Eric Linnaeus | Book 3 | Chapter 19 - All Games Must End (Patreon)

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𝔸𝕝𝕝 𝔾𝕒𝕞𝕖𝕤 𝕄𝕦𝕤𝕥 𝔼𝕟𝕕ᴍᴀʀᴋᴏs ʙᴇʟʟᴇʀᴏsᴇ: ᴍᴀʏ, 𝟸𝟶𝟶𝟶.ʀᴇᴄᴏᴜɴᴛ: ᴍᴀʀᴄʜ - ᴀᴘʀɪʟ, 𝟸𝟶𝟶𝟶.

─── .✦········· ───

“Markos! You’re back!” Claire said excitedly as she unraveled herself from the couch. She had been bundled in a nest of blankets sewing something or other.

“I wasn’t gone all that long-” I spoke as I shrugged off my coat. Although she hardly allowed me the chance to do so before she threw herself at me, wrapping her arms around my torso.

“You’ve been gone all day, and I’m glad you’re back.”

That was oddly delightful, and I smiled. Claire was under a form of house arrest, punishment for her crimes by Nathaniel’s order. It wasn’t an unjust punishment nor was it cruel in particular. But she wasn’t permitted to leave the room for the duration of a week, and she disliked it.

“How was your day?” she continued curiously while I got changed.

I hesitated as I considered how best to respond, “…It was quiet,” I said carefully.

“Huh, well, that’s boring! I finished crocheting two beanies, sewed half a dress, and still found the time to be fitted—” she continued on, and although I still listened, my mind wandered.

She was so enthusiastic about everything; her mind was like a hummingbird, constantly buzzing. Every room is brighter for her presence, and I find myself mesmerized all too often. It’s easy to forget that this is nothing more than a game. Although I dread the day it will end, for I recognize by now that I will surely lose.

Truthfully I thought our game had reached an end not all that long ago. It wasn’t unusual that Claire should visit me at work, nor was it uncommon that the bed in my office needed the sheets changed. We had never before been caught until the day Achaicus interrupted us. I didn’t know whether or not I was supposed to ask her to stop in such a situation.

Moreover, I’m not convinced she would have listened. Humans are so hormonal, and everything she does stirs desire in me that I didn’t realize I was capable of. It’s certainly nothing alike to what I feel toward Calla, with her, it’s lucky if either of us finish.

Fortunately, the guards handle Calla’s human needs, so I rarely have to. Of course I am not supposed to have such thoughts, and I could never freely admit as much aloud, but I find that she repulses me somewhat. She’s pretty enough, I suppose, and with her hair she could almost pass for a fae woman. Still, there is something about her that is unsavory. Perhaps I’ve known her too long.

The irony is that Claire is too eager. I bought her some toys to keep her satisfied. I can’t say how well that worked, given that she still interrupts my day to tend to her needs. Regardless, when she and I had finished, she dropped the keys to the Mustang in my hand. “So, I’m going to go talk to Achaicus about what he might or might not have just seen. But we’re going out later. I’ll meet you at six. Wear something fancy.”

She didn’t allow me the chance to respond before she left. I didn’t know what to do about Achaicus, I hoped she wouldn’t say too much. Similarly, what did she mean by fancy?

─── .✦········· ───

I met her at the car precisely when she had said to, although I had expected to wait, for she is rarely on time for anything. She was there waiting when I arrived. Her attire had changed since I last saw her, and that gave me pause.

She now wore a flowing pink dress, and her hair was styled in much the same way as many Fae women wear their hair: in intricate braids decorated by threads of glittering jewels throughout. Pets don’t bother with such things unless it is a special occasion, so I’m sure the hairdressers would have been rather confused.

Likewise, I couldn’t find any words as I stared, “Do you like it?” she asked; my silence made her uncertain.

“I… Yes.” ‘Like’ wasn’t a strong enough adjective to articulate the situation correctly.

“Good! You look very handsome as always~”

Claire gave me blind instructions as I drove and wouldn’t disclose our destination until we arrived at a restaurant. I knew it well enough, though I was surprised that she knew of it.

“How did you know this was here?” I enquired suspiciously. You see, La Miroir is a fae-operated restaurant in the human world. Ordinary humans are not granted access.

