9
I couldn’t help my reaction to him as I tore my hand from his and dug my heels into the couch so that I could move back, putting space between us. I lifted my hand up to my pounding chest as if feeling the beating of my heart beneath my palm would bring me comfort in knowing I was still alive in this world.
“Wh…what did you just say?” I asked in a tone that was barely above a whisper. Draven looked as though something was trying to reach him in his mind, as though he was chasing a memory and in a flash, it was gone. He shook his head as if this would help in bringing it back or getting rid of it, I didn’t know.
“I…I don’t know what just happened,” he admitted, and the sound of his uncertain voice made my body relax, knowing that none of this was his fault. So, I decided to be honest with him.
“Janus told me you wouldn’t remember.” My voice was so quiet, it almost seemed far away. As if shouting the words across the sea and through a storm. Looking down at the space between us now and the heavy emotions playing out in Draven’s eyes, then those words seemed closer to the truth than I would have liked.
“Are you telling me what I think you are telling me, Keira?” he asked as if almost afraid to, for fear of what my answer maybe this time. I nodded and said,
“I met the God Janus when coming back, it’s why the others arrived before I did, that and…” I faltered a moment when thinking back to the devastating look of agony on Draven’s face just before I left his world. Draven looked at me as though he knew…as if he himself had felt it but he didn’t say anything, not even when I finished off my painful sentence. No, his reaction was enough.
“…and I was saying goodbye.” I saw him wince as he closed his eyes and his muscles tensed. In that moment I had no clue as to what he was thinking. I tried to place myself in his shoes. Just how many times since he had known of me had he been forced to say goodbye in one way or another? How many times had he had to endure the pain of leaving me or watching me being ripped away from his side? At the very beginning he had done nothing but vow to protect me and for a man like Draven, to know he had only failed at this time and time again looked to be eating him up inside.
I watched as he once more found solace in cradling his head in his hands as he bent over to place his elbows to his knees. I watched as he ran his hands through his hair, stopping so he could fist them, holding himself as if tortured. So, I did the only thing I knew I could do to help him. I slipped off the couch and lowered myself in front of him on my knees then I rose up enough to hold his face in both hands. I placed my forehead to his and told him with tears in my eyes,
“I am so, so sorry for what I did, Dominic.”
After saying this to him his reaction was sure and swift, for he grabbed me under the arms and lifted me into his embrace. There he held me to him, fisting his hands in my sweater as if any moment the Gods themselves were going to come in here and take me away from him.
“You are never to leave me again… do you hear me…never!” He told me this through gritted teeth and a demonic growl, one I would have been stupid not to take seriously.
“And you, do I also get this promise from you?” I asked him, knowing that he wasn’t the only one that needed to hear the vow being made. He pulled back slightly so he could look at me from his tight embrace.
“I left you once and it ripped apart my heart and tore at my soul, both of which were only pieced back together once you were mine again…I could never leave you, for next time there would be no pieces left to fix…no…next time I fear…well, I fear that it would simply kill me,” he told me holding my face and commanding my eyes with his intense gaze. The second his last words were free I couldn’t bear the weight of his dark thoughts any longer. I closed my eyes and found tears falling, cascading over my lashes as the emotions were too great to handle without showing the evidence.
“So yes, this I can promise you, Keira,” he told me after using both his thumbs to wipe away the pain his words had caused. I opened my eyes just in time to see him tasting one from his thumb as if this would help in taking the hurt away.
“Now it is your turn,” he commanded me, and I nodded, not trusting my voice from not breaking in that moment.
“I need your words, my love,” he whispered over my cheek before giving into the impulse to kiss it. I swallowed down the heavy lump in my throat and tried first testing my voice, surprised to find it was still there at all.
“I…I promise never to leave you again, Draven.”
And it was done.
In that moment we had both admitted our greatest fears and had them cast into the nightmare world that was full of our past tortures. We had given each other a peace that was only found in a promise spoken aloud, so that it may be heard and stored away to be kept forever.
He closed his eyes as he bottled up my words, sealed them and then cast them into the sea of his mind, no doubt praying they were never to be needed again.
Once this had passed, then came the time for difficult conversations as I knew if we were ever going to do this then now was the time. Not tomorrow or next week or even a year from now. No, we had both declared a promise to each other that today marked a change for us both. No more secrets and no more lies we’d both labelled as protection. Now was the time for honesty and I knew that it started with me.
“I went back in time with the sole purpose to get pregnant as I was led to believe that it was the only way to prevent the end of the world,” I said bravely, taking the first terrifying step.
Draven listened to me and even though I knew he tried very hard not to react to make it easier on me, I could still see it. Every time he tensed his shoulders or that grinding of his teeth seen as a tick in his strong jawline. But I also knew that he needed this as I did, so I continued.
