Children of the Gods - A Chosen Novel

by Monica Millard

  Seeing him dress like it was any other day nearly did me in. I stifled a cry in my throat and pressed my face into the pillow to gain my wits.

  I could hear him getting ready to leave. I launched off the bed and tackled him near the door. I pulled him close. “Please be careful,” I begged while my fingers pressed deep into his skin.

  He lifted me off the floor, pulling my mouth to his. I kissed him with all the longing and pain of loss. His lips trembled and his breath seemed to impart a similar knowledge. I almost could not let him go. Then I did.

  He slowly let me slip down his body till my feet rested on the floor, but he still held me tight against him. “I love you,” he breathed.

  I laced my fingers through his hair and kissed him once more, savoring the taste of him on my lips as I pulled away. “Not nearly half as much as I love you,” I whispered back.

  He chuckled as he stepped through the opening leaving me to my dire task.

  There were few humans aboard the ship; the girls who bathed me, the kitchen staff, and about five others with responsibilities throughout the ship, not including the guards. Though they were not human, they were also not Haloran. I could not justify their deaths either. They would be the hardest to convince to leave the ship.

  I took my time dressing, trying to draw out the minutes before I had to begin the tasks that would end my life. It was only a moment, but each second ticked by in slow motion as I sat on the bed breathing in and out, trying to gain the nerve to act. I Hoped what I did here would make all the time I had wasted worth it. Finally, I stood and headed to the opening.

  I jumped as the wall began opening even before I laid a hand on it to command it to do so. My breath caught as I took in the look on Jaxson’s face, standing in the opening, blocking my way.

  “You did not think you would be so easily rid of me, did you?” he asked with a dangerous hint to his tone.

  I stood dumbstruck, unable to respond, unsure if I was elated or devastated.

  “I know what you are up to,” he spoke when it was clear I would not. “You have tasted of goodbye for days now.”

  I grabbed him and pulled him tight to me. His eyes held too much anguish for me to bear. If I continued looking at him, I would lose my resolve. “You have to leave.” My words came out in a sob against his chest.

  “I will not leave you. Whatever your fate is, it will be mine as well.” He pulled my head back, forcing me to see the resolve in his own eyes.

  “I do not think I can do it if it means destroying you,” I sobbed. “But it has to be done. This all has to end. It started with me, and it must end with me. Too much innocent blood is on my hands. I cannot have your blood on them too.”

  “I will not live without you,” he said, simply. “Besides, this will put things right back home, and finally clear my conscience.”

  Unsure of what he meant, I stared in bewilderment.

  “Once I am gone, a new king will be born, and they will finally be whole again.”

  I looked into his perfect green eyes that held both sadness and a twinkle of hope, and I could see the world in them. A different world, one we could never have. The one, Pimilco, the fortune teller’s card had promised…

  There was a little girl with dark curls bobbing around olive skin that matched her fathers. Jaxson was laughing as he snatched her up and tossed her into the air and caught her again. I watched from a porch that overlooked our pond.

  With a blink, it was all gone.

  He took my hand and led me out through the opening. “What do we do first?”

  “You cannot help me with the first part.”

  “I am not leaving you. If this is to be our last day together, I am spending every moment with you,” he responded.

  “Only I can do this first part. It will kill you.” I touched his arm. “I want as many of our last moments as we have. So I need you to trust me. Go get all the humans, except the kitchen staff, off the ship.”

  He nodded and began to leave, then turned back and kissed me. I felt light headed as he pulled away. I watched him disappear down the hallway and away from me. It felt like he was tearing a piece of me away with him.

  Again, I thought of the fortune teller’s cards. Secretly I had been hoping she was right, that somehow I was the exception to all their rules. But it was clear now, she really could not tell the fortune of a God. That third card should have told of death, not life.

  With a jolt, I realized I did not have time to wallow in my sadness. I had mourned my own death for the past few days and accepted it. I would not get a chance to mourn Jaxson’s.

  I felt my feet propelling me forward, though I did not recall deciding to actually do so. Before I knew it, I was standing in front of the garden. No turning back now. Anaya’s emotions were still muted from my recent visit, but it was obvious she was frightened.

  I lurched into the room and scrambled around, plucking every lily I could get my hands on. I was grateful that Jaxson had brought me so many, and had Griff replenish them so often. I would need every last one for my plan to work. I fought off a twinge of sadness as I looked at the gift that made all of this possible. If I had not flirted with Niko that night in front of the woman with the flowers, if he had not put one behind my ear, things would have turned out very different.

  I stumbled out into the hallway, hoping not to pass anyone on my way to the kitchen. Luck was on my side and the hall remained clear.

  Harlan looked up and his eyes widened as saw me. His gaze moved from my face to the flowers and back to my face. “You cannot…” he trailed off, realizing who he was speaking to.

  “Help me,” I said as I tried to step over the opening into the kitchen. He reached out and caught me just as my foot snagged on the wall and I tumbled forward.

  He steadied me and looked carefully around the hall before helping me into the kitchen fully. “What are you doing?” he asked through his teeth.

