Chapter 39

Fallon looked at the woman he was wrapped around with a profound sense of peace and wonder. He had kept his promise. Once they woke tangled in each other’s arms and legs, he took his time making love to her. They spent hours just touching, kissing, relearning each other, and it still wasn’t enough. Now they lay on their sides facing each other, her legs wrapped around his, her arms loosely around his waist as he held her with one arm while the other hand gently stroked her cheek as they smiled at each other. It had been a long time since he had known such peace. It was like he was finally home, and by the look she was giving him and the way she had made love to him, held him, he knew she felt the same way.

As Aden, when they had been together before Malphas had sent her back to her mortal husband, there had always been a sense of peace, but he never knew what it truly meant. Now that he had all his memories he knew. Knew that outside the Trial, he may have started out as her sentinel, created along with his brother by her mate to keep her safe from those who wished to harm her, but that was not what they were to her now. That after thousand upon thousands of centuries, they had become an essential part of her and her mate’s existence. Maybe even more so than the beings they created before them, their children. Godiva and Satan. Or so those children thought.

Obsession, jealousy, they are destructive emotions. Rarely has anything good come from them. They were emotions that Damien and Sapphira did not know even existed until Satan tried to keep Sapphira for himself and Godiva refused to help find her. Godiva even went as far as to weave tales of infidelity and betrayal in an attempt to convince the god that Sapphira was not worthy of his love. That she, Godiva, was by far the better female because she would never do those things to someone she loved.

Knowing Sapphira was incapable of what Godiva accused her of, Damien realized there was another trait foreign to his existence. Lying. So closely linked in mind and soul, it was impossible for the two immortals to lie to each other or hide from each other, yet somehow Satan was able to mask where he was keeping Sapphira from Damien. When Godiva refused to tell him where Satan had taken his beloved, Damien did something foreign to his very being. He forced his way into Godiva’s mind to find the truth, invading her privacy, essential raping her mind. While she truly did not know where Satan had taken Sapphira, what he did find left him cold. It also brought to home that even though they were the power behind the existence of all, they were also naïve of the intricacies that power had created. Such as hate, obsession, jealousy, vengeance, and the one that Damien was loath to admit he held in abundance, arrogance. Because it was arrogant to assume that what they had created in their likeness would not evolve, grow into something much more. They also learned how deeply their creations felt those emotions, the chaos they could generate, and the most important fact. That love was not as simple nor was it as pure as they thought.

That was when Fallon and his brother came into existence. Created to protect, to be the fiercest warriors in existence, they were also given the ability to feel, hear, see what their masters were hearing, feeling, seeing. They could also sense when someone was lying. When their intentions were not entirely true. Together they scoured the known universe until they found where Satan was hiding Sapphira. Deep in an underground cavern, surrounded by wards to mask its existence along with layer upon layer of traps, and something new. A creature full of hate and destruction. A creature Satan named Demon.

How do you keep the reason the universe is spinning, the creation of all, a being that not only was powerful, but power itself captive? You bind her with a piece of jewelry wrought with evil intent. Beautiful as it was delicate, the cursed necklace that still haunted them to this day had bound and hidden Sapphira so completely that even though she was standing right in front of him, Damien could not see her or feel her. Her sentential could, though.

While Sapphira had essential been unharmed, Damien’s rage at his children’s betrayal was something Fallon had never seen before, nor ever wanted directed at him. It was in that moment that Damien created the Trials. If Satan and Godiva could not learn humility, that life was precious, and that their actions as powerful beings could affect everything they built in the first Trial, they would repeat the Trial over and over until they did. In addition, because of what he had learned in their search for Sapphira, that they had stayed safely in the background for too long and the creations they had thought pure of what they now knew was evil intent were far from it, he and Sapphira decided they would be a part of those Trials. In order to truly learn, their memories would be wiped, their powers bound, and they would live, learn, die as their creations. Learning firsthand the emotions they were unfamiliar with. Unwilling to leave their charges unprotected, Fallon and Gideon joined them.

Not for the first time, Fallon wondered how good of an idea that truly had been. As with any child caught breaking the rules and subsequentially grounded, Satan and Godiva were outraged that they were being so severely punished. The four of them learned early on the act of vengeance as the children lashed out at their unwary parents with atrocities that no mortal or immortal alike should suffer. When the four of them had grown so close it was hard to distinguish one from the other, Fallon had questioned Damien’s judgement on the subject. While Damien had agreed maybe it wasn’t one of his brightest ideas, there was no going back. Once something was created or decided in their realm, unless natural causes came into play, that life or decision was final. There was no destroying the life or going back on the decision. After they survived this Trial, Fallon was once again going to question the God on his decision and maybe his sanity.

