by HP Mallory
“This place is the old land,” the Minotaur answered.
“The old land?” Besom repeated.
“From a time before there was an Underground City or an Inferno,” the bull-man further explained. “It was before there was ever a fall, before The Forsaken got his namesake.”
“Can I just say that I don’t know how to feel about this place,” said the blather mouth angel who continued to surprise me with his lack of information.
Lily’s laughter warmed me back as she chuckled. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m talkin’ about the balance, yo.”
“The balance?” Lily asked.
The angel nodded. “Demons aren’t supposed to go up there,” he started and pointed upward. “And angels aren’t supposed to come down here. Everything is so messed up. What happened to the rules that were set up so long ago?”
“No one is abiding by the rules anymore,” the Minotaur replied. “I don’t think they ever did, actually. If the universe was truly separated into light and dark, demons and angels, gods and titans, then there wouldn’t be anywhere for anyone like us to go.”
“Ain’t no such thing as a neutral party in the middle of a war, Kemosabe.”
“Hey, Bill,” Besom called. “Did Dante ever visit this place? I know he couldn’t write about it, but did he ever get to see these secret locations?”
The angel shrugged his shoulders and pointed at me.
“Ah dinnae know, lass.”
“The Geryon said something about drinking the waters of the Sanctuary within some waterfall in order to start the Trials,” Lily said. “The Trials are, apparently, the only way to free Uriel from the Void.”
“I vote we relax for a bit before we drink anything,” the stookie angel said. “Get some shut eye an’ regroup before our next insane mission.”
“I agree,” Lily said.
“If ye had told me that any o’ this was possible the day we met in the Dark Wood, I would nae have believed ye.” I moved to stand in front of her and kissed Lily’s lips as soft as a butterfly’s wings.
“I wouldn’t have believed myself,” she answered.
“I hate to pull everyone out of their happy places at the moment,” the bull-man started, his expression serious as he eyed each of us in turn. “But owing to the conversation Lily had with her mother… we really need to start trying to unlock her powers as quickly as possible.”
“Yes,” Lily said with a sigh. “But I’m not sure how to even go about doing that. It’s not like there’s a magic button I just press.”
“Well, we have to try, correct?” the Minotaur continued. “Or else we won’t stand a chance against the next attack that comes our way. Each wave Alaire sends gets worse. Whatever creatures he has at his disposal… there’s only so long we’ll last against them.”
I swallowed hard as I looked at Lily. “I believe Asterion is correct.”
“Then you want me to fight him?” she asked. “Like the vision my mom said she had?”
“If that is what will produce your powers,” I started.
“We still don’t know if I even possess powers,” Lily argued, shaking her head.
“Well, there’s only one way to find out,” the Minotaur responded.
The stookie angel looked at bull-man, then at me. “Since the fuck when are you two so friendly with each other? I thought having the dude with the black hole on his hand beating up yer girlfriend would have pissed you off even just a little.”
“Lily’s mother wouldnae put her in harm’s way. Ah have to trust she knows o’ what she speaks.”
###
LILY
Asterion shoved me to the ground.
“Don’t take it easy on me!” I yelled at him. “If my powers are going to make themselves known, you have to make me believe I’m fighting for my life.”
“I had no intentions of taking it easy on you,” he responded with a smirk.
I dropped my sword, and he started to stomp on me, but I rolled out of the way. My first instinct was to climb to my feet. That was a mistake. He tackled me and I landed with groans bursting from my lips. Asterion didn’t pull his punches. He squeezed a muscle in my leg that caused pain to shoot up my thigh and lock my hip in place. I rammed my fist into his ribs and brought my knee up.
He rolled off me before my knee could connect with his baby-maker.
“Fuck!” I shouted in frustration. He was nearly four times my size and outweighed me by what felt like a couple of tons. Maybe it was an exaggeration, but my body felt like it had been mowed over by Fourth of July rush hour traffic.