“I lied to you yesterday, when I said I let it lead me down a path in hopes of finding the outcome to be part of the Fates’ plan. I knew why I was sent back…of course even that turned out to be wrong,” I said with a small laugh that was void of humour.
“Why didn’t you tell me about the baby?” he asked, and I gave him a sad smile in return before answering him.
“I wanted you to be happy, but then I knew you would see it as a sign that I would die because of it. I just could bear to see your devastation because of the life I now carry inside me…I just…” I couldn’t finish and when Draven took both my hands in his I knew that I didn’t have to.
“I understand and maybe even that too was fated.”
“What do you mean?” I asked frowning.
“Well, who knows how differently things would have played out if I had known…I am sometimes rash and hasty in my decisions, which could have meant a different future.” One look at my face told him that he needed to explain this further. He raked a frustrated hand through his hair once before coming right out and saying it.
“If I had known Keira, then I would not have married you that day.” Hearing this I bolted up, my back going tense as if someone had zapped me with an electric wire. His eyes homed in on my chest as I now found myself clutching my heart as though he had just crushed it with his own fist. He looked pained by the sight.
“Hear me out, please,” Draven said in a stern voice when I started shaking my head in disbelief.
“How could you…”
“Keira, listen to me! I wouldn’t have married you that day because I would have simply picked you up, against your will no doubt, and carried you back to Afterlife. Once there I would have flown you to my cave and left you there for your protection. Your life means more to me than vows spoken in front of mortal people or the Gods they trust. It means more to me that my own life or those of my people! And knowing that the reason you might die because of the foolish choices you made, then it would have forced my hand in making my own choices…ones you would not have liked.” I couldn’t believe what he was saying.
“You wouldn’t have…you…” I started to say but my words felt like lies the second they were formed by my trembling lips…his look alone told me that.
“Oh, you may have hated me for it at the time but at least you would have been alive to feel the compulsion to do so!” he snapped ceasing my argument and daring me to challenge what I knew was a losing fight.
“But none of that matters now as the Fates accomplished only one thing.”
“And that is?” I almost feared to ask.
“That we were all wrong.” I thought on his words for a moment and he was right. Nothing either of us had set out to do had been for the reasons we first thought, yet the outcome was all we could have ever asked for.
“Everything that happened to us…every single…”
“…last grain of sand built the shores in which we fought upon. The second you came into my life, it was as if our story was written before it was even told. If Lucius hadn’t taken you, if the Triple Goddess had never happened, then he wouldn’t have found himself in love enough to change you into what you were always destined to become. You would have plunged that dagger into your heart and it would have ripped your vessel apart before the blood of a God had chance to take hold.” He told me all of this as if he had spent the entire night playing it out in his head.
“And you…if you hadn’t died in my mind, then I would never have come looking for you.” I added in awe.
“If you hadn’t fought your way through the darkness, like a flickering candle in the night searching for me, then all the moths you collected along the way wouldn’t have followed you into battle.” I shook my head and disagreed.
“No, surely they would have fought…” Once again, he interrupted me.
“They fought for you Keira, not for me,” he said sounding so sure.
“But you are their King,” I argued but he just shook his head and told me,
“A King does not fight for another King, but they would fight for their rightful Queen, one who is prophesied to aid them when finding their own.” This made me gasp and my first instinct was to deny it. But Draven placed his hand on mine, squeezed it once and said,
“Think about it.” So, I did. I thought back to all that had happened when everything started to fit together like some endless jigsaw puzzle that wasn’t yet finished. One that’s image appeared first from its centre, not it edges.
There was the girl on the plane, one I knew was destined somehow for Sigurd. Even her warning all that time ago was fated to be heard. Then there was RJ, who was my first friend here and the one thrust into this supernatural life by my doing. I knew her own destiny lay with Seth in some way, but how and why, well that was her journey to take.
And now there was Ari. A girl thrown into my life for what felt like since the beginning. But in reality, it hadn’t yet even been a year. A sister to me in every sense of the word, but lacking so only by blood. She was meant to be with Vincent, for there was little doubt of that from where I stood. Her own doubt however, well no one could account for her reasons to distrust this, other than her own tormented mind.
I didn’t know how or who, but I knew even Jared and Lucius were linked with me in some way. For what other reasons were there for the connection we shared? Lucius was someone I had fallen in love with despite fighting the constant battle of my own heart and now I knew why. It was written in our destiny…no, not mine anymore…but his.
“I see now it has started to all fit into place.” I nodded looking at Draven to see him struggling with this himself and when he spoke I now knew why.
“I once told you that I didn’t share, but I guess the joke is on me for I ended up having to share you with everyone involved in this damn prophecy!” I couldn’t help but laugh a little and when I did, he shot me an incredulous look.
“Tell me you’re not laughing at this,” he warned with no malice to be wary of.
