The Tangled Tree Read online

  The Tangled Trees

  The Eden Chronicles #3

  S .K Munt

  © 2017 S.K Munt All Rights Reserved

  Map of Northern Calliel

  PART I

  Prologue.

  Loss of consciousness is a funny thing. Sometimes when you awaken it can feel like mere heartbeats have gone by and sometimes it can feel like eternity has passed. Either way, you always come to feeling somewhat panicked and completely robbed- shocked that your mind- your everything- was just switched off without your choosing to do it on purpose, like when you decide to fall asleep, and alarmed to think maybe you have just experienced what death might be like, and that one day your life could be taken from you that easily.

  It’s the truth of course- sudden death is a reality and it happens to a lot of people, but none of us like to think about that sort of thing, do we? We want to imagine dying in bed surrounded by our families and gently, sweetly, falling asleep as those who love us affirm that our life was a tremendous one, that we will be missed, and that the world will never be the same without us. It is the ultimate storybook ending.

  I had lost consciousness before so I was no stranger to that feeling of panic upon waking, but my life had not been playing out like any of the favourite fairy tales for a very long time, so this time when I came to, I cared not for whatever I’d missed or how long I’d been out for, because all I wanted to do was weep for the sudden death that I’d just been denied after the worst day of my life.

  And who could blame me? The last thing I remembered seeing before I had fainted was Satan asking me to help her step through the mirror so that she could enter the mortal realm and answer the prayers that I’d apparently been screaming at her for years, while my best friend/captor/borderline rapist had been soaking in the bath in my en-suite- cleaning the strong, sensual and duplicitous body that I was now legally bound to for the rest of my life due to a massive lapse in judgement on my part and a cataclysmic one on his.

  My daughter? Did she call me ‘My Daughter,’? My mind raced, but I rejected the recollection as though I were allergic to it. No, my father wasn’t my father, but I know that my mother was my biological one! Why did she say it, then?

  I shuddered and tried to claw away the fog blanketing my mind. What I’d seen in that mirror had either been the world’s worst hallucination on record, or a sneak-peek at my new and terrifying reality and I wasn’t ready to deal with either scenario because either way, I’d clearly lost my sanity in conjunction with my liberty.

  ‘She’s coming to,’ a soft female voice said, and I recognised it as Cherry the healer’s with a sinking heart. No way would I imagine her into a nightmare, or the cool cloth that she was pressing to my forehead. ‘Her pulse is stabilising, but her eyes…’

  My eyes! The blood! The healer’s words snapped me into action and I sat up with a start and pressed my fingers to my face, knowing that if my eyes and face were still all bloody then I was in even more trouble than I had been earlier that evening. The Six Books of Creation were more widely-read now than the Bible had been in the time before, and there wasn’t a person on this earth that didn’t secretly fear one day crying bloody tears as Satan once had- of being hurt beyond redemption. And although I wasn’t surprised to learn that my heart truly had been broken, I was dismayed to think that maybe I had been broken too and that the evidence was all over my face. Satan had never recovered from the anguish of losing Miguel to another woman, so if my pain was as absolute as hers, then did that mean that pain was all I’d ever know again? What of my plans to find a way to escape this so-called Paradise? What of my intentions to fake my death and start somewhere else, as someone else? What of my dreams of liberating Kohl too, and riding off into the sunset together?

  My mind had been assuring me all night that nothing was finite- that where there was a will there would indeed be a way around the contract that I was bound to Kohén by now, but what if those bloody tears had been a sign that my will was weaker than I believed, and that I would never know happiness again?

  I smeared the blood all over my face like war paint! I realised, thunderstruck. But that was before I realised that I’d summoned Satan into Eden’s walls with my misery! If anyone finds out that I did that… God if it’s a slight to God to cry too much, what would he do to me for crying blood?

  ‘They’re incredibly red,’ I heard Kohén say softly, and then fingers were trailing through my hair. ‘Nothing sleep won’t fix, right?’

