Remembered (8 page)

T
he day
and evening of the Firefly Festival had been subdued. Galia was dressing for the midnight reading, when Rhea and her lemur appeared. Galia felt sorry for the woman. She had never been the same after the Oracle’s death. And for some reason, Galia did not think she would ever truly recover. Rhea helped her fasten the gold chain belt around the waist of Galia’s white and gold gown. When it was done, Rhea reached down and took a satin box that her familiar had been carrying.

“This is for you,” Rhea said, handing it to her.

Galia stared at it. A gift? “But Rhea, we’ve never exchanged presents.”

“It’s just for the night,” Rhea said with a smile.

Curious, Galia opened the box.

“Rhea! It’s gorgeous.”

It was a crown of sparks, viridescent and lovely. Rhea reached into the box and carefully removed it. It was so like the fireflies that drifted through the city. She placed it gingerly on Galia’s head.

“You look every bit the Oracle,” Rhea murmured. She stood back, admiring it. “But it only lasts the night. Still, that’s enough time, isn’t it? You look beautiful, Galia.”

Galia smiled and gave her friend a hug. Of everyone in Tenebris, Rhea was the only person she would miss. Rhea quickly hugged her back.

“I’ve got to get back to the kitchen,” she said. “Sooner or later the revelers will show up there.”

For a moment Galia thought to say goodbye, but thankfully Rhea was quick, and the door closed.

For a few minutes Galia paced. Then she tried to read. But she couldn’t stop thinking about the packed satchel hidden at the back of her closet. Her mind buzzed like a hive of bees. She was almost ready to make her way to the shrine early when the timbre of the cries outside changed. Before they had been light and merry. Now there was an ugly edge to them.

Though she knew she shouldn’t, Galia raced back to the balcony. She tried to hide at the far edge, but it was pointless.

“She is at the window, let her see!”

“Let her see what we are doing for her!”

“He would kidnap her, but no longer!”

“Let the blood be shed!”

They pushed a man to the front. Someone grabbed a handful of his hair and pulled it back. His face was bloodied, his one eye wild. The other eye was missing. But she knew him and, in that moment, she knew her life was over. She saw the faces in the crowed. She saw his. She saw his one blue eye look up to where she stood on the balcony, and they stared at each other.

“Strayke,” she gasped.

The crowd rolled over him like a tide. Galia saw the knives come down, and felt them as if it was her they stabbed.

Inside her, the Goddess laughed.

Galia stumbled back from the balcony.

One foot in front of the other, she lurched to the door. In the hallway, an acolyte was telling her that she needed to depart for the ceremony. Galia ran by her. Though onlookers stared, Galia did not stop. Instead, she dashed to the center of the palace, to the gate.

Strayke is dead!

She should have been felled by her grief, been driven insane. But as she ran, she realized she had indeed gone mad. A crowd trailed behind her, shouting and screaming. She staggered past the guards of the portal, its high stone wall still visible in the growing darkness. Above it the star-pocked sky suddenly clouded. She whirled back to the people who were swarming toward her. Some faces were expectant, others furious, and still others were filled with the bloodlust she’d just witnessed.

This is my fault!

Inside her the Goddess chuckled.

Grief, loss, and anger well up inside, the tide so fierce that Galia staggered. Power flooded through her, sweeping upward until she couldn’t contain it. She stood next to the portal and raised her hands.

No! the Goddess shrieked. No!

Galia reached deep into her own energy.

No! My city! No!

Galia spread her arms and cast her pain into the sky.

Purple streaks of pure power lanced upward. It boomed like thunder and rattled the very ground. The shouts of the people turned into screams. But Galia did not look at them. Instead she saw the city. Tenebris blossomed in her mind, as did destruction. The power spun out from her, unstoppable. It shattered buildings and bodies in every direction, like a maelstrom of pure energy. When a guard tried to grab her, he pulled away with a shriek and the smell of burning flesh.

The earth quaked and the buildings fell. People were screaming. People were dying. But Galia was too numb to care. But suddenly she recognized someone, someone running toward her instead of away. She dropped her arms.

“Galia!” Mina said, clutching her to her chest.

Galia wanted to speak to her, but her throat was too dry. When Mina touched her, she was not burned, and that pleased her. Mina turned her and Galia saw that the wall of the gate had fallen. Mina led her to the portal and pulled her through. With nothing more than a flash of light and then deep darkness, they were gone from that place forever.

G
alia felt Mina half-drag
, half-carry her into the deep tunnel. She wondered if Mina remembered being dragged through that same place as slaves. She wanted to ask, but she couldn’t find the words. But at last they came to the subterranean lake. Mina settled her down at the shore, cradling her limp form. They were silent together for a long moment before Mina spoke.

“Do you know what happened to you at the gate?” Mina asked, her voice soft and quiet.

Galia had wanted to tell Mina of Strayke, of how she’d wreaked destruction on the Goddess’s city. But this talk of the gate had startled her.

“The gate?” she said, straining to say just the two words.

“You’re dying, love.” What strange words Mina said. Galia didn’t understand them at first. “Look at your hands. The gate took your life.”

When Galia looked down at her hands, she could see that the color was leaving them. White skin was stretched over bones. She could feel it now, her body withering away, her life force leaving. The Goddess had won in the end after all.

“I don’t want to die,” Galia said faintly, as pain choked off more.

Mina smiled through her tears. “I don’t want you to die either.”

Mina kissed her forehead, but Galia could barely feel it through the agonizing haze.

As Mina stood, she drew her sword.

Galia wanted to argue. She wanted to tell Mina she could fix it. She wanted to fight.

But the sword came down.

