Page 5

5

WHEN THE LIGHT SHINES THROUGH

ELLA

W ell, I had to say, I felt a lot better knowing I was protected.

As even when having a nightmare, this time I had someone there to wake me from it. Only unlike last time, this wasn’t under the guise of the life I craved. Back to the normality of living with Jared, whether it be in my tiny trailer or in Jared’s cabin. No, there was no temptations to lure me in.

There had been nothing but horror…

“Ella… My sweet human, Ella.”

I heard the name he only just started to call me this last six months, which had me wondering whether he never knew that I was mortal before. In fact, the more I looked back on my nightmares, it was only recently that he knew more about me. Before, he would always ask me where I was hiding. Of course, I never told him, but now it made sense.

“Oh, but how close I am to finally getting you back to where you belong.”

The chilling voice spoke from the shadows. It’s strange tenderness was one shrouded in darkness, for there was always an edge to his kindness. The feeling of something more he wanted from me. But, back to all those years of his nightly stalking, I hadn’t known what I knew now.

Exactly what he had wanted with me.

To use me in the worst way.

“No,” I managed to utter, barely above a frightened whisper.

“B?lvaee, but why do you fight it so?” he said, snapping a foreign word at the beginning of his question, one I didn’t understand.

That haunting voice of Garmr’s rolled across my skin, making it want to crawl off my body just to be far away from him. We stood in the broken remains of a castle. The courtyard with its cracked marble floor, littered with large chunks of broken pieces of the wall that once surrounded it. The barren wasteland was beyond, scattered with snowy mountains and dead trees. But as for where I was standing, all I could focus on was the large hole in the dirt. One that looked to have once been this garden’s feature. Making me question what had been removed? A fountain or statue perhaps? Whatever it was it looked like it had been removed a long time ago.

“Why fight your destiny, human Ella?” I shook my head in response to the dark looming figure I knew was behind me. As I didn’t need to look at him to know he was there, not when I could feel him approach.

“Why run when you know I will only find you?”

I closed my eyes, as if this would help in blocking him out. I shivered violently when I finally felt his touch at my shoulders.

“Why must we play this game of cat and mouse with one another?” he asked and, again, I shook my head, trying to wake myself up.

“We were happy once, you and I,” he said, and this time I did make a sound, as the uncontrollable scoff of disbelief came out of me.

“No, you don’t think so?” His smug question started to caress my anger, slowly but surely taking over the fear I always had of him.

“We were so close to our goal, so close to achieving all we dreamed together, to rule as King and Queen, for you once welcomed my touch, my caress…” he said as his hands ran gently up my neck, collaring it from each side, and linking his fingers from my chin to the base.

“You welcomed standing by my side, until those that dare take you from me came and stole you away!” he snarled, his hold on my neck slipping down back to my shoulders, then tightening before moving down closer to my breasts. And this was when I finally reacted… my fear evaporating!

“NO!” I screamed, pulling myself from his hold and turning around to face him. His looming dark figure was always so large in my dreams, but now that I had seen him in person, I knew the truth. He was no taller than Tyr, in reality. Not the whole two foot taller than me that he was now. Meaning he purposely did this to try to use fear to control me.

Ominous shadows took shape of a man with glowing eyes of red burning brighter from the cloak of darkness. The only features I had ever seen on him were the silhouette of two massive horns and long, large hands always veiled under moving black shadows. Just like I saw now.

“I was never yours to take… uncle!” I sneered this word like it was something vile.

“Ah, so finally you step from the shadows of your mortal mind and have discovered who I really am to you.”

“Kidnapper, torturer…” I bit out through gritted teeth.

“Master?” he finished as he moved around the courtyard, and I moved with him, not trusting to take my eyes off him for even a second. He shrugged his large shoulders, the cloak like a living entity around him as if they were one and the same.

“I go by many different terms, my dear, but none of those apply to you.”

“No?” I questioned, the single world dripping with loathing.

“No, for I only ever wished to be your equal, so as we can rule together, just like we set out to do from the start.”

I scoffed, crossing my arms over my chest, my disbelief and contempt easy to see.

“After all, you are the one true daughter of Hades, a true princess of darkness, not like that other offspring of his born from that mad wife,” he told me, making me frown.

“Ah but I see, you have not heard of your half-sister, Melino? the Goddess of Nightmares and Madness,” he told me, and despite wondering why Lerna hadn’t told me, I didn’t give him the satisfaction of reacting.

“She sounds like a right catch and right up your alley, why not just take her out on a date and leave me the hell alone!” I snapped, finding even more of my backbone. Something he laughed at, his eyes growing larger a second before the crimson glow simmered down.

“I have no interest in someone who would slit my throat as I slept,” he told me and it was strange, as this was the most we had ever said to each other. Making me wonder why? Why now? Was he hoping that I would come to him of my own free will?

“No? Then you won’t like me then,” I pointed out, but then shrieked when he came so close, his hand collared my throat as he lifted me to my toes.

“Ah but I have already had you in my bed at night, little mortal, and in it, the last thing on your mind was cutting my throat.”

