liberty, this part of the palace was haunted by ghosts of wrongs gone by. ‘You said that pretty little branded girl was just your friend, but if she was more than that to you, and you’re currently mourning a lover please- know that you can confess that to me.’ He looked up, blinking, and I saw that his friend Ambrose had followed us downstairs after all and was currently standing beside Ora and Amelia-Rose, watching us with sharp brown eyes. ‘It would have been breaking the rules to meddle with her, but she would have been sterilised when she was branded, so I suppose there wasn’t any real harm in-’

‘Save your breath and your benevolence, your highness,’ Kohén snapped. ‘I have never meddled with anyone that I wasn’t legally entitled to meddle with! I was her commanding officer, not her dominant, and-’

‘Have you been with anyone at all?’ I asked quickly, not missing the way his eyes slitted. ‘Because I suspect that you haven’t- or you could say that I recognise your mood, because I have been in a similar state of frustration for the past two years that I know you couldn’t possibly have the tenacity to tolerate at your age.’ I tried to make a joke, hoping to lighten the conversation. ‘Or a healing fist. And if that is the case, I’m afraid that I must insist that you get to a harem as soon as you can, and rid yourself of your-’

‘You are un-fucking-believable!’ Kohén snapped, shoving me, and I heard a few people gasp. ‘Not everything that is wrong with me and this kingdom is my dick’s fault, Karol! And not one thing about the way the men in this family handle their dicks and their frustrations is right, either!’ he did an about face and charged past me, ranting openly and publicly and making my blood boil even under my shock. ‘I don’t want a harem full of girls! I want to be able to fall in love with one, and not have to give her gold for her time!’

‘Kohén!’ I hissed, grabbing him by the scarf that had unravelled from his uniform and yanking him back. ‘Get a hold of yourself!’

‘No, you get a hold of your self, and your dick, and deal with your frustrations your way while I deal with mine- by leaving this cesspool!’ Kohén lifted his arm and quickly slashed it through mine, breaking my grip and damn near snapping the bone. Pain rocketed through me, and because I’d been down in the cellar with mother all morning, I hadn’t the power to take it away or to ease the witnesses unsettled emotions. ‘This palace isn’t a paradise- it’s a hotbed of repressed emotions, false idolatry, God-complexes and unsolicited sex with brainwashed little girls… all covered up by the magic that is performed by our imprisoned Nephilim, and I will NOT rule over it! In fact, I’d sooner die!’ he backed away from me while the courtiers gasped and began to whispered amongst themselves, and it wasn’t until I heard a few people clap and cheer that I realised just how much my brother hated me and this kingdom, and that he wasn’t alone in his convictions. ‘Having a personal sex-slave that was right for me in every way RUINED me, Karol! And the only reason why it didn’t ruin you, is because you don’t have what it takes to love someone- no man in this family ever has, not since Miguel died- not until I came along! But I am the one that is shamed for how I handled my feelings for her?I am the one scolded for fucking up the system? Ha! The Given caste is what was fucked up and it still is, not the girl that was driven out of her mind within it, and not the prince that was commanded to treat her like human trash!’ Kohén whirled around and cupped his mouth while projecting: ‘Cum in her! Stick it up her ass! Blow your load in her wherever you please because it’s safe, but for the love of God don’t you DARE love her! And don’t you dare try to convince her that you do because there’s a very good chance that your fifth birthday present was a DEMON!’ Someone fainted and I wasn’t far behind them, but Kohén spun back to face me, looking downright disgusted by me. ‘Yeah well, for a while I believed that I had to use her or blow up, and so I committed a string of atrocities that I feel in my soul, even if I can’t feel them in my memories. But I went two years without using a woman so I know it can be done, and I’m not drinking the fucking Kool-Aid anymore, you hear me? I will never force Wildwood’s sap into a woman’s uterus again for my pleasure, or condone anyone that would! And if you lay one more brick on that harem, instead of investing the money into the obliteration of the third-born caste, I’ll shove a poisoned tracking device up your royal ass, and throw you out your tower window myself!’

