“Nothing, not even you. I listened for movement, but there was none. Then, you appeared again. I feigned sleep as a precaution.”
“The venefica play,” I grind out.
“How?”
I debate whether I should tell him or not, I decide after only a moment’s hesitation to tell him exactly what happened, even her riding astride me and taking my seed inside of her womb, along with the claim of being with child instantly.
“It is possible, with their kind at least,” he announces. “She could have cast a spell, taken a potion to make it happen. What will you do if there is indeed a halfling?”
Unable to think about the concept, I rise to my feet and prepare for battle. “She will not live, therefore the halfling will not live. It matters not if there is indeed one.”
“Tib,” he warns. “You came here to free them, to release them.”
Nodding, I turn to look at Brutus. “This I know, though the venefica cares not. I told her of my plans, she wishes to create a war, to cause problems between my empress and me. I do not know her endgame, but I will not allow it.”
Chapter Fifteen
DRUCILLA
The pain.
Excruciating pain.
Wrapping my arms around my waist, I double over with that pain. I try to hold back any sounds, but I can’t. I let out a scream as my ass slides from the side of the bed and my knees hit the hard stone floor.
The door opens and I glance up to see another beautiful woman appear in front of me. She has white-blonde hair just as the other one, but bright blue eyes. She looks a little like me in the face, and if I were able to concentrate, maybe I would think that was weird, but I can’t concentrate on anything other than the pain.
She crouches down in front of me, tilting her head to the side. “It hurts already? The gods are good,” she breathes. “But not as good as I am.”
“What?” I grind out.
Her lips curve up in a smile. “Your emperor’s body is beautiful. When he is mine, fully, I’ll fix his face so that his beauty can be all around me, all of the time.”
“He isn’t yours,” I snap.
She throws back her head, laughing. “That pain you feel?” she asks. I open my mouth to tell her to fuck off, but nothing comes out. “That is what happens when the gods have brought two people together, but they cannot stay together.”
“So you’re doing this?” I ask on a breathy whisper.
She hums. “We did make it impossible for the emperor to fall in love. But I wanted to make sure the gods didn’t mess with my plan.”
I watch her for a moment, waiting for her to speak, the pain too much for me to actually say anything back to her, no matter what I want to say, which is to tell her to go to hell. Instead, I watch and I wait.
“His seed grows inside of me,” she breathes, then she moves closer. “All of your emperor’s body is beautiful, especially that hard length that grows between his legs.”
Shaking my head, I refuse to believe that she had sex with him, that he had sex with her. The pain stays just as intense in my stomach, but somehow also develops in my chest. It hurts, and the tears that prick my eyes aren’t just from the physical pain, but they’re from the emotional as well.
“You love him.” She laughs softly. “This will hurt more than you can handle. It will probably kill you, that is if we do not first.”
“He will never love you,” I snap. “He doesn’t deserve you.”
She stands, her eyes narrowing on me, then she does something that I couldn’t imagine a woman would ever do. I watch as she slips her fingers between her legs and brings them back up. She rubs them together, then bends down again in front of me and holds them in front of my nose.
“That smell is his semen mixed with my juices. He is not yours any longer, Drucilla. He has fallen under my spell and he will be unable to fight it, fight me.”
I almost throw up on her, but I hold it back, barely. She laughs, maniacal, sounding exactly like the crazy person she is. Holding everything back, my tears, my outbursts, everything, I just stare at her.
She smiles and takes a step back. “This will be fun,” she calls out.
“Wait,” I cry, holding my hand up, and trying not to fall on my face with the pain. She stops, turning around to face me again, her smile still firmly in place. “Can you give me the ability to speak this language, the Savonaian language?” I ask.
She doesn’t say anything immediately, again she tilts her head to the side and watches me. “It matters not if you speak it, you will not be alive long enough to actually say anything to any of them.”
“I would like to have the ability, even if it is just for my last moments.”
“Humans,” she snorts. Then she lifts her hand and mutters something. My body jerks forward and she grins. “Do you understand me?” she asks. Her words are Savonaian, and yet, they translate immediately in my mind.
“I do,” I say, and it comes out in Savonaian.
Without another word, she turns and leaves me alone in the room. Alone with my pain. Alone with my heartache. Because my heart hurts, it hurts so badly that I’m not sure it will ever be mended.
Curling in a ball, I cry. Tears flow down my cheeks, I try to cry out the pain, but it does nothing to ease the agony. I stay there for minutes, hours, days, I’m unsure. The pain is too much to bear and I beg for the sweet relief of death.
It never comes.
Eventually, my body is too worn out to feel anymore. I finally fall asleep and welcome the darkness that surrounds me, hoping that I will stay this way for a lifetime.
What feels like only seconds after closing my eyes and finally succumbing to the pain enough to fall asleep, a brightness enters the room and I open my eyes. Lifting my hand from my stomach, I shield my eyes as the brightness takes over and then dims.
There standing in front of me is a man and a woman. They are glowing a golden hue all around their bodies. I open my mouth to speak, but nothing comes out. The pain is still too great to form a complete sentence.
“We are Amare and Odium,” the woman explains.
