Love's Battle (True Blue Trilogy) (18 page)

“There are no cameras Danton, hidden or otherwise. This is no joke.”

“Come on Love, you expect me to believe you?” I reached for the sealed bag I left

on the sofa, tossing it into her lap as panic clawed at my throat. It wasn’t true, it couldn’t be.

“I don’t expect anything from you,” Love denied, “Except common courtesy. I would just like for you to accept for the moment that what I’m saying is true. You said earlier that you believe anything is possible and I’m telling you it is.”

“And what then?” I demanded, as anger began to set in, “You tell me this nonsense, we go on as if everything is honky dory and we live happily ever after?”

My voice was so full of sarcasm that Love flinched as the cutting edges hit home.

“Yes.”

My ire was rising. “So how does it work exactly? You and your sisters insinuate yourselves into my life, get me to care about you, and then you pull the rug out from under my feet. Are you sure this isn’t some sick joke? Because it sure as hell sounds like it to me! It also sounds like you‘ve been playing me from the beginning. Softening me up with all the magic whoo-whoo before coming in for the kill.”

“It’s the truth Danton.” Love proclaimed softly, her eyes on mine.

Woodenly she sat there in her unmoving way letting me slap at her as I paced around the room. This was ridiculous. I hated to ask, but if what she was saying was even half true, then I wasn‘t the first one she‘d attempted to deceive in this way, there had to have been others before me.

I had begun to think Love was my one and only. Now… well now, turns out, I was only one of many. And underneath it all, that is what galled the most.

“How many others have you convinced of this tale? This isn’t your first life,right? What number is this?”

“This is not a trick,” Love insisted, “This is my eleventh life and if you’re asking

if I’ve ever known a man, the answer is, no. Not in this life, not in this body. But yes, there have been others. Ones I’ve married and had children with.

These radical claims were pushing my temper to its breaking point. How could she sit there so calmly and spin lies that had my life careening out of control. I couldn’t make any sense of this. “So how many?”

“I’ve been married nine separate times.”

“Aw, no perfect score! What happened to number ten?” I asked as condescendingly as I could muster. Only to watch her pale so visibly in front of me that my anger momentarily abated at the thought of causing her angst despite her psychotic declarations.

When Love spoke, eyes downcast, her voice was no more than a mere whisper, “I died.”

I snorted, “Was it the plague?”

“No,” Eyes filling with tears Love picked up the plastic bag containing the so called tartan holding it tight to her chest, as if she could absorb it. “We were lucky enough to avoid that. I was, ah, my sisters and I were murdered. Accused of being a witch I was burned at the stake.”

I felt my legs go weak, blood freezing in place as my bones dissolved. I sat heavily on the sofa so I wouldn’t fall. Love’s oddly paired eyes met mine and in them I could see the depths of her grief. Real or imagined, I could not doubt the tears that rolled down her cheeks were real. Slowly she left me, awareness fading from her eyes until I knew she was seeing something I could not. An odd feeling snaked its way up my spine. It was a look I’d seen on both her and Hope, one I knew I wasn’t fully able to understand.

“It was October seventh, sixteen-ninety-two, the height of the Salem Witch Trials. Many innocents were found guilty of being witches and those living in the town of Ipswich, Massachusetts were no different. Faith, Hope, and I were among the ones who lost their lives.” On a violent shiver Love brought her gaze back to mine. “They killed us in the order we were born. ‘Send them back to Satan in the fashion in which they came’ was the judge’s ruling.

“They took Faith first. Blind folding her before the gathering crowd stoned her to death. She never saw what hit her or that it was our uncle who threw the stone that ended her life. Hope and I did though. They held us back so we could watch, delighting in our terror. We had no choice but to watch her fall. To look on helplessly as she lay unmoving on the ground, her life draining away as her blood soaked into the soil forever staining it.

“Hope was next. Willingly she embraced her death. Her heart had already been broken by the one who had dammed us ever so efficiently. Watching Faith die killed her spirit. She refused to fight as they bound her hands and feet before throwing her helplessly into the pond where we had once bathed and played. Hope drowned and as she did her eyes never left his, and he never lifted a finger to save her. He only stood there, waiting for her to die like everyone else. He was supposed to be different.”

