by Tigris Eden
“You will not move. You try to run, and you’ll be sorry.”
Yewa nodded. She believed every word he said. He’d make her regret her actions if she tried to take her leave of him. Gregor appeared, and in his hands, were the chains they’d previously used to trap Enri in.
“Do you really think that’s going to work, Gregor?” Enri sneered.
Gregor shrugged, his actions lazy. He fully expected it to work again, Yewa realized.
“I didn’t know you meant to free him, Yewa,” Gregor admitted to her, ignoring Enri altogether.
How did she respond to that? She hadn’t intended to free him; she’d intended to help him. But he’d dangled the chance to see more of the world, and like a fool, she’d jumped at the opportunity.
“I am sorry, Gregor.”
“Not as sorry as I am, Yewa. Now I must keep the two of you apart. Step away from the Fallen.”
Enri moved to stand in front of her. His intentions clear. She’d stay with him.
“Gregor, how would you like your death? Quick and easy, or painful and prolonged? I find that today, I’m taking requests.”
“How about neither?”
“Oh, but you only get option A or option B. There is no C.” Enri laughed.
“Maybe there is another way?” Yewa suggested.
Enri didn’t look back as he hissed out, “There is no other way; he owes me his life.”
“Why? Can’t we just leave?”
“In a minute,” Enri said, the anger rising as his entire body shook. Yewa wasn’t prepared for what happened next. He didn’t move; he didn’t lift a finger. But the darkness did. As if he could control the shadows and turn them into a tangible, living, breathing thing. In the darkness was Death Walkers, but these were not the ones she’d seen before when they’d traveled by car. No, these were different. No longer in any type of form she could decipher or recall. She was unable to comprehended the carnage Enri brought forth.
Yewa could hear the ocean roaring and the ground rumbling as the shadows came to life. Enri stood in the center of it, and she stood behind him as the elements reacted around them. The wind howled and the waves rose over the wall of the monastery to spill into the courtyard, Enri laughed. One of the shadows grabbed Gregor from behind, and like a knife through butter, the shadow pierced his chest. The sight before Yewa was unimaginable as the shadow flew through the opening that was created. Gregor’s body now lifeless and no longer breathing. But she could tell—somehow—he still lived. His eyes tracked everything. And as his lips tried to create words, the shadows expanded, lifting him off the ground until the darkness seeped into his form, leaving Gregor suspended mid-air.
The hole in his chest closed, and his eyes glazed over with incomprehension.
“Come to me,” Enri said to Gregor’s form.
Gregor walked toward them, each step a struggle as he tried to fight whatever Enri had done to him. Yewa watched as his body stopped in front of them and waited for further instruction.
“You will kill your brothers and Z, and when you’ve completed that mission, you will come to me. I want them to suffer; I want them screaming in agony,” Enri demanded.
Gregor’s face contorted with rage. Somehow, Enri had left him with his own mind but had taken over his will. Hatred burned bright in his eyes as he stared up at Enri, and then his gaze moved, pinning Yewa to the spot, his loathing now focused on her. He blamed her for what he would do. He made sure to let her know with his stare that if he ever got free of the thrall, she was the first person on his list. Stepping to the side, she stood next to Enri.
“Enri, Fion will be unguarded. And the Defiant Ones, who will ensure they remain in slumber?” Yewa inquired.
“None of that is your concern or mine. You said you would not leave me, said you would help me, and that’s exactly what you’re going to do. You’re going to help me get what’s due to me.”
His arm wound around her waist pulling her toward him, and then he used his massive wings and took them straight into the darkening sky.
Chapter 4
Enri took them to a place he thought he’d long forgotten. That it remained amazed him. It had been over a thousand years since he’d visited the garden. A place he’d confiscated from Persephone, herself. An ancient garden thought to have been destroyed during a battle. Enri had had the gardens and its grounds transported to the outer edges of Tartaros where he could taunt Persephone with the place she’d loved above all others. The only time she could visit was when he first entered its realm. The night-blooming garden boasted an ascending series of tiered foliage and manicured paths. It only thrived in darkness. The night-blooming lilies and the sweet four o’clock flowers were in full bloom. The only plants that seemed to survive whether he was here or not. His stepmother created the garden for herself when she’d come topside to sleep with her lovers. She’d like to create the fantasy of a blooming paradise, complete with a palace even the highest of kings would desire. A palace now in ruins. She’d been a sick one, his stepmother. The moment he’d become a man, she’d become attentive. Showing him favor over his half-brother. She’d taunted and tempted until, Enri had given in to her whims.
He’d followed Persephone to her night garden where he took his liberties. She’d been a screamer—an annoying screamer. And for a time, he’d indulged her. Tolerated her games. She, too, had promised to never leave him. Claiming she loved him and his cock. Females. Bogged down with glamor and bathed in overpriced oils and perfumes. Especially now. It was very rare for a woman to wear her true scent.
The female in his arms had fallen asleep during the journey. The place he’d taken them to was far beyond the reaches of any mortals—or immortals for that matter. But it was perfect. In this place, no one would find them. It would give him time to seek the answers to his questions about himself and Erebos. He wasn’t quick to believe what the entity had said to him, but he’d fact-check anyway.
