-Katherine-
“Goddess, I want you all the time,” he said, making me feel warm over, and he was still inside of me, growing hard again.
“We need to talk!” I told him, and he looked at me confused. “So let’s dress.”
“Dress? Now?” he asked with a smug smile, like he couldn’t see why there was any need to dress when we were naked and clearly burning for more, but this made no sense, and I believed Darius was the source of my answers.
“Yes, dress. Now.”
“As my Queen commands.”
He moved away from me, and I gasped as I felt him slip from my body. I watched him as he left the bed, completely naked, and for the first time I saw him. I saw him as someone to be desired, and I certainly did. His body was so strong, and Goddess! How tight was his ass? No, I scolded myself. Never had I had such thoughts, and I was still a bit confused since my mind remembered Acan as my husband, and I should only desire him, but now he… wasn’t. It made me notice something else.
“Why do you keep calling me ‘my Queen’?” I asked, as Darius found a way of pants and put them on.
He turned to me, smiling a little. It was so strange to see. I had seen him smile more this morning than I had ever in my life knowing him. Or… my old life. My former life? What did I call it?
“It’s just for fun,” he said. “Sounds a little better than my Princess, but that is what you are, of course. You’re as beautiful as any queen, though.”
“Wait… you’re not king?”
“King?” he asked, confused. “No.”
I narrowed my eyes a little, beginning to feel frustrated, and the last thing I remembered before I… before I… died, was Darius.
“Darius!”
He looked shocked at me as I spoke his name in an angry voice, but I wasn’t sure who else to talk to but him. Darius had to have the answers. He had to! If not him, who else? I held the sheets tightly around me as I walked over to him, and he looked completely perplexed, not sure where my anger originated from.
“What is going on?!” I shouted.
“Going on?”
“Yes!”
“With what?”
“You. Me! Acan!”
“Acan? Why are we talking about Acan?” he asked.
“It’s not funny! I am going out of my mind!” I yelled. “We are not married!”
“We are. Why do you act like you don’t remember?” he asked.
“Because I don’t! I don’t remember any…” just then something flashed in my mind and a memory I did not recognize sprung forward, making me see myself arriving in front of the castle, like I had with Acan, but it wasn’t Acan, who stepped forward to be presented to me. It was Darius. “It… makes no sense.”
“What doesn’t?”
“You! Us!”
“Us?” he asked.
“Us!”
“You must guide me, wife, because I do not know what has gotten into you this morning. Except me, of course,” he joked, and I looked at him, shocked, making him shocked as well. “What?”
“You don’t joke… Not like that,” I whispered.
“With you I do.”
“No, not even me. Do you not remember?”
“Remember?”
“Our lives,” I whispered. “My… Our death?”
“Our death?” he asked, but then as he spoke the words, something seemed to happen inside of him, and Darius looked around, as if he now didn’t recognize the place, and then his eyes landed on me. “Katherine?”
I nodded, hoping he was starting to see something.
“Shit…”
-Darius-
I knew what I had done. I had no choice as I held Katherine in my arms, I used hidden powers. I turned back time, but not just that, I gave it a new outcome. I changed our future. I gave myself what I desired, but I also chose to protect Katherine. She wasn’t the only one who saw the truth that night. I saw it too. How had I never felt the darkness in my brother’s heart? Had I been ignorant? Blind? Because the one thing that ensured my own safety at court was my brother. His acceptance of me. It had been my father who protected me when I was younger, but he died shortly after Acan’s and Katherine’s marriage. If my brother had wanted it, he could have had me destroyed. There was only one person the people at court hated more than Katherine, and that was me. So I had altered some things, ensuring she would be safe from ending in the fire again, but my powers had affected me more than I thought. I did not know what I had created. I did not remember at first, before Katherine reminded me, and then I saw it all so clearly. I remembered what I had done. Though I was not sad about the outcome at all. Katherine stood before me, wrapped in a sheet and completely naked underneath. I had enjoyed her body this morning and last night, and memories that shouldn’t ever have existed appeared in my mind, reminding me throughout our marriage how many years I had enjoyed her body, and it brought a smile to my lips, because in my memories I saw how much she had enjoyed herself as well.
“You remember?” she asked, and I snapped out of the happy memories, seeing how scared she looked.
