Epilogue
“Everything has been set into motion,” I tell my love, squeezing her trembling hand. “All we need to do is make it through this ceremony. Then it will be over.”
Green eyes glance at me with worry. “Are you sure?”
Am I?
No…
The rules and regulations have only worsened because of what we did. To make up for our mistakes, we’ve been working to subvert the board from the inside. Will it make a difference?
With everything we’ve done, it should. But there’s no guarantee.
“It ends for us today,” I say honestly. “For our brothers and sisters…I don’t know.”
Facing the cathedral’s stone steps, she nods. “We’ll keep working,” she whispers through a tight throat.
A glimmer shines off a tear that’s escaped her cheek, and I brush it away with my thumb. Then, stick it in my mouth. Salty…and a hint of her sweetness lingers on my tongue.
“Let’s go.”
We have our plan. One that I hope will work to avoid more eyes on us.
Both of us just want to get back to the mansion, have our spring wedding, then disappear while we work on dismantling the society from behind our walls.
Her, by writing an anonymous blog, using social media to warn others while digging into the lives of the Damons. Me, doing what I do best.
Trying to find out where the money is going. Though they’ve hidden their tracks well.
As we enter the sanctuary, our footsteps echo on the marble tile floor.
The scent of old melted wax and dust consumes the air.
Pews are filled with society alumni members, dressed in hooded robes of their house colors, their faces covered in shadows.
The wood benches squeak as they all turn to gawk at us, wandering down the red-carpeted aisle.
Her hand trembles as I lead her to the altar, one specifically arranged for her and me.
The slab is surrounded by seven robed figures.
This is our punishment for not going about our appointment in the correct way.
Now, we’ll have to pay the price to keep the society enforcers off our backs. For now.
Once we reach the dais, I turn toward my queen and lift her white lace veil as she sinks to her knees in front of me.
We practiced. Rehearsed every line. The words are meaningless to me, but when she gazes up into my eyes, my stomach flips, and I want to propose to her all over again.
Solemnly, she states, “I pledge fealty to fidelity, a covenant to constancy, and an oath to obedience.” Her sweet voice echoes through the buttressed ceiling.
Through a tight throat, I manage to say, “Then I appoint you as my vassal.”
Tears glisten in her eyes. Her lips part as she whispers, only to me. “Surrendering all my veneration to my Viscount.” As her head bows, her palms raise.
Her hands are empty…
There should be a smooth white stone she offers to me. One I could put in the Moon Chalice in front of the pulpit to tell the robed elders that they can use her body as they see fit. It’s supposedly for an extra blessing from the god of your house.
But it’s gone.
I knew it. My mistake was not following through on the last assignment to kill Malik.
And now…the elders will make sure I pay.
The other tasks? To end Xavier Cardell and me?
No one has spoken a word since about the ones we burned.
At least that plan worked. But we still have to serve our sentence for letting the witness go.
The head elder rings a bell and points to the slabbed altar. He pulls out a withered scroll from under his cloak. His old voice shakes as he reads it aloud.
“Valen Elliot Von Dovish. You are hereby punished for disobeying the laws set forth by this institution. Forthwith, your contrition will be through the sacrifice of your firstborn child to the way of Vengracurus. Because of your iniquities, you are stricken from the privilege of placing a seed in your appointed’s womb.
Instead, the woman will become a vassal of the Seven today upon the altar and in front of Bonakanos and your peers.
You shall raise our child to adhere to the rules of the Seven. ”
Olivia’s face is stoic, but her breasts heave with every rapid breath beneath her scoop-necked dress. The punishment is for them to impregnate her first…and not me. While they cuck me to raise their kid.
My pulse races as two of the robed elders lift her by her elbows and escort her to the slab, the stage set up for everyone’s viewing. The blood gushes through my temples so fast, I can barely see. Vision becomes blurry with every beat of my heart.
“Bind him,” the main elder says, then rings the bell once more.
Two elders swiftly move behind me and tie my wrists behind my back with a red cord. Olivia releases a subtle whimper as they place her on the stone, but she complies. She has to. The two men at her head hold her arms down. But she doesn’t struggle.
Neither do I.
“You are made to watch, servant. Behold your vassal being filled with the gods’ favor as he thrusts them within her folds.”
The elder rings the bell, and the sixth robed man steps forward. He’s missing the special chain around his neck that the head elder wears. Black and gold beads anoint the tunics of the others.
A low, murmured chant in Latin erupts from the seventh robed figure as he kneels before a statue of the seven gods near the back of the sanctuary.
The cadence is maddening. Almost like the buzzing of Malik’s toothbrush.
Heat flames my cheeks as the sixth elder lifts his robe and covers Olivia’s lower half.
Her dress poofs to cover the rest of her.
No, all that’s visible is her getting yanked to the end of the slab as she lets out a gasped sigh of surprise. Then, with rickety movements, the elder begins to swivel into her.
When I look down, one of the figures holding my arms grabs my chin and forces me to look straight ahead. Blinking rapidly, I watch as the scene unfolds before me.
Olivia turns her head to stare at me with a worried look on her face.
I nod and whisper, “It’ll be okay. I promise.”
With a dramatic grunt that sets my teeth on edge, the elder finishes with a final thrust. Then grumbles something low under his breath.
Finally, the buzzing sound of the chanting ends, and silence fills the air like a comforting blanket.
The elders release Olivia, and she sits up, then rushes to me as my wrists are unbound. I grab her in a warm embrace and press a kiss on her forehead. “It’s done,” I say, glaring at the robed men surrounding us.
I’d purposefully picked the last spot of the day with the hopes they would only force her to experience one of the elders and not all seven. The man wearing the exquisite chains around his neck rings the bell three times, releasing us from our duties.
“The vow has been spoken.”
“Per octavum, fiat,” the members chant in reply.
I snag Olivia’s hand and rush from the chapel out the back door. We don’t even stop until we reach my car and get in.
“We fucking did it!” she screams, a look of pure joy on her face.
With a glance in the rearview mirror, I nod with uncertainty. “Let’s make sure we get back home first before we relax. Just in case.”
“Did it look believable?” she asks breathlessly.
I nearly growl. “So much so, I think I may have to kill my cousin.”
She giggles, then crawls her fingers over my shoulder. “You were jealous…”
I slap her hand, then grab it and put it to my lips. “Very much.”
It’s not even two minutes before the phone rings through the car’s speaker. Olivia’s face lights up with a broad smirk.
Taking a deep inhale, I answer, “Are you out?”
A burst of laughter comes through in reply, “Yes, fucker. They didn’t know a damn thing.”
“I’ll tell you this once, Oz. You’re my cousin and family, but if you ever get in that position with my wife again? I’ll kill you.”
He barks out a low chuckle. “She’s lovely. Hi, O. I love you. But…yeah. Still gay.”
“See you at the wedding,” I tell him.
“I’ll beat you there.” The sound of his bike revving in the background cuts through until I hang up.
“All it took was one well-placed murder of an elder, and we’re on our way to annihilating the six,” I say with a smile.
“I don’t know…” Olivia says, taking my hand and placing it in her lap.
My brow pinches as I look at her. “What do you not know?”
“I’m feeling some type of way about your cousin now…”
I can’t help it, my jaw tics. I know she’s joking… I know it…but still.
She smiles and flutters her lashes, then places our hands over her belly. “I guess it’s a good thing you already got me pregnant.”
And that’s when I can relax.
Knowing that we planned it all. As a team.
And our child will never know the taste of blood in a blessing bowl.
Only sunlight. And us.
THE END (FOR NOW)
STAY TUNED FOR WICKED WEDNESDAY