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Chapter 28
NESTRADIA
FIVE MONTHS LATER (FIVE YEARS EVERYWHERE ELSE)
“Aaahhhhh!”
Tana’s excited squeal still echoed in Jezzie’s ears five months later. Uncle Micah did eventually get his hug, like, three hours after his grand introduction. He had to slip in and take his chance when Tana finally let go and went to use the bathroom, but still, he got one, and Jezzie couldn’t help but soak up the familial affection like a deprived booze hound.
Her cousin. Gosh! It still felt weird to even think it, the girl who’d grown up with only her aunt, and the rare visit from her mom, actually had a cousin. Not just a cousin, but an uncle too! How cool, and odd, was that?
Anyway, her cousin, Tana, was super excited to meet her, to actually have another “friendly” female around. She’d latched on instantly, and basically turned into a loveable, psycho, bouncy bunny for the next two weeks. She’d settled a bit since, and the two of them got along like a house on fire. Especially since they both liked to set evil things literally on fire.
Five months on, and she still hadn’t said much about her mom, nor had Uncle Micah; it was obviously a difficult topic for them. What she did know was the Princes were on Tana’s shit list for a very good reason, and as repentant as they were, not even Uncle Micah had fully forgiven them, yet. The death of her uncle’s wife, his daughter’s mother, well, he cast the blame partly at their feet.
She’d learned to leave that particular topic alone, considering she and Nithe both got along well with the princes, and spent time hanging out with them at their castle every few weeks. Tana sometimes even tagged along. She insisted it was to piss them off, and she definitely succeeded in her task, but every now and then Jezzie caught a wistful look of longing cross her cousin’s face. A look of “what if/he’s so sexy/he’s so funny/I wanna lick him real good” which was quickly followed by a hard glint in her eye, and a sharp jab at the lot of them. As if she could fill her words with enough venom to burn away the pain of what they’d done. Thankfully, and annoyingly, the gorgon maids were always underfoot to help divert Tana’s bad mood. Pissing them off never failed to put a grin back on her cousin’s face.
Nithe was doing great. Each day he seemed lighter. The bond grew stronger. They were ever by each other’s side. Even though his memories of Raum, his nightmares, still plagued him, they came less often than they used to. They still dreamed of their other two bondmates, as Nithe called them, but strangely enough only when they stayed the night away from her uncle’s home. Though she did dream with Nithe, and not just about sex. Sometimes she was able to pull him from his nightmares, redirect the course of his dreams. Other times she was the one pulled in as she siphoned off his darker, more heartbreaking emotions and replaced them with as much peace as she could muster.
According to her uncle, five months here was equal to roughly five years in every other realm. Her uncle had been trapped in this place for just over thirty years, Tana for twenty-nine, but beyond Nestradia 362 years had slipped away from them.
Also, they’d had to come clean to her uncle and Tana the first day they’d arrived when two rooms were prepared instead of one. It was a bit awkward introducing your unofficial mate to your newly discovered uncle. Thank fuck Uncle Micah was remarkably chill about it. In fact, he’d been a font of information about the dreams, the Astral Plane, the bond, with its tether-like pull, having experienced it all with Tana’s mother. While he didn’t have shadows or a dragon, the Blessed Reapers were gifted with the golden mists of light.
“The night we first made love—”
“Ew, Dad. Can you at least wait ‘til I leave the room. Sorry, guys, I love that they loved each other, but I much prefer the PG version of my youth, so I’m gonna go and take a shower while you all chat about this,” Tana explained, walking away making exaggerated retching sounds and holding a hand to her mouth.
Jezzie and Nithe chuckled at her antics. Her uncle just watched her leave, his face awash with a look of adoration and awe.
“Every time she calls me that I can’t quite believe how lucky I am,” his voice drifted off a little at the end before he gathered himself and refocused.
