Forgotten fates part two.., p.22
Forgotten Fates: Part Two: A Forbidden Realms Novel, page 22
Lose himself until there was nothing left but lust and corruption.
She grabbed his hair hard, yanking him down.
Just like…
Amara.
He groaned and threw off her hands, jumping back.
That did it. What the fuck was he thinking?
He had to wait a moment for his breathing to even out, her sapphire eyes as glazed over as his brain felt.
Snap the fuck out of this.
“Your brother is a much better kisser,” he said with a smirk.
Her head jerked back minutely, something like disgust flashing through her eyes—gone in an instant before her expression turned murderous.
Something throbbed inside of him at the sight of it. He was such a raw bundle of emotion right now, it was hard to distinguish what the feeling was.
Far better for this one to stay away from him.
Her hand gripped his throat, fingers digging into his windpipe. He felt the tip of her sword pressing against his gut.
“Kill me, love. Do it.” He closed his eyes. “They’ll strip your wings and toss you in the pits.”
“They’ll thank me. For ridding the realms of disgusting filth like you.” Her fingers tightened around his windpipe, choking off his air.
Filth. For some reason, he always loathed that word but hearing the angel speak it angered him.
Sordes
“Stay on that self-righteous high horse of yours,” he gasped, “you upset the balance and…” Her fingers squeezed cutting off his air entirely. Damn it all, he didn’t want to have to hurt her.
“Cut off the head of the snake, another will rise up in its place,” she snarled. Her hand eased, his hand grabbed her wrist, pulling it away from his neck.
He leaned in close, more to discomfit her than anything. “You could always have my father return, love. Do you have any clue the atrocities he is capable of?”
Cass rubbed his throat where her nails had dug tiny stinging cuts in.
Her eyes moved over his face, filling with sympathy.
He snarled and stepped away from her. “Don’t. You don’t look at me with pity. You’re the one who should be pitied, forever having to follow the dictates of a higher power, trapped in your own righteous little world.” He kept stepping back. She was a dangerous lure.
Her eyes narrowed. “And you’re not trapped up there on your throne, all alone?” Her teeth were bared, hand on her sword hilt.
“I assume you can find your own way home?” He said, backing away from her and calling up the portal at the same time. “I’ll give Jez’Piel your regards. Don’t bother us again.”
He stepped through the gate and closed it behind him, letting out a roar of fury.
Jez ran up to him, hands on his shoulders, checking him over for injuries. When he found none, he sighed with relief.
“Your sister,” Cass said, jaw grinding, “is an infuriating little witch.”
“She came here?” Jez’s eyes widened. “Cass I’m sorry. We’re all each other had. It was always me, Sid and her.”
“She still feels you?” He sighed, resting his forehead on Jez’s shoulder. Hells, but they were a combined disaster.
“We’re biological siblings, we shared a womb. I suppose we’ll always have an attachment.” Jez’s arm wrapped around his shoulders and pulled him in closer.
“You really do still have ties to the celestial courts then. All the Hells.” Cass chuckled softly.
Jez shuddered in a deep breath, burying his own face in Cass’s neck. “When you go to see your Priestess can I come along? I… really miss her.”
“You miss my Mara?” Cass teased lightly, knowing full well Jez was speaking of Dravite. “I don’t think she wants to see me.”
“I think she lives for it.”
“You didn’t see the look on her face when she ran from me.” Cass closed his eyes, willing away the memory.
“True, but you never see the look on her face when you turn away from her.”
Azadiel cleared his throat as he walked into the room, but neither Cass nor Jez made a move to part.
“Barbatos has sent an envoy,” Azadiel said moving in closer. “They’re awaiting you in the Hall.”
“Envoy? We’ll head out there,” Cass mumbled. “Coming along?”
Jez snorted. “Whatever it takes to keep my mind off shit for a few moments.”
“We’re not going to lose another fucking thing,” Cass growled.
