Page 119 of Anatomy of the Immortal Species
Returning to the room, he found Amelia waiting for him, dressed in the clothes he had earlier removed from her. Her hair was damp, and that damned, disheartened expression still twisted her face. What had she seen in her dream to provoke such a profound change in her?
Mikhail kissed her. She didn’t hesitate to respond – on the contrary, she welcomed him with eagerness, her hands finding their way to the muscles of his abdomen. Every touch was familiar, but this time, something was different.
He broke away from the kiss and raised his hand, uncurling his fingers. The golden ring emerged, dull and marred by time. Amelia’s eyes widened, the colour draining from her face.
Something about the ring unsettled her. In the human world, a ring often symbolised marriage, and he presumed her mind had jumped to that. Mikhail hurried to explain, “This is my most treasured possession – my father’s ring.” He held the gold band between his thumb and forefinger and examined it. The golden circle merged in the centre, widening to a broader section engraved with a lion’s head. Mikhail smiled bitterly. “Though I never understood why he gave it to me – the least deserving of all his sons.”
Amelia averted her gaze from the ring and fixed it on him. “Why do you think you’re the least deserving?”
He sighed, preparing for his next words. “I’m not from an ordinary family.” His voice was devoid of pride or arrogance, given his inability to uphold his father’s good name had always filled him with shame. “My father was well known in theimmortal world for his deeds. He was an advocate for peace among the species, because he believed the earth belonged equally to all – whether human, manticore, lycanthrope, or other – and that every species must respect the rest if they wanted to live well. It might be hard for you to understand since you didn’t live through those times, but the world now is far more orderly and civilised than it was in the past. Wars among mortal nations were frequent, and they were often indirectly influenced by immortal beings. Some creatures fought for the eradication of humans, but others, like my father, fought for balance in the human world, knowing that their undisturbed existence depended on it.”
Mikhail paused, his thoughts drifting to the past. “My father had many connections that easily opened the gates of all important courts for our family. Once you were seated at some ruler’s table, it was easy to sway his decisions, especially if you possessed my father’s charm. He could dissuade a king from his warlike ambitions or even nudge him towards them – but only if he believed the end result would benefit everyone. We were a large family. Large for the immortal world,” Mikhail said with a touch of sadness. It pained him to admit that, as more years passed, it became difficult to recall his brothers’ features. “My father always said he’d been blessed with three sons – more people to spread peace in the immortal world. Bear in mind that immortal women rarely conceive – it’s one of nature’s ways of controlling our population, and my mother managed it three times in relatively short periods. But while my brothers tried to assist our father, my interests lay elsewhere.”
Amelia pressed her lips together. “I know what you mean. Viktor told me how you two met…”
Mikhail laughed. He would always remember his first encounter with Viktor. To this day, he hadn’t forgiven him for the embarrassment caused by that lie about gonorrhoea. “I hopeViktor kept to the basics of the story?”
“If by basics you mean your companions, then yes.”
Mikhail clasped her wrists. “Are you jealous, little beast?”
She shook her head. “Not in the slightest…”
His lips curved into a smug smile. If Amelia was frowning over something that had taken place centuries ago, jealousy was not foreign to her.
His smile faded when he recalled the part of the story he was about to share with her. He moved their interlaced fingers between them and said, “Amelia, no woman should have to hear about her lover’s past, but for you to understand everything, you’ll need to listen to at least part of it.”
Amelia’s chest rose with a deep breath. “I want to know everything. Everything about you.” Her eyes roamed his face with a tenderness that made his heart turn over.
“Well, then… Let’s start with the fact that my father helped establish the Tribunal. He was one of the beings who signed the constitution that created the Tribunal and appointed Presiyan as its executor.”
Amelia’s eyebrows jumped at the last bit. “Oh! That’s…huge! I mean, your father really was extraordinary…” She frowned. “I saw his sarcophagus in the Temple of the Dead Immortals.”
“Now you know one of the reasons I disapprove of entering the temple. One of my personal reasons. I felt it would desecrate the temple before my father’s spirit. As if he would see me and reproach me for all the foolish things I’ve done in my life.”
While his brothers’ features sometimes blurred in Mikhail’s memories, his father’s would always be clearer than even his own.
