Enthroned by Amethysts (A Dance with Destiny Book 3) (38 page)

She wrapped her arms around him and he lifted her up.

“Aye, Lass, I know ye do. An’ I love ye more.”

“Come, Daichi.” She held her hand out toward him.

Vittorio smiled. “Aye now, wee Flutter, ye dunnae want tae miss this.”

“Don’t call me that,” Daichi growled, as he flew past them and on toward the sparkling dome atop that lovely mountain in the midst of the ethereal city of Vanahirdem.

Chapter 51

Munenori

(moo-nah-NOOR-ee)

“You’ve been gone for weeks.” Munenori snorted. “I was certain you had already forgotten your purpose.”

“Apologies, Senpai. I had much to attend. Still do.” She took the teacup from his hand and drained its contents. “Mmm, so good. Gratitude, Brother.”

“Gratitude?” he huffed. “I can see your manners still need much more than just a polishing. Have you come back to claim your rightful throne?”

“I have. Under one condition.” She lay down on the bed and looked around at the majestic palace once used as her gilded prison.

“And what
condition
might that be?”

“I wish to live here on Jinn. Yet there is much I still have to do.” She bounded off the bed and plopped in his lap. “If I take the throne, will you mind it for me until my return?”

“As your husband?” Munenori whispered.

“What?” She jumped back up. “Whatever in the world would give you
that
idea? Aren’t you the very Angel who told me of my blessing in Daichi and how one wrong choice can alter the universe?”

“I am.”

“So… is this a test or something?”

“Not a test. Simply a question.”

“Then you’re playing with me. Right?”

“If that’s how you wish to take it, then yes. I’m playing with you.” He poured himself another cup of tea.

She looked at him closely. “Munenori?”

“Yes, Naga.”

“I thought you said Angels did not marry and have families.”

“That is not our purpose, no.”

“So, you’ve never lain with a woman?”

He swallowed his tea before it strangled him. “Why would you ask me such a thing?”

She shrugged her shoulders. “Curiosity, perhaps.”

“You’re curious, then? Do you wish me to prove my skills?” He raised one eyebrow and looked sideways at her.

“N-no,” she stuttered. “I shouldn’t have pried. Apologies, Senpai.”

“Why have you come back this day, Naga? And why are you alone?”

“I came back to seek your guidance, Brother. These are my people. And my Dragons bind my heart to this realm.” She knelt down in front of him. “But there is so much destruction… utter devastation.”

He wiped a tear from her cheek and put it to his lips. Munenori closed his eyes, rolling her sorrow over his tongue.

“And you wish to know if this is your path—helping the Guardians.” It wasn’t a question.

“Yes.”

“Why are you not accompanied by your sapphire-winged twins?”

“I left them to be trained, sort of. I wished them to be better prepared if ever we should—” Her words choked off in her throat.

“If ever you should… have to face hell again,” he said.

“Yes, the dark ones. Or anyone else that may wish to harm them.”

“I could have seen to their training here, Milady.”

“I know, but…” She fell silent.

“But you wished to hide them away inside a protected city.”

She blushed and lowered her head.

“They are not babes, Naga. They will both hold ill toward you if you treat them as such.”

“It’s too soon, Munenori. I’ve lost my true love to war. A war I inadvertently caused. I would have lain down and died with Varick that day, had I not had my sons to think of. I am poison. This you know, Brother. Trouble finds me at every turn. I refuse to let them be harmed just because they were cursed to be born of me.”

Her tears were no longer containable. He stroked her hair as he held her head in his lap, letting her cry until the tears refused to come.

“Do you see how fast you dwindled?” He lifted her chin and wiped her swollen eyes. “You came in here all smiles and joyous thoughts. Now, you are very nearly broken again. Do not underestimate your Blessing, Naga. Or your great need for him. You have him for a reason. You are too fragile a creature to stand on your own. Your heart’s too tender, too loving. Daichi is all that stands between you and complete madness.”

“But—”

“Shhh, do not argue with me, Naga.” He placed a finger to her lips. “Look inside yourself and know my words are true. Kagi Naga, Mother of Dragons and of Angels. That blue Blessing of yours is who keeps you woven together.” A wry smile turned up one corner of his mouth. “It is as I have said… a full time job.”

She sniffed. “Then I will return here with Daichi and see to my destiny.”

“I can handle Jinn for you, Milady. I have managed to do so for eons now. I believe I have a few more years left in me.” This smirk was his most blatant one yet.

“Will it be okay? Can I tend to the other layers without creating ripples?”

“Naga, my love, you make ripples wherever you go. We
all
do. If you’re asking my permission in this thing, it’s not mine to give. Do as your heart tells you. And then, live with the consequences.”

She crawled back into his lap and laid her head on his shoulder. “As it should be.”

“Yes, Little Fire. As it should be.”

He lifted her chin and kissed her. She tasted something peculiar in him, something she had missed before.

“Munenori, you taste of… of…
magic
.” Her eyes widened.

“And you taste of poison.” He touched the tip of her nose. “But it is a delicious poison, Empress Naga.”

“Stop teasing. I’m being serious. You’re not just a regular Angel, are you? There’s something special within you.” She grabbed his chin. Tilting it up, she licked his neck. “What
is
that? How did I miss it before? It makes my tongue tingle and my wings hum. No, you are no
regular
Angel, Munenori.”

“And what do you know of Angels? Nothing. You have admitted such yourself. You are being silly, Naga. Stop your play or I shall have to punish you.”

“I may not know much of Angels, but I know what I know. And I know
you’re
different. Your scent has a tart aftertaste, sweet and bitter. Cashiel and Jago didn’t claim such, they were Angel only. Yet Vindicus had something, umm…
different
within him as well. I never knew what it was, but his scent left a warm feeling all the way down in my marrow. His taste wasn’t sweet and it wasn’t sour. It was more like… well, just
more
.”