I saw red, but in that blinding flash of anger, Kohén pivoted and strode towards the front door, still ranting, still waving his arms about- still commanding the attention of every single person in that room, and there I was nothing I could do but watch him go, because I was fairly certain that if I went after him, one of us would end up dead, and I had no idea which one it would be, or who the world would be better without.

Guard Selleck took off after his commanding officer, but not before shooting a smug, hateful smile my way, and I was so gutted by the look on the faces of my frightened people that I could have sunk to my knees and sobbed. Not because Kohén was wrong, because he’d made a lot of good, painful points, but because I didn’t know how to make anything right. Sure, I could obliterate the Companion Caste, but if I did that… wouldn’t Larkin Whittaker win? Wouldn’t I be saying that she’d been right to act as she had? Perhaps she had been, in the beginning, but every time I remembered seeing my father’s lifeless corpse, and every time I remembered how heartlessly she had first rejected me and then told me that he was dead, I was reminded by the fact that Larkin Whittaker had mishandled her urges as badly as all of the Barachiels had mismanaged their own.

I was reminded by the fact that Kohén and I had tried to grant her every heart’s desire- and she had not only thrown them in our face, but splattered us with the blood of our loved ones.

Ora was making her way over to me, looking like she’d had the fright of her life, but I couldn’t stand to be scolded or comforted, not now- and I certainly couldn’t stand to be stared at like that either. For lack of anything better to do, I broke into a sprint, heading back for the sanctity of my private suite, and just to make sure that no one got it in their heads to follow me or even attempt to talk to me the way my brother just had, I knocked over a potted plant and the marble pillar that it was standing on, sending both to the ground with a thunderous crash, and then sent my boot into a pile of bricks in the gaping hole in our wall as I rounded the corner to my stairwell. My advisors had recommended that I do something to cover up that hole, for fear that Larkin would fly right through it, but I’d left Eden open to invasion because my fondest dream was that she would try exactly that- giving me the opportunity to pin her down, fuck her until her eyes rolled into the back of her head, and then pluck out every one of her feather’s one by one. Maybe she’d tried to burn me, but she loved cock and everyone knew it, so odds were that she’d let me get away with using her, just as she’d allowed Kóhen to.

The rage that had descended over me was so opaque that it began to feel like black madness, but I found my way into my suite and charged back into the library, making a beeline for Kohén’s stuff. Regardless of how badly our brotherly chat had gone, he’d proven that I was right to be concerned and so, I thought nothing of opening the book that he’d stuffed away, and taking the letter out from inside it. My eyes were glassy and stinging with tears, but they travelled across the words until they began to make sense, and when I realised the intention of the note, my blood turned to ice:

To whom it may concern,

Though I know it will bring great shame upon my family, and damn my soul to hell, I have decided that I would sooner burn for all eternity for the sins that I have committed, then live another day as a Barachiel. You will find my body crushed, bloody and bloated at the bottom of the Tidal Falls if I am not forced into the quicksand beneath it, and you will probably all be horrified by how painful my last moments were, but make no mistake of it- my death will hurt less than life in this body does, and my suffering will be only half of whatever Larkin Whittaker must have endured in her captivation-

It stopped where I had interrupted him, but I didn’t need to know anything else to know that if I didn’t act soon, we’d find my baby brother’s body exactly where he planned on hurling it. I gasped before I sobbed, crushing the letter in my fist, and thinking that what hurt most of all was the fact that he’d addressed it ‘To Whom It May Concern,’ instead of to me, because he didn’t think his death would concern me at all, did he?

The door smashed open then and I locked up as I heard thunderous footsteps striding into the room.

‘Man, if you don’t want to hear that he cares about you more than you believe that’s fine, but believe me when I say that if you want to get out of here and back to Raphael, we’ve got to move fast. You just acted like an absolute psychopath and though I will applaud you for your candour and your big, royal balls once we’re clear of this place, I’m going to stress the importance of us doing what you’ve got to do now because they’re gonna lock you up-’

‘Sam, shut up!’ Kohén said, in a voice that had no breath behind it, and I whirled around to slit my eyes at my little brother as he gaped first at me, and then at the note in my hand. He was still flushed and furious looking, but I would have bet good money that I looked twice as homicidal and stunned in that moment, and when Ambrose or ‘Sam’ saw me, his face melted away. It didn’t drain of colour- it actually melted away, leaving an older, taller, redder and more shocked-looking young man in his place. I blinked once or twice, wondering how he’d done that, and thinking to myself that he was the most striking-looking man I’d ever seen in my life, but my shock wore off when he blinked back and I knew all at once that he was a Nephilim- one with the ability to change his appearance. Holy shit… what was Kóhen doing with someone like that? And how many other Nephilim were living free and unmonitored within the RIDF? We’d tested them all!