She is tall and curvy with long curly brown hair and golden eyes. She is dressed much like I am in a long gown with golden ropes and a crown. She’s beautiful, and when she smiles down at me, I can feel the love and kindness that pours from her.
“I am the Goddess of Love,” she whispers. “We are here to help you.”
“The venefica have conspired against the gods, I am here for them.” the man announces. “I am Odium, the God of Hate.”
He is also very handsome, dare I say beautiful even. He has blond hair, the same golden eyes as Amare, and he is simply breathtaking. It is hard to look at him, he is so pretty.
“How?” I whimper.
“She cannot withstand this, she must be taken,” Amare announces.
“Tiberius,” I choke out.
Amare sinks down in front of me. She reaches out and touches my forehead with her cool hand. “He will be looked after, chosen one.”
Then before I can say a word, everything starts to fade away in front of me, including Amare and Odium. I hear Odium’s voice in the far distance.
“We will come for you when it is safe again. Drucilla.”
Then there is nothing, absolutely nothing. Darkness consumes me yet again.
TIBERIUS
As a group, we make our way around the base of the mountain in an attempt to find the entrance or at least a way that we can try to climb. Once we have walked the entire perimeter, we all stop and gather, looking at one another, all of us unsure of what to do next.
Brutus jerks his chin then walks toward me and past me. I follow behind him, leaving the group to speak privately to my cousin.
“Can you call to her, have her transport you?” he asks.
“The venefica?” I ask, unbelieving that he is asking this of me.
Brutus nods his head a few times. “Your empress will forgive you of this once she knows the truth of it. But she cannot forgive yo
u if you cannot get to her, to save her.”
Just as he finishes his words, there is a screech that fills the air, it is so loud that we are all forced to cover our ears, then the sky darkens immediately. Brutus and I both snap our neck backward to look up into the darkened sky.
“The gods,” he breathes.
Before we can say anything else, there is a flash of light, then me and my men are all transported. The landscape around us slowly disappears and we reappear in a cave-like room, with three women in front of us, crouched and their teeth bared.
“What in the gods,” Brutus whispers.
“We need your help, mighty Tiberius,” a smooth voice breathes.
Looking to the side, I almost collapse to my knees at the sight of who can only be Amare, the Goddess of Love.
“My wife is stunning, but we need all of your help,” a booming voice barks.
Turning to the other side, the God of Hate, Odium, stands before me. “Where is Drucilla,” I whisper as fear slices through me.
“She is safe,” Amare states. I whip my head around, my eyes finding hers. “You are not in pain?” she asks, tilting her head to the side.
“I am not,” I announce.
She doesn’t speak, but worry clearly crosses her features as she lifts her head up, her eyes widening as she looks at Odium. She nods her head once, licking her lips, then tips her chin down and looks in my direction again.
“We will not allow this to be too late, we will try to fix it, Tiberius. Now, fight with us.”
No other words are spoken. Almost instantly, the witches send sparks of purple lights in our direction. Lifting my shield, I shout to my brothers to do the same, to deflect their magic. We do and the purple lights are shot back at the witches.
The one that laid with me, that forced my body to take hers, she calls out to me. “Tiberius,” she coos. “Your child grows inside of me, do not do this to the mother of your child.”
I hesitate. My torso jerks forward, I try to fight it, but the pull is strong. So strong. “Fight, Tiberius. Fight for your empress,” Amare calls out.
I try.
I try so hard to fight for my empress for Amare, for my country and people, for my men and my family. I try. My body wears quickly, far too quickly and I start to crumble. My knees give out, crashing down to the stone floor after what feels like hours of deflecting the purple sparks.
“You will not win,” the venefica cry. “You will never win against us, no matter how much power you bring from above. We have more, from below.”
There is heavy panting from each side of me and I look to see my men are in the same position as I am, Amare and Odium are not faring much better. Amare looks over to me and I shift my gaze from her, defeat clearly on the horizon.
“If I willingly give myself to you, will you save my men from any more harm?” I call out.
The sparks stop. Silence takes over the room, all except the gasp of Amare. I ignore the surprise, the obvious reluctance at hearing my words. Refusing to look at her, unable to handle disappointment from a goddess, I focus on the venefica that claims to be carrying my halfling child.
“I will send them home to their families,” the woman announces. “All but you, Tiberius. You will stay with me.”
“I cannot leave my people, come with me. Come to Divio.”
There is a moment of silence and I hear Brutus moan, obviously not a fan of my plan, but there is nothing that I can do. Not yet, at least. I don’t know if there ever will be, but I have to try, for my people, for any hope of getting my Drucilla back with me.
“You make a deal with a messenger of Diaboli,” Amare hisses, speaking of the God of the Underworld.
“This I know, this is the only deal I can make that will save my people,” I state.
“Your empress?” she asks. “The prophecy?”
Turning to look at her, I give her my most sorrowful gaze. “I hope that with your help and the help of the other gods, you can spare my people, knowing that I was unable to do anything else. Protect my Drucilla.”
“Do you love her?” Amare asks.
Pressing my lips together, I am unsure how to answer this. “I feel for her something I have never felt before. I do not know what it means or what it stands for.”
