Qanek
The Underworld greeted me on the other side of the portal I had opened in the sky.
The harsh sun scorched my skin, creating cracked filaments along the surface–a rather unpleasant feeling.
As unpleasant as the rage that tore through my insides like a storm at the realization of what had just occurred.
Fool, I cursed myself, and then did so again.
I turned mid-air, but it was already far too late.
The portal I had come through was already closed and to open another required great, powerful magic.
The likes of which I did not possess. It had taken me many months to build up my reserve in order to open a door between realms so I would slip into the human world, and many more to come back home.
I had calculated everything to perfection, from the second of its opening and closing down to the exact angle in which it would do so.
Though in all my planning, I had not anticipated her.
Already, the magic that travelled through the blood beneath my skin was diminishing, even as my anger was rising.
A true fool I was, for I had failed at the one task I had set out alongside my brothers to complete.
A tiny human lay within the curve of my arms. A dainty little thing.
An unwanted little thing.
She was familiar. The little creature that was always trailing behind the one I truly wanted.
My wings gave a violent push as I circled the air in preparation for a landing. All the while I could not remove my sight from the creature. I knew her dark hair, I knew of her face, but she had always faded into the background like an insignificant shadow or a particularly monotonous worm.
The woman held a head of untamed hair that appeared to resemble more of a demon’s nest than actual human hair. Her skin was the same shade as the earth of the Underworld, a light brown with yellow undertones. Her hair was a darker, almost violent shade.
She did not compare to the other human, the one who was named Carlota.
No, Carlota was perfect. Tall enough to meet my own frame, with hair that was smooth enough to slide over the delicate curve of her shoulders like water sliding across a river. The curvature of her body, the details of her face… She was like an angel I had never seen but always dreamt of.
This human was imperfect, with teeth that were slightly crooked and boasted a gap in the middle. She was dull.
Ugly.
As ugly as me.
No.
We were not suitable. Not at all.
It was why I set my eyes on Carlota in the first place. I needed a wife that was unlike me. Someone who was all smooth curves and panes to contrast my harsher scars.
And I had fucked it up and taken the wrong bride.
Hatred brimmed and boiled in my chest, making my body glow an angry shade of red. I hated this human, just like I hated myself.
Why did she have to get in the way of my carefully constructed plans? Why did she have to push my wife away from my arms and fall into my hold instead?
An ugly human and an ugly gargoyle did not make a match.
This was not supposed to happen.
I flew down onto the earth, landing in a deserted area surrounded by an outcropping of giant rock.
I loathed to have the woman in my arms any longer than necessary. With heavy footsteps, I stormed towards a flat rock and lay her prone body atop it, glaring down at her as if she could feel the force of it.
She slept heavily, having fainted in her shock or fear or both.
I scoffed at the pathetic little sight she made.
The red garment she wore that covered the upper half of her body was askew, the buttons ripped, the material rumpled.
Blue material hugged her lower half, molding against her frame.
She wore boots and around her neck was that black, human contraption that was permanently tethered to her fingers.
Using the end of my tail, it snaked around, nudging her body with the tip. She moved, but did not awaken. I gave her another shake, more violent than the last, but she scarcely breathed or showed signs of waking soon.
I tugged at my broken horn in frustration. The jagged end scraped across my palm, and I ached where the tip once was. Sometimes, I could still feel it, even when I knew it was no longer there. Touching the proof of what I had lost grounded me to the reality of my world, my life.
Roaring at the sky felt appropriate, but I bit my tongue, tasting blood in the back of my throat. Wailing would do me no good.
I had stolen away the wrong wife.
After weeks of careful stalking and planning, I had vowed I would ignore my brother Nazzar’s advice. He thought he was giving Xavir and I a gift in his warnings about not stealing humans. That the women were delicate creatures with the desire to be courted slowly in the human traditions.
An idiotic notion.
We were not human, so why should we stoop to their customs when we had our own?
Besides, he had his bride already. He had stolen her and she accepted his mating. I would find mine, regardless of what he advised. He was selfish, foolish. I would follow in our traditions and take the one I wanted.
But I had taken the wrong one.
The echo of that thought could not be expelled from my head.
I stared at her, wondering with dawning horror if that meant she was my wife now?
No.
I shook my head side to side and swiped a hand down my scarred face.
I refused to let that be my reality.
All my life, I had yearned for companionship. I thirsted for violence and blood and sought to fight and destroy. I had lost parts of my body and deformed the rest.
I deserved the bride I wanted.
And so I would go back and retrieve her.
After all, it would not defy tradition, would it?
I had made a simple mistake, one I would rectify. Everything would be set to rights, so long as I stole away the correct bride and left this human alone. Everything would be fine, so long as this human and I did not complete the mating ritual.
She was not my wife.
Not yet. Not ever.
I just had to go back to the human world. To do that, I would replenish my magic. I would open a portal and find her.
But there was the matter of this creature first…
I looked down at her, peeling my lip back with a disgusted snarl.
Taking her would be dangerous. Any more time in her presence would create a tether between us that would be difficult to sever. And I did not want her. I could not want her.
No.
I decided.
I would leave her here and go find my true bride.
Just as the thought formed, I stepped away, walking backwards as my wings snapped behind me.
I gave her a long glance, waiting to see if she would stir. When she did not, I bent at the knees and jumped, taking flight towards the sky until the ground disappeared beneath me and I was surrounded by nothing but darkening clouds and harsh heat.
I flew away until she was no longer visible.
She will die.
The thought invaded my mind, causing my wings to falter. I bobbed in the air, righting myself, pausing.
She will die.
I took a breath. Whatever happened to her was no problem of mine. It was her own, for meddling where she was not wanted. For jumping into my arms and stealing Carlota’s place, for trying to keep my true bride away from me.
Even with that determined thought in my head, I could not help but turn back in the direction where I had left her.
And I chewed my bottom lip in contemplation.
No, I told myself. I will not go back for her.