I didn’t think I’d ever heard anything as chilling as the torment and hatred I heard in Love’s tone as she spoke of the unnamed man.

“Four centuries later and Hope still refuses to go into murky water. When she didn’t surface, because everybody knows a witch floats, they tied me to a pyre and set light to the pilings placed at my feet. I screamed the entire time, the smoke stinging my eyes, burning my throat, damning them all for the murderers they were. I cursed them with my last breath,” Love spoke brazenly, her eyes flashing with the need for revenge. “Pleaded to God for them to live out their days in the same type of Hell they’d condemned us to.

“In the end I outsmarted them though. Just as the flames began to singe the tips of my toes I breathed in as much of the smoke as I could until my chest would no longer rise. In the end the flames devoured a lifeless body. We were seventeen.”

Horror struck I wasn’t able to suppress the running shudder that shook my body from head to toe. I couldn’t believe what Love was saying. She truly thought she had been murdered. My horror only increased as she coolly shrugged her shoulders before telling me in a sing song voice how her next life had been better.

I fumbled for something, anything to say. Desperately I latched on to her earlier words. She’d been falsely branded a witch, yet had told me that she can see true love. Didn’t one go hand in hand with the other?

“You said your job is to bring them together, these people you see. What happens next?”

“Love is a proponent of free will. You either love me and accept me for who I am and what I can do, or you don’t. I can’t make you love me or make anyone else fall in love either. That’s your choice Danton. I’ve never had that kind of power.”

“Lead a horse to water, is that it?”

“Yes.”

Suddenly I understood. “This is what you meant by preparing me. You sent all those figurines so I would better accept what you were going to tell me.”

Love nodded. “For there to be an us Danton, you have to believe there’s magic in this world. Accept that I can see and do what I do.”

How was I to accept it? What she said she could do, who she said she was? It was so far from the realm of reality I didn’t think I could. If Love was ill, she needed professional help, but if what she said was true… I couldn’t wrap my head around it. It just wasn’t possible.

“I’m sorry Love. I can’t accept it, I won’t.” The part of myself that cared for Love warred with the part of myself that was disgusted by her. “This is all crazy, you’re crazy.

You need help.” I declared jumping to my feet, backing away.

A feeling of sorrow swamped me as I watched Love place her package back in the chest. I couldn’t believe I’d fancied myself in love with her.

“It’s okay Danton, I understand.”

She made no move to follow me as I stalked from the room, rising only to close the moaning lid as she wiped a tear from her eye. “I love you Danton,” She said simply. “I have since the moment I first saw you and will to the day I draw my last breath. I know you find that hard to believe right now. I just want you to know, I’ll be here when and if you change your mind.”

I couldn’t be there any longer. Her martyr routine turned my stomach. I had to leave. Knowing I loved her and couldn’t be with her left me with a hollow feeling inside.

“Get some help Love.” I pleaded as I shut the door behind me.

Chapter 36

Love

I walked stiffly, my composure slipping with every step I took. Leaning heavily against the door I managed with trembling fingers to flip the deadbolt and set the chain before my legs gave way.

Slumping down the cool door I landed in a crumpled heap and wept. Heartbreaking sobs tore from my chest, echoing through the stark silence of my apartment telling of my pain.

“Oh child, I am sorry.”

Avelbane, in her favored form of the eternal matron her eyes red from crying tears of her own, pulled me into her cold arms. Her comforting song, the same one she sang the day we were born, filled my apartment,

Even in my grief I realized there were two things I could always count on.

One, as much as I hoped it were otherwise, the man I loved would never believe in the beginning.

Two, Avelbane would always be there to help pick up the broken pieces.

Chapter 37

Past Life III

The pain of separation was deep and cutting. I expected Danton’s reaction but hadn’t truly prepared myself for the loss. In the deepest part of my heart I hoped that he’d understand without question. With Avelbane’s help I manage to crawl from the living room to the comfort of my bed where in the early morning hours before dawn I found a small reprieve from the constant ache of loss. Using her silver comb to brush my hair, Avelbane sent me to sleep. My body and mind weak with exhaustion I returned once again to my life with Isabella.

