Chaos Lives in Everything - 57. Chapter 57

Hours later, still covered in blood and sore from the long battle in Romania, Skold stood before the three council members that were there to represent King Yaldon.

“You did very well,” Bevlin said.

Aurora nodded silently in agreement and to Skold’s surprise so did Sebastian.

“There’s nothing left of the Paladin’s castle or of the village. All traces of the plague are gone. You succeeded, Skold, as we knew you were.”

Skold smirked, sitting before them at the wooden table in King Yaldon’s mansion. “I’m sure there was some doubt in my capabilities somewhere.”

Bevlin nodded. “Of course we had some concerns. But you proved those concerns to be foolhardy. Once again the world continues to spin because of you. We owe you our thanks.”

“What will happen with the boy that we found in the village?”

“We will let the human government deal with him. You won’t have to worry about that. He will be fine. Has the human girl said her goodbyes to him?”

Skold nodded. “She has said her final words to him.”

“Good.”

“Then what can we give you in return for your services?” Aurora said, speaking up for the first time since Skold had entered the room.

“Give me?” Skold raised an eyebrow cautiously.

“Well yes, we want to reward you for what you have done. Perhaps we could reclaim you as our own again. You wouldn’t be an exile anymore.” Her voice had become soft and dangerously sweet. “You could work for us again, be a commander of armies again. Even in this new and modern age there are wars that still need fighting, adversaries to be fought. We could restore your name again, your reputation. You could become a hero again.”

“A hero? A soldier?” Skold laughed coldly. “I was a hero and a soldier once already and you took the most important thing from me. That something is even more important to me than my cock and balls. Don’t play games with me. You know what I want.”

“We cannot give you your memories back,” Bevlin said.

“But you know who can.”

“As if we would tell you,” Sebastian said nastily. “So you can start another war like Paladin and Samhein?”

“So that I can be whole again,” Skold replied. His voice had gone soft, even a little shakey. It was almost impossible to keep his eyes open. He was so tired. But more than sleep he wanted his soul back. He wanted his past back, his identity. “So that I don’t have to live as a ghost trapped in purgatory anymore. I am haunted by the very things that I cannot remember. You have no idea how agonizing that is.”

“It is agony that is well-deserved,” Sebastian said.

“You are cruel,” Skold said. He pushed his chair back and straightened up. His gaze went from one council member to the next and the next and then back again. “All of you. You praise me for saving the world in one minute and then laugh at my deformities in the next. You think you are so strong, so powerful. But you’re just scared little children. I don’t want anything from you degenerates. I will get back from what you and your shitty little king took from you. And when I do I’m going to laugh and spit in your face. And then you will have a real reason to fear me.”

Skold took a taxi cab back to the hotel. He stepped into the room and plopped down on the couch just as Rebecca ended her call with Melanie. Her hair was wet and she wore a white bathrobe that the hotel had provided.

“Hey,” she said.

“Good evening.”

“How are you?”

“I’ve had better days.”

“Were the council being assholes again?”

“To say the least.”

“I’m sorry Skold. I’m truly sorry.”

“For what?”

She hugged him, her wet hair falling across his shoulder. “I know you want your memories back. I can’t imagine how you feel not having them.”

“I feel like a shadow. But do not pity me Rebecca. I am not to be pitied, do you understand?”

She sat up; there were dark circles around her eyes. “I understand. I’m ready to go home.”

“As am I. We’ll be home soon. But right now I think we both need to rest. Recover. Where’s Dom?”

“In the bedroom, asleep.”

“I think I will go join him.”

Skold wished Rebecca a good night and slipped into his shadowy hotel room. Dom’s rumbling snores led him to the bed. Skold stripped out of his filthy, bloody clothes. He didn’t even have the energy to shower and wash it off. With Dom’s warm skin pressed against his back, Skold closed his eyes and went to sleep.

It was as Skold, Dom, Rebecca, and Candestine were packing for the flight back to Roc City that Maeglin chose to bid them farewell. He came dressed in a finely pressed suit; he looked like a business man on the streets.

“It was a pleasure fighting with you,” he said to Skold. He offered his hand. “I must return to servicing our poor sick king.”

Skold clasped it firmly and gave it a single shake up and down. “As it was with you. Tell me, was it like the old days?”

Maeglin laughed. “Yes. It brought back old memories.”

“Too true,” Candestine muttered under her breath.

“And you continue to be a beautiful and fierce warrior,” Maeglin, kissing her on both cheeks. Candestine blushed. She tried to keep her face deadpan. For a second her mouth twitched, hinting faintly at a smile.

“Don’t get yourself killed, you hear?”

“I can’t make any guarantees but I’ll try not to.” Maeglin turned to Dom and laid a hand on one of his massive shoulders. “I expect that you’ll keep an eye on Skold? He has a tendency to get himself into trouble.”

“I will,” Dom said.

Maeglin took Rebecca’s hands in both of his hands. “You are the bravest human that I have ever encountered in my many, many centuries on this earth. I cannot tell you how much I have learned about your race within the few moments that I have spent with you.”

“Be careful,” Rebecca said. She kissed him on the cheek.

