by S. K Munt
That was when I noticed the books sitting on a small cane and glass table beside the hearth, and reached for it, curious as I had not seen it before. It was the old kind, and the cover almost fell off when I opened it, and my eyes widened when I saw the bright red stamp in the front of it. ‘Contraband- destroy.’ There was a note in there too, in Kohl’s hand, and I lifted it to my eyes:
Larkin,
‘And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God's angels worship him.”
This has not changed yet, but you are the reason why it could, for when you smile at me, I feel the joy of a million angels’ smiles upon me.
-Love always, the third-born son, Kohl Barachiel.
I dropped my watering eyes and read the tile, almost shaking when I realised that I was in possession of one of the books that was supposed to be as absent from our new world, as precious gems were.
‘King James Holy Bible…’ I pressed my fingers to my mouth, amazed that Kohl would break a cardinal rule by supplying me with such a thing, and not at all surprised by myself when I picked it up and took it to my room immediately to read.
I’d outgrown many things, but curiosity was not one of them.
14.
We went on a guided horseback tour of the island the very next day and once again, I was the only person fascinated by the things that Kohl, Elijah and the prime minister really wanted to show off: the small, pretty village surrounding the coastal side of the rise of the Caldera to keep it out of the reach of storm surges, and then fields and fields of spiky little heads, all poking out of the red soil in sweet little rows.
Kohén clearly expected me to ride with him- he’d not stopped grinning at me all morning and asking me how I could bear to wear my hair out in such heat- for I had it hanging over my shoulders loose again to hide my love bite, but Elfin flung herself up onto the horse behind him before he could ask me, and because Lette had already nabbed Kohl (at Kelia’s soft insistence- she had been in a foul, silent mood all day) I ended up with Jovi, who went far too slow for my liking, but gave me the opportunity to have a long chat with the prime minister who rode beside me.
‘It’s amazing that you’ve developed so much land!’ I exclaimed to Atticus from behind my guide’s chubby, grass-skirted back. ‘Corn, pineapples, coconuts, wheat…’
‘We need to be pretty self-sufficient here,’ he said, his smile warm without a trace of lust peeking out from within. True to military form he was a tall, rectangular-shaped man whose every feature was both wide and squared off, from his square ears to his perfectly straight teeth, which seemed to be in aligned with his flat, straight eyebrows. ‘And we never had the locust problem that you did. So we’ve had fifteen wonderful years of harvests, and not even the most prolonged monsoon seasons can knock down a pineapple!’
‘Just think of what Arcadia will be like fifteen years from now, now that thanks to you and Karol, we are free of locusts too Larkin,’ Elijah had said, pulling up on the other side of me with Constance behind him and a contented smile on his face. He’d trimmed his beard to accommodate the topical climate so it was no longer wiry and braided with gold, but razed to a shadow with ornate edges. ‘Pretty soon, Pacifica will be able to run without us needing to visit so often.’
‘Except when we come to see our son of course,’ Constance reminded him, poking him in the sides a little, but he laughed.
‘Our son is almost a man,’ he pointed out cheerfully. ‘And a man understands that it isn’t conceivable for his entire family and their entourage to cross the Pacific twice a year when there are matters demanding their attention back home.’
‘Kohl is one of the matters demanding your attention, and as his home is not with us, it is your duty to come to him,’ the duchess said snidely- her snappish mood in complete contrast to the way she’d pulled her black cloud of hair up into a coiled pony-tail which bobbed with every hoof-fall. She looked so young! And yet every word out of her mouth was loaded with centuries of contempt. ‘It’s called being a parent, and you need not bring along anyone but your loving spouse, you know.’
If Elijah sensed his spouse’s tone, he either ignored it or attempted to smooth it over by smiling at the prime minister and saying: ‘Our son is being given equal, if not more consideration than any other Given child in Calliel, Constance, and has grown well for it. Besides, Atticus here is all the father figure he’ll ever need to make him into a man.’