  The sound of his voice scratched against my nervous system like fingernails against concrete, but he sounded so normal that he temporarily suspended my belief that the worst had just happened. My eyes and face were wet and my fingertips felt oddly cool, but as I pulled my fingers away, I was a little stunned to see that though my fingertips glistened with moisture, they were clean and blood-free, as was my vision, which immediately blurred my mind, of course.

  Was it just a nightmare or a hallucination? But it felt so real!

  ‘Sleep, and rest,’ Cherry said pointedly to Kohén, while I looked around, dazed. I was on the bed, not on the floor in front of the mirror where I’d been last, and my hair was still wet from the bath. How long had I been out for, and why had I fainted in the first place? Because I’d been overcome with fear of Satan and myself as I’d believed at the time, or because I was, as Cherry had said- merely exhausted? ‘Lots of both, and plenty of water too.’

  ‘When you say rest…?’

  ‘I mean exactly what you think I mean,’ Cherry said, still holding the cool cloth to my forehead, and I was someone mollified by the sharp tone that she was taking with her prince on my behalf. She’d sounded concerned for me earlier when he’d first called her inside to heal me, but now she sounded outright disgruntled. ‘This poor girl has had a taxing day, and needs the chance to recover, or a healer stronger than myself to restore her completely.’

  ‘You’d better not be suggesting what I think you’re suggesting for the second time this evening, Cherry,’ Kohén growled, standing up and glaring at her over my body, which was thankfully covered with the thin sheet from my bed this time.

  ‘Prince Karol is three times as strong as I am, and he has made his affection for Larkin clear today,’ Cherry said stubbornly, and I winced as I felt Kohén buzz beside me- buzz, and begin to glow a warning shade of blue. ‘I don’t know why you think you have anything to fear from him but-’

  ‘If I hear that you have breathed a word to Karol about Larkin’s condition or anything that breeches the privacy contract that you have signed in order to work here, then I will have you dismissed immediately,’ Kohén snapped, and I looked up at him, alarmed that he would speak so harshly to a Nephilim employee.

  ‘Kohén-’ I began, wondering where he got off being uppity with anyone this day.

  ‘I am gladdened that you are so concerned by Larkin’s welfare,’ Kohén went on, ignoring me in a way that was out of character for him, and even more alarming to me because it made it clear how insignificant my feelings had become, ‘and I can understand how strange all of this must look to you- suspicious, even- but I assure you that if my elder brother gets his hands on her due to a lapse in your judgement, it will be the last bad decision that you ever make!’

  ‘Kohén Barachiel!’ I snapped now, horrified, turning to Cherry with an apology in my eyes. ‘Don’t be so rude, she’s just trying to help me!’

  Kohl whirled to glare at me. ‘Do you want Karol in here, Larkin? Will you welcome his healing hands on your body? Do you crave his company and assistance right now?’

  I narrowed my eyes to slits, thinking of how disastrous that would be, and resenting the fact that for all of the wrong he’d done by me, Kohén was still the lesser of two evils as far as the Barachiel men wer
e concerned. I didn’t want this imprisonment but Kohén was right- I needed it, at least until after the ball, because now that Karol had released his own companions, this harem was the only place in the Eden that his brother was not permitted to step foot in. Those were my tasks: to keep away from Karol until he was safely engaged (hopefully to Ora) and forbidden to pursue me- and to keep Kohl believing that I was happy to stay with his twin, so he wouldn’t cause another scene over our feelings for one another and give Kohén grounds to punish him for the rules we’d broken. ‘Of course not.’

  ‘Good,’ Kohén motioned to Cherry. ‘Then how about you dissuade Cherry from sticking his nose into our business in your sweet, charming way- so I don’t have to talk to her the way that I just did, hmm?’