Roadkill. I felt like roadkill. And I probably smelled similar, too.
“That all you got, human?” he asked with a smile.
“Fuck off,” I spat.
I charged him the way he had charged me too many times already. We crashed into a wall of ice, and my teeth clicked so hard, my head spun. I saw something twinkle out of the corner of my eye and jumped back when Asterion came at me with a jagged piece of ice. “You’re supposed to fight me, not try to kill me, asshole!”
“You think Alaire or any one of our enemies are going to take it easy on you?”
I kicked Asterion back, but he braced one leg against the wall of ice to maintain his balance. He used it to launch himself towards me. I sidestepped, and he fell to the ground. The shard of ice was still clutched firmly in his hand as he flipped onto his feet once more.
God, this was so unfair.
Asterion slashed at me with the ice blade, and I ducked and dodged as best I could. I felt a flash of unbearable cold, and then heat trickled from a cut against my thigh. My anger was through the roof, and I slammed my fist into Asterion’s beautiful, human face. I felt my knuckles crack on the impact, but I shook the pain off.
Where were my fucking powers? Why weren’t they making themselves known by now? Wasn’t this according to what the prophecy my mother had seen? That I needed to fight a beast in order to release my own abilities?
Maybe I really didn’t have any abilities? Maybe my mom and Annice had it all wrong?
“Pay attention!” Asterion yelled.
“Screw you.”
“Just say the word,” he laughed. I hated him and his handsome smile more than anything in that moment.
“This isn’t working!”
“You said the prophecy said you had to fight Asterion, right?” Bill asked.
“Yes… my mother said she saw a dream or a vision of me fighting a man-beast!”
Asterion stopped coming at me. “The beast?” he repeated.
“Right,” I answered.
“I’m human at the moment, I’m not beast.”
“You’re the same person,” I pointed out.
“Maybe not as far as the prophecy is concerned,” he argued.
“Your beast side is going to kill me,” I answered, shaking my head. “I can’t even defend myself against you now. How am I supposed to have a hope in hell when you’re… the Minotaur?”
Asterion shrugged. “A prophecy’s a prophecy.”
“He’s got a point,” Bill said.
“Can ye control yerself as the Minotaur?” Tallis asked. “Can you keep yerself from killin’ Lily?”
“Of course. I’m never all beast,” he answered.
“Then let’s try it that way,” I grumbled.
As I watched, Asterion began taking his clothes off.
“What… what are you doing?” I demanded.
He shrugged. “Changing form will shred my clothes.”
“Oh,” I answered and then turned away to give him some privacy. Asterion chuckled as I caught Tallis’ less than amused expression.
“Okay,” Asterion said a few seconds later and when I turned to face him, he was now in the shape of the man-bull I’d first encountered. Only he wasn’t wearing the usual scrap of fabric to cover his… nether parts.
“Asterion!” I said as I motioned to the… HUGE cock that was wagging this way and that as he
moved. “Cover yourself up!”
“I have nothing with which to cover myself,” he answered with a shrug.
I could hear Bill laughing from behind me.
“You have clothes,” I started.
The Minotaur shook his head. “Human clothes that won’t fit me.”
“Bloody hell,” Tallis ground out.
“You’re just going to have to battle me… naked,” Asterion answered with a shrug.
“Unfucking believable.”
And then he came for me again and headbutted me, and I dropped like a sack of rocks.
I pulled my knees under my body and struggled to my feet, but he kicked me in the side. When I refused to go down, his fist collided with my jaw.
“Careful!” Tallis yelled out.
“She has to learn how to defend herself!” Asterion responded. “Alaire’s soldiers won’t go easy on her!”
And if my power was going to make itself known, my body had to be convinced that what we were doing was real—that I truly was in danger.
I swept my legs under him, and Asterion fell beside me. I climbed on top of him and put all my weight against his windpipe. I tried not to remember he was bare-ass naked underneath me, but that wasn’t easy, by any stretch.
