Intertwined: love, fire and sacrifice

17. Pomegranade

Liv 

Laius portals us to Medeia’s working room. The room is semi-burnt, ashes everywhere and it smells like smoke. Medeia gazes startled at us. 

I look up at my Hottie, his eyes are bright red, his jaw clenched, and all his muscles seemed tense. The smoke leaving his body spreads to the whole room in a matter of seconds. His fangs extended down his mouth. The power rolling dangerously off of him makes the air in the room very thick. Laius looks quite deadly and Medeia looks so very scared, she sure knows she is in deep trouble. Damnit!

“You!” Laius points his finger to Medeia, his voice sounding guttural, merciless. 

Oh, Goddess! 

A thin trace of fire escapes his pointed fingertip and goes towards her, like a laser light pointer. She dodges his attack. Medeia is visibly shaking. 

“Laius, please calm down,” I say softly but firmly. 

“You drugged, cursed my Queen.”  He opens his fist and releases a fireball in Medeia’s direction. 

Thanks the Goddess that Medeia could dodge it again. But it was close, too close. The fireball only reaches her dress hem and she extinguishes it without taking her eyes off my mate. Though she doesn’t really hold his gaze or give him any misleading sign that she is challenging him or whatnot. 

I am sure that she was trying hard to not make him even angrier. 

I hold Laius in my embrace and tilt his face down, making him look at me. “Laius, stop… we need to find an antidote, a way to unbound me, not to fry her.” 

He looks back at me, eyes still dangerously red, but his expression gets much softer and he nods. “We can do both.” 

I run my thumbs across his cheeks and press my body against his to calm him down before I pull back just enough to be able to look at his face.

“No… you won’t hurt her!” I say firmly. 

“But she tricked us. Drugged you, Sugar.” He tries to reason.

“We will talk to her first, okay?” Laius sighs but nods to me. 

Laius scents me slowly, breathing me in to calm himself down. I flash him one more pointed look before I go towards Medeia. The red glow in his eyes is fading slowly. I get closer to Medeia and she tilts her chin up and looks at me without staring at my eyes. Her always sulky face is now overtaken with horror, fear. 

“Medeia, he won’t harm you.” I try to reassure her, and she nods but the expression on her face doesn’t change. Laius comes towards me, wraps a possessive arm around my waist, and pulls me against his bulky chest. I look at him again, as to guarantee he won’t attack his old assistant once more. I turn my head towards said assistant, and ask trying to sound as calm as I can. “What happened Medeia? What did you give me?”

“Something for you to stay.” She answers looking at me. 

I arc a brown at her. “Was it the tea, wasn’t it? It all makes sense now…”

“No... it wasn’t the tea.” Medeia replies fast.

“When, then? Like how? Why did you do it? I don’t really get it….” I mutter. 

“For you to stay here. We need our Queen. The King needs you and he needs you here.” She answers.

“YOU are not to be the ONE to bind her, you wench.” Laius's guttural voice breaks through the room, making the freaking walls vibrate. A growl also flutters in his chest.

“Let me talk to her mate. Let me do it.” I tell him using our mind-link, I choose the words carefully to not be the last poke to pull him down the edge. 

“She hurt what is mine, Sugar.” 

“Yeah, it happened to be me. Seriously, just cool off! You’ll get a reward for it later.” I say winking through the bond. 

He smirks at me. That is much better. I turn my attention back to Medeia, there is something in her eyes, not only a gleam of horror, but there is also amusement.

“I see. What did you give me? A potion?” 

She doesn’t answer, just remains quiet as if she was thinking further, calculating her answer and its possible consequences. 

“Answer her!” My mate’s feral command makes her flinch. “Now!! And don’t you dare to lie! You know what I do to those who lie to me.” He threatens her. I just shake my head. 

“It was Pomegranate. The fruit of the dead. It has the power to bound one to Hell...” her sentence is cut by Laius growl. Smoke is steaming from his body. I pressed my body against him and tilt his head down asking silently for him to embalm himself in my calming scent. 

