Skye's Arrival

Chapter Thirty-One

Pain rakes through me while I try to breathe. My senses are on fire while tears stream from my face. From the pain, and the memories. A splitting pain is coming from my brain, unsure what to believe, while my heart agrees with its pain, unsure how to feel. I can hear Rafi chanting something or another. The water is muffling it too much for me to understand what he is saying.

There is black magic that seems to be pulled from my skin, holding a slight copper tint. It curls in the water, trying to find the body it belonged to moments ago. The lake water turns red, surrounding Rafi and me. That’s when my pain begins to grow. I scream out, unable to take the pain any longer; the water invading my lungs at that point.

Water fills my lungs while I silently scream, barely hearing Rafi’s chants. My entire body begins convulsing at that point. Coldness spreads up from my fingertips to the top of my head. I begin to see something. A memory.

“Rafi, what are you doing here?” I ask him, still half asleep; covering myself in a robe when I had opened my door.

“Koan, he’s controlling you,” he tells me, panting. That’s when I fully look at him. His face has mud on it and his clothes are shredded and covered in blood. He has a cut-up lip and a black eye.

I rub my face, his eyes tracing my bledded marks. “What?” I lower my hand, still unalarmed by his appearance. Rafi had been picking fights with Koan lately, so this isn’t enough to make me worry. Rafi pushes past me, entering without permission. I don’t care, but Koan will.

He starts stammering, trying to put it into words while I close the door. I let him work it out while I get him some water to drink. “What is wrong, Rafi? Koan is going to kill you if he sees you here with me.”

He takes the glass and sets it down on a black coffee table, finally speaking coherently. “Koan is controlling you. He wants to be with you because you are inheriting the Celestial Kingdom. He’s insane. He’s placed us both under a memory spell, to forget that we’re mates. He used a mimicking spell on you, to trick you into thinking you’re mates. He’s been keeping you away from me. So we don’t accidentally break the spell.”

“Are you drunk?” I ask him, feeling worried. Why would he think Koan is capable of doing something like that? Then again, Koan does have a bit of a temper, but doesn’t everybody?

Rafi grabs my biceps and locks eyes with me. “Skye, you’re bledded to someone who is not your mate. I’m your mate, not Koan.”

His words are so preposterous that I start laughing. “I think I would know if Koan wasn’t mated to me. We are bledded after all. The pain of a mismatch would make it so it could never happen.”

“Do you remember your bite with him?” Rafi demands, desperate to make me see his point.

I open my mouth to answer, then close it. Why can’t I remember? My brow furrows in my frustration, trying to remember one of the most important days of my life.

“No.” My answer comes out soft, and he almost didn’t hear it. I don’t understand this. “Why don’t I remember?”

Rafi’s eyes grow a little hope, finally gaining some ground. “He made you forget, Skye. You only remember what he wants you to remember. He’s controlling you. He’s using you. He’s going to use your position, and his position, to rule over both of our kingdoms. He’s going to destroy the space between our realm, and the mortal realm. Koan wants it all.”

I shake my head, rejecting this. “You’re not making sense Rafi. Why would he do that?”

“So I can open the doors to Purgatory.” Koan’s voice comes, making us turn our heads. Koan is almost in as bad of shape as Rafi, but his hair is still oddly in place. “Why are you touching my wife, Rafi?”

“She’s not your real wife,” Rafi growls, pushing me behind him. “Why do you want to open Purgatory?”

“Because there is no point becoming King of the Demons if I cannot rule all of them,” Koan answers simply, almost sounding bored. “Besides, I can only reach my full power if I have access to the Rune Stone.”

“Why would you want that?” Rafi demands, forcing me to take a step back when he does.

“Because then that is when I’ll be truly powerful,” Koan emphasizes his last word strongly; speaking as if he’s talking to a five-year-old. “I want it all Rafi. I want everyone; Celestial, Demon, Mortal, and eternally damned to bow down to me. Only then, will I truly be King.”

“You’re already going to be king,” Rafi roars. “You don’t need all of that.”

“No, but I want it.”

Rafi turns me with his body, shielding me still while he moves with Koan. I can faintly see Koan circling us, looking for a weakness in Rafi’s guard. “Then why do you need to keep Skye? The Celestial King has already recognized you as her mate. You don’t need her to open the gates anymore, once you’re the king.”

“She’s my mate, Rafiale, you know this.”

“She can’t be yours if she’s mine.”

“She can be if one of the consequences of the spells I’ve put on you two is to physically bind yourself to your victims. You and I are blood-related, so that’s not an issue. For Skye however, we had to be bledded. She is mine now, in every sense of the word.”

“If that’s true, then why do you need to keep her spelled?”

“She’s not the one that casted the spell, now is she?” Koan asks, sounding annoyed. “Now you’ve been touching my mate for too long Rafiale. Step aside.”

“Koan, what did you do to me?” I ask him, torn between fear and anger.