“I asked Achaicus, and he said you used to take him and Nathaniel here all the time! And that it’s French so you would like it.”

“Not all that often,” I corrected her as I moved the illusion over it so that we could enter.

In truth, I hadn’t been in some years, perhaps not since before the brothers were at war. Not all that much had changed, although I noticed some of the waitresses were human, new pets I supposed.

“Oh! Not for me, thank you,” Claire spoke up quickly covering her glass as one of them began to pour wine for us.

“You don’t like wine?” I asked curiously.

“No, I do, just not at the moment,” she smiled shyly, as if withholding something.

The restaurant was relatively quiet. The gems in Claire’s hair glittered in the candlelight as she poked at her food, and we ate the first course in a surprising amount of silence. Something was wrong; I could sense it. She was restless, fidgeting, and drinking excessive amounts of water in repetitive tiny sips. Perhaps she was leaving back to Maine and didn’t know how to say it.

“Claire—” I began at last. The silence was making me uncomfortable. She almost never had nothing to say.

“Wait.”

Wait? What did wait mean?

Claire took in a deep breath and pulled two small boxes from her handbag. One was a red velvet-encased square, and the other was a rectangular hand-wrapped box. She bit her lip, looking up at me with wide grey eyes, “…I don’t know which one should be first…”

I frowned slightly, “You have brought me gifts?”

“Not… exactly?”

I waited as the girl struggled, “I don’t want these two things to influence your choices. I-I mean, I don’t want you to know one thing, and then feel like you have an obligation to the other, or have you say yes because you think you have to. So, you have to choose.”

She held out both items, one in each hand for me to decide.

“What are they?”

“You’ll see when you open one..”

To be perfectly honest, I don’t particularly enjoy surprises. I prefer to be aware of everything. Not that I was going to tell her that, and so I tentatively selected the hand-wrapped box. It was lighter than I expected, and I pulled the strings gently until the paper fell open.

Claire held her breath, fidgeting uncomfortably as I lifted the lid. Inside sat a human pregnancy test with two small red lines indicating ‘pregnant’ and my blood turned to ice. “This is… yours?” I asked with forced calm.

“Yes… And the baby is yours…”

Putain.

I was unable to look away from the two small lines. Why did this have to happen? What was I supposed to do?! I could feel the world slowly collapsing in on me and taste the bitterness of magic on my tongue. I was going to have to command her.

The game had come to an end all too quickly. I knew the day would come, but I had hoped it would be a soft landing; this was more like a crash. To begin, her pregnancy was almost unheard of. An uncontracted human falling pregnant so rarely happened, and the times it had, it didn’t end well.

Contracts exist for a reason. We raise our humans to be unable to survive on their own to prevent higher laws from being broken. An uncontrolled human, under no command or persuasion, carrying the child of a monster? It was a recipe for species exposure and punishable by death.

Moreover, if the child was to be a son, then she was carrying my heir. The contract I hold with Calla would be rendered pointless, and years of training wasted. Worse still was Claire; I had never wished to suppress her will. Her endless enthusiasm and chaotic nature brought me peace.

But I knew what would become of her. She would detest her child as my own mother detested me. I would have to command her to raise it, likely even simply to carry it to term, and she would never be as she once was. She would resent me for every order I placed her under, just as Eric had hated Nathaniel, and I wasn’t sure I could bear it.

Perhaps after the child was raised, things could return to normal… But I doubted as much. The Orphan had decades to shed his hatred of Nathaniel, Claire would never last that long. She would grow old and frail before she could ever forgive me unless I could find a way to manipulate her into doing as I wished.

“Markos…” Claire interrupted my thoughts softly as she reached out to place her trembling hand on mine. Our eyes met, and she forced a smile, “It’s okay… I-if you don’t want this child… I’m not trying to trap you; I swear I’ll never ask you for anything. Not money or clothes, or babysitting. Nothing. I promise.”

Her words were so far from my thoughts I couldn’t process them well enough to understand, “What..?” I mumbled. I could delay the inevitable a few more moments, allow her to speak freely this one last time.

