THE SAINTS HAVE FALLEN: CHAPTER 38

The Saints Have Fallen is an Adult Dark Romance Fantasy Novel written by Celine Mahadeo.

Novel. Fiction. Genre (Dark Romance Fantasy).

By Celine Mahadeo.

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BLURB

After being stripped of his title as a God and turned into a demon in the presence of his brother, Yuri was banished to earth to live amongst the humans whom he hates. 200 years later, a young girl shows up at his doorstep holding both his life and death in her hands whilst not having any idea of the power in which she possesses.

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Ana.

Anxiety filled me as I sat nauseous, thinking about what was going on at that shop. I peeled the flesh off the side of my fingers as I stared into the empty room. Five minutes passed which felt like five hours. Ten minutes dragged by and my chest tightened after every second. Fifteen. My toes curled into the sheets of the bed as the palms of my hand dampened. A sharp, brief light filled the room when Yuri emerged out of it.

“Yuri,” I breathed in relief, pushing myself up on the bed. My knees dug into the softness of the mattress as he approached and drew himself close. All I wished to do right now was throw my arms around him. And I did. Thank the Saints he wasn’t hurt.

I thought he would have pushed me away. Resented the closeness. Pull himself away. But he didn’t. He snaked an arm around my waist, stapling me to his chest as he propped one knee onto the bed.

“What were those things?” I questioned quietly, keeping my face buried in his neck.

“They’re gone now.”

“Why were they after you?

Gently, he pulled away and glared at my arm. A deep scowl plastered across his face, “You’re hurt,” he observed.

Following his gaze, the numbness of my arm began subsiding, replacing itself with pain. I winced as his fingers wrapped around my wrist, trying to guide the arm up.

“Can you move it?”

“I think-” I began and attempted to, but the pain shot through me like a bullet.

“Remove the corset and show me your wound.”

I stared at him for a fragment of a second before he spoke again in a softened voice, “I only want to heal you.”

“I know- I just,” I blurted awkwardly as I undid the strings of the corset wonkily with my free hand. I hadn’t realized how difficult it was to undo. His fingers laced over mine. He held onto my gaze as he slowly undid every string. My heartbeat fastened. Removing the corset ached my arm but he kept his eyes glued onto mine. It was as if he was studying me, analyzing my expression as if I were only words on paper. And for a moment, I thought I saw something more within his eyes. Truthfully, it was always difficult to read him. The God of War carried an invisible armor around his soul and his heart, but right now, that armor was cracking.

My body perked towards him. I dreaded if he could have noticed. A hint of a smile played upon the edge of his lips. He was certainly noticing how my body was betraying me. I shouldn’t be feeling this way for his man- God- demon. But nothing seemed like it was in my control right now. He grazed his thumb along my neck softly and outlined my collarbone. Every part of me was unraveling at his touch but he kept his expression contained and cryptic, giving very little away.

“May I?” he asked with his fingers at the edge of my sleeve. Nodding, he delicately tugged it slowly down, stopping just below the open wound. Saints know why I hadn’t bled out. Thankfully, I didn’t too much. Placing the palm of his hand over my wound, I gasped. A violent pain sharpened its way through me as he refrained from moving his hand.

“The pain should subside soon,” he stated quietly. I fisted my hand into his shirt and drew myself closer. Anything closer I’d probably be one with him. I held onto his gaze this time as he held me.

“Yuri,” I found myself whispering. Wanting. Aching. These feelings were all unraveling within me, and I couldn’t understand why. Was this wrong to be so close to him? Should I have pulled myself away? I knew to myself, however, I couldn’t. I couldn’t bring myself to, not even if I wanted to.

He cupped the back of my head, twisting his fingers into my hair. “Tell me,” his voice was sore and his tone held a subtle ache, “Tell me you feel this.” And within his statement lingered a plea, buried between the stitches of every word.

And between every enunciation of mine, every pause between my thoughts, and spaces between my breath, he resided. There, whether I chose to see it or not. I felt him in ways I could never understand. I nodded to his question. It was the truth. The only thing that surprised me was how reciprocal our energies were right now. The air around us hazed, but this was no magic, and I was sure of that.

“I thought you hated me,” I murmured softly as his lips brushed over my collarbone and travel up my neck tauntingly. I threw an arm around his shoulder as he guided my legs around him, keeping his palm pressed against the small of my back. He chuckled into the softness of my neck and jaw. The low vibration of his laugh sent a wave of goosebumps across my flesh.