A MATTER OF PUBLIC OPINION
He lay out on the chaise, opening his heavy book and resting it on his chest and tried to get lost in the story. Hiding away in the library because his rooms had become a regular social hall.
Barbatos had sent him a concubine, and lovely though the Erinyes was, he wasn’t sure if it was meant as some sly mockery of his falling out with the priestess.
His mind was still reeling, trying to piece things together. She’d left him. Hadn't even given him a chance to explain. It just wasn’t like her.
“I thought you’d be in here,” Azadiel spoke as he walked into the room and moved to stand fully in front of Cass before pulling a chair around to the left of him.
“Yeah,” Cass sighed. “Came to get some privacy.” He lay his book on his chest and shot the demon a look.
Az sighed and leaned forward, resting his arms on his knees.
“You can’t keep her here, Cass.” Azadiel spoke of Leira. “You’re sending the wrong message unless your intention is to have all the realms believe she’s to be your future consort.”
“Fuck no.” Cass blew out a breath and ran his hand into his hair. “Is she still going on about that?” His brows drew together, anger and confusion warring.
“You know the warlocks believe that. They were ready to war over it,” Az said, turning to focus from the stone around Cass’s neck back to the blazing hearth.
Cass watched a log roll and the flames flare up. “Is that what she believes?”
Azadiel’s expression was understanding when he turned back. He knew whom Cass spoke of.
“I think she got the point you were a little miffed that the Erinyes wore her ring.”
Cass’s hand trailed down to his pocket, patting it, assuring himself that the ring was still safe within. A memory briefly flared, another object in his pocket he obsessively checked for. A silk ribbon that stretched the length of his palm perfectly from thumb to tip of his pinky finger. He always rubbed it across, from the center out…
“A little.” Cass stared into the flames, willing his memory to surface. “I don’t recall ever feeling rage like that. Do you think I’ll be like him? Will a child even be safe around me?”
“You’re not him Cass.” Az leaned forward to rest his hand on Cass’s shoulder. “I didn’t know how bad it was… how often... I should’ve done more.”
Cass shook his head. “He made sure no one knew the worst of it. No one knew about Bas…”
Azadiel grabbed his hand back and hung his head. “Everyone knew about Basileus. There is no hiding the nature of that beast.”
Cass flinched back, closing his eyes and turning his head, shame heating his cheeks. “I didn’t know better. Didn’t know I was allowed to say no.”
“Do you really think your father would’ve left you untutored? You’re the Prince of Lust, Cassius. If that had gone unchecked…”
He bit his lip, keeping the snappish comment held back.
“So.” Cass took in a deep breath, trying to step back from the depths of the intimacy they were toeing. “Where do I send her? Back to Barbatos?”
“Not unless you intend to give up your rights to the child?”
“No. She’s mine and I’ll keep her here.” He ran his fingers up and down the spine of his book. “I’ll just need help. I need to know that someone is watching out for her and if I ever start to be like him… this is why I never wanted any. I can’t trust myself. I never had a good example.”
Az sucked in a sharp breath and turned his head, staring off blankly into the flames. “Do you think your Herald would leave you alone in this?”
He was right. He had Jez. Who better to keep a demon in line than an angel who was once a warrior?
“I can bring her to my apartment in France.” Cass groaned internally. His sacred space. His hideaway. “Might do her some good to get away from the Nessus.”
“You need her away from you Cass. Give yourself some time to get your head together.”
Cass just nodded, his thoughts already gone to what arrangements would need to be made.
UNSPOKEN PROMISES
The monotonous voices of the warlock nobles droned on, and on...
For the last fifty minutes, Amara and her order had been stuck in negotiations, where demands were being made and countered. ‘We do not need the demons’, seemed to be the subtext behind every word they uttered. Proving just how little they knew.
