Chapter 20 Realm of Darkness
Chapter Twenty
Realm of Darkness
KAIROS
Gods save me. She’ll be the reason for my untimely death.
It’s her beauty that will have my heart giving out, stuck frozen and unable to beat.
My gods, it hurts. To touch her without being able to drown her in my love, and to gaze into those sapphire orbs of light and feel no love in return…
how the hell am I going to keep surviving without her remembering me?
I’ve spent a century trying not to forget a single moment of the time we spent together.
Like the nights we spent falling in love under the twinkle of the stars, or the moment fate crashed into us and we made love beneath those stars for the first time.
The night she first told me she loved me was the best night of my entire existence.
She is my flame within the darkness, and without her, light for me has ceased to exist. She is my reason—for breathing—for fighting against darkness—my entire reason for living.
Her. My everything.
“Take my hand.” I pin my gaze to the atrocious pink walls of her bedroom, needing a distraction from how tempting she looks in her leather fighting gear. As much as I want to, it’s not polite to stare. “Are you ready?”
She smiles and places her tiny hand in mine, and there is not an ounce of fear in her eyes when she looks at me.
Stepping toward me, for the first time since I started guarding her, I sense no fear in her heart either.
Knowing she feels safe with me makes me want nothing more than to lay my own life on the line.
I’d rather die than have to live through watching her be ripped away from me again.
“I’m ready. I trust you. I know you’ll keep me safe. You’ve proven yourself a time or two already.” Pulling our interlocked fingers into her chest, she whispers, “I know you told me I should close my eyes, but I don’t want to. I want to see everything.”
The intense trust in her eyes and the way her heart races every time she looks at me fucking kills me.
She doesn’t look away and it kills me to not be able to do a thing about it.
To not be able to hold her against my chest and bury her so deeply within it that she can never again be taken from me.
I want to run my fingers through her hair and bring her lips to mine, to let her feel the fire and electricity that ignites every time our mouths meet.
Nothing has changed. She is still mine and I am hers whether she believes it yet or not.
She will. She has to. No one can escape fate.
In the end it will be us who fulfil the divine prophecy of putting an end to darkness.
Together, we will.
Flashing the crooked smile I’ve sensed drives her crazy, I place my palm out in front of us and the portal opens.
The swirls of black with shimmering blue and purple invite us home.
Each time I pass through the portal, it’s like stepping through a radiant cloud made of starlight, but tonight I don’t notice.
Not when I have the brightest star of them all standing next to me.
She steps in closer, resting her head on my shoulder and she squeals, her eyebrows lifting as she squeezes my hand tighter.
We step through the glowing lights together and the portal closes, engulfing us in a flash of bright white light.
She isn’t scared of any of it, not with me by her side.
The wind howls and whips past, the colors fading as the portal gently drops us into the Realm of Darkness.
Her explosive laughter echoes into the vastness of the empty field near my house and seeing her this way is contagious.
I’m not sure why exactly we’re laughing, but I laugh, too.
My ribs ache from laughing so hard, but seeing the joy flood through her, a joy I haven’t seen her experience in so long, is thrilling.
We used to laugh together like this often before she was taken from me.
The memory of all I’ve lost slices through my heart and soul, but I push it away.
I fight against the pain. I will not lose her again.
“This is amazing, Kairos,” she breathes, releasing my hand as she spins in slow circles and then stops and gasps at the towering points and sharp lines of the grey washed city below.
“This isn’t at all how I imagined the celestial realm would be.
It’s so dark and gloomy.” She frowns for a moment and then her lips curve up. “But god is it beautiful.”
Gentle, kind eyes glance my way, eyes that drift up and down my body and stop at each weapon strapped to my back and thighs.
She tenses but her energy doesn’t radiate fear.
I sense that she feels safer here with me than she does anywhere else or with anyone else, and a part of her is angry with herself for feeling that way, because of him.
