The Dark God's Bride Trilogy, #3 (13 page)

Amara feared for her life. Desperate to save herself, she summoned the power of the lightning to her hands and then grabbed the harpy by her ankles. The current wasn’t strong enough to kill the harpy, but it pained her enough to drop Amara from the sky. She knew then that she was screwed because she didn’t know any spell that could help her defy gravity.

Noctis dived down after her and caught her hand mid-air. She braced herself for the landing.

“Amara!”

Amara opened her eyes when she heard Noctis calling her name. His blue eyes were staring down at her.

She licked her upper lip. “Am I dead yet?”

“Not quite.”

She looked down and saw only darkness. She looked up and saw that Noctis was holding her hand with one arm while the other was gripping onto the blade that he had pinned into a small floating island. She was dangling above a bottomless fall. Dare she summon a creature that she may or may not able to control and pray that it would save her life?

The situation seemed desperate enough.

Amara mumbled the summoning spell she had learned from the Necromancer. A summoning circle appeared in the air.

“
No!
” Noctis bellowed at her.

She continued with the rest of the spell despite his objection. A winged beast rose from the summoning circle just as the blade slipped from the slit it had created. The winged beast dived down and fetched her and Noctis onto its back. Noctis pinned her down against the back of winged beast so that the wind pressure wouldn’t blow her off.

“Are you hurt?”

“I’m hurting everywhere, but that’s a good thing. At least I’m not numb anymore.”

“You shouldn’t have done that,” he lectured.

“But it worked, didn’t it?”

He couldn’t deny that it had. “Do you still feel sleepy?”

“My heart is beating a million beats a minute. Here
, feel.” She pressed the palm of his hand against her chest.

“Mortal. You always seduce me at the most inappropriate time
s.”

She smiled even though she knew it wasn’t his intention to be humorous.

The winged beast carried them on its back a short distant down the mountain. Amara knew that her powers couldn’t sustain the winged beast for long, so she commanded it to land at the foot of the mountain. She would rather walk the distance than fall out of the sky when the beast evaporated into thin air.

Noctis leaped off the beast first and caught her when it was her turn.

“How far?” she asked him.

He took out the white chess piece in his pocket and looked down at it.

“Is it… talking to you?” she asked curiously as she followed him.

“No. The Oracle gave this to me as a guide, but it’s not doing anything now.”

“Seeing how Death has absolute control over his domain, couldn’t he simply move the exit elsewhere and forever out of our reach?”

He was thinking into it. “At this point, we have no choice but to have faith in the Oracle. If she is indeed who she claimed she is, she wouldn’t steer us wrong. For now, we just have to go where Death is leading us.”

“Since we’re touching on the subject of escaping… how did you…? You know…” She was referring to how he escaped his own time trap.

“Haven’t you notice
d how strange the weather has been lately?”

She didn’t understand why he was asking about the weather all of a sudden. “The weatherman said it was due to the solar storm. Something about clouds of plasma slamming into the Earth’s electromagnetic field… Lizzie was watching television. I wasn’t really paying attention. What about it?”

“Something weakened the barrier of time significantly enough for me to break free.” His expression dropped when he said, “In addition, I had help.”

“Who?”

He didn’t say, but she could have guessed who it was. She couldn’t imagine him being too happy to receive help from the one person that he was determined to seek revenge from not so long ago. She knew he wouldn’t want to talk about it, so she didn’t ask any more questions.

The hours grew later
as they continued to move forward. When she could walk, she walked. When she couldn’t walk anymore, he carried her. They didn’t stop to rest and he wouldn’t let her eat the ripe fruit in the orchard they were passing through. There were so many fruits and she was so hungry. She was also very thirsty. Her lips were so dry; they felt like sand paper against one another. She wished she could just reach out for one and sink her teeth into it.

When she couldn’t stand the temptation
any longer, she plucked a bright red apple from its branch. Noctis swung around and heatedly slapped the fruit out of her hand.

“Don’t eat anything until we get home!”

She was a bit confused about why he was so cross, but then she remembered that some of the books she read mentioned that if one tasted the food from the Realm of The Dead, one is bound to the Realm of The Dead. Even in widespread folklore, this was known.

“What’s happening?” she asked him an hour later when he suddenly stopped.

“This is…” he furrowed his brows. “This can’t be…”

Amara looked up at him when she heard sadness in his voice. She then followed his gaze to the remains of an architecture wonder. The limestone structure was so massive in width and in height; it could have only been built by giants. But then again, those who did not know better would have said the same about the Empire State Building or the Statue of Liberty. Even in the state of disrepair, it still could not hide the glory it once held in its completion. Massive slabs of white limestone like those from the pyramid of Giza were used to lay the floor. Most of the columns still maintained
their structural integrity. For some strange reason, the inside of the ruins felt like the inside of a baking oven.

“What is this place?” she asked.

“He’s playing with my head. This place…” he said and then chuckled like a madman. “This is my kingdom. My home.”

“Didn’t you say that your kingdom turned to ru
bble?”

“It
did,” he confirmed.

“Apparently, it hasn’t here.”

“
Illusions! All illusions!
” Noctis ground his teeth angrily and then glared at the sky. “Why have you brought me here? Is this some kind of sick joke?! Do you think that you can use this place to deter me? Do you think this place can affect me? This place no longer means a thing to me! You hear? Not a thing!”

