Imperial (Insight #8)(34)
“I have forgiven you, and the Creator will do no such thing.”
Tears streamed down her eyes as she began to shake. “He will. And you deserve to have the last blow.”
“It was a fever. It’s over. We will bring home the lost.”
“You don’t understand…” Her eyes locked with mine as her bottom lip began to tremble. “I coupled with him.”
I felt my energy seize with shock. Coupled Escorts combined everything; therefore, when one perished so did the other. The fact that Colton was shredded meant that if there was any truth to this, Mazing would have died that day no matter what actions I took.
“You did what?” My voice echoed along the streams. I held my hand out once more to tell Rasp to stay put and shielded my energy around both me and Mazing so Vade would not feel the out of control emotions from me and manifest at our side to witness the confession of the most fatal betrayal that has ever existed.
“I didn’t think it was real. Not until two nights before we died.” She was shaking uncontrollably. “One night eight moons after we were together, he asked me to meet him in the corporeal realm. He took me to a chapel and had a priest join us. I took it as playful and told him that was fun but not real. That night, he found three hundred and thirty-three holy men to wed us. He chose a different faith, town, country and dimension each time.” She was shaking so hard, she could not breathe. I reached into her essence and took the rage for herself away, but she kept manifesting more. “I dreamed that it was real, pretended with him each time, took Earthly vows, imagined that fate had not twisted us into lives we could not be together in. I breathed in the prayers spoken over us.” She moved her head from side to side in lost dismay. “He believed from that day that we were coupled in secret. Months later, just before the betrayal, after our rush, I saw our energy connect, I saw the beginnings of a bloom. I stopped it. I was terrified, but he was full of bliss. Told me over and over again that he was right, that the Creator had never told him no when he asked to be coupled with me…that is why he insisted on speaking to you, why I had to stop him, why I saw what I saw.”
I guess I always thought that Mazing’s actions came from wrath, that her pride was hurt that night, but it was very clear to me that it was her heart that was hurt.
I don’t know why, but my mind’s eye put me in her place, and Vade in Colton’s. If for some reason the Creator had placed me with any other king, I would have done far worse than Mazing had to reach Vade, and I know my actions would have been shadowed by the great King of Anger. Vade had told me more than once that his rush for me came before he even saw me, that as he and the Creator traveled to my deathbed he felt me in the air. That he felt life in the air and knew then that he would move heaven and hell to call me his own.
I had an even bigger problem now: I was in a weakened state. If this supernatural blow came to Mazing—if time and circumstance discovered that she was living and Colton was not, then her fall could very well kill me again. Our limited reprieve had just been markedly shortened. This was going to kill Vade on an emotional level so deeply that his line would feel the lash.
If I took out Mazing myself, no pain would come to anyone but her—and my heart. Creator help me, I could not do that.
I went to lean back so I could stand, but she gripped my arms. “Now, you have to.”
“I cannot.”
“I adore you. You are more than any title I could give you, and I know I’m the same to you, but you have to do this. It is the only way.”
“The way I see it—if this coupling was honored, you would have died moments before I made our final deal, or at the very least when we returned just before. You stated that you felt him in The Realm. That must be the case, either that or the Creator feels you have served your time in death for this betrayal.”
Her eyes moved rapidly across my image. “Do you think we were gone long enough for him to be created again, and that is why I still live?”
“I cannot speak reason into a Creator that is forevermore my teacher. I’m telling you that I’m not killing you. That if our roles were reversed, my actions would be near the same. A rush is not felt deeply by many, but I can see this in your eyes. I can see the girl I am deep inside in your eyes.”
She glanced to where Rasp was standing. “Vade will not let this risk be left to chance.”
“And he will not harm you, for it will harm me. We are going to let this be, find the Fated in our line, and move forward in any way we are asked by the Creator.” I looked down at the ring on my finger as I spoke. “True rushes become one…for all I know, you are powerful enough to keep that boy alive in you; therefore, you keep our line intact. I want you to remember the blissful moments with him, and not the end. That is how you will repay me for this betrayal.”
She swallowed her tears and leaned away from me. Any sign of weakness was gone from her image. She stood slowly, holding the expression of a fearless First. “They are hard to forget…I will repay this grace one day. I do not deserve your mercy.”
I stood before her and let out a deep breath and gently asked the Creator with my thoughts for Him to mend my broken warrior, for Him to sustain her. I hoped against all hope that because I did not honor this coupling that the lore would not harm us.
My other wandering thoughts took over, and after a moment of silence I spoke again. “I don’t understand the past any more than I understand now. Something changed. Vade may not have the will to smite Silas or anyone else that was a part of me, but he could have very well imprisoned Silas and moved on. Why now?”