Epilogue Two
………………………….
Henri
One year later…
THE CURSE OF BLOOD & DARKNESS
by
Henri Mercer
I HAVE A DAUGHTER.
Me…the one man who shouldn’t be let near a tiny breakable baby somehow has a daughter.
I’ll admit, I’ve been fucking petrified.
Watching Ily grow round kept me up at night, stalking the windows, looking for monsters to appear. Q had to add extra security just to put my mind at rest.
I curse myself daily for ever putting my nephew at risk, especially now I know just how much a child can destroy their father.
I’ve apologised to Q so much, he’s forbidden me from ever mentioning it again. He even made Lino recount what happened when Victor’s men came for him, his blue eyes so much like his mother’s, flashing with the same inner darkness that coils in me and his father.
Will my kid have it too?
I told Rachel I didn’t believe Victor’s DNA donation would have any sway over her son’s personality but perhaps I’m wrong. Maybe my DNA overpowered the goodness of Ily’s and she’s given birth to a tiny beast like me.
Those fears have echoed long past my daughter’s birth.
Watching Ily labour almost sent me into cardiac arrest. If it hadn’t been for Q and Peter getting me drunk, I probably would’ve been admitted into a hospital bed beside hers.
And the moment they placed little Priti into my arms, I was her slave for life.
There isn’t any man I won’t kill. No monster I won’t slay.
She’s my little fireheart and I’m meant to be writing my vows so her mother will always know just how much I—
“Fuck’s sake, what are you doing?” Q grumbled, marching into a bedroom he’d given me in his chateau to get ready for the wedding. I’d waited a goddamn year for this day and now that it’d arrived, I could barely stand without my knees buckling.
Twisting in my chair where I sat by the window, I glanced at his immaculate linen suit. “Shouldn’t you be waiting at the altar with the best man?”
“Shouldn’t you be?” He scowled, giving me the same once over. I wore a similar suit, only difference was mine was white with a bright yellow calendula flower in my lapel and longer coat tails.
“You know if Ily had agreed with me to get married the day I found out she was pregnant, this whole circus could’ve been avoided.”
He smirked and looked out the window. “That circus is now your family. I got lucky with Tess being a single child with elderly parents. You? Not so much.” His smirk turned into a laugh. “You’re not only inheriting a bride today but a million different meddlers.”
I chuckled. “Least I like them. They’re good people.”
“Still a circus though.”
“Agreed.”
Down below, the entire lawn and part of the meadow had been transformed into an exotic wonderland. Lanterns danced on strings, strung across a white carpet leading to a gazebo decorated with shimmering fabrics and pretty flowers. Far too many chairs waited for the ceremony to begin, and our guests mingled and laughed beneath shade awnings by the refreshment tables.
I still didn’t understand how I’d gone from a kid who’d barely been tolerated by his own mother to somehow having an extended family of over four hundred guests.
Almost all the surviving jewels from Joyero had flown in, including Rose and Melanie, May and Faiza. The more recent slaves that Q and I had found over the past year and brought here—rehabbed by Tess and Ily—had also accepted an invitation, bringing a significant other who’d helped them move on.
Ily’s family numbered close to fifty with so many cousins and aunties and uncles. When we’d gone to visit them last year, I’d still held the fear they wouldn’t accept me. Especially seeing as Peter came too.
He was the better choice for Ily.
He was one of them.
But…the moment I’d been hugged and welcomed, I’d never once felt like an outsider. I’d feared they’d judge me for knocking up their daughter without a visible ring on her finger. Yet they merely booked in a Vedic astrologer to make predictions for our child and arranged for special mantras to be said while Ily was pregnant.
“You know two of them came, don’t you?” Q pointed at a dark-haired guy and a slender woman, standing slightly removed from the chaos of colour that was Ily’s extended family. The jingle of bangles and glitter of rhinestone-covered saris ensured my brother’s estate resembled the set of a Bollywood movie.
I’d been born into a world with no faith or culture.
I’d had nothing and no one and let fear and despair twist my view. But thanks to Ily’s daily routine of meditation and yoga that I’d adopted, I’d learned that life wasn’t out to destroy me. I wasn’t evil—despite the things I did to the rapists and traffickers we hunted. Every experience, good and bad, was only there to teach and guide and grow.
My love of reading had naturally gravitated toward texts that her father recommended, feeling more awake in this life, more aware, and more grateful than I ever thought possible.
No matter that I spent days hunting, baiting, and killing, I didn’t bring home those memories. I didn’t let hate shadow my happiness. And I never let any monster—including my own—trespass on my peace.
Never again would I ever think ending my life was the answer.
Never again would I be so ungrateful not to appreciate every fucking moment that I got to spend on this planet, in this body, with these people.
