“I see…” That made sense. Pandora’s Box must be more of a later code name to indicate that putting the maps together would open up a can of worms. “So they are all maps of the realms.”
“Yes. They are all separate but joined, as you see. Each touches the other two. If you look closely in the dark, you’ll see that there are thousands of lights. Millions, even. Every person in every realm has a light, some very dim, some bright, based on their power. Most are still, some are moving…and sometimes you can see them cross from one realm to the other.”
I stared at the map for a long moment because it was, to put it lightly, incredible. The stones that formed the map were dark and glossy, like some alien artifact, and just like the night sky, the longer I looked, the more lights I could see.
“Do I have a light?”
“Of course. You and I are here now.” He tapped the tip of the pyramid. “In the place between realms. This is my duty as a demigod. Simply to watch over the realms.”
“You don’t actually do anything?”
He grinned. “Now and then, I am needed to move souls between realms. I can cause angels to fall into darkness and demons to be banished into the world of order. If a day should ever come when the realms erupt into a war, I have the ability to separate the realms. Like pulling apart squabbling children. Only, the consequences would be much more devastating.” He raised an eyebrow at me. “I hope you know that.”
“Why would you think otherwise?”
“I hear rumors,” he said. “I’m sure you know.”
“I must confess that sometimes I do, but I try my best to ignore them,” I said. This was probably what Hulda’s mean old mom was talking about. The Ethereal wizards were hoping to break their piece off from the others.
“Magic, like the people who use its gifts, are stronger when they can communicate,” Lord Abiron said. “I love to watch the lights that move and know that each one of them is a life dancing along the fabric of the universe.”
“Is my familiar one of these lights too?”
“Your familiar? I didn’t know you had a familiar…?” He was looking at me so oddly that I didn’t know what to say.
Did witches not have familiars in the 11th century? I had always thought all wizards had familiars since ancient times. Or did Hulda’s familiar die? Maybe familiars just died young more often at this time.
“Uh…maybe I don’t,” I blurted.
“I was told no one in Cyprium kept a familiar. Now you tell me you have indulged in this slavery after all?”
Oh shit. This was not a modern view of familiars, and I didn’t expect his reaction. “No, no,” I said.
Now Lord Abiron definitely knew something was up. “Who are you…really?”
“Uhhh…”
“Something is wrong.” He started to look a little angry.
“Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…” Good lord. What to say?
“Who are you?” He gave my shoulders a little shake.
“I’m from the future!” I cried. “I’m—I’m possessing Hulda’s body for a second. You sent me to help past you!” I paused. “I know this sounds pretty ridiculous…”
“I sent you to help myself…to what end?”
“They’re going to kill you and break up the box—I mean, the Way of Paths.”
“Kill me…” He laughed sharply. “I can’t say I didn’t consider it. How far in the future do you hail from?”
“A long time. A thousand years… It seems like you were reborn much later, and then you were killed again, and your ghost and me…met, and…”
“I see. Are you meant to stop it?”
“I hope so!”
He looked at me and slowly he seemed to accept a darker truth. “No…that would be too drastic an outcome for the future, and you would not be able to turn back and undo it. This death must be written into fate already. I see. So you and I…this is not a beginning, then. This is my end.”
I couldn’t bear the dawning realization on his face, the sorrow and courage that reminded me even more of my Byron. There was always something bittersweet in Byron’s face.
“Hulda was supposed to poison you,” I said. “But I can’t do it. And I am not really sure Hulda wanted to do it either. I won’t kill you. We could still change the future, right?” Although I did wonder how that would work.
“This seems beyond my ability to foresee,” Lord Abiron said. “But if I am fated to die this day, may I at least have the pleasure of knowing you first?”
“Oh, Byron…” Tears welled in my eyes. Lord Abiron reminded me of Byron, but he was also more distant, more godlike. He accepted his fate much more easily than I would have.
“Since we don’t know what fate is to bring, it’s possible that this night must still go on. I came here tonight to wed you and show you the pleasure of my bedchamber, and if I changed course, I might hinder the future.”
“Maybe…” I just didn’t know what was supposed to happen. But the more time I spent in Lady Hulda’s skin, the more I felt as if she never intended to give him the poison. I don’t know why I felt that way. When I was here, of course, her presence was gone. But her body still had this sense of some other person clinging to it. Movements. Words. As if I could feel her instincts.
Her mother’s request to kill Lord Abiron was at least as horrible to her as my mother’s desire to make me become some rich warlock’s wife and put aside my own dreams. Well, probably a lot more horrible.
And like me, I thought, Hulda wasn’t going to do it.
But then—what am I here for?
“You already know me well, don’t you?” he asked, his words intimate against my ear. “I can feel it.”
“We have, yes…although not quite like this. I’m worried about what will happen if the soldiers come. They think I’m poisoning you.”
“My men will fight them. And then I suppose we shall see. There isn’t much you and I can do, unless you would like my men to attack your royal retinue, kill your small number of guards and Lady Hulda’s family. I can’t see that leading to a good result either. No, I had to put my trust in the humans and it seems it was misplaced, but I needed the strength of a human witch bride. I had to make a choice. Maybe there was no wise choice. Maybe all the humans have just been waiting for this chance.”
