Beautiful Salvation (34 page)

A loud crack shattered the silence, not the boom of thunder, but something more earthy, wooden. Eurydice’s lips parted, her head falling back as the energy building inside her trunk, seeping into her from the blood coating her tree, rushed through her body and into her branches. Another sharp crack sounded and Adonis shouted. One by one, the princes’ hands vanished from her trunk, leaving the bark of the tree to splinter around Eurydice’s body. Sensation flowed down her form, air brushing against new skin through the cracks in the shell around her. Groping around, Eurydice grasped the branches closest to her and held on as the trunk of the tree split open.

“By the gods.” Patricio’s mouth opened and closed like a fish hauled onto the earth, blue eyes wide.

Cool air hit Eurydice’s flesh…all the way down to her legs. She cried out as her body pitched forward, no longer supported by the shell of a tree trunk. Her legs, too new to support her, buckled. Etienne leapt to catch her, gathering her to his broad chest and holding her as Saamal and Patricio rushed to gently ease her legs from the remains of the tree. As soon as her body was completely free, the crack in the World Tree shifted, swirled, healing before their eyes. Eurydice stared as the trunk closed up, as smooth and unbroken as it had been the day she’d first laid eyes on it.

“I’m free.” The words echoed in the air around her, teased her ears. She tensed as the full realization of what had happened hit her. Desperate hope seized her, holding her breath prisoner in her lungs. She scrabbled against Etienne’s chest, trying to push herself up, wildly searching her surroundings. The mist was starting to clear, but it moved so slowly. Everything was cloudy—she needed to see!

Patricio noticed her panic. He beat his wings, stirring the air and pushing the fog back. Saamal took the hint and raised his hands. Wind sprang from his palms and surged outward, rolling the cloud back like a thick rug. Etienne stood up, offering Eurydice a better view.

They were on a giant hill overlooking the most vibrant wilderness Eurydice had ever seen. Mountains rose in the distance like towering sentinels, sparkling snow covered peaks providing a sharp contrast for the patches of darkness flowing down their sides that spoke of deep caves. Lush forests rose up on either side, their trunks a dark maze of moving shadows and their canopy a rustling velvet green blanket. A rushing sapphire river flowed through the valley from the mountains, splashing around jagged rocks and washing at the sloping banks. The sky was a pure midnight with the largest full moon Eurydice had ever seen, a ball of silver light that lit the valley like a spotlight.

“Where are we?” Kirill breathed.

“This place has no name,” Eurydice answered absently. She strained to see around her, to hear any sounds of someone coming.
Please, you have to be here.

“What do you mean it has no name?” Patricio asked.

“It didn’t exist before now,” Eurydice murmured. “That’s why I needed you, that’s why you needed to be mated. I needed a great deal of power, but it had to be power that could support creation. The World Tree passes through every world, every place. I needed it to grow so it would create a new place.”

“Why did you need a new place?” Etienne asked, still holding Eurydice as if she weighed no more than a tuft of fur.

A sweet musical note drifted through the air. Eurydice’s heart nearly stopped. It came again, closer this time. A high, graceful note so achingly pure that it hurt her heart to hear it. “Orpheus.” Her voice was barely more than a breath, a prayer offered to the wind.

The music came again, a long stream of notes this time, and it continued. A song. Their song. Their wedding song. Eurydice put her hands on Etienne’s shoulders, shoving herself higher up, cursing the sluggish movements of her legs, the limbs still adjusting to being attached to her body. “Where is he? Where is he?” Tears burned her eyes and her entire body shuddered, rattling her teeth and making it difficult to brace herself against Etienne’s broad shoulders. “I can hear him, where is he?”

“Shhh, it’s all right, calm down,” Adonis soothed.

“Who’s Orpheus?” Saamal asked, searching the surrounding area.

“Her husband,” Adonis answered simply.

The other princes stared at him, but Eurydice was beyond caring about their confusion. She tried to scramble to her own feet, but Etienne held her firmly, arms closing over her body like iron bands.

“Slow down or you’ll fall over.” He eased his grip, but kept the warning in his eyes.

“You know Orpheus?” Kirill asked Adonis. His note clearly stated his displeasure of not being privy to knowledge his protégé had had all along.

The music grew louder. A sob ripped from Eurydice’s throat as a figure emerged from the forest. He was as handsome as she remembered, long lean muscles, a head of unruly blond curls, and eyes the pale blue of robin’s eggs. He wore a simple white robe, absent of any ornamentation. He held his lyre in his arms, every brush of his fingers over the strings filling the air with a song sweet enough to charm the birds from the trees.

“Orpheus,” she cried.

The delight that brightened Orpheus’ face lit the darkness even more completely than the moon. He rushed toward her, dropping his lyre, and held his arms out. Eurydice sobbed harder, and fought Etienne’s hold. He released her as Orpheus drew close and she managed a few shaking steps and then collapsed into her husband’s arms. All the years they’d been apart, all the time planning, hoping, praying, it all crashed down on her. She wrapped her arms around him, holding his as tightly as she could, and cried.

Orpheus hushed her, humming low in his throat, seeking to calm her with music as he always had. Memories flooded over her and she pressed harder against him, terrified that she would wake up and find it had all been a dream, that the warm body against her, the strong arms holding her close, were nothing but figments of her ravaged imagination. She sucked in deep lungfuls of air, filling her senses with his scent, the wonderful aroma of the woods and the polish he used to shine his lyre so that it shone like the sun as he played. The sound of his voice, the vibration of his humming against her chest… It felt like home. She was finally home.

