Chapter 23 #4
“See? It’s easy being bad, ain’t it?” Drake said. “Much more enjoyable too. Unless you’re a pious sort of man, Cass. Then I guess you’ll be facing your sins at the door to the eternal garden.” He laughed, proving he clearly believed in no such thing.
“The gods are lost. If there ever was a garden, it was lost with them,” I said thoughtfully.
“So why all the struggle with sin?” he asked.
“Because of the pain in his eyes,” Kyra answered for me, surprising us both as we looked to her, finding her hovering an inch off the ground. She promptly fell onto her arse, blinking innocently and looking between us, her eyes swivelling back and forth fast enough to make me dizzy.
“Pfft, what pain?” Drake scoffed. “Sleeping on too soft pillows at night? Being paid well and eating three meals a day. Oh, do stop breaking my heart,” he deadpanned, drinking a deep gulp of his wine with a bitter expression.
Kyra continued to gaze at me intently like she expected me to correct him, but I wasn’t going to share my past with the thief.
Besides, he was right. I had chosen my suffering, walked willingly into the Royal Guard and offered up my life to do as they liked with.
Perhaps I hadn’t fully understood the extent to which they would carve out pieces of me, then mould, bend and break them into something new before they were returned.
But I had known it wouldn’t be easy, and the sacrifice had been worth it to free my mother from buying Marik’s charity.
My stomach twisted at the thought of what she had done for us, and I worked to drain my chalice as it continued to fill.
Kyra continued to watch me without blinking, like she’d forgotten to do so, and I shook my head minutely at her to try and encourage her to stop. But what if this creature could see inside my head? Pick through my thoughts and rifle through my memories like pages of a book?
“What was it like living in the palace?” Drake asked me and Kyra’s attention thankfully snapped onto him again.
“I didn’t live in the palace, I-”
“Yeah, yeah, you know what I mean,” he barrelled on over me. “You must have heard all kinds of gossip, seen all kinds of scandals too. Did you ever walk in on the emperor being ridden on the throne by a giant-titted servant girl?”
“Of course not,” I said in outrage. “The emperor would never disrespect his marriage by taking a lover. And ‘titted’ is not a word.”
“You’re a liar on both counts,” he accused. “Titted is the best word I know. And I bet you saw all kinds of things that would bring the empire to its knees if word ever got out. You don’t have to protect them now, mate. Come on, tell me.”
“If I ever saw anything of the sort – which I did not – I would hardly tell a street thief with a habit of running his mouth.”
“My mouth doesn’t run anywhere, Cass. Unless you count when it’s running all over the pretty flesh of beautiful women.” He gave me a cocky look and Kyra gasped.
“No, that can’t be right,” she muttered to herself. “He doesn’t mean he eats women.”
“I do eat women actually,” Drake said, his arrogance spreading all over his face as Kyra gasped again, fear washing into her eyes.
“He means in a sexual sense,” I clarified for her, giving Drake a dry look.
“Does cannibalism make you hard, Master?” she asked in shock and Drake cracked up laughing while I took pity on the creature.
“It’s a turn of phrase, Kyra. He doesn’t eat people,” I said.
“Right, of course he doesn’t.” She started laughing as she realised her mistake and she and Drake shared a heated look that made my eyebrows lower.
He had better not be thinking about making advances on her.
She may not have been truly Fae at all anymore, even if she claimed she once was.
But this magic wrapped around her was clearly some curse, and it could be a siren’s lure too for all we knew.
Drake could be under the spell of it, and once she had him in her trap, who knew what she would do with him?
I kicked him in the shin and he cursed, swallowing the last of his laughter as he spilled wine down his chest. “Hey,” he barked at me, but then he got distracted as Kyra shifted closer to fill up his chalice and I frowned as the two of them spent all too long looking at each other.
I supposed it wasn’t really my concern if he went and got himself drawn into her bed and ended up with his cock turned into a viper or some shit. But then again, I did need him for my plan, and I doubted he would be in the best of moods if he had to arrive at the palace with a snake for a cock.
As I continued to drink, an electrifying burn grew in my chest and all of my worries just faded the fuck away, leaving me half aware that Marik would have had me skinned alive for this, but also free from giving a damn.