‘And all the father figure he’s ever had,’ the duchess snapped back. ‘Possessing testosterone in excess is genetically guaranteed for Kohl. But I fear for how that chemical will begin to burn through him without a mother around to monitor where it flows.’ She gave me a derisive look. ‘You never know what sort of future he may come to lust after, if he’s not guided away from vice.’
‘That’s true,’ I said blithely, though silently panicking as to why she’d looked at me and not gestured to the girls ahead of us. ‘He may harden so that he’ll never come to know love… at all- from anyone.’ I gave her a dark look of my own. ‘Or how to fight for what’s right, or to want more than what one’s birth determined they should have.’
‘So we still haven’t convinced you that the third-born rule has its benefits?’ King Elijah asked, studying me curiously and with barely disguised frustration. ‘I would think that you, more than anyone could be able to clearly see how some children can profit from being cared for by those with the means to do it?’ he lifted his hand behind him and fingered his wife’s chain, smiling at me. ‘Like this- I see you staring at this constantly, which I picked up right here in Pacifica on our first voyage. But do you know that there have been Companions who have been able to procure more jewels than my own duchess has? No third born child remaining at home could ever hope of seeing such a thing!’
‘A girl who covets jewels but prefers cotton to silk and would get her hands dirty to earn them herself?’ Atticus Hartley tossed me a crooked smile which true to form, was a perfectly angled slant. ‘Jovi, have you ever heard of such a complex creature?’
‘No sir,’ Jovi said from beneath me. ‘But it would be an honour to know one well.’
‘I like anything that sparkles,’ I confided to Atticus, giving Jovi a grateful squeeze. ‘But jewels are hard to come by and impossible to afford, and I could never hope to own more than one. So I strive toward what would make me just as happy: owning an expanse of land where I could enjoy shimmering things in multitudes and for free: falling stars and fireflies…’
‘Those are fleeting and rare,’ the king said, ‘and they can never be truly possessed.’
‘The most valuable things in this world are precious because they are rare and hard to attain,’ I said to the king, flipping my hair over my shoulder so that he could see my love bite. ‘And last night, Kohén seemed to agree that a fleeting moment with a free firefly brought him much more pleasure than trapping one in his hand would have.’ I saw the king looking and winked. ‘The firefly enjoyed itself too, for the record, and asked for nothing in return.’ I pushed my hair back when I saw the duchess scowling at me. ‘And never will.’
Elijah’s slate-blue eyes were shining with a touch more of Kohén’s neon vibrancy than usual. ‘But it would be gifted to you anyway Larkin,’ he said. ‘Fireflies, cotton fields, shooting stars and most certainly in time, a diamond if you worked hard enough… so why not start working now, and invest in yourself?’ he winked. ‘Especially given how radiant you are the day after such a fleeting moment?’
I smiled benevolently, wishing I had something to stab him with. ‘If profiting from others was my ambition, I would lie down and embrace my, uh, fate, eagerly,’ I said. ‘But despite how you have all spoiled me so, I remain a simple girl at heart: I want to love and be loved more than anything else, and that is my ultimate goal. Anything else, I hope to procure for myself via hard work. Is it a crime to strive toward winning Kohén’s heart before I hand over something as precious as my purity?’ I asked. ‘Like with y
ou and Resonah?’
Constance hissed but the fuck did I care.
‘Certainly not,’ Atticus said. ‘It’s rather commendable.’
‘You are loved here, Larkin,’ the king said, frowning slightly. ‘Profusely. Any fool can see that, so a smart girl like you ought to see the short cut offered to her and-’
‘Short cuts are for lazy people,’ I said. ‘I am not lazy and neither is Kohén, which is why we get along so famously. Honestly, your highness- why command him to take the easy route when he has the capacity to scale a mountain to attain his goals?’
‘Because that can be a very time-consuming, frustrating thing to do,’ he muttered.
‘Only for someone with a weak character,’ I said cheerfully. ‘And Kohén is anything but weak. In fact, every day he grows stronger, and as his Companion, I will continue to encourage such astounding growth.’
