Chapter 14
A TRIP
Melek fixed it. Just like he said he would. That day, he worked from home and made sure Sunny and I were fed with leftovers Mary had prepared for us in the freezer.
After having a skin-piercing shower, I managed to pull my mind together enough to distract myself by playing with our son. The coroners came early to take her body away, suspecting a heart attack. By the afternoon, we had a new lady in the kitchen, cooking us dinner.
I was not pleased. Neither was Sunny.
Melek and I had sat him down and told him Mary had passed on.
My husband had referenced some crazed story about a god with wings.
When he started spouting his indoctrinated nonsense, I tuned out.
Mam always said that after we died, we went back home.
Which I always thought was a strange thing to say.
She said this life was for our souls to play, learn, and grow.
When we go home, we get to rest. When you are high on rods in humidity-drenched fields all day, constant thirst on your mind, resting sounds like absolution.
And when she was slowly withering before my eyes, she reminded me that this life is never goodbye; it’s see you soon.
So, as my husband explained his convoluted idiocentric god to our son, I said, “See you soon,” quietly to Mary.
Now, as we sit in despair, eating our roast beeken and vegetables, not saying a word, Melek suddenly speaks up. “I have some news.”
Pushing my beeken in some unfortunately delicious tasting gravy, courtesy of our new housekeeper, I look up at him.
His hair is slightly too long, so he has to brush it behind his ears.
He has a full beard because he hasn’t shaved in a month, though he keeps it trimmed.
And devastating steely eyes. Ones that scream brute, yet look at me now with such reverence it scares me.
This is not the same Melek I met twelve years ago. That man kept everything close cut until he realised I liked to run my hands through his hair when we fuck, and that beard…Well, that’s history.
I squirm in my seat. His sharp stare ignites my core.
The sensation enrages me. Besides the obvious, part of the reason I hate him so much is because, from the moment I laid eyes on him, I wanted him—his body, nothing else.
I’d never wanted to feel a man’s touch on me before him.
It was primal. Animalistic. Pure, sinful lust.
He exuded secrets I wanted to devour.
If it were another time, another place—damn, another world—this could’ve been more… Instead, I was forced to be his. How do I move past that?
I don’t.
I can’t…
It would be a betrayal of my family to look past everything he is.
“Wife.” Melek grasps my hand like he’s been doing it for the past twelve years. Newsflash, he has not. The bedroom doesn’t count.
Don’t let this handsome bastard suck you in, Storm. Not again.
“What is your news, Melek?” I ask with a slight hint of agitation, pulling my hand out of his.
He looks on at where my hand has retreated, boiling. Good. Now we are both in a shitty mood.
“I had a tour scheduled at the factories this week?” Spearing my beeken vengefully, I shove it in my mouth and chew, mouth open. He squints his full-lashed eyes at me and continues. “I was going to postpone it, but I’ve decided you will both come with me instead.”
I spit out my food.
No joke, it goes flying, hitting Melek square in the chest. From the other side of the table, giggling ensues. “Mama, Papa said no spitting food at the table, remember?” he tries to say sternly, his childish delight comes through regardless.
When he was three, Sunny went through a stage of wanting to cannonball his peas through his mouth, which Melek wasn’t happy about. I was just happy the kid was eating the occasional vegetable since he was going through a beige-food-only phase.
“It’s alright, son. Mama was just surprised. She didn’t do it on purpose.” My husband speaks up for me, and I go to grab the beeken from his shirt.
“I’d say I’m sorry, but you deserved that,” I say, reaching over to pick the half-chewed food off his clothes. He grabs my wrist tightly and pulls me to him.
“Son, go into the kitchen and ask what’s for dessert?” Melek’s eyes don’t leave mine, but we both know if anyone mentions dessert, our son is on it. He runs from the room in a flash.
“Oww, can you ease up?” I demand, as he runs a hand under my dress, reaching up my thigh. Eyes bore into mine, giving me a look that says, Who’s your commander? Are you going to submit to me? I’d almost find it funny if I didn’t know exactly what he was going to find.
I seize his shoulder with my free hand and squeeze. His calloused fingers make contact with my wet underwear.