“Anyway, as I was saying, when we, you know, I felt my mist, and my soul, connect not just with her soul, but with the soul of her phoenix as well. Like ribbons of glittering gold tethered us together and wrapped around us. Binding us. I didn’t know what it was, what it meant, nothing. It was unheard of. Impossible. Yet, there it was. In the same moment I heard my mist speak to her, and then to me. I was in awe. It was yet another surprise. My mist longed for her, I longed for her, still do. Not long after Tana was found, my mist grew quieter, eventually, it stopped speaking to me. While I feel the crushing weight of her absence every day, I refuse to think the worst, though I know I am most likely a fool.”
He took a deep breath before he continued on, his right hand rubbing circles on his chest, above his heart. As though it ached still for the love he had lost.
“Like the good soldier I was, I went straight to Leraie, the Almighty’s right hand, and was sworn to secrecy. I spent every spare second I could with Idalia. A phoenix having an unauthorized relationship with someone outside their species was almost criminal, but we didn’t care. She was so strong, so brave. Two weeks later the Almighty found us in our hideaway, and held a ceremony to declare us wed, our bond officially recognized. Just not publically. Not yet, or so the Almighty insisted. It was the happiest moment of my life, and the one which fills me with the utmost regret.” His gaze drifted away like clouds on a breezy, sun-filled day.
“I don’t understand,” Nithe gently prodded. “How could you regret such a bond?”
“I could never regret the bond, nor the marriage. What I regret is not sweeping her in my arms and carrying her away with me to some place far from her people the moment the Almighty left our presence. If I had I would have known of our child. I would have spared her the betrayal of her people, her queen, her friend. I would have allowed no one to harm her.” Silent tears slid down his cheeks as he spoke, barely a whisper on a breath.
“Instead we indulged our wedded bliss and parted ways for what should have been only a few days or weeks. Someone else had other plans, and I found myself stuck here against my will. Seeing as I was already locked in this space and couldn’t leave, some shit about a prophecy. I swear I’ll gut those bitches of Fate myself one day. The Almighty gifted me with this place. Including access to news from Earth so I could keep up to date. Apparently the plan doesn’t allow me to leave just yet, but when I do I’ll find the bastard who sent me here and gut him like a tri-horned nargwraith. I suspect he’s also responsible for Tana and her mother being tossed in here too. Especially since the Almighty is staying silent on the topic.”
“I’m so sorry, Uncle. I wish I could have met her,” Jezzie whispered as she moved to give him a hug, dragging Nithe with her because she refused to let him go.
“I’m so glad you are here, my girl. I can’t wait to see the look on your old man’s face when he sees you for the first time. At least I hope I’m there for it.” The grin on her uncle’s face was positively mischievous.
“Oh, and when he meets you Nithe, you better be prepared for the wrath of the father. It’s going to be one hell of a show.”
As Nithe’s face blanched Micah laughed even harder, the sadness of earlier dimming in the light of new joy. Ever present and not forgotten, just hidden for the now.
“Now, I know you probably have a thousand more questions, yes? Alas, I don’t have all the answers. When the Almighty sent Leraie here not long after my arrival her messenger said some vague shit prophecy shit about changes coming for all angel kind, the dutiful would be rewarded after all this time. Shit like that. Then she told me I needed to stay here and await my time. As well as imposing a geas which means anyone who knows of my presence here cannot speak of it with those who don’t, not until the Almighty personally allows them to do so. Which means, my dear niece and nephew-in-law, you are now included in some very rare company and unfortunately bound by those same terms. My only advice is to just roll with it. The Almighty is a capricious being who will only reveal things when they wish them to be revealed.”
“Jezzie! There you are!” Tana’s excited voice called from behind her.
“Hey, Tan, what’s up?” Jezzie couldn’t help but grin as the pocket rocket barreled toward her.
Tana was all of five foot four inches tall, with long, gorgeous purple hair in a braid down to her butt, swaying all Jan Brady-like as she ran. Her flawless light brown skin always seemed to glow with an ethereal golden radiance when she was happy, and this seemed to be one of those times. She slammed to a stop, her cheeks flushed, and reached up to grab Jezzie’s shoulders for support.
