The Forbidden Fruit

by S. K Munt

  ‘Don’t deceive yourself into believing that I couldn’t have taken you down where we stand!’ Satan erupted back, raising her hands above her head and causing a bright glow to emanate from her fingertips and caress everything that the light reached. Fall leaves turned green again, and the sky shifted from stained ochre with swirls of lavender, to the purest blue. Clouds parted and brightened, and birdsong filled the air. ‘I have given YOU a chance to redeem yourself God, instead of striking as I could have, and without my influence, this place will be nothing but a reflection of your spirit from within his heart! So if Miguel fails, you fail and the earth will be mine and there won’t be a GODDAMNED thing you will be able to do about it!’ The magic Satan was conjuring did nothing but make things shine and sparkle and clear- everything from dissipating the haze in the air to calming the ocean that had been smashing against the cliff face in the aftershock of some distant earth tremor, and yet everybody curled in together in terror to see her demonstrate just how powerful she had become, even though her feathers were beginning to smoke and char and fall out. She was healing three years worth of God’s carnage in seconds! Even the air smelled better, and the atmosphere lost its chill and warmed notably. ‘A man’s character is his destiny, and we all have facets of yours, so pray mortals- pray not that I will leave and hastily, but that you are not so weak as to find a way to follow me without my provocation!’

  ‘You threaten them and I with my character,’ God said, smiling sorrowfully at her, clasping his hands together and then opening them to reveal a single, shimmering star, which was pretty as it was unimpressive, and identical to the one that he had left them in the sky back in the beginning. ‘And yet you are forgetting one vital thing…’

  ‘And what is that?’ Satan sneered, her eyes blackening, her skin becoming translucent as she began to fade away. Everyone continued to watch her, afraid that she had deceived them all- afraid that she was going to take some other form and trick them by lingering, but God felt no fear.

  ‘Love is more powerful than hate, and a single vow of devotion whispered into an ear can overcome the hearts of those screaming the most hateful things.’ He smiled at her and brightened the tiny light in his hand. ‘When you influenced that man to push the button and start the final war, you did it with a kiss didn’t you- not an insult?’ Satan stared at him, confused, but he only smiled more widely. ‘Yes, you hear the truth in that, don’t you? Love conquers, and hate fades- as will your influence once you are gone!’

  ‘I don’t know about that,’ she griped. ‘It is in my character to be sceptical, and after what I have survived, I cannot be held accountable for that.’ She pointed at Miguel. ‘I have forgiven you, but only for the love in Gabriella’s heart. If another woman is so broken again as to bleed tears like I have-’

  ‘They will not,’ Miguel said quickly. ‘I vow that to you.’

  ‘And I vow that so long as you continue to make threats, you guarantee only my suspicion!’ God snapped.

  ‘And what is that supposed to mean?’ Satan asked haughtily.

  ‘Forgiveness does not come with conditions,’ God chastised her. ‘And until you understand such things, you must understand that I cannot allow such negative energy to haunt the earth. So please forgive my child for doing this again, but just in case you have a trick up your lovely sleeve- I will use the energy I have left to send you back to your son, and hold you to your word, for I cannot trust you to do it on your own accord!’ God raised the star to his lips, kissed it and then blew that kiss at Satan. Like a tiny meteorite, it shot through the air, hitting her straight in the chest, and though her scream was so loud and tortured that it made every human bleed from the ears, Satan vanished in a burst of light, and God fell to his knees, exhausted.

  ‘I forgive you and love you unconditionally, Satan,’ he whispered to her feathers as they fell on the earth that she had stained with her bloody tears. ‘And I hope to see you in Heaven next time, where we all belong.’

  The angels and mortals rushed forward to help him to his feet, but he held up a hand and coughed blood as his now fragile body began to break down.

  ‘I’m sorry!’ Miguel cried. ‘I only wanted a life for my son!’

  ‘There can only be equality,’ God gasped, not wasting the last of his breath on pleasantries. ‘The earth must be cared for, the population must be kept in balance with it, everyone is entitled to be loved and to return to me… no religion…’ he coughed. ‘No shame for what were seen as sins of the flesh…’ the bloody tears were disappearing as green grass continued to shoot up form the parched earth. ‘No neglected children! No starvation or greed… and her name must not be spoken or called to! Nor mine used as a weapon!’

