Lover Eternal

by Idella Breen

  After that annoyance, Cait had demanded that they stop at a burger restaurant where she proceeded to nearly eat the place out of business and practically empty their bank account. Once everyone's needs were taken care of they were finally able to hit the road but the sun had already begun to set by then.

  Snow gasped as her arm suddenly went numb. Pulling up her sleeve a glaring black number three mocked her as she felt her body suddenly become unbearably cold. Her teeth chattered and she hugged her arms around herself.

  “Everyone out of the car, please!” Aria chirped and pushed open the door, hopping out of the vehicle. Beck, Cait, and Snow followed the elf’s lead as she seemed to be the only one that had any idea what was happening. The group bunched together so that they all had their backs together and were facing out to the forest that surrounded them. There were no other cars on the highway at the moment which only added to the ominous feel of the moonless night.

  The wind began to pick up and carried the all too familiar chill that Snow had come to associate with the night reaper.

  “Ah, it seems he brought friends this time. I swear they get smarter and smarter every time I deal with them,” Aria’s voice was disorientating happy as the temperature around them dropped and the wind whipped past them almost attempting to spread them apart.

  “Kaaaaa!” rhe screeching echoed in the darkness and Snow couldn’t stop the shivers that wracked her body despite Cait’s scorching heat from next to her.

  “Kaaaa!” another screech, and another and another all following the first, echoing in the once quiet night.

  Four black spheres appeared around the group and from them, four night reapers materialized. Cloaked in black coarse hooded robes they stood before them, still screeching, and each of them held up a hand, pointing to each respective member of the group.

  The soft voice Snow had heard back in the dungeon seemed to yell in her head and she cried out falling to her knees.

  A vicious growl broke through the loud noise that was like nails on a chalkboard and Snow looked up between tears to see Cait burst into her wolf form. The powder white fur of the giant werewolf glittered in the darkness as her wife charged at one of the night reapers.

  “Cait!” Snow screamed out but found she couldn’t move. Her body refused to listen to her commands and for the first time since her powers awakened, she realized that she was frozen in absolute terror.

  The screaming voice that Snow knew belonged to the night reapers yelled in her head, haunting words that demanded her to answer. “We come to take what we have claimed. Come with us, Snow Bennett. Come with us child of ice. Your heart without regret or hate is what we desire. Give us what we claim and we will leave the rest unslain. Refuse and we will reap. We will reap! We will reap!”

  The voices yelled the last phrase over and over in her head. Snow screamed as her cranium throbbed from the volume of the voices. She couldn’t think straight. Her head was too loud. But, for some reason, she suddenly felt so sleepy. It was as if her heart was beginning to slow down as the voices grew louder.

  “We will reap! We will reap! We will reap!” it echoed with a blinding ferocity.

  She just wanted to give in. It was too painful and she felt so sleepy. Would it really be so bad if she just laid down and took a nap?

  Heat suddenly exploded from her chest snapping Snow out of her daze and she looked at the scene in front of her through falling tears. Everyone was being pinned to a tree as the four reapers held their hands out to each respective member of her group and she had the absent thought that they were all going to die.

  “Snow!” Cait screamed and the brunette jumped to her feet. Heat throbbed from the necklace around her neck reminding her of what Pine had given to her. She reached into her shirt and ripped the silver chain from her neck.

  “Saint Pot!” she screamed with everything she had while holding up the silver coin that seemed to glow in the black night and the four reapers screeched in response then charged towards her. One after the other they swooped through her as they were drawn into the Saint Pot’s enchantment. With each pass they made through her body she shuddered from a chill she had never known. If she had a word for it, she would say it felt like the chill of death.

  “Leave night reapers! It is not your time to reap. Begone!” she yelled.

  With one final swoop through her body, they split off disappearing back into their respective spheres and the darkness folded in on itself. All that remained was silence. With a deep breath, Snow smiled at her wife as the werewolf ran over to her catching her just as she succumbed to the sleep her body so desired and to the darkness that had begun to encroach on her soul.