If it really didn’t mean a thing to him then he wouldn’t have been this angry to be back here.

A group of soldiers came toward them. Noctis assumed they had hostile intensions so he stepped in front of Amara and readied his blade. The soldiers stopped and got down on their knees. The soldier in front greeted him in a strange language. He was speaking fast and she couldn’t understand a word of it. 

“Where have you been? We’ve been looking for you everywhere. His majesty is requesting your presen
ce.”

“His majesty?” Noctis inquired.

“Your father, the King,” the soldier clarified.

“My father is still…?” Noctis shook his head and muttered, “Illusions!”

“We cannot keep his majesty waiting, your highness.”

“Noctis?” Amara looked up at him, clueless about what was happening.

“You want to play this game? Fine! Take me to my father!”

The soldiers escorted Amara and Noctis to the inner palace by chariot. Amara had never ridden on anything like it before, so that
was a first. She clung on to Noctis for dear life the duration of the ride. When they arrived to the palace fortified by very tall walls, Noctis was greeted with the highest level of respect. Some bowed their heads while others were on their knees. Coming from a democratic society, Amara was intrigued by the demands and protocols in this world. She had seen this kind of behavior in Hollywood movies and such, but witnessing this in real life was a new kind of experience.

There was simplicity in the structure of the
palace buildings, but the complexity of the decor, the people, even the atmosphere was incomparable to anything she had ever encountered. And she had encountered a lot despite her twenty-three years. She was not part of the supernatural world, but neither was she apart from it.

Correction
, Amara said to herself.
You are now a part of the supernatural.

“Wait here,” Noctis said to her and then entered an important looking chamber by himself. She couldn’t come in with him, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t take a peek. There was an old man inside the chamber. From the fashion in which he dressed, Amara could only assume that he was a very important person in this society.

That old man is probably his father,
she thought.

“Father…?” Noctis said to the old man.

So, I was right.

Noctis then switched to a language she couldn’t understand. “Is it really you? No, it can’t be. Do you know that you are…?”

“Dead?” The old man finished his sentence.
“I know, my son.”

“…Klahan killed you.”

The old man lowered his eyes and then nodded. He came to Noctis’ side and extended an arm to his son’s shoulder. “And you killed your brother.”

“It was an accident. I…
I didn’t want to kill him, Father.”

“I also know that.”

“I couldn’t forgive him, but I didn’t want him dead. Despite his heinous crimes, I didn’t want him dead. He forced my hand.”

“There is something you should know, Summit.”

“I’m listening, Father.”

“Klahan wasn’t the one responsible for my death.”

Noctis furrowed his brows and shook his head.
“What…?”

“Your brother did not plot my murder.”

“But that day…” Noctis was trying to search his memories. “I walked out of that room and you were still alive! And then Klahan overheard our conversation and…”

“He had always known of my intentions of passing the throne to you. Since I was always busy with work, it was he who took over my role and taught you everything he knew. To him, you were more than just his brother. You were like his son. He was happy for you, Summit. He was proud.”

“But why…?”

“I had a stroke. I was old, Summit, and my time was drawing near. I collapsed just as you were exiting the door. Klahan came in after you and discovered that I was no longer breathing. He had every reason to suspect you.”

“But I would never…”

“I was indeed poisoned.”

“By whom…?”

“I do not know, my son.”

“He didn’t frame me? But… he came to silence me! He had a dagger…”

“I didn’t come to kill you, little brother.”

Noctis turned toward the voice of his brother. An older male with similar features as Noctis stepped out from the shadows. “I had come to set you free.”

Noctis shook his head in disbelief. “It isn’t true!”

“Initially, I was angry with you because I thought you murdered our father over a woman. I was bitterly disappointed with you because it was I who had brought you up to become who you are. But regicide was only punishable by death. I couldn’t let you die. I felt the same hatred toward you as you did me, but I couldn’t let them execute you. That night, I went to the dungeon and took out the guards. I went to your cell to free you, but you were already gone. I thought you’d escaped by yourself.”

“Do you still take me for a child? Do you think that I would be naïve enough to believe your lies?”

“I’m dead, little brother. There is no point in lying to you.”

“When I came back to confront you, you admitted to your crime. You begged for my forgiveness, but when I turned around, you snuck up on me and brought upon your own death! Choose your words carefully, brother. Another lie and I guarantee there will be nothing left of you!”

“Do you remember how you were when you came back to us, Summit? You brought fire and destruction with you like a demon spawned from the cursed abyss. Do you even remember how much destruction you’ve caused or how many lives you’ve taken in your wake? Ask any of your brothers if they could still find the Summit they once knew in the thing that came back to us. We couldn’t see our brother in you anymore. You… changed into something else.”

“You saw me as a monster?”

“You were a monster! You were possessed! You had to be stopped!”

Noctis chuckled mockingly. “So you wanted to be the hero? You wanted this monster to let down his guard long enough for you to attack?”

“You weren’t human, Summit. You were just a monster driven by rage!”

“I am a god
!
”
Noctis retorted.

“You have the truth! It’s up to you to accept it or not, because I have nothing more to say!”

“I will not believe a single word of your lies! That’s what they all are! Filthy lies!” Noctis stormed out the room and slammed the door behind him.