“I will try my hardest to plead to the others on behalf of your case. I make no promises,” she finally confesses.
Shaking my head, I finally have the strength to stand. “You will protect her?” I ask.
“With all of the power that I hold.”
“I accept your proposal. I will come to live with you,” the venefica announces. “You will call me by my name, Decima.”
“Decima,” I rasp, hating that it is close to Drucilla, despising even more that it is not indeed my Drucilla.
This is my own hell on earth, my penance for all of the bad deeds that I have done in my lifetime. I just hope that my people do not suffer greatly for their emperor’s mistakes. I hope that my Drucilla, who is no doubt innocent, does not suffer wherever she is.
Chapter Sixteen
DRUCILLA
I blink, looking around and trying to figure out exactly where I am. The room is bright, and I shield my eyes with my hand, trying to take it all in. It takes me a moment for everything to register… I’m home.
The sun shines into my bedroom and I sit straight up. My heart pounds as I look around. I’m alone. Listening to the world around me, I hear things that I never thought I would again. Cars, horns honking, people shouting below—sirens.
“Holy shit,” I breathe.
Then I hear something else, something that I hadn’t even missed, but thought that I could live without. My phone notification goes off. Turning toward the source of the noise, I see my phone plugged into the charger, exactly where I would have put it to go to bed.
“Was it all a dream?” I ask.
I look down and realize I’m still in my gown. Lifting my hand, I touch my head and I feel it. Standing, I rush over to the mirror and there, in front of me, my reflection shows me what I’ve wanted to see since Laurentia put me all together—my makeup, my dress, my ropes, and my crown.
Looking down at my hand, I see my ring, my wedding ring. It wasn’t a dream. It was real. It was real and I’m back here. I don’t know who transported me back, but now I’m worried.
The prophecy, if all of that was real, the world I was in, then that means that the prophecy was real and I remember them saying that bad shit would go down if it wasn’t fulfilled properly. Meaning Tiberius and I weren’t happily in love and creating mini-Tiberius babies.
Rushing back to my phone, I open Safari and search for Savona. The only thing that comes up is a province in Italy. I start to read about it and I’m surprised it has its own president. I didn’t think that was a thing. I immediately find myself sucked into the history of the province, but nothing that I find connects to Tiberius.
Until I look up Emperor Tiberius who according to Google reined in the year fourteen. An image pops up, there is a stone bust of this man, and my heart races as I blow up the image so that I can see it, but I frown at the sight.
It isn’t my Tiberius.
I mean, the bust of the man is nice and all, but he’s not my Tiberius. Not my emperor. My heart sinks down to my stomach at the thought of not seeing my Tiberius again. Then I wonder why I’m so upset? Didn’t I plan on finding my way home anyway?
Shaking my head, I pinch my eyes closed. Not like this. I didn’t want to come home alone, not without my sisters, and honestly, I’m not sure that I wanted to come home at all. I was kind of liking that world, and that man, even if I couldn’t understand a single word he said… what we did together alone was pretty fantastical.
I’m not sure what to do. I feel like I should be doing something, trying to find a way back to Tiberius, trying to do something—anything. Nervous energy fills me so I decide to take a quick shower.
Taking off all of my awesome clothes and then finally my crown makes me feel sad
. When I’ve stripped myself of everything, I take a look at my bare body and hair in the mirror and frown. The only thing I’ve kept on is my wedding ring.
I feel—empty.
Once I’ve showered and washed my hair and body with my regular soaps, that emptiness returns. Putting on a pair of shorts and a loose-fitting tank, again, emptiness. Chancing a glance at my reflection again, I can’t do anything but stare.
Suddenly, I don’t feel like myself anymore. I’m not the girl that I was when I wore these things a few weeks ago, I’m alone and lost. Picking up my cell phone, I scroll through the names and try to call Birdie.
The phone doesn’t even ring, it goes straight to voice mail. I search for Liv’s name and it does the same, then Sybilla’s. They’re all still gone and I’m here. Tears fill my eyes. They fall down my cheeks one by one as I sit on the edge of my bed wishing that I could be anywhere else but right here.
I chew on my bottom lip as I stare at my parents’ contact on my phone. I’m not sure I should call them, however, my mom is the only one on earth I think, who really believes the truth of what’s happened.
If I told her where I went and what happened to me, she would probably be the only person who would try and find a way for me to return.
After staring at her name for a few moments, I decide against calling her just yet. Pulling up the Safari app on my phone again, I search for parallel universes. I’m not exactly sure, but I think that’s exactly where I was, where my sisters still are.
The day turns into afternoon, to evening and then night. I stay glued to my phone, reading, and focused on this whole conspiracy theory about parallel universes. Although nowhere does anyone tell me how to get there—how to get back.
After not sleeping, I walk over to my window, opening it and sticking my head outside. Looking up to the sky, I wonder if Amare and Odium are somewhere up there. If they are like the gods that I see in movies, sitting up in their big oversized chairs looking down at the world… the worlds.
Bride of the Emperor (The Prophecy of Sisters Book 4) Page 11