  Chapter 17

  Snow woke to the feeling of being encased in a warm hug. Her eyes drifted lazily open only to stare right into concerned electric blue. Neither woman spoke as they continued to gaze at each other at the crossroads of awake and asleep. Eventually, Snow smiled and whispered, “Hi.”

  The tension in her wife seemed to leak out at the simple greeting and she slowly returned the smile. “Are you okay?”

  The brunette nodded and snuggled closer to the werewolf thankful for the heat after experiencing such coldness during their fight with the night reapers. Her eyes popped open and she pulled her arm free, absently noticing that she was just sleeping in her bra, and gazed down at the number two on her arm. A shiver of fear rippled through her until Cait placed her hand over the number that branded her a lost soul and tilted her chin up so she could hold Snow’s gaze. “Your mother has something to say.”

  “What?”

  Cait shook her head. “She wouldn’t tell us until you woke up. We should get ready to see her.”

  “Okay,” Snow said but neither of them moved from the comfort of the bed.

  Cait leaned forward and rested her forehead against Snow’s. “Just for a minute.”

  The brunette nodded. “Just a minute.”

  * * *

  Integra folded her hands across her desk. “So, you managed to get my daughter cursed.”

  “Mother!”

  “Mistress really—”

  “Oh, drama!”

  The last one was Aria, and Cait held herself back from throttling the elf and met Integra’s stoic gaze. “I’m sorry,” her apology smothered out all the other outbursts and Integra studied the werewolf in front of her. Snow was tucked close to her mate but Cait seemed to have aged several years. Most of all she seemed tired. Integra sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.

  “The night reaper’s curse is a tricky one to break. Actually, I’ve only ever heard of one instance of someone having done it.”

  “Who?” Snow asked.

  Her mother looked up and smiled. “Your grandmother.”

  “Gran?”

  Integra nodded.

  “I’ve never heard of this,” Cait said.

  “I’m not surprised. My mother did much in her life but that story was one she liked to keep to herself.”

  Snow frowned. “Why?”

  “Because of the cost.”

  “The cost.”

  Integra sighed and leaned back in her chair. “Do you know the rhyme?”

  The brunette nodded.

  “The answer is in the fourth verse,

  If you bleed,

  In anothers stead,

  He will have no right to claim thee,” Integra repeated the verse and Snow’s frown deepened.

  “What does it mean to bleed in another’s stead?”

  “That’s the cost my mother paid to break the curse. Lidia was cursed when she was a teenager. She was born during a time of great upheaval as it was before the Treaty of Absolute Peace and war was rampant in the lands. Night reapers were also very common back then. They would take the souls of fallen soldiers that died without regret or of orphaned children, both monster and human, that had never known love and never learned of regret. Lidia was cursed while protecting her little brother.”

  “Brother?” Snow asked.


  “I’m getting to that. The reaper came for Dante, Lidia’s little brother, but she received the curse while protecting him. As the days passed, the mark on my mother’s arm began to count down and after a brief scuffle where she fought it back again on the third day, it came to claim what was desired. When the reaper came my mother used everything in her power to fight it off but she was still young and powerless. It wasn’t until her brother killed himself in front of her that the curse was broken and my mother’s ice powers awoke for the first time. She fought back the night reaper and it left empty handed but Dante was dead. His death was the price paid, he bled for her to be free.”

  No one spoke as Integra finished talking and the silence hung like an albatross in the room. Cait took the plunge. “I’ll do it.”

  “You will not!” Snow yelled as she jerked away from her wife.

  “Babe—”

  “Cait Fallon, so help me God, if you finish that thought I’ll impale you with my sword!”

  The werewolf turned to Integra. “Would that count?”

  “Cait!”