“Maybe just a little,” I confessed making him growl, but then I jumped at him, taking him off guard as he caught me. Then I lay half across him and told him something I knew he would very much like to hear.
“Yes, that may have been true, but do you want to know the best bit?” I asked him, running a fingertip across his straight annoyed lips. He didn’t reply with words but with a little nod of his head.
“Now it’s finished you no longer have to share me anymore, for I am all yours… today…tomorrow and… forevermore,” I said kissing him in between each word, until the very last was consumed by his own kiss.
After this I shared with him everything that had happened since leaving the hotel and passing through the Janus Gate. I knew most of it was hard for him to hear and the beginning was most probably the worst. Hearing how I was attacked meant the next set of questions asked were done so by his Demon side.
However, I continued and realised he had only calmed slightly by the time my tale got me to Draven’s side, even if he was strangely jealous to hear it.
“I am surprised I didn’t just pick you up and take you to my bedchamber, keeping you behind lock and key,” he commented sounding surprised.
“You didn’t know I was your Chosen One at the time remember,” I informed him, but his huffed laugh had me soon frowning in question.
“That wouldn’t have mattered, Keira,” he told me as if I should already know this.
“Well, if it helps I think if Ranka hadn’t intervened then you most likely would have, even against the strong wishes of your sister,” I replied, and his look of acknowledgement told me that this was another part of the story he knew.
“Sophia was very different back then. She didn’t yet know what it was like to love,” was his argument. I laughed myself this time making him raise an eyebrow my way.
“And what may I enquire do you find so funny?”
“Only that she said the same thing about you…it seems you were both destined at some point to argue the point for one another.” Draven nodded his head slightly, taking note of my words.
“It’s true, that before you I had no clue what it meant to love or to watch yourself fall without the aid of my wings to catch me. Back then I was a selfish being that simply took what I wanted and thought I had the right to, thanks to my high position of power…I see now of course, what a fool I had been.” I blushed at his admission and couldn’t help but bite my lip because of how sweet it sounded. To be the first person Draven had ever fallen in love with was a gift I was blessed to have bestowed upon me by the Gods… that and I was one lucky bitch!
“You’d better continue on with your story before I give in to the urge to strip you of that beautiful look of innocence and make a meal out of your body again…doing so sinfully,” he warned on a growl and my blush only managed to deepen. I almost felt like pushing him but as he had said, time was not on our side and I had a feeling Draven wasn’t letting me out of this room until he was satisfied.
So, with this in mind, I continued on, telling him of my short time in his harem. I was at least grateful that he had the inclination to look uncomfortable when hearing how I felt about first encountering his room full of waiting and willing beauties.
“Come now, for I know full well that once I first laid my fortunate eyes on you, that no other had the power to take them away from you and that beautiful and enticing body of yours.”
“And how would you know that exactly, as I don’t recall you hitch hiking a ride back to the past with us?” I teased.
“I may not have been there Keira, but I know enough of myself and my past character to know that one look at you and I would have considered myself a claimed man.” I couldn’t keep the grin from my face hearing this.
“Maybe that’s why you got so pissed off when I ran from you,” I said dropping my next bombshell. Draven looked shocked for a moment and by the looks of him clenching his fists, then I would say that the very thought of it was something Draven would always struggle with.
“Undoubtedly so, I can imagine I was as murderous as I usually am now, and I can promise you, two thousand years of etiquette, laws and high society would not change that impulse.”
“No?” I challenged, and his lips curled up in a bad boy grin before he commented,
“No, now I am just better at hiding the bodies.” I laughed at his joke, silently praying it was just that…a joke.
“So, tell me my little time travelling intruder, what did I do when I caught you?” he asked almost humming the question my way as I could see that no doubt he liked the idea of chasing me. Well, if that mischievous glint in his eyes was anything to go by.
“Who said that you caught me?” I challenged making him give me a disbelieving look.
“You are fooling no one sweetheart, if you try and have me believe that I wouldn’t have caught you, for I know from experience that I would have torn apart my whole damn city in order to find you. So, tell me what happened when I did, I can image there were chains involved.” I thought back to that time and shuddered before saying,
“Oh yeah, there were definitely chains involved.” He gave me a look that told me he was getting impatient to know so I decided to tell him…his reaction of course, was the very last one I would have expected. He started laughing.
“Why are you laughing, Draven?! I was terrified!” I shouted smacking him on the arm.
“Oh, sweetheart you were never in any danger. I would have undoubtedly cut off my own arm before seeing you hurt in any way,” he told me running his fingers down my own arm after pushing my sleeve up and out of his way.
“But you were going to have me whipped!” I argued but he just shook his head.