‘You wish to be joined with him then, don’t you?’ Constance snapped, tapping Elijah’s shoulder. ‘I told you! She is manipulating him!’
‘And be as cheerful as you are for it, duchess? Certainly not! And I swear to you on my life, Elijah that I will not be leaving Eden as a virgin. I have given your son my word to come to his chamber the moment I am free if I do not surrender to my feelings for Kohén before then.’ It was tricky trying to word the declaration without lying but I managed it. ‘So rest your mind- I will repay the debt of raising me to this crown before I embark upon any plans of my own, and leave either almost empty-handed but hopefully with his friendship- which will make me wealthy indeed- or stay by his side as his friend and lover so long as I am his only lover.’
‘Is that the arrangement then?’ Elijah asked, looking intrigued and not suspecting that I was talking about anyone other than Kohén- and not paying the slightest bit of attention to his wife behind him, who looked ready to jump and tackle me to the ground. She probably would have but she was wearing the split pants like Kohl’s in a pretty baby blue that she probably didn’t feel like marring with dirt.
‘It is,’ I smiled. ‘I want to be his only, or his friend, and I know that is not too much to ask for, if he himself cares enough for me to take his time cultivating our relationship before the time to harvest comes.’
‘I feel much better about it now that I know you intend to sleep with him regardless.’ He turned to his wife. ‘See? I told you that she was too smart to attempt to manipulate our son into trying to marry her! Larkin understands how things have to be darling- you could take a leaf out of her book.’
Constance’s eyes narrowed to slits and I could not blame her.
‘It is not my book,’ I said to Elijah. ‘It is the Barachiel book and I am just doing as best as I can with a frightfully corrupt situation. And I commend the duchess for trying to make you read between the lines and find the meaning of love amidst the bureaucracy, for it has inspired Kohén to do the same! And if you stop interfering Elijah, when the time comes for him to sit on a throne of his own, his beautiful, level head will be a perfect fit for Miguel Barachiel’s crown, which will glow like a halo once more for having loved his fallen woman, even if he does not keep her after, as you have ‘kept’ your spouse and your lover!’ I pressed my heels into our horse, spurring it on so quickly that I had to look back to deliver my parting statement to Elijah: ‘Unlike Karol, who will have to squeeze his head into that crown, and yourself, your highness, who wears it so loosely that it has slipped over your eyes and blinded you to your sons’- both of your sons’- true glory! The ability to rise above temptation for someone else’s good, as God would have!’
Constance’s mouth popped open, and Elijah’s face was as purple as his violet silk shirt, and though I knew I should have been scared, I faced forward and gripped Jovi more tightly, determined to enjoy the horse ride and the wind rushing through my hair before I lost all of my liberty. ‘Go!’ I hissed. ‘As fast as you can!’
The horse hurtled forward through the group and then past them all, and Jovi turned his head to me and cried: ‘You are loco, pretty girl!’
‘Crazy is the one thing they can’t stop me from being, even if they put their mind to it!’ I whispered in his ear, and he laughed. ‘And honest is another, now that I am old enough to understand that no punishment they can dole out can hurt more than biting my tongue wounds my pride and my intelligence!’
‘I am happy in my life, and welcome Pacifica becoming part of Arcadia’s empire,’ he said, panting a little as his excess flesh slapped around. ‘But I think I be happier with a queen like loco pale girl in charge!’ he pulled on the reigns to slow our mare. ‘Just not of horse!’
I kissed his cheek. ‘Mahalo, but I meant it when I said that I dream only of becoming a farmer, and not a queen.’
‘Then be careful what seeds you sow,’ he said, ‘for you are planting a hurricane and it is going to pick up a lot of crowns- and they are more dangerous projectiles than pineapples!’
I pressed my forehead against his back and laughed as we raced past a field of white roses in full bloom, for there was nothing else left for me to do but accept that my future was about to pick me up and whip me around until my bones rattled.