He bucked me off, and I spit blood onto the ice. I barely noticed how cold I was anymore.
“You’re not even angry,” he said.
“I’m too busy trying to defend myself.”
“You need to get angry. If your magic is going to intervene, you have to truly defend yourself against me!”
“You don’t think I am?” I demanded.
“No, clearly not! Otherwise your abilities would have made themselves known by now.”
“If I even possess abilities,” I argued.
“That’s part of the problem,” he said. “You don’t believe in yourself.”
“Well, why in the world would I believe I’m anything other than what I already know I am?”
“Because your aunt and your mother both believe such is the case.”
“Maybe they got it wrong.”
“Maybe you’ve got it wrong,” he argued.
Asterion came at me, and I saw red through the blurry haze of my tears. I spun and landed a swift kick to his sternum. When he was down, I hit him over and over with my fists… and that was when I realized he wasn’t doing much to fight back. I moved away and stared down at my hands. “You stopped fighting?”
He shook his head and laughed as he wiped a smear of blood from his lip. “No. That was all you.”
The shard of ice appeared again.
Asterion went to stab me, but I caught the freezing blade in my hands. Blood oozed from between my fingers as I pried the ice from his hands. It shattered when it hit the ground. I started to say something and missed watching him move to strike me again. When the blow landed on the side of my head, I felt it all the way down to my toes. I flew back against the wall of ice and my head started ringing. I couldn’t move as I fought to catch my breath.
“Now you’re mine for the taking, is that it?” he asked as he loomed above me, his hoofed foot coming down as I watched. I pushed his foot away. He slipped on the ice, and I used his momentary lapse to my advantage. We rolled on the ground.
His hands wrapped around my throat, and I fought against his hold, flailing.
“Asterion!” Tallis’s voice rang out.
He ignored Tallis and Asterion tightened his hold.
I pushed against him, thrashing.
“Asterion!” Tallis yelled again.
“Hey, dude,” Bill started as he hurried up to us and grabbed Asterion’s arm.
My palms pressed against Asterion’s chest, and an invisible force jolted through my body, traveling through my arms and into my hands. When the energy hit him, it sent him flying through the air. He banged his head on the ice and slid several feet away. I couldn’t believe what I’d done and as I sat up, fighting to get air back into my lungs, I was suddenly worried I’d really hurt him. I couldn’t stand, so I crawled over to him.
“Asterion?” I started.
He brushed off my concern with a smile. “You did good.”
“I could have killed you.”
“And I could have killed you. That’s what this is about. It’s survival,” he said with a shrug. “That anger you feel inside? Hold on to it. Don’t let it fester, but don’t let yourself forget what you’ve been through either. Someday it might just save your life.”
I nodded. “I felt something,” I started.
“I felt it too,” he said.
“Do you think it was my power?”
He took a deep breath. “It was something.”
###
Two Days Later
I didn’t know how long we’d been practicing, but each session seemed to get longer and more and more difficult. And it seemed to take Tallis longer to heal me. I’d only felt that surge in my abilities once, so I was left with the unpopular opinion that my abilities hadn’t come to the surface. Or maybe they had for a split second? Either way, I didn’t feel like I was any more powerful now than I had before we’d started sparring.
Asterion was particularly good at beating me down only to build me back up again. And not just physically. Each time we sparred, he forced me to hold in my heart a memory or a feeling of something that bothered me. His idea was that by defeating the limiting thought, I would only strengthen my emotions which would, in turn, strengthen my body and hopefully, release my abilities.
It sounded good but I wasn’t sure it was doing much to release my powers. I had to wonder if the pain in my body was worth it and the wounds in my heart that were torn open each time he reminded me of a trauma I’d experienced.
I rushed in to make the next hit, but Asterion threw a curveball at me. Instead of going high, he went low. The switch in the pattern threw me off a bit, but I adjusted.
