Behind the Mask

24. Unyielding Love

Maximus

I went to the desert along with Argo, my right hand, and Lysander, Elric’s third in command, after leaving my mate under the care of Sienna and Astoria. Elric couldn’t come, he couldn’t leave our kingdom to wander around the desert while we were in the middle of a war. 

We were roaming around the unfindable bumps of sand for almost two days, without stopping. I had no time to waste, she had no time to lose. 

“Lord Maximus, we should go back, at least to rest. We’ve already covered every inch of his place and found nothing,” Argo sighed. There were dark bags under his eyes and he was visibly tired and probably longing for his mate as well. 

I exhaled sharply, running my fingers through my hair in aggravation, “You both can go. I will stay, I can’t stop before finding her,” I told them, my voice rough with evident desperation. 

“You have to rest and eat something different than dry bread, you can flash there and come back after an hour, eat and rest a bit,” Lysander suggested.

“No, I will run across this desert again, stopping now isn’t an option. You both should go back,” I told them and they both nodded hesitantly, knowing better than to oppose a desperate man on the verge of losing the one who loved the most. 

They flashed away immediately leaving me alone in the bleak and empty land. I exhaled sharply and kept walking as the sun burned my skin up and the wind blew grains of sand into my dry eyes, I couldn’t care less. Nothing mattered, only her, only my Melinda. 

After two more hours of silent walking, I noticed some birds flying around. This part of the desert wasn’t as silent as it was supposed to be. Someone was here, I sat down and tried to focus on my surroundings, just then I could feel a magical aura, it was covered by a powerful cloak spell, but I could feel a bit of it, enough to tell me that something was near. 

The aura felt blurry, heavy, and unfamiliar, it wasn’t anything from the realms, anything from this world. ‘Slipping through the abyss of time’, Elric’s words replayed in my head. Whoever was attacking Melinda was some sort of spirit or deity, not a being from our realms. A lump formed in my throat, as a surge of fear made my muscles tense painfully. What if we couldn’t fight them? What if I couldn’t save my mate? I ran my fingers through my hair once again, pulling my locks and trying to get rid of these dreadful and unbearable thoughts. 

I saw the sand moving, being bent, a man came from it, from within the sand. Was he hidden in some sort of subterranean hideout?

He was tall, skinny, and dressed in a white ancient tunic. He surely wasn’t from anywhere among the realms, maybe from Hell, but I doubted it. An almost inaudible murmur left his lips, a chant in an unknown language. 

Two other men wearing the same outfit followed him, one of them carried a small droll and the three of them sang-murmured together, their gaze directed to the stars that started appearing in the early night sky. 

They were murmuring the same chant I heard oozing from Melinda, their aura was expanding, it was heavy, dark, they were cursing her. There was no doubt in my mind. I wanted to crush their bones, jump on them and kill them painfully, but I had to act smart, for I didn’t know their powers or who I was fighting.

“Elric, I found them. I found the ones cursing my Melinda. Come to the desert, I am at the South part, where the Cassiopeia constellation is on top and Ursa Minor is on my left side. Come immediately and without attracting attention, we must surprise them, make our strike effective,” I mind-linked Elric. 

Elric didn’t answer, only flashed here, appearing beside me. The men were too engrossed with their maleficent spell to notice the green light rising from Elric’s flashing, or so I hoped. 

“We should strike now, we can’t lose time, Elric!” I told him and he nodded. I wouldn’t allow my mate to suffer for a minute longer. 

I waved my hands, making two thick vines wrap run in the direction of each one of these men in order to tie their arms and restrict their movements. 

Before the vines could even touch them, they turned in our direction, opening their eyes. Their chant changed in rhythm, as their empty gaze zeroed on us. Their eyes were completely white, they had no irises. 

“They are in some sort of trance,” Elric muttered. 

Before I could even reply to him, I felt a piercing pain that made me go down to my knees, cradling my head between my hands. It felt as if my skull was being ripped by the sharp blade of a sword. Their chant took my mind to a blank state of pain and guilt. And the only thing I could see in my mind was my Melinda, pale and lifeless in my arms. The only thing I could see was what I feared the most, my worst nightmare was playing over and over in my head, taking me to the verge of insanity. 

A scream of dark pain and death stormed out of my lungs, breaking the somber silence of the desert night. 

Was it what my Melinda was feeling all this time? This thought only added up to my excruciating agony, which made me scream louder to such a point that my throat burned. 

I heard Elric’s piercing scream, was he being bent by his nightmares as well? Probably, yes. I had to fight back, it was the only chance that my mate had. I had to put my pain aside and focus on Melinda, on stopping her pain, it was the only way to escape this mental torture. 

I gritted my teeth hard and could feel the metallic taste of blood in my mouth, but it was good, it grounded me a tad. 

I forced my hands up with all my might and determination and waved them fast, summoning a single pair of thick vines. They moved fast, almost desperately, wrapping around one of the men’s neck, with the grasp of a snake, strangling the life out of him. He fell onto the ground with a loud thud, his cursing whispers subsided slowly, as death claimed him completely. He chanted until his last breath, dreadful foe! 

The pain started to lessen, and I finally could open my eyes completely, only to notice the other two men disappear in a portal. I crawled closer to the dead body, trying to find out what kind of creature was harming my mate. 

