Page 40 of The Magic of Eternity
Keeping my head high, I strode through the halls. Surprisingly, there were very few demons out and about; the ones I did see were staff, mostly servants and maids.
As I passed one older female, our eyes met, and I saw a tear fall from her eye and trickle down her rosy cheek. With the guards all looking forward, she lifted her fist and clapped it over her heart. I winked at her and gave her a cheeky grin. That small gesture had given me a little bit of strength, and strength was exactly what I needed today.
All too soon, we arrived in the courtyard. The sky was still dark, but I knew that wouldn’t be the case for long—maybe an hour. I had one hour, then my life would cease. Though I certainly wasn’t going to just waltz to whatever implement of death Asrael had planned for me.
If I died though, my bond with Goldie would be no more. I was grateful for that small mercy. She would grieve me, but it wouldn’t tear her apart. Wherever she was, I hoped that she wouldn’t witness my death. She had already seen enough in her short twenty-eight years and she didn’t need this memory staining our love story.
She was strong, and I knew that even if I was gone, the other men who loved her would keep her safe. They’d love her, tend to her every need, and they would be excellent fathers to our children. Strangely enough, the thing that did give me pause was when a pair of big brown eyes flashed in my mind, with a playful smile and a glint of sharp fangs. Faris was the one I was most worried about. In such a short time, he had bonded with me—I was his anchor, his lighthouse in this storm. This storm was dangerous and my light was about to be snuffed out. How would he fare in my absence?
I was guided over to a wooden platform in the center of the courtyard. “You may sit here, my lord.”
All that was left now was to wait. I sank down on the edge of the wooden platform, tightly holding my bundle in my arms. It was awkward with my hands bound together, but I wanted to hold these gifts close to me as long as I possibly could. Waiting was torture, but in this case, I never wanted to reach the end of the timeline.
The sound of a scuffle suddenly drew my eyes to the corner, where a door was open. “You’re a disgrace to your kingdom and your true queen!” a familiar voice seethed. “You should be bloody ashamed of yourselves. Look at you! Nothing but fuckingpuppets!” Khol’s hands were bound behind his back, but that didn’t stop him from trying to cause harm in any way he could.
“When I get free, I’m going to rip your fucking throat out! Then I’m going to stomp on it and shove it in this guy’s mouth. That’s a promise. Do you know who I am? Do you know how I earned my nickname? Khol the Merciless—or as the rumor mill likes to say, Khol the Cold. Either way, just know that I fucking earned that name and it’s been a long time since I let the lid off that fucking monster.”
I didn’t miss the way the guards cast nervous glances at one another. Shit, he was terrifying. They escorted him over, and as he got closer, he realized that I was sitting there watching. Our eyes collided and I saw the ticking of his jaw and the way his chest heaved. Something like relief flashed over his eyes, but it was gone in a matter of milliseconds.
“You’re to sit here and wait until the king tells us what to do with you,” a guard informed Khol, guiding him to take a seat.
“Fuck the king,” Khol growled. “He’s no king of mine. He’s an imposter, a joke.” Nevertheless, he allowed himself to be forced down onto the platform. The guards walked away, each of them moving to a different entry point. Our powers had been neutralized. We couldn’t fly out of here. Finding our way out was going to be very difficult, if not impossible.
“Well,” Khol whispered harshly. “You just gonna fucking sit there?”
“For now, yeah,” I replied.
He shook his head at me incredulously before nodding down toward the stack of blankets in my arms. “What’s that?”
“Just something I made,” I replied, hugging them tighter to me.
“Just something you made?” he demanded. “What is this? Some kind of goodbye gift? What, you’re just going to give up? You’re just gonna let yourself be killed here today? Ripped away from the family that you always desperately wanted? I thought you loved my daughter!”
My hackles raised at his tone and what he was implying. My head snapped over to him. “Are you delusional, Khol? Don’t speak to me about things that you have no idea about.”
He laughed. “No idea, huh? All I see right here is a man who’s accepted his fate. Who’s just waiting here for death like a little bitch.”
I shook my head, grinding my molars together. “You have no idea. Do not mistake my calmness for defeat. There is nothing wrong with a man preparing for the unthinkable. I had a lot of time on my hands lately, and this is what I did with it. If something happens to me today, I want my daughters to know that in my last hours I worked on this, for them, in case I’m not able to provide them with physical affection. At least these blankets can provide them with warmth, and I hope they’ll feel as safe within them as they would nestled within my arms.” My vision clouded as tears built, and I cast a look over at Khol to see the same expression on his face.
“I’m sorry, son,” Khol said quietly. “I shouldn’t have said those things. My mind is a mess and I’m on edge.”
I gave a brief nod of acknowledgement. “What we need today is a miracle. In case that miracle doesn’t come…” I trailed off, my eyes sweeping across the courtyard.
“I understand,” he replied.
I adjusted the bundle in my arms, allowing him to see the letters within. “If you make it out and I don’t, can you make sure these get to the right people?”
Khol’s eyes danced between my face and the envelopes, his jaw clenching. It was impossible to miss, even with the beard he’d grown. “I give you my word. If the opposite happens and I’m struck down, promise me you’ll tell them about me? That I loved them with an unrivaled fierceness. All they need to do to feel my love is look to the night sky and search out the brightest star. As for my wild one, tell her I’m so proud of her and that the greatest accomplishment of my life was being her father.”
Fuck. My throat was so tight that I couldn’t swallow or speak, so I gave a firm nod. We were quiet for a moment, the weight of the conversation and the implications of what carrying out those promises to each other would mean sitting heavily on our shoulders.
Finally, I regained a little of my composure, clearing my throat. “I’m honestly surprised that you’re alive. I kind of figured that they would have let you die or killed you quietly by now.”
Khol shrugged. “Yeah, me too. But you know the sick fuck loves his grand displays of power. So of course he would want to use me as a public tool to enforce his iron fist. He makes me sick.” Khol angled his body slightly so he could look at me directly. “I want to tell you a story. It won’t take long, and I just need you to listen. Can you do that?”
“A story?”
“Yes, now just listen, Bram. Years ago, when I was still working with Asrael against the resistance, there was a scene similar to this. We’d invaded a neighboring town and captured two of the high-ranking members in the resistance, seeking to make an example of them. We needed to show all of the other people what would happen if they continued this foolish quest to break free from the kingdom. Over the course of several days, we had our orders—which came from Asrael, of course. We were to strike down any who opposed. He believed that fear was the best way to rule people, so that’s what we did in the days leading up to the execution, but something interesting happened. Instead of the people falling in line, they merely pretended—they just went along with it for the sake of survival. You see, all they needed was a moment. One point in time that they could make their move, and little did we know, we were about to serve that moment on a golden platter.”