Asurim wasn’t strong enough to be self-sustaining, hadn’t been for centuries. Since ascending the throne and taking her place as High Priestess, she’d worked tirelessly in her effort to replenish what power she could, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the infernal energy which fed their own magick.
Warlocks needed magick, magick required energy, and Asurim no longer possessed any of its own. It had at one point, until it had been depleted, quite possibly leaving the realm’s power source extinguished permanently. In order for Asurim to survive they needed the demons, there was no way around that fact. A fact some of her subjects were hellbent to ignore.
She heard the whispers and murmurs around the temple, knew the word going around, spread by insurrectionists who needed to be dealt with. Among her own people, there were those who felt she didn’t deserve to wear the crown placed upon her head. Some going as far as to declare her allying with a demon king an act of treason to their kind who had until recently been subjugated by the demonarchy.
They didn’t know how different the son was from his father. Cassius had been just and compassionate when it mattered, the sin-eater carried those traits within him still. Asmodeus had failed in that regard, he had sought to turn his son into a copy, instead, the sin-eater surpassed him. She cared for her people, but they were wrong about the demon king, and about her.
Back and forth it went, Oberith was red in the face with the effort of restraining his temper. Ravanna wasn’t holding back, her cutting tongue a valuable asset on days like these. Amara would usually speak up and make her will be known, but not today, somehow she couldn’t dredge up enough energy to care. How much more could she stand to lose?
She was paying attention, sort of, but after a while, it grew difficult to keep her heavy eyes open. Her sleep was plagued by nightmares still. The last few nights she’d woken bathed in sweat, her voice raw from screaming. And after cleaning herself up, she had simply been too afraid to go back to sleep. Memories could be beautiful, and they could be devastating. But the ones which haunted her most frequently were the ones capable of destroying her.
It was the acceptance of inevitable defeat within the glowing embers of his eyes. It was the tears streaming down his cheeks. It was his heart-wrenching screams… he died that night, and Amara had died every night since.
Ever since Namtar had come to claim Maleficus, she had dreamed of death, his death.
Cassius.
The events of that night kept bleeding into Namtar taking the boy. Maleficus hadn’t understood — but Cassius? He’d been broken.
The voices of the nobles and her Dominae slowly faded into background noise as darkness pulled her in.
She’d been ready to die, accepting the bitter truth she’d die imprisoned, alone and forgotten. Cassius had found her and begged her not to give up. With the promise of a life by his side, she’d grown desperate to live. Convinced that one day they would live out the future he’d described, the details layering and growing richer as the years passed.
A life together, free, no responsibilities and tied solely to one another.
He’d asked for her faith, her trust. She gave him everything. In her eyes, there was nothing he couldn’t do. Cassius had promised to one day set her free, so she knew that one day she would be.
For him, she would survive Hell. For their future, she would conquer any obstacle placed in their way. Together they would vanquish any who would dare stop them.
“Just you and me...”
He was kissing her fingers through the iron bars, her own arm stretched out as far as she could reach, her fingers twirling around the rogue strand of dark hair curling against his forehead. She desperately wanted to bury her hands in that beautiful hair of his and lazily stroke through its length. One day she’d be able to.
“Tell me again how it’ll be out there.”
His eyes held hers, the pain they’d reflected from his father’s latest punishment dulled. She’d taken his pain, had fed from him until he eased, and groans of agony had become moans of need.
Any time she took from him it left him starved, the pain claiming all his energy while replenishing hers. He taught her how to feed him in turn. He’d promised she would like it—he’d been right. This is how they both survived, how they kept each other from breaking.
Any time they were together, they would ease and comfort the other, sharing pleasure and pain, sharing all they had to offer with the other, dreaming of their future. This is how they became each other’s keepers. An unspoken promise, but one Mara would never break.
“We’ll run and hide among the mortals, they won’t ever find us. You’ll sleep in my arms every night.”
Suddenly the tip of her finger disappeared inside his mouth, the gentle suck and slick heat doing funny things inside her belly, her lips parting on a gasp when she began to grow achy and wet between her legs.