“You expected it?”
“I always expect it. It’s the way of history to keep others out. To stake your claims. They have never liked me because I keep the realms united and force them to deal with one another.” He kissed my ear and then the tip of his tongue glided down the edge of my cheek, until it reached my lips. “If you like me, I will be content.”
Maybe all I could do for Lord Abiron was leave him with a good memory. I would have to be content knowing that this wasn’t really the end of him. I just hoped this was what Byron wanted me to do.
It certainly wasn’t a chore to meet his lips with my own, and reach for him as he put his arms around me. He held me close in his massive arms as our lips met, his wings lowering around me, sheltering me. Then he started to slide downward, his fingers tugging open the laces at the back of my dress. He pulled the garment down, exposing my breasts, and then he started to give them the attention of his deliciously warm and skilled mouth.
It was hard to think about much of anything when he was so good at taking it all in stride. His tongue licked and his lips suckled and his teeth nibbled as his hand played with my other breast, and then he moved from one to the other, so the wetness he left behind on my nipple caught the air and made my skin pebble with cold. He swirled his thumb around in the saliva and then gave my nipple a few rough tugs. His tail, meanwhile, curled around one of my ankles and moved my feet open.
He pulled my hair out of the long braids, something I always liked in my normal life, but I’d never have the patience to grow out these crazy Wagnerian opera braids that Hulda had, so that just drew out the pleasure of feeling him tug and toy gently with my hair until it was loose everywhere.
Maybe I should try to grow my hair longer, I thought. A spell tonic or something. But then washing it would be such a pain. Of course, if I had four men, I could make them wash it for me. Hmm…
“Oooh…mercy…” His tongue had reached my pussy now. Lord Abiron was already an expert at working his tongue into every fold and crevice, just as Byron was. He teased me until I was having a hard time holding back the moans. Then he started trying to pull my dress off and then he just tore it open.
“If you’re here to kill me, I hardly need to be polite,” he said, now sitting up, his sculpted body looming over me, his tail still cuffing my ankle and reminding me that my legs wouldn’t close until he was done with me.
He slicked a finger between my swollen folds. “You seem very ready, but I will go slow. You may have noticed that I’m larger than most humans and your body will have to adjust to me inch by inch.”
“This isn’t my first…tournament,” I managed. There was no word for ‘rodeo’ in Cyprium, and I probably shouldn’t have attempted to speak in idioms in a language I only knew in a dream-like way. I wasn’t an expert at out of body time travel, what could I say?
“It is Lady Hulda’s, however.”
“Oh. Ohhh…this is going to hurt.”
“But it isn’t really your first time,” he said. “So you know what brings you pleasure. I don’t know who your first was, how skilled he was—“
I snorted. “Not very. He wasn’t even sure where to stick it exactly.”
“We will go very…slowly…and I will make sure that this, your bud of pleasure, is well stimulated, so you will beg for every inch. Won’t you?” He gave my clit another little roll between his fingers.
“Probably,” I gasped.
The head of his cock penetrated me and despite that he was going slow, I felt split. He was bigger now than he was in the future.
“You must bear it, my lady, until I have claimed your maidenhead,” he said, and I don’t think he actually had any choice but to go slow. Lady Hulda’s body had never felt a man inside her, and I did feel as if I was losing my virginity all over again, and possibly to an elephant. As I gritted my teeth, sweating through the initial pain, I looked at how utterly gorgeous Lord Abiron was, and beyond that, how much he seemed concerned for me and was trying to make it a good memory for his new bride. His tenderness made me trust him and want him with my heart, but the way his body utterly dominated mine made me wetter.
“Oh…,” I gasped as I felt wet heat inside me and his cock met less resistance. It was like I already came, in a quick flash, but then it faded before it started and now I was just soaking wet. “Oh, shit, Byron, why it is always so good when you’re in me,” I murmured. “It seems like you should destroy me and instead…”
“It seems I have that effect. Very good, my sweet maiden.”
“I just want to feel you in real life. In the flesh. As myself. Oh, I hope…this works…” My head went limp and I could barely speak now as he was going deeper into me, just when I thought, surely this must be his entire length… His tail let go of my ankle—certainly there was no need to spread me out any more than I already was—and instead looped around my waist and down to give my clit a slow, sideways stroke as he started to fuck me in earnest with the same rhythm. Each thrust went so deep, filled me up so completely, that all I could do was surrender entirely, braced for each wave of pain and intense pleasure.
My moans became cries, sweat and hot desire drenching me as his pace quickened. He was getting closer. I was crying out. I reached for his single horn and gripped it as I prepared to ride out the finish.
Suddenly, footsteps were charging toward the door.
“Lady Hulda!” someone barked.
Lord Abiron grimaced, rushing now, fucking me hard as I tried not to scream, and then his seed was filling me, getting all over me as he quickly withdrew himself from me.
He yanked down my dress, for all the good it did, since it was all torn up. Then he shoved a small knife into my hand, opened a wardrobe that was sitting against the wall, and forced me into it. The doors shut and I was suffocated with the smell of wool.
