Authors: Kailin Gow
I love you
. The words came directly into her head, thanks to the mark. He threw the cane, and it arced above the fighting vampires for a moment. Cruces reached up and it smacked squarely into his palm as he caught it.
“Take care of her,” Rothschild called out, tipping his hand so that the last ashes in the box fell from it. “Destroy the Order.”
“Traitor!”
Rothchild groaned as Lydia thrust the stake deeper, and Scarlett screamed. It felt like the stake was plunging into her own chest. The vampire vanished, scattering into silvery dust that floated down to mingle with that he had poured out onto the floor.
“No!” Scarlett struggled to go to Rothschild, hitting out at Cruces and Tavian even as they held her back. She kicked Tavian sharply, knowing that she had to go to Rothschild. To get to his remains. Or perhaps… yes, she still had the dagger. One thrust and she could join him. One simple thrust, and…
“Hold her, Tavian!” Cruces stepped back, lifted the stick he held and it was a bow once more. He drew the string back and fired what seemed to be an arrow of the dullest grey into Scarlett. She froze for a moment, then stood there shaking her head. What had she been thinking. What had she been about to do?
“She is herself again?” Tavian asked.
“I hope so,” Cruces said.
More of the shadow vampires moved towards them then, and Tavian took a step forward.
“Go,” he said, “I can hold them.”
“You’re sure?” Cruces stepped forward to shake Tavian’s hand. It seemed an oddly noble gesture, under the circumstances, and a stupid one.
“What?” Scarlett demanded. “You’re planning to stay here?”
It was too late to say anything else. Tavian was already fighting off vampires. Cruces, meanwhile, had grabbed Scarlett around the waist. In an instant, they were in the space between worlds, moving away from the Ancient Greece of myth too fast to follow. They appeared in front of Cruces’ house, right on the doorstep. Scarlett tried to pull away.
“Tavian!” Scarlett cried. “We can’t leave him behind.”
“Hush,” Cruces said, “Tavian will be alright.”
“No, he’ll be stuck there. We have to go back, I’m not leaving my Tavian behind.”
Cruces groaned. “Your Tavian? Oh, for pity’s sake! Don’t tell me that I have undone the effects of the bow only for Aphrodite’s meddling to take hold. There is nothing to see here,” he snapped to a couple of passersby.
“We must go back,” Scarlett insisted.
Cruces shook his head. “We cannot.”
“Why can’t we?” Scarlett demanded. “Either take me back or unhand me.”
“I want to talk to you Scarlett,” Cruces said. “I want you to know… I think you were able to get through to Rothschild. He would not have stood against Lydia like that purely for the sake of the Devices. Not unless he understood how important humanity was. He has not understood that in thousands of years though, so there is only one explanation. You changed him, at the end. You Scarlett.”
Scarlett was not sure about that. She could remember her foolish forced love for Rothschild, an emotion that stood as nothing now, so that she could even remember the moment of Rothschild’s death without pain.
“I am sorry for your loss, Cruces. He was, after all, your brother.” Scarlett paused. “Please, go back for Tavian.”
“No,” Cruces said.
“Why not?”
Cruces kissed her then, ignoring Scarlett’s brief protest. How dare he?
“Scarlett, please. You’ll see him soon enough. Right now, I just want this moment alone with you, even if it is on my doorstep. You may not remember, but at one point you cared for me. I could feel it when we kissed. You and I. The Seeker and the Keeper. We are meant to be.”
As Cruces kissed her again, just for a moment, Scarlett thought that she could feel it. She could feel the need for him. The moment after that though, as they broke apart, it was gone. Scarlett stood back, and Cruces opened the door to let them inside.
T
hey went inside, with Cruces more or less pulling Scarlett after him. They headed into the dining room, where the vampire looked around impatiently, then looked at his pocket watch.
“I didn’t think we’d have to wait. That’s why I brought us back outside. Still, any second now, I should think. Ah, here we go.”
Scarlett watched open-mouthed as the air in the room split open to allow Tavian to step through. The young fey man had scrapes on his cheeks from the fight he’d been in, but otherwise he seemed to be all right. Scarlett’s gasp of amazement was not so much at the sudden appearance, since she knew perfectly well by now that travel between worlds could happen, but at the fact Tavian could do it at all, when Cruces was here with the ring that allowed it.
“Tavian,” Scarlett breathed. “He’s really here?”
“You can see him, Scarlett,” Cruces said with surprising gentleness, reaching out to touch Scarlett’s chin with his fingertips. For once, Scarlett did not pull back. “I told you that he would be joining us, and I keep my word.”
Even so, Scarlett moved over to Tavian, reaching out to touch him just to see if he was really there.
“It’s really you?” Scarlett asked, but the love inside her as Aphrodite’s spell welled up answered that.
“It’s really me,” Tavian promised.
“How?” Scarlett asked, looking back at Cruces, trying to understand. “If we left him behind, how can he be here?”
Tavian reached out to turn Scarlett gently back to him, and as his hand touched her cheek, Scarlett felt the cold presence of metal. She took Tavian’s hand and looked down at it. There, clear in the light coming through the window, was Cruces’ ring. Scarlett thought back, suddenly understanding. She looked over at Cruces.
“When you shook hands, you gave Tavian your ring.”
Cruces nodded. “I had just seen the pain that losing someone you loved that deeply could cause you, so I could not risk his loss. I will not have you hurt like that, Scarlett. Besides, we will need our young gypsy’s help if we are to retrieve Gordon and, yes, Cecilia later on.” Cruces smiled. “In any case, regardless of what I might feel, I know that Tavian is one of the few others in this world who will do whatever he must to keep you safe. That is valuable to me, Scarlett. Valuable enough to be worth one magical ring, at least.”