“You’re sure this is normal?”
Her surprise turned to pleasure as she caught the excitement reflected within his ebony depths. “It’s wonderfully rare, Mara, it means your body already knows you’re mine.”
Pride filled her at his words, she was his, would always be his. “And one day, I want to make you mine alone, Cass. When I’m free, I won’t let them have you anymore, I’ll protect you.”
His face scrunched up, the heat of his mouth leaving her, and she knew he was thinking of his special training. Of the acts the concubines and Basileus were forcing upon his body. It had taken some convincing, but eventually, he told her, shared his shame and grief and she’d cried. Tears his father wouldn’t let him shed without harsh punishment, she spilled for him.
Thanks to Cassius, Amara had begun to understand a little about love, about caring for another beyond oneself. In her five by five cell, she had plenty of time to think and had come to the conclusion that what Basileus and the harem demons were doing to Cassius couldn’t be love.
Perhaps there were different kinds of it, kinds she didn’t understand yet. It seemed wrong, and Cassius said it felt wrong. Then how could it be right? The day would come in which she would rescue Cassius, she would take him away from them. And while hiding together in Gaia she’d make sure no one would ever again touch him against his will. She would cherish him, protect him as if he were her very own treasure.
“You’ll become my wife, it can’t be anyone else for me.”
The sudden declaration yanked her out of her thoughts. She wasn’t sure she heard him right. A binding was sacred, it was forever, and he wanted to bind himself to her?
She must’ve looked as frazzled as she felt and judging by his stricken expression, he’d taken her stunned silence for a rejection.
“You… don’t want me? I know it’ll be difficult, but…”
A soft sob passed her lips before she could hold it back, her body pressed tightly against the iron bars as she tried to reach for him, needing to feel him.
“I want... I want you, I want to keep you always.”
What she wouldn’t give at that moment to have her first real kiss from him, to finally know how his lips would feel against hers. Instead, he pressed his thumb against his lips, then reached out beyond the bars to brush his kiss upon hers. She did the same, sharing their own kiss to seal a promise made.
In that instant, a miracle occurred within the heart of Hell itself. For amidst the suffering, misery, and despair, they shared a true moment of happiness.
“I’ll never leave you, assat-shi.”
“And I’ll never let you go, veus meu.”
Each word surged through her as they became a sacred vow made in the dark. She felt Cass shiver lightly against her touch, his own breath catching, he’d felt it too.
“You won’t be the first, they took that choice from me, but I am yours, my amata. And when we get out of here, when we’re finally free, you’re going to place your mark on me, and I’m going to devour you slowly until every inch of you bears my mark.”
Her body heated with just a few simple words…dark gods…the way he said them.
He would be her first, her last, her only. And she vowed to erase everything that hellish scum forced upon him. She would reclaim his body, restore his pride and dignity and undo the damage they’d done. He belonged to her now; she belonged to him, and one day she would make right the wrongs that had been done to her Cassius.
Somehow, he must’ve known what she had been thinking, and he smiled at her. His smile was so beautiful it still stole her breath away, even after all this time...
“One day, we’ll have a real family together, and we’ll be sure to love them and not hurt them.”
She looked up in surprise. “You want children?”
His gaze burned her as if he was trying to imprint the image of their future together into her mind.
“Only if they’re with you. I want my children to have your eyes.”
She cursed the iron bars for keeping them apart when all she wanted to do was disappear into his embrace. “Only if they have your smile, my demon.”
He leaned into her touch, and she could feel the need and longing radiate from him, matching her own. “You and I Mara, nothing will ever stop us…”
The comforting darkness was gone too suddenly, leaving her gasping for air as she tried to cling to the memory, not ready to let go just yet. She felt disoriented when her eyes met Dominus Berith’s concerned gaze. The sigil on her palm burned hotly.
