Sacrifice of the Septimus: Part 1 (Afterlife saga Book 7) (35 page)

“Look honey, I don’t know what fucked up mess you have got yourself into now or what you are planning on doing to get yourself out of it and unless you need my help, I don’t want to know. But that said, whatever it is Bill knew about it.” At this my hope soared and I grabbed onto his leather jacket praying like never before that he had something for me.

“Tell me, did he give you anything for me?”

“No.” Okay so there went my hope again, talk about crash and burn, this hope went more like explode and die.

“All he gave me was advice to pass on if your fine ass came walking through my door.”

“What did he say?”

“He told me to tell you that whatever you’re looking for, you already have one and it packed a punch the last time you touched it.” As soon as he said it I felt like slapping my forehead! How could I have forgotten about the coin that Draven got me to touch and the one that brought me back to being Keira.

“Of course there was a lot more cowboy bullshit in there…you know, a few added ‘little lady’s’, ‘Corncrackers’ and my least favourite, fucking ‘Big Bug’s’ that to this day I won’t ever understand. But I thought it best to cut out the shit nobody can understand and get to the point.” I laughed knowing this was Bill for you. A lovely guy but bloody hard to understand sometimes. 

“Keeping my wife company I see.” Draven’s voice made me jump and he placed a possessive hand on my shoulder.

“And prying eyes off her as you can see for yourself.” I looked around and it was true, no one from the crowd was looking at us but more than that, they were purposely not looking because no doubt they were afraid to. I took this as a rule in Jared’s club, or more like a rule with any of Jared’s girls. It seems as though all Kings held a possessive streak, because I knew the same could certainly be said for Lucius. And it was also looking as if I could add Vincent to that list if his reaction to seeing Ari perform was anything to go by.

“Then I must thank you for protecting what is mine, along with allowing me the use of your club tonight, I found the entertainment better than expected.” He said teasing me as he held onto the back of my neck and started rubbing his thumb over my pulse spot.

“It was certainly a memorable night.” Jared commented on a grin which told me he wasn’t only referring to Draven’s fight but also my homage to Dolly Parton.

“Tomorrow then.” Draven said, telling me that Jared was at least coming to the wedding. I stood up and told Draven that I wanted to say goodbye to everyone and he nodded for me to go ahead. I made the rounds noticing that Sophia, Zagan, Pip and Adam were doing the same thing too. I knew that most of the people who were here I would see again tomorrow at the wedding or more like, if everything went well, in a few weeks when I finally had the chance to actually have my wedding day.

To be honest I wasn’t actually sure what was happening in regards to my wedding day as that had been Sophia’s department and all I had to do was wear what she told me and be where she wanted me to be. Unbelievably, I hadn’t even seen my dress yet but it wasn’t for lack of trying. I had finally given up the venture when Sophia told me it was a surprise and her gift to me on my big day, one I was hoping to have sooner rather than later.

I had just finished teasing Ragnar, much to Sigurd’s amusement, when I spotted the perfect opportunity to speak to the last person I hadn’t yet said goodbye too…

“Lucius.”

“Hello, little doll.”

“Why does everyone keep calling me that tonight?” I commented shaking my head.

“Well, if the boots fit, sweetheart,” he said motioning to my doll like outfit with a flick of his hand. I took this time to look at his outfit and it was shameful to say that it was drool worthy. The man definitely knew how to fill out a suit with all those pale muscles hidden behind his crisp white shirt, navy blue trousers and suit jacket to match. Even his bare neck looked strong for God’s sake, one that was on show thanks to being unconfined by any tie.

I looked behind me to see that Draven was being handed the black shirt he had obviously taken off for the fight and being Draven, he hadn’t felt the need to put it back on until now. I decided now was the time to ask,

“How is she?”
I whispered.

“She is safe, have no fear of that.”

“But you’re here.” I added trying to get the point of my worry across.

“Don’t think me lacking when it comes to having loyal subjects… or in other areas for that matter.” Lucius finished this with a wink, making me roll my eyes at him whilst trying to hide my blush.

“Your husband is waiting for you,” Lucius said nodding behind me and he was right, Draven was waiting.

“I guess this is goodbye then…
again.”
  I told him and he laughed once, got to his feet and said,

“Try not to look so forlorn, pet.” Then he took my hand in his, pulled me a little closer and said quietly,

“I have a feeling another part of me will be seeing you sooner than I will.”
I tried to understand what he meant by this but gave up and asked him,
 

“You will be there tomorrow, won’t you?”

“I wouldn’t miss it, kitten.” I gave him a grin and was about to walk away when he added something that this time, really made me blush,

“Oh and little Keira girl…”

“Yes Lucius?” He nodded to the ring and said,

“You did good up there… A sight that will no doubt comfort me in my sleep tonight,” he teased and then laughed when his only reply from me was an even deeper flush of colour on my cheeks.