“Darling,” he purred with a hint of danger embedded, “If I hated you, I wouldn’t want you like this right now.” He kissed below the lobe of my ear just before whispering, “Allow me into your mind tonight. Let me satisfy your desires.”

I gasped as he pulled me further onto him. “Or are you making me figure this out myself?” he teased while his thumb outlined the bottom curve of my breast through my thin gown.

“Oh my God,” I breathed as my nipple hardened between his touch.

“If this is the way you pray to me, I’d be more than satisfied,” he smiled. With his hands on my legs, he dragged his lips to the buttons of my dress, undoing each at my chest with his mouth. His tongue explored the tenderness of my skin and relished its reaction.

“Yuri,” I moaned as his tongue flicked over my untouched nipple. Tasting and sucking as it ached in delight and I could do nothing but twist my fingers into his hair in heavy breaths. My body arched to his control. And my core was entirely his right now.

He smirked, reading my very thoughts. “Perhaps I should taste what’s entirely mine.”

I rolled my eyes at his response. A reflex from his cockiness.

A low rumbled laugh escaped his throat, “Or perhaps I should teach you how to properly roll those pretty eyes of yours back.”

Unfastening his coat, I pushed it off his shoulders. All I knew I wanted right now was him. Us. This. Whatever this was. I didn’t know why my grandfather sent me to him, but I was okay not knowing anymore. I couldn’t spend the rest of my life trying to understand why when every moment escapes me. One I could never get back. Until too many is gone, and I didn’t have enough time to live in moments like these.

“Fuck.” He muttered as I reached for his shirt. I paused as he placed his hand over mine. “Ana, stop.”

I pulled my hands away as if I had touched something I shouldn’t have.

“He hasn’t told you,” He frowned. His voice held an agonizing ache, “I can’t do this to you if you don’t know.”

“What don’t I know?” My body froze, “And who is he?”

His lips thinned whilst reaching for his coat and draping it over my shoulders. I covered myself as I watched his lip part, but no words escaped. Instead, he got up and walked towards the desk at the end of the small room, running a hand through his hair. His shoulders deflated and he pressed the palm of his hands flat on the surface of the desk. A gloomy silence consumed him as he let out a thick, aching sigh.

“I didn’t want to be the one to tell you. I can’t comfort you the way you deserve to be, that’s why I thought he would have told you himself.”

I hung onto every word he was saying as if it were my last. Drawing myself closer, I stood in the center of the room, waiting for him to continue. A ruthless thunderstorm threatened violently outside.

“The reason you came to me was because my brother willed it. He did what he thought was right to-” Yuri paused and sighed, tightening his palms into fists on the desk, “To save us.” He spat the word out like venom before turning to face me. His eyes were the deepest violet as he spoke, “You died, Ana Alois.”

My heart, very much alive, thundered within the cages of my chest. “What?” I could only whisper.

“The only reason you’re alive right now is because he hid the power that was taken from me into you. My power- that was taken by the High Court on the day of my sentencing…”

The room was spinning around me as his words drifted into the air between us. “Your brother,” I found my breath, and spoke the name softly, “Is Mathias, isn’t he?”

How could I have not known? Had he ever mentioned it? If I had asked, would he have told me the truth? I hadn’t asked, however. And I hadn’t the slightest clue.

“Ana,” Yuri took a hesitant step towards me as he continued with careful words, “There’s more you should know.”

The way he looked down at me, the way his jaw clenched, and his throat tightened. His once deadly feline features seemed more of a wounded cat right now. He paused, uneasy and unsure of his next words. A strand of silver hair fell over his eyes which were heavy with emotion. Emotions I didn’t understand entirely. But he looked broken, vulnerable, for the very first time he looked like a mess before me. His throat throbbed with words unable to escape.

“What should I know, Yuri?”

He glanced out the window, hesitant to continue. The words rolled off his tongue slowly, “We’re betrothed.” He hadn’t turned to me, he kept his eyes on the window as he continued, “He betrothed us in order to… he said it was the only way.”

The air choked me. I could not be hearing these words correctly. No. Perhaps I was hearing it all wrong. I opened my mouth to speak but my thoughts couldn’t process the entirety of what he just said.