Ere. I wonder how long it’ll take for her to no longer miss him, and for me to no longer be stuck feeling the pain of it alongside her.
Though, I am thankful for this pain. Her pain means she’s alive.
That she’s here with me again. I’ll suffer every day for the rest of my life if it means her heart is beating.
“I’ve learned to appreciate it. I didn’t always,” I admit, stepping up to the edge of the sloping hill, the grass slick beneath my boots.
Gazing out at the city skyline, I admire the sunset as it slowly settles in.
From up here the whole place looks like it could have been plucked right out of one of Nora’s beloved gothic fairytales.
The dark, thick clouds never allow us any direct sunlight, but at least we do have night and day.
The Underworld is a constant pitch-black abyss whereas The Realm of Light was at times too blinding.
The Realm of Darkness is somewhere in between, the perfect balance that offers rest for my mind and my eyes.
She steps up beside me and gazes out at the city. “Why didn’t you appreciate it before? What changed?”
“My whole world changed in an instant being sent here. Life wasn’t always like this.
I was surrounded by light. Surrounded by sun and beauty.
” I sigh. “It was all taken from us in one last battle with Nyx and her demons. But you—your power gave us this place to call home when the gods banished us from the Realm of Light.” I stretch out my fingers before tightening them into fists, forcing the anger away.
“You gave us this last gift as you died in my arms. It took a while to get there, but eventually I realized that anything touched or created by your hands deserves to be cherished. Until now it was all I had to remember you by. It became this constant, welcome reminder that you were real. That we were.” I don’t look at her as I smile, but I feel her watching me, feel the energy within her ignite as she catches that smile, wishing she could remember me.
She doesn’t need to admit that she feels that way.
She wouldn’t admit it even if I asked her, I’m sure of it, but she can’t hide the truth, that she feels something for me.
A part of her does. I’m still angry and bitter about the war, and over the anguish I felt for a century after she was taken from me, but I reign it all in for her.
Now is not the time for anger. All that matters is she learns the history of our people and how we’ve managed to heal since she gave us this beautiful gift, one not even she or the gods were aware she possessed the power to give.
Not until the moment her anger surged, her flames raged, and the sky cracked open as we were cast down to Earth.
It is a power that I still don’t fully understand, but from what I’ve seen, it’s not one any of us want Nyx to have her clawed fingers wrapped around.
When she saw Nora’s power rise that day it only made her want her more.
And oh, how the entire world would suffer if the demon queen were to possess or control such a power.
“You have hope for me. You believe I’ll be free of her darkness one day. What do your people believe?” Red streaks glisten in my peripheral vision as she moves in closer, her hair blowing wildly in the breeze.
Adjusting my wings and considering her words, I notice her fidgeting nervously with the golden bands on her fingers.
She’s not as relaxed or as fearless as she’s pretending to be.
Even being here now, she’s still nervous, understandably.
Though, she is handling it much better than I would.
I wouldn’t believe a single word anyone said until I remembered the truth for myself.
Hopefully it won’t be much longer before the amulet is returned to Nora safe and sound, but I fear Nyx won’t give it over easily, if at all.
She stole it for a reason. Getting it back is going to be hell, which is why she’s here now.
Nyx expects us to come after it, to come after her, so we did the thing she’d least expect me to do.
We ran. I hate it but she’s safe and for now, it’s the only thing that matters.
Taking a seat in the damp grass, I shrug out of my leather jacket and toss it down next to me.
I meet her eyes and then offer my hand to help her sit.
Her half-smile is followed by a vibrant bloom of pink spreading across her cheeks as she clutches my palm.
She keeps her eyes on me, even as she sways and stumbles and I grip her waist, slowly lowering her to the ground next to me.
We sit shoulder to shoulder, her looking at me with a dazed smile, and me looking at her like she’s the only thing that matters, just as hundreds of pairs of wings begin to thunder overhead.
Her eyes widen as she tips her head back to watch the celestials fly past, and a shocked giggle escapes her lips.