Enri placed Yewa on a bed of lotus leaves. Un-gentle in his actions, she woke, disoriented, gathering her wits before she spoke.
“Where are we?”
“Persephone’s night-blooming garden.”
“Why are we in her place. Won’t Persephone be angry?”
“She won’t care. I’ve taken it from her. This is my place now.”
Yewa looked around. There were plants everywhere. Large and small, some even deadly.
“You have gone too long without visiting. The plants are wild.”
“Like me. Just the way I like it.”
She didn’t comment on his last remark. She stood, dusted off her hands, and turned to take everything in. As she looked around, Enri watched her every move. He was pretty good at reading people. With her, he wasn’t. She didn’t act like any of the women he knew. They always wanted only two things from him: his mouth and his cock. Never his company, because who would want to be caught in bed with the bastard son of Hades?
He was here with Yewa completely nude, yet she seemed unaffected by his maleness. Odd creature. Enri watched as she walked through the unmanicured lawns. As she did, the plants knew something pure and good had come into their midst. There were no insects buzzing around, but as Yewa walked across the stepping-stones hidden in the grass, noise began to gather. Once a dead and barren place overrun with rotting roots and thick vines, it began to move. Life began to take shape again. The night-scented orchids grew large, almost to the size of her head, as a bloom opened right in front of her face as if to get a better look at the woman who walked among their untilled soil.
Enri stood on a broken walkway, and where he stood, vegetation remained lifeless. The smell of decay was strong as dead leaves lay at his feet. But where she walked, life sprang up. As if the very soles of her feet could heal the ground she walked upon. Satiny petals opened as she passed a giant evening primrose. The flower itself was something of a marvel; the smell as sweet, if not sweeter than, Yewa’s own scent. He wanted to call her to where he stood. To be surrounded by the miracle
of life. The moment the idea crossed his mind he shook his head, cursing under his breath. He wasn’t here to enjoy the scenery. He was here to recover and make plans.
“Do the plants always do this?” she asked over her shoulder, not looking his way.
“No, this is a first.”
“Hmmm,” was all she said as she walked by a white flower known as the Queen of the Night, a Dutchman’s Pipe cactus if he remembered correctly. “What do you call this one?” she asked, referring to the white flower.
“It’s the Queen of the Night. Cereus.”
“And the one next to it?”
“Moonflower.”
“It looks nothing like a moon.”
She was right, it looked nothing like the moon, but it had gotten its name due to the time of night it opened and closed. Or at least that’s what Persephone had said.
“Ah, this one I know.” She stood in front of a Mirabilis, the four o’clock flower. The flower an intense pink with a white center. She touched a petal, and the flower sighed, as if it missed the touch from someone so pure.
“How do you know that one, Sundara?”
Yewa turned and smiled a genuine smile. It wasn’t one to trap, or even entice, but a true expression.
“My mother braided these into my hair, but only after they bloomed. The fragrance is appealing.”
That it was.
“We will be here for a few days. Don’t try to escape, there is nowhere to go.”
“I am no prisoner, Enri. I am here because I wish to be. There is no need to demand anything of me, all you need do is ask.”
Fuck her and her sweetness.
“You sent Gregor to kill his brothers. Will he actually do it?”
Enri watched her closely. Her eyes were wide with worry, and her lips thinned with what could only be sadness. She didn’t yell at him or tell him he was wrong, only called him out on what he’d done. Not a drop of judgment.
Interesting.
“Yes, and they deserve it.”
Ready for her to condemn him, Enri waited.
“Forgiveness is the key to divination,” was her response.
Enri took a step back and sat on a ledge overgrown with vines.
“Divination? You can’t be serious. Did you forgive those who enslaved you? Did horrible, unspeakable things to your person?”
Her eyes cut to his, and she observed him for long seconds before answering.
“I forgave you,” she announced.
“Forgave me? For what? I didn’t do anything to you? I’ve never harmed you.”
He hadn’t. Had he? What could she have possibly meant by that statement?
“You’re so sure about that?”
“Of course, I’m sure.” But as he said the words, doubt began sowing its ugly seed, and Enri never doubted himself or his actions.
“You were the one who turned me over to the Agency. It was you that day on the dirt road. You let the others go, but me, you kept. Handed me over to Master Boone. I don’t remember all the details, but it came to me in a dream the day I healed you from your wounds.”
“You did no such thing, I healed myself.”
“I did, and I dreamt of the dirt road, and the little girl who was the winged lion shifter.”
His mind filled with memories. Sometimes too many. But if he concentrated, he could focus on a time and recall every single detail.
He sorted through everything during the time when the Atlantic Slave Trade was active. He pulled up the mental image of the dirt road. A road where he’d impaled a man because he was looking for a girl with tremendous healing capabilities. During that period, he’d wanted to get into his father’s good graces. It was Hades who’d tasked him with finding Yewa. His father who’d said if he did that one thing, other rewards would follow. And, like the idiot he was back then, he’d believed him.
Fuck.
She was right. He had given her over to the Agency.
