Accacia

The midday sun is warm against my skin as I lay here on this empty beach. It burns bright above me, so bright and warm. The sky is unmarred by cloud. Nothing but endless blue, and a bright, gold circle of light. I am laying in the sun with no consequence to me. In fact, it feels wonderful. The sunlight does not hurt me, it does not burn my skin.

I have never felt happier.

Although I am alone, I don’t feel it. It’s as though, just beyond what I can see, my mother awaits. She is here, hidden from me, but here nonetheless. I can feel her presence, hear the soft murmurings as she sings me a lullaby from my childhood. The sound is sweet to my ears. Beautiful. I’ve missed her.

“Mum?”

I sit up, my attention drawn to something in the distance. Far along the other end of the beach is a shape, a person. That person is walking towards me. No, not walking. Running. They are running. I hold my hands up to shade my eyes. Is that my mum? I am too far away to tell for sure. The sand beneath my feet is warm as I stand and make my way across the beach towards the shore. It isn’t long before the dry grains become wet as my feet meet the shallows. I stand for a moment, distracted by the horizon and the great expanse of sea. I always wanted to go to the beach, and now here I am.

This place is so peaceful. It is perfect.

“Red!”

I hear a man call my name and I turn towards the sound. The person running towards me, his shape is familiar, his voice too. Red? Yes, that is what I am called. Red, Cia, Accacia. I am all three.

“Red!” he calls again. The man behind that voice both frightens me and fills me with a joy that’s hard to contain. Yet I wait. I wait for the man as he runs towards me. I don’t think I have ever seen anyone run as fast. Soon he is only a few yards away. He stops. There is a deep pain in his gaze.

“Red.” He breathes my name. It washes over my skin, soothing me, like the waves against the shore.

Devin?

Yes, it’s me, my love.

What are you doing here? Somehow, I know he shouldn’t be here. That this place is meant for me, not for him, this man who I know, yet cannot quite place.

“I’m here for you…” he says, stepping closer to me. I am stuck. I cannot move as he approaches. He stands in front of me, the dark brown of his eyes filled with shards of golden light, just like the sun above us.

“Look at you…” A lone tear falls down his cheek. “I am so sorry for it all.” He raises his fingers to my lips, presses them gently against my mouth. “You are actually here. Red, I am sorry,” he repeats.

I take his hand and press it against my face, leaning into his touch. It is not enough. This is not enough. I want to kiss him. I want to taste him. My need to feel his body pressed against mine overtakes me. I know this man, my body knows him, my heart. His soul, it calls to mine. I feel an inextricable pull towards him. The small spark of fear I felt has gone and in its place, belonging fills me.

Devin?

Yes, that’s right. I came for you.

Kiss me.

He steps forward, pulls me into his arms and presses his lips against mine. It is the lightest of touches, nothing more than a whisper of a kiss, but I feel the promise of something far more. Yet a promise isn’t enough. I don’t want to wait a moment longer. I want all of him, no reservations, no holding back. That time has gone, all we have is this moment now. It is ours to claim. I understand the importance of it.

Kiss me like you mean it, Devin.

A soft chuckle enters my thoughts. I’ve missed that sound. Though it is not quite there yet, it is still edged in sadness. Devin draws me closer so that our bodies meet, then he kisses me. It is not gentle, the kiss. It is urgent and raw, and it feels like a goodbye. There is a desperate need in it. I feel the force of that need and my knees buckle beneath me. Devin lifts me so I am cradled in his arms, but not once do we break the kiss. I find I am crying, that he is too. Our tears mingle, I can taste the salt on my lips, on his.

Devin strides back to the dunes and to the blanket I was lying on not moments before. He lays me down, stripping himself of his clothes the moment his arms are free. He doesn’t ask for permission, because he knows he doesn’t need it. I want him, he wants me, it is that simple and that beautiful. Our souls call to one another, as do our bodies, as do our hearts.

Devin pushes up the skirt of my dress, hooks his fingers in my knickers and pulls them down quickly. I part my legs and hold open my arms. Devin gives himself to me without hesitation. He doesn’t wait, we have both waited for far too long already. The firmness of his length slides into me in one swift thrust as I claw at his back, pulling him in for a passionate kiss. My fingers slide into his hair, his slide into mine. We mirror each other, we are one.

Red.

He grinds into me and I push up against him, our hips meeting in the frantic need of two souls desperate for one another.

Red, Red, my love, my soul.

Devin’s lips move over my jaw, then slide down my neck as I press the back of my head into the soft sand. His tongue licks over the shell of my ear, then back to the pulse in my neck. Firm hands pull down my dress, exposing my breasts to the warm air. A hot mouth closes over my skin and sucks hard, pulling at my pebbled nipple.

Red, you are so beautiful.

He moves steadily within me, the pace slowing to a more languid rhythm as our mouths meet, tongues and lips forming a sweet, sweet kiss. Devin stokes the fire within my chest as his soul settles around my own, its touch just as powerful and as tantalising as his skin feels against mine. For a long time, he rocks within me, with me. We move together with no other thought in our minds than each other. After a while, he leans back, rests his hands against the back of my thigh and lifts my leg, crossing it in front of his body. He holds my leg there and runs his tongue against it before twisting his body and settling behind me so that we are spooning. He pulls me back against his body until there is no space between us.