  I took a deep breath and looked him in the eyes, hating what I was about to do. “Harlan, I need your help. I need you to make sure no plate of food leaves this room without sprinkling some of the pollen into it. Then if there are enough, place a flower on every tray. When everyone is served, you must leave the ship immediately. Do not stop for any reason.” I spoke in the softest, most compelling voice I could muster.

  His pupils grew until they swallowed all the color. Giant black orbs stared back on me, then returned to normal, but the light in his eyes was gone. I had snatched away his ability to tell me “no” so easily it frightened me.

  I turned to see Marcel frozen, watching me carefully, his knife still hovering over the piece of meat he had been working on. I repeated the same pattern with him and every other worker.

  I felt sick to my stomach when I stumbled back into the hall. I raced to the room.

  “I need a bath,” I ordered into the wall.

  “Yes, my lady. Right away,” the voice issued from the wall.

  “And send my girls please,” I said casually, realizing how frantic I originally sounded.

  Not waiting for the girls, I slipped into the steaming water and let it slip over my head. I began scrubbing away the lilies’ deadly poison that covered me. I could not risk Jaxson coming in contact with me this way.

  Chapter 30

  No sound was ever more glorious than the sound of the chimes announcing Jaxson had returned. He peeked in at me as the opening expanded to admit him.

  “I see you found the girls,” he whispered, sounding relieved.

  I nodded, wishing we were not speaking of death so easily.

  “What is next?” he asked, taking my hand as I stepped out into the hall.

  “The control room.” I motioned.

  He laced our fingers together and coiled his arm around mine nearly fusing our sides to one another as we walked slowly down the hallway. Without letting go of my hand he raised the main console with his other hand. “You have sealed everyone in the dining room?” he asked.

  “Yes, no
one will be escaping,” I responded, amazed that my voice sounded so somber given the turmoil that was going on within me.

  He pressed his fingers to the console and it let out a grating noise.

  “You would not have been able to complete this without me.” He motioned to the wall. It was asking for my confirmation.

  “I am so sorry,” I cried into his shoulder as I pressed my fingers to the console, completing the order to destroy the ship.

  “We have a little time,” he said, pulling my face away from his skin. “Where would you like to spend your final moments?” He gasped as the room transformed, and we were standing on the porch he had built with his own hands over a thousand years before. Before all of this started, and he was just an innocent boy preparing to build a family.

  Tears filled his eyes as he took in the pond and the feathery trees that stood as sentinels around the cottage. He opened his mouth to speak, but stopped and looked deep in my eyes. “It is so real,” he whispered.

  There was a flutter in my stomach, then another. Then the thing I never thought I would feel. There was a bump, a tiny kick of life?

  “What is it?” Jaxson’s eyes were filled with concern.

  I touched my belly. “I think there is something in here.”

  He dropped to his knees and pressed his face to my belly.

  There was another bump.

  He pulled his face back, looking at me with questions in his eyes that melted into wonder. “A baby?”

  “I think so,” I respond. “Pimilco was right.”

  He placed both hands on the small round that was my belly. Tears were streaming down his face as he kissed my bare skin.

  “I am a father?” he asked.

  The look on his face, the wonder, was a glimpse into the world I had seen hours before when I looked into his eyes. He had never looked more happy.

  Suddenly he froze and stood. “Griff? Griff? Griff!” he screamed.

  Large hands clamped down on my shoulders.

  “You are not the only one with gifts, Reka,” Jaxson said.

  “You knew?”

  He nodded.

  “She is with child. You must save her, Griff,” he ordered.

  “No, wait!” I tore away from Griff’s iron grip. “You have to come with me,” I pleaded, grabbing hold of Jaxson.

  He pried my fingers free of his arm and took my hands into his. “You have given me the one thing I have always wanted, but Anaya could never give me, even in a thousand years. You loved me. I always knew this day would come. I do not know how you did it, and I am not sure how long you will last. I do know I cannot go back to living a life without you. I am sorry, my love. Griff can only take one. It must be you.”

  “There is still time. We can both escape. We could still be together until I die. Then we can both go together,” I sobbed.

  “There is no time, Reka. Tell Anaya I am glad she will finally be getting what she always wanted, because she gave me what I always wanted. You.” He brushed the tears from my cheeks, and leaned in, pressing his soft lips to mine. They were salty from his tears.

  A thunderous crack shook the ship and Griff’s hands were on my shoulders again, ripping me away from the only thing that mattered. The world blurred into a shower of light and fire. My feet touched bare earth and the ground trembled. I turned just in time to see the ship explode.

  Griff grabbed me and pulled me close, shielding my eyes. I struggled to get free, but he held me until there was no fight left in me.

  Chapter 31

  “The baby is kicking a lot lately. I think it is getting close to time,” I said, putting my hand on Griff’s arm.

  “Sounds about right me,” he responded.

  Griff was always short with me when I spoke about the baby. I think he knew what was coming and wanted to avoid the conversation, but I could put it off no longer.

  “I need to ask for your help with something,” I said, knowing he would hate me for asking.