“I remember,” I told her.
“So… can you explain it to me?”
“I think you know what happened that night.”
“I know!” she yelled, before looking at the ground. “I know… but the last part. You… saved me. Have you always… saved me?”
“You know I have.”
“Yes, but I believed it was accidents,” she said, and met my eyes, looking utterly broken. “It wasn’t… accidents, was it?”
“No.”
“Did you know?”
“I did,” I said. “Or I had a hunch.”
“A hunch… And you never told me?”
“Acan didn’t want me to,” I explained.
“I see why…”
“We both do,” I whispered, looking away, while holding a shirt in my hand. “Goddess…”
“I know…”
We were both overcome with the realization of that night and what was happening now. Katherine and I had married. Married! I had gotten the woman, but that didn’t change what had happened to us.
“Darius, did you die too?” she asked.
“What?”
“I mean, I don’t understand how this happened. Did the Goddess grant us a new chance? Has she “fixed” the problem of my past?” she asked.
“No, I did that,” I told her and focused on her.
“How?”
“You know I have the powers of… taking others’, right?”
“Yes.”
“I took these.”
“These?”
“Time altering powers.”
“You absorbed someone?” she accused.
“No… or yes, but it was on a battlefield,” I explained to her. “He was very powerful, and he almost made us lose because he kept changing the outcome and time until he got what he wanted.”
“Oh…”
“I am not a monster,” I whispered, and looked at her with fear spreading through me. Katherine shook her head, looking regretful and coming closer, placing her hands on my neck, running them down my chest, and holding them over my heart, making sparks appear.
“Of course not,” she said. “I am sorry I…”
But then she trailed off, feeling the powerful attraction between us. I had always felt very attracted to her, but it seemed to have reached new heights. Maybe because we had spent three years together in love. I did not care that she had no powers. This was the woman I loved, and I couldn’t help but wrap an arm around her and kiss her hard.
-Katherine- It was so unreal. Darius was kissing me… and I was enjoying it! I couldn’t help it. It felt fantastic, and I was absorbed by the powerful sensations he was bringing out in me, making me feel so good. I moaned a little as his tongue slipped into my mouth. It felt almost natural for him to claim me like this, but I couldn’t forget the questions. “Darius…” I pulled back and whispered, but he caught my lips again, and I hastily turned my head. “We are talking.” I heard him sigh in my ear, and it sent pleasant shivers through me, while his body shook with pent-up need, but then he let me take a step back. I watched as he shook before me, clearly trying his hardest to calm down. “Sorry, I don’t… know what happened,” he said. “You just… make me go a little out of control.” I still held the sheets tightly around me, but his words warmed me a lot. I had never thought I could make anyone go crazy like that, but Darius was shaking in front of me, and it made me feel very good. “
-Darius-I watched as my wife—Goddess, I loved thinking about her as such—turned in front of the mirror, now dressed in a beautiful dark green dress that complimented her eyes, and her almost orange hair cascading down her back, making her look like something out of painting. The floor had been cleaned by some servants, and we were both now dressed, but my wife kept turning from side to side, trying to see any changes around her stomach, but as the memory we both saw appear in our head, she had only recently found out she was pregnant, and we had had a physician confirm it a few days ago. So there was nothing to see. But she kept doing it anyway, almost like she didn’t believe I had managed to get her pregnant. Wow… I had gotten her pregnant. We had been married for three years, but Acan had had her for ten, and he had not managed it even once. Katherine was actually pregnant this time, and I smiled as I stood from a distance watching, resting my shoulder against a stone pole, and jus
-Katherine- It felt strange not being shot daggers at as I ventured through the castle. It was only nobles who did it to me in my former life, but they barely even looked at me and Darius. We were like air to them now, but maybe that was because he was still the Dark Prince, the one everyone avoided, and I was no longer queen… meaning no pressure! I couldn’t believe how refreshing it felt, even though I had to die to experience the freedom of it. Darius seemed very content as well. I understood, of course, he liked this world. He enjoyed the past… future… the life he had created for us, but I couldn’t forget. It lingered in my mind… I died. I was killed. I was still young… Darius thought it was best to let it go, but I wasn’t sure if I could. I didn’t speak of it though, as he led us to the dining hall. We were the only ones there, sitting down and grabbing something to eat. Darius seemed happy to serve me the food almost, bringing lots to my plate, pouring me some fresh water, able