Christ, I’m lucky.
Abandoning my laptop, already knowing the words I’d say to Ily in my heart, I joined my brother by the window. I found the two people he stared at. Relations of ours even though we’d never met. “And how do you feel about that? Any second thoughts?”
He sniffed and rubbed his temples. “This is on you. You’re the one who tracked them down and gave away most of your money. They might be monsters.”
“ Your money. Not my money. And we’re monsters. Yet…we’re tame enough. I’m sure our half-siblings will be too.”
“Speak for yourself.”
I studied him as he stopped massaging his temples and dropped his hands.
After the year and a half of living here, I’d noticed Q had a similar sensitive system as I did. Only he got migraines instead of nausea. I hadn’t thrown up in a long time. The barometer of right and wrong no longer needed to keep me leashed, yet Q suffered quite regularly.
“Another headache?”
He scowled. “Too many people, that’s all.”
“You sound like Krish.”
“He has it right about people being too noisy.” He huffed and waved off my concern. “I’m fine. Drop it.” Keeping his eyes on the festival below, he stiffened as he noticed Tess mingling. He always did that. Whenever he’d see her, he’d freeze as if still unsure how he had her in his life.
He claimed I was a hopeless romantic.
But so was he. A closet romantic whose love language was tearing out the hearts of bastards.
Balling his hands, he murmured, “You know…the day I proposed to Tess, I branded her.”
“I’m aware. I’ve seen the Q stamped into her chest when we all went swimming together.”
“And I’ve seen the H scribed into Ily’s leg.”
We shared a look.
We smiled.
“Did you see the little wedding present Ben sent you in our joint email?” He raised an eyebrow.
“No?” Scooping my phone from my pocket, I logged in. “What is it?” Last week, Ben and Stew had returned to Joyero to see what could be salvaged of Victor’s island. Despite the explosions and fires, the stone citadel had survived—minus a few pieces. We were in discussions about possibly using it as another base for this secret enterprise of ours.
Q chuckled under his breath as I found the video and opened it. “Don’t, whatever you do, play that at the reception.”
Shooting him a look, I pressed play on the attachment.
A slice of ice cut through me as Victor appeared on the screen. Howling, he dragged his useless legs as he hand-walked across the grass. The footage wasn’t perfect. It kept flickering in and out, night-shrouded everything, orange fires danced in the distance, and smoke curled and obscured.
But I could see enough.
Make out enough to understand what this was.
I froze with sick satisfaction. “The cameras were still working?”
Q crossed his arms. “Mm hmm.” He watched the unfolding scene. “Fitting to be able to watch his end seeing as you didn’t get to see it that night.”
I stiffened as the recording showed Q standing over Victor with a knife. A blur as I threw myself at my brother to stop him from taking that monster’s life when it belonged to all the jewels he’d hurt. My breath caught as video-me staggered up and bolted toward the jewels huddled around two people bleeding out on the lawn in the distance. My heart pounded as I relived the horror of finding Ily and Peter dead. I’d lost both of them, never knowing both would somehow come back to me.
Doing my best to forget the agony from that night, I focused on Victor as more jewels surrounded him and Q passed over the blade. As one, they all fell on him. A flash of a dagger, the glint of a kitchen knife.
I held my breath as a massacre unfolded. Victor’s screams still echoed in my ears but seeing what he’d endured…fuck, it gave me perverse enjoyment. Such joy, even though it shouldn’t. Watching him twitch as some smoke-hazy slave drove a dagger into his chest. Seeing him jerk as another gutted him right in the belly. The jewels weren’t squeamish, nor did they stop. They just kept stabbing every part of him they could reach. The video crackled and fritzed just as one of them dug the tip of their knife into Victor’s eye socket and popped his eye out.
He screamed —
The feed cut off as if the fire had finally chewed through the connection.
“Well, shit.” With slightly shaking hands, I turned my phone off and tucked it back into my pocket. I shrugged. “Serves him right.”
I felt Q’s eyes on me, tense and assessing. “I haven’t asked you this as I didn’t really want to know but…what he did to you—the things you endured while his slave, are you…? Do you have nightmares? Did it…change you?”
Glancing back at the circus of guests below, hearing the twinkle of their laughter and feeling the heat of their happiness, the shadow of evil hanging around dispersed as quickly as the video had cut off. “You’re asking if it broke me?”
“Did it?” he asked simply.
I shrugged again. “I didn’t survive for me.” I searched the guests for my betrothed. “I survived for her. I endured for her. He tried to use love to break me, but the opposite happened.” I turned to face my half-brother. “Love fixed me. Healed me. Victor gave me something I would never have been capable of accepting before.”
“What?”