For a while, the world floated away. Nothing else mattered, nothing else existed but this warm space in her husband’s arms. As the last of her tears dried on her face, Eurydice’s breath came slower, easier. Bit by bit, she became aware of Adonis’ voice.

“But on their wedding day, Eurydice was bit by a viper. Orpheus tried to save her from the underworld. He played music so sweet that Charon ferried him across the river without any coin, Cerberus laid down to sleep and let him pass, and even Hades and Persephone allowed him to enter their realm of the dead. He was allowed to try and take Eurydice from the underworld on the condition that he not look back to see her until the sunlight touched them both.” The demon hesitated.

“It’s all right,” Orpheus said quietly, his honey deep tone sliding down Eurydice’s skin like the familiar caress of a lover. “Most of the world knows how I failed.” He shifted beneath her cheek and Eurydice closed her eyes, not wanting to think about that day. “I acted too quickly. It was so hard to keep going without making sure she was really behind me and it wasn’t all some trick to get me out of the underworld. As soon as the sun hit me, I turned.” Orpheus dropped a kiss on Eurydice’s head, tightening his hold around her. “I played and I played, a sweeter song than I’d ever managed in my life, but nothing I did could get Hades to let me in a second time.”

He whispered the last sentence into Eurydice’s hair, something in his voice begging, pleading for forgiveness.

“I forgive you, my love.” Eurydice tilted her head up to smile at her husband. She laid a gentle kiss on his lips, sharing their breath for one glorious moment. “It wasn’t your fault. It was the
maenads
. Even if you’d managed to rescue me, they would have found another way.”

“Who?” Kirill asked.

Eurydice focused on Kirill, laying her head on Orpheus’ chest and listening to the calming rhythm of his heart. “The
maenads
, the female followers of Dionysus. They were furious that Orpheus had married, outraged that he’d abandoned the worship of Dionysus and entered a monogamous relationship with me. They blamed me for taking him away from them, and it was they who set the viper on me.”

“Dionysus changed them all to trees after he discovered what they’d done.” Orpheus buried his face in Eurydice’s hair. “It gave no comfort though, not when you were gone.” His voice thickened with the threat of tears. “Not when I failed to get you back.”

“It wasn’t enough to part us for life.” Eurydice clenched her hands into fists. “They sought to part us for eternity. They hovered over me while I lay dying, told me they would lay a curse on you, so that no land would ever welcome you, that you would travel forever. Even the underworld would shun your presence. They announced that we would never again be together in any world under the stars.”

“And so you created a new world.” Kirill shook his head. “How?”

Eurydice settled against Orpheus, soothed by his hand stroking her back. “Even though he refused to let Orpheus in a second time, Hades was not unsympathetic. He had no love for the
maenads
, and his wife Persephone despised them. I was a dryad, and so he agreed to let me merge with the World Tree, if it would accept me. I could see any world, but if I wanted to see Orpheus again, I needed to find a way to grow, to gather enough power to create a new world. If it didn’t exist at the time of the
maenads
curse, it would be immune.” She paused and glanced at Kirill. “There was another catch.”

The vampire tensed, as did the others.

“And what would that be?” Patricio asked warily.

“If I were to create a new kingdom, I had to have a way to rule it. I couldn’t simply create a new land and leave it to fall into chaos while I reunited with my husband.”

Kirill perked up, eyes sharpening. “That is why you chose princes.”

Eurydice nodded. “You were raised to rule, but you are not yet responsible for your own kingdoms. Gathering five of you would allow you to rule as a council, and should you become kings of your own kingdoms, you would still be able to offer guidance for the ruling of this one.”

She looked around at each of them in turn, remembering fondly the first time she’d seen each of them alone in their kingdoms, had realized they were the ones to help her. A genuine smile came to her lips as she recalled the night they had first come to her, the joy of watching them grow closer, learn to trust one another.

“Each of you has something to bring to the ruling table.” She faced Etienne and the werewolf tilted his head, waiting patiently for her to continue. “Etienne, you offer
balance. You have the instincts and strength of a beast, but you have learned to mitigate that with rational thought without completely ignoring what your instincts tell you.”

She turned to the vampire, shaking her head in amusement as she noticed the slight movement under his cloak, a sure sign the undead prince was toying with a weapon, soothing himself in his own unique way. “Kirill, you have ambition greater perhaps than I have ever seen. You will always strive for improvement, and unlike others who show ambition, you never let it rush you into doing something foolish.”

The scent of cloves tickled her nostrils and she arched an eyebrow at Adonis as the demon took another puff of his cigarette. The demon tensed, smoke slowly flowing from his nose. “What?” he asked, another cloud escaping his mouth.
 

Eurydice chuckled. “Adonis, your passion is unrivaled and your playfulness never ceases to melt even the sternest of hearts.” She glanced meaningfully at Kirill who lifted one shoulder in a shrug. She returned her attention to Adonis. “You know how to talk to people, how to put them at ease. For a king to be loved by his people is a powerful motivator, and you will no doubt be the heart of the kingdom.”

“My avenging angel.” Patricio stiffened as she focused on him, his imposing height and size in charming contrast to the childlike caution in his cerulean eyes. “Patricio, you are justice incarnate. You will bring safety to your people, and guard against the chaos that Hades warned against. I know you have felt unloved, unappreciated by your people, but I have seen you grow so much. You will be loved, not only by your lovely wife, but by everyone lucky enough to come under your protection.”