Chapter 48
AROUND THE SAME TIME, AKKAYA
Marlowe
An unknown figure suddenly shadows the light streaming through the window. He’s with his back to me, dressed in all black, his long hair flowing down to his shoulders.
“You are awake, I see,” he comments as he stares out the window. His voice is strange, both familiar and foreign.
“W-what happened?” I croak and pull myself in a seating position.
I remember bits and pieces since being blasted by Minnie through that portal. My eyes widen as I quickly feel my abdomen for that gaping hole Azerius caused, then sigh in relief when I realize it’s not there anymore.
But how? What happened?
More importantly, where is Minnie? What happened to her?
The man turns. His eyes are a piercing gray as he stares at me with a hint of sadness.
“You are healed, if that is what you are wondering.”
“Who are you? Where am I?”
“You are in my home, in a realm called Akkaya.”
I barely register what he says when it dawns on me the gravity of the situation. I’m in a foreign realm, away from her. The image of her, being held down by those two men flashes in my head, making my blood boil anew. She couldn’t fight them. She’s so strong, my beautiful Minnie, and she couldn’t fight them. They held her down, touched her. They…
The pain in my chest surpasses my physical pain.
They’ll kill her. They will execute her and I will lose her forever.
“Fuck!” I curse aloud, my heart thudding sickeningly fast in my chest. “Fuck, fuck, fuck! I need to leave. I need to get to Minnie,” I mutter and attempt to get to my feet. I barely manage to move an inch before my body explodes in pain.
The man comes closer, his lips flattened into a tight line.
“You should probably not move much. Not yet anyway.”
“What’s…wrong with me?” I ask, tension knotting in my muscles.
“Your body is still adapting to your new circumstances. The pain should fade soon.”
“What circumstances? What the hell is going on? And who the fuck are you?”
He doesn’t answer.
“You know what? Fuck you and fuck this. I’m leaving.”
“You are welcome to try.”
I give him a hard glare as I swing my legs over the bed and plant them firmly on the ground. But as I stand up, I wobble forward, crashing to the floor.
The fall knocks the air out of my lungs and I let out a harsh curse.
He walks around me, giving me a pitiful stare.
“I need to get to Minnie,” I grit out. “He’s going to kill her. He’s going to…” I squeeze my eyes shut.
“You cannot do anything right now. Not in this condition.”
“I need…” I ball my hands into fists and drag myself forward. I only manage to move a few feet before my body betrays me. Out of breath and ravaged by pain, I let out a loud wail.
He crouches in front of me, his expression marred by a great sadness.
“You must be strong enough if you want to get to your female,” he tells me. The fact that he calls her ‘female’ tells me he’s likely not human.
“Who are you?”
“You will remember soon enough,” he says. Reaching out, he stops himself just as he’s about to touch me. “You have no idea how lucky you are to even be here,” he murmurs cryptically.
“What are you talking about?”
He smiles sadly. “You must be the only one of your kind to not only have survived that illness for so long but also make it to the other side of it.”
My brows knit in confusion. What the hell is he talking about?
“My kind?”
“A hybrid that neither Tartareia nor Aperion will ever recognize…or accept.”
My eyes widen. “What?”
“Is it not hypocritical that Aperites preach fairness and balance, but they behave just as immorally as Tartareians?” he asks, almost to himself. “If it had not been for your female personally getting you out of the depths of Psyche, you would have languished there for an eternity.”
“I don’t understand what you’re saying?—”
“Of course you do not.” He sighs. “You will, soon. But you must remember how lucky you are, whereas anyone else with the blood of Tartareian elites can never escape Psyche, never reincarnate.” He pauses. “There is a special place in that hell reserved only for us.”
Us. He said us. More confusion swirls in my mind.
“You’re…a Son of Tenebreis?” I croak.
He nods. “Though it has been a long time since I identified with my kind. Nonetheless, the blood in my veins and my stained soul brand me as one of their own.”
There’s something so familiar about him, that a strange thought suddenly crosses my mind.
“Are we related?” I ask carefully.
His lips quirk up. “If you are asking whether I am your father or not, the answer is no,” he adds with a chuckle.
I gulp down. He knew exactly what I was going to ask. Can he read my mind?
“Your thoughts are very loud,” he says, confirming my suspicions. “But that, too, shall pass once you learn how to shield your mind again.”
“How do you know all that?”
“Your powers are back. Your essence is once more whole.”
His head tilts to the side as if he’s listening to something. “This is my cue to leave.” With a snap of his fingers, I’m once more back in bed. He lingers for one more moment as he says, “I am happy you are back. Truly. Sol’Ren would have been, too. All he ever wanted…” He pauses and closes his eyes. “All he ever wanted was for you to be happy.”
I stare at him in confusion as he heads for the door. Just as he opens it, another man comes inside. “Thanks for looking out for him, Nyk.”
The man, Nyk, inclines his head. “Always, old friend.”
The door closes and I’m left alone with the newcomer.
He’s around my age, if not younger. He’s dressed in a pair of loose beige pants and a white shirt, with a red cardigan on top. That is some…questionable fashion choices right there.