My mind was too fuzzy from how much wine I’d sunk, and technically I’d still only had one cup.
“Ha, fuck you, Marik,” I chuckled to myself, then a little voice sounded in my head, drawing my attention.
“Wow, so bright, so glowy. Touch it. Taste it.”
I spotted the large beetle which my animal Affinity had connected to, its body gleaming like oil in the light of the fire which it was walking purposefully towards, and I planted my foot in front of it before it could commit suicide.
“Tell me 'bout the princess again,” Drake asked, a slight slur to his voice as he rose to his feet in a fit of excitement.
“What princess?” Kyra asked with equal fervour. “The one you’re going to marry? Or another one?”
“No.” I raised a hand in a warning, my teeth bared like a wolf about to strike. He couldn’t have her even in his thoughts. He was conjuring up an image of her in that skull of his which could have been getting close to her reality, and I wanted to slice it out of his head and destroy it.
“ Yes ,” Drake begged, plucking a stick out of the fire and whipping it through the air so that the burning end of it left a trail of light in its wake.
Kyra watched him with glee, her hair raising up in an invisible wind and turning pink as it danced around her shoulders.
“Touch it, I will. So warm. So bright.”
I realised the beetle had gotten over my boot and was two tiny steps away from casting itself into a fiery death. I pitched forward, knocking it away again with my finger and it went flying through the air, landing on its back with its legs wheeling wildly.
“Evil! Death coming! Run, run, run!” its thoughts flared inside my mind. I didn’t think animals could actually speak my language, but my Affinity translated it as such.
“For the love of the Fallen,” I growled in frustration, shoving to my feet as Kyra continued to watch the light show Drake was painting out for her with the glowing end of the stick he’d taken from the fire.
I stumbled on my feet, the world tipping as the wine sang a song in my veins and a high-pitched giggling started up in my head. I looked down to find a moth perched on my arm, seeming highly fucking amused about something.
“Big bald skin thing. Only hair on head. Ugly, ugly skin thing.”
I shook my arm and the moth took off, its giggles carrying back to me and I swiped a palm down my face as I tried to block it out, the beetle still screaming in my mind too. I swear the alcohol in my blood was making my Affinity more potent.
“Tell me about the princess,” Drake insisted as I moved to scoop the beetle into my hand, its screams only intensifying before I launched it away into the bushes and its cries of terror turned to a weeeee of joy.
“Tell me,” Drake demanded and I gave in, too damn drunk to bother arguing with him as an idea struck me.
I beckoned Kyra to her feet. “You can alter the way you look, right?” I gestured to the ever-changing multitude of colours that were rippling across her skin, feeling less cautious of her magic now that the wine was numbing my inhibitions.
“Of course I can, sullen man,” she said brightly. “Would you like me to turn into a horse? Drake told me about your fondness of them.”
“When?” I snapped as Drake laughed obnoxiously then I cursed and backtracked. “I mean, I am not fond of horses. Not in a sexual way anyway.”
“I didn’t say anything about sexually,” Kyra balked. “I don’t think I want to be a horse now, Cassius,” she said, biting her lip uncomfortably.
“I don’t want you to be a horse either,” I said in dismay.
“I can make you something which looks like a horse if you like? A willing one? Drake just has to command it and you agree and then-”
“I do not fuck horses!” I roared, and Drake lost his shit, laughing even harder as Kyra nodded quickly.
“Okay, sullen man.” She winked and my jaw gritted.
“Can you do silver hair?” I asked, wanting to change the subject fast and she immediately tried, her hair flowing down to her waist and dancing in an enchanted breeze. But instead of silver it was white and shimmering.
“Sort of.” My brow creased as the world began to spin a little. “Can you do longer eyelashes?”
Huge purple blotches appeared all over her body and Drake moved closer to watch with an amused look on his face.
“Is this right?” Kyra asked, looking down at herself hopefully. “Is this how she looks?”
I snorted a laugh, stumbling away from her and shaking my head as I drank more from my never-ending cup of wine.
My boot caught on Drake's leg and I collided with the ground before I even realised I was falling. Pain blossomed through my side and I realised I’d landed on a sharp rock. I tugged up my tunic as I rolled over, finding the blistering burn the torturer had given me splitting open.