“I-If you don’t want this, it’s okay,” she repeated, “I know this was more of a casual fun thing between us… I was just sort of hoping…” she trailed off, glancing at the velvet box for a second, and swallowing hard. Tears began to well in her eyes as she continued, “I was stupid, I know I..- It’s fine, I’m still going to keep him. Charles will help me raise him, so it’ll be alright. We’ll be fine.”

She used the tips of her fingers to smear the water away from her make-up before it could spill, “Sorry, I don’t know what I was thinking, I don’t understand why I’m upset.”

“Claire…”

“No, no, it’s okay, really. I have it all worked out. We’ll be alright.”

“You want to keep this child? Of your own free will?” I asked quietly, my heart was beginning to race, and I could feel my energy surging like adrenaline.

She gave a short, choked laugh, “What kind of question is that? Of course I want him. I already love him so much; how could I not?”

“..Him? You know it’s a boy?”

“Well no, not exactly, but a mother just knows you know?” she sniffled as she failed to contain the water leaving her eyes, before giving a short, stressed laugh, “Ahh, my mascara…”

It was ridiculous; she was making a guess and stating it as a fact. But still… She wanted to keep this child, I didn’t have to command anything yet, the game didn’t have to end. It was still okay. I had more time; I could figure out the rest.

“What is in the other box?” I asked carefully, I needed to know all the information before I could act, and I never knew what else I should expect from her.

“Oh that; I was going to ask if you wanted to marry me,” She was cry-laughing in full, and I had no idea what to make of that.

“I can’t marry you…” I breathed.

“Yeah- I mean I got that. You don’t want this kid, and I’m not getting rid of him so obviously, we can’t get married.”

“No… You don’t understand,” I spoke more softly, interlocking my fingers with hers and setting my free hand on her cheek. “I want this child, your child. But I can’t marry you. I’ve already spoken to Nathaniel… I’m not allowed to form a contract with you unless I do as he has said.”

Claire leaned into my touch, placing her hand over mine, “You want to keep him too?” she whispered, her voice held a note of hope.

“Yes, of course…”

“And you asked for permission to marry me?”

I nodded and she began to cry harder. I don’t know how that upset her, I thought that was what she wanted? After a long moment she began to calm down before finally speaking again, “God Nathaniel is such a bastard, what does he want you to do? Why can’t you marry me?”

Those were questions I was dreading, “There’s something I need to tell you… I did something that I maybe should not have done.”

“How bad is it?”

I swallowed dryly, she was going to hate me, “I betrayed him.”

“What did you do?” she murmured quietly; I think she knew she didn’t truly want to know.

“I tried to have Eric killed… I put him in the path of a witch and someone else got hurt in the process…”

Claire understood what I was telling her almost immediately, “Charles…”

“Yes…”

She took a moment to think, before squeezing my hand tighter, “You cannot tell him that.”

“It’s Nathaniel’s condition that I tell him… I thought you would be more upset about it as well..”

“…I am very upset about it… and I’m mad at you. But I still love you, and if Charles never got kidnapped, then I would never have met you. I wouldn’t have everything that I do now… Maybe that makes me a bad person, but he didn’t die and he kind of likes his new powers so… I think that maybe it was meant to be?”

What was meant to be, was Mr. Walsh being fully possessed and the Orphan being killed. Fate played no hand in it; the result was only altered because one twin is overly sentimental. But I was grateful that her outlooks were as optimistic as they were.

Still, learning of Claire’s pregnancy meant there were many things that needed to be organized. She would need a full checkup, and I would have to find some salt crystals to keep near her or the child’s magic could cause her pain. There is no reason carrying a Fae child should be detrimental to her health. On the other hand, it did raise an interesting problem for my existing contract that would need to be dealt with immediately.

─── .✦········· ───

I summoned Calla to me in the middle of the night. It took her some time to arrive, and I supposed she had been some distance away when I called for her.

By then Claire had gone to bed and I had met with Achaicus to have a drink. Ordinarily I would not have encouraged his habit, but this night I was in need of it more than he.

“You called for me?” Calla announced as she knelt before me.

“Yes. It took you some time to get here, were you far?”

“I was in the forest.”

“At this hour?”

“…Yes.”

