Bride of Alvar (Redemption Saga, Book 1) Chapter 32

I have no idea of the time when Alvar and I finally lay bed beside each other sated and exhausted. My breath is husky, I’m sticky with sweat, and a bit sore, but my body remains euphorically high.

So this is what all the fuss is about? I muse with a stupid half smile on my face, I think I’m a new addict. How many times have we done it now?

Alvar lies on his back his own chest rising and falling from our lengthy tryst.

My, my, don’t you have quite the sεﾒy afterglow? I appreciate. His dark hair is messed and damp, his eyes are closed, and the stubble on his cheeks only enhance his rugged appearance. The sight of his hard, muscular body that moments ago had completely shattered me, is enough to throw me back in the thralls of sweet memory.

My eyes mischievously travel downward, I never realized how big it would look up-close.

“Just keep staring,” Alvar states as if he can sense my gaze as his eyes are still closed, but a sly grin spreads across his sensual mouth.

“I think he’s my new best friend,” I state with a silly returning smile.

“Glad the feeling is mutual between the two of you,” he teases.

I answer by hitting him with a pillow.

*

“Oh, I don’t think I can walk,” I bemoan as I hobble away from the cabin.

“When we get back to the castle I’ll draw you a warm bath,” Alvar promises with a sympathetic smile.

I look back at the cabin. And a thought strikes me. Oh dear…

“Um, Alvar, whose cabin is this?”

“It’s my cabin, Lucy,” Alvar rolls his eyes and chuckles. “Did you think I’d have us trespass on some poor stranger’s house and make love on their bed?”

“Oh, well, you never know,” I giggle, embarrassed, but I don’t care. I’m still floating.

Alvar grabs my wrist and pulls me into him. “You are so adorable,” he purrs in my ear, and kisses my neck. “I wish we could stay here, live in this simple cabin, and never see another dark day.”

“Me too.” The mood swings, and I know we’re both thinking about Saul and what his return will mean for us. As beautiful as it was, it isn’t destined to last.

“Let’s get your mother back to Earth,” Alvar says solemnly. “Then we can decide what you are going to do.”

“Sounds good,” I agree, but I’m starting to choke up. Why? God, why? This is so perfect and it’s going to end as soon as it started.

I watch as he stretches into his Cursed form, and my breath leaves me. Our realty, is right before me, in the form of a monstrous beast that will destroy Axus once again, and hopelessness like a dark ink spot expands inside my heart.

We fly back to Underlund and I grip the Fe collar tightly and realize I loathe the evil thing with all my being.

*

“No, I don’t think you understand. I’m not going back to Earth, my home is here with you.”

“Mom, you don’t have a choice,” I grumble at her. Why is she being so difficult? Why can’t she just trust me? My childhood in a nutshell right here.

“I command it,” Alvar states, he hasn’t left my side since our arrival. “It is a matter of your safety and you are the queen’s mother. You will not have your safety compromised. I cannot evacuate Axus inhabitants to Earth, but I can evacuate you. Emily has already left.”

Except you’ve left out the part that she’s the reason why we have to evacuate, I think dryly.

“You can’t take my daughter from me!” Mom exclaims. “If there’s danger here, I’m not leaving her.”

“I can’t go with you. I have to stay here to–” what do I say? Save the world cause I’m the “deciding factor”?

“I will protect your daughter to the best of my abilities, she is my wife, but she is also the key to saving Axus and we can’t send her back to earth,” Alvar finishes for me. “If all goes well, and it is safe here, we will go back to get you.”

“I promised you my daughter because I believed you, that the marriage would save both our worlds, now–now I see you have no control over anything and that the marriage did nothing to prevent disaster,” Mom seethes at Alvar.

Ouch. Harsh.

“You promised your daughter to a complete stranger,” Alvar growls, “who claimed they could save the world. But do you know why I’d traveled to Earth and ‘bumped’ into you in the first place?”
Mom furrowed her brow, but remained silent.

“Because, I was making sure the tyrant king who once ruled here would never return. I had him arrested by your authorities. But I could only lock him up for so long. I knew I needed a fail safe, to further cut off Axus from Earth. So I came up with a plan. Your girl baby was dying, there was no way to save her unless she received a transfusion of my blood. I knew the baby would become a grown woman by the time Saul’s sentence was up, if I married that woman I’d secure a treaty and Axus would be cut off from Earth, but now that same tyrant king, despite my actions, is returning and when he does, you’d better pray you aren’t here to suffer under his rule. A very reliable oracle has deemed Lucy is the deciding factor for whether Saul will rule or not, so she needs to stay here, for the sake of my people.”

Mom glares at Alvar, as if to object, then her face softens and a sorrowful expression crosses her face. “Lucy, give me one last hug.”
I sigh with relief and embrace her. She holds me tight and it hits me that this may be the last time I see her. A ball forms in my throat. “I hope I see you again,” I say.

“Please, let me come back to you,” she whispers, and the words are enough to cause a sob to escape me as I nod in half-hearted reassurance.