  ‘Yes, father,’ Miguel whispered, sinking to his knees in front of his creator with his winged son gurgling happily in his arms. ‘I know you, and I know what you want from us and I will die mortal with love in my heart for you, for this chance.’

  God kissed Elijah’s little fingers, then smiled at the little girl standing behind them and whispered: ‘I know. Because despite mankind’s lack of faith in me, I have never loved any of you one little bit less.’

  And then he was gone, and the angels wept.

  But, God took the faith and love within every surviving mortal soul with him, and so Heaven had never shone as brightly or been as warm as it was in the moment when Life received its second chance on earth, under the golden Barachiel crown.

  END OF BOOK VI

  PART THREE

  21.

  August 2nd AA644

  It took eight days for us to sail home, and although I had ample time to converse with the duchess over our prospective arrangement, there was little to no privacy on the ship and as pleasant as she was acting toward me, it would have aroused suspicions if we’d been caught engaged in a deep and meaningful conversation, so neither of us tried. We could have attempted a plotting session again upon our arrival as well, but the last few days of the voyage home took us across rough coastal seas, so by the time I got back into my own, non-moving bed, I was quite content to stay there and sleep without thinking and dream of nothing but sleeping through the night in Kohl’s arms. I’d said she had until the end of the year to liberate me, but I wasn’t going ANYWHERE until the castle stopped swaying!

  I had such strange dreams- of the golden man giving me away while I was being married to Kohl but then stealing off with the groom and taking him over into the Wildwoods after, of Emmerly marrying both men, and of Kelia learning to play a trumpet naked to win Karol’s hand. They were all creepy enough to be disturbing, but odd enough for me to be able to laugh them off soon after waking, but in every dream, the golden man made an appearance in some way… he was always in the periphery- a flash of blonde hair and that charming smile that reminded me of something oozing, and I’d wake with a start every time our eyes locked, suddenly fearful of leaving Eden and all of the security that I had known since I’d turned five, to enter a world where I would be within HIS reach again.

  Then I’d remember the way I’d felt when Kohén had inspected me, and the mortification of Karol’s glazed smile beside him, and that was enough to jolt me back into reality- security was a broad term for a Companion in Eden! And I’d take off fighting an evil Nephilim like my father, over a good Nephilim like Karol now that I’d seen what the angelic duchess was capable of doing! Add lust to that sort of obligation to guard an asset and… my skin crawled, and I immediately got out of bed, showered, and then went looking for the duchess.

  ‘Hello, Larkin! Long time, eh?’ Karol said to me when I bumped into him in the cross-section of the hallway. I had to admit to myself that he looked even better than before I’d left. His hair had been cut in a new, shorter style and he had a slight shadow of stubble around his jaw. The Pacifican style of men’s attire had been sexy in a revealing way, but Karol didn’t need to reveal an inch of his physique to look alluring. In leather pants, a white ruffled-shirt, a sheathed sword at his hip and black boots,
he looked like a dark prince from times past, or more like his pirate of a brother.

  And every inch the rake still! He’s like a wolf… don’t let him see you staring or the canines will sink into your flesh!

  I raised an eyebrow. ‘Didn’t I see you at the dock like, three days ago?’ I scratched my head. ‘Or was that a nightmare…?’

  ‘You certainly looked nightmarish when you disembarked,’ he teased, not taking any obvious offence to a very obvious insult, and I shrugged and turned to walk away, not feeling energetic enough yet to battle him. He caught my skirt and said: ‘But you look lovely now.’

  I’d yanked my hair into a limp ponytail and hadn’t done more than wash my face with soap. ‘Um, thanks- you know how I try!’ The door behind him opened and I saw Adeline step out and smile at me, wriggling her fingers. Her red hair was styled into lovely waves which complimented her thick hourglass shape, and I thought for the millionth time that she was the most sensuous woman in Arcadia, and felt as though the girls from my year looked like gangly children compared to her, which I supposed we still were. Lord, what did Karol see in me to make him so like a dog with a bone? ‘Anyway, I see that you have an obligation to uphold so… I’ll just-’

  ‘Hang on, smart arse…’ Karol said as Adeline tittered. ‘I need to ask you something about the plantations you saw… Kohén hasn’t come out of bed either yet, and I’m most curious-’

  ‘He’s probably reliving the highlights of his trip in bed alone...’ I muttered under my breath, but then said more loudly. ‘Oh?’