“I-I-” I stammered. My saliva was thickening at the base of my throat, and I could no longer swallow. A heavy lump-like rock suffocated me. My stomach was somewhere on the floor while tiny, sharp, invisible needles were piercing into my flesh. Yuri turned to me, about to approach but I took a step back. For a split second, I thought I glimpsed a flicker of hurt across his features. But that too could have been all in my head. The truth about my life for Saints knows how many years had all been hidden from me. And I was nothing but a pawn in the game of the Gods.

“I-” I couldn’t finish a sentence properly, “I need some air.”

I was unraveling right now and I didn’t want a soul, whether human, God, or demon to see. I wanted to be far away from everything and everyone at this moment. Tears began escaping and I quickly turned away from him, leaving the room.

My feet ached as I hurriedly ran down the staircase. I didn’t know exactly where I was going but I simply just wanted to not feel so suffocated at this moment. A slash of cold air sliced through me as I opened a side door which led me to the open grassy field, just before the ocean’s cliff. My heart winced at the too many thoughts rushing through my mind. All I felt right now was betrayed. Betrayed by the very God I’d prayed to my entire life. Was I supposed to be thankful to him for giving me life again? I tried to be, but I wasn’t naïve. I was nothing but a vessel to save his brother. Whatever freedom I had, whatever freedom I thought I had was now taken away because I was to be married against my wishes. And it hurt me. It hurt me beyond anything I could ever imagine that this was done to me by the God I put all my love and faith in, the God I trusted, Mathias.

My feet gave way. My knees hit the cold, hard, ground whilst the waves crashed beneath me murderously as I sobbed. The icy air around me taunted me whilst I grabbed the lavender colour gem from around my neck and ripped it off, tossing it at the edge of the cliff. I wrapped my arms around my knees as I sat and cradled myself. Soft drops of rain cried with me. I hated crying. I always tried not to growing up but there were times I could do nothing but silently weep alone. I thought I had Mathias with me, protecting me, caring about me. Not only to realize that one day he’d be the reason for my pain.

A shimmering light glistened, and from the short distance before me, as I raised my head. The image of a man picked up the necklace I had just tossed.

“You have every right to be upset with me,” the man said.

I straightened myself a little as I observed the man before me as he neared. His attire was otherworldly, lavender-white gems decorated the edges of his trench and his boots matched the rich cream of his overcoat. His silky blond hair remained unfazed by the wind, and his eyes an ethereal blue. He held his hand out towards me, but I refused it, pushing myself up and taking a step back. At the side, a small bird hovered and transformed itself into a person. Quilt. He stood far from us and watched with an apologetic expression. Never would I have ever imagined seeing Mathias in person, I used to think these Gods would make their appearances to only very lucky people. Yet, I felt the furthest from lucky.

My throat ached as I spoke to the God before me. A question that always burned at the back of my mind all these years. “Why me?” I asked with a break in my voice.

“Ana,” Mathias tried to soothe me.

“I prayed to you,” I answered, my voice shaking, “I prayed to you every day. I tried to do the right thing, to be a good person, and I accepted it all. You were the only one I had. I loved you. And I thought you, for the very least, cared about me but-”

“I do.” He answered as sure as anything in this world.

I shook my head, not believing him. “I’m nothing but a human to you. You hurt me, Mathias. You- couldn’t help me. And not only that but you took away my freedom by making me a vessel for your brother.”

“Ana…” he said softly, with a crack in his voice. It was as if my words were making him crumble and I couldn’t anymore. I couldn’t see him like that either. He wasn’t supposed to look at me as if he had lost the entire world, and yet here he was. I wanted to be grateful for him to give me back life, but I couldn’t, because life to me was never easy. If anything, I suffered even more with my aunt. And just when things would have gotten better with my grandfather he was diagnosed with cancer. I had hope, I prayed and prayed and prayed, and he still died. Why? Why me? My life was never easy. How could he have not known that? My life was never mine, and it never will be. Mathias’s gaze shifted behind me, and I could feel the presence of Yuri behind me. I tightened his coat around me, protecting my skin from the harsh tang of the ocean air as he spoke. “Yuri is not at fault. It is only myself and I take responsibility for that. I should have come to you sooner. My brother knew nothing of the bond until recently.”