Munenori raised one eyebrow. “You tasted that, did you?”

“Yes, of course I did. Although, I never knew what it was exactly.”

“Yes, you did know. I should say you are the only creature, alive or dead, who was blessed enough to witness Apollyon’s hidden secret. That
more
you tasted within him.”

“No, truly. I never asked him. Of course, at the time, he was my first Angel. I didn’t realize he was so different.”

“Ugh, I forget how young you are, child. You didn’t have to
ask
him, Naga. He showed you.”

“Don’t do the riddle thing, please,” she whined.

Munenori sighed and rolled his eyes. “I’m not doing the
riddle thing
.” He tweaked her nose. “I’m doing the
obvious
thing. You’re just too dense to follow along.” He winked at her then. “A very few select Angels are given special gifts, ones that go above and beyond their regular powers. Apollyon was blessed thusly. That conceited Angel was blessed in so many ways. Such a waste,” he mumbled.

“What was his special blessing? What can he do that you cannot?”

“Many things,” he said as he twirled her blue curl around his finger. “This, for one.” He gave it a little tug. “And this.” He gently ran his fingertips across her sapphire-scarred cheek. “And this.” He took her blue tinged hand, now laced about with the ethereal tattoo from Varick’s manacle, in his and gently locked their fingers together. “Shall I go on?”

“You mean, turning things blue? His secret talent was making things look like sapphires?”

Munenori poked her in the forehead. “No, you daft little girl. He was given the power to heal.”

“What?” Jenevier stared at her tattooed hand, amazed, confused.

“Yes, he could heal. Yet the selfish braggart kept his powers to himself. As far as I know, he never used them. Not even once… until you.”

Tears flooded her eyes again. “I don’t know how to feel about that. Not anymore. Before the war, I would have been honored, over the moon even. But now…”

“I know, Naga. I know.” He rubbed comforting little circles on her back.

“I wish I had realized this before,” she said. “I would have forced him to heal Varick.”

“Apollyon can heal injuries, such as yours. He cannot raise the dead. Think about it, Naga. Do you honestly believe he would have let you set there upon the blood-soaked ground—holding your lifeless lover in your arms, crying, praying, shattering into a million pieces—if he could have done something, anything, to help you?”

Munenori’s vivid recount of her recent epic loss reopened the barely healed wound, releasing the pain it still held, would
always
hold. The bitter hate she felt that day returned, leaving a rancid metallic taste in her mouth.

“He’s the bloody Prince of Hell,” she snapped. “Of course I believe he would have let me sit there and suffer. That’s what he does. His
job
is to dole out pain. He proved his worth, did he not? He showed us his true colors. Put them on display for the whole universe, no less.”

“Naga, listen to yourself. You’re letting pain master you, child. You cannot even convince yourself of those words. They are utter nonsense.”

“Utter nonsense?” She jumped to her feet, fuming. “What the hell, Munenori?” She glared at him. “How can you, of all people, sit there and defend his worthless hide?
He
did this. Purposefully, willfully, maliciously, he did this. And he wasn’t even sorry.” She jerked Iole Máni from its scabbard, flinging it across the room in one fluid motion. The wall hissed and sizzled where the violet tip pierced it. “He didn’t apologize for any of it, didn’t even feel bad for his unprecedented eradication of innocents. The only thing he was sorry about, was that I yet lived to bear witness to the
real
Apollyon. The one everyone warned me about. Dammit, I’m so stupid.”

Ripping her ethereal blade from the pale marble, she touched the blackened scar her magical dagger had left there, ran her fingertips over the now permanent reminder of her unchecked anger.

The mossy lavender Angel approached her from behind, slid his arms around her waist and rested his chin on her shoulder. “Do you feel better now, Naga? Did it heal your heart, little one, tossing your anger through the air?”

“No… I suppose not,” she whispered.

He tightened his embrace and she melted back against him. Closing her eyes, she let her dear friend rock her in his arms, sway away her burning tears.

“My dear sweet Naga,” he cooed soothingly. “No matter how you feel now, little sister. That ruthless Dark Angel, father of your precious son, loves you more than his own life, more than his own soul. I do not jest when I say… you are the first, the last, the only creature he ever will.” He turned her around to face him, caressing her cheek. “Apollyon has lived for countless eons, my love. Had he wanted to destroy the universe, he would have done so before now. You’re the reason—the
loss
of you. He didn’t even have a heart before he met you, not truly. The love you gifted him, tiny Empress, was more than he could handle. He didn’t set out to destroy innocents. His purpose was to force Father’s hand, compel God to cease his existence. Without you—”

“Enough, I do not wish to speak of him. Not anymore, Sensei. I don’t even want to
think
about him. He’s dead to me, now and always.” She took a deep breath and cleared her throat. “Now… no more dark words. Agreed?” She gave him a genuine, almost playful smile. “Let’s talk of other things, other wonders. Let’s hear about your little secret, Brother. I wish to know of
your
hidden talents.
His
are irrelevant. Yours are the ones that matter to me now.”

“You know, Little Fire, you dance about on very thin ice, don’t you?” Munenori sighed and rolled his eyes. “You are capable of doing things you should not be able to do, Naga. Dangerous things, more often than not. Your biggest problem is that you’re too trusting and naïve to even keep these unlikely
talents
of yours hidden. There are those who could use such against you. And, there are those who don’t want others to know about their secret kind of
magic
.
I
am one such Angel.”

“You mean… you don’t wish me to know you have a secret talent?”

“I do not.” The mossy lavender Angel only rolled his eyes when he saw her mischievous grin.

“Tell me. Do you hold
true
magic within you, Munenori?”

“I do.”