The Temple of Snakes (Cursed Lovers: Book 1)

Part 4: The Curse is Broken

Domino wasn't the only one whose husband was getting tired. Mona realized Nicolau was also tiring, and she offered to pleasure herself while he took a breather. He refused and said that he could keep going all night long. However, as the moon reached its zenith, neither pair noticed the bright light shoot down onto the temple; they just kept making love within it repeatedly. They wouldn't notice until morning that something magical had happened.

Eloa stood before the two cousins with a bright smile on her shining face. "Thank you, sisters!" she exclaimed as she hugged them both. "Thank you for setting my brothers and people free!"

"We're glad we could help," Mona said bewilderedly.

Eloa ignored her and Domino's confusion as she said; "Live long and happily with my brothers." Then she hugged them again and was about to leave when Domino stopped her.

"Excuse me," she demanded with an annoyed expression. "But you mind telling me why I'm the only one who's naked here?"

"Forgive me, sister," Eloa laughed. "I have never seen a redhead before." She paused before adding; "Not a natural redhead, anyway. And I have heard some wild tales from the villagers about such people hundreds of years ago. Having you always naked reassured me you are as human as your cousin."

Then she disappeared.

Within her brothers' dreams, Eloa appeared. "It is over! At long, long last; you are free!"

"What do you mean, Eloa?" Ankoma asked.

"My curse is broken." At their shocked expressions, she added; "Mona is the Lady Moon and Domino is the Lady Fire I spoke of."

Understanding dawned on the two men, and they started talking rapidly.

"One at a time, my dear brothers!" Eloa demanded.

"You were invading our wives' dreams, weren't you?" Nicolau said with an irritated expression.

Eloa did not deny it.

Nicolau groaned and pinched his brow ridge. "That would explain a few things."

"And I thought Xesús was the one who had been sending those messages," Ankoma commented before shaking his head. "What happens now, sister?"

"You and our people are free," she repeated. "Has your hearing become impaired, Ankoma?"

"What our eldest brother means to ask," Nicolau began, "is what is going to become of you, Eloa?"

She smiled. "My soul is now free to move on."

Both brothers were crestfallen. "Will we see you again when our souls join the afterlife?"

Eloa laughed. "Let me be clear. You shall see me again within nine moons, for I have chosen to be reborn."

At their dumbstruck expressions, continued. "I have chosen the people called Tonya and Steven as my parents. Farwell, my brothers. Until we met again."

Then all faded into blackness.

Some Portuguese and Spanish shouting woke Mona and Domino up from their deep slumber.

"How? When?" Domino stuttered when she realized that she and Mona were back in their tent, and fully clothed. Then she shook her head; "Never mind."

"My sentiments exactly," Mona told her as she got up and put her shoes on. "What's the last thing you remember?"

"Do you mean last night or that strange dream we had?"

"Last night."

Domino blushed. "Telling Ankoma I love him before falling asleep. You?"

Mona blushed. "Same." Then she added; "How long has Nicolau and Ankoma's sister been visiting you in your dreams?"

"Since the night you got kidnapped." As she put her shoes on, she asked; "Were you naked too in those dreams?"

"No," Mona replied while shaking her head. "But I was clothed in a native dress as she showed me our husbands' lives before their curse."

"That bitch," Domino muttered.

"She even showed me her death and the curse taking effect, complete with Nicolau's monstrous transformation." Mona finished.

Whatever irritations Domino had about always being in the buff vanished at that.

When someone kept on shouting Mona added; "We might as well go have a look."

They both exited the tent and went over to where the shouting was coming from. Apparently, they weren't the only ones woken up by all the yelling. Many of the grad students came out of their tents to see what all the fuss was about.

Several people were in the middle of the campsite with five jeeps and two army trucks nearby. A skinny man in his mid-twenties with sandy blond hair and brown eyes was talking to Mrs. Hawkins.

Out of the corner of her eye, Mona saw some people wearing tribal clothing arguing. She recognized some of them from the night she met Nicolau. Both she and Domino instantly recognized Alipha and stealthily made their way over to her.

When Alipha saw them, she hurried over and embrace the two.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" she expressed over and over. "You have freed us from our curse!"

"W-what?" Domino stammered as Alipha let them go.

"You two have broken our curse!" she repeated. "Even though you fear snakes more than anything, you gifted your virginity to our king in his cursed form," she told Mona, "as well as not giving it on your wedding night. And your confession of love and becoming with child is what we need to break our curse," she said to Domino.

"Say what now!?" Domino said after a moment of stunned silence.

"The wedding night of the Lady Moon without penetration. Children conceived within lovers' dreams. The courageous confession of the Lady Fire. And the penetration of the Cursed King's bride by the Cursed King himself. When love is real and true, the curse will end.

"Raymundo, one of the guards, read a book several years ago," Alipha continued. "Within its pages were names and their meanings. Your name means 'moon'," she said to Mona. "And the first two of your names means 'lady' and 'fire'," she told Domino. "When you and our prince drank our dream water and then made love during the zenith of our Mating Moon, you conceived his child."

Domino placed her hand over her stomach in shock and awe. She was still in a daze when Alipha hurried over to an emerging Nicolau and Ankoma. The three of them arguing is what snapped the two cousins out of their daze.

One minute Nicolau and Ankoma were arguing with Alipha and Raymundo, the next their wives were jumping into their arms and kissing them. Even some of the female grad students were jumping into the arms of the newly turned human guards; they and everyone else had followed the sound of the fighting. Arika and Lorenzo did the same when they saw their now human paramours.

"What in Sam Hill is going on here?" Dr. Mash demanded. He, Professor Stoner, and Professor Brown were standing behind everyone; mouths hanging open and eyes bugged out. Even Mrs. Hawkins was stunned.

Both Mona and Domino blushed to the roots of their hair. Then, as their husbands set them down on their feet, they took their hands and walked over to their dumbstruck fathers.

"Dad," Mona began. "This is my husband, Nicolau."

"Dad," Domino began the same way after Mona. "This is Ankoma. My husband and the man I love."