Scarlett stayed silent at that. The scope of the gift was not lost on her. Nor were the feelings behind it. That Cruces would give up a way of travelling between worlds to ensure that Scarlett remained safe said a lot. Too much, perhaps, given what she currently felt for Tavian. It also begged one very important question.
“If Tavian has your ring, how did we get back?” she asked. “How did we manage to travel between worlds?”
Cruces looked momentarily pained. “Rothschild. His ring was around the shaft of the walking stick when he threw it to me. I think he knew what would be needed to keep you safe, or perhaps he simply did not wish Lydia and those who command her to have another item of such power.” Cruces sighed. “I will miss him. He plotted, and schemed, and occasionally killed, but he was a brother to me for so long that I can’t help missing him. And there was some good in him at the end.”
The vampire fell into silence then, obviously remembering, and Scarlett wanted to go to him. She wanted to put her arm around him. She wanted to kiss him. Scarlett started, surprised that she would want that when it was Tavian she loved, but right then, she
did
want to kiss Cruces. She could feel that need bubbling up inside her like a wellspring. For the moment, however, Scarlett had to squash that feeling. Tavian was there, and she loved him regardless of what else she felt. She was not about to complicate that in such a way.
After a moment or two, Cruces straightened up and rang through for his butler. George appeared neatly and efficiently.
“Tea for my guests, George,” he said, “four cups please. Plus wine from my reserve for myself, obviously.”
“Four cups, sir?” the butler asked, looking to Scarlett and Tavian in turn.
“There will be more guests along shortly, I imagine.”
“Very good, sir.”
Scarlett raised an eyebrow. “More guests? Who are you expecting, Cruces?”
Cruces nodded to two of the chairs in the room. “Them.”
Aphrodite and Hephaestus appeared in the chairs almost exactly as Cruces said the word, arriving in a blaze of light that almost made Scarlett look away. When it passed, the couple appeared as they had before, beautiful and clad in golden cloth, looking absolutely perfect. They had with them a golden-haired boy who appeared to be about ten or so, dressed the same way they were, and with an expression that made it clear he hadn’t wanted to come.
“But Mother,” the boy was saying, “I have already promised Alexander that I will go around to his house, and…”
“Enough, Cupid,” Aphrodite said. “We’re here now.”
Cupid looked around. “Well, this looks boring.”
Aphrodite looked over to Cruces with an almost pleading expression. “Please tell me that you have the bow. No, I know you do, I can feel it. Hand it over. My son is turning into a mortal brat far too quickly for anyone’s good.”
“I am
not
.”
Beside his wife, Hephaestus let out a sigh and looked to Scarlett. “Aphrodite is right. You have succeeded in your quest, our champion. All that remains is to return the bow to where it should be.”
Cruces shook his head. “Not so fast.”
“Not so
fast?”
Aphrodite repeated. “Don’t you remember what happened the last two times you irritated me, vampire?”
“I remember all too well,” Cruces retorted, “which is why I want to make sure that you are going to keep your word. You did not see how things were in my home.”
“We did,” Cupid said. “Mother used one of the reflecting pools on Olympus to look.”
Scarlett bit her lip then. She hated the thought that she and the others had been used for simple entertainment by these immortals. Before she could say anything, thankfully, George the butler returned with the drinks. Scarlett took the time to sip her tea and compose her thoughts.
Hephaestus appeared to be doing the same. “We watched you because we were concerned for our son,” he said. “We wanted to be certain that our mortal champion was going to complete the task in time to help Cupid. And you, Cruces, have
my
word that my wife’s spell will be lifted.” He raised a hand when Scarlett started to interrupt. “I know, my dear. You do not feel like you are bespelled. You simply feel as though you are in love. Even so, we should not interfere in what you genuinely feel.”
“Really?” Aphrodite snapped. “Why not? I am a goddess of love, not of standing around doing nothing.”
“So you will not stand around doing nothing while our son turns into one of them then, will you?” Hephaestus demanded, and for a moment the air was tense between the two of them. Eventually though, Aphrodite looked away.
“Oh, very well,” she said. “But they hand over the bow first. I’m not having Cupid stay like this for a second longer than he has to.”
Cruces looked like he might argue with that, but Scarlett reached out to put a hand on his arm. “Give him the bow, Cruces,” she said.
“You’re sure?”
Scarlett nodded. “Someone here has to show some trust. It might as well be us.”
Cruces nodded and handed the bow, which had reverted to being a stick yet again, over to Cupid. The boy took it as though he could barely understand what it was he was taking hold of. Briefly, Scarlett found herself wondering if it was too late. Was Cupid condemned to being an ordinary mortal boy, destined to grow up, get old, and eventually die?
Then the stick in Cupid’s hands started to glow then, becoming the bow once more, and he started to glow. He glowed as brightly as a miniature sun, but then seemed to almost pull the light back into himself, claiming the power and controlling it. Scarlett stared at the boy there for a second or two afterwards, and even in that short space the difference was obvious. Cupid stood differently, and when he looked at her, that was different too. He was still a ten year old boy, but he was a ten year old who could remember the millennia he had been that age.
“Thank you,” he said, and it sounded curiously formal coming from such a young boy. He looked at Scarlett, smiled to himself as if in celebration of some private joke, and then disappeared as quickly as he had come.
“We should go after him,” Aphrodite said. “He’ll only go and get into trouble again.”
“After you have undone what you did,” Hephaestus insisted.
Aphrodite sighed and waved a hand vaguely in the direction of Cruces, Tavian and Scarlett. “There, it’s done, are you happy now?”