-Katherine-“You’re pregnant. Like you were a few days ago,” the physician said after holding my hand.He knew just from touching me. His healing powers were incredible. They originally came from earth powers, but they didn’t come out in the sense of talking to animals and such. Even though our powers were given by the elements, they could be expressed in many ways. Just because you had water powers, didn’t mean you could freeze things.“You’re sure?”He chuckled a little, because it was the third time asking him. But after a ten-year marriage with no kids, I was still finding it hard to believe. I mean, three years Darius and I had been together in this life, and he had managed to get me pregnant. Was there something wrong with Acan? Or did he just not want to get me pregnant?“Look here,” he said.He had drawn a little blood, putting it in a small glass vial, and I watched as he held it up, using his powers to make me see something the eye couldn’t see. Soon my blood glistened almos
-Katherine- I didn’t really want to leave Darius I realized as he kissed me and walked away to meet his brother. He was comforting, especially now with the whole new life thing, and me being trapped in a world where things seemed to have been turned around. I knew only small things had been altered. Or maybe it wasn’t small. My marriage to Acan was one of the greatest events there had ever been because such big families were joined together. Another memory sprung forward, and I saw how big Darius’s and my wedding was as well. I couldn’t quite remember yet why it was I had ended up with Darius. I was a princess. Shouldn’t I have been given to the king? Or future king at least? I thought it over as I went to join Silver and the others in one of the big common rooms used for the queen and her ladies. They were lying around, laughing, floating plates of goods around them. They had pillows and blankets everywhere, books and clothes placed around the room, and small birds were sitting by th
-Darius- "You and Silver seem quite in love as well," I said, and my brother looked at me confused, turning in his saddle a little. "What?" "Why do you almost sound surprised by it?" he asked. "Well, eh…" "I know you don’t like her, but you know I have loved her since we were kids, and she has loved me." "What?" I didn’t mean to blurt out the word, but as he spoke of loving Silver since they were kids, I was learning something new. In our old life, he had never confessed that to me. He had never even shown Silver the same interest he showed Katherine, or the interest I thought he had shown her. It seemed now all to be an act. Maybe he had tried to make Father happy, or maybe because he knew he was stuck with Katherine, he tried to make it work. But he had eventually killed her to free himself of her. It was crazy to think about. I had never seen my brother as a cruel person, and even now, despite knowing what he was capable of, I felt no darkness. How could that be? I knew it was
-Darius-My brother didn’t appreciate my words, and I understood, but he needed to see that it wasn’t going to end well if he thought going after the Dark Ones was a good idea. At least not if he thought of striking them in their own territory. It would only end up with him getting killed."But you spoke with me once about how you might get even stronger if you fought on their land," he reminded me, as if I could remember that conversation."Me, I would get stronger. Not the rest.""But it might be enough?""Am I going single man?" I asked, thinking that was an even worse idea."No, you wouldn't, but you could guide the rest of us through it all.""Brother, I don’t think it’s a good idea. Listen to me. They are too powerful on that side," I explained.He sighed, leaning back and seeming disappointed. Was my brother a man who liked wars? Who liked to be known for something "great", which was really just bloody? I couldn’t believe it, and I didn’t believe our father had raised him to be
-Darius- When I came back early to the castle, I was surprised when I stepped into my bedroom and did not find my wife in bed. I walked a little further into the room, trying to search for her, and found her on the couch, passed out. I smiled at the sight of it and even walked over to the armrest, grabbed it, and leaned over her. She looked so beautiful. I could just look at her forever, and it made my heart go crazy inside my chest. But why was she sleeping on the couch? I reached down and stroked her cheek, and she slowly stirred from her sleep. Katherine looked up, seeming so relieved, though, like she had been scared without me. "Morning," I said. "Oh, thank the Goddess!" She got up from the couch and then went to hug me. I was surprised by the intensity of the hug, but I certainly didn’t ask her to let go. "Is everything all right?" I asked. "Never leave like that again," she mumbled into my neck. "Why? Did something happen? Did Silver do something?" Katherine pulled back,