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I couldn’t believe I was taking Ronin into this realm. As I lifted the handle on the lion’s head door knocker, my heart beat so hard, I could feel my pulse in my ears. I don’t think Ronin quite understood how much of a whore I’d been. I banged the handle against the wooden door, bracing myself for a storm to whisk us inside.
Instead, all that happened was the door creaked open slowly. Ronin pushed the door wider, striding through boldly. I meekly followed behind, swallowing the ball of fear lodged in my throat. I had no clue what to expect or on what scale.
Taking in my first sweeping glance, purple skies lit a rocky chasm ahead of us. The door slammed shut behind us, making me jump. The air was humid and tinged with the smell of sex. Moans, groans, and shouts of pleasure echoed into the distance.
“Well, this is interesting,” said Ronin.
We were on a narrow cliff pathway, a looming grey rockface to our left, and an intimidating fall into a black abyss on our right. Straight ahead of us lay a long winding path to the pointed edge of a cliff. Either side of the point stood two huge statues.
As we hurried towards the edge, I realised they weren’t statues—they were the ends of a bridge, shaped into penises.
Ronin raised his eyebrows and scanned up the huge length of the phallic shaped stanchion. “I think it’s safe to say I feel rather inadequate standing next to this.”
I laughed. “Unless there’s a giant woman wandering around here somewhere, I would say that’s for show only.”
“I know, but still. Damn.”
Shaking my head, I carefully shuffled to the end of the cliff. There was no way down. Looking straight ahead, an identical cliff faced us, some fifty metres away over the yawning valley in between. It also had two giant penises as bridge ends.
“I don’t understand,” I said, shaking my head. “What are we supposed to do?”
“Jump?”
“I don’t think so. I can’t use my wings, remember?”
He scratched his head and frowned. “I don’t know then.”
We stood there in silence for several minutes, trying to figure out what to do. Just as I started becoming really frustrated, the cliff edge started shaking. The rumbling of moving rocks thundered through the air. I grabbed hold of the huge phallus to steady myself.
As we watched, a stone staircase unfolded out of the cliff, descending into the darkness that lay below.
Ronin glanced over at me and then held his hand out. “Let go of the giant penis and take my hand.”
I couldn’t help but giggle. We gingerly stepped onto the first of the wide stone steps. As we did, two six-foot torches lit up either side of us. The torches were held by golden statues of people—naked people. On my side was a woman, nestling the handle of the torch between her breasts, her head thrown back and her arms reaching up the shaft of the torch. On Ronin’s side was a man, the torch an extension of his erect penis. His stony eyes were staring straight at the woman statue, as if he was getting off on seeing her in such a provocative pose.
“How charming,” I said, wanting each moment of this realm to end even quicker than the last.
“Isn’t it?” Ronin replied.
We carried on down, taking in the bizarre torch holders for each step in silence. They all had different erotic poses, some quite disturbing, others not so much. When I came across a woman with her legs spread, a hand inside her, and her other hand gripping the torch handle, I cringed.
“Oh, come on,” I said, shaking my head. “As if that’s going to fit in there.”
Ronin chuckled. “I say ten out of ten for effort. And ambition. Girl knows what she wants.”
I glared at him.
“I’ll shut up now.”
“Good idea.”
The darkness surrounding us seemed to have a life force of its own. If it weren’t for the torches lighting our way, I wouldn’t be able to see anything. Not even my hand in front of my face. The hairs on my arms stood up the entire way down and I couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched. The more I tried to peer into the shadows enveloping us, the more it seemed to push back, promising me horrors yet to come.
We hit the last step, and as the torches lit up our final level of the staircase, the entire valley in front of us sprung to life. Thousands of torches flickered on like a switch had just been flipped, highlighting the landscape before us.
Except this wasn’t rocks, or vile slush, or even anything scary, it was one insanely huge orgy. The stench of sweat and bodily fluids lingered all around us, hanging in the air so heavy, it felt almost physical. Men on men, women on women, men on women, women on men—anything went. The pleasure filled noises coming from all these souls almost deafened me. On this kind of scale, it was anything but erotic.
“What the...?” Ronin whispered.
“Wow,” I said. “This is insane.”
Ronin lifted a hand and pointed up towards the other cliff face. The dagger tumbled about inside a white magic bubble in between the two phallus bridge ends. A broad-shouldered man stood next to it, his muscular arms folded across his chest, and a dark, brooding look on his face.
“I guess that’s Bryn,” I said. “This seems easy enough.”
“Getting through a sea of sex crazed people?” Ronin laughed. “Yeah. We’ll discuss this on the other side.”
“Ready?”
He nodded, laid a kiss on the back of my mind, and said, “Do not let go of my hand. Understand?”
I smiled at him being all protective and sweet. Maybe it had been a good call to bring him in here after all.
We took a step forwards. The instant we did, we found ourselves swarmed by the throngs of lust driven souls. As I scanned over their heads, looking for the path of least resistance, a startling realisation hit me square in the stomach.
“Oh my goodness,” I said, panic induced tears filling my eyes. “Look at all the men.”
