A Dome of Blood Read online

  The flutter in my chest became frantic, as I held on to Nevis and prayed to all the possible deities, both old and new, that we’d never be apart. We’d found each other at the heart of a tragedy, and, if The Shade’s history of love stories was correct, ours was going to be just as powerful, just as timeless.

  “You want to introduce me to your family, then,” I replied, smiling.

  “They are my family. My friends. My confidants. My people, yes. And I know they will love you. They’d be foolish not to.”

  “You’ll have to meet my parents, too. I’m guessing we’re going to do the whole dinner-and-dance thing, while we’re at it,” I said. “Nevertide has gotten really good at throwing parties.”

  “Do you think they’ll like me?”

  The question came as a bit of a surprise. Nevis was one of the most confident creatures I’d ever met. I hadn’t thought, for one second, that he’d require anyone’s approval—including my parents’. He didn’t seem fazed by Varga, and my brother knew how to intimidate, after all.

  “Well, I tolerate you, so they shouldn’t have a problem with you,” I said, grinning.

  “What about your brother? What does he think?”

  Again, this struck me as strange, as if I didn’t recognize the Dhaxanian prince who’d already claimed my heart. “Varga is… well, he’s a little special.”

  “Define ‘special,’” Nevis answered, the corner of his mouth twitching slightly.

  “He won’t have a problem with you. He’ll be your best friend. Your hunting partner. He’ll bleed in the battlefield for you, if he has to. But if you break my heart, Nevis, he will kill you,” I said, quoting my brother almost word for word.

  Varga had said it to me before, during our travels, but this time, his statement felt so true and so appropriate. It was as if he’d said it in anticipation of this exact moment. For a second there, I’d forgotten that my brother was a prolific sentry.

  He’d already read Nevis. He knew what was in his heart.

  Nevis, in turn, didn’t seem surprised by what I’d just said. Instead, he took it in and acknowledged it with great dignity. “That sounds reasonable. I would do the same, if I were him,” he said. “For what it’s worth, Elonora, I think you have been exceptionally fortunate to have Varga as a brother. And something tells me your parents are just as wonderful.”

  I nodded enthusiastically. “Oh, they are. You’ll love them, I promise.”

  “The same can be said about the Dhaxanians. We’re cold and distant by nature, but we tend to love deeply and fiercely, when we indulge in such emotional luxuries,” he replied, tracing an invisible line down my cheek, setting each cell in my skin on fire. “It’s settled, then,” he added with a sharp exhale.

  “I meet your people, and you meet my parents,” I said, summarizing the core of this peculiarly intense conversation.

  “That means we’re not allowed to lose this fight, Elonora,” Nevis replied.

  “Not in a million years,” I murmured, then kissed him again.

  We stayed like that for a while, nestled in each other’s arms, savoring this moment for as long as we could. Deep down, I’d already found my resolution. We were going to prevail and do the whole meet-the-parents dance. Nevis’s parents were long gone, but mine were more than enough for the both of us.

  My father was going to mess with Nevis’s mind. My brother was going to prank him in some awful way. My mother was going to treat him to a sumptuous feast and interrogate him, like the cunning queen that she was.

  Once Ta’Zan gave his last breath, all Nevis and I had to worry about was getting our people to accept us. May that be our biggest problem…

  Ben

  I took some time to talk to River over the comms system. My cave chamber was on the northeastern side of the mountain—chilly, quiet, and dark, just like I wanted it. I was hours away from getting an electric shock collar around my neck, and I needed to hear my wife’s voice for a bit. If all this went south, it could very well be the last time I’d get to speak to River in private.

  “How’s Vita?” I asked, perpetually worried about our little fae granddaughter.

  “As well as she can be,” River answered. “She’s stressed about Bijarki being out there, with you, but she does understand why he had to join Draven on this mission. However, she’s still extremely pregnant, so her patience is wearing thin.”

  “And her health?”