When my hand was about to reach his skin, his body dissolved, becoming a small pile of grey sand. 

“We can… we can examine the magical signature and aura coming from this powder, these ashes,” Elric said between grunts of pain. 

I turned to look at him, there was blood oozing from his ears, and he looked very pale and battered. Not even after fighting a hundred wars alongside him, I’ve seen him in such a poor state.

This curse-spell affected him much more than it did to me, perhaps because the darkness in him was stronger, he was older and had been through so much for our people. 

“We can do it,” I said as I placed the foul powder into my pockets and stood up, taking slow steps towards Elric. I was drained, exhausted. 

I helped Elric to stand up and placed an arm on his shoulder, helping him to steady himself before I flashed us both back to my Villa. I had to get to know more about this powder, but before anything, I had to see my Melinda. I had to see if she was feeling better and her pain subsided. 

I walked through the hall as fast as my legs managed to take me. 

“Maximus, we have to examine the powder first, or at least collect it,” Elric told me. 

“First, I have to look at her, to make sure she is better and the curse has stopped. Everything else can wait, Elric!” I replied, without stopping walking or looking back. 

I entered the room where my Melinda was, she looked less pale and wasn’t shivering anymore. A sigh of relief left my lung as I walked closer to her and bent down on her bedside to plant a kiss on the top of her head and feel her temperature, checking if she was still cold. 

“She is getting better, she stopped trembling and sweating around ten minutes ago and Sienna had already healed her. She isn’t in danger anymore,” Astoria reassured me. “You, on the other hand, look terrible. Please shower, she might not be able to see you, but she can surely smell this reek from miles,” she added with a frown. 

I shook my head at her, it wasn’t me, it was the powder! But she was right, I should get clean before wrapping my mate in my arms. 

* ~

Avalon pulled his hand away, breaking the spell. He stood up immediately and wrapped his arms around Liv, which attracted him a huff and a chuckle from Laius. 

“They have mental powers, they can manipulate one’s mind,” Avalon concluded.

“We had examined the powder and found more about them, by isolating their magical signature and aura. They were a triad of hermit mages, as I told you,” Elric added, half-absently. 

“They were only as powerful as three, after I killed one of them they were neutralized,” I chimed in. 

“They must have found monster number three because for what the psycho that attacked Lea and baby Alex said, they are coming from us. We can’t wait with crossed arms,” Liv said.

“We have to strike first,” Laius added and they exchanged a knowing look. They were in perfect synchrony. 

It took a long time for me to trust this male, especially after what the Devil did letting Alexus go and betraying Lea. But it was visible how he loved my daughter and all her children. Thus, he had my respect. 

I stood up and took a few steps towards my Melinda, to my surprise she didn’t retreat, nor stopped me with her words. 

Her gaze was a bit lost, she looked contemplative. 

 ~ * ~

Mel 

He cared about me and loved me in silence for years, and I could see in his memories that it brought him pain too. 

I sighed deeply and allowed him to come close and wrap an arm around me. 

“There are some spells that can protect our minds against their attacks, at least to some extent, we should use those,” Avalon said anxiously. 

He was afraid for us, he was terrified for Liv and Zorion. They were his everything, I knew it well. 

“Melinda, you should come to my Villa and stay there with me, it’s much more secure than Avalon’s castle, than his realm,” Maximus said, his gaze fixed on mine. 

“Excuse me?” Avalon burst, narrowing his eyes at Maximus.

“Lea was kidnapped from your realm, not once, nor twice, but three times. Besides that, Liv was attacked by Demons there. Everyone knows that your over-confidence in your powers makes and has made your realm vulnerable and susceptible to attacks on many occasions. Apparently, everyone knows that, but you,” Maximus retorted. 

I could feel Avalon’s aura expanding in anger as his eyes were gleaming in a dark shade of grey.

“Baby, don’t worry. We can make it safer,” Liv told him, cupping his face.

“But it is safe!” he stated.

“We can always make it better, together!” Liv told him. He exhaled deeply in annoyance but nodded. 

“Maximus, stop!” I complained, turning to look at him, “I will move to your villa,” I said before covering my mouth with a hand. My words took me by surprise as well. 

His lips curled up in a smile and a soft twinkle lit his amber eyes.

I had to be safe, for my babies, my family, for myself. I wouldn’t say anything but Maximus' words had some truth to them, Avalon’s Realm could be safer. 

It would be hard to be close to him, in his house. But being away from him proved to be hard too, and last time I couldn’t even bear it without feeling sick and risking my babies’ health. Going with him was a good decision, or at least I hoped so. 

He pulled me closer to his chest and I only moved a few inches away. We weren’t touching but I still could feel the warmth radiating from his body and it was enough to bring me some sort of comfort. 

Love shouldn’t hurt that much like ours did and still does. 

Was being together even good for any one of us? Maybe breaking our bond could set us free and allow the both of us to pursue a new story, love without scars and painful memories, a peaceful and warm love. The innocent love from my dreams of when I was young. 

Maybe this dreamy love didn’t exist in my life, and I should try to deal with the concrete love that we share, battered, shattered, and covered in scars. Maybe it was the best thing to do for my babies. 

My head was throbbing with many questions and doubts. This vision only confused me further. 

Was there something to save between Maximus and me? If so, did I want to save it?