‘Oh. Shit.’ Sam backed up a step, lifting his hand. ‘Kohén… I think we best be on our way.’

But Kohén’s eyes were on mine now, and I saw that he understood what I did- he wasn’t going anywhere.

‘What’s Raphael?’ I asked tightly, feeling every part of me harden to concrete, bit by bit, as I understood the depth of my little brother’s deception. ‘What’s there that’s worth faking your death for?’

‘Don’t answer him Kohén,’ Sam put his hand on the prince’s shoulder and drew him back, and I saw him dig his hand into his pocket as he did, guiding them both out of my reach. It wasn’t going to work- Sam had been right to say that Kohén wasn’t going anywhere, but I let them begin a retreat anyway, and felt something inside me burn like a coal when Sam’s gaze flitted over to the corral, and then back to me. ‘There’s more at stake here then the final word.’

‘There’s a lot at stake,’ I agreed, keeping my eyes on Kohén as I inched towards the satchel. ‘Both of your lives, actually, because we all know what happens to deserters of the RIDF…’

‘I don’t- I’m not a part of your brigade of witch hunters,’ Sam said quickly, eyes flitting towards the satchel again. I knew he was going to make a move for it, but I put my hand on the hilt of my own sword as I took another step its way, wondering if he was as fast and accurate with a gun, as I was with a blade. I don’t suppose it mattered- I’d take off his wrist and disarm him before he could even finish drawing it anyway. He frowned then, but tried to look nonchalant. ‘In fact, I’m just here for the meals...’

‘You’re a dark Nephilim,’ I hissed, feeling my abdomen clench in fear. ‘No one that has love for God in their hearts would conspire against a Barachiel king this way!’

‘Takes one to know one, hmm?’ Sam taunted me, and I felt like I’d been king hit. How did he know about mother? How many secrets had Kóhen told him?!

‘Both of you, stop it. No one’s a dark anything here and no one has to die!’ Kohén stepped forward and held up his hand, and though they were still blazing, there was contrition in them now. ‘Karol please, I’m not trying to betray this country or my family- I’m just trying to live as God wants us too- with the woman I love, in a place full of peace and harmony, where I’ll be out of your hair, and away from the things here that fill me with despair.’ He jerked his thumb at Sam. ‘And although I’ll agree that this one’s a right bastard, he’s not a dark Nephilim, Karol. They wouldn’t allow one to live in their kingdom!’

My eyebrows shot up. ‘What kingdom?’ I demanded, incensed. ‘What girl?

Kóhen’s eyes flooded with light, and it was like someone had pulled on a string and dropped my old brother back into his body. ‘Her name is Erika, and the kingdom is called Raphael- it’s a paradise, Karol, and I tried to hide it from you, because I knew that once it was infected by the rest of the world, it would be ruined.’

And the insults just kept coming! I shook my head, wondering if he had a chance of making it out of this room with his head anyway! ‘This kingdom… I don’t suppose it popped up where that colony was, that I sent you to investigate?’

But Kohén sighed. ‘I’m not telling you anything more than I have to, not until you’ve calmed down. Yes I tried to deceive you and yes, I know that you think that was wrong, but I know in my heart that I was doing the right thing, and that it’s not too late for you to do the right thing either, Karol, so put the sword down, sit down, and try to breathe, all right?’ he began to lower his hands. ‘This doesn’t have to end in bloodshed-’

‘Don’t tell me to calm down!’ I bellowed at him, and though they flinched when I roared, I did not flinch when Sam drew his gun because I knew that Kóhen would not let him shoot me. If he wanted me dead, my younger brother would have killed me already, but he didn’t have an assassin’s heart. ‘You never listened to me when I asked you to calm down, did you? You never took my advice at all- and look what happened to this family because of your determination to follow your heart the last time!’ I strode over to the corner and spilled the contents of the satchel onto the chair, eyes lighting up when I saw maps- a beautifully drawn, incredibly detailed series of maps, actually, and the moment I picked them up to study them, the Nephilim boy hissed through his teeth and cocked the hammer. ‘Well, what have we here? Answers to the questions that you refuse to answer?