  ‘Yes. Adeline, this will be boring so just wait inside for me, okay?’ he tapped his hip. ‘And go warm up for the fight of your life!’

  ‘Certainly, your highness. And hello Larkin! Aren’t you tanned!’

  ‘Hello Adeline,’ I said as she went back into her room and closed the door. ‘You really do look as lovely as always.’

  ‘Thank you!’

  ‘Yes thank you,’ Karol said, waving her off. ‘And get stretching!’

  ‘Yes sire!’

  The door shut. I threw up in my brain at the sword-fighting façade he was trying to evoke- knowing that his blade would likely be pressed to her neck in his duelling, pillaging fantasy while she remained unarmed and flexible, and then Karol was coming around in front of me and taking my hands.

  ‘So…?’

  I blinked at him. ‘Um... what do you want to know? The crops are-’

  ‘I don’t care about the crops,’ Karol said, waving his hand. ‘I already talked to dad about all of that.’ He swung my arms a little, grinning. ‘How was it? It must have been pretty thrilling, yeah?’ he leaned closer and whispered, conspiratorially. ‘The sun, the sand, the fields…? I’ve been dying to see you again, and to hear how you enjoyed it.’

  I stared at him for a long moment and then cleared my throat and said: ‘Um, are you making chit chat with me?’

  Karol looked confused. ‘Well, that’s a pretty traditional thing to do when you haven’t seen someone in five weeks…. and then only sporadically for almost six months before that... And I heard about how you finally managed to win over mother and I am most impressed and eager to hear your side of the heroic story...’ his voice faded and he frowned at my bewildered expression. ‘What?’

  I pointed down the hallway. ‘You want to talk to me about winning over your mother while there’s a woman probably stripping for you in there? Because I really, really don’t.’

  Karol followed my eyes, then back to me and the furrow between his brows deepened. ‘You’re still convinced that this is a den for perverts to pass time in? Larkin, grow up. You’ll be eighteen in about ten months-’

  ‘You know when I’m turning eighteen?’ I asked, surprised. ‘What an odd thing to keep track of!’

  He shrugged. ‘It’s not so strange.’

  ‘But I just turned seventeen-’ and then I realised why he’d monitor such a thing as my ageing, and I experienced an internal shuttering of consciousness against vile thoughts. ‘Oh God…’ I stepped into him. ‘You have a countdown?’ I hissed.

  How am I going to get off this hook when he’s already baited it and submerged it?!

  Karol’s expression didn’t register a single emotion that I could identify. ‘It’s not so strange…’

  ‘It’s more than strange. It’s weird, and very desperate for a beautiful man with your charisma to need to stoop-’ I squeaked as Karol leaned in and kissed me, shoving him off me with so much force that he thunked into the wall behind him hard enough for the sound to reverberate along the corridor, and still I lifted my fist and sent it straight into his solar plexus. His eyes widened then narrowed viciously, and I dropped my hands like they were weapons and stepped back, blinking rapidly and realising that I’d probably just jumped the banishment gun a little prematurely! And even though he’d hurdled the proprietary one and scared me to do so, I was sure to be the only one pay for it!

  I had a furtive, silent conference with my brain and my pride and my fear for about four seconds before my brain overruled the rest of the triumvirate. ‘Your highness!’ I whispered, bowing my head. ‘I am so-’

  ‘Don’t apologise,’ Karol wheezed, then moved back and lifted my face to his. His eyes were emerald fire but as he pressed his hand to his stomach, I saw the redness of breathlessness immediately began to leave his complexion. He really could heal quickly, and when he spoke again, his tone was almost normal. ‘I like that mouth so much more when it’s sneering at me, and what I just did was wrong. But I…’ his eyes dropped to my mouth and every muscle in my body locked. ‘I missed you,’ he whispered. ‘And hearing you toot my horn for once instead of me having to do it to gain your notice overcame me…’

  ‘I didn’t toot your anything,’ I said, pushing his hand away again as my pride shoved my brain our of the driver’s seat and changed gears. ‘I stated a fact: you’re not a mutant, and you’re good at bull-shitting.’

