by JK Ensley
Jenevier looked back at the man. He hadn’t moved. She knew by his smell, by his taste, he was more than Mika could have ever imagined him to be.
No, Naga. Do not do this. I like him not.
Nor do I, Daichi. Trust me in this, my son. I can hold my own with this one. She winked at him and moved to stand before the stranger.
He was no man. She could tell that from looks alone. The man pictured clearly within Mika’s head looked nothing like the man she could plainly see before her. The girl saw an older gentleman—white of hair, short of stature, and slight of build. In truth, he was none of those things. This stranger didn’t boast the height her sons now claimed, but he still towered over her by a good foot. His hair was the color of moss, until he turned and the sun gave it a lavender tint. The same was true with his eyes. He was ageless and his skin was absent color or sheen.
He’s the color of death, she thought.
She didn’t stop until she was close enough to smell his earthy breath, warm and rich with the unmistakable scent of the forest.
He smiled. “Naga… Kagi Naga.”
“How is it you know what my son named me with his first word? Did Mika tell you?”
She couldn’t understand him completely, but the vivid pictures within his head told her exactly what he was saying. And it had nothing to do with Daichi. This gave her pause.
The man smiled knowingly. “Did he now? Was Naga your second son’s first word?”
He chuckled. It pissed her off. Fire rolled within her, swelling and churning.
“Why do you hide your true form from the girl?”
“I look different depending upon the eyes beholding me. You see me as I am, Naga.”
“Stop calling me that,” she hissed
He only smiled, thus fueling her anger.
“Is this your layer?” she asked the smug stranger.
“It is,” he answered with an instigating smile.
“I wish nothing from you,” she said. “We will leave your realm as we found it when my wings have returned to me.”
“Ahh, Naga, I hold no ill toward you. And despite the ill counsel you received, I do not count your sons as abominations. You have done well with them.” He looked over her shoulder, gazing fondly at her azure twins. “But the girl was right… you need magic. You can clearly see I am not magic. At least, not as the child believes. You can also see my help would prove invaluable to you.” He smiled down at her, again.
Jenevier didn’t like this man, not at all.
“And what price would you set? What fee would you demand for your service?”
“You wound me.” His eyes twinkled.
“I hate you,” she said.
“I know you do. I can feel it.” He snorted out a low laugh. “You have always loved too easily. A little hate will do you good.” His eyes went from lavender back to moss and one corner of his mouth went up.
Yeah, she hated him.
“If you want nothing in return, why would you help us?”
“Not us… you. Your sons do not require my aid. They are, for lack of a better word, perfect. As I said, you have done well, Naga.”
“My name is Jenevier.”
“It was… once. It hasn’t been for some time now. Do you deny it? I can read plainly within your heart. You knew well the day that name no longer fit.”
“I knew the day, yes. Yet I claim it still.”
“Very well, as you wish.”
She stared at him for a long moment, the burning anger taking root in her heart.
“You knew the day I was pulled into this realm. Didn’t you?”
“I did.”
“If you withheld aid when I needed it most, you can keep your worthless assistance now as well.”
“But, Naga, that wasn’t the day you needed me the most. That fated day is yet to come.”
And that was exactly what she was afraid of. Jenevier closed her eyes, but otherwise remained the same. Pinched tears escaped, burning a fiery path down her quivering cheeks.
Munenori used one bent finger to lift her chin toward him.
“Touch me not. Taste not my tears. My son is not master of his rage.” She spoke without opening her eyes. She knew well his intent.
He released her and looked to Daichi. The blue Angel’s chest heaved. The corners of his mouth were turned up in a razor sharp snarl.
“He loves you too much,” Munenori said.
“He does.”
“How will he handle it when you are removed from him?”
“Not well.” Her tears increased, even though she tried everything within her power to stop them. “Tell me. Does hell come?”
“It does,” he casually answered.
“How soon?”
“It’s upon us now, Naga.”
She opened her eyes. “Tell me how this ends, Angel.”
“Ahh… now, there’s a story for the ages.”
He winked at her, and she hated him anew.
Chapter 39
Alastyn
(ah-LASS-tin)
Jezreel was on her hands and knees scrubbing the floor when Alastyn entered. He collapsed into a nearby chair.
She turned to him only after his painful sobs filled the whole room. With his shoulders shaking and his head in his hands, Alastyn cried with his entire soul.
Jezreel quietly approached him and knelt beside the shattered man. She didn’t speak. There were no words that could be said. She rubbed his back, but there was no comfort to be found.
His sobs were so open, so painful. She could barely make out his words.
“I know not why this happened. I only know the words I overheard from the Guardians, as I’ve told you before.” He tried to regain some control. “The bitter loss of my entire world will never leave me. Yet, I know the pain of this horrid reality will fade somewhat, with time.” He drew in a ragged breath. “That’s how it should be. That’s how life goes on… the only way it’s possible. As long as a sliver of hope yet remains, life goes on.”
“That’s the damnable way of it, yes,” Jezreel whispered.
“But… what if there was no hope left? What then, Jezreel? When every last light has been snuffed out and all hope has died in the night… What then?” His sobs had slowed but his tears refused to cease their frantic escape down his tormented face.
