#graveshipping

The fire roared.

The water was stained with orange.

The screams were deafening.

Fire surrounded her, blocking all escape.

Scorched bodies appeared all around her feet.

Hands grabbed at her dress to immobilize her.

From the fire emerged her father.

His hand reached out, fire dragging him back.

“Help me my angel.”

Lyra tried to reach for her father.

“Daddy!”

Hands about to touch.

Fire quickly engulfed her father.

His scream pierced through her body and ripped out her heart.

    Lyra jolted awake, drenched in sweat. She clenched her fist above her heart as she panted severely. She quickly surveyed the room to get a sense of her surroundings. She was in her room. Good. “It was a dream Lyra. Just a dream,” she reassured herself, but of course, it wasn’t just a dream: that night did happen and her father did die. It had been nineteen years since that tragic incident. To see such a sight at the tender age of eight... Lyra always had dreams about it around this time of year, but this year the dreams were getting more intense, more real. Usually she was able to calm herself back down in a matter of minutes, but tonight she was too shaken up to calm down. The screams sounded so real, the sight of bodies aflame...

“Fuck,” she choked as she ran her hands through her hair. Lyra had seen some pretty gruesome things during her years out of Saros, but none ever measured up to the incident at her family’s lake house. She started to feel the tears well up; it wouldn’t be long before they started to fall.

Lyra hopped out of bed and grabbed her robe that was resting on an armchair and hurried out her bedroom door. She needed to get out of there, perhaps to her mother’s garden. But before she was able to register where she was going, she had arrived at her assistant’s room. “Shit,” she let out. This was one of the few instances she had been to his room. All their “business” happened in her room so there was never a need to go to his. It took her a few minutes to build up the courage to knock on his door.

~~~

Gabriel let out a groan when he heard the not-so-confident knock on his door. What insane student had the nerve to disturb his slumber? The Lochesh assistant turned on the lamp on the nightstand then walked up to the door with his trademark smile.

“I do hope you have a death wish because I'll personally help you achie–” he trailed off when he opened the door. Gabriel was shocked. Never would he have guessed it would be his lady, especially with her looking so disheveled and about to cry. His smile softened as he moved to the side and gestured for Lyra to come inside. She slipped inside and held her arms, unsure if her being there was a good idea or not. Gabriel gently shut the door and turned to face Lyra’s back.

“You miss me that much, darling?” he joked.

Lyra turned around, the tears had just started to fall. She threw her arms around him, burying her head into his bare chest, the coolness of his skin feeling good upon her own. After recovering from the initial shock of the level of intimacy Lyra was initiating (this was the first hug they ever shared after all!), Gabriel wrapped his arms around her body, pulling her as close as possible to show that he was there for her.

“The nightmare again?” he asked. She nodded her head, shoulders jumping up and down from her sobbing. “I’m sorry.” Her assistant planted a kiss on the top of her head, the current height difference making it possible.

After Lyra’s crying subsided some, Gabriel started to shift from side to side, initiating the two into a slow dance. The redhead didn’t question his attempts and started to move with him - it certainly did help calm her down more. Her hands moved from his back to his chest, resting a side of her face to hear his heartbeat. It was beating fast, but it was still pleasing to listen to. She was so entranced with listening to his heartbeat that she didn’t notice when he grabbed her hand and laced his fingers in hers. Her concentration broke when she felt a small vibration in Gabriel’s chest. Was he humming? She listened carefully to see if she could figure out what song it was. She laughed when she recognized the melody.

“‘What Makes You Beautiful’? Really Gabriel?”

“It got you to laugh, did it not?” he chuckled. Oh how that sound was pleasing to her ears. She could never get enough of it.

“Bloody man,” she smiled.

“Mm,” he let out as he pulled away a bit, causing Lyra to look up at him. It wasn’t often she wasn’t wearing heels that made them the same height. “Would you care to join me in a movie marathon, darling?”

Lyra wiped away her tear stains with her free hand, her other still laced with his. “That would be great.”

“Right, so.” His hand let go of hers and one second Lyra’s feet were on the ground and the next she was in Gabriel’s arms, bridal style. If this were any other day, Lyra would have been commanding him to put her down, but not tonight. Tonight she needed this.

He carried her to a quaint room with a giant television and a couch that they would use to watch tournament matches when they couldn’t be bothered to travel to the spectator arena. Thankfully the room was relatively close to Gabriel’s so they didn’t have to worry about being seen for too long. Gabriel gently placed her down on the couch and grabbed a blanket for the two to share. He sat next to Lyra and put his arm around her. In turn, she curled up with the man beside her, moving the blanket to cover the both of them. Gabriel grabbed the remote and turned on the TV.

~~~

They got through a couple of movies before the leader of Lochesh fell asleep in her loyal assistant’s arms. He kissed the top of her head again.

“Come on, Darling. You can do it!”

“Gabriel, please, you know all the books say she’s far too young for this.”

“Damn the books- oh, my apologies, sweetling! Daddy meant to say ‘Dang the books’,” Gabe said quickly.