“Like in Persephone’s legend…” I mutter. Medeia nods. I look at her while my back is firmly pressed against my mate’s front and I run my fingers through his hair. “When did you give me that?” I ask.

She glares at Laius, worry crossing her face. He tilts his head up from my neck and flashes her a murderous look. “Answer wench!” He commands. She looks down. 

“It was-was just days after your arrival… the per-su-asion concoction. I added it to it…” Her words were the last straw to fire Laius rage. He pulled me behind him gently and launched towards her. 

“No!! Don’t harm her Laius, she is my friend!!” I yell as I put myself between them both. 

They look at me. Medeia’s face is twisted with confusion and astonishment, her eyes are wide opened as if I have broken to her the most shocking news of the century. Well, maybe she didn’t have many people who called her friend. Laius's face is puzzled too, and his eyes are once again ruby red. I wrap myself in his arms, cup his cheeks and look at him. “Please my love.” He inhales deeply. 

“What do you mean by persuasion potion?” I ask her, but Laius answers me instead. 

“I asked Medeia to prepare a brew that would make you more inclined to stay with me here in Hell. To increase your willingness to stay here.” He explains, uneasiness laced in his voice. 

“Goddess, you are so dumb! YOU were the one who wanted to drug me, to manipulate me. Laius, just DON’T, okay? You just had to freaking ask me. Not doing s**t behind my back, giving me a potion….” I say, pulling away from him. He flashes Medeia a lethal look, he is about to snap all his rage at her.

“No!! That won’t help your case! If you do anything to her, I will be even more pissed. And for your information that is VERY freaking mad!” I say as I walk out of the room. 

I just can’t look at that i***t right now. Anyways, I figure that is better to cool down a bit before full-fledge snapping at him. I am trying to be less impulsive. 

“Sugar.” He calls, but I ignore him. 

~ * ~

I went to the library, where Grey was looking in the mirror-like a lost Narcissus, he looked at the door when I opened it, but in a second took his stare away from me. He was probably shaken by Laius’ threat last time we were here. I was fine with it, honestly, I am not in the mood to talk right now. 

I just want to go back to my… to Avalon’s castle and have my other mates holding me. I also miss mom, Lea, Cali, and my other friends a lot, I’m away for almost 3 weeks now. I am just happy Laius didn’t follow me here, I really need so much space now. 

How could I trust Laius so much? Well, I feel like an i***t, which makes sense, because I am an i***t. I just want to facepalm my gullible and naïve self. I picked a random book up and started to look through the pages without reading it, as if it could help me to think about my messy life. After doing this for almost an hour, I decided that I should first find a solution to my stuck in Hell problem, before thinking about how to deal with my liar of a mate. 

“I hope you are well, my Queen.” Grey’s thick British accent snaps me out of my daze. 

“I will be.” I give him a small smile and he smiles back. 

“Sometimes all one needs is to look to the mirror.” He says as he walks toward the huge wall mirror again. 

“Indeed,” I mutter. 

I go to Medeia’s working room, to find some answers. I gasp when I see the room covered in ashes, Medeia was there, a shocked look on her face. But she seemed unharmed. She looked at me, and I see some kind of reverence and appreciation in her dark eyes. 

“Thank you, my Queen.” She utters eyes trained on me. I sigh. 

“There was something in the tea as well, right?” I ask. Since I’ve learned that she drugged me, I couldn’t stop thinking that her offering-tea-all-the-time behaviour was weird and that she might have put something there as well. 

“No...” Medeia replied, I saw that her facial expression tensed up. Liar. 

“Tell me the freaking truth!” I snap. 

“There was a little something, only to make you calm and well. To not make you worry too much.” She answers. 

“Medeia!!!” I snap again. 

She didn’t drug me once, but many times! That’s just great! I just want to jump on her. ’Goddess of the meditation gives me some self-control!’ I won’t tell Laius anything about her additional drugging-me activities. She is a sneaky-bitchy, but she doesn’t deserve to be sent to the worst pit of Hell for that. It’s beyond too extreme.