“This is exactly the reason I am taking you with me. You are growing too bold, wife, and without Mary here, I cannot trust you to do what you are told.” He runs maddening lines up and down the thin material covering my dripping pussy.
My eyes automatically close as I resist the urge to hump his fingers.
“What about Sunny?” Pleasure starts shooting through my groin. Don’t hump his fingers, Storm. Not at the dining table.
“He will come with us.”
“But—” There are so many things I want to say, so many words on the tip of my tongue, but Melek’s hands are magic. My body bends to his will.
He’s never taken us out of Halo. Not once has he ever mentioned it.
He has taken his yearly trips to check on the front lines and the different factories before, yet not once has he invited me.
However, Mary was always around. As much as I treated her like a mother, she was always Melek’s dutiful keeper first—another casualty in this war.
Hurtling through the door, Sunny comes with a plate of chocolate cake. “Look! Look!” he exclaims. Melek casually removes his hand from under my skirt and stands.
“I’m going to pack. We are leaving tomorrow morning.” He runs a hand over my stomach, placing a gentle kiss on my forehead before going over to Sunny, who is eyeing us suspiciously.
“You and Mama eat a slice of cake. Then you need to pack a bag because we are going on a work trip tomorrow.”
The plate nearly drops out of our son’s hands. Melek quickly grabs the decadent cake, placing it carefully on the table. “Then, early to bed for both of you.”
Ever the excitable child, Sunny wraps his arms around his father in a hug. Melek is quick to fold into the embrace. Seeing them like that has me dreading the deal with the fae. Only for a second. Then I remember where we are. Halo.
Once Melek is gone, I cut us two double slices of cake, calling it one slice. Sunny is equally impressed with my cake-cutting abilities, and we do away with each slice painlessly.
Last night, I slept all the way through, without interruption. Between Mary’s death and this bizarre outing, Melek is determined to take us on, my husband actually let me sleep. I was expecting at least some cock sucking since I left him with blue balls in the morning. Nothing.
Instead, he packed our bags, helped me in the shower, avoiding all of my sensitive areas, and then cuddled me in bed. Was it the first night we hadn’t had sex since Sunny’s birth and subsequent forced bed rest following? Surely not.
As I racked my brain for other instances, I could not think of any other time. The man is an animal, demanding orgasms from me every night. I have no idea if it is normal because I don’t have other women to talk to. It is our normal. Maybe I revel in it as much as he does. Maybe.
Why does he have such a hold over me?
Disappointment may have found me upon waking, and I cut through that sucker exponentially.
I wring my hands in my lap, trying to forget about the misty, barren lands we pass in the large black seven-seater four-wheel drive. Sunny sits in the row behind us, sleeping.
We are on the precipice of exiting the colder months of the year.
It doesn’t show in the surrounding environment, though.
The hard dirt remains cracked, the land flat and uninhabitable behind the constant swirling grey tendrils.
It reminds me of my childhood, of finding green weeds in fissures the size of my fist, thinking I had struck gold.
The only plant life I’ve ever seen is at the Fairy Lands’ borders, behind our manor, and the food that ends up on my plate.
How they support the fruits and vegetables to grow in this desolate place is a mystery, as much as the puzzle of the nightly lightning strikes we used to receive. Mary did mention they have these places called greenhouses at one of the factories. It’s all done inside so the crops don’t burn.
One of those regretful types of questions that flies at me full speed is how much I still don’t know about this place. Should I have spent more time investigating Halo society instead of indulging in my emotions? It could have aided in my escape.
As soon as it crosses my mind, I’m reminded of colourful irises, the blue colour barring me from the people outside of our Halo manor.
I was already restricted to leaving the house with Melek in tow in the early days because of my running.
However, after we had Sunny, he let me leave with Mary and a trusted keeper.
A few outings were enough for me to realise there was nothing for me in Halo.
The punishing glares and whispered, “Swine slut,” comments behind my back were havoc on my new motherhood status in those early days.
Children should usher in happiness, not dread and anguish.
So, the manor became my prison in a whole new way. I had to protect Sunny at all costs.
He wasn’t going to be brainwashed.
Neither of my children are.
From what I was told about this trip, we will work our way around in a loop of sorts.
Now that we are out here, I wonder if this is a punishment. Will we end up at the place I began? The place where I left my mother and Nix to rot?