This, this is what I have been waiting for. Wrapped around you, buried within you, holding you close. Red, my love.

I feel his teeth graze against my shoulder, feel his hair fall against my cheek and I am wet with want, with desire. We make love, touching, kissing, feeling one another. No part of our skin remains unclaimed. His mouth is hot against every part of me, his tears wet.

Red, I love you so much.

We move together, the pleasure increasing with every stroke, every touch, every kiss. Like our love, the sun above us shines fierce and strong. It is a testament, a reminder of what we have together. As long as the sun still shines, as long as the light remains, so too will our love. Minutes pass, hours even. Time is irrelevant here, nothing comes between us in this place of warmth and love. Then in one perfect moment when both our souls and bodies entwine, and the pinnacle of our lovemaking explodes around us both, I remember it all…

I remember everything.

I remember my need for this man, Devin, to wake up. I remember my willingness to do anything to get him back despite the danger. Then I remember the pain, the heartache, the darkness, and then nothing but oblivion, death.

I understand it all. Why I am here, what Devin did to me. He is no longer in the dark; we both stand in the light now, but at what cost?

My heart hammers in my chest as I realise the true impact of what happened in the Grand hall of Queen Adrielle’s castle. I place my forehead against his, waiting for my racing heart to subside. “Are we both dead?” I ask, certain that we must be, given what I remember.

He shakes his head. “I am not…”

“But I am?” I ask, pulling back slightly so I can see the truth in his eyes.

“Not yet, not if you don’t want to be.”

“I don’t understand?”

“You remember what happened, what I did?” Devin says as he gently brushes his lips against mine. I can feel his fingers tremble as he swipes a strand of hair from my cheek.

Yes, I remember. It hurts me to say it, it hurts him too. I feel it between us, the guilt and the shame. But I also feel the love, the strength of the connection between us and the magic that binds us to one another.

“Nostra has brought me to you. A piece of your soul remained with mine. He performed a permanent Binding. He cast a spell so I could come here. There are things you must know.”

“Tell me,” I say.

Devin looks at me, his eyes drinking me in. The warm air tousles his hair, the ends of his long curls caress my cheeks as his body remains pressed against mine.

“Tell me,” I repeat.

“You have a choice, Red. You can choose to stay here, to walk beyond the line from which you cannot return, or you can come back with me now…” he pulls out of me gently, adjusting the skirt of my dress and settles beside me. He doesn’t press me, he waits.

I think of my mother, who is just beyond the fine line that separates us. I think of how wonderful it would feel to see her again, to have her hold me like she used to when I was a child. My mum, the woman who kept me safe when no one else could. Then I look at Devin, at the strength of his jaw, the curl of his long hair against his bare shoulders, and the rich chocolate of his eyes. I feel his soul entwine with mine, my soulmate. I think of Ezra, my husband, the man who fought against his grief to let me in, to love me like I love him, and lastly, I think of Rhain, the man who unlocked the real me, the woman I have always been inside.

“There’s a price, isn’t there?”

Devin presses his fingers against his eyes. His face crumples under the weight of his grief, his guilt. “Yes, there’s a price,” he manages to say. A sob releases from his throat. “What have I done? This shouldn’t have been your fate. This is my fault.”

“Tell me what it is,” I whisper. Clover’s voice echoes across my memory, her words ringing in my head.

“It will take a great sacrifice to save Devin from the darkness, to save us all. Are you prepared to make that sacrifice, Accacia?”

The truth is, I am prepared. My death has pulled Devin from the darkness and back into the light. It has been worth it. I would do it again.

“Tell me, Devin,” I urge him gently.

“If you return with me now you will be different, you will come back like us. You will be a vampire fully,” Devin says, searching my face for a reaction.

“Then I will become a vampire,” I say. The answer to me is a simple one. Queen Adrielle can’t win, she mustn’t. We will break the curse. It will be a temporary change.

Devin draws in a ragged breath and pulls me back to him, pressing his lips firmly against mine.

“You don’t have to do it. You could stay here, safe, free from all the responsibility…” he whispers against my lips.

“There’s more, isn’t there?”

Devin grips my shoulders, his dark eyes swimming with tears. “Even if we were able to defeat Queen Adrielle and all the cursed would return to what they once were, you would remain a vampire. Only you, that is the…”

“Sacrifice,” I whisper, finishing Devin’s sentence for him. Clover hadn’t been talking about my death as the sacrifice, she had been talking about this.

I sit up, lifting my face to the sun, feeling its warmth caress my skin. Over the sound of the waves lapping, I can still hear my mother singing.

“Red, I am sorry. This is all my fault. I didn’t know what I was doing.” Devin pulls me against him, circling his arm about my waist.

It’s not your fault.

My love, I would swap places in a heartbeat.

You cannot. This was my destiny all along. I know what to do now.

I twist in Devin’s arms and look into the beautiful eyes of my soulmate. “Take me home,” I say.

“Are you sure?”

“I have never been more certain of anything.”

Devin dips his head and presses a delicate kiss against my lips. As he does, a flash of purple light erupts from both our chests. I feel the sand beneath us fall away, and the beach surrounding us swirls and spins as though we are in the middle of a sandstorm. Over the rush of air passing by my ears I hear the last words of my mother’s lullaby...

As we free fall back into life, the fallen petals on Devin’s back twirl upwards and settle back to where they belong. The rose blooms once more.