I breathe as deeply as I can to cool off, and chant in my mind, ‘I can’t jump on people, I can’t jump on people!’

“Well, I am not very happy with you right now. But it’s no reason to send you to the deepest pit of Hell. Don’t you ever manipulate or drug me again! Otherwise, you may not get into Laius’ line of fire, but you will get into mine. Anyways, let’s focus on how to get me out of here.” I say, raising a brow at her.

“You should stay.” She replies. I’ve never heard her voice sounding that soft, her words were a plea.

“I can’t stay anymore. I wanted to stay for him… But it’s killing me and hurting my other mates. We must find another way.” I say frankly. 

“We need you. He needs you.” She utters.

“I won’t ever leave you guys. I am your Queen, but it doesn’t mean that I will live always here. That is not my home, Medeia. I will come back often. But I don’t want to stay here because I am spell-bounded to do so. You had NO right to make this decision for me, to make this decision for him and you know that.”

She nods. “I did it mainly for me. Having you here brings balance to the Realm, makes things what they are supposed to be… But I guess I did it a…” she stops abruptly.

“What?” I ask her. 

“It is nothing.” She shakes her head, trying to recompose her face and put back her sulky expression.

“Well, I guess that your ‘nothing’ is a quite important thing. Come on, tell me. You kind of owe me that.” I say with a small smile. 

“I did it a bit because of him too. After some centuries he grows on you like a fungus.” She trails off. I chuckle. 

“I guess so. I mean, you kind of had a good intention and well, we will figure it out. I won’t ever leave this Realm or him. But it doesn’t mean I will live here.” I repeat myself, trying somehow to organize my ideas out loud. In a certain way, this weird Realm has grown on me too, maybe like a fungus. “How can I unbound myself and be able to portal away?” I turn my full attention to her again as I ask.

“You need to do several things. First, drink a droplet of the Lethe River’s water and burn 6 Pomegranate seeds in the Hellfire at 6 am. After it, you must mate with the King in the highest peak of Hell, which is in the Elysium.” I nod, that seems a crazy way to break a spell, but I will do it.  “The King’s seed must stay inside of you for at least 6 hours.” She adds and I roll my eyes, it is getting even weirder. “So, you should stay this time with your legs up, to avoid leaking…. Better would be if you both keep new loads of seed coming inside you during these 6 hours, to ensure that it works. Then, you’ll be able to portal yourself away and come back when you please, but there is a small detail.” She trails off.

“What?” I ask thinking how it can become even more ‘exotic’. 

“You must be in Hell once every six months, otherwise the spell will bring you back and bound you here for good.” She concludes. I swallow hard. Well, I can come for a visit every six months, it’s not hard. But the consequence of failing on doing it just sucks. 

“Thanks Medeia.” I say with a small smile, “and by the way, I am sorry for your workroom” 

I was pissed at her. But well, she had a good intention and that means a lot here in Hell, so I let this one slide. 

“Don’t bother Queen. It happens every once in a while.” She says, her resting b***h face back. 

Well, that means she is all good again. I go to find my mate and tell him about Medeia’s revelations. 

~ * ~

Laius

I decided to give my mate some space. I did what she said, no harm came to Medeia, so I had to express my rage by destroying her little den. She seemed relieved and even grateful when all I did was reducing everything in the room to ashes. My rage was still consuming me, I have to burn something, destroy something. 

The two most infuriating things happened, someone harmed my female and my female was angry at me. I screwed up again, my deceit was revealed. Will she look at me again? f**k, I can’t lose her! I can’t!! I would destroy the world, all the Realms before it happens. But I also can’t see her sad or upset, this f*****g unsettles me almost as much as the idea of losing my female. She is the only thing that matters. She is everything that matters. 

I breathe deep letting out a cloud of smoke from my nostril. I could feel my body burn, literal lava in my bloodstream surrounding my muscles and bones and making every inch of me tense and edgy. I also felt my rage and hallow deepen only by the thought of hurting her, of losing her. I need to burn something! I need to feel my f*****g flames consume everything. But I just throw some fireballs out of the window like a little boy, to cool off a tad. 