Every single man as far as the eye could see was an exact replica of Ronin. Everywhere I turned, there was my precious soulmate in the throes of passion with someone else. Jealousy twisted a knife deep into my soul.
“Hey,” he said, squeezing my hand. “I’m right here.”
I looked over at him just in time to see a slender female hand run through his hair. He brushed it away with his free hand, but where he removed one, two more appeared on his chest, sliding downwards.
“Get off him!” I yelled, slapping their hands away. I tugged his hand, urging him to follow me. “Come on. Let’s move.”
I bulldozed my way through several groups, focused on the dagger. My arm was fully stretched behind me, keeping hold of Ronin’s hand. I looked behind me to check he was ok and noticed we’d barely moved twenty feet. This was going to be a long and testing realm.
“I’m ok,” he shouted. “Just keep moving.”
I pushed on, dragging him along. Focused solely on the dagger, I wasn’t looking at anything in front of me, I was merely using my shoulders and upper body to barge my way through. But I didn’t account for a couple being on the floor, humping each other’s brains out. So when I tripped over, it was only natural that I would look at what I’d stumbled over. The man was laid on his back, the woman on top of him, riding him like her life depended on it. She was massaging her breasts as the man gripped her hips, helping her ride him harder.
The woman seemed familiar, but I couldn’t place where she seemed familiar from. Long curly blonde hair trailed over her shoulders, her make-up perfect, and her nails long and sharp but carefully trimmed. When she opened her eyes and looked at me, I nearly fell over again. One blue eye, one green eye, there was no mistaking who this woman was.
She was the wife of a wealthy nobleman I’d seduced in a previous life. I hadn’t been a hooker out of unfortunate circumstance, I’d been a hooker because I loved sex and I revelled in seducing men. The amount of married men I’d tempted into cheating should have set some kind of world record. It was a cheap thrill for me, back then, to know that I’d ‘conquered’ something, or someone, that should have been off limits.
I didn’t know all of the wives whose lives I’d turned upside down, but I knew a fair few of them either because they’d confronted me, or I’d seen photos of them in the family home. Taking a deep breath, I dared to look around me. Within seconds, I realised my worst fears—all of those women having sex with Ronin, albeit his replica’s, were women whose men I’d seduced.
“Well I guess that’s karma at its finest,” I said, to no one in particular.
“What is?” Ronin said, stepping to my side. He looked at the couple in front of us and raised his sooty eyebrows. “Nice.”
I slapped his arm and said, “Would you mind not eyeing up the horny women?”
“I was talking about my abs,” he said, pointing at his replica’s body. “Didn’t realise I looked that good.”
“Nice try.”
He grinned at me. “This doesn’t seem too horrific in my opinion.”
“That’s because all you’re seeing is yourself with thousands of women.”
“Considering I was expecting to see you with thousands of men, I think I prefer this option.”
I snorted. “I certainly don’t.”
“Why?”
“Because all of these women are women whose husbands have used my past...services.”
His jaw dropped. “All of them?”
“I never met all of them, but I knew a fair few. I can’t see that only a handful of them would be down here.”
“This is...this is...a lot.”
Fear clenched around my heart. “Wishing you’d stayed the other side of the door now?”
“No,” he said, kissing my hand. “That’s a whole other life. Every experience you had is what has made you, you. If that means I have to deal with the fact that you had sex with like a thousand people, then so be it.”
His joking tone of voice did little to ease my discomfort. “Stop it. It’s not funny. I’m really ashamed of myself. Although I do have to point out that if a guy had slept with a thousand women, he’d be deemed a hero.”
Ronin grinned. “Have you ever heard about the lock and the master key?”
“Err...no.”
“If a key opens lots of locks, then it’s a master key. But if a lock is opened by lots of keys, then it’s a shitty lock.”
I gasped and punched him in the shoulder. “That’s disgusting.”
He chuckled. “It’s a well-known saying. I’m not implying it’s applicable here, although that could easily be the case.”
“Stop it!” I said, struggling not to laugh. “It’s not funny.”
“Then why are you laughing?”
“I don’t know.”
We both laughed, stepped over the Ronin and the woman having sex, and continued on. Whilst having Ronin with me eased my pain, the sight of seeing him with so many other women was starting to burn into my brain. Every time I blinked, all I could see was him and someone else. It was upsetting and soul crushing. After what I’d endured in the gluttony realm though, I understood that this was something I had to endure to understand what I’d done to all of those women in my past life.
Still, that didn’t make it any easier of a pill to swallow.
“What is that?” Ronin said, stopping and staring. “I do not look like that when I’m jerking off!”
I giggled. He was staring at a lone version of himself, masturbating furiously, his mouth forming a perfect O and his eyes glazed over with a completely gormless look.
“Apparently you do,” I said, struggling to contain my laughter.
“I do not.”
“Drop ‘em and show me then.”
He spun around and looked at me, dumbfounded. “What?”
“There’s only way to settle this,” I said, shrugging my shoulders. “So drop ‘em and show me.” I motioned at his trousers.
“I don’t think so.”
“Well, until you can prove otherwise, that face is your masturbating face.”