“To be an advocate for peace is not safe, because there are many who don’t want peace. My father had too many enemies, and so did our whole family. We were careful, as much as we could be…” Guilt gripped his heart, but he forced himself to continue.“But when I met Valeria, it never crossed my mind that she could be anything other than a woman entranced by my charm. To this day, I don’t know if I was in love with her, but I was certainly tempted beyond measure. She mastered the art of manipulation. As much as I’m ashamed to admit it, she ensnared me by never fully giving herself to me. And for a young being like myself, going through the years of transformation and accustomed to getting everythingimmediately, such a provocation was too tempting. I suppose, in some way, I also had a need for a relationship. I wanted to share with somebody the same special bond my parents were sharing.”
Amelia’s features twisted with emotion. Mikhail squeezed her hands, to remind her she was the only one who mattered to him now.
“Maybe Valeria came at just the right moment. Maybe it was something else. Who knows…” Mikhail shrugged. He wanted to tell Amelia that what he had with her was incomparable to his relationship with Valeria. While Valeria had been a conquest, Amelia was someone he would protect with his life. “The truth is, I never trusted her. Even though I shared my days with her, I never told her more about my family than the basics. I even moved away with Valeria. She loved to cook, so I set up a small restaurant for her in Naples. We blended in with the mortals, enjoying the ‘mortal’ life. For me, it was a breath of fresh air to escape the dramas of the immortal world. Needless to say, my father was deeply disappointed by my separation from the family. In his view, Valeria and I should have travelled with them, and though Valeria supported the idea, I wanted to keep our distance. Everything was going well until one day, she announced the news of my family’s death.”
This time, Amelia gripped his hand with hers. “I know the story. I’ve lived it through my dreams.”
“It seems Valeria had found a letter from my father, stating theywould be staying for a while at the house in Moscow.” Mikhail cursed himself yet again for having been so reckless that day – not hiding his correspondence, as he often did for safety reasons. “You once asked me why Valeria betrayed my family. It was because my father initiated a decree in the Tribunal to prohibit the creation of offspring between nymphs and mortal men. You know the nymph species consists entirely of female beings. They can bear offspring with males of any species, but they give birth to more nymphs. For them, it is impossible to give birth to a hybrid or a creature carrying the traits of a male. But they do have the advantage of being able to easily conceive with mortal men – something practically impossible for other species. At the time, there was a troubling trend of more and more nymphs giving birth to children by mortal men. My father received information that the High Nymph had issued an unofficial order for all nymphs to give birth as frequently as possible to increase their population.”
Amelia furrowed her brows. “And they obeyed?”
“Yes. If such an order were issued today, not many creatures would comply, but those times were different. Such a rapid increase in the species would threaten the balance of immortals. Especially when we discovered the High Nymph’s goal was to build an army and spark a war. The problem was that the High Nymph, like my father, was among the beings who had helped create the laws of the Tribunal. She was certainly not pleased when most of these beings voted against the unrestricted breeding of her kind. She called the new law ‘discrimination’ and claimed the frequent relationships between nymphs and humans were coincidence. To her disappointment, the law remained, and the Tribunal, led by Presiyan, forced all pregnant nymphs at that time to have abortions. Those who did not comply with the law in the future were sent to Prokaliya.”
Amelia frowned at the last part. “What if a nymph genuinelyfalls in love with a mortal man? Could she still not have children with him?”
“No, she couldn’t. It would violate another law of the Tribunal – the law of confidentiality of the immortal world. But back to Valeria…” Mikhail realised that talking about the nymph wasn’t as difficult as in the past. Not with Amelia’s blue eyes, so intent on him. The story felt like something that had happened to someone else. The pain of losing his loved ones would always stay with him, but the anger over the betrayal seemed to have faded. And Mikhail wasn’t deluding himself for a moment – Amelia’s presence in his life had started this healing.
He pulled her to sit beside him on the bed. “After the control over the nymphs’ reproduction was imposed, a balance was restored in the immortal world. I was living my life with Valeria in Italy, and everything seemed fine. Until one day, an unusual guest visited my father…”
“What kind of guest?” Amelia straightened up.