  ‘You said beautiful and charismatic.’

  ‘Then perhaps the Given girls need to be given a thesaurus that will allow them to understate things so their masters can keep up!’

  But Karol only smiled more brightly. ‘You said beautiful and charismatic,’ he repeated, ‘and you’re a walking thesaurus.’

  ‘I meant the other things more!’

  ‘That I do not doubt. But Larkin… you’d better watch that tongue of yours, or find yourself the recipient of my birthday wish.’

  ‘You’d have to be turning three hundred to have enough fucking candles to blow out-’ but he pressed me up against the wall and that silenced me pretty quickly with a single, heated look that told me what he wanted to do with me with much more clarity than the guidelines ever had!

  Heel pride; fear’s got this one!

  ‘I get a thirtieth birthday wish, which must be granted, so long as it’s within reason and that it is only a positive change, and not a selfish one,’ he said. ‘My father wished for the city of Janiel to become a Kingdom, and my grandfather wished for the Artisan caste to be expanded by a further five percent to allow more people in, in memory of his mother, who had failed to qualify as a dancer by two points.’ He pressed me closer to the wall. ‘And if you’re not careful, my wish will be to have you transferred into my harem.’

  I sucked in a breath, certain that I’d gone purple. ‘You said it couldn’t be a selfish request!’ But Karol only leered more and responded:

  ‘Once you experienced what I’d do to you, you’d agree that it was a blessing bestowed upon you- and I could have Adeline come out here and back me up on that!’ he wriggled his eyebrows. ‘She likes you, you know: says you’re a firecracker.’

  ‘Gee, that’s swell, but you are out of your mind if you think that I’d go to you by FORCE without a fucking noose around my neck!’ I spit out, and he pulled back quickly, losing all of his colour. ‘And if you kiss me again, I’m telling Kohén-’

  ‘I don’t care,’ he said, shrugging but still looking wounded. ‘Ekita Tariel has
already married, and I don’t have to raise funds for a locust panacea anymore so his threat of muddying my name for the Tariel crown is redundant!’

  ‘Well the other things will piss him off plenty, and you won’t live to see your thirtieth birthday!’ I turned to stalk away, but his voice followed me.

  ‘Why only if I do it again?’ he asked quietly. ‘Why not now?’ I didn’t answer, only kept walking long the corridor. ‘Larkin?’ I heard his footfalls rush after me, and then his hand was on my wrist and pulling me back. ‘Larkin, what’s wrong?’ I almost laughed, but I clapped my hand to my mouth and bowed my head before a hysterical giggle-sob could slip out. ‘Larkin...’ his voice was harder. ‘You said you’d trust me so trust me now and tell me what’s going on, why you turned down your field, why you and Kohén haven’t come out of your rooms for three days, and why I heard a ridiculous rumour that he had group sex with-’

  I sucked in a breath, for his words hit me right in the solar plexus this time. It had been hard to deal with in Pacifica, but remembering Kohén’s betrayal while back within Eden’s walls was too much. We’d grown here together, and now we were nothing to each other and it was going to be so much harder to face this new, awful reality without a kinder, gentler version of Kohén’s eyes on standby to remind me that I was worth something to somebody, or that Kelia was worth a reprieve because she meant something to me.

  ‘It wasn’t a rumour,’ I whispered. ‘So Congratulations, because your sweet baby brother has grown up to be just like YOU. In fact, he’s surpassed you and your father in the rotten way, because he didn’t even like Kelia- and YET- he fucked her to get even with me!’ I yanked my elbow out of his grip and stared at him, letting him see the hate in my eyes. ‘Yes, be proud, Karol, you’ve set an even harder example to follow than your father has, and your mother is practically overflowing with tears over it. Joyful ones I’m sure…’ I dropped the fake smile. ‘But because we both know that they’re not, as mine are not- you and Kohén can go fuck yourselves until you find a suitable, legal opportunity to take turns raping me!’