There was a chill in the air that not even the roaring fire in the hearth could ease. Outside the rain drizzled unending, much like the tears of my angel. Looking at her head in my lap, it took me back to a night sixteen years previous and the whispered dreams of a young girl.

Despite the tumultuous years with John, Isabella’s love for him had only multiplied with each new life they created. In sixteen years they welcomed five children, loving each to distraction. The overall consensus of John’s uncompromising and cruel temperament as king wasn’t a true reflection of his character. It was like there were two men sharing one body- the tyrant and the tender. It was the tender Isabella had loved and the one she mourned for today, the day of his burial.

“Who will read to me while I nurse and change the babies? Who will I fight with? Love with? I know I can be a shrew, set in my ways, expecting much of others and life. How will John’s sons grow to be noble and strong without him?” The heartfelt words despite the tears grew soft, hitching on a gasp. “I loved John, Thalia. Now who will love me?”

Isabella didn’t expect an answer and I couldn’t give her one, the future was too uncertain. Folding my body over hers I cried with her, feeling the pain of her broken heart as if it were my own.

As I slept tears pooled in my closed eyes, running down my cheek to wet my pillow.

Chapter 38

Separation

With the coming of dawn came the fresh pains of loss. Luckily it was Sunday and I had nowhere to be. Lying in bed I kept my swollen eyes squeezed shut against the morning rays, an action that had me seeing red behind my lids. Slowly I opened first the blue, then the green, blinked a few times for good measure. Despite how I felt, life continued on. Rolling to my side I brought Avelbane into focus. Where her comforting corporeal presence had once been, a white crow now sat, watching me with onyx colored eyes.

“Morning.” I grunted, reaching out to trail a finger over her fingers.

When I could no longer ignore the growling of my stomach I shuffled to the bathroom, my visitor on my heels as I rinsed my tear streaked face with cool water, doing my best to avoid looking in the mirror. Danton had walked away leaving love to hang in the balance. The proof in the mirror would be evidence enough; my blue glow wouldn’t be as strong today as it was yesterday. Not as strong tomorrow as it was today, and with each day that passed the glow would lessen and lessen until it was gone all together. Knowing that, I felt sick to my stomach. Breathing slowly through my nose, swallowing repeatedly to keep the rising bile under control as another wave of hurt coursed its way through my body I fought to calm the nausea churning in my belly.

Walking into the kitchen my stomach growled pains of its own, but there was nothing that tempted me. Instead I settled for coffee, taking it and a roll of paper towels out to my hammock. The paper towels were not as soft as tissues but they worked better to mop up the waterworks, and my heartache. Passing the chest in the living room was like salt in my open wound and started the fresh round of tears that lurked just below the surface. I planned to pass the day surrounded by the comforting scent of my herb filled container garden and the heat summer had to offer. Sweat and tears, there would be no difference.

I ignored the dull rapping knock on my front door. I knew it wouldn’t be Danton, so why should I answer it. As far as Mrs. Perceval, she could find her own teeth this morning, I was busy.

Studiously I pushed the hammock into a swing. Avelbane standing watch from her perch on my deck railing.

“Love, it’s Hope, you’ve got five seconds to open this door before I open it myself.”

I didn’t budge.

“One… two… three… five.” Keys jingled in the lock. Wait for it… “OOOf. Love come and get the chain lock off the door!”

I stopped crying long enough to laugh. Coffee cup in tow, I went to let my sister in.

“And to think I brought you ice cream and cookies.” Hope snarled as she sashayed through the door, throwing her empty arm around me for a quick hug. “Along with sliced cucumbers and mud masks. I knew you’d look like crap.”

Did she really need to rub it in. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

Not one to be left out, our feathered friend came to greet her other charge.

“What kind of cookies?” I asked, rooting up a pair bowls, spoons, and a single saucer while Hope unloaded the bags she carried onto the counter.

Opening the baker’s box Hope took out the cookie in question, wafting the tempting scent under my nose. “White chocolate macadamia nut, your favorite.”