  I ground my teeth together. Being tethered to this new, deceptive Kohén was a living nightmare that warranted me crying rivers of bloody tears… but there was another potential rock-bottom for me to hit sitting below this one and letting Karol and Kohl discover that I was miserable would surely get me there. I didn’t want to have to lie to Kohl- for him to suffer, believing that I’d gotten over my feelings for him in a heartbeat- but if I didn’t cause his suffering then Kohén would, and Kohén had enough on him to get him booted clear over the fence and to the Banished on the other side of it. And more than that, if Karol made a fuss over trying to get to me, then there was a good chance that Ora would find out about it and go running for the hills herself, and I didn’t want to scare her off because I honestly believed that the entire world would be a better place if Karol just sucked it up and married someone as lovely and level-headed as the first-daughter of Rabia. So the only option I had was to keep everybody calm… and out of my business. Everyone except for Kohén, that was, who needed to be convinced that I loved him and him alone.

  This in mind, I turned to Cherry, who looked beyond perplexed now. ‘Please,’ I said to her softly. ‘I thought we went over this earlier? Yes I have had an emotionally-draining day, and I suppose it is clear that Kohén and I are treating one another in a way that is unusual for new lovers, and out of character for old friends, but-’

  ‘It’s not out of character,’ Cherry said quickly, ‘he’s been treating you like…’ Kohén sparked and she rolled her eyes, ‘like trash instead of like an old friend for months!’ she turned to glare at Kohén. ‘And if you threaten my life for saying so, then you’d better prepare yourself to dismiss the entire castle’s staff and the community while you’re at it, because I’m not the only one that has noticed or spoken about it, Prince Kohén!’ she looked back at me. ‘Your being in here doesn’t make sense! You were released today, Larkin! How could you be so foolish as to give up your freedom, for a man’s companionship?’

  I winced, as her words wounded me. I wanted to scream that I had not given up anything for a man, but that wasn’t exactly the case. Irregardless of which Barachiel brother I’d believed I’d been giving myself to earlier that evening, my virginity had been the only thing about me that I’d had going for me still and I’d sacrificed it for a few moments of passion, spite… and the foolish belief that Kohl and I had what it took to survive together outside Eden’s walls once we were banished together for going behind Kohén’s back. A somewhat optimistic plan to make, considering I hadn’t been sober enough to know that I was plotting an escape with the wrong twin, and because we hadn’t had so much as sensible shoes, a map or a canteen of water between us to escape with. I’d accepted Kohl’s love like a lifeline, despite the fact that just ten minutes before, I’d been completely sure that I was still besotted with Kohén. I had nobody to blame for any of this, but myself, and if I didn’t start convincing everyone that I was where I wanted to be and soon, I’d end up with Kohl’s death on my conscience and Karol’s hands on my body.

  ‘I’ve worked towards many goals during my time in Eden,’ I said softly, returning Cherry’s probing gaze with shuttered eyes, ‘but today I simply realised that none of them would hold any joy for me without my prince by my side.’ I shrugged slightly. ‘Kohén has promised to make all of my other dreams come true if I stay here with him, and I believe him. I concede that it was a spontaneous decision that will shock some people, but it was my decision to make, healer, so please…’ I looked to Kohén and smiled sadly, taking his hand. ‘Being freed did not change the fact that I am infertile, so if this is the only way that I can be with my love…then I’ll cling to it. So long as I am his only Companion now.’

  Kohén’s eyes softened to a misty blue, and I silently scorned him for believing my performance. ‘I’ll never touch another woman again,’ he promised me. ‘I am as indentured to you, as you are to me, and I refuse to let people judge you for choosing to follow your heart.’ He leaned over and kissed my forehead, and I closed my eyes and tried not to cry. ‘That being said- are you done with your inspection, healer? You said yourself that Larkin needs to get some rest, so…’

  ‘That she does,’ Cherry said softly, giving me an odd look. ‘I apologise for sticking my nose into your private affairs, your highness, but as I said, speculation is rife and as a healer it is my duty to report-’

  ‘Report to everyone that it is possible to have an Academic’s mind and a woman’s heart then, seeing as they are all clearly struggling to believe it for themselves,’ I said, lying on my side and rolling over to face her once more, comforting myself with the knowledge that my fraudulent cover story was a lot less embarrassing than the real story was, and a lot less dishonourable. ‘And thank you again for seeing to me. I am sure I will feel better after some sleep.’