I sucked in a quick breath at this before hissing,

“You lie!”

At this he let me go, making me nearly fall when landing, saving myself from stumbling.

“I have no reason to lie, and soon you will remember our time together, for like I have told you once before, we are bound, you and I. Destined to rule together, only this time, I finally found what we were missing.”

“And what’s that, a couple’s councilor?” I muttered dryly, surprisingly making him laugh.

“Ah, but all in good time, my dear, for soon you will see and I… I will finally get my queen back!” he said, and this time he rushed at me, knocking me to the ground so he was lying on top of me. And for the first time ever…

I got my first glimpse of his true face.

I gasped, not at the horror of it, but in surprise at how human he looked. I didn’t know why but I had always expected something monstrous behind the veil of his hood. Something truly horrifying. But what I got was the face of a man.

Of course, what set him apart were the deep scars that ran down from his forehead, traveling along his face and branching out like rivulets of a red lightening stream. The scars glowed, matching that of his eyes that were deep set and clouded by darkness. His white hair was a stark contrast to his marred skin, and his narrow lips curled up into a knowing grin, making me shriek back as if he was going to bite me as he snapped out at me.

“And I have a feeling, my dear niece, you will like it… just like last time!” He pressed himself into me, his size consuming me.

I could do nothing but scream out as he turned into an overpowering black smoke that was impossible to get away from.

“AAAAHHH!” I screamed again, only this time another entity started to take over the smoke. A glowing golden light infiltrating the suffocating darkness that felt as if it was trying to swallow me whole. Like the sunrays were beaming down, one becoming two and then three, and then so many that the storm above me gave way to the light.

“Come back from the darkness, little one,” a gentle, tender voice spoke, and any other mortal would have believed it was the voice of God. Ironic that it turned out to be just that, just not the one I would have thought. As it was a soothing timber I soon recognized.

“Tyr?” I asked the light.

“It is I, little Bál ásynja, now open those pretty green eyes for me,” he commanded softly, and instantly I did as he asked, unsure as to why I hadn’t already.

The fluttering of my vision cleared, awarding me the godly sight of icy blue eyes, along with golden tanned skin, and the intricate weaving of straw-blonde hair braided back, with the sides shaved to the skin. A Viking God who was now holding me in his huge, bear arms, his skin painted in a complex series of dark blue tattoos.

“I am in your arms,” I commented quietly and shamefully, stating the obvious and making him grin. A devastatingly handsome feature that transformed the face of a warrior into something breathtaking.

“So, you are,” he teased, his tone only of gentle mocking.

“Why?” I asked, unable to stop myself from staring at his face, as if this was part of his Godly power. A face that looked chiseled by some heavenly sculpture, making sure to emphasize his high cheekbones, straight nose, and strong jawline.

“You were lost to your nightmares, you started thrashing and I didn’t wish for you to hurt yourself in your fight to return.”

“Oh… that… that was nice of you,” I said nervously, fidgeting in his hold, feeling strange. The emotions of being caught in Garmr’s grasp, only to be rescued by this Viking God, were messing with my head.

This feeling of protection…

Was one I wanted to cling to because it felt as if it had been so long since I had been in my HellBeast’s arms. But at the same time, it felt different. The feeling of longing was like an infinite road I still faced. Before I could speak a word, Asher cleared his throat behind us. The shock of knowing someone was watching, despite how innocent it was from my side, still ended up feeling as if I had been caught doing something wrong. My hand was stuck in the preverbal cookie jar.

I scrambled from his hold and unless he wanted to fight me on it, he had no choice but to uncurl his arms from around me. That easy knowing grin of his was now gone as his lips straightened, and a frown darkened the blue in his eyes.

I looked around, dazed, trying to remember where we were, but Tyr spoke before I could ask.

“We are still in the ruins of Hypnos, come eat… no, keep it, so to keep you warm,” he said when I started to push off the furs he had covered me with. He even reached out as if to touch me, as if wanting to wrap them around me when Asher’s voice stopped him.

“Your kill is about to burn on the fire, God of war.”

Tyr gritted his teeth before rising from where he had been kneeling next to me. His large body towered over me as he held out a hand for me to take.

“Come, for burnt Catoblepas meat is never nice.”

I took his hand and let him pull me to standing. However, his strength compared to someone my size was obviously not something he was used to. Not when I went falling into him. My hands landed on his chest, where I felt his sudden intake of breath rise beneath my palms.

“Easy little, Bál ásynja.”

I slowly rose my head, looking up at him in surprise, and he warned with a soft rumble of words,

“I advise not looking at me like that, little mortal, for I may purposely forget my vow.”

“Your vow?” I asked, prompting him tell me.

“To get you back to your HellBeast.”

My reaction was instant, and I quickly took a step back. An action he narrowed his gaze at before too stepping away from me. Then when he turned his back on me, I made the foolish choice to ask him,

“That name you called me, what does it mean?”

He paused a step before glancing at me over his shoulder.

Then he told me,

“Bál ásynja means…”

“…My Fire Goddess.”