Chapter 72 Not So Innocent After All (1/2)
Two cloaked figures, tall and proud, engaged against one another. Faces set in hard, grim determination. A sword was held by one bloodied, kneeling figure. It was perhaps the only reason he hadn't yet fallen.
The other's hand was bare, or so it appeared. He didn't need one, for thick and mighty branches that spread like wings from his back took their place. Every leaf was like emerald, beautiful but deadly in it's capability of slicing through bone as if it were wet paper.
The earth beneath their feet lay dead. The clouds, grey and morbid, hung in the sky like a menacing shroud to cast the world in darkness.
”It's pointless,” The first figure intoned. ”You can strike me down, but there will be another. There will always be another.”
These ominous words were spat out like a spell, a curse. And it burrowed winged boy's heart.
Even so, he stood resolute. ”I suppose it's true what they say.” His lips twisted into a cold smile. ”Some people simply wish for death,” Baz replied.
Alex's entire body trembled. With pain, rage, unwillingness. It was impossible to tell.
”Why?” He hissed. ”Why stand against us, now of all times? I joined a mere few weeks past! But you…! You made them what they are! Your will gave birth to all we stand for! So why?! After so long, why turncoat like this? You've purged over half our numbers, and for what?! Because of guilt? Because of remorse?”
It happened in full then, the change. Like a flip of the switch. The moment when Baz's normally bright, cheerful eyes took on a much bloodier, harsher light.
”Because now he loves her back.”
Alex's mind couldn't accept the answer. ”Love.” He laughed mockingly. ”He's incapable of it!”
”Perhaps. Who knows? But she's happy. What care I for the why or how?” Baz shook his head.
”He has to be stopped.”
”No.” Baz's branch-like wings groaned, creaked and rustled with the oncoming winds. ”He simply has to continue giving her joy.”
And one by one the falling of leaves brought rich lifeblood to this barren earth.
***
”What's wrong?”
Mira turned her head slightly and caught her husband's tall, broad-shouldered figure leaned against the doorframe. There was a calm, inquisitive look upon that handsome face of his and she knew he was full of gentle concern.
She ignored him for a moment as she held the thick blanket to her nose.
Mira brought the fine, soft cloth to her body as if giving it a hug. There was a faint scent left on its fabric.
”It smells like him. Father, I mean.” She let go and cast a slow gaze across the room. There was barely anything inside. A few pieces of furniture here and there but little things of a personal nature. ”It's nice. It's like I'm close to him.” This smell was infinitely better than that dusty tapestry.
”Mira,” Claude sighed, ”That boy, he's...I called him Father-in-Law once on reflex, but you know that he isn't really….well…”
She felt pinpricks of heat at her eyes. ”He feels like he is. I've known him my entire life as my father, Claude. You've known him as your future King. And my mother as her husband.”
Claude couldn't deny this. She was right, the entirety of the Fae had known of the boy as such for many years. He was the Queen's obsession. Her lost, absent lover she'd never even met before.
”You have no idea the kind of things they said they'd do to me.” Mira felt towards her belly. ”To us.” She took a deep breath. ”They were monsters. Vile, evil things who wanted nothing but to satisfy their own cruel natures. I was scared. So scared. And cold. The stone floors were like ice, the chill like tiny ants biting into my skin and leaving me numb. Starving for warmth.”
”And then he just showed up. You know? Just appeared out of thin air.”
Considering what he felt of the boy at that time he wasn't sure he was a blessing, though. Claude wisely chose to keep this to himself. His wife adored this father of her's. And he is grateful to the boy himself, too. Very much so.
This Father-in-Law just feels a bit...is perversely evil the right words?
Claude gestured to the room. ”Why're you here? Fixing things up for him?” Father-in-Law wasn't at home at the moment. He'd gone out for school.
”Just looking around,” Mira said. ”I find this place soothing. It looks empty, but his presence lingers. I think the baby likes it, too.”
Claude grinned and stepped forward to rub his wife's bulging belly. ”He's strong.” He felt the kick as soon as his hand reached her.
”She,” His wife corrected, ”Is.”
Claude took her to sit on her father's bed. He hesitated for a moment, then asked, ”What do you want to do?” He clutched her hand. ”He's on his own now. If your mother came while Lady Okeanos isn't around….”
Their Erlking did have a reputation for stealing away children, after all.
Mira looked away. ”I'm not sure I want them to be together. Mother's...mother. And he seems happy with that dryad woman.”
”But?”
”But if he doesn't marry mother, he wouldn't be my father. Not truly.” Mira's face took on a touch of sadness. ” I don't want that, I don't think. I've barely met him, I don't want to let him go. I'm not ready yet. I mean there's so much I don't know about him. And I want to! I want to know him. I want my baby to know him! We still have so many things we haven't done together. If he doesn't marry mother, how can we have any relationship then?”
”And you're sure you want him as your father? He's younger than you.” He reminded.
”Yet he feels much older.”
Claude didn't have much to say there. The younger Okeanos did have a certain air about him. Something ancient and powerful. Perhaps that was just his bloodline shining through though.
”I'll support whatever you decide.” He stated firmly.
She flashed a pair of the cutest dimples at him. ”Thank you.”
”He's still an asshole for trying to have me executed though.”
”Father wouldn't do that.”
”No, I keep telling you, it's true.”
”Father wouldn't--”
”But he really--wait, what're you doing?”
”Looking for a letter opener.”
”....Why?”
She smiled at him gently. ”Oh, you needn't worry your pretty little head about that.”
From several miles away, Elias felt a sudden burst of sympathy he knew not the origin of.
***
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”Bazman!” Damien threw an arm around the boy intimately. ”Where've ya been pal?”
”Gettin' milk?”
”You've been gone for weeks!”
”I got some cigs too.”
This little shit. ”You don't smoke.”
His face began to sweat.
”Ah, whatever.” Damien relented. ” Hey, do you smell copper?” There was definitely the aroma of blood in the air. ”Bastard, have you been going a-purgin' without me?”
”Blood makes me sick.”
Damien knew that it did. He considered a bit longer and came to the conclusion that there's no way he'd go have a purge without Damien.
”Anyway you really missed out. We had a bake sale earlier.”
Baz's eyes nearly popped out of his skull. ”You had a bake sale without me?! Young Master, this betrayal…”
A bake sale. Without him. They had a bake sale without him! The cookies...they call to him from the beyond. He could hear them now.