It had taken both Fallon and Gideon combined to remove the cursed necklace that first time. It was a memory that had slammed into Fallon when he had fought to remove the accursed piece of metal a few days ago alone. Shuddering, there was not enough hot water to dispel the slimly feel of evil that had crawled over his skin in an attempt to stop him or kill them both. Once he had broken the spell holding it to Sapphira’s neck and she was sleeping peacefully, Fallon had taken the necklace out of this realm into theirs and locked it away in a vault where they kept powerful relics that should have never been created in the first place. That could destroy the very fabric of their existence. Weak and exhausted when he returned, he had curled around Sapphira and slept.

Now they waited for Gideon to arrive. Weak from his fight with Malphas, he could not simple materialize into the cave. Instead they had to take a slower mode of transportation. Fallon grimaced at the ‘they’ part of that thought. While Brynn was an important piece of this Trail, he was not part of them. Once they finished their roles here, he, Gideon, Damien and Sapphira would leave this realm, returning to their own. As an important part of the makeup of this realm, Brynn would stay, where he belonged. Fallon was not even sure the male could survive outside this realm.

“What has put such a frown on your face?” Sapphira asked, a frown creasing her own brow as she reached up to smooth his.

“Just wondering what will happen when Gideon arrives with his…guest,” he answered, that last word filled with disgust. The memories of what the male had said, the lengths he went to keep him and Sapphira apart while Fallon was Aden were still fresh in his mind. No, the male was not one of his favorite mortals. With that thought another emerged. Growling, he realized he had a bone to pick with Gideon on that subject, too. Through the link that they shared and only they could hear, Fallon sent the thought of pounding some sense into his brother with a fair amount of animosity to go along with it. Let him chew on that headache for a while.

Dial it down, asshole, Gideon snapped in his head. You know full well I would never keep you from her if I had known who we were.

Fallon answer was to make a noise of unbelieving.

Sighing, Gideon’s voice filled with the bone deep weariness that he was feeling, I am not who you should be worried about. Brynn’s anxiety and anger are so high I can feel it vibrating the ship. You need to warn Sapphira the emotional shitstorm I’m about to drop on her.

Closing his eyes, the sigh Fallon released went clear to his toes.

“What wrong now?” Sapphira asked warily.

Opening his eyes, he looked worriedly into her as he thought, How long until you get here?

We are coming up on the planet now. Once we land I don’t know. I’m not exactly running marathons here.

How badly are you hurt? Suddenly worried.

I’ll live, Gideon grimaced. Warn her. And he was gone.

“We are about to have company,” Fallon answered Sapphira’s question, “and one of them is not happy.”

Frowning, Sapphira watched as Fallon untangled himself from her and sat up, swinging his legs over the side of the bed. Placing his elbows on his knees, he rubbed his face wearily. “I am getting tired of this shit.”

“Which part?” she asked curling around him from behind, her hand absently rubbing circles on his back.

“The jealousy. The pain it causes, the destruction,” he sighed. Turning his body so his knee lay on the bed and he could see her better, he continued, “Gideon will be here shortly, but he is not alone. Brynn is with him.”

Sapphira’s frown deepened. “Why would that be a problem?”

“Because even though he knows who we are, he still thinks of you as his wife and me as the enemy. Finding us in bed, obviously fresh from making love will not go over well.”

“Ah,” she smiled. Rolling over onto her back, raising her hands over her head, Sapphira stretched her body. Eyes closed, back arching, she groaned as the wonderful feel of her muscles stretching to their limit coursed through her body. An almost feral growl filled the room. Before she could open her eyes, lips latched onto one of her breasts, sucking hard followed by light teeth biting down. Gasping, she grabbed Fallon’s head, holding him to her as he continued his rough torture. Without releasing her breast, Fallon moved until he was once again laying on top of her. Just as he slid inside her, a roar filled the cave.

Groaning in unison, Fallon placed his forehead against Sapphira’s. “As always, perfect timing,” he growled.

Giggling, Sapphira teased his lips with her tongue. “We could always kill two birds with one stone and take this into the shower,” she suggested huskily.

A wide grin slowly spread across Fallon’s lips. “I like how you think.”

Within a blink of an eye, they were in a large shower with steaming hot water running down their bodies, still closely wedded together. Slamming Sapphira’s back against the tile wall, Fallon claimed her lips as she wrapped her legs around his body and they continued where they had left off, the outside world and its troubles once again fading away.

Chapter 38
Chapter 40

Copyright © 2019 Heidi Barnes