  “Anything.” He glanced at me, but did not meet my eyes. Just as quick, his eyes were back on the path ahead of us.

  “When the time comes, I need you to do what is necessary,” I said.

  “How does she feel about that?” he asked.

  “I do not know. She has not made any contact since I destroyed the ship. I assume she still feels the same. She expected to die then.”

  “Now that she is free, she might feel differently.”

  “She will never be free of what she has done,” I said, coldly.

  He stopped walking and looked at me like he was making a decision, but then started walking again in silence.

  “I also need you to take care of the baby.”

  “She will be grown before the time comes to worry about any of this,” he responded, but he did not sound like he believed it.

  “You know that is not true. She draws my strength as we speak. I will not survive the birth.”

  “You do not know that.” He kicked a pebble in his path, sending it flying further than I could see.

  “I do, Griff, and so do you. I need your promise.”

  “I cannot give you that promise.” His voice sounded thick and angry.

  I stopped and waited for him to turn. I was counting on him. I had no backup plan, and no time to prepare one. He did not face me.

  “How can you deny me?” I shouted.

  He said nothing.

  “How can you let her live, let her steal the lives of others, let her go on, when you let Jaxson die?” I asked through gritted teeth.

  “Because I am not bonded to him.”

  The words did not make sense. I thought I was going to be sick. I turned and started running. His heavy hands clamped down on my shoulder, stopping me. I tried to fight, but I was so weak and he was so strong.

  “Please calm down. You are going to kill the baby,” he said with sickening tenderness.

  I stopped fighting and was still while he held me immobile.

  “If I let you go, are you going to try to run again?” he asked.

  “So what? You have been waiting for me to die so you can have your pet back?” I spat at him, ignoring his question.

  “It is not what you think.” He sounded sad.

  “Oh? What is it then?” I asked, the acid creeping back into my tone.

  “Promise you will not run if I let you go, and I will tell you.”

  “Fine.”

  “Promise me,” he pressed, sounding stern.

  I stood rigid and angry, refusing to promise what I could not. The minute he released me I would either run or try to kill him. Suddenly the image of Jaxsons’s face as he discovered he was a father flashed in my head. “I promise,” I said, defeated.

  He loosened his grip, then turned me around so I was facing him.

  “Bonded was the wrong word. I am sorry. I am bound to her.” His face was a mirror of my pain.

  “I do not understand. I thought anyone else was poison to them? Was that a lie to keep them faithful?” What I had witnessed through Anaya’s memories seemed pretty real.

  “No. If they were ever to be with another, it would kill them. I have seen it,” he said, cringing at the memory.

  “So how, then?”

  “I am not bound to her as a mate,” he responded.

  “What are you bound to her as?”

  “I am her guardian. I am not human or Haloran. I am what you might call a soul. Or a better comparison would be a guardian angel. We do not exist in the flesh, but watch over those who are worthy of our protection on Halora. We can take the form of flesh to interact with or protect those we have deemed worthy. I was curious and foolish, and had taken on this flesh to interact with Jaxson, when his father discovered me. He captured me and bound me to this body. He meant me to be a permanent guardian for Jaxson, but as was usual for Jaxson, he wanted Anaya to be protected for eternity so he bound me to her.”

  “That is why I am unable to promise you. I cannot harm her, or even allow harm to be done to her.
And I cannot die until she does. Her death, the one thing I am bound to prevent, is the only thing that can set me free now that Jaxson is gone.”

  “The world really is an unfair place, is it not.”

  He closed his eyes and nodded his head.

  “Wait. How could you have allowed me to blow myself up? Would you not be bound to stop me?”

  “Somehow Jaxson figured out a way to keep those thoughts from me, and I can only read yours sporadically. He sent me to take Niko to the City that day to save my life and free me from my obligation. It was only when you discovered the baby that he let me back into his thoughts. The moment I knew, I had to return.”

  “So you could not take him, and he knew that when he called you back,” I said, feeling the loss of him as acutely as the day it happened.

  Griff looked at me like he was looking for someone else in my eyes.

  “Everything he ever did, always, was for Anaya only, until you. She hated him for choosing her, but it was not him that chose her. He was doing his duty as always. He was joined with her as part of an alliance her father brokered with his family.”

  “How could he be so devoted to her then?”

  “That was his duty. He felt their union meant, even if she hated him for it, he would be the best, most loving partner he could. He always hoped one day she would see how much he loved her. When I discovered that she found someone she thought could destroy him, I told him. You know what he said?”

  “What?”

  “He said ‘If I am finally able to make her happy, then that is what I will do.’ He chose you the night after she took him to see you dance.”

  “Was that why he was so horrible to me that day?”

  Griff shook his head sadly. “No, that was for both you and Anaya. He wanted you to hate him so you would help her, but also so you would not know it was really her that chose you.”

  “How long did he know it was me and not Anaya?”

  “He suspected from the beginning. He was sure after your first night together. He was sorry about that, too. It was the first time he was with anyone other than Anaya. You gave him a reason to hope. Even though you hated him, you showed more kindness than he received in a thousand years. He loved you the moment he knew it was you.”