Blood and Apples: An Annora Park Novel: Book One

Chapter Nineteen: Illuminating Luminescence

This place is surreal...as in seriously, surreal.  Once we'd exited the carriage we had come to a long bridge, and I mean loooooong.  On either side of the bridge there was flora and greenery but no ordinary trees, plants and flowers were these.  They glowed, and seemed to sparkle with a million lights,  it was truly magnificent.  Everywhere I turned there was something incredible to behold, something I'd never seen before in my life.  I was, quite simply, floored.  And nothing much shocked me these days, or at least I hadn't thought so.  But again, this place, it was like something out of a fairy tale my mother had read to me as a child.  Heck, maybe that's why she'd read the stories to me...to prepare me for this, although I can't imagine she'd had had any idea that this craziness was in my future.  At the end of the million mile bridge there was a looming castle, so magnificent that it was all I could do not to suck in a breath and show my completely awe like some sort of fan-girl idiot.  But seriously, the castle was beyond stunning.
   "Toto, we're definitely not in Kansas anymore," I mutter, giving a sideways glance to Bento, who is being cradled gently in Walkers arms.  But the second he hears my voice he lifts his head gives me a meow and reaches for me.  I try not to look to smug as I hold out my hands for the kitty.
   "Really, Bento?" Walker says, chidingly.  The kitty looks up at him as if to say, "What? I like her better," And I almost laugh—almost.
   "Come on, Walker, give me Bento..." I know it's "low" but I bat my lashes at him and add a sweet, "...please?"
   Walker's face softens and he immediately hands his familiar over.  I cuddle Bento to me and snuggle into his soft fur.  Gah, he really is the cutest cat ever.  Bento lifts his head a gives me a smile as if to say, "Oh I know, I know I'm absolutely adorable.  Please worship at my paws for all eternity."
   "I will you know," I murmur to the cat.  "You're just the sweetest lil guy ever.  If you want me to worship at your furred paws, I will, you silly adorable thing, you."
Meow, meow, Bento burrows deeper into my arms making his pleasure known.  And I laugh.  I look and realize we've almost reach the end of the bridge from hell.
   "Thank God." I mutter.
   "Please amour, refrain from uttering His name, I implore you...please."
   I sigh.  It was just instinctual.  But...I guess I could try not to take the Lord's name in vain.  Although, it was going to be hard, really hard.  I had a potty mouth on the best of days, and I definitely took the Lord's name in vain...uh...a lot.
   "Yes, you do.  But I appreciate your willingness to try, my beloved."
   "Seriously, Chamuel, we really have to work on this.  You know, how you just read my mind all the time."
   Now its Chamuel's turn to sigh and he gives me a slight nod.  "My amour, I know I have told you that I will try...and I am, I promise you I am trying.  However, I must ask that you allow me some leeway while we are here, in Tir na nOg, and within the presence of the Warrior King Terrenel.  I believe it will be helpful to be able to know what you're thinking and communicating in such a way.  We are already at a disadvantage...on his...turf, isn't that what humans say?" And when I nod, he continues, "Being able to hear what you're thinking and answering such, it will give us an advantage and disarm him, I believe.  He won't quite know what to make of it.  So, I ask this of you...I ask that you do not question my abilities, or how I communicate from here on out, especially not within the presence of the Warrior King Terrenel.  Can you do that for me, my beloved?"
   "If you're asking her to keep her mouth shut, I think you're asking too much of her," Walker says dryly, keeping an even pace with us.  I give him a dirty look, but he only smiles at me.  "Come on my darling girl, don't tell me that you're able to just stand there and look...well...like some sort of 'arm candy'?  You really think you can just sit and watch and wait while the men talk things through?"
   Well the fuck with that! There was no way in HELL I'd let the boys hash things out without me.  What was this, the thirteenth century? No way, this was my case, I had as much say in it as anyone, if not more.  And if the Great One Warrior King thought otherwise he had a nasty surprise coming his way.
   "Romanoff, could you try not to stir things up too much, and try not to stir up my amour before anything has actually occurred.  You are only making things more difficult, and we haven't even had our audience yet."
   Walker shrugs, "Listen, I say it like I see it.  No need to mince words, right?  It sounded like you wanted Annora darling to stand there and look pretty while you listened to her thoughts and spoke for her.  And I'm telling you that there's not a chance in the seventh level of hell that that is ever going to happen.  Annora has never been known for her..." Walker grins, "Diplomacy."
