Blood on My Hands

Magnus picked up Essie and smiled.  

Enzo wasn't wrong.

Eularia's laugh was quiet, and she shook her head at the boy. You're just like your father, Enzino. The words are quiet, and she sighed. I... accept your decision. She wouldn't question him; perhaps she should but, then again...

He was King.

She released him, and rubbed her face with both hands. I'm... tired. If it's okay, I'd... really like to take a bath and then lay down. Though she wouldn't sleep. She didn't want to sleep. If she slept she'd dream.

Enzino gave a supportive smile and half-nod before kissing his mother on the forehead.  [color=#7CD98A]"Do what you have to do." [/color] 

He made a point of looking around the room and taking in the exuberant innocence of his sisters. [color=#7CD98A] "The next few days are going to be rough, Mom.  But you aren't alone."  [/color]

He let his eyes wander over to Jaq who was affectionately holding Sunny and let an unspoken message pass between them.  Unsurprisingly, she responded with a little eye roll.  He imagined she was probably wondering how she ended up in this scenario instead of Nox.  

He almost asked her if she was going to help Magnus put the girls to bed...but he hadn't missed the undercurrent of displeasure that seemed to radiate from his mother each time she looked toward Jaq.  Instead, he scooped up Vera and nodded in the direction of their girls' bedroom.  [color=#7CD98A]"Little help real quick?  Then we can bounce."   [/color]

He didn't wait for a reply...just headed in the appropriate direction.  Jaq followed.  Of course she did...he knew she desperately wanted to escape the room.

Eularia sighed, rubbing her eyes, before she moved to stand. He scooped up a child, and Magnus was holding a baby, and so was the girl. That left one baby, who Enzo had earlier identified as Verity.

She carefully scooped the girl up, snuggling her as she followed her son. She lingered behind of Enzo and Jaq, dark eyes taking in the bedroom with the little beds, each tailored to suit the child it was for. Color-coded. Though she still wasn't sure which child she had; couldn't recall her color.

She'd wait, patiently distracting herself with the infant in her arms. As Magnus, Enzo and Jaq placed their child into a bed, it'd leave only one option for Verity. And still, she'd wait, lingering with the baby, her chin resting atop her head.

A sweet scent, that soothed her jealousy, soothed every ache and pain for just a moment. She hadn't wanted to run into her son; did not want to face him or his siblings... He'd known that, though. How could he not? She'd trained him. He knew her best, save for the men in Eularia's life.

Alright, little one. She whispered, as she laid the baby down. One hand rested against the child's chest, for just another moment. As if she couldn't believe they were real. Couldn't believe she was home.

She couldn't believe reality was reality; maybe it was a dream and in the morning she'd wake up to her husband, and his hurt feelings as he tried to figure out where they'd gone wrong.

...she wasn't sure which hurt worse. His death, or the fact he'd died arguing with her about who she was; who he was; who they were.

Enzo gingerly dropped his sister into her bed, touching her cheek softly.  He made a soft sound to her and murmured that she was going to have good dreams.  

She was.  He would make it so.  Children deserved dreams where life was simple and no one hated you for existing.  Reality would shatter the illusion soon enough.  

He turned to look at Jaq as she also dropped a baby into bed.  For all her roughness, there was something so tender about the way she took care of the babies.  It was like in those moments, with a child in her arms, she forgot the pain and hurt that defined so much of her life.  In those few moments, Jaq actually reminded him a lot of Nox.  He almost could see himself lo--- 

Nope. 

Nope, nope, nope.  None of that shit.  

What the fuck was wrong with him.  Yeah, his mom just killed his dad and he pledged to stand by her side throughout the adversity to come...but that was no excuse for being sentimental.  Softness like that was something a king could ill afford.

Jaq could feel Enzo's eyes on her as she dropped Sunny into her bed.  The girl reached back up for her, fingers grabbing as if to protest being put to bed.  But as Enzo quieted Vera, Sunny's eyes started drooping.  He had such a talent with the girls.  

He'd changed so much over the last year - but even being King didn't demonstrate that change more than how he was with his sisters.  He was...somehow more real with them.  

She had to avert her eyes.  Looking at him too much like this would lead to complications she didn't need in her life.  They were friends.  They had benefits.  That was it.  Anything more than that would just be messy.  

And god knows, Enzo already had enough of a mess without all that bullshit.  

She pushed the thoughts and any shadows of emotion from her mind as she mouthed [color=#7CD98A]"Ready to go?"[/color]  She didn't glance toward Magnus and Eularia, but she knew he understood.  She didn't need him to answer, though.  She could tell by the way he met her eyes he was ready.

Enzo met Jaq's eyes and nodded.  He took a few steps toward the door...to the point where his mother lingered with her head nuzzled against his sister's head.  

He put his hand on her shoulder lightly and looked at his mother.  She was an idiot...but she didn't deserve this.  She didn't deserve what was to come.  

[color=#7CD98A]"Mom..."  [/color]He knew there wasn't anything to say that would make her feel better.  [color=#7CD98A]"I know it wasn't your fault.  You didn't do this."[/color]

He gave a short nod, then looked toward Magnus.  

[color=#7CD98A]"Take care of her.  Make her believe..."[/color]

And then long, swift steps, he walked out of the room, out of the house, and into the night.  He could hear Jaq's light footfalls right behind him.