Lyra rolled her eyes, about to comment on the foolishness in believing a ten-month-old capable of understanding foul language. But when she turned around to do so, the words died on her tongue.

Gabriel Lockhart, keeper of the dead and once feared watcher of the Lochesh Academy, stared down at their daughter like a blind man seeing his god. His face was stripped of all its usual cruelty and malice, leaving bare only tender joy and wonder. That something so pure and perfect could come from someone so tainted and broken continued to bewilder him. Oftentimes at night, while his child would sleep peacefully in her bassinet, he would stare down at her desperately, searching for any flaw or imperfection that he feared he bestowed upon her. But he never found so much as a hair out of place. She was complete and whole and beautiful and, above all, hopelessly loved.

Since the moment she came into this world, this small creature enslaved him as no one but Lyra ever had. Even now, Gabe smiled down at the infant in his arms, his eyes held by the eyes that stared back at him with a crimson intensity equal to his own.

Feeling safe knowing that his eyes were averted, Lyra permitted a small smile of her own, charmed by how hopelessly smitten her lover was with their daughter.

The girl child, having lain perfectly still under her father’s hungry stares, started to squirm under her blankets, demanding comfort. Ever her slave, Gabriel began to rock his arms, murmuring words of adoration that Lyra was too far away to really hear.

She did manage to catch a short string of words, though.

“... angel... say ‘Daddy’...”

“Oh for heaven’s sake, Gabriel, enough!” Lyra said, hiding her amusement behind scorn. “She is far too young to do more than burp and cry!”

“Adler’s boys began talking around this age,” Gabe said innocently.

Lyra’s eyebrows rose clear past her hairline. As if any child of hers would be outdone by an Adler! Ignoring Gabe’s triumphant grin, she approached them both, smiling when the baby let loose a string of happy noises at seeing her mother, and cooed softly, “Come, my pet, you can do it. Say ‘Adler is a boarish ignoramous’...”

Gabe chuckled. “Now who is being ambitious?”

“Shush, you.”

This time Gabe laughed, and to his delight, the child laughed with him, dimpling joyfully. “That’s it, my Sabrina fair! Just open that beautiful mouth of yours and let the joy come out!”

Sabrina waved her hands at him. “Toe toe!” she told him.

“That’s it, Sabrina, keep going!” Gabe encouraged. “Say, ‘Daddy’. ‘Dah-dee’.”

“Toe!”

Lyra smirked. “Maybe ‘Toe’ means Daddy in her language?”

“Don’t you sass me, Lyra love,” Gabe said with a playful glint in his eyes that promised retribution. Of course, the only retribution Gabriel offered was the kind Lyra liked, so she just smiled smugly back at him.

Sabrina patted her father’s face, demanding his attention once more. “Tay!” she said sternly.

Gabe sighed. “Darling, you’ll have to be more specific. I’m afraid I don’t speak baby.”

There was some more squirming and waving of hands before she spoke again. “Tay toe!”

Lyra frowned, brows bunched. “Tay toe?”

“You don’t think she could be trying to say ‘potato’, do you?”

This seemed to be Sabrina’s trigger word, because as soon as he spoke the word, she began squirming with much more gusto. “Tay toe tay toe!” she said happily.

“Sabrina, dear, don’t you mean ‘Daddy’?” Gabe asked, feeling put out.

“Tay toe tay toe!”

Lyra threw her head back and laughed, startling both father and daughter into momentary silence. Mommy wasn’t normally the one to make loud noises. That was more often Daddy’s job.

“Oh, Gabriel, she must mean those sweet potatoes we were given by the neighbors down the street,” Lyra breathed, catching her breath. “They left a basket by the front door, and I boiled one up last night for her dinner. I have never seen her eat so fast, nor leave so little for throwing around.”

Glancing down at the girl, Lyra continued to smile, opening her arms in invitation. Gabe obligingly held up the baby. “I only said the word ‘potato’ once or twice, though.” Sabrina squealed with laughter when Lyra swung her around. “See, I knew my Sabrina was so much smarter than those barbaric Adler boys! Aren’t you? Yes you are! You’re Mommy’s little genius, aren’t you?”

Now it was Gabriel’s turn to smile as he watched his wife and daughter sharing identical grins with each other. It wasn’t often that Lyra gave in to smiling and laughing gaily as he did. Even after their years spent together in love rather than obedience, she still felt more comfortable in showing affection through sex rather than words or overt displays of emotion. But not even a woman as formidable as the Lady Lyra could not hope to stand against the charms of her equally formidable baby girl. Whether she knew it or not, Sabrina Lockhart had the world’s most dangerous and fearsome parents wrapped around her little fingers.

“You know, my loves, I believe Sabrina has the right of it,” Gabriel said. “I feel ready for a good meal myself. Why don’t we all three go enjoy some lunch and baked apples with ice cream?”

“Weam weam!” agreed Sabrina.

“Well,” Lyra said, “I suppose that settles it!” She and Sabrina led the way out of her nursery and down the stairs toward the kitchen.