I ran a hand back through my hair, before finishing the contents of the glass in one mouthful. I didn’t care where she had been, nor did I care who she had been with and so I chose not to ask. “That’s fine. It’s fortunate you’re still awake. We need to talk.”

“I am here to listen.” She was just as polite and emotionless as always. A perfect doll, just as my mother was, and I resented it.

“Claire is pregnant with my child. If it should be male, I will have an heir, and the contract between us as it stands will be useless.”

“I understand.”

Did she? “Furthermore, even if this child is not a son, I have come to another decision. I have no wish for you to be the one to bear any child for me. I hold no desire for you, nor do I believe you hold any for me, and I think it’s been far long enough that we stop pretending otherwise.”

“You are my master. Every desire I have is for you-”

“𝑄𝑢𝑖𝑒𝑡.”

Her attention momentarily flicked toward the scythe beside me, but she said nothing more as her gaze refocused downward and I continued.

“I have no interest in hearing lines regurgitated to me from your training. I don’t understand where I went wrong, or what I could have done differently. You’re exactly what you’re supposed to be, and I hate it. I’m disgusted by it,” I couldn’t remember what my point was anymore. “I’ll never understand how it came to this.” I hardly knew what I wanted anymore.

It gave me a headache to even think about and I rubbed my temples as I looked down to Calla. She was waiting quietly just as I had asked, though she kept her eyes low. “𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑,” I ordered, and she did so without complaint.

I wouldn’t kneel, but I would allow myself to be lower than her as I made the request. “I wish to recontract under different terms, would you consider doing such?”

The girl looked surprised, and her hand involuntarily moved to the contract marking on her cheek, “…I don’t believe I understand…”

Contracts are unable to be removed once they are in place. But they can be broken, or changed, depending on how tightly woven they were, and I believed I had left enough room to write in additional conditions.

“You defeated a dragon in single combat and protected me with your life thereafter. Only a fool would deny that you have talent. As it stands your contract states that you may never be more than 5 miles (8kms) away from me at any given time and you may never run away or deny me an audience. In return, you will age as we do, though you will not surpass the age of 28 until you have borne at least one child. I wish to make the following amendments: You must be within 5 miles of myself, or any related persons whether it be by blood, up to 12.5% relation, or marriage… I would like for you to serve as a protector for my family. Especially for Claire. Do you agree?”

Calla hesitated then, it was as if she was unsure of what to say, “…I want to wear pants.”

“Excuse me?”

“I want to be allowed to wear whatever I so choose.”

“That’s fine. I don’t care what you wear, so long as you do your job. Do we have an agreement?”

“Yes,” she knelt neatly, “I won’t fail this task.”

“Good. I’ve already written it. Are you ready to receive the amendments?”

“Yes.”

I placed my fingertips over the original contract mark and began the process. The crescent split and my energy shone back at me through it. Adding the amendments caused new lines to form and Calla winced fractionally as it burned into her skin.

The new markings faded to silver against her light brown skin, and it was done.

─── .✦········· ───

When I returned to Claire that night she was asleep, and I curled in close to her under the sheets, resting my face against her stomach.

“What are you doing?” she murmured; her voice heavy with sleep as I disturbed her.

“Listening…” I answered quietly and she smiled, setting a gentle hand on my head.

“…Okay.”

She ran her fingers into my hair, and I closed my eyes. Claire must have been into the second trimester by now, and I’m ashamed that I hadn’t known sooner. I had noticed that her stomach was no longer flat, as it once was, and she wore looser-fitting clothing certainly. But her waist was still tapered, and her plush thighs and full chest have always held my attention. So I had assumed that was ordinary weight gain.

Of course, now that I knew, it seemed obvious. When I concentrated, I could feel the dim energy signature emitting from inside her and hear the tiniest heartbeat. It was steady and strong… Whatever this child would be, the love I felt for it was instant.

It was no wonder she had been so demanding of my attention of late. Pregnant humans are prone to becoming exceedingly affectionate and soon she would be waddling around with her swollen belly. I would have to cut back at work to ensure that I was attentive enough to her needs. I wanted to be closer to it, to Claire, and I smiled bitterly to myself.

For all that I had tried to deny it, this was my family. Claire, Nathaniel, Achaicus, this child, when was it that I became so sentimental about all of them?

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