Vassal by Sterling D'Este (reading books for 7 year olds .txt) 📗

mage is powerful. Annoyingly so. And while a bore, he does have a good grasp of magic concepts and laws.” Though not as much as she. And she wasn’t limited by gutless Ingolan rules. “But I believe I canbindhim—To himself. When the time comes.” She smirked and reached to brush her nails over his hair, tucking it away from his highly angled face. Savage and wonderful. “I just need one thing. Do you know anyone who is a master of procurement?”

⚄

Tristan’s grin widened, though he didn’t move to touch Enyo. She was too dangerous just then, all feline teasing.

He could imagine Delyth’s face, though, if she walked in. Jealous sop.

“I think the boy will largely take care of himself.” Tristan’s voice was lazy and conniving. “He’s a coward at heart.”

Still, it was always good to have a… fall back, just in case—especially when dealing with something so important. He would help Enyo back, no matter the cost.

“I know a few masters at gathering desires, Taouk, but as none of them take to wandering the mountains during snowmelt, you’ll have to do with me.”

She smiled broadly, nearly showing her back teeth.

“I couldn’t think of a better thief. Now, you’ll have to be very clever in procuring this item…” Enyo leaned closer and whispered, her lips tracing against the shell of his ear intimately.

When Enyo sat back, she looked like the cat who had swallowed the canary, puffed up from her grandiose plan.

Tristan shivered, though if it was the velvet of Enyo’s lips, the heat of her breath, or her words that drew it out of him, he couldn’t tell. When she pulled away, he was tense with a mixture of desire and excitement.

By all the realms, she was fucking tricky.

He leaned back to soak her in, his face a grinning mirror of her own.

⥣          ⥣           ⥣

Etienne supposed he should have been glad to dismantle his shield. They were moving again, off to the temple, where he would rebind the Goddess and free Alphonse. Free his old friend.

Instead, he felt alone.

There would be no going back to how things had been before Enyo was summoned. Alphonse was tainted, changed on some fundamental level by sharing her body with evil. And she had Delyth. Someone new to care for.

Even the night before, after Etienne had spun a story that should have made her remember, should have brought her back to him, Alphonse had only stared at Delyth from across the fire.

Damn her. It was like she had lost all sight of what they were here for. Delyth wasn’t one of them. Alphonse was supposed to be on his side.

Etienne shook his head vigorously to clear it, unnerved by the direction his thoughts had been heading. What was making him think this way? He had never before been prone to such dark musings, such a bleak outlook. He supposed it could have simply been a result of the situation they were in, but still. He could not shake this black mood, except in the quiet hours he managed to steal when all the others were sleeping.

Behind him, Etienne heard the strike of clay on stone from where Alphonse had been standing to look at the cave mouth. Irritation spiked in his chest, stopping his hands in their work, his breath in his lungs. He didn’t bother turning around, and it was some time before he could resume his work on the shield. Finally, he brought it down with only a small spray of snow dusting the rock floor.

❀

Blinking slowly, Alphonse looked around in confusion. How had she gotten to the edge of the cave mouth? Why was she holding a cup of— She gasped and dropped the cup. The dark contents sloshed and spilled, oozing over the floor.

Blood? Whose blood had that been?

She stepped away from the liquid chasing her, creeping for her boot tips.

Sputtering, Alphonse found the metallic tang on her lips and hastily wiped at her mouth, the back of her hand coming away with dark gore smeared across it.

What had happened?! She remembered more and more of Enyo’s time awake, yet today was as dark as those first with Enyo within her. Could the Goddess choose to block her out?

Heart pounding, Alphonse stumbled and grabbed the cave wall to brace herself. That was when she felt the pain in her hand. She yanked her grip away and looked. Her palm was cut deeply. The blood in the cup was surely hers.

What had Enyo done?!

She looked around. No one was near, all packing up, and Etienne preparing to take down his shield. Hastily, Alphonse ran her thumb over the cut, hiding the injury in a flash of green light.

No one need know. No one had to be aware of how powerful Enyo was becoming. Yanking Alphonse out, blocking her own sight and memory. Harming her body without Alphonse waking. Not to mention the weight loss and muscle wasting… Her body was becoming weaker, frailer.

The Goddess was taking root in her soul.

Alphonse hurried away from the blood and the wall, keeping her amber eyes firmly on the cave floor. Ashamed. Doomed. Cursed.

Joining the others at the cave entrance, Alphonse had to fight the urge to wipe at her mouth over and over again, certain everyone could see the red staining there. See the stain in her mind. In her core. But no one mentioned it, no one asked.

Even when she looked at Etienne, he who saw every detail, he saidnothing.

So Alphonse was over the snow and past the cave entrance first, as quickly as possible. She wanted to flee before the reek of her blood in the cavern filled the air. How could her companions not detect that sour metal tang?

As they resumed their trek up the mountain path, Alphonse glanced back only once. Perhaps it was her mind playing tricks on her, but she could have sworn she could see a swath of her blood pooling through the snow from the cave