  “She’s good. I mean, we’ve never had a fae-incubus hybrid before, so we’re not sure how the pregnancy will go in the end, until she goes into labor. Her vitals are good. The baby’s vitals are good, and it’s kicking something fierce. Personally, I’m optimistic,” River explained. “Vita’s perpetually tired and hungry, though. I honestly feel sorry for her. I don’t remember having this much work with Grace,” she added, giggling.

  I chuckled softly, remembering River’s perfectly round baby bump and the many kisses I’d dropped on it, feeling the soft skin against my lips, as if I was kissing my daughter directly. Grace must’ve felt my love from the womb, and I felt sorry for Bijarki. He was busy saving the world. He couldn’t be there with her right now.

  The best I could do was make sure that the incubus came back home alive, ready to be a father to his child.

  “Remember when you were still carrying Grace?” I asked her.

  River sighed. “My ankles were huge.”

  We both laughed hard at this one. Tears snuck out, rolling down my cheeks. As scary as it was, the labor was the most extraordinary moment in my life—the day Grace joined us in this world and brightened my existence in ways I’d never thought possible. And I had River to thank for that.

  River. The love of my life. The woman I came back from the dead for.

  “But I don’t regret it,” she added. “I don’t think there’s anything that gave me more joy in this life than carrying Grace to term… Oh, wait, there’s one thing that equals it!”

  I couldn’t help but smile, the smoothness of her voice warming me up on the inside.

  “Oh, yeah? What’s that?” I asked, though, deep down, I already knew the answer.

  “The day you came back to me,” she replied, and I could almost see her right there in front of me, her lips stretching into a warm smile. If I reached out, maybe I could even touch her.

  But all I felt was the cold air against my fingertips.

  My River was millions of miles away, on a different planet altogether.

  “I remember that,” I muttered. “You were sitting on the shore.”

  “Mm-hm. I’d been waiting forever for you. Hoping you’d find a way back to The Shade. Back to me,” she said.

  “Well, I kind of did, didn’t I?”

  She laughed again, and the sound of her laughing was like music to my ears. “Your body was on a three-day loan, Ben. You proposed to me while wearing another fae’s meat suit.”

  “I didn’t technically propose, babe. Remember?”

  “Ah, yes, you said you would ask me to marry you if you could keep that body forever,” River shot back. “And remember what I told you?”

  My heart was aching. I’d spent so many of my ghost days hanging around River, unable to touch her or tell her how much I loved her, how much I missed her. I could only reach her in dreams, and that was never enough.

  “You said yes,” I replied. “I didn’t even ask you, and you said yes.”

  “Ben… I was happy to see you. The happiest, in fact. I was miserable without you, and… seeing you there, on the beach, smiling down at me… My brain just stopped functioning,” River said.

  Oh, I remembered the look on her face. I could almost feel her angst once I told her about the three-day agreement I’d made with the fae for this body. I got to keep it, in the end, but, back then, nothing was certain. Nothing besides my love for River.

  We’d been through enough over the years, and me dying and coming back wasn’t even the cherry on top of it all. Over the past few months, prior to this Strava mess,
River and I had been having trouble. Not the serious kind, but we’d grown just a little bit apart. Enough for the both of us to feel like there was something wrong with our relationship.

  I’d spoken to Rose about it, and I was surprised to hear that she and Caleb were going through something similar. We figured they were the regular troubles of married couples. Sometimes, even with all the love in the world and nothing to really argue about, couples went through these… slumps.

  River and I had been having some arguments—the small stuff about GASP operations, or where to spend our much-deserved vacation, mostly, but they did suck the life out of us. By the time we got to bed, we ended up sleeping with our backs to each other.

  Now that I was here, on Strava, struggling to stay alive and to save the friggin’ world, I missed River more than ever. This was way worse than my stint as a ghost. This time, I could speak to her—I just couldn’t get back to her, because Ta’Zan, the crazy bastard that he was, wanted to destroy the entire world.