“No, I was an angry King who was dealing with a mortal girl I was in love with and had claimed as mine. One, who in my eyes, needed to be taught a lesson in what would happen if she tried to escape me again. I did it to frighten you love, that is all.” I thought on what he was saying and when I must have looked even more confused he asked,
“This whip, did you once feel its bite upon your skin?”
“No, because you got in the way and took the hit,” I told him, but his eyes told me that he already knew the answer to this.
“As was always my intention. I gather at the time I was also trying to get you to explain to me the reasons for your attempted escape?” He raised both his eyebrows this time expectantly.
“Well yeah, but I refused to tell you.” He laughed and commented to himself,
“Of course, you did.” I decided to ignore that comment, as let’s face it, he had dealt with enough frustrating ‘Stubborn Keira’ moments in the last few years so it wasn’t as if he didn’t know what he was talking about.
“I would ask what happened next, but I think I have a fairly good idea.” I folded my arms across my chest and said a cocky,
“Oh yeah, you think so, do you?”
“Well, to begin with I would have kept you in those chains, raised your shackled hands over my neck and carried you from the harem making sure it was the last time you ever saw it!” he told me firmly, shackling my wrists with both hands so he could yank me closer to him, making his point. He knew when he saw me swallow hard and look anywhere but at his eyes, that he had his answer…damn him and his cocky all-knowing ass!
“What happened next, Keira?” he asked in a hard tone, obviously thinking he was getting closer to the part that would make him jealous. He still had hold of me as if letting me go now would mean so much more than just a space between us on the couch.
“I don’t know, why don’t you tell me seeing as you are so good at this,” I snapped unable to help myself.
“Well, I can very well imagine that considering the bounty I had secured in my arms…” he said pausing as he lifted my arms still imprisoned in his masterful hold before continuing,
“…I most likely carried you off to a private room in my palace, somewhere that we couldn’t be disturbed.” The strain it looked like it took for him to say this made me feel bad for him. The second he let me go and sat back I ran a frustrated hand through my hair.
“You know technically speaking here, you also kind of had sex with a different version of me, so I would say we are…” I was about to finish when Draven thought to do it for me…again.
“Don’t you dare say even, as that was not the same thing, Keira,” he stressed to get through to me, but I wouldn’t be deterred.
“No, you’re right, I went back in time and slept with your younger, more barbaric self and you slept with me when I believed myself to be someone different…tell me Draven, where exactly do you want to draw the line in the sand here, because I think at some point, we both stepped over it?” I knew I had made my point when I heard him sigh, inhaling deep and only letting it go when he had to. For long moments he didn’t speak but I knew I had won him over when I watched his gaze soften.
“Come here.,” he ordered gently, and I had to admit that I loved the way he could issue a demand and still do so with a tender tone that should have counteracted his authoritative nature. Instead however, it simply strengthened it in a way that also showed his love for me. For there was only one person Draven was like this with and yes, once again I found myself thinking, I was that lucky bitch!
“There is that frustrating logic of yours again,” he told me once I had shifted closer so that he could play with my fingers, as was another habit of his.
“Yes, and one that will be forced upon you many times over no doubt, as I hear an eternity is known to be quite long,” I said teasing him with this last part as I reached up to whisper it in his ear. His chest rumbled, and I could tell by his smile that he certainly liked the sound of this.
“Now you can answer me something,” I said.
“Well, it seems I can deny you nothing, so ask away, little wife.” He laughed when I growled at my new nickname.
“I think I prefer vixen,” I grumbled making him laugh. Then he pulled me closer and spoke over my cheek,
“Ask me your question, sweetheart.” This time I smiled knowing he had said this in place of the ‘little wife’ comment.
“What was it that Sophia and Vincent told Frank. What reason did they give him why we were late?” His first answer to this question came as a smirk and in that very moment I knew it was bad. But then it only got worse when he suddenly started to look sheepish.
“What did you do?” I asked, now using my own authoritative tone. He laughed once and held up his hands to say,
“I did nothing, my brother and sister however I cannot account for.”
“Draven,” I said his name in warning but again he just laughed.
“They told him the truth, of sorts.” I released what I didn’t know yet was a premature sigh of relief and said,
“Oh, so they said we just had to talk about stuff?” Draven looked at me side on and with a one-sided grin replied,
“Not exactly.” I frowned so hard I could feel my eyes squinting.
“Just tell me!” I shouted, and Draven grabbed my dramatic hands as they flew up in anger and pulled me closer to him, so he could whisper the dreaded, embarrassing words in my ear,
“They told him that I couldn’t keep my hands off you and that I planned on keeping you in my bed for as long as possible.” I sucked in a shocked, mortified breath and voiced the first worry that came to my mind,
“Oh God! Please, tell me…” I paused so I could swallow hard first and continued with my eyes closed…
“They haven’t told my Dad that.” I hissed as I felt my cheeks were lighting up with my shame.
And Draven’s reaction to this…
He burst out laughing.