It wasn’t enough. Until I smell her scent, she was coming to our room. Part of my wrath faded away just by inhaling her. She entered the room, her beautiful face in a pretty frown and her brow arched. If she knew that it only made my c**k twitch and try to break my pants. 

“Laius.” She says firmly. 

“Sugar” I call her as I feel my body relax at the view of her. I walk towards her, but she stares at me with an annoyed look as to make me stop. I comply, frustrated. I want to be closer to her badly.

“I am still froging pissed off. We can’t talk more about it later. Just listen to one thing now. If you want or need something, tell me! Show me through the bond! You have a mouth and a bond for it. Ask me instead of manipulating me, heck! I would do it for you without your deceiving. Damnit! Don’t ever lie or hide s**t from me again, that is not how this love thingy works, for basics. That is also not how this mate thing should be! Don’t be like Maximus, okay? If you love m…” 

I go close to her using my super speed and cut her off by taking her in my arms and kissing her passionately. 

“There is no “if” Liv. I love you. I will do as you want. I won’t lie to you ever again; I am not like Maximus. I won’t hurt you my Sugar.” I utter through our bond, while I send her my feelings using it, my fierce love, need, and firing desire for her. I also send her some steamy images of us in the dungeon when I was taking her roughly and she was screaming in pleasure.

She huffs through the bond and pulls away panting.  “You are… Laius!!! It is not the time for that, I’m still heck angry… We’ve to talk about what Medeia told me, how to break the Pomegranate Spell.” She says looking intently at me. Her voice laced with irritation and a scowl on her face. 

I exhale sharply. I would prefer to take her to the dungeon again, but I am very glad she wants to talk to me, I feared she would be angrier. She told me how to break Medeia’s spell. I like it, the Elysium peak part sounded great and something told me it wasn’t actually necessary to complete the spell-breaking procedure. It was probably Medeia’s manner to make up for her mistakes to me. She knows well how to do it, I must admit. However, I’m still furious with her. 

Probably my mate felt my rage towards the old wench through our bond, because of what she said next

“Medeia cares about you. In her creepy way but she does. I guess that here in Hell, is a big deal. Especially for her, she seems quite closed. Well, she has a permanent scowl.” My Sugar’s soft voice says. I breathe deeply. 

“You are right Sugar. But she better never do something like this again.” I add. She nods in response. My lips twirl in a smirk and I ask “So, I can’t have you…. But how about some kisses? Let me hold you Liv.”  

“No! No kisses for you! Go to hold and kiss your secretive potion! I’ll sleep in the bed, you on the sofa!” Liv says as she lays down. 

“You’ll sleep alone, Sugar?”

“No, I’ll sleep with this pillow.” she answers as she hugs a pillow that is by her side “at least this pillow isn’t a freaking selfish lair!” She kisses the pillow and gazes at me, arching a brow. 

I exhaled sharply. I deserve it. I lay down on the sofa and glance at my female, somehow expecting that she would change her mind. 

“Laius?” she calls, and I look intently at her. “One little good night kiss, just because you had a glimpse of being a decent mate and wanted to go back to the Upper Realms for me… also because you are a good kisser.” She says as she bites her juicy bottom lip. My little Sugar is such a teaser. When we are on the top of the Elysium peak, she will see what waits for her. 

I approach her in the next second and take her in my arms as I inhale her scent, vanilla, and life.  Then I capture her lips in a passionate kiss. 

“Enough.” She says after few seconds, pushing me away gently by pressing her palms against my chest. “It doesn’t mean you are anywhere close to the ‘out of trouble’ place. You’ll still sleep in the spare bed for a VERY long time! And when we are back to the Upper Realms, we will finish this conversation!” she adds. I was relieved, even though she just said that I am in the ‘doghouse,’ as she calls the spare bed. “Now, go to your sofa, good night!” she added. 

She isn’t as enraged as I expected, maybe it’s because she only knows about one of the many lies, I’ve told her. 

I don’t deserve her.