“You. Her. This .” I smiled. “I’m thankful you made me go. I’ll never again question fate’s path because I found her in a place I would never have gone to otherwise.” I exhaled with so much gratitude. “So many parts of me died on that island, yet so many parts were reborn. He didn’t break me, brother. He set me free.”
Our eyes held again.
Some dark understanding passed between us.
Finally he nodded, clapped his hands, and headed toward the door. As if we hadn’t just watched a gruesome stabbing or discussed my past abuse, he snapped, “Stop tapping away on that damn laptop and get down there. Everyone will be wondering if you’re getting cold feet.”
Accepting the change of subject as if it’d never happened, I grinned. “Never.” Stepping toward the desk, I added, “I was writing my vows, by the way. Or that was the plan until I got distracted.”
“You always get distracted when you’re playing with that thing. What are you doing anyway? Writing your memoirs?” He laughed under his breath, mocking the very thing he was just so serious about.
Glancing at the screen, I slapped the laptop closed and followed him. My fingers strayed to my pocket where Ily’s ring waited. “Let’s just say I’m using fact as fiction.”
Striding into the corridor, we walked side by side. The scents of sugary desserts and savoury dishes wafted from the kitchen. We’d hired ten chefs to feed this giant wedding party. Every one of Q’s guest rooms were taken, along with ours in the gatehouse. We’d also booked out three boutique hotels.
“I have no idea where you get your love of reading from.” Q shrugged and opened the patio door for me. Sidestepping, he added, “You’ve always got your nose in a book.”
“It was my only escape when I was younger.”
He frowned as if that upset him. We stepped onto the patio and a flurry of activity started. Guests moved to their chairs, holding glasses of champagne. Peter grinned and strode toward the altar to take his place as best man. His girlfriend, Lucy—the daughter of a pub owner where he’d worked until he bought it off her father on a lease to own basis—bounced my chubby daughter on her hip.
Every cell in my body needed to hold her.
Ily and I had agreed to let everyone take turns holding Priti during the ceremony. Her grandparents, her uncles, aunties, cousins, and anyone who wanted a cuddle. Not only was Peter my best man but he’d also kindly accepted the role of godfather—just like I’d accepted the role of godfather for Rachel’s son, Asher.
Glancing around, I caught Rachel in the throng of colour. Her vibrant blue dress matched all the other stunning fabrics. She waved where she already sat with her boy neatly dressed and well-behaved beside her.
We’d asked Rachel to stay for a few days after the wedding.
I wanted to get to know my godson and then we’d fly with them back to Spain where we planned on starting our honeymoon.
“They’re watching us,” Q muttered under his breath looking anywhere but the two half-siblings who’d accepted my invitation. I had no idea who’d come or where they’d been living but I recognised them as one of us.
The same dark colouring. The same mistrusting eyes.
After.
After the ceremony, then we could talk.
Right now…I had a wife to bind.
“Come on, Mercer.” Striding up the white carpet, I took my place at the top of the altar. Tess followed us and took her place beside two other bridesmaids that’d flown in from Ily’s village.
“Took your bloody time.” Peter leaned toward me, smiling at Q as he took his place beside him. “Getting cold feet, Master H?”
I plucked a purple flower off the structure framing us and flicked it at him. “I don’t see you popping the question any time soon.”
His face softened as he looked at redheaded Lucy in the front row. “I had to wait for you to get your act together. Now that this day is finally here, who knows.”
I shot him a look. “You’re gonna propose?”
He patted his pocket. “Will it upstage you if I do?”
“Fuck no. Do it. I’ll make the announcement for you in the toasts.”
He chuckled. “How about you just focus on your own wedded bliss first.”
Lowering my voice, I whispered, “Remind me to show you a little home movie later.”
“Oh?” He frowned. “What kind of movie?”
“Let’s just say, an old acquaintance of ours stars in it. And the ending we didn’t get to participate in.”
“Ah.” He gave me a twisted grin. “Yes…I think I’d like to see that.”
We both sucked in a breath as a contemporary wedding march began, played by the orchestra Tess had insisted we hire. However, it had a twist. A lilting, magical twist that blended east and west, souls and hearts.
My eyes fell on little Priti in Lucy’s arms.
My heart squeezed. “Know what? I can’t do it.”
“You what —?” Peter gasped as I bolted off the podium, dashed to Lucy and snagged my daughter.
“Can I borrow her?” I grinned.
Lucy laughed. “Of course!”
Bundling the chubby white-dressed baby into my arms, I climbed back into position just as Ily appeared.
I almost dropped my damn daughter.
I couldn’t breathe.
“Fuck’s sake, give her to me.” Peter reached for my little fireheart.
“Hands off, Paavak.” I blinked and braced my knees, completely bewitched by Ily as she walked down the aisle on her father’s arm.
