Chapter 151: Not Quite Right

[Rosalynd].

The creature wearing the face of my mate walks towards me.

He is dressed for a wedding. Top hat, tailcoat, white gloves, and a silk cravat and dress shirt all in varying shades of black and gray, like fog at midnight. His chestnut-colored hair has been slicked back and put into a ponytail, a ribbon of black silk tying it back.

None of this feels right. It isn’t Axel’s style. Even at our true wedding, I would more likely expect him to wear designer cowboy boots and a pair of dark denim.

But that isn’t the part of him that bothers me the most.

It was his eyes. Black as slate, cold and dark, they are the opposite of those warm, honey-brown orbs that stole my heart all those months ago.

“What are you?” I hiss, struggling against my bonds. "And where is Axel? Where is my mate?"

He places a gentle hand on my cheek, making a shushing sound as he tries to soothe me. “He's still here, watching you, protecting you. Even now, he fights to be by your side," his fingers rest on my lip. "But he also knows that we want the same thing for you, and I have been able to get him to play along for now. Mostly," he pulls on the collar of his shirt, a habit of Axel's.

"Are you sure you don't remember me?" His eyes stare into mine, willing me to see and know him. "From after your fall?”

I try to remember the moments after my fall but everything is a blank. I remember falling, and I remember waking up in the hospital. Nothing else. "You will need to jumpstart my memory," I snap. "Because I haven't the foggiest idea who you could be except for some evil, body-snatching, asshole!"

He snorts. "Such language, so crass," he shakes his head, "I'd expect more from someone with your potential, but I forget how young we all start." The parasite walks Axel's body around the table, his finger tracing the edges of my body.

"To answer your previous question, I am a child of the void. We met when you fell from the sky and landed in the in-between. I was there the moment you chose life over death." Axel’s perfect teeth grin at me like he might eat me as a snack. "You have been my intended since the day I first handed your father the spell book to make you possible. I’ve been waiting millennia for you, Rosalynd Reid."

“But I don’t want you,” I start to cry.

“And yet here we are," he smiles again. "You were made for me, Rosalynd, can’t you feel the pull?"

He brings his face level with my own and I suck in my breath. He almost smells like Axel, except for an undercurrent of Ozone that twitches the back of my nose. I fight not to suck in my breath.

Because he is right, I can feel a pull to this creature. His power is calling to me. Like to like. His aura is a balance to my own in a way that none of my other three can match.

But I don't know him, I don't love him, and goddamn it, I want my true love back.

"I feel nothing for you," I lie. "Now give him back to me."

"Oh, I don't think so," he smiles even brighter. "I rather like this body. And I must say he rather likes you. Seeing you tied up like this is making him almost impossible to control. His inner wolf isn't sure if he wants to free you or ravish you. It's amusing."

"I'm not laughing!" I grit, pulling against the bindings.

That just makes him laugh harder.

"If I am your precious so and so," I retort, "Then why do you need tweedle dee and tweedle dum over here to kidnap me? Oh, and why do you need to wear my fiance like a suit? Did you think that would win me over to you?"

He shrugs. "Do you want to hear my offer or not?"

"Offer?" I stop struggling. "I didn't realize this was a negotiation."

Vincent and Slone are watching this interaction very carefully. There is a look that goes between them, something I can't read. but it looks close to panic. They had planned to truss me up, clean my womb, offer me on a platter to their dark lord, and then use me as an incubator for their demon horde after killing his host and trapping him in the void.

They didn't figure that the dark lord might have a side agenda too.

And they sure the hell weren't expecting him to negotiate with me.

Either way, I'm doomed unless I can figure out a way out of here on my own. Maybe if I can keep him talking long enough, someone else will come and save me.

"What are you thinking, Rosie," the void tilts his head. "I know you are thinking something because your body becomes still and your breathing more shallow. Did you know that sometimes Axel worried you'd stop breathing entirely if you went too deeply into your thoughts?"

I hadn't known that. I didn't realize I had such obvious tells. "Do you have access to all of Axel's memories?"

"Yes," he nods. "His memories, his thoughts. I am essentially him in everything but spirit, and if you agree to my deal, he might agree to join with me completely just to be with you."

The thought of Axel allowing his soul to be absorbed is so abhorrent that I feel myself shivering in fear and disgust. "But wouldn't that change who he is? If he became one with you, would it even be him anymore?"

"We would both be changed," he admits honestly. "You would get your lover, and I would get mine. We could be married and your mating marks completed. When you are done having children for the universe, you can have a child for the void and the balance between the realms will finally be set."

"These children belong to me and my husbands," I bite back. "The universe itself didn't get me pregnant I..."

"Didn't though?" he cocks his head to the opposite side this time, his eyes questioning. "The universe's path is a bit less direct, but amazingly effective. The oracle is as much a creature of creation as I am a creature of destruction. The Oracle also cannot exist on this realm without a host, which is why it prefers to move mortals around like pawns, convincing them to believe in mating bonds and true love."

"What I am offering you is no less real than what you already have, Rosalynd. Are you only rejecting my affection because I am far more direct?"

"Affection isn't forced," I explain. "And the Oracle gave us all choices. We could have chosen to go different ways. Even now, Axel could walk away from me and be free and owe the universe nothing. He has lost a mate before, he would survive losing another."

"Perhaps," the void shrugs again. But you are something he has never had before--a true mate. A match on every level. He will never find someone to meet his every need as well as you do, Rosie."

"I can't lose you, Rosie," Axel takes over and the switch is instant. His honey-colored eyes blinked. "Oh Rosie, we tried to save you, but this...if this is the only way I can be with you Rosie I can live with this. He promises I'll still get to keep myself, still be myself for you."

"Axel please," I start crying again. "Please don't leave me. I don't want to lose you. I need you."

"You are enough for me," Axel says. "But I have never been enough for you, have I?" He closes his eyes. "Maybe now I can be."

When he opens his eyes, they are black again.