Off the Coast of Concordia, Eleven Hundred Years BeforeThe moon was a horned curve in a peaceful, clear sky bright with stars, reflecting on the glossy surface of the water.A stillness had fallen, slackening the sails, and slowing their progress. The wind would pick up, he told himself as he resumed his favorite place on the top deck, leaning against the handrail and gazing out at the dark shadow of Concordia in the distance. The wind always picked up eventually, but he preferred the shallow bottomed boats of his people, where such periods of stillness were easily combatted through the wielding of oars.Within the darkness of the land, he could see small points of light – hearth fires, funeral pyres, or bonfires? Signs of unrest in the land?Sigrid came to stand beside him, leaning against the handrail. “You asked for love,” she said softly. “You asked the goddess for love.”She referred to his first full sacrifice at the temple, though it was a prayer that he had repeated every tim
Havermouth, Three Weeks BeforeThey slept wrapped in each other and Cameron woke still clutching Aislen to him, her breath warm against his chest and one of her legs trapped between his, as if in his sleep he had sought to hold her in place. Her scent filled his sinuses and his c-ck throbbed in demand as he pressed his face into her hair and breathed more of her into him, an addict inhaling his drug.F-k. It was a silent moan, dragged through him from his balls upward, a craving need for this to be the start of things to finally going right for them. Please, let Heath have been right, let this work, let them make her see… Please, goddess, let them finally have the life that they were meant to have. He wanted that life so badly that its absence was a wound within his heart.He wanted a romance movie, he thought. He wanted her to wake and smile, to reach for him with love in her eyes, and for them to kiss and make love slowly in the intimate warmth of the morning. He wanted her to want
Havermouth, Three Weeks BeforeHeath paused outside Rhett’s room on one of his frequent check ins. Rhett had left the music off this time, which was not a good sign that Rhett was coping well with the situation, Heath acknowledged to himself as he leaned against the wall. There was an ache in his chest knowing that he was causing his mate pain.He leaned his forehead against the wall. Hold in there, Rhett, he thought, willing the strength through the wood and plasterboard to his mate. Let me balance the scales of her favor just a little, and then we’ll…Aislen said something so quietly that whilst the sound of her voice carried, the tattoo gun stole the meaning from her words.“Stay still,” Rhett replied, and the gun fell silent. “You are shaking my hand.” “When they come looking for me, they will track me back here,” Aislen’s voice was louder, more confident. She had provoked a reaction from him and broken his focus on the tattoo. “You guys will be arrested and thrown in jail. The p
Havermouth, Three Weeks BeforeRhett floated on his back in the river water, his eyes closed to the glare of the sun, feeling the water tug at his hair, spreading it out around him. He needed the break, he thought, to get some perspective on things.It didn’t feel right. None of it felt right, and he’d been lying to himself from the start, trying to convince himself that he believed in the plan, because he was desperate. He didn’t want to lose Aislen again, and he feared what losing her would do to the Triquetra.In a way, it would have been better if she had never come back, he admitted to himself. They hadn’t been truly happy without her, but they also had been surviving, even rebuilding, after her loss. He wasn’t sure if they had it in them to do that again.He was glad to have her back, though. He could tell himself that, logically, they were doing okay before her return, but there was a difference between surviving and living, and he didn’t want to compromise for the rest of his
Havermouth, Three Weeks Before Rhett’s jaw was set so hard, his teeth clenched so ferociously, that he was giving himself a headache. It was f-king wrong, he told himself. It was unfair that he was cast in the role of bad guy, whilst Cameron and Heath got to f-k their female mate. He rubbed the heel of his hand across his cheeks, casting off the tears that prickled there. Tears of anger, he lied to himself. There was a truth that he had been hiding from, he admitted as he braced his hands on his drawing desk and stared sightlessly at the designs on the sketch book before him. A truth that if he let it in, would do so much damage that he was afraid it would break him. Torture, Aislen had called it. She had begged and pleaded for him to stop so much that her voice was raspy and hoarse from doing so. He had brushed it off. He did this for a living, he’d told himself. People paid him to do it. He was used to clients freaking out, and this was no different. He had let his fantasies of a
Havermouth, Three Weeks Before“Turn around,” Rhett’s voice was hoarse. She turned and looked up at him, her brilliant blue eyes filled with unspoken thoughts, pleading with him. He looked away, unable to hold the gaze, looking instead at the tattoos on her skin. “These are looking good,” he stroked his thumb over the Triquetra on her skin. Something so small represented so much, he thought bitterly. The sacrifices that they made because of it, the things that they did because of it... “I get it… I… rejected Heath and Cameron, and their male pride was bruised, so they were mean…”“Don’t use that word,” he jerked his eyes up to her, the word rejected like a knife wound to his heart. “You don’t understand,” he said tightly, trying to justify to her what he was struggling to understand himself. “It wasn’t just pride… I mean, a bit perhaps. But don’t use that word like that…” He shook his head. “It could become permanent.” He grimaced. And now I’ve said something that I shouldn’t… he th
Havermouth, Present TimeAislen heard Bianca’s voice and then Cameron’s from outside the locker room, and so she wasn’t surprised when the door opened and Talen and Cameron entered. She heard their footsteps, the whisper of their new jeans, as they crossed the room.She flushed the toilet and leaned back against the cubicle wall, tears and snot streaming down her face, and grabbed a handful of toilet tissue to wipe herself clean. Over the top of the cubicle door, she could see Talen’s head.“Little demon,” he knocked on the door.“The last five years of my life have been a lie,” she whispered.“How so?” Cameron lay on his belly on the floor and peered under the door at her. “What’s going on, Aislen?” He stretched out a hand. She reached out and took it, his calloused grip on her reassuring. She gave his hand a squeeze and rose to her feet.Talen was leaning against the frame, filling the door, when she opened it, and reached out to cup her cheek, his thumb stroking away a stubborn tea
Havermouth, Present TimeCameron returned from raiding the shelves with a bottle of water and toothbrush and paste, and Aislen scrubbed her mouth out in the sink. “What’s in the bag?” She asked him as they headed to the door.He flushed. “Nothing.”She didn’t get to pursue the question as Bianca was lurking outside of the locker room.“M,” Bianca pleaded, reaching out with her hand, her expression distressed. “I really am sorry.”Aislen nodded, her jaw clenched. “We will talk about it more later. For now, we have other problems.”The witches and warlocks joined them as they made their way to the loading bay and began to fill the rear of the car. Once they were done, Greg and Dan took the first load of witches and warlocks, leaving Talen, Cameron, Bianca, and Aaron, with Tom lurking somewhere on the roof.“Yeah, we know some of them. Van Helsings, no internet, no power, roads are blocked, and don’t drink the water,” Aaron said as he opened a bottle of water and added some protein shake