After this our party of six left and when I started moaning about my poor abused feet Draven swept me up in his arms once more and carried me back up the stairs of the more formal exit of the club. I hadn’t been this way before but it was definitely a lot more of a dignified exit than finding oneself popping up from under some concrete slabs in a back alley…or out of a cleaning cupboard.

Even the staircase looked to be one fit for royalty and was no doubt the one that Jared himself used. For starters it was well lit, wasn’t damp and had a lush silver carpet on the floor. It was one that also led up through what at one time was probably a house but now had been opened up and changed into a grand entrance hall. This also meant that it didn’t exactly look suspicious as we exited straight onto the main part o
f
Fleet Street, where there was a car parked waiting for us.

“You’re not coming to bed?” Draven asked me when we got back into the hotel and I told him,

“I want to help the girls clear the stuff from the room, besides I left all my gifts there.”

“Alright, but don’t be long, love,”
he whispered in my ear hinting at the reason he didn’t want me to be long with that seductive voice of his. I let Sophia and Pip go on ahead to the room so that I could grab Adam for a moment alone.

“Keira?” He said my name obviously wondering what was wrong with me lingering like this.

“This is going to seem like I am really overstepping the mark, and I know that I am, but as her friend I have to say something.” I was running away with my words and if his small grin had anything to do with it, he knew this as well.

“Please, go ahead.”

“Pip’s upset that you two didn’t uh…well…you know and that we…me and Sophia did…not together of course, but you know, she kind of felt left out so I might have mentioned…” He laughed and stopped me, saving me from my own mouth.

“Have no fear I have plans for my naughty little wife. She will soon be happy once more.”

“Oh good,” I said feeling myself getting embarrassed.

“Goodnight and I thank you for your concern with regards to my wife’s feelings. You’re a good friend, one she needs greatly in her life.” I gave him a huge smile in return and said,

“Well I love her.” To which he raised my hand and kissed the back of it in way of his own thanks.  

After that I caught up with Sophia and Pip. And I smirked as she still hadn’t been allowed freedom from her silk restraints yet. We all walked back into the suite, holding our breaths to what we may find. It was certainly a big relief to find everyone was still fast asleep and we didn’t just have four angry females on our hands, especially not when one of those was my mum!

“So did you get it?” Sophia asked as soon as we were back in the room and had made sure everyone was still asleep and comfortable.

“No.”

“What do you mean no? May I remind you that we do this tomorrow!” Sophia said getting high pitched.

“I know but there is another coin that we didn’t even think about.” I told her, quickly going on to explain what Jared had told me and my message from Bill.

“Great, so do you have it on you?” Sophia asked and at any other time this would seem like a perfectly logical question but right now my mind went into panic.

“You don’t know where it is?!” I asked her, for some reason thinking that being his sister and all, she would know.

“No, why would I know? You’re the one who touched it.” And this was a good point, one I hadn’t even thought about.

“Do you think Dom still has it?” Sophia asked, meanwhile Pip had just been sat silently watching us, her head turning back and to as if we had been playing tennis.

“I’m not sure, but shit, what if it’s back in Afterlife?!” I shouted feeling as though this was getting even more hopeless than it seemed at the start.

This was when Pip finally spoke her views on the matter…

“Houston, I think we have a problem.”

.

Chapter 34

Into the Hourglass We Fall

After being dealt yet another blow, we decided to get ourselves back into our other outfits and clean up until the girls all started to wake. It was easy to convince them the night had continued but one by one the alcohol must have got the better of them. We made sure they all went to their rooms before returning back to ours. Draven wasn’t too disappointed to see only my dress remained as I didn’t end up staying in it for long. And he was right, he did get entertained, again and again until my body could take no more.

He was like a man possessed and couldn’t get enough, telling me constantly how much it had meant to him and how sexy I looked. He also wished he had known it had been me hiding behind the feathers, saying that he would have paid more attention. I had to say I liked the idea that Draven hadn’t been interested in watching any other girl’s dance and I knew how lucky I was.

Unsurprisingly it didn’t take me long to crash after the night I’d had, falling asleep quickly in Draven’s strong arms. However, my dreams that night were obviously rooted and deeply entwined to my worried mind. For I didn’t know what would happen if we couldn’t get into that Janus Temple,

But it looked as though my dreams did…

I was falling down a mountain and no matter how I scrabbled to get back to the top, more of the mountain came crumbing down over me. I would dig myself out only for more and more to come crashing over me, swallowing me whole. My hand would reach the surface as I held my breath praying that someone would find me and pull me out before I ran out of air. It was so dark down there and I didn’t want this to be how I died. I didn’t want this to be my final minutes before being taken from this earth.

But we don’t all get to choose unless making the decision to take time into our own hands. For we might not be able to choose life but we could always choose to fight for it! So I gripped onto what I could feel around me and I pulled and I heaved. Reaching up with my other hand I did the same and soon my head breeched the surface and I was gasping for breath. Down here everything was clearer than when I had been climbing. Up there I couldn’t see what I had been climbing or an end to its consistently bleak onslaught but now I could see it all.