“As long as there is yet life, there remains hope,” she said.
“But there is no life. Not anymore.”
“What’re you saying, Alastyn? We yet live. Our hearts still beat. We are beaten, irrecoverably scarred. Yet we live.”
“Yes, my heart still beats.” He sighed heavily. “I have willed it a thousand times to cease its infernal pumping. Yet it beats. I know not why. Yet it beats.”
“Your pain is justified, my friend, and your grief equally so. But think to the future. Now is too soon. But one day, one day before long, think to what the future may hold for your destroyed heart. Hope is yet alive. This I know.”
“I did not tell you the whole of it, Jezreel. I couldn’t bear to say the words.” He leaned his head back and closed his eyes. “When I was at the palace…” His voice trailed off. He was looking at a devastating scene, invisible to Jezreel. “…when Merodach fell. One of the Guardians, a woman, came to his rescue. She was too late. She destroyed the demon, saving my life. But… the King was gone.” He turned then and looked at Jezreel. “She loved him. He never mentioned her to me, never spoke of her to anyone. I hadn’t seen her before, yet I knew of her. Jenevier knew about her as well.” He thought back to the awful day they had both accidentally eavesdropped on that heart-wrenching conversation. “They owned each other’s heart. She held him tenderly, rocked him in her arms. Her tears were the saddest I have ever seen. Yes, she loved him too much.”
Jezreel sat quietly, entranced by his hauntingly sorrowful words.
“I left her with him, to hold him, bid him adieu in private.” He sighed again. “I was standing at the window, gazing into the distance, not tr
uly seeing anything. I was numb. A giant warrior called out to his brother, drawing my hazy attention to them. He spoke the names of different layers, Ashgard was but one of them, and reported the same atrocities as we bore witness to here.”
“What? You mean, this is happening across the whole universe?” Jezreel fell back onto her bottom, stunned. “But… why? What’s happened? What could be the cause for such rage, such hate, such bitter destruction? What have we done to offend hell so horribly?”
Alastyn took a deep breath. “That’s almost the same questions posed between the two Guardians. I knew one of them to be the one who winged Jenevier away from Merodach’s prison palace after she… well, after she killed him.”
“And what did they say? What were their thoughts on such a thing as this?”
More tears burned the backs of Alastyn’s eyes. “Did you know Jenevier had married the Prince of Hell?”
“I did,” she whispered.
“Did you also know she carried his child?”
“I did.”
“Well, he’s the one responsible for this—her dark husband. He’s the one responsible for all this.” Alastyn spread his arms wide, encompassing the whole world and all that had been done upon it.
He collapsed back against the chair, releasing a haggard breath.
“But… why? Jenevier loved him truly and he loved her. She told me how he’d been with her, how he had changed. How he was no longer the monster everyone said he once was. The Angel she spoke of, he was no longer capable of—”
He interrupted her rant. “If everything, and I mean truly everything, you have ever loved was ripped from you and ultimately destroyed… if you had the awesome power to do something, to retaliate… Tell me, Jezreel. What would you do?”
“What are you saying, Alastyn?” Fear burned bitterly in the back of her throat.
“That’s the question the two warriors asked one another.”
She hesitated, swallowing back the building bile, and asked the question she didn’t truly want the answer to. “And… what did they decide?”
He rolled his head to the side and met Jezreel’s terrified gaze. “The gates of hell have been opened. All manner of evil has been unleashed upon the universe… because the darkest of Princes was wrought with an unbearable pain, an unquenchable fury.”
“…Because,” she prodded.
“Because… everything he had ever loved… had been utterly destroyed.” Alastyn’s tears returned, this time in silence. “His wife and his child are no more. This… is his vengeance upon God.”
Chapter 40
Jenevier
(ZHEN-ah-veer)
“I won’t be gone long, I promise. I must speak with this man; pull hidden secrets from a darkened path. We are yet safe, here. Alas, all is not well outside this valley. Swear to me now you will wait for me. Do not leave this place without me. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Mama.”
“And you, Daichi. Will you heed my words as well?”
“Let me go with you, Naga. Let me be there when he says the words I already know he must now say.”
“What are you talking about, Daichi? What words are these? What do you hide from your mother?”
Daichi lowered his head. “Ugh, this is all happening too damn fast. We need more time.” He turned to Tenshi. “Can you not feel it, Brother? Does it not tingle in your wings and race through your blood?”
“Wings?” Jenevier grabbed Daichi’s arm. “Wings? You have wings? Both of you? And you didn’t tell me? You hid something like this from me? Truly?” She took an unsteady breath. “How long have you lied to your mother?”
“I wanted to show you, Mama. But Daichi said—”
“Enough! Tenshi, why do you yet whine as a babe? How long must I wait for you to grow up? You are weak and soft and fragile. Hell is coming, Brother, and you will not survive as you are. I cannot protect you and Jenevier at the same time. You have power, learn to use it. She is my first priority. You should be beside me, defending your mother!”
“Am I no longer your mother as well, Daichi?” she whispered.