‘Put those down, you bug of cum and pus!’ the Nephilim growled at me, but I saw Kohén disarm him and then drop to pick up the gun off the floor, just as I’d expected him to. ‘Hey! What the fuck?’

‘Don’t be a fool- he could get the location off the pilot from Tariel anyway-’

‘Not if he’s DEAD he won’t-’

‘Shut up! Both of you!’ I looked up from the map of the north with a racing heart. It looked like there was a lot more than a struggling colony there, but a kingdom as complete as our own, albeit a lot smaller. ‘What is this place? Who founded it?’

‘The archangel Raphael,’ Kohén said softly. ‘Their king, and a greater king I have never known!’

‘That better be because you don’t remember our father!’ I snarled at him. ‘Or is that a lie too?’

‘Karol-‘

‘I said shut up, and I meant it!’ I sifted through the papers, but the pages and pages of elegant scrawl were written in a language that I could not understand, so I sighed and tossed them back onto the chair, thinking that my brother had to be the biggest fool on earth if he believed that the archangel Raphael was still alive! ‘What of this girl then?’ I arched an eyebrow at him. ‘I suppose she’s the princess? Heaven reincarnated, maybe?’

‘No, actually she’s a Companion too, a refugee from Janiel.’

What?! I was sure that my eyes were about to explode out of their sockets, but he rushed forward again, holding up his hands.

‘She was not a deserter, Karol, she was kidnapped by pirates and rescued by another band of pirates that took her and the woman that she was kidnapped with there! If you don’t believe me, ask King Bronx and his son, Prince Philip! They will remember their stolen Companions, won’t they? They were both favourites and they have the brands to prove it, and if I remember correctly, their kidnapping was the reason why Companions were given tracking devices in the first place, yes?’

I made a face at Kohén. ‘Are you trying to tell me that you’ve fallen madly in love with a forty-something year old whore?’

But Kohén frowned. ‘No. Erika is only about my age-’ Sam groaned and I sucked in a breath, whirling on him.

‘That is not possible! Prince Philip of Mossgrove is a child of NINE, Kohén! So unless you’ve become a paedophile-’

‘What?!’ Kohén paled, looking to Sam, who had collapsed back against the wall and was groaning into his hands. ‘No! Erika’s a young woman, close to my age- and a more lovely, more captivating creature I have never known! I don’t know why she-’

The door burst open then, almost knocking Sam off his feet, and I stood up straighter when I saw General Alvarez march into the room. I blinked in confusion at the sight of him, for I hadn’t been expecting him back for days, but I was relieved that he was here- who better to subdue my lying little brother?

‘General Alvarez! I boomed, and saw Kohén cringe and shrink into himself. ‘What grand timing you have!’ I motioned for Kohén. ‘I need you to arrest Guardian Barachiel here, and his nasty little friend for-’

‘I’m sorry to interrupt, your highness,’ General Alvarez strode towards me, his expression grim. ‘But you made it clear that if Larkin Whittaker was found, I was to come to you immediately and-’

‘Of course!’ I dropped the maps back onto the chair and moved towards the General, giving him my complete focus as my heart palpitated with excitement. ‘Please tell me that is what you have come to say! I’m in great need of good news-’

‘I don’t think it’s good news, sire, but it’s certainly important,’ the general held out his hand and lying on his palm was a small, violet-coloured cylinder, the likes of which I’d held in my own palm numerous times before. However, this was the first time I’d seen an active one with my naked gaze, so the blinking light stunned me a little. ‘We followed the signal that was traced to Larkin Whittaker’s tracking device, your highness, but when we got there, the tracking device was all that we found.’ He rolled the cylinder over into my clammy, open hand. ‘It was tangled up with some ocean debris in the shallows of a beach near St Miguel, and there was no body with it or near it sir- no trace that feet had stepped onto that beach for years before ours. I don’t know if she’s still alive, but I am sorry to tell you that any chance we had of tracking her has most certainly perished.’