G
illian’s hands
dropped from the gate, and she collapsed to her knees. The onslaught of the empathic vision had left her breathless. For a moment, she wasn’t sure who she was, until she looked down at her hands. One was gloved, but the other was bare. So she was an empath, as the Oracle had been, as Galia had been, if only for the short time she’d been awakened.

Gillian took a deep breath and let it go. For several moments, she could only stare at her hands, feeling as though the weight of an age had rolled over her. Then tears began to well up in her eyes.

To her shock, Shayne dropped to the ground beside her. Caught up in the vision, she had forgotten that he had touched the gate too. She reached for him, but then stopped herself. For one terrifying moment, Gillian thought his body might wither. Instead, after a few seconds, he slowly sat up. There were tears in his eyes as well, but he palmed them away angrily.

“I’m glad this place is gone,” he growled. “I don’t care how brilliant Tenebris was. It was founded on pain and malice.”

Gillian looked around them sadly.

“It was,” she said softly.

When Shayne looked at her, she was shocked to see that his eyes were different colors, one blue and one brown. She expected them to be blue. But as he got up and helped her to her feet, she shook it off.

“Poor Mina,” she whispered. “The rhyme, the stories they told. They blamed Mina, but she only wanted to spare her lover pain.”

“And the knives,” Shayne said. “They had never been intended for…Galia.” Though he hadn’t said it, Gillian had the distinct impression he was about to say “you.”

The price had been paid. They had listened to the tale of Tenebris and the uneasy ghosts that lived there. The gate was open. She put on her glove.

Together, they walked to the dais of the courtyard. As the runes on the ground lit up, Gillian could feel the eyes of hundreds of ghosts upon her. Among them were Galia, Strayke and Mina. Gillian turned, half expecting to see them. But instead, what she saw was a dimness, as though clouds had drifted over. She heard the sound of the Goddess laughing––so loud it seemed in her head.

But in a flash of light, she and Shayne were gone.

T
he interior
of the tent was sumptuous. Plush Persian rugs were layered all across the floor. Tasseled pillows of every shape and size covered half the area. A low brass table held a large bottle of water. A few ruggedized tote boxes were stacked in one corner. But none of that mattered. As one they moved to the pillows. When they’d made love before, Shayne had been in command. But as they fumbled with each other’s clothing, it was clear that no one was in charge, nor did anyone need to be.

As she unbuckled Shayne’s belt, he pulled Mathias’s shirt off over his head. Mathias quickly undid the belt of the white robe, and Gillian slipped it off her shoulders, setting it gently aside. Shayne and Mathias paused.

“Seven hells,” Mathias muttered. “Your…perfect.”

His fingers traced the curve of her shoulder, then her collar bone, and slid down between her breasts. A shiver of anticipation fluttered in her belly, and her nipples instantly hardened.

Already naked, Shayne bent his head to one, gently sucking the tip of her breast completely into his mouth.

“Oh gods,” she whispered, coming up on her toes.

Mathias stared at what Shayne was doing for a moment, then gently cupped Shayne’s balls. Shayne moaned around her nipple, making it thrum with pleasure. He reached to Mathias’s waist and pulled down his shorts and underwear. When his erection jutted forward, Gillian took it in her hand.

They played with each other, teasing and caressing, needing these few moments to explore each other again. As Shayne suckled her other breast, she stroked Mathias’s cock, and he played with Shayne’s balls. But slowly, as their panting moans became more urgent, and desire flowed between them like a magnetic field, they drew closer to the pillows and laid down.

On her back between them, Gillian still gripped Mathias’s cock, but she also found Shayne’s. They hissed together as she stroked them in unison. As Mathias nuzzled behind her ear, sucking her earlobe into his mouth, his hand swept down her belly. A delicious tension followed it, coiling just under his touch. As Shayne’s warm mouth found her nipple again, he tongued her, and she whimpered. She squirmed between them, her hips needing to grind, her back already arching.

“I want you both,” she whispered. “I need you both.” Mathias’s fingers slid into her slit. Shayne gnawed the tip of her breast. “Yes,” she moaned, squeezing their cocks.

“Hells below,” Mathias said into her ear. “You’re going to make me come.”

Shayne released her breast. “Mount me,” he said. “Mount me before I burst.”

Their need only fueled her own, as a wild thought made her breath catch.

“I need you both,” she said, “at the same time.”

Both men paused, their bodies strung tight as bows.

“Gillian,” Mathias said, raising up on one elbow, “are you sure?”

“Have you ever done that?” Shayne asked, rising up as well.

They both looked down at her, their gorgeous bodies poised, their glittering eyes focused on her. Despite everything they’d done together, she felt her cheeks flush hot.

“Will you show me?” she whispered.

“Try to stop me,” Mathias growled as he got up.

“At any point, you can tell us to stop,” Shayne said. “I swear to you. If you don't like this, there are a thousand other ways of being together.”

She glanced down at Shayne's deeply red and glistening cock. A thousand other ways? Right now, she was only interested in one.

Mathias had come around behind her. As he wrapped his arms around her waist, he pulled her backwards into his lap. Now her rear was pressed flush against his cock.

“We'll be gentle,” he murmured comfortingly. As her back pressed into his hard chest, his mouth found the nape of her neck. “We’ll be so gentle,” he murmured against her skin. His breath was warm and moist. “So gentle that the next time…” She relaxed against him as though falling under his spell. “…you’ll beg for it.”

Almost as if they had arranged it, Mathias spread Gillian's legs to either side of his, and Shayne sat up. She was seated on Mathias, almost as if he was a stool. Her legs were spread open, and her most tender parts were exposed.

Shayne leaned forward and touched her, sliding his fingers along her slit.

“You’re so ready,” he said, breathing harder. “You’re so wet.”