  ‘And fluids.’ Cherry stepped back from the bed and moved towards the door, her gait drooping like a wilted flower as she opened the door and closed it behind her without saying goodbye. She hadn’t believed that I hadn’t wanted a white knight to come to my rescue before but she did now, and though I should have been relieved for Kohl’s sake, I was anything but. This was so hard already, and it was only just beginning! How was I going to convince an entire kingdom that I was happy, when I was anything but? Especially after the big fuss that Karol had made about me earlier that day in front of everyone? How would all of this affect Atticus’s decision to appoint Kohl as a general of Pacifica? What were the other Given girls thinking about me now that they’d been kicked out of their comfortable rooms and told that they were now to service the public instead of the crown? Where was Kelia and what hell was she raising, and how on earth was I going to make sure that Karol didn’t change his birthday wish for the sake of the other released Given to get me, when I couldn’t risk going near him until he’d made an official promise to be faithful to Ora?

  And most importantly, what had happened before I’d blacked out? Was Satan truly here in Eden, looking to cause trouble on my behalf? Or had I imagined it all?

  The bed shifted behind me as Kohén lifted the sheet and snuggled up against my back. ‘Thank you,’ he whispered, kissing my shoulder and my lips tightened into a thin line at the feel of him against me. He was naked and still humid and slightly damp from the bath, and so fragrant from the bath oils that he’d used that I immediately grew dizzy from it all, like I was suffocating in his aura. I supposed that I smelled the same way, but he was a man and his pheromones were reacting differently to the cloying fragrance, and I was loathe to admit that he smelled incredible. ‘You handled that well.’

  ‘One of us had to,’ I pointed out, and Kohén chuckled and ran his finger down my bicep. I had the sheet pulled up under my armpit, and now as my skin broke out in gooseflesh in response to his touch, I wished that I’d tucked all of my limbs away out of sight.

  Please god, don’t let him instigate… that. Not now. Not while I ache so!

  ‘I’ll admit that I lost my temper,’ he said softly. ‘But the idea of Karol seeing you like this…’ lips touched my shoulder again, and his finger trailed back up my arm, leaving a delicious, invisible trail. ‘How can I expect him to resist what I cannot? There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to have you, Larkin-
nothing.’

  ‘A fact that I am all too aware of,’ I said sardonically, and Kohén moaned and buried his face into my neck, making the diamond choker around it tinkle.

  ‘You don’t understand,’ he complained, pulling my hair over my shoulder so that he could kiss the top of my spine. It tickled as sweetly as his other touch had, and I pressed my lips even more tightly together to keep in a moan. Was it unfair for his touch to feel so good despite how much I hated him? Or was this the universe’s way of softening my fall from grace? ‘You don’t understand what it is to love someone with all of your heart.’

  I breathed in sharply and turned to face him. ‘How dare you!’ I hissed. ‘I loved you with all of my heart, Kohén! And you threw it all away because you wanted another woman’s body more than you wanted my devotion!’

  Kohén’s eyes narrowed. ‘If it’s rest you want, little bird, turn your face away! For I will not be held responsible for the things I do to you when you’re looking at me like that and declaring your love! When you’re damned near challenging me to prove my devotion!’

  ‘You will find a million excuses to fuck me because you are an entitled brat, and which way I am facing at the time will matter none!’ I poked him in the chest. ‘Own your short-comings, Kohén, and learn to overcome them when it’s appropriate to.’

  ‘I have a million excuses as to why I want to fuck you, but I need only one,’ Kohén sat up taller and pulled me against him so that we were face to face on our sides, and I gasped when I felt his erection slip between the gap in my thighs and send a murmur of pleasure across my sex. ‘Feel that?’ Kohén leaned in and kissed me hard on the mouth. ‘That’s my excuse for my behaviour, and due to your own poor conduct of late, that’s your responsibility now and yours alone. I will apologise for the multitude of mistakes that I have made that have caused you to lose faith in me, but I will never ever apologise for how much I want you. Nor will I apologise for how you got yourself into this mess by going behind my back with my brother.’ His blue eyes flared like fire. ‘I love you, but I hate you for loving him, and I do intend to punish you for it- when it’s reasonable to do so.’