‘Oh… shit…’ Kohén said, as I closed my eyes and wondered if I’d inherited some of my father’s power too, because I certainly felt like I was heartbeats away from frying everyone in the room with my mind.’

‘I’m sorry,’ the general said again, stepping back. ‘I know what finding her meant to you...’

No he didn’t- no one did. No one knew that it was all I had lived for. No one knew that I would have given my life to find her again. ‘I-’

There was a sudden commotion, and my eyes sprung forward just as I saw the redheaded Nephilim spring forward and make a desperate grab for his bag of papers. He managed to collect all of them but two, but when I drew my sword and the General drew his gun, the man retreated, quick like a snake, leaving the papers that he’d missed on the ground. I shot forward now, holding my sword out while commanding the general to hold his fire, and picked up one of the loose pages of the floor, gasping when I turned it over and saw a true to life rendering of Larkin Whittaker captured on that page. In the illustration, she was standing in front of a beautiful palace in front of a turquoise lake, leaning her head on the shoulder of a man who’s face was fixed with an adoring smile. The man looked familiar to me, but I couldn’t quite place him, and when I dropped my eyes to read the inscription at the bottom of the page, my heart seized up.

‘Larkin of Aztaroth… and her father, Bastien Birch, take a moment to enjoy the splendour of their new paradise...?’ The words tasted like foreign objects that did not make sense together, and they must have sounded the same to Kohén because he looked over at the page (keeping his hands in the air) studied the illustration and then frowned, shaking his head.

‘That’s not… that’s Erika, the girl I…’

‘The girl you WHAT?’ I snarled, waving the paper madly, suddenly remembering what he’d said about how he’d gone two years without having sex with anyone. Had he meant that in the past tense, because he’d recently broken his dry spell? ‘Kissed? Flirted with? Was deceived by? Answer yes to any of those questions brother, but do NOT tell me you had unprotected sex with the evil queen of a rival nation because if you did, you have just FUCKED this kingdom harder than you did the last time you hurled your crown at her feet!’

‘No! No that’s not-’ but Kohén’s voice broke and he turned to Sam. ‘That’s not...’ and then his entire face seemed to concave, and when understanding lit his eyes, the urge to spill blood overcame me. ‘You lied to me!’ Kohén balled his fists and suddenly, blue torrents of electricity were crawling over every inch of his flesh. ‘Was this a planned entrapment? Were you to kill me on the way home? Or was I to be batted around by her after my return, like a cat with a mouse?’

The Nephilim boy had three sets of eyes burning into him, but instead of falling to his knees in surrender, he merely shrugged. ‘It wasn’t planned, not at all. A lot of improvisation had to go into pulling off that masquerade!’ He grinned at Kohén, slinging the bag over his shoulder. ‘But my God, it was quite the party wasn’t it? When our queen does something- she goes all out!’ His expression soured. ‘Even if it means throwing herself onto your toxic sword for the good of others- again!’

And then before anyone could react, he charged across the room, and went crashing straight through the plate glass window, just as I had.

‘Fuck!’ General Alvarez didn’t understand half of what Kohén and I did, so he had more wits and reflexes about him. He ran over to the window, peered down at the ground and then to my absolute horror… slowly looked up. He turned to us, his expression one of disbelief. ‘Holy shit, your majesty- he’s flying away! With wings, just like hers!’

I looked at Kohén, and he looked at me and for the longest time, that was all either of us could do. General Alvarez began asking questions and pacing, but neither of us heard a word he said, so locked were we in our united state of grief and disbelief and hate. That changed when Ora Camden appeared in the door though, and screamed at the sight of the glass.

‘What happened?’ she demanded, running over to the window while clutching her hand to her chest. ‘My God! We have to put bars on these things!’ She spun around, her lovely face contorted with shock. ‘Someone say something! Tell me what happened?’