Oh fuck.
Drake got to his knees, eyeing my wounds with a frown. The older bruises on my side had turned black and yellow and the slightly fresher ones lined my skin in purple from The Forty's fists.
“Kyra,” Drake called and she appeared beside him in a flash. Like an actual fucking flash that damn near blinded me. “Can you fix his wounds?”
“Do you agree?” she asked me.
“No.” I lurched away, shaking my head fiercely as the lick of blood spilled from the wound that had been cut open. This girl thought eyelashes were giant purple spots, what the hell would she do to me if she tried to fix my injuries?
“What's up, mate?” Drake asked, swaying above me.
“I could end up inside out like Jadar and the rest of them,” I hissed and Drake tried to conceal a laugh.
He definitely thought it was funny and I had to assume that he wasn’t grieving those men one bit.
“Don’t you even care about your own men?” I growled as he looked like he was choking on a laugh he wouldn’t let out, lost to some joke inside his own head.
“Why are you laughing?” Kyra asked. “Oh wait, are you crying? It's crying when the tears go up your nose right? Are they going up your nose or falling from your ears?” She moved to inspect him and he lost it, his laughter escaping him at last.
I snatched up the cup of Cartlanna wine as Drake’s laughter rang louder through the trees.
“This stuff is strong.” I staggered towards the fire. “Wait a second... I'm strong. I'm made of steel.”
“What's that, mate?” Drake rose to his feet.
I tipped the bottle into my mouth like an absolute ruffian and stepped towards the fire.
“Look at me, Marik,” I spoke to the sky. “I’m out here breaking your rules, and there’s nothing you can do about it. I am made of steel.”
“Are you gonna jump through the fire?” Drake asked excitedly.
“Oh no, he'll freeze,” Kyra gasped.
“I'm jumping through it,” I confirmed, rolling my shoulders. I was a royal guard. I'd been trained by the best fighters in the country. I'd been told I was invincible. And I damn well believed it tonight.
Yes...this is an astoundingly good idea. The best one I’ve ever had.
“Roasty toasty. The beastie will cook.” A rogue spider said from a web in the trees to my right.
“Keep your words in your tiny spider mouth,” I commanded and Drake and Kyra exchanged a look.
“Is he talking to me?” Kyra breathed and Drake shrugged .
“Burny, burny. Bye-bye, beast man,” the spider continued to taunt me and I clapped my hands over my ears for all the good it would do me.
“Stop it,” I slurred. “You don’t know anything about anything. You’re just a spider. You’ve got eight legs and no brain.”
“No, I’m Kyra and I’ve got two legs and a nice brain, thank you very much,” Kyra said firmly.
“He’s not talking to you, little goddess,” Drake murmured as I dropped my hands again, pointing to the web in the tree beyond me. “I think he might be talking to that spider.”
I backed up a few steps, the golden flames roaring before me, seeming to arch up over my head as I watched, making this whole thing seem a lot more difficult than it had a moment ago.
“You're made of steel, Cass, you’ve got this!” Drake called as he sat down on the grass to watch, sprawling out lazily and swigging directly from the bottle of wine like a damn heathen.
Though I had done the same not long ago, so I supposed I had to brush myself in the same tar as him now.
I was just an outlaw, a vagabond, a rogue.
“Go on, sullen man! Jump to the moon!” Kyra cheered.
I jumped up and down a few times as I psyched myself up then ran flat out towards the fire, my heart pumping, freedom calling my name.
Cassius Lazar! Cassius Lazar!
I leapt upwards, the flames licking the bare soles of my feet as I soared through them, the scent of smoke and success rising up all around me as I flew like a damn phoenix straight through the heart of the flames.
They were hot, my skin tightening and warming uncomfortably as I passed through them, but then I was bursting free of them, emerging on the other side like I was being reborn as a new man.
A thrill danced in my chest as my feet hit the ground on the other side, the scent of burning hair only dampening the feeling of utter success the smallest amount.
Triumph, victory, glory!
I skidded on the grass beyond the fire and crashed to the ground, rolling and rolling like a runaway bagel before slamming face first into a tree and darkness descended on me like the plague, the tiny laughs of a thousand bugs in the vicinity following me into the abyss.