“And you are?” I quirk a brow at him. I’ve decided to save my strength for later since every small movement causes me intense pain. Even though I need to leave here and get to Minnie as soon as possible, until I get better, I’m stuck here.
Unless these people who clearly know so much about me can help me.
Alas, there is one good thing about this entire ordeal. It appears I am not quite human. That might be a cause of concern at one point—I did freak out initially when my blood turned black—but not anymore.
I’m not human. I have powers. That means I can save Minnie!
And if I’m just as immortal as she is, then I can be with her forever . No more dying and no more worrying that she might find someone else. That’s never going to happen now.
She’s stuck with me for eternity. How cool is that?
The newcomer doesn’t answer. He’s staring at me, almost in awe.
“It really is you, Valerìon,” he murmurs.
“Valerìon? Who’s that?”
He snaps his fingers and a mirror materializes in front of me.
“You.”
I blink slowly, then move my hand to my face, feeling for my features. The person in the mirror does the same, emulating each movement. Because it is me. Yet it’s not.
It’s familiar but foreign at the same time.
I look like myself but different. My hair is pitch black now, whereas before it was a dark brown. My irises, though still green, are more vivid, my eyes more elongated. My jaw seems more angular and pronounced.
“What the hell?” I burst out and punch the mirror. Of course the one hurting is me while the mirror disappears in thin air.
The man stops in front of my bed and regards me with a sigh.
“You are still in pain, are you not?”
“Who the hell are you and what’s happening to me? I need answers. Now!”
“Perhaps this will help allay some of your worries,” he says, and just as he finishes talking, his form changes to a familiar one.
“Giles?”
“Good to see you again, Mr. Spencer-Astor,” he replies, the accent and cadence the exact same as Giles.
“What the fuck? You’re not Giles. You can’t be?—”
“On the contrary.” He smiles. “I have been this Giles character for many years.”
I gawk at him. His voice is now different but coming from Giles’ mouth. Fuck. This is creepy as fuck. Maybe I’m hallucinating? Yes, that might be. I’ve never done crack, but I guess this is what it feels like.
For fuck’s sake…
“Giles is not human? Was never human?” I repeat in disbelief.
He smiles and nods. “Well, technically he was human until he died. Then I simply replaced him.”
“Does my mother know?” I hurry to ask. But then I realize what this would mean. “Fucking hell! Did you seduce my mother as Giles, you fucking weirdo?”
He does not seem to take offense to my language. He continues smiling at me.
“No, no… Don’t tell me?—”
The door opens, and another person walks in. She’s slender and petite, with big blue eyes and dark hair. She appears to be in her early twenties, but if she’s one of them, then fuck knows how old she is.
“Oh,” she murmurs when she sees Giles by my side. “Are we doing that?”
“That?” I ask, at the same time as Giles-not-Giles says, “He’s in pain.”
“He’s in pain? Still?” she asks, alarmed. She hurries to my bedside and looks me over. “Where are you hurting, dear?” She extends her hand to touch me.
“Don’t you ‘dear’ me!” I blurt out and pull myself away even though the movement itself hurts.
“I’m taken,” I tell her. And him, just in case they might be into some kinky shit. “My fiancée is a goddess. A very powerful goddess. And she’s very jealous, so don’t even think to put your hands on me. She will turn you into ice.”
She glances back at Giles-not-Giles, her lips trembling with mirth.
“You should probably tell him already, dear,” Giles-not-Giles says.
The woman gives me a worried glance before she shifts her appearance right under my eyes.
You have got to be fucking kidding me.
“Mom?”
“My sweet Marlowe,” she coos as she wraps her arms around my neck. “I was so worried about you.”
“Get off me. Now!” I push her off me.
“That is not how you speak to your mother!” Giles-not-Giles says sternly.
“You two.” I point to them. “You’d better explain everything. And fast. Every second counts and I need to get to Minnie.”
“I’ll handle that,” Giles-not-Giles tells my mom-not-mom or whoever she is. He reaches for me and I instinctively back away. But as he presses his fingers against my forehead, a blast of energy travels through me. Millions of images flash in my mind, so many, I’m having a hard time distinguishing between what’s real and what’s not.
Soon, I’m gasping for air as the pressure inside my head increases.
“Easy,” my father tells me as he pats my back. “Let it all come back to you.”
My eyes roll in the back of my head as more currents of energy go through me.
Then, suddenly, everything clears.
“Better now?” he asks.
“He should be fine, no? He was fine before.”
“Of course, dear. He should start healing from the inside out now.”
“Why is he not saying anything then?”
“You’re worrying too much, Rità. You know it takes some time. We’re talking about thousands of years’ worth of memories, across multiple timelines. He’s probably overwhelmed.”
“My poor baby,” she murmurs.
“I can hear you, you know,” I add drily as I open my eyes, this time seeing them with lifetimes of history between us.
“See, he’s fine,” my father points out.
“You are?” Mother asks tentatively, moving closer to me. “Can I hug you then?”