“I gave a lot of people over to the Agency, you happened to be on the list of things I needed to procure.”
Her shoulders slumped a little but she said nothing. Yewa looked fixedly at him until her gaze cut to the area of the unfeeling organ that beat on the other side of his ribcage.
“What the fuck do you want? An apology?”
She shook her head. Never breaking her gaze. “I’ve already forgiven you. Forgiven them.”
“Bullshit.”
There was no way she wasn’t plotting some sort of revenge. Maybe this had been her idea all along, to try to get them alone. Try to end him. She would be in for a surprise if she thought for a moment she had a chance.
“You should know, I can’t be killed.”
“I don’t wish to kill you. I wish to help you.”
There she went again with her lies.
Standing, he ran his fingers roughly through his hair.
“Stop saying that shit. You don’t mean it. You can’t help me,” he raged.
“Why do you not wish to believe me? “She didn’t move. Didn’t do anything for a long time, just stood there as he paced.
Why did he let her get under his skin? She was irrelevant. Another pawn in the game.
Enri didn’t respond. Instead, he turned and went in search of the lake he knew to be close by. He needed to bathe the stench of the crypt from his body and find a place for them to sleep inside the palace.
Yewa watched Enri walk off and, for a moment, she found herself concerned. Maybe she wasn’t cut out to give him anything but a headache. The flowers around her continued to come out of their death-like state as she moved through the garden. Her body, naturally one with the earth. She walked without sandals, and as her feet hit the dirt, she revived most of the plant life and the soil in which they grew. She wandered around the garden for what felt like hours until she came to a place with a stone bench. She sat there and stared off into the distance.
Enri had ordered Gregor to kill his family. Yewa could see the pain it caused the male to consciously carry out the task given to him. She didn’t understand why the Fallen refused to forgive. She had forgiven him—it may not have been entirely true when she’d said the words to him earlier, but it had to be. She wasn’t trying to inflict any harm on him. Not that she could if she wanted to, but the thoughts were there. Images of what she’d like done to her captors and those responsible for the life she now led. She and her siblings had been sold into slavery.
Due to her village’s ignorance. There had been a time when she’d prayed all their deaths came swiftly and harshly. But she’d gradually accepted that the life she’d been given was part of her destiny. Her kaddara. She could blame as many people for her life as she wanted, but her journey was her own.
She knew Enri thought she’d judge him, but she couldn’t. It wasn’t her place. If she intended to be there to help him, she had to be the voice of compassion and understanding, and of reason. It seemed Enri had none. Omari would be angry with her for undertaking such a strenuous task.
Omari will be worried, her mind supplied. She would need to get a message to her brother somehow. She couldn’t walk into other’s bodies like he could. Only when she healed could she join herself with another. How was she going to let him know she was okay? He wouldn’t leave her in Fion forever; he’d come and try to convince her to come home with him. She had to gain Enri’s trust before her brother came looking for her.
Something sticky made its way across her hand. Yewa looked down and saw one of the largest worm-like things she’d ever seen crawling over her fingers. It had the coloring of a leopard and as it slid across her skin, Yewa smiled.
“Where did you come from?” she asked the worm-like creature.
“From the garden.”
Normally, she would discount talking animals, but she found more and more she was wrong. So, instead of being concerned for her mental health, she engaged in conversation with…whatever was crawling across her fingers.
“Is there something I can help you with?”
> “Yes, you could tell me what you’re doing here with Enri?”
“I don’t know if that is any of your concern.”
The slime on her hand began to sizzle and burn. With a quick flick of her wrist, she flipped the thing from her hand. After, Yewa wiped her fingers on the dirt and noticed there were more of the things. Lots more.
“You will answer the question, bitch,” the worm said.
Yewa stood on the stone bench as more gathered until they absorbed one another, making one large form, taller than her short five-foot-three height. The creature’s body was slimy and blob-like as it wobbled back and forth. Her hand was still sore from the mucus the small worm had trailed across her skin. Yewa’s chest started to burn, and her eyes felt itchy and tight.
“What have you done?” Yewa asked calmly.
“It’s a paralytic,” the blob supplied.
Yewa started to feel faint, and her throat swelled as her face and lips felt tight. She couldn’t breathe. She wasn’t going to panic, no reason to. If death called her home, she would not argue. You are here to help Enri. Your time is not now, little one, a voice in her head said—the same voice from Fion. Had it been with her all along?
“You!” the large blob shrieked. The voice was fuzzy now as her eyes opened and closed repeatedly.
“What are you doing here? How did you get in here?” Enri yelled.
Yewa couldn’t see him anymore, but she could hear his voice. The creature in front of her wavered in and out of focus. Something was happening but she didn’t understand what. She could barely hear as it was, and her limbs were growing numb.
“I missed you, Enri. You left.”
“Yeah, and I also kicked your ass to the curb. What are you doing here, Mother?” he spat.
Mother? His mother wanted to do harm to her? But why? Someone grabbed her around the waist, holding her as her body fell more and more into an exhaustive state. She needed to lie down, let her healing do its job. In a few hours, she’d be okay. Maybe.
“There was no reason for us to part ways so harshly. I’ve missed you.”