  All the arguments that River and I had were gone. Mere threads of dust gone with the wind. Moments that flickered by so fast, I couldn’t even remember what they were about. All I could think of was a way to destroy Ta’Zan and stop the Perfects, so I could get back to my wife and hold her in my arms again.

  “I miss you,” I said to her.

  “I miss you, too, Ben.”

  “Do you remember what we last bickered about?”

  “I don’t even care,” she replied. “We’re married. I think we’ll always butt heads, one way or another. Sofia said it comes with the couple life.”

  “You talked to my mom about it?”

  “Not directly, no. We just talked about… stuff, in general, and I mentioned that we had some rather heated arguments,” River said. “I hope you don’t mind.”

  “No, no, not at all,” I breathed. “I’m a little flustered, maybe, but I kind of had that coming. I’m stubborn. I deserve it.”

  River scoffed. “That makes two of us. Why do you think sparks fly when we’re together? There will always be some disagreement between us, at one point or another. But we’re much stronger than that.”

  “I like to think it’s because we love each other to the moon and back,” I said, reminding her of exactly what she’d said to me the day I came back as a fae.

  “Oh, you sly dog, you!” River shot back, laughing. “Promise me one thing.”

  “What’s that?” I asked, deeply satisfied to have made her laugh again.

  “Promise me you’ll come back. We’re going to be great-grandparents, Ben.”

  “River, I will pulverize a billion Ta’Zans, if that’s what it takes to get back to you. I’m sorry we ever fought, even for a minute, over the most trivial of things,” I said, my voice shaky. “There’s nothing I want more, right now, than to hold you in my arms.”

  “Well, then get off your ass, obliterate those damn Perfects, and fly back here!” River replied, stifling a giggle.

  “By the stars, I love you even more right now,” I grumbled.

  “You like it when I talk dirty, huh?”

  “You’re such a dork.” I laughed, and she joined me.

  It went on for minutes on end, until River regained her composure. “I’m serious, though,” she said. “Come back to me, Ben. I don’t know what I’d do without you. You’re embedded in my soul, and I’m not sure my life would mean anything if you weren’t a part of it.”

  I nodded slowly, though no one could see me.

  “I will, River. Strava isn’t all that great, anyway. Too much sunlight for my taste. I’m used to our nocturnal Shade and our mighty redwoods. Don’t get me wrong, this place is great for a tropical vacation, but we’ve been here too long already.”

  I needed to hear her laugh again. She knew I’d do my best to keep my promise. I didn’t have to say it out loud. River had seen me come back from the dead, after all. A planet in another galaxy was supposed to be a piece of cake, compared to that.

  But we both knew it wasn’t so cut and dry.

  There was a chance I wouldn’t make it back at all. So, knowing I’d told her that I loved her just now made me feel a little bit better in case of a worst-case scenario coming true. I’d made my peace. Come hell or high water, I’d find my way back to River, or at least die trying.

  Rose

  I didn’t want to look at this night as our last one as free people, but I had to admit, though only to myself, that there was a chance I’d never see my family or my husband again. Our plan was supposedly foolproof, but Ta’Zan did have a way of surprising us—and not in a pleasant manner.

  Caleb’s voice was strained. I knew he missed me as much as I missed him. Most importantly, I knew he was worried sick, and for good reason. We were about to embark on a crazy mission, to say the least. I was going to offer myself up to the beast, in order to save my mother, and to destroy it once and for all.

  “How are you holding up?” Caleb asked me.

  I chuckled. “I should be asking you that.”

  “You’re the one who’s about to give herself willingly to that maniac,” he muttered.

  I could feel his anger, the frustration fueled by his inability to stop me from doing what I was about to do. I understood how he felt, but, if the roles were reversed, Caleb would’ve done the same to save his mother, without abandoning the mission.

  “You know why I’m doing this,” I said, not ready to get into an argument with him over my decision. We’d had a couple of heated conversations about it already, and I didn’t have the patience for another one.