  The tension was broken when Integra burst into laughter. She even slapped the desk in her mirth before finally gaining control of herself. “Cait, how could I ever stay mad at you. You really would do anything to protect my daughter no matter how stupid it is.”

  The werewolf frowned. “Hey!”

  Integra cleared her throat gaining everyone's attention. “No one will be dying here. We will find another way to deal with this. How many days do we have left Snow?”

  Her daughter held up her marked arm revealing the number two. Integra nodded. “It will come tomorrow night. We will spend every minute working out a plan. No one sleeps tonight.”

  A round of agreements echoed in the room as everyone took a seat in the study and hunkered down to begin planning a way to cheat death.

  * * *

  They had taken and intermission when Adam and Elena barged into the study after returning from their trip to the park and the little werewolf wasted no time in diving into Snow’s arms.

  “Mama!” The little girl cried out as she hugged Snow with surprising strength for a five-year-old. Snow hugged her back with just as much fervor and breathed in the familiar scent of rainwater that Elena always seemed to carry on her. She was just like Cait in that respect. She always smelled of a thunderstorm yet she bore no lack of soul like her mom had. Elena’s rainwater scent didn’t carry the solemn smell that Cait’s had once-upon-a-time, instead, her daughter's smell was much like a fresh cleansing smell. As if by just breathing her in you could wipe all your aches and pains away. It soothed Snow to hold the girl in her arms even though they hadn’t even been separated for a week yet. She pulled the girl closer making Elena giggle. “Did Mama miss me?”

  “You have no idea.”

  Elena pulled back suddenly with a goofy smile on her face. “Did you bring me back a present?”

  Snow laughed and rubbed her eyes to get rid of the tears already forming there. She patted her clothes until she felt the small bulge in her pocket and reached into it to pull out the silver Saint Pot coin. With nothing else to give her daughter, she handed the little monster the necklace and grinned when the girl squealed in joy.

  Elena held up the necklace and tapped her chin before meeting Snow’s gaze, a question clear in her own.

  Cait’s voice cut in, “Use your words, Elena.”

  “Okay, Mom. Mama, what is this?”

  “It’s called a Saint Pot.”

  “What does it do?”

  Snow thought for a moment on how to answer and decided that a simplified truth would be the best approach. “When someone wants to hurt someone important to you just hold this coin tight and wish with all your might and they won’t hurt them. But you have to be careful.”

  “Why?”

  “Because, when you make that wish, the bad guy will attack you instead. So, only use this in an emergency.”

  “What’s an emergency?”

  “It’s when you have to make a very important decision.”

  “Oh!”

  Snow smiled as she knew that Elena had probably only understood half of what she had explained to her but for some reason, she had a strong urge to give the necklace to her daughter. It was almost as if it was truly meant for her.

  “Elena come here.” Cait held out her arms for the girl to jump into.

  The two snuggled and when Cait let loose a low growl, Elena responded in a high-pitched one, prompting Snow to smile. They reconvened with the group but this time with the addition of their daughter tucked safely between them sleeping on the couch.

  * * *

  When the day ended and the next began they were all still discussing ways to resolve the curse but no solution had been agreed upon.

  Beck’s deep voice, made even rougher due to the lack of sleep, broke through the soft murmurs that the group had resorted to in order to not wake the sleeping baby werewolf. “Maybe, Snow should run then.”

  “The only thing she can’t do is run!” Aria exclaimed from where she had been sitting in the corner of the study, reading quietly.

  Beck frowned. “Why not?”

  “It will be an instant death due to the curse,” Integra answered for the strange elf who had already returned to the book she was reading.

  “Then what should we do?” Beck asked again, agitation clear in his voice.

  The loud clap of a book snapping shut made everyone wince and turn back to Aria who for the first time since joining the group, wore a grim expression. Snow thought back to the warning Pine Blush had given her about the state of Aria’s mental stability and felt a shiver of dread at the solemn look the elf was now giving the group. “We fight.”