He closed his eyes, cursing inside his head, damning his unbridled tongue. His temper had pulled the words forth before the proper time. He turned to face the enchanting woman who stood, silently crying behind him.
He tried to make his voice as soft as possible. “What are you saying, Naga?”
She took a step closer and lightly touched his arm. “You called me by my proper birth name. Do you no longer count me as your mother?”
He placed his hand over hers. “You are my everything. You are the reason for my very existence. If you die, I die. You carried me into this world, yes. But… I do not share your blood.”
Jenevier’s knees gave out with his words. She stumbled back, horrified. Yui’s strong arms caught her before she fell. He steadied her trembling form, lent her his strength.
Daichi growled. “Master Yui. Take… your… hands… off… her!”
“Stop it, Daichi! This is your fault. You cannot say words such as those and not expect it to break her heart.” Tenshi scooped his mother up in his arms. “You shouldn’t have told her like this. The time isn’t right.”
“Time? We’re all out of time, big brother. Your depraved father will be here soon. How much time will we have then?” Daichi’s voice echoed through their cavernous home. “Naga, listen to me. These are hard words, yes, but even harder times are knocking upon our door. Let me go with you. You should not be alone when you find out.”
“She will not be alone, little warrior. I will be with her,” Munenori said as he entered. “He cannot touch her as long as I am near. Fear not, Daichi. I have no intentions of harming her. I wish only to teach her what she must now know. This will give you time to acclimate your brother in the ways of war. He will soon need to know. Trust me. I promise to treat her as the tiny Princess she is.”
Daichi faced off with the older Angel. “I read plainly in your mind how you wish to treat this woman. The moment you saw her, the moment she touched you, the moment you tasted her… I read every thought as clearly as if you yelled it from the heavens. Your desires are a misplaced weakness. You know her for what she is, Munenori. Do not drink of the poison you know will destroy you.” He leaned in closer as he whispered, “Play not with her. Remember this. She is blended. You cannot say for sure how she will respond to your words or how she will react to your revelations. She is light and dark. She is heaven and hell. She is glorious and dangerous. Touch her, and I will spend eternity trying to turn you to ash, Brother.”
Munenori kept his eyes locked with Daichi’s as he spoke. “Come, Milady. We have much to discuss and very little time. I will now help you walk down the path of your new destiny. Hand in hand, I will gently guide you in the proper ways of this unknown thing. Give me your trust, Little Fire, and I will erase all the pain and confusion warring within you.”
Daichi bristled but Munenori was not swayed.
Jenevier slid down from Tenshi’s comforting arms and numbly walked toward the mossy lavender Angel. Her legs moved of their own accord, as if she were in a dream, not in control of her body but prisoner to it. Her mind was telling her to run the other way, but her body dutifully obeyed the command. Sounds were muffled in her ears. Her vision blurred.
Daichi grabbed her arm, focusing her mind, halting her advance. She looked at the perfectly beautiful sapphire Angel she had named and counted as son. His lips were moving but his words were silent. She felt light as air. Like she was splitting from her corporal body and the unimaginable misery she knew was quickly approaching. She could feel its dark presence and now only waited to hear it crashing against the stone fortress she’d built around her perfect little world. Her eyes rolled in her head. She felt consciousness ebbing from her.
Daichi grabbed her by the back of the neck and shook her, forcing her to meet his healing gaze. When her eyes focused on his, tiny currents wove through her. Jenevier’s body jerked involuntarily as lit
tle electric impulses, mini lightning bolts, were furiously fusing together her scattering essence. She felt more like herself with each passing second. Those beautiful steel blue eyes were the only things left in the world.
When he saw she was whole once more, Daichi flexed his regal shoulders. Fantastical sapphire wings stretched forth from either side. They took her breath away. They were perfect. In all she had witnessed, in all she had been forced to live through, never had she seen wings such as these.
He leaned down and kissed her forehead. “Now is not the time to allow that enormous heart of yours to take the lead, Naga. Encase it within granite and believe all Munenori says. We need you to understand. I need you to understand. Worry not over Tenshi. He will be ready upon your return. Until then, I will protect him with my life, Milady.” Daichi released her, placed his fist over his heart, and bowed low before her.
Munenori took her shaking hand, leading her away from the place she now counted as home. She heard the sound of swords clashing and Daichi yelling out instructions to his brother as this strange lavender green Angel led her deeper into the secret valley, and closer to her worst nightmares.
They had traveled far before she finally found a ghost of her voice.
“Before I take one more step, tell me why my son is no longer my son.” She sank to her knees as she spoke. “Tell me how my dark husband has come to this place. And don’t leave out an understandable explanation as to what Daichi just did to me with his eyes. What was that? Did he heal me? Truly?”
Munenori glared at her. “You’re as stubborn and tender as the secrets my kind whisper about you. Get up. If you refuse your wings and force me to walk by your side, the least you can do is keep moving. Time is of the essence. As for Daichi, he wove your pieces back together as you shattered. He can do this only for you. It is a gift Father knew he would need. Seems to me, it’ll most likely be his fulltime job,” he grumbled.