*
Both the king and the duchess avoided me for the rest of the day, and when I saw Elijah pull Kohén aside to have what was clearly a stern word with him while we stopped for lunch and a surf in a small cove, I almost laughed myself off the horse- especially when I saw my suddenly spiny friend snap something back before storming off, casting me a dirty look on his way. I knew I was in trouble for running my mouth, but I didn’t see why that should concern me. The most they could do was command Kohén to deflower me now, and I’d never been naïve enough to convince myself that that wouldn’t always be a possibility. Thanks to the promise I’d made Karol, there really was no way that I was leaving Eden with my maidenhood intact anyway.
And if I was being brutally honest with myself, I was so exhausted by the act of juggling the Barachiel’s boy’s affections that soon enough, I’d probably say: To hell with it! And allow the first one of them to pounce to chart my destiny for me. The way things were going, it was out of my hands anyway- like I was the parcel in a children’s game being passed around, and when the music stopped, I’d be unwrapped by whoever had me in their possession, and there wouldn’t be a damn thing that I could do about it but fake an orgasm to get it done with quickly and then walk it, my dreams and my pride off.
But my heart- it was still mine to give freely, and if Kohén bent to his father’s will, he would pay a higher price than anyone. Once upon a time, that had terrified me because I’d wanted his love desperately, and the night before, he’d moved me into believing in ‘us’ again with his words and champagne and his Nephilim current... but not even the most passionate words could erase history, and our history was littered with defiled young girls who had been sacrificed for my freedom and that we would both have to atone for that. I’d told Kohén that I might come to love him and forgive him, and it was true- I might, for I certainly had the capacity to. But if he clipped my wings before I had the chance to fly with them against my will and on his father’s command, I’d run on my bare feet and never look back.
I didn’t like the fact that I was going to have to make a choice to hurt either Kohén or Kohl or both, but it was my choice to make, and I wouldn’t have it decided for me.
I didn’t get a chance to be alone with Kohl all morning, and he didn’t look at me once. I began to fear that he’d seen something he could not forgive the evening before, but there was no way of knowing while Constance was monopolising his time and already so furious (and rightfully so) with me, so I breathed through it, remembering something I’d read in the bible the evening before about the virtue of patience. Besides, if I was as clever as I liked to think I was, I’d give Kohl a wide berth and allow what may develop between us happen organically so that neither of us could be accused of orchestrating an affair after.
Kelia didn’t want to get into the water to surf at fi
rst, but when a sexy native guide offered himself up as an instructor, she developed a NEED to surf and practically smacked Lette to the ground in her eagerness to claim him as her tutor. She should have learned faster than she did, for the guides, Kohl and Kohén and even Atticus were all amazing instructors, but Kelia pleaded ignorance to keep her guide on the board with her for the entire two hours. I was frustrated with her for trying to act ‘over’ Kohl by avoiding him, but flirting with other men wasn’t going to do her any favours either! How could I rescue her if she was determined to sink beneath the surface as dead weight?
Still, surfing was a lot of fun and without Kelia clinging to me as usual, I had the chance to really concentrate on what Atticus was telling me, so I picked it up faster than everyone but Elfin, who had already taken some private lessons with Kohén back home.
Kohén didn’t teach anyone- he stayed in his mood and paddled out the furthest, while Kohl stayed in the shallows and helped his mother who would only paddle out if he were at her side. She fawned all over him, talking up his finesse, and it seemed like a bunch of bullshit meant to win him over, for the waves he was teaching her to ride were no higher than my hip. But eventually, Kohl got the chance to go out where his brother had been sitting all morning to ride in one of the larger waves, and our jaws dropped collectively when he jumped off his board mid flight, spun it beneath him and then landed smoothly on both feet again so that he could coast all the way in to the sand. It was an awesome sight, and I wondered if I was the only Companion of Kohén’s whose string bikini had almost untied itself in desperation to be naked against someone so physically competent.
‘That was amazing,’ I said when he jogged up to where I’d been sitting, catching some sun, and taking advantage of the fact that his mother wasn’t there listening to us for the first time all morning ‘Just… wow.’