Hot tears casually rolled down my cheeks accompanied by a jarring numbness and tightness in my chest. I turned to Yuri who stood five feet behind me, his face was hard and masked of all feelings as he looked at his brother. Switching his gaze to mine, he held it for a quiet second and softened. I didn’t know what to think, what to feel right now. It was suffocating at the very least. Turning back to Mathias, my words fell empty and all I wanted to do right now was be alone. Away from him.

“Please just let me be,” I whispered in a plea before turning away towards the house. Yuri kept his glare towards his brother as he opened the smokey portal that led into the room of the manor for me. And with a sigh, I walked through.

***

The roof was wetter than she was tonight. Heavy raindrops pounded on, turning into a storm of desire and frustration. He was gone longer than she’d expected. Not a single call. The past few days with these unwanted guests in her house made her uneasy to say the least. Yet, wanted by her husband. Who the hell told him he could make a decision like that without her? God, he frustrated the shit out of her. God, did she love him anyway.

Elizabeth twirled her wedding ring around her delicate finger and shifted restlessly on the empty bed. The feeling of loneliness crept up between her legs. She shifted again. The nerve that man had to leave her here like this for days. She was thirsty. Really thirsty. The bottles at the bedside table had all been drained from earlier today. She hated cramps with a passion. She hated when he wasn’t around her when she felt like this.

Deciding to refill the water mug, she pushed herself off the bed and threw over a white shirt of her husband’s. This was the closest she felt to him in days, somehow it warmed her heart. Brushing her fingertips over the assortment of his cologne, she opted for her favourite. Musky. Dark. Sensual. Charming. Everything she’d describe Sebastian Lockwick to be.

The lights of the hall had been buried in darkness, yet the moonlight fought through the windows which luminated the moon-crest sloped staircase. The warm soles of her feet licked the icy marble beneath her as she made her way into the kitchen. Her eyes burned from the lack of sleep and worry. Men.

The sound of the ice maker suddenly startled her, causing her to spill the water she was pouring into a glass. “Shit.” As she pressed the rim of the glass to her lips, the sound of a hushed door closing grasped her attention. 11:55pm. Who could have been down here so late? Was someone breaking in? Surely, she could have handled the situation herself. Grabbing a hold on the nearest knife at the counter, she carefully trailed towards the sound.

A blanket of silence fell upon her at the sight of her husband drenched in blood, white shirt now wine, the tang of metallic red sin caressed her nose, his hair soaked in thick salted sweat and blood that slicked to his forehead. His eyes, however, reflected from the moonlight in its majestic silver blue. Elizabeth frowned deeply as he stalked towards her and stood inches apart.  

“Well, you’re bloody late.” She broke the silence, annoyed.

Sebastian gave out a low chuckle, astonished at his wife’s dry humor, “A pun? Really?”

“How dare you leave me here like this,” she softly raged, bringing the knife up to his throat, “How fucking dare you.”

“Love,” he cooed into her left ear, and pulled her tenderly by the waist, clasping the spaces between them. “I missed you too.”

“Are you forgetting the knife in my hand, Sebastian?” She warned.

“Go ahead, stab me.”

Sighing, she dropped it and wrapped her arms around his red moist neck. Swiftly, scooping her into his arms and perching her upon the kitchen’s island. “I should get cleaned up,” he suggested, “I don’t want you getting ill.”

“No, no. I’m not waiting anymore,” Elizabeth breathed shortly, locked her legs around him. Pressing her lips onto his, she’d slip her tongue in through smiles. He tasted like blood and vodka. Whose blood was this? She hadn’t even known. His hands travelled along her naked legs, as she moaned into him. Up. Up. Pulling away slightly, she kept an arm’s length, breathed, and slapped him across the face.

“You’re upset. I shouldn’t have left like that. I know. Things got… complicated.” He motioned to his drenched attire.

***

If you love mystery, dark romance, unhinged/ morally grey characters, crazy unpredictable plot twists, Gillian Flynn sort of novels with romance in it, then I think you will LOVE ‘Ophelia’. I actually cried writing it because I love one of the male love interest so damn much and -well- it’s a lot to explain. And I genuinely believe you will enjoy the crazy ride of that storyline! You just read the prologue, here’s the completed story!

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Damned by Celine Mahadeo

Ophelia by Celine Mahadeo

Fatal Alliances by Celine Mahadeo

The Saint Have Fallen by Celine Mahadeo

The Saints Have Fallen Trailer Blurb:

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