He scowled at me and took the lead, dragging us through the endless crowd of sexed up souls. As the other staircase came into view, the sex mad groups and couples lessened, leaving single people, and a handful of couples, indulging in rubbing lotions and creams on their bodies, or wrapping themselves up in fine fabric.
“This is not so bad at all,” I said. “Aside from seeing you cheating on me a million times, this has been relatively easy.”
“It’s not me,” he said. “I would never do that to you.”
I motioned an arm around me and smirked at him. “My eyes are telling me otherwise.”
“Let me show you otherwise,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows.
“When we’re done, wise guy. Got a world to save first.”
As we reached the staircase, thunder rolled through the skies above us. Seconds later, a streak of lightning hit the ground, not more than ten feet away from where we were. A gentle breeze started to blow through the valley.
“We need to move,” I said. “Now.”
We ran for the stone steps, but we’d barely taken five strides before the gentle breeze turned into a manic whirlwind. There seemed to be no direction to the wind, it blew from all directions, whipping around us and throwing us off track over and over again. We were two feet away at the most from the nearest torch statue.
Ronin let out a shout of pain as he battled against the wind trying to force him back. He yanked his arm to his side, dragging me through the fierce storm. My eyes streamed with tears, but I was at his side, safer here than being an arm’s length behind him. I wrapped my free hand around his middle, hoping it wouldn’t interfere with his forward momentum too much.
He moved a few inches forward, his fingers outstretched and millimetres from reaching the statue. He gave another yell, reminding me of a war cry, and hauled us to the statue, finally wrapping his arm around it. His chest heaved up and down as he fought to catch his breath.
“We can’t go up these stairs in this,” he yelled. “We’ll get blown right off. It must stop at some point. We made it this far before it started.”
I nodded, figuring it wasn’t worth the effort of shouting.
“Whilst we have a moment, he said. What did you want to talk about?”
“Now is really not the time.”
“We have time to kill whilst this wind passes. Humour me.”
I sighed. “Trust me, this is a conversation best saved for the right time.”
“There’s never a right time for anything, Makeysha. You just have to seize the opportunity when it arises.”
He had a point there. There would never be a ‘right time’ to have a baby, not with the lives we had. Despite the fact there was little I could do about it now, it made me feel some sort of peace that actually, perhaps I had made the best decision.
“Ok. I had a meeting with The Fates...” I explained our first ‘timeline’ and how we hadn’t actually sealed the bond, what The Fates had said to me and shown me, and then the option I’d been given.
He glanced down at my stomach, nervousness filtering through his face. “You chose their ‘course correction’ or whatever they called it?”
I nodded. “I figured it was the best option all around. I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you at the time. They kind of didn’t give me much time to make my mind up, let alone have a discussion with you about it. I just went with what I felt was the lesser of two evils.”
He wrapped his arms around me, letting go of the statue to do so. The violent gusts of wind battered against us, nearly knocking us off our feet. Inside his tight embrace though, I felt like nothing could touch me.
“You made the right decision. I just wish you’d told me before we sealed our bond.”
“I kind of did, when I said not to bother with a condom.”
“Makeysha, sweetheart, I’m male. We don’t do well with hints. I knew it was a possibility but not a definite done deal.”
I laughed. “I didn’t want to scare you...getting pregnant on our first time? That’s a huge thing.”
“And something we should have faced together. I’m your other half, Makeysha, you don’t need to hide anything from me.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s ok. We’re going to have bumps in the road, as well as a literal bump too.” He squeezed me tighter and kissed the side of my head. “You have no idea how happy I am right now.”
“One more thing...”
“Yes?”
“Apparently, angels progress through pregnancy three times faster than humans.”
Silence prevailed for a few seconds, then he said, “That’s good. Patience isn’t a strong point of mine.”
I smiled and snuggled inside his arms, waiting out the storm. What felt like an age passed by, but eventually, the winds died down to the extent that we could safely climb the stairs. We ran up them at warp speed, desperate to retrieve this dagger and get out of this damn realm.
“Hi there,” said Bryn, as we reached the top of the stairs. His dark brown eyes gleamed with joy. “You progressed quicker than I expected.”
“That wasn’t too bad,” I said, standing next to the dagger.
“Lust is seen as the least offensive sin, hence its relative easiness compared to the other realms.” Bryn touched his index finger to the white bubble, bursting it in an instant. “There you go. Congratulations.”
I grabbed the dagger as it fell like it was long lost treasure.
“How do we get out of here?” Ronin said.
Bryn motioned a large hand behind us. A bridge was manifesting between the two cliff points.
“Thank goodness,” I said, putting a hand over my chest. “I thought we were going to have to go back down there.”
Bryn gave me a cheeky smile. “You can if you like.”
As he turned to Ronin to shake his hand, another bolt of lightning lit up the sky, lighting up the area around us. For the first time, I saw Bryn’s mark, the one that the hunter’s use to identify him. It was a simple crescent moon in white, at the top of his forehead, right in the middle. It wasn’t very big, probably the length of a fingernail at most, but it was definitely there.
He and Ronin shook hands before Bryn was catapulted through the sky at a rate of knots. We walked back to the door, hand in hand, dagger retrieved, and happily expecting parents.