This was nothing like training with Tallis.
Asterion fought with a brutality I would have expected of someone like Tallis, but not Asterion. The man I saw before me was nothing like the Minotaur I’d helped free from the cruelty within the arena. He was once stoic and mysterious in the way he’d presented himself. Perhaps this was the real Asterion and not the one everyone expected him to be.
He’s my equal, I thought.
The Minotaur came at me again, but I caught him with an uppercut that sent his large body sliding across the ice. I stood over him as he’d done to me many times and rolled him over with my boot. “You don’t seem so tough now, do you?”
“I’m just surprised you’ve got it in you to even land a single punch against me, princess.”
“Don’t call me that.”
“Or what?”
I let him crawl back to his feet and jumped onto his shoulders. My fists throttled the back of his head until he threw me like a ragdoll. Instead of hitting the ground, I felt that power buzz within me and I harnessed it, using it to counter the gravity of my fall as I landed on my feet. Asterion clapped in a condescending manner I didn’t appreciate.
“Not bad, but if you can’t do better, maybe I should bring Tallis out here. At least he would be a worthy opponent.”
“Hurt him and I’ll fucking end you.”
I hardly recognized the rage that colored my voice as I ran towards the Minotaur. He grabbed me around the waist, but I dropped and rolled him over my shoulder, using his large size to my advantage.
My anger boiled over, and I lifted my hands towards Asterion. I wasn’t sure what I was doing but I went with it. As my eyes widened, I watched what appeared to be icicles as they flew from my palm and towards the Minotaur. That was when he used his own power against me, the power of Charybdis in the palm of his hand. Winds suddenly whipped up around us and flung me this way and that.
“That’s not fair!” I yelled.
“All is fair in love and war!” he yelled back.
I was unable to block his next blow, and he hit me beneath the chin. For a
moment all I could see was blackness but then the darkness receded and I saw a vast ocean of blood and fire.
THIRTEEN
LILY
I wanted his kiss more than the air in my lungs.
Tallis consumed me with every stroke of his tongue against mine as he drank in my moans, tasting the wet velvet slide of our mouths. I was close enough to feel each time his heartbeat quickened, so I licked a stripe up the side of his neck. Tallis’s grip on my ass tightened, and he pulled away long enough to search for a place for us to make love.
But when I looked around, all I could see was the chamber of the temple.
It would have to do.
“Here, Sorcha,” he whispered.
I was confused and wanted to tell him I wasn’t Sorcha, but I couldn’t recall just who I was. So I said nothing.
He peeled off the layers of his clothing with little assistance from me, and I took a moment to drool over the trail of hair that led to the final edge of his kilt. God, it was like unwrapping a present every time I got to watch inches of his succulent flesh revealed.
Tallis rolled, pinning me beneath him as he kissed his way down my torso. My toes curled in anticipation, and his fingers worked on my yoga pants as he slid them down my thighs. He growled something in his native tongue I didn’t understand, but chill-bumps appeared all over my arms and legs. I was seconds away from begging him to enter me.
Talented hands yanked my panties free, and Tallis pressed a kiss to my mound.
And it was then that I felt a second pair of hands. They started in my hair, running their fingers through the long, curly auburn locks. I was confused and when I glanced up, I saw Asterion looking down at me.
“Asterion,” I said, suddenly afraid for Tallis’s reaction.
“Ye moost take her, Minotaur,” Tallis said and I felt myself frown. I was confused.
But then I felt Asterion’s mouth on mine and I opened my lips to him so I could feel his tongue mating with my own.
My back arched off the bed as Tallis began licking my clit, but he laid his palms over my stomach and held me down. His kisses left a trail of moisture upon my skin. The first dip of his tongue between my folds caused me to cry out. I bucked my hips and rode the firm press of his tongue. Tallis moved away before I could climax and as I opened my mouth to argue, Asterion unsheathed his massive cock and guided it into the velvety wetness of my mouth.