He smirks at me. “I made you realize something you refused to see. You’re mine, Skye. You always have and you always will.”

“No, I’m not,” I tell him, shaking my head, and rejecting his words. “If what you said was true, I was never yours.”

“I belong to the strongest Celestial, and she belongs to me. You’re brilliant, beautiful, devious, strong, and amazing. Everything about you tells me you’re my mate.” He takes a step forward. “You would never give me a chance. You only thought of me as your friend. You’d only ever talk about Rafi.”

He takes another step toward me. “Don’t you see? You were designed for me. Not my incompetent brother. You deserve the best, just like I do.”

I feel like I might vomit. Feeling violated is the main feeling I have right now, and my hazed mind is trying to desperately defend Koan’s actions. “I don’t deserve this. You did something horrible to us Koan.”

“I corrected a mistake,” Koan growls. “Rafi should never have been your chosen mate.”

“You committed an atrocity,” I scream. “You are trying to destroy two mate lines Koan. What about your mate? Did you think of her?”

Koan snorts, “That pathetic girl? She was just some maid. Such a weak little thing. She couldn’t even stand up for herself when Esmeralda made her interest known. I had her executed.”

Horror spreads through me as my jaw drops. “That’s revolting.”

“I chose you over my own mate Skye. I love you more than her.” Koan says, fury starting to light behind his eyes. “That’s how I know we belong together.”

“It’s just the spell Koan. I’ll release you from it. Just tell me what spell you did.”

Koan barks a laugh. “I’ve felt this way long before that spell. I am the best, so I will only ever have the best.”

“You’re delusional Koan. You’re not the best man out there. You’re not even the best man in this room.”

His face reddens. “You’re going to regret those words.” He takes a step forward, forcing a warning growl from Rafi.

Koan’s eyes begin to change, looking at his brother, who is the only thing standing between us. “Brother, if you wish to live, I suggest you step away from my mate.”

“She’s mine,” Rafi growls. His back is starting to change; showing he’s turning into his full demon self.

“If you believe that, you are a fool.” Comes a horsed voice that belongs to Adam, moments before Rafi is launched into me. I fall backward and hit my head hard against a stoned table. Rafi is on top of me, fighting to get up, but someone is wrestling him on top of me. Pieces of shattered stone are everywhere, including my back.

I grab a piece of the table and before I can shove the men off of me, someone else does it for me. Koan reaches for me, but I kick his legs out from under him. He lands on top of me, his demon eyes showing his fevered rage.

Repulsed by his touch, I stab my stone into the side of his neck, causing his eyes to widen. When I open my mouth to speak the words, he pushes onto me, forcing his lips on mine to stop my words. While my hazed mind begins to fog, I scream my rage. He bites down on my lower lip, making me cry out in pain.

Koan quickly covers my mouth with his hand and then bites hard on my neck. My neck arches as I let out a pained cry. He releases my neck. “Shh,” he soothes, stroking my hair while my vision begins to change. “It’ll be okay Skye. You won’t remember any of this nasty night, my love. Now rest here while I take care of my brother.”

My eyes snap open, seeing that I am still underwater. Rafi is still holding onto me, but he’s no longer holding me down. I gasp as I sit up, bringing myself out from under the water. I roll away from Rafi while I try to catch my breath.

I force myself to slow down while I look around. It’s still dark. The sky is fully lit up under a full moon and an array of watchful stars. Rafi is holding his hands out to me, hopeful pain behind his eyes.

“What-what did you just do to me?” I demand from him.

“I used the lake’s power to help you break the spell,” Rafi answers gently. “With Koan’s venom, you couldn’t get the strength to do it. If you continued to fight it, it would have killed you.”

“You remembered once,” I tell him. “You tried to warn me.”

Rafi grimaces. “I remembered a few times, one of the benefits of constantly fighting my brother. That was the only time I managed to get to you before he did.”

I’m starting to feel dizzy; once rewritten memories returning to their original tale. I look at Rafi. “You were the one I kissed under the Gistel Stars, during the falling stars.”

Almost fearfully, Rafi nods. “Yes, I was.”

“You-you were the one that-that held me when I was badly injured from a battle wound,” I say, starting to feel sick. “You sang me a song.”

Rafi nods, a bit of desperation in his voice. “It’s the same one I hum to you, to help you fall asleep.”

I remember that. A memory flashes into my eyes, taking my breath away. Koan had come to tell me that Rafi had a surprise for me. I followed him to my chambers, thinking nothing of it since Rafi had spent the night with me. That was when Koan had bitten me for the first time.

“I-I know what spell he used,” I tell Rafi. “I remember it from when he first did it.” My face is paling while I speak. “A Momolia Spell.”

“He couldn’t do that,” Rafi argues. “That requires,”

“A living sacrifice.” I finish for him. “A costly sacrifice. His mate.”

Rafi’s eyes widen. “He didn’t.”

“He told us he executed her.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time he lied.”