Velvet Haven

the grove, they made love. There were no words. Only gentle caresses and the sighs of lovers whispered between them. It was magic, it was sacred, and Bran knew, as he found completion deep inside her, that he had at last found his redemption—in his wife’s arms.
    “I love you, Mairi. I’ll protect you from anything. I’ll worship you with my body, and heal you when you’re ill. I’ll make a life with you and strive to make you happy. You have my heart forever. This I vow to you.”
    She smiled and pulled him closer. “I can’t promise to always obey you, but I’ll feed your curse. I’ll worship your body, and protect you with mine. I’ll love you in sickness and health, richer or poorer, for forever and a day. This I vow to you, Bran, till death parts us.”
    “It won’t,” he vowed. “It won’t.”

EPILOGUE

    The incense washed over him, calming him. The sputtering candles soothed him. Clearing his mind, he envisioned what he desired—what he craved. The incantation fell from his lips as he reached out for his brother. The only one who could help him.
    “Look upon me.”
    He raised his head and felt his face cupped in two palms.
    “You came,” he whispered hoarsely.
    “Yes, brother. I’m here.”
    “Help me,” he begged.
    “Help to free you?” Aaron asked. “Such a beautiful darkness in you. How you ache. I can smell it. I can feel it. How it must haunt you, brother. No one knows, do they? No one knows the darkness inside you, the darkness you have so cleverly kept hidden. No, do not hang your head in shame, brother.”
    “Please,” he begged. “I need—”
    “Salvation. Yes, I know. You are not yet ready, but soon. Soon,” he soothed. He kissed each cheek, then his forehead. “When you are ready, I shall come, and I shall rid you of this pain. Together, we will save you. But not yet,” he said as he waved his hand over the bowed head before him. “You will not remember this night. You will not remember me—not yet.”
    He awoke, conscious that he was on his knees in a distant wood. Moonlight shifted over the low-lying fog. Filled with loneliness, he wept. The tears were for his past, the present, and the future. The future of darkness he sensed looming before him. The future that was comprised of hate, loneliness, and rage. A future he felt he no longer controlled, but controlled him. His was a future preordained, a destiny to fulfill, a fate he could not alter.
    “Save me,” he chanted, as he dug his fingers into the moist, cool earth, needing an anchor to tether him. Over and over he begged to be freed, not knowing to whom he prayed.
    “Save me,” he whispered, bowing his head until it rested against the earth. “Someone save me.”