I didn’t have an exact answer for her, but neither did Kohén, so I reached down and picked up the other piece of paper that had been left behind, and snorted when I saw it was one of the ones covered with foreign words. ‘I don’t know for sure… but you scored well on your PCE, Ora so tell me… do you know anything about the name Erika? It’s Origin? It’s meaning? Does it have any demonic connotations at all?’

Ora frowned. ‘Demonic? Why no…it’s an old Nordic name, means something along the lines of ‘Eternal Ruler,’ or possibly ‘Ever Powerful,’ or ‘Sole Queen,’ Kóhen moaned while Ora’s entire face screwed up. ‘Why? What does that have to do with anything?’

‘Quite a lot.’ I clicked my fingers toward Kohén, and though he looked startled, the general stepped forward and grabbed the crowned prince’s hands pulling them behind his back. Kohén did not fight him and he did not even look at me- he merely stared at the ground until a tear rolled out of his eye and onto the floor. I saw it fall, but I had no sympathy for him, not anymore.

I also saw that I’d been stupid to ever have felt anything for him or for Larkin at all.

‘...But I’m pleased to inform you that Larkin Whittaker has been found at long last.’ I looked Ora dead in the eye and said coldly. ‘And she is not only every bit as evil as I said that she was, but more, and as soon as I’ve found a ship that’s suitable to sail into the north- she will be arrested as Kohén has been, but sentenced to death by fire! Not only because she’s a witch, but because fire is the only thing that could possibly cleanse the earth of such a wicked influence!’ I walked out of the room, but paused back to sneer at Kóhen, who was whispering prayers fervently while tears streamed down his cheeks. ‘That includes her ill-gotten child too, Prince Of Nothingness, so if you’re going to pray for anything, pray that her uterus was inhospitable with your royal seed, or that I find her before she starts showing, because if she’s pregnant when I find her, your first child will go up in flames with her, and there’s not a man on this earth that will have the strength, power or the inclination, to prevent it!’ I looked away, feeling foul inside for my threat, but knowing that there was no way around it. Perhaps my family had encouraged this evil to germinate in the world again, but as the king of all that mattered in the world, it was up to me to stop it from spreading any farther than it already had- even if it meant killing everyone in my own family to do it- including myself once it was done- to see it through. ‘Not even God himself.’

And then I left the room and headed for the basement, to cry on my mother’s shoulder as I had every day for the past two years. Only this time, I was afraid that I would weep blood.

-End-

I hope you enjoyed book #4 in The Eden Chronicles, The Wildest Woods. Thank you SO MUCH for reading my 20th published novel!

Book #5, The Fallen Forest, will be out later in 2017!

If you’ve enjoyed reading the series please leave a review on either amazon.com or Goodreads!

Adult Titles by S.K Munt

The Fairytail Saga

#1 The Marked Ones

#2 Three Rings

#3 Heads Or Tails

#4 Stained Glass

The Kissed By A Muse Trilogy

#1 Unchained Melody

#2 Turn The Page

#3 More Than Words

The Highway to Never After

#1 Palpitations

#2 Sanguivorous

#3 Kinemortophobia

#4 Thanatophobia

The Harlequin Bros Legacy

#1 The Harlequin Doll

The Eden Chronicles

#1 The Given Garden

#2 The Forbidden Fruit

#3 The Wildest Woods

4#The Tangled Trees

Young-Adult Titles

The Siren Song Quartet

# 1 The Legasea

#2 The Turning Tide

#3 The Maelstrom

Urchin

(Prequel to the Fairytail Saga)

All titles available through Amazon Kindle.

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Table of Contents

- The

- The Eden Chronicles #4

- S.K MUNT

- The Eden Chronicles

- PART ONE

- 1.

- 2.

- 3.

- 4.

- 5.

- 6.

- 7.

- 8.

- 9.

- PART TWO

- 10.

- 11.

- 12.

- 13.

- 14.

- 15.

- 16.

- 17.

- 18.

- 19.

- 20.

- 21.

- 22.

- PART THREE

- 23.

- 24.

- 25.

- 26.

- 27.

- 28.

- 29.

- 30.

- 31.

- PART FOUR

- 32.

- 33.

- 34.

- 35.

- 36.

- 37.

- 38.

- 39.

- 40.

- 41.

- 42.

- 43.

- 44.

- 45.

- Epilogue