Krish was around here somewhere. Probably in the western gardens with Tiger, far away from the crush of people. We’d go sit with him afterward. Share in the quiet and some cake without all the mayhem.
Ily’s mum dabbed her eyes where she sat on the left and the entire crowd fell quiet as Ily glided toward me.
Priti babbled in my arms as Ily rolled her eyes, seeing who I held.
I shrugged.
She knew I was obsessed.
Knew I only had a finite amount of time I could stand to be away from her.
Priti—a Sanskrit name for kindness, grace, and love—had no idea who she’d been born to. I would make her life absolute hell when she got older. I’d be protective as fuck and downright annoying but…no man would ever love her as much as I did.
Ily kissed her father’s cheek as they reached the two steps to the podium.
Her sparkling silver sari dripped with simple crystals instead of expensive gemstones. Around her neck rested a silver circle that Krish had painstakingly etched with the flower of life. He’d asked if Ily wanted a stone called aventurine to match the one lost on Victor’s island.
She’d quickly shaken her head.
Neither of us had lost our aversion for any type of jewel.
That was why I’d struggled to find a wedding ring.
And why I’d had to have one made.
It burned a hole in my pocket as Ily stepped to face me and Priti reached for her mother.
Kissing our daughter’s outstretched hand, she grinned. “I didn’t know I was marrying you too, little fireheart.”
Fuck, my own heart turned into a furnace.
I burned.
I flamed.
I didn’t think I would ever find this level of joy and yet…I had.
I stood in fucking utopia surrounded by my favourite people and the monster in me agreed. In that moment, it didn’t crave blood or pain. It basked in total happiness and love. The two pieces of me forged together. Forever hers. Forever free.
“If you will all be seated.” The celebrant cleared his throat and smiled at the crowd.
The rustle of clothing and creak of chairs sounded in the hot summer afternoon. Not a cloud in the sky. The sun as golden as Ily’s eyes.
I needed to touch her. Hold her.
Glancing at Peter, I raised an eyebrow.
“You’re nuts.” He chuckled under his breath and held out his arms. “Come on then. Give me my goddaughter.”
I passed her over.
Priti chortled and grabbed Peter’s ear.
With my hands free, I palmed Ily’s ring and waited.
Everything around me faded.
The words of the celebrant.
The sighs from the crowd.
All I saw was Ily.
All I heard was her heart.
I love you . She smiled.
I love you more . I touched my chest. Forever.
When it was time for us to exchange vows, I went first.
Clearing my throat, I raised my voice so everyone could hear. “You once made me recite Rainer Maria Rilke poems to keep me conscious in the dark. I’ve read quite a few of his editions now but it was your father who gave me my favourite one.” I glanced at Manish Sharma.
He nodded and smiled.
“He quoted ‘ Our deepest fears are like dragons guarding our deepest treasure .’”
Catching Ily’s stare again, I said softly. “You frighten me to my very core, mon c?ur . You are dangerous to my heart, soul, and sanity but only because you are the greatest treasure I could ever hope to find. You make me feel safe. You make me feel seen. You freed me from all my fears of who I truly am, and showed me that even a dragon can be loved. Even a man who isn’t worthy can be blessed with a lifetime of happiness.”
Taking her left hand, I slipped the ring onto her finger. An act I’d craved but never believed would happen. She gasped, studying the heavy gold circlet that looked exactly like the woollen bow I’d tied around her finger so many months ago. The jeweler had even added the brushed filaments, making the gold a little rough, a little homespun. He’d captured the fragility of a string and made it permanent. Just like the threads of fate that’d bound us into one.
We both ignored the celebrant as Ily trembled and sniffed back a tear.
The darkness swirled inside me, ready to lick her happiness but she gave me a warning look and smiled. Holding out her hand to Peter, she waited until our friend shifted our daughter onto his hip and reached into his pocket.
Passing her a ring, he grinned in my direction. “You’re such a sap.”
I chuckled.
Ily rolled her eyes and grabbed my left hand. “We share the same birthday. We share the same soul and fate. And now…somehow…we share the same ring.”
I glanced at the gold encircling my finger and burst out laughing.
Almost identical.
A thick, glinting string.
Grabbing her cheeks, I kissed her.
I kissed her deeply, truly.
I kissed her vows right off her tongue.
I kissed her until the crowd cheered, the celebrant gave up trying to make us say I do, and Peter burst into laughter beside us.
As the orchestra slipped into a new song and people drifted off to find their places at dinner, Ily and I stayed on that altar and kissed.
We kissed for every day of this lifetime and beyond.
We kissed until nothing and no one could ever tear us apart.
Not death.
Not darkness.
Not even eternity.