Behind the Mask

32. Talking to the moon

Liv 

After what Lea told us about what might have happened to Mom, I really wanted to go to see her, but I’ve decided to check on my babies first. Laius and Avalon followed me. The kids were all sleeping in the nursery as Sienna played soothing music in her small woody lyre. Lysander and Nema were soundly asleep and crashed on the sofa, Sienna’s music really worked well. 

“Sienna, I think my Mom was attacked,” I muttered and she stopped her song and looked at me with her eyes wide open, my gaze moved to the babies and I think she got what I wanted to ask next before I had to say anything.

“They are fine, Liv. Nothing, no spell or curse entered this room,” she replied, placing her lyre down and standing up. 

Sienna woke her mate and a confused Nema up and our fav nympho looked at me. 

“Holy smokes, Sienna! I was having the best wet dream!” Nema shook her head; but she was still smiling, almost dreamily, almost naughty. 

The three of them said goodbye and went away.  

I breathed deeply and took my sleeping Rora in my arms, afraid that she was also lost in her little mind and wouldn’t wake up easily. 

“Little Angel, wake up. Talk to your mama,” I called my Rora. 

“Mama,” she mumbled, opening her blue eyes and wrapping her little arms around my neck. I kissed her head and started rocking her back and forth, tears of relief were burning in my eyes. 

I saw that Avalon was waking our baby boy up too, he had the same idea as I did. He took Zorion in his arms and he opened his eyes slowly, cooing softly before he closed his eyes again and went back to sleep. My sweet little Koala! 

Laius took Helena in his arms, “Lena, are you okay?” he asked softly, and she replied with a high-pitched cry. Maybe if they had opera for babies, she would be a superstar. 

I snuggled my Rora closer to me, kissing her head and she babbled sweetly, “Mama.”

“Mama is here, my Little Angel and I will always protect you and your brother and sister,” I cooed.  

To my surprise, a ray of green light surged in the thin air and his smell entered my nose. Elric. 

I took a few steps in his direction and sank in his embrace almost inadvertently, he wrapped his arms around me, bringing me and Rora even closer to his chest. 

“Liv,” he muttered, stroking my back gently. I could feel his longing through the small opening of our bond. 

He looked intently into my eyes and started speaking again after a moment, “Mel was attacked by the Triad, she is in an unconscious state now. They trapped her in her mind, in her nightmares,” he explained. 

I swallowed back a sob, my heart was aching painfully, I was afraid for my mom. I was terrified and the fact that she was in pain was crushing me. 

My heart was frozen in fear and it seemed to paralyse my body too. I was silent like a dummy, trying to process everything. 

My breath was trembling and I had to make a huge effort to hold back my tears. My mom has always been one of the greatest loves of my life. I could take any shi.t that happened to me, with my chin up, and a shrug of my shoulders. But I couldn’t have anything happening to her, to my family. 

I had to go to her, to help her. 

“We will find a way to protect you, Lea, Mel, and the babies, Liv.” Elric’s voice was soothing, even though it carried a pang of pain. 

He kissed the top of my head before kissing Rora’s head. She giggled, placing her drool-covered chubby hands on each side of his face. She missed him too. 

“Pa, pa, pa,” she called him, giggling even louder, a huge smile on her face. 

He smiled back at her, hugging us even tighter before he let go and went to take Lena from Laius’ arms. My youngest baby was still crying a bit, even though Laius was humming and cradling her. 

Lena stopped crying once Elric took her in his arms, he nuzzled her gently and kissed her almost bare head. 

I looked at Laius's face, his eyes were burning in rage, he was feeling it too, he loved my mom. She was his family as well. 

“I am going to see her, Valentin and Alba are joining me, we will heal her, rescue her from the abyss within her mind. Besides that, your and the babies’ safety is our priority. Lea and Alexander should be on their way to the Human Realm now, there the mages can’t harm you, not even on the day of the cuspid when the mages receive all the powers from the Fates,” Elric explained. 

Avalon also looked like a wrack, his face falling and his eyes had a metallic grey gleam. Not sad or horny grey, but desperate and sad like a cloudy sky. 

Avalon wrapped an arm around my waist as Laius took Rora in his arms. When you have many babies you have to juggle a bit. 

I pressed my head on his chest, and kissed Zo’s head, he was still sleeping calmly. I let go of a single tear before a new wave of determination burned within me like hellfire.  

“You guys take the babies to the Human Realm. I can’t leave mom. You can protect them and I’ll try to find a way to bring my mom back,” I told my mates. 

“Liv, you can’t leave them. Zorion and Helena are too small and they only drink your milk. Small babies need to be with their mothers. Their mothers can’t leave them, they belong together. They can’t be left.” Avalon’s voice trembled with intensity and his body stiffened a bit. 

A sadness deeper than the ocean flew from his side of the bond. I looked between his stormy eyes and our sleeping boy, my heart clenching for them. 

His face lines moved in an unfamiliar way. He didn’t cry, but I could almost hear a crying echo through our bond. I was sure he wasn’t talking about Zo and Lena only. There was something else there. There was hurt, pain, a lot of it.

Was he left by someone in the past? Did it hurt to such a point that even the idea of me leaving the babies for a while made him tremble? But by who? A former lover? If I wasn’t so worried right now, I would be jealous.

“Don’t leave them. Zorion will be empty and miserable without you. Helena and Rora too. Helena’s headaches will get much worse,” he added. 

He made a good point. My younger baby would suffer the most without having me cuddling and nursing her while she was in pain.

I swallowed the lump that formed in my throat, my gaze roaming between my three mates - Elric’s pleading eyes, Laius eyes oscillating between anger, fear, and tenderness, and the abyss of pain that gleamed in Avalon’s irises. 

I breathed deeply, trying to keep it together. 

Damnit, I didn’t want to keep it together, I wanted to scream and sob. 

“I will go to see mom and then I will join you guys at the Human Realm,” I told them. 

“I will stay here and chase the Triad, I will wipe them out of the Six Realms,” Elric stated, his voice and his eyes filled with a raw rage I have seen only a couple of times, if ever. 

~ * ~ 

Avalon 

Liv left with Elric, to see Mel before we portaled to the Human Realm. 

I exhaled sharply and ran my fingers through my now disheveled hair in aggravation. I hadn’t said a word since Liv agreed to go to the Human Realm today.  I felt my jaw lock with tension and the muscles of my neck stiff; I was brooding, trying to think it through. 

Talking to Her, asking Her for something would be confronting my darkness.

She was my darkness; She was my nightmare. I’ve vowed to myself to never look for Her, never again. Yet I was about to do it now. I had to do it because of my light, my Liv, and all the life that came with her, our son, the babies, her family, our family.

I couldn’t let Mel die. 

I couldn’t risk the lives of my sweet Queen, our baby, the children, and Lea. 

I had to do it. 

It hurt, but I had to do it for them. I opened Liv’s side of the closet, taking her moon pendant from the top drawer. I looked intently at the small pendant and sighed deeply. I gave it to my mate ten years ago, it was an amulet to bring health to its bearer. It was one of the only things She left behind when She abandoned us; when She abandoned me.

I pressed the small moonstone in my fist and walked to the balcony. I looked at the full moon, high in the sky, and called her name in silence.

“I need your help, your intervention,” I muttered to the night sky, “I need you to save Mel and protect my family, please…” I added, closing my fist tighter around the pendant. 

Hoping without hope.

She wasn’t there for me ever before, why would She be there now? Why would She be more than the cold stone of the moon?

But I just knew that I had to try it.