“Come here,” I say and open my arms for her.
She lets out an excited squeak and rushes to hug me—a little too tight.
“That’s enough, Rità, he’s still recovering.”
“I missed my baby,” Mother murmurs as she kisses my cheek.
“Missed you too, Mom.” I chuckle. As she finally draws away, I grab my father’s arm and pull him into a hug. “Missed you too, Dad.”
“It’s good to have you back, Valerìon.”
My father is not one for overly overt displays of affection—unless you happen to be my mother—so he quickly resumes his place next to my bed.
“How did we do this time?” I ask them, ready to focus on the most important issue at hand.
My mother glances at my father sheepishly. “We think we’re on the right track this time.”
“She’s still captured,” I point out the obvious.
“Yes, but it took much longer for that to happen. In fact, I had a great idea?—”
Father stifles a laugh.
“What great idea?” I raise a brow. Mother somehow always has ideas.
“Well, as you know, the order already changed when Minnie went to the House of Moirai first and then to the House of Psyche. That, and she cut the proper thread this time.”
“Okay, and?”
“I’ve been thinking that since last time your soul triggered the defense mechanisms of Psyche due to your Tartareian essence, perhaps I could remove it before you died and then it would be easier for her to steal your soul.”
“That sounds logical.” I nod.
“But your mother failed to think about the fact that you would eventually need that essence back to be whole, so we had to come up with a different plan.”
“Just for the record, both of us came up with this plan, all right?”
“What?”
“Well, your body. It was the perfect vessel for the remaining energy. And it stayed safe and hidden until?—”
“Until I asked Giles, you , to track down Lucien’s body.” I groan at the memory.
“A little unorthodox, but we both know you far too well and assumed you would want to destroy it.”
“So when I destroyed it…”
“You released the remaining energy, which is why you are at full strength now,” Mom adds.
“Soon to be at full strength,” Father corrects. “His body needs to get used to the full extent of his energy again.”
“All right. As much as it is a little odd, I can get behind it. What else?” I ask.
They share another look, but this time it’s a grave one.
“You messing repeatedly with the timeline has had…consequences,” my mother says.
“What consequences?” I ask as I comb through the new memories. “The Sons of Tenebreis?”
“Not only are they able to temporarily leave Tartareia, but the seal is weakening,” she adds grimly.
“It will not hold for much longer, son. A few decades, perhaps less.”
“Damn it,” I mutter.
As my energy slowly fills every cell in my body, the pain becomes only an echo. When I find myself fit enough, I get out of bed, pacing around as I try to think of my next steps.
“I must go to Aperion,” I tell my parents. “Get Minnie back before the execution.”
Enough things have changed that I bought myself some more time to save her before her execution. But time is still of the essence.
“I prepared fresh clothes for you and some fresh food. It’s been so long since you’ve fed, you must be already feeling the effects of it.” She materializes some clothes as well as a vial with a shimmery substance inside. The moment I snap it open, the energy of a soul flows through me, helping me ground myself even more.
“Thank you, Mom.” I kiss her on the cheek.
“There is something else, son,” Father starts.
I glance at him and raise my brows in question.
“After you get Minnie back, could you two go to the House of Psyche and check something?”
“For you?”
He shakes his head. “Nykander.”
“Oh. Sol’Ren.”
“Nyk thinks his soul is at the bottom of Psyche, below Katras. I’ve tried to look into it, but I can’t sense anything remotely.”
“Of course I will. Ren was my best friend—still is…” I gulp down, swallowing the wave of sadness that grips me. “How has Nyk been?”
They both shake their heads at me.
“That bad?”
“He’s made it his mission to destroy the people who engineered that illness. But he needs to find a way to Tartareia first. I told him to wait, that the seal is weakening, but he doesn’t believe that will happen soon enough.”
“Nyk has always been hot-headed,” Mother adds.
“I would be too if my wife and son were killed by that damn illness.” I purse my lips. “I still expect to break out in blisters every time I use my powers,” I add, almost to myself as I clench and unclench my fist and feel the surge of energy washing through me.
“Val—”
I drop to my knees, a sharp, barbed vise wrapping around my heart and causing it to bleed in my chest.
“What’s wrong?” both my parents quickly ask.
I slowly raise my gaze, tears streaming down my cheeks.
“I can’t feel her anymore. She’s…dead.” I choke on my words. “She’s dead. Again.”
“My sweet boy,” Mother coos as she wraps her arms around me, though nothing can console me at this point. Nothing.
“Why? How?” I ask, barely able to breathe. One would think that after experiencing this hundreds of times, it would get easier. But it always gets worse because I always expect things to change and they never do.
“I don’t know. We need to review everything and?—”
“I should have told her the truth when she asked. I should have told her everything.”
“She couldn’t have known then, Val. She needed time to come to terms with what we are,” she mentions softly.
“No. I asked her to trust me and she did. I must trust her too that she will not react badly. I must…” I pause and take a deep breath, steely determination flowing through my veins.
“I’m going back to where everything went wrong.”
TO BE CONTINUED