No Escape

“What have you done, Celeste?”

She stood before him with ocean eyes pleading, sticky crimson staining the ivory silk of her form fitting gown, sullied hands reaching towards him. “Ben. Please.”

Ben snatched Celeste’s elbow, pulling her into the house, quickly closing the door behind her as quietly as he could. It was so late, every noise amplified, and the last thing he wanted was any potential attention turned their way. The woman was a mess: golden hair disheveled, dress torn, adorned in the blood of another with the offending weapon strapped across her back.

“What happened?” his voice was low but frantic, hands running along her body searching for any injuries of her own. “Are you hurt?”

“I just needed a moment,” her whisper rushed. “Just a minute to think, calm myself. But he wouldn’t. He didn’t care. What was I supposed to do?”

It had been a glorious day for a ceremony, a celebration for all of The Kingdom blessed by Him. The bonding of the daughter of the House of the Grand Duke to a Duke with high standing and power. One who was an acceptable match and embodiment of God’s finest soldiers. One who would successfully further the blood line that Raziel had denied. One who had watched Celeste with cold, cruel eyes as she made her way to the alter, her smile and movements stiff and forced while his were smooth and controlled, understanding of the position he was being placed.

It had gone just as planned.

Until it didn’t.

And now, there was so much blood.

They had to get rid of it.

Celeste allowed Ben to pull her through the home and undress her, her gown slipping from her body like water through his fingers.

Without resistance.

She realized that this was how she had gotten into this predicament, by allowing others to do for her. Always. Without protest. She had allowed Raz to take the blame for everyone of her mistakes from the time she was a child. She had allowed her mother to choose a man when she herself refused to do so. She had allowed the man to mark her before doing the same to him. She had allowed herself to be chauffeured to her new home and led to the bed she would share with her One.

But when she hadn’t allowed him to touch her, it had angered him.

So very much so.

If she wasn’t going to allow it.

Then he would take it.

As was his God given right.

But before he could take her body.

She would take his.

Fracture it.

So that it could never be put back together.

Just like her.

Celeste didn’t move as Ben lowered her into the tub and set at erasing the blood caked in her hair and on her body, scrubbing away the sin until she appeared virtuous once more.

But not really.

Fore once the blood was gone, did the bruises appear.

Along her arms.

Her wrists.

Throat.

Thighs.

His fingers ran along the trails, trying to brush them away to no avail. “Did he?”

“I’ve never seen such pretty roses, Ben.” The smallest of upward curves graced her lips. “So full and vibrant. The deepest red. And there were two vases of them, one on each nightstand. They were so heavy but shattered so easily. You’d think they’d put roses that perfect into something more sturdy.” She sighed as she drew her legs against her chest and wrapped her arms around them, resting her cheek against her knees and gazing up at her lover. The one she had chosen. “I took his head to the North Wall and dropped it. If they want it back, tell them to search for it on the land below.”

Ben looked down at the woman, her once vibrant eyes dull. The exuberant energy that radiated from her completely stunted. She was no longer the same woman that he had known not long ago.

She was different.

Empty.

Angry.

Hopeless.

But he still loved her so.

And he would do anything for her.

Nothing good will come from it

A warning he had dismissed.

She chews them up and spits them out

A fate he had refused to heed.

One he would continue to ignore.

Ben took her forlorn face in his hands, revering in the beauty of the spirit that had drawn him in, and pressed his lips against hers. “I can fix this. All of it.”

You’ll be no different

He never wanted to be.

“How could you ever fix this?”

He didn’t hesitate. “Let me mark you.”

It was no secret what would become of them.

It didn’t matter.

Nothing mattered.

Only her.

Only him.

Celeste’s fingers ran through his wings, plucking the one of her choosing. He took it, pressed it against her right shoulder, hiding the ivory one beneath, and kissed it. The white feather sunk into her skin.

And turned black.

Ben pulled a feather from her, allowing her to mark him.

The pure feather turning dark against his flesh.

The proof of their sins.

The proof of their love.

The beginning of their demise.

And then he would take her, the way he had time and time before, her giving everything to him. Him giving everything to her.

Snuffing their pasts.

Muddying their futures.

It wouldn’t take long for them to formulate a plan. There weren’t many options, and what few they had were almost all identical.

Go to the land.

Conceal their wings.

Cut their hair.

Run.

Stay alive as long as they could.

But sooner or later, their sins would catch up to them. There was no avoiding it. No outrunning it. And they would have to take their punishments as they came.

But until then, they could be together.

They could live the life they always wanted.

They could pretend.

Until they couldn’t anymore.

But until that day came, the tiniest of speckles would settle and grow in her womb. Becoming stronger as its limbs and body grew longer. Slowly becoming larger and making its presence known, absorbing the sins and darkness in which the child was created.

Something so awful.

Something so beautiful.

Her stomach would swell.

Expand.

Containing the evil, the innocence within.

Ben’s hands would often find their way to the bump, feeling the movement just beneath. He would press his lips to the stretched skin. Speak to the child tucked away inside, telling stories both true and fairy tale. Pour every bit of love into its existence.

The child was perfect.

An abomination.

Deserving of life.

Deserving of death.

He would protect it at any cost.

And he would pay the ultimate price to do so.

The cities were crowded, easy to fall into the masses, and disappear. But it also meant more people to talk, and Ben wasn’t exactly inconspicuous. That would both work against him and in his favor.

They would never get away.

He could only buy time.

For his child.

How much time, he had no way of knowing.

When it would become too difficult for Celeste to continue running city to city, the weight of the child and her own body hindering her escape, Ben would help take her deep into the Northern Mountains where she would hide until the birth.

Alone.

Because all he could do was throw them off of her trail for as long as possible.

But the day would come when there was nowhere left to go.

When his wings would be exposed and plucked bare.

Skin peeled away from the flesh, flesh away from the bone.

Eyes made to no longer see.

Ears only hearing his own screams.

Until his blood would go cold.

And his secrets would all die with him.

A sinner.

Unforgivable.