  Cait cleared her throat before speaking what everyone else was thinking. “But how?”

  “Are you three not the ones I have been waiting for? You, the scorching flame, and you the bitter cold and finally you the plucked feather! Are you three, not the ones meant to cause the first ripple in the tide of change?”

  They were all quiet before Snow whispered, “But how do we kill something that can’t be killed?”

  Aria suddenly smirked her usual cheeriness coming back with a vigor. “That’s easy. You give it life.”

  “Give it life?” Snow said slowly but Aria had already returned to her book and seemed to once again be in her own little world. Snow didn’t want to risk tipping the already unbalanced elf and decided to work out her meaning on her own.

  The day passed quickly and still, no solutions were found. But even as the evening came and the sun began to set she wasn’t able to unravel the words Aria had spoken. Elena was sent off with Adam and Integra, leaving only Cait, Snow, Beck and Aria in the backyard of the mansion. They had chosen it as the best place to fend off an attack from the night reapers.

  Once again, they all stood with their backs together as they faced the wide open garden of Integra’s house and waited for the sun to finally set and for the black ink to disappear. Snow gasped when the sun sunk beyond the horizon and her arm exploded in numbing tingles as the chill returned with a vengeance. Gripping onto her wife to try and regain some of her warmth she looked out into the darkness and readied herself to face her executioner.

  * * *

  Yet all that greeted them was silence. Just darkness and silence and nothing more. Snow gripped onto her wife tightly and Cait reached out to squeeze her hand back in reassurance. “I’m still here.”

  “Where is it?”

  The werewolf shook her head but didn’t relax her stance. Cait waited with bated breath as the stillness only made her jumpier. The sudden strangled gasp from Snow drew her attention and anger exploded in her gut. A bony and clawed hand had burst from the ground to capture Snow’s foot but the woman seemed to be frozen in unadulterated fear. Her wife was as pale as a ghost and that thought alone burned Cait with a terrifying anger. A growl ripped from her chest as she attempted to pull her wife free from the reaper’s grasp but it�
��s bony hand held on tighter and Snow still seemed to have lost herself completely.

  “Snow!” She shook her wife even as she tried to pull her free and absently realized that neither Beck nor Aria were making any sounds or attempting to help her. She glanced around only to realize that they were gone. Suddenly, her grip on her wife felt empty. She looked back to see that Snow was nowhere to be seen and darkness surrounded her, closing in around her in a suffocating grasp. It gripped her in its cold unyielding hold and held tight refusing to release her.

  “Fuck this shit!” Cait yelled and fire exploded from out of her illuminating her way and breaking her free from the sphere she had been trapped in only to reveal absolute chaos.

  The ground was covered in ice and black feathers littered the ground around her as the werewolf fell out of the sphere.

  She immediately located Snow who was trying to make her way to Aria who was being held down by one of the many night reapers that were in the garden. Cait’s breath caught in her throat as she looked around and realized that there must be fifteen to twenty night reapers attacking them in the clearing all at once. How were they supposed to fight back?

  “Aria!” Snow’s scream grabbed her attention and made her blood run cold as her wife ripped her sword from her bracelet yelling, “Break!” as she charged at the three night reapers attempting to pull the elf into a black sphere and to God knows where. What had her heart leaping out of her chest was the reaper that was charging at her wife from a blind spot.

  The werewolf moved before she had a coherent thought. All she knew was that she had never moved faster in her life than at that moment and she could honestly say that she didn’t regret acting first and thinking later. Even as pain exploded from within her body and her vision faded to black.

  * * *

  Snow felt blood splatter onto her face as her sword connected with something solid. Her eyes widened as the realization of who her sword was now sticking through was the one woman she would give anything to protect. The night reaper she had been aiming at flickered out of existence from between her and her wife leaving only shocked amber eyes that quickly rolled into the back of Cait’s head as she fell to her knees.