“Stay there until it’s over,” he ordered.
I heard his palms slam against the wardrobe doors and he whispered a spell of protection.
“Byron!” I gasped.
I heard the bedroom doors burst open.
Chapter Five
Helena
Truly, I didn’t know what I was supposed to do in this terrible past.
Byron sent me here. He must know what would happen. And if Lord Abiron ordered me to stay here…I guess…
I mean, what could I do, anyway?
Damn. Damn it all!
I wished I could go home. I wanted to go back to my safe world, and see Byron safe and sound.
Lord Abiron, my Byron, my beautiful demigod, was brutally attacked by a warlock army. I could hear it all. I could hear the shouts of men ringing through the building, calling him a demon and a rapist and the spawn of hell, accusing him of brutalizing a human girl as they charged him with swords and spears.
It was a wedding, I thought. Everyone agreed to it, and Hulda…was happy to marry him. I really think she was. And now they’re treating him like a criminal.
I wanted to call out but I knew that this was part of my task. To endure this. To bear witness to this betrayal. I didn’t dare to move, breathing the stuffy air, trying my best to block out their cruelties. He was so brave, I thought, to face his death, knowing it was coming thanks to me.
I wondered if Hulda’s fate was the same as mine. If Lord Abiron had also ordered her to stay in a cabinet and hear every word, or if she escaped before that. Or was she killed?
I felt the heat as fire spells were cast, and then I wondered if I would burn here, but ithen t sounded like someone put them out.
I could also hear fighting in the hall, beyond this room, and then outside as well. The whole castle seemed to be in an uproar. Lord Abiron had his own guard who fought back, and I heard bodies thump to the ground now and then, screams dying into gurgles and then silence.
Soon I could smell death.
And I heard Lord Abiron say, “If you split the maps…you will destroy the magical world as we know it.”
“All I know is that we don’t want your demonkind around.”
“I know you think that you’re establishing order, but the safety you seek is an illusion,” Lord Abiron said. “It’s my job to know the worlds, to watch them—to protect them from true harm. You destroy me, and that is gone. You will have nothing but false security. You think you can block out the demons, but evil can come from anywhere. Chaos is not evil, and balance is not good. Etherium has evil in it. It always has, and it always will.”
“That sounds very poetic, I will say, but you slander the Ethereals to claim that they would ever stoop to the murder and violence that demons have unleashed on this world!” I heard a blow and Lord Abiron’s grunt of pain.
Then, his voice struggling to maintain awareness as he said, “No…I plead with you to rethink…oh, but it is no use now…”
I heard him fade away as other commotion swamped the room, the voices several men who sounded exhausted muttering about the wounded and the dead, and that they must hurry and get out of here. I knew that this must be the scene in the Arcana. Byron bleeding from his wounds, dying at their feet, while they made off with their treasure, splitting it apart.
It was hard to fully comprehend that I was witnessing one of the most pivotal moments in magical history, that had influenced the next thousand years and changed all of us.
And in my own world, no one even remembered it. No one talked about the maps, or Lord Abiron and Lady Hulda, or the entire realm of Cyprium and how they had seized the Way of Paths…it was all lost.
Oh, Harris, I can’t wait to tell you that I actually got to witness a mysterious historical battle, you big nerd.
In that moment, I tried to comfort myself by thinking how my brother would be envio
us that I got a front row seat to some interesting history. How I needed to remember this, and right this wrong. Many hours had passed by now. I probably would need to find a therapist.
Quiet had descended on the castle.
It also seemed like it was getting dark.
I’m probably surrounded by dead bodies now… Is anyone else there?
“Byron?” I called, my panic steadily rising. “When do I get to come back home? I don’t want to be Lady Hulda anymore…well…if I ever did in the first place…”
It was so quiet now.
“Byron…” A sob welled in my throat. “Take me home…please take me home!”
I heard a shimmer. Which, isn’t actually a sound, but I didn’t know how else to describe it. It was the perfect sound effect for something shimmering, but it wasn’t a sound I’d heard before. A soft glow crept in around the edges of the wardrobe.
“Abiron…,” a woman’s voice said. “Oh, no…wake up…please, wake up…something awful is happening…!” Her soft, lovely voice rose to a wail.
I heard the woman’s silence, a heavy silence. I heard her doing something, maybe searching his body? Taking a knife out of him? It was hard to tell.
“Curses!” she suddenly spat.
I know that voice. It’s Byron’s sister…of course.
“Marisa?” I called.
“What? Who is that? Oh!” The doors opened and I nearly fell into her arms as I realized that my arms and legs were mostly numb from staying in the same position so long. “You…you are the witch from Cyprium. My brother’s bride!”
“Sort of. I’m here to help.”
“What do you mean by these words?” She eyed the knife I was still holding.
I saw Lord Abiron’s body, grown pale and cold, with blood soaking his clothes and all over his face from the crude stitches that marred his beautiful face.
His lips were sewn shut.
I sucked in a breath of horror and looked away from him, at his sister’s pained expression.
Phantom of the Library Page 4