  I wanted to talk to him about the good stuff to get my mind off what we were about to do, not dissect it further to prove exactly why this step was necessary. I loved Caleb more than anything, and the only reason why we had arguments over this in the first place was because he loved me, too. He didn’t want to lose me, so I couldn’t hold it against him.

  Caleb let a deep and frustrated sigh roll out. My stomach churned at the thought of not seeing him again. “Are you sure you’ve worked out all the kinks in the plan you gave us?” he asked, trying his best to gradually divert the conversation away from the hot points.

  “As long as Nathaniel, Uriel, Angelica, and Deena meet up with Araquiel and Herakles, we’ll be fine,” I replied. “Amal and Amane have already worked out all possible scenarios, including the possibility that Ta’Zan already knows that Amal has been playing him. We’ve got it covered, Caleb.”

  “Forgive me if I’m worried.”

  His tone was clipped. I took a deep breath, carefully measuring my words.

  “Honey… I want nothing more than to be there with you,” I said. “Let me just kill that crazy bastard first, and then we’ll take some time off, just the two of us.”

  A few seconds went by in silence.

  “Did you have something in mind?” he grumbled, making me smile.

  “I was thinking we’d stay on Earth. Maybe Europe.”

  “Yeah, I’ve had enough of these foreign trips, for sure. And the worst thing we can expect in Europe is… what, exactly? Some rogue werewolf, maybe?” Caleb replied.

  There was amusement in his voice. I was getting him back to a lighter mood, and that made me feel better, too. As if my throat wasn’t closing up anymore. As if I wasn’t hours away from getting myself imprisoned in that diamond dome.

  “We could try Italy. Tuscany is supposed to be gorgeous in September,” I murmured, already imagining the starry sky unraveling over the wild hills south of Sienna, with deer and boar roaming through the nearby woods and the midnight breeze brushing through my hair.

  “I can’t believe we’ve never been there,” Caleb said. “We’ve been around for quite a while.”

  “We’ve been busy saving the world, over and over.”

  “Can we save ourselves, next?” he asked, his voice hoarse.

  My heart fluttered at the thought of wrapping my arms around his neck and making love to him until the morning. Caleb was an essential part
of my soul, and the chemistry between us was eternal. No matter what happened to us, and even if the sky crumbled, the love that Caleb and I had for each other was timeless.

  “There’s nothing to save,” I replied. “We’re okay, Caleb. Sure, we bicker now and then, but what did you expect? We’re both stubborn as hell.”

  He chuckled softly. “That’s true. Though, I admit, I still don’t regret kidnapping you. I’d do it again.”

  I laughed, remembering how the two of us had met. Caleb had once been an enemy of sorts, my abductor, and the cause of much grief to my parents. But the fire between us was too strong. It didn’t care that Caleb was doing all sorts of crazy stuff for Annora. It was hard to shake a black witch off, and Annora had had her claws deep in his heart at the time.

  In the end, our love prevailed.

  “I mean, let’s not forget how you took Annora down,” he said. “You were something else, Rose. You didn’t give up, not even when she practically fed you to flesh-eating ogres. In hindsight, I’m an absolute idiot for doubting your ability to get out of this Stravian mess in one piece.”

  “You’re not an idiot. Annora was a different pile of darkness and crazy, anyway. Ta’Zan is calculated. He’s cunning. He’s like nothing we’ve faced before,” I replied. “I mean, ogres and dragons are like flies on the windshield, compared to the Perfects.”

  That made him laugh.

  “I don’t want to lose you, Rose.” He sighed. “You… You changed my life. Your spark got me out of the darkness. You showed me that life is the sum of our choices. And I don’t want this choice of yours, to surrender to Ta’Zan, to break us apart for good. Am I making sense? I feel like I am, for the most part.”

  I loved this side of him. Caleb was the tall, dark, and handsome type, the fierce and determined guy who was ready to burn down an entire planet for the woman he loved. But sometimes, this hard shell dissolved and revealed the softness beneath. I was his soulmate, and Caleb struggled to function without me. In all honesty, I was empty without him, too.