Magnus watched as the girls were dropped into their beds and soothed.  Enzo would make a good father, someday.  Well...if he wasn't already.  

Jaq...Jaq would be a lot like Eularia.  She was already like Eularia.  

His gaze wandered to Lara.  She had the look of someone hoping to wake from a nightmare...only this was going to get worse before it got better.  All he could do was be there for her when it did.  Protect her.  

When Enzo spoke, Magnus could tell that he understood, too.  Magnus nodded.  The real threat wasn't the people pointing fingers out there...the real threat was herself.  Well...and her kids.  Addy, specifically.  The child was...her father's daughter in all the most undesirable ways.  

But then Enzo and Jaq were gone, and he was left in the quiet house with four sleeping girls and a woman had already shattered and was just waiting to fall apart again.  

But it was okay.  She could fall apart if she needed to.  He was there to either hold her together or pick up the pieces - whatever she needed.  He'd always do whatever she needed.

She didn't look up as her son addressed her. Fingers splayed across the infants chest, she exhaled softly. Eventually, Eularia moved to study each child in her bed, dark eyes drifting over sleeping features.

By the time she'd made her way back to Magnus, she slipped past him rather than stop in front of him. Barefeet carried her back towards the kitchen, where she had deposited something covered in cloth. Magnus hadn't looked too closely at what she'd carried.

I need... I need glass. She murmured, Do we have... She was rummaging for something; she'd seen it once. He'd gotten it as part of a gift... an everlasting marigold, contained in a glass case. She wandered through the house until she found the flower encased in glass.

And immediately dumped it out of the glass. Silent as she focused on her task at hand, gathering the still-beating heart in her hands, free of the cloth wrappings. You'd hate me for this. Probably. She doubted if she knew her husband well enough to know what he hated or didn't hate.

As she placed the heart into the case, magic gathered at her fingertips, as she traced invisible bindings to hold the organ securely in place so that it could not be jostled. And then, a dark mist bellowed against the glass, as she further prepared the item to uphold the long-term necromancy magic.

And then she sealed it. And lowered the organ onto the counter, studying whether it was level.

Heart-in-a-box.

She carried the glass container with her, through the house, as she stepped over toys. She stopped in the doorway of the bathroom, hugging the enchanted glass case.

Silently trying to figure out what to do with the heart, while she bathed. And she turned to leave, unwilling to part with the organ whilst she took a bath. Only to run into Magnus, dark eyes flitting upwards.

I don't... where do we keep him? It was cruel, really, selfish. But then, Magnus knew just how selfish Eularia could be. He'd trained her, after all.

Magnus took in the sight:  his lover holding her husband's still-beating heart preserved in a glass chamber.  He had expected as much - one didn't fall in love with a necromancer and not understand that forever meant something completely different for them.  

[color=#7CD98A]"For now...I think there, next to the flowers." [/color] He gestured to the top of a chest of drawers adorned with some very rare flowers that he'd carefully nurtured to bloom.  It was in the bedroom...close enough to provide comfort to Lara without being...well, in bed with them.  [color=#7CD98A]"Tomorrow we'll find something more permanent, something more...him."[/color]

He smiled softly at Eularia, his hand finding her cheek and wiping away a smear of blood.  

[color=#7CD98A]"I love you, Lara."  [/color]

Without question, without hesitation, without even the slightest hint of trepidation...he loved her with everything he was, had been, or ever would be.  If that meant having a heart beat time in the bedroom for them, so be it.

He doesn't judge her. He doesn't tell her that she's being selfish. She's chasing delusions and lies. He just gestured to a spot to place the case. In their room. Where she can see it. Hear the rhythmic thumping of the heart as the hollow container amplifies the sound. A heartbeat she had fallen asleep to so many times before.

No, he doesn't pause to think about it. He's always loved her exactly the way she was; selfish delusions and all. He's come closer, thumb wiping away a lingering smear of blood. Eularia's numb, as she settled the heart on the indicated table.

And she inhaled sharply when he said he loved her. You shouldn't. You should... you should take the girls and leave. It'd be... safer. He should leave her here, in this flat with her dead husband's heart.

She can't kill the already-dead. She can't murder memories. Suddenly, Francesco is safer from Eularia than he's ever been before in the last twenty years. A step backwards, until she's too far from Magnus for him to touch.

I'm... a dangerous person. He knew that. He'd helped her become what she was. I'm... How do I know he's not in my head anymore? What if he's... what if... She couldn't finish the sentence. If she finished the sentence, Magnus might really go. She didn't want him to go; no, but she also did want him to go.

To be safe.

Away from her.

The house was quiet, save for the heartbeat in the room. Or was that her own heart beating frantically in her ears? What if he's listening still? She couldn't know the extent of the Evanuris' power.

He'd fully controlled her. So persuasive was his voice, as it draped around her mind like a soft blanket... She'd liked it. And in the moment, she'd enjoyed the thrill of killing. Almost like it'd been foreplay, a game between the god and herself.

Perhaps it had been a game.

And the game wasn't over?

Her mind raced with the possibilities, as she refused to mete Magnus' gaze. He shouldn't love her. He should leave. Be safe. Spread his wings and get far away from her. She killed everything she ever loved.

She'd eventually kill him, too.