Behind the Mask

12. A matter of time?

Liv

I flashed home and placed my babies on my bed around me, cuddling with my asleep Helena and Zorion, and my cooing Rora. 

They were the only thing that gave me peace now that I felt my world crumbling in lies. Avalon sat by on an accent chair in front of me, looking like a watching dog guarding me and the children. He didn’t say a word, he knew that I just wanted and needed silence. 

But I couldn’t have it, in a flash of green light he came to disturb me. 

I could feel Avalon’s tension through our bond, he was ready to shove Elric’s out. He was very angry about what Elric and father did to Mom too, I could feel it as well. 

“I will do it myself,” I told Avalon using our bond, I didn’t want to disturb my babies. 

“Liv,” he called, his light blue eyes on me. Eyes that once meant peace, love, a safe haven, now only felt deceitful, false. 

“No,” I said firmly, simply. 

“Liv, let me talk to you, please,” he muttered almost hesitantly. 

“We don’t have anything to talk about. I don’t want to see you. Just...leave this house and respect my wish, like you never did to my mom!” Angry tears burst out with my words and I heard Helena’s piercing cry.  

Damn it! She woke up! 

I took her in my arms and started feeding her, but not before I saw Elric’s hopeless gaze. He looked intently at us for a moment, before flashing away.

He could well have a taste of his own poison, of all the hopelessness he made my mom feel for all those years. 

I kissed the almost bald head of my baby daughter, wondering what would be of her, taking her father’s situation. But she had Avalon and especially Laius. I knew that Devilicious loved her as much as he loved Rora. She was his daughter too. 

Avalon walked closer to me and placed a kiss on the top of my head. 

“Liv… I want to,” he was trying to control his anger. He wanted to kick Elric’s butt - and what a butt, I should stop to think about it - big time and so was I. 

But at the same time, I didn’t even want to… have anything to do with him. Distance and forgetfulness were the best I could do for myself and probably the best mom could do in her case either. 

“I know. Me too, but… he is better away, out of our lives, let’s just forget about him.” I swallowed hard, my throat constricting and my heart breaking, even though I told it to stay whole, that it wasn’t worth it.

It seemed like my heart was even more stubborn than me.

~ * ~

After Lena and Rora fell asleep as well, Avalon tucked them in their cribs and came back to me. 

I stood up and went closer to him, placing my hands on his solid chest, “My King, take me. Make me forget everything but you,” I asked. I knew that calling like this always made him hard and up for the task. 

Just like I’d imagined he took me in his arms and placed me on the bed, but he only laid down beside me and pulled me into his chest, wrapping me in his embrace.

“Take me,” I asked again, cupping his stubbly chin. 

“No, baby. I don’t think this is a good idea now. It… it won’t make you feel better,” he exhaled, looking to the side for a moment. 

Nothing would make me feel better. But I just wanted to not think about it, wipe it from my mind for a moment. 

I was tired. I was hurt. I wanted to go numb. 

“Don’t you want me?” I asked with a sigh.

“I always want you, Liv. But now, I just want to hold you in my arms,” he husked, tightening his hold around me, and placing a kiss on my forehead. 

After some time his warmth lulled me to sleep.

But Mom didn’t have this possibility, she didn’t have another mate to hold her, to love her, when father failed to do so. 

But well, as I always knew even though having love is good, it’s the best thing, one doesn’t necessarily need a mate to be happy. Mom could do it, reinvent herself once again, she was strong and she had us. 

And maybe, just maybe, a chosen mate could come into the picture. 

~ * ~

Elric 

I came across Laius as I was roaming around the house after leaving the nursery. I wanted to surround myself with the scent of my mate and my children for as long as I could. 

“What you did was beyond horrible! And I would be sending you directly to a nice pool of hellfire if she didn’t love you so much, if she and those two little girls didn’t love and need you. So, don’t you push it and give us all a break!” 

Liv had surely already told him all that happened. 

He was right, yet it was difficult to be apart from them, from my female and the babies. But I knew that I deserved it, after all I did. 

“Laius,” I muttered.

“Elric,” he exhaled deeply, a puff of smoke leaving his nostrils as his eyes showed a red gleam, “Don’t come here or talk to her until the Olympic games start… it isn’t a threat, not only… It is a piece of advice. I don’t want to see my Sugar broken. She loves you, but now, she needs you away. She needs time,” Laius exhaled a thin thread of smoke. 

Time, such a strange and contradictory concept for immortals. Usually, it means nothing, but when it was about being away from her, from them, time was a poisonous herb. Time was death. 

I lowered my head and disappeared in a flash. I would give her what she needed, listen to her.

Meanwhile, I would find a way to help Maximus and Mel, minimise all the damage I caused, all the pain.

~ * ~

Unknown Point of View

“The third one has been found. We shall meet them and join,” I told Agnel as I entered our small cave. The winds of the desert blew a thin layer of sand inside our den. 

Nothing could stop the sands of time in their constant and dawdling bid. Likewise, nothing could stop us, we carried the bid of fate. 

“Are you sure this time?” he asked warily, without standing from his makeshift chair. We knew no luxury, only duty. 

“Yes. This person was looking for us when they heard about our mission. Their intentions aren’t pure. But it will work.” 

“The stars and the moon of azure will align soon and the time of cleansing will finally come. Our destiny shall be fulfilled,” he muttered looking at the distance. 

I had faith that this time we would succeed. 

“May the angelic swords bless us!” we both said in unsound.