Mara - The Lady Grief (Completed)

62 Our Heart

Time Immortal, The Palace of Irkalla, City of Ersetu, The Underworld

Thane

Our beautiful Heart blinks those dark, gorgeous eyes open. They are dazed and already red-rimmed from her pink tears.

"Baby?" she breathes. One of her hands comes up to cup her belly with mine.

She turns and looks at me, then my brother. Her eyes drift shut again, but a smile of pure joy curls up the edges of her lips. I keep my eyes on her face. She centers me, almost as if looking at her keeps my insanity at bay.

"We will take her to our home and let her rest," my brother says to me. "Don't worry about the father of her child. She is ours. The child is ours."

"You will not remove my daughter from this Palace," Nateos, the wily god of Death, orders. Orders us. Laughable. We are War. Besides, there are two of us.

Our Heart stirs in my brother's arms. A soft whimper rises and falls between us. Her soft murmur of agitation is like a dagger to the gut. The overwhelming urge to keep her safe and happy battles the urge to take her, now, and make certain that all of the world knows she is ours. It feels like a maelstrom whirling inside of me. Heat and fire and odd feelings of knowing, but not quite able to grasp the knowledge I need.

I know this is our female. That is what I'm holding onto. My brother shifts her delicately in his arms... what we're holding onto.

"My daughter will stay here."

He is our Heart's father. The bastard of the Underworld means something to our female.

"Fucking Death," my brother mutters, echoing my own thoughts.

"We need to go," I agree, grimly. Shards of life are seeping into my thoughts. A desert city in the above, a forest in the north, a pit in the Underworld, a battle of beasts, a clash of demons, anger and hurt poured over our heart... that can't be right... our hearts? Like liquid pain, a gilt of agony, hardening as it cools.

I look at our goddess. Cracks have formed in what I thought was an impenetrable shell. She is seeping in, her essence soothing the rage. At the same time, it's a familiar touch, her scent, her form, all beautifully familiar.

Panic crawls up my spine. We need to take her away. She has been lost to us, before, hasn't she? What enemies do we have that would take her from us? Inanji... that is one. Only one... there must be more. Who? Where?

"We need to leave," my brother mutters with a hot glare at Nateos.

"Baaabyyy," tiny stone hand touches my Heart's stomach reverently.

I look down at the ugly, little gargoyle. Are those... are those guardian gargoyles? A story drifts through my head. Gargoyles, defenders of the temples, known to be mischievous and sometimes outright destructive. They love children and... the god of Death gave them to his daughter as her companions.

I should know this gargoyle's name. Frustrated, I growl. The gargoyle squeaks and scampers away to huddle with four others. I can hear him chatter, 'baby' again in his broken language. They all become visibly excited.

My brother cradles our female to his chest. I step halfway in front of them. "We are taking our female home."

"You can't," Nateos replies.

I smirk, the iron-hot fire burning in my soul.

"That child was conceived in the Underworld. She must be born here. Or the babe will die at birth and your female will never forgive you," a matronly voice interjects.