Maeglin bid them one final farewell and left.

Tearing up, Rebecca sighed and said, “I hate good byes.”

The next day.

Roc City.

Home.

Rebecca kept trying to tell herself that this wasn’t a dream or a trick of the mind. She was home, she was really home. She had been home for almost a whole day now. She was still a little sore from the terrors that had occurred in Romania but she was alive. She was breathing in cold winter air. She now realized that Roc City was nowhere near as cold as Romania.

Here she was opening the door and stepping into Melanie’s apartment building. Here she was climbing up the flight of stairs to the third floor; and now here she was knocking on the door, feeling as though her heart was going to leap out of her mouth. Though she had spoken to Melanie in the hotel back in Berlin this was the part that she feared the most, the part where this dream would become a nightmare.

She was afraid that Melanie would turn her away.

Or not even answer the door. She was afraid that Melanie would just ignore her.

She knew that this was an irrational fear but she was afraid anyway.

She held her breath.

The door opened. Melanie looked at her. She had nothing but a towel wrapped around her waist. Her skin shined from the beads of water that dotted her skin like transparent beads. Before Rebecca could open her mouth to speak, Melanie yanked her inside and pulled her into a deep, warm kiss.

“My heroine’s home,” Melanie said when they parted. She took Rebecca’s hand and led her into the bedroom. She stopped at the foot of the bed, turned back around to face Rebecca, and let the towel drop to the floor.

Three weeks.

Three weeks since the day that they had returned to Roc City. Three weeks that Skold and Dom had spent in Dom’s cabin. Alone with each other. Away from the city. Away from the noise. They had not gone anywhere else, had not seen anyone else, not even on Christmas Day.

They talked, they fucked, they talked some more, and they fucked some more. Sometimes Dom fucked Skold so hard that Skold was actually sore afterwards but he loved it. He loved the way that Dom grunted like an animal, biting Skold’s flesh, and how it felt when he came inside of Skold. He loved the feeling of Dom collasping on top of him, pressing his body deeper into the bed. All that solid muscle, and hair, the warmth of his flesh. He liked it when Dom simply ran his fingers through his hair.

But Skold didn’t just like having sex with Dom. He loved Dom, he was sure of that now. It no longer felt strange to love another, only natural. The morning of New Year Skold climbed out of bed. Dom was still asleep. They had spent the whole night making love. It would be well into the afternoon before he woke up. But for some reason Skold could not sleep. He felt restless. He dressed silently and slipped out of the cabin.

He went to the pond.

There the seer waited for him.

He stood beside her. “Annabelle. I was wondering when you were going to show up.”

“I have been busy,” she said.

“Vacation?”

“I am never on vacation. There is always something that has to be done.”

Skold did not laugh at her humor. Instead, as was his way, he got straight to the point. “What do you want?”

“You know it is not over,” she said. “There is much still to come.”

“I know. No rest for the wicked.”

“It won’t be long before Bane returns. And this time he will be even more different than when you saw him last. More powerful. Hopefully by the time that moment comes, you will be too. In order to be stronger however, we need your memories. We need the old you.”

Skold said, “I’m not so sure I like the old me. No one did.”

“But you still want them back, do you not?”

Skold met her gaze. “I do. More than ever.”

The seer looked down at her feet. “There is something you must know, something that I have not yet told you.”

“Then say it. There’s no need to be dramatic.”

“The spell that was used to bind your memories into the darkest parts of you is a very powerful spell. It is a spell that only a seer can perform. Three of them to be exact.”

Skold’s blood turned to ice. He became very still. “What do you mean?”

“King Yaldon and the council paid my two sisters and I to bind your memories, lock them away.”

“Your two sisters?”

The seer nodded.

“You bitch,” he said. He grabbed her by the throat and pulled her towards him, his eyes burning with rage. “You fucking bitch.”

The seer’s mask of beauty and youth crumbled, turning into the old crone that dwelled behind. “Careful, Skold. I am not the one to fuck with.”

“Neither am I.” Skold threw her back so hard that the seer tumbled down into the snow. He looked down at her. “If you had told me this a month and a half ago I would have killed ypu, memories be damned.”

The seer rose to her feet. The face of the crone was gone, the mask of youth and beauty had returned. “My sisters and I are the only ones that can reverse the spell. But I couldn’t tell you in the beginning. I had to see if you were truly capable of changing, if you could truly show compassion.”

Skold laughed. “Compassion. And how do you know that when I get my memories back that I won’t do what Paladin and Samhein could not? How do you know that I won’t bring the sky down around your ears?”

“I do not know that,” said the seer. “The future right now is very unclear. But it is your choice. The fate of the world will depend on what you decide to do. But everything that has happened, your exile, the loss of your memories, this conversation, it all has a...”

“Purpose?”

The seer nodded.

“I’ll believe it when I see it. How long do I have to wait?” Skold asked.

“I must find them,” Annabelle said. “I do not know where they are. I have not seem them since the day that you were exiled. Once I find them I will return.”

“Then go. Go and find them.”

The seer nodded again, and disappeared in a flash of purple light.