   "HEY!" I shout at him.  "I can be diplomatic if I want to be."
   "Oh really?" Walker laughs.  "What about the Richardson case?"
   "Hey the Sheriff of Wakefield county was a total idiot and a drunk to boot.  It wasn't my fault that he got himself shot." I say annoyed.
   "And the Mayfield case?"
   "The mayor was a corrupt asshole loser who was clearly ignoring evidence and covering shit up.  Again, not my fault if he got his ass handed to him.  I only brought to light stuff that was already there."
   "And the..." Walker hesitates a second before saying "The Jacobson case?"
   I stiffen and take a deep breath.  "The entire town was corrupt, and the local police were absolutely inept.  They could have stopped the carnage well before we arrived but they chose to ignore clear signs and act like absolute idiots, idiots who ended up getting themselves killed, if I need to remind you."
   "No, no, I know you're right, my sweetheart," Walker said.  "I have no issue with how you handled that case, only with the outcome," He finishes grimly, clearly remembering how he'd come across me, bleeding out, arm hanging on by sinew and barely held together muscle.  That was the closest I'd ever come to believing I wasn't going to make it.  Had I made peace at that moment? I take a minute to think on that horrible time and then nod slightly.  I had.  I had made peace with it.  Hey, that's not to say I wasn't pleased as fucking punch that Leanore showed up when she did and saved me, and my limb.  But right before she had shown up, I do believe I'd made peace with my demise.
   "You had," Chamuel says quietly.  "Your soul reached for me, my beloved."
HUH? I don't remember reaching for anyone, except death.
   "I felt your pain, and it tore through me like a million daggers piercing my flesh, beloved.  It took more than a few of The Host to hold me back.  I was determined to come to you side.  I fought.  They...they had to take me..."
   "Take you?" I murmur, and frown.  "I don't understand."
   "I was desperate to get to you.  You had never reached for me like that.  I felt the call of the dark as it crept ever near and I was overtaken with the need to be with you, the Graces...the Graces be damned."
   I can't believe Chamuel just said that.
   "It is true, my amour.  The Graces insisted that I remain.  They said it was not yet time to reveal myself to you.  But I would hear none of it.  I felt like I had to...no I NEEDED to be there, to be at your side...to help...to hold you.  To bathe you in my angelic presence; I went against The Graces.  I began to make my way to you and my father stopped me.  I...I would have fought him for you, my beloved, but six of The Host detained me.  They...they...between their presence and that of my father, I could do nothing.  They..." Chamuel takes a deep breath.  "They locked me up, amour."
   Oh. My. God.  They'd locked my beautiful angel up?  What had they done to him, had they hurt him?
   "No...no...not overly so, my beloved.  The pain came from not being able to be at your side.  I felt everything you did.  I ached to be with you.  It was agony, the worst sort of torture knowing that you were so close to the dark, and in so much pain and I could do nothing.  It was the worst torture that they could have inflicted upon me, my love."
I'm staring at him stunning, and when I look over at Walker, even he has a look in his eyes...is that a look of respect?  It's definitely something, something that hadn't been there before.
   "I...I..." I take a deep breath, shift Bento into one arm and with my other hand I take Chamuel hand in mine.  Big step for me, I was definitely not an affection or PDA sorta girl.  But this...this revelation deserved...hell, it deserved so much.  "I...I hardly know what to say, Chamuel.  It pains me, it actually pains me to know that you went through all of that for...for...me."
   "I would suffer a thousand hells for you, my amour, do you not know this by now?" Chamuel squeezes my hand.  "What I went through was nothing compared to what yo suffered, and I am so sorry that I was not there for you.  But know this," And his eyes begin to glow again, "I will never leave you again, I will never be separated from you again not for any length of time.  No one, not my father, not even the entirety of the Heavenly Host will ever keep me from you again.  I let them know what would happen if they ever tried to do so again.  And I faced The Graces for you, and I told them the same."
   "You...you..." I swallow, "You went up against Archangel Michale and The Graces...for...for me?"
   "Of course, you are my beloved, and I would do it a million times more if I had to."
   And just like that I feel the walls surrounding my heart begin to crack and crumble, as I walk hand in hand with my Archangel into the largest castle I've ever beheld in my life