The lavish beach wedding of Llian Rhees and Gilbert Daniell was the most talked-about wedding for several months. In fact, it likely outranked recent royal weddings. Everyone who was anyone attended, and public opinion towards Gilbert eased slightly. And when he declared in his vows he would never, ever, take up the mantle of hero again, not even if Eva Destruction herself appeared in the street in front of him, that public opinion softened a little more.
To be sure, my own private vow to bring him down was going to be sorely tested, especially after the first kiss we shared as man and wife, and I had to hammer down my instinctive response to let more of my unwanted feelings show. And they were unwanted. I didn't want to fall in love with my new husband. I wanted to take his love and make it a weapon to bring him to his knees and make him understand that he couldn't bring harm to my friends and family and not suffer the consequences.
That resolve eroded even more when we retreated to our private hut to consummate the marriage.
Suffice to say, by the time we re-emerged at sunset, that resolve had worn even more thin, and I gritted my teeth in silent frustration as we rejoined our guests for the lavish dinner I'd almost beggared myself to prepare.
Everything was both going to and not going according to plan, and I realised, with a slowly-growing sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, that I was not going to be able to hold to my resolve to bring Gilbert down and reveal my true self to him.
Doing so would ruin us both; Gilbert would be beyond devastated, and I was horrified to realise it would very likely do the same to me.
But what else was there to do? I had to make him pay for all the deaths on his hands, including the cold-blooded murder of his own daughter.
Yet, I'd trained her to be that way, to challenge Gilbert and get him to realise the world wasn't black and white, but all different colours in between, that dark didn't necessarily have to be evil, and good didn't necessarily have to be nice.
So whose hand had really struck Moonstar down? Gilbert's, or mine?
The questions continued buzzing around in my brain for hours, and in the end, I dissolved in a flood of tears in Gilbert's arms during our second round of lovemaking. Not even his most tender kisses could help heal the sudden division that festered like an open sore in my heart.
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We spent our honeymoon in the Maldives, getting acquainted with the local fish during our many snorkelling expeditions. In between, we were getting to know about each other, and I soon learned more about my new husband than I thought possible. Most importantly, I learned he'd felt nothing but massive remorse for the death of my sister, and losing Moonstar had broken his heart clean in two.
"I didn't want to kill her," he admitted, as we sat side by side on our guest bed. We were both stark naked, but since we now knew each other's bodies inside and out, we didn't care much about modesty. "But I was so angry; it had to go somewhere. I can't control my powers when I get angry, and losing her to Eva's band of henchmen was killing me inside. But I hold myself fully responsible for her death. She was caught in the crossfire between Eva and I, and I blame myself every single damn day for it."
I squeezed his hand. "And Alys?" I ventured.
Gilbert sighed. "I've never forgiven Donal for what he did to her," he said sombrely. "She didn't deserve it, despite what I said that day in Trafalgar Square. But my emotions... they've always run rampant. Even before I became Mister Impossible Sentinel, I could never control them, not fully, and my anger is the worst of all. I'm like a messed-up version of, well, shall we say, a fictional hero whom we shall not name. But you get the picture, right? And being a hero made them worse."
I digested this. "What about the others?"
"The same," Gilbert said. "Being a hero exacerbates your worst traits. I'm not proud of what I did, and if I'm to be honest, swearing off it has made the powers a lot calmer. Being a hero is bad enough pressure, but being made to follow in the footsteps of your ancestors is even worse. So I'm glad you made me write that clause. It means I can never use my powers to harm anyone again. I never liked it, and I'm glad I'm geased to give them up."
"Geased?" I said, confused.
Gilbert gave me a lopsided smile. "Any clause or promise made in writing binds me," he said. "Even if I wanted to go against it, I wouldn't be able to, and it would, in fact, kill me. Quite horribly, to be precise. So you see, if Eva was to show up today, I wouldn't be able to do a damned thing about it. Nor, in fact, do I want to. Being an ordinary civilian seems to have tamed the savage beast."
"Gilbert..." I began, but he put a finger to my lips.
"I know," he said gently. "I've always known. And I knew you wanted to bring me down in one fashion or another. What changed?"
"You did, you bastard," I said angrily, yanking my hand from his and jumping down from the bed so I could pace. "You and I are alike. I was created specifically for the purpose of bringing you down after what you did to my sister!"
"Just as I was created to bring your mother down for what she did to my sister," Gilbert said, his voice cold as he got off the bed also. "A sweet cycle of revenge, my darling wife."
I spun and faced him, eyes blazing. "I was going to ruin you for what you did to Moonstar," I said through gritted teeth.
"And whose fault was that?" Gilbert said icily, folding his arms. "Or did Moonstar want to end her life because she realised she couldn't keep on as your pawn?"
"Don't you dare," I said, tears blurring my vision. "Moonstar entered my service willingly! She passed all the tests, and she proved herself time and again to me in the short time she was in my service!"
Gilbert chuckled. "You forget, she was my daughter," he reminded me. "And despite everything, she was still loyal to me to the very end."
My heart slammed a stop in my chest. "She was a mole," I whispered, horrified.
"Just like your sweet sister was to me," Gilbert confirmed. "And the trials? Farces, all of them. Right now, my colleagues are returning to normal life, and you'll find your side is suddenly on the receiving end of all the vitriol you thought to sling onto us." He smirked at my growing disbelief. "How does it feel, darling?"
His mocking use of my pet name for him set my insides on fire, and I shivered, my heart seeming to shrivel up in my chest. "I hate you," I spat. "All this time you had me believe you were in love with me!"
"Just like you wanted to do to me," Gilbert said. "Tables have turned now, Eva. Your friends are currently being exposed, and unlike the witch-hunt you tried to set on us, you'll find their crimes are every bit as vile as the crimes you thought to attach to our names."
"You still can't resume your old form," I snapped. "You're powerless. And besides, you said you can't control your emotions when you're..." I stopped and swore. "That's another lie, isn't it?"
"I didn't lie about one thing," Gilbert said. With a snap of his fingers, he was regarbed in his costume. "I am in love with you. But I'll be damned if I let that get in my way of bringing you to heel, once and for all."
I summoned white light to bring my own costume into being. "You can try," I said, "but I promise you, darling, that you will suffer, one way or another! I was made to bring you down, and by God, I will!"
So saying, I called on white light again to transport me out of the hut where everything had come crashing down around my ears, just as I'd wanted to do to Gilbert.
But the bastard had known. And he'd played me for a fool the whole time.
And the worst part was, I was still desperately in love with him.
That hurt worst of all.
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