It wasn’t a mountain at all, I was trapped inside a gargantuan hourglass that was being fed by my own tears from above. The tears then turned to stone, pale crystals that made up the impossible crumbling mountain that lay in front of me. I was trapped in my own cage of time, fuelled by my pain, one of grief and suffering for all I had lost.

“Stop.”
I whispered reaching up, trying to tell myself that she was killing me, burying me with her misery…
but she wouldn’t listen.
So this time I shouted,

“Stop! Stop it Keira!” I looked to see the side of the glass dome around me crack but it wasn’t enough. The other me only cried harder and I looked above to see a torrent of crystal tears falling, raining down on me, signifying my death. I had one last chance to call out and this time I did so in anger, screaming,

“STOP! PUT A STOP TO THIS! SAVE US ALL!” Suddenly the glass around me smashed just as the tears landed, crashing into me like a bone crushing wave. It should have killed me but it didn’t and I opened my eyes to take in the destruction of what I had done. The solid tears had spread out like gravel, showing me now the horrors of what had been buried beneath.

“No, no…it’s not meant to be this way, it’s not…it was never meant to happen like this.”
I sobbed as I dragged my way over to the still bodies of those I loved. They had all been buried there, Sophia, Vincent, Pip, Adam…even Lucius. They all lay scattered around me and I cried out, cursing the Gods and the injustice of taking them from me. But then that’s when I found him.

My light in the darkness was no longer burning bright and I had been the cause. I screamed at the sight of the man I loved lying there dead like the others and I hated myself. I loathed my utter existence, knowing whatever had happened to get me to this point, I had done something wrong, or worse…nothing at all. I screamed up at them again, threating the Gods against the wrath of this lonely, heartbroken girl who was no longer strong enough to do anything but cry out the never-ending tears of agony.

I let my head fall forward in my hopelessness and those same tears fell. I opened my eyes frowning at what I now held cupped in my hands.

“An hourglass.”
I whispered, as there it was. The same one I had just broken free of and it too…

Was catching my tears.

“Keira wake up.” Draven commanded me, jerking me back into this world. I opened my eyes to see the morning peeking through the curtains and I looked down to my hands which no longer held an hourglass but instead a hand I knew.

“Draven?”

“I’m here, it was just a dream sweetheart, it wasn’t real,” he told me and I closed my eyes against the hurt in knowing that… no, not now but…one day…
it could be.

“Hey, come now,” he said turning me so that we were lying facing each other.

“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked and I shook my head telling him no.

“Alright love, I understand but you know I wouldn’t let anything happen to you…don’t you?” he told me cupping my cheek and I couldn’t help the single tear that fell from my eye, quickly soaking into my pillow.

“Do you trust me?” I nodded and said,

“Yes.” Because I did. I trusted Draven to do what was right by me and in keeping me safe. I trusted it so much that I knew he would give up the world for me…
because he was.
And it almost killed me to know that his trust in me would only bring him what he feared the most…

My death.

But I needed him to know why and yet my words would have ruined everything. I wanted to tell him but I couldn’t be allowed to speak because even though I trusted him right now I couldn’t even trust myself.

“I have a wedding gift for you,” he told me and I had to hold in the rest of the tears that wanted to follow the first.

“Alright.” I told him and he kissed my hand before getting up from the bed. He disappeared into the other room and came back with a small square gift wrapped in red velvet.

“I was going to save this until after we were married but after last night’s gift you gave me, I wanted to give you something in return. It will eventually go with another gift I have for you, one that will have to wait until we return home I am afraid.” He said, lying back onto the bed and handing me the small package.

I decided in that very minute that whatever lay in my hands now was to determine whether I told Draven everything or not. Because without that key we were going nowhere so there was only one hope left and that was to tell Draven everything I knew. Everything I had been planning in the hope that he would do the right thing, not for me but for everyone else we loved. That way I wouldn’t have to go back to the past and deceive him. I would be giving him the option to choose and even though I didn’t hold much faith in his choice being to risk my life, I knew we were running out of options.

Whatever I opened now, I would let my gift be the answer I was looking for. So with a deep breath I untied the bow, reached inside the material and held it up letting the velvet fall away.

“Oh my God.”
I uttered in astonishment, knowing this was it, the sign I had been looking for. I reached out my fingers onto the glass as if I was actually touching Bill’s coin behind it.

The very coin that saved me and now the same coin that would save everyone else but me.

“Do you like it?” I could barely speak and I nodded and told him with tears running freely down my cheeks,

“You don’t know what this means to me.” Because he didn’t. One day he would…but not today. Because today I read the inscription he had carved into the wood he’d had the coin mounted to.

And today, those words weren’t going to be true…

‘I will always bring you home.’