Four - Redric
I stood in the shadows of an alley, my eyes on the door to the underground fighting pits as it closed behind my nemesis. I shook with a rage that made me want to burn the whole building down just to get to Evangeline fucking Sinclair.
For twenty-five years, I had waited to take my revenge. We’d first met as enemies on opposite sides of war. She’d fought for the Razians, I for the Vylians,. She’d been a pesky little kid when I’d been an adult (her twelve to my twenty-six), and her youth had added to my humiliation.
The first time we’d met on the battlefield, the Razians had been in the middle of a retreat. She’d been their only witch remaining, and I had killed six of her kind already. Cocky and certain, I had charged her without plan – and ended up immediately paying for it.
Using her devil magic, she had glued my feet to the branch and yanked down my trousers and pants. She’d laughed just out of reach of my sword as I’d struggled to cover myself – my clothing fucking glued down too.
Then the bitch had pointed her wand at my crotch, and before I could go back to hiding myself rather than trying to grab her scrawny neck, she’d cast a curse on me.
My balls had grown to half their size and my penis had shrunk.
It had been a damn powerful curse no witch on our side had been able to break either.
But worse, every time I had seen her in battle – which had been seven fucking times – she had glued me to the branch and then strengthened the curse, until eventually, my balls had grown to the size of two fists and my penis had turned into a splinter. And I would be stuck, standing in that position for days until the magic glue wore off. The utter humiliation I’d experienced in the quick glances and pursed lips from my own friends and fellow soldiers had been ineffable.
Death would’ve been kinder for me.
But death for her would not be.
I was a necromancer now – twenty hard years of study just so I could bring her back and kill her all over again. I would lose a bit of my own soul each time, using it for her return, but I’d sacrifice anything and everything just to kill her repeatedly.
Especially since, after twenty-five years and after our two kingdoms had finally drawn a treaty of peace after millennia of war, I had come over here to let bygones be bygones as long as she reversed the curse she’d left me with. And she had.
Only to immediately curse me again.
Now I had a constant erection.
My cock jerked under my trousers, and I ground my teeth as I glared at it. It had not gone down in six weeks even though I’d masturbated until my arm had locked and had then followed that up by fucking my way through brothel after brothel. Nothing I did changed it at all.
It just stayed painfully upright, and everywhere I went, people looked at me like I was a certified pervert with a badge pinned proudly to my chest. I was forced to stick to the shadows, wear robes, and always carry strong tape.
But none of our history was why I currently wanted to risk lighting a building on fire when the entire fairy world was made up of kindling.
It was because of what I had just watched her do.
A scowl curling my brows, I shifted my gaze to the two children she’d just left. Only a monster would support a child being trafficked for their organs. She clearly had not grown anything inside that hole in her chest. Evangeline Sinclair was the same assholic cunt she’d always been. Her deaths would be a blessing to the world.
But as much as I wanted to follow her into the fighting pits, sneak up behind her, and stab her in the back (being honourable was a disadvantage, as I had long learned), I couldn’t. Unlike her, I actually had a heart.
My eyes leaving the hog-tied boy – who, really, was a solid teen, probably closer to being a full-on adult, not that that made it any better – I spread my wings and flew behind the cover of some leaves. Pulling out the roll of heavy-duty tape I was forced to always travel with these days, I quickly parted the front of my robes and pushed my dick down until it was flush against my thigh. It throbbed in uncomfortable protest, but ignoring it, I taped it in place, then shifted my robes back into position.
Wincing at the sharp grip the tape had on my hairs, I flew back down to the branch housing the suburbs of Alira. I stopped in front of the girl, and she looked up at me warily.
“Wanna buy him?” she asked, hiking a thumb over her shoulder.
“It’s wrong to sell people.”
“He ate my cake.”
Not having the time to argue –it having taken me five weeks to find Evangeline this time, and I didn’t want to lose her inside the pit– I ripped the sign from the girl’s hands and strode past her and the hog-tied boy to knock on the door of the house.
“Hey!” She scrambled behind me, grabbing the back of my robes and pulling. I wrapped a hand around the front to keep them in place. “This ain’t your business,” the little girl hissed at me just as the door cracked open.
A woman with messy hair and heavy bags under her eyes glared at me. “What you want?”
I held up the sign. “Your daughter is trying to sell her brother.”
She opened the door further, then stepped out to glance behind me. Harrumphing, she looked back at me. “You want to haggle for him? Three pebs is a pretty good deal for a whole body of fresh organs, but I’ll accept two.”
I stared at her as the little girl grumbled about lost money.
“Alright, I tell you what,” the mum said as she pulled out a cigarette from inside her pyjamas. The heat rune carved into the end of it flared as she put it to her lips and sucked in a deep breath. True fire of any kind was highly illegal, what with us living in trees. “Give me one peb, and I’ll throw in the girl too.”
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” I asked, anger flaring in my veins.
Her eyes snapping together, she poked me in the chest. “It’s good business, and ain’t nobody telling me different. These kids eat hundreds of pebs a week. Taking one for them will still put me in the green.” She sucked in a long lungful of poison. “Now you want them or not? If not, get off my fucking porch and make way for someone who does.”
I glanced in the direction of the fighting pits, my jaw locked tight. Every moment I spent out here arguing with some half-wits led to a higher chance of me losing my target. Already, Evangeline could’ve slipped out the back or got into a fight with someone who wanted to kill her. And no one was killing her but me.
But I couldn’t just leave these kids in this environment either. Unlike Evangeline, I actually had a conscious.
Fuck.
Dropping the sign, I turned to leave, snagging the girl’s hand as I did so.
“Hey!” she called out.
“That’s theft!” her mum yelled.
“It’s kidnapping, you piece of shit!” I snapped back as I hauled her over to her brother. Leaning down, I picked him up by his binds and tossed him over my shoulder.
“Well, if you’re expecting me to pay a ransom to get them back, I won’t! Ha!” The door slammed shut behind me, and my chest squeezed at how quick she’d been to turn her back on her own damn kids.
Spreading my wings, I launched into the air.
“Where we going?” the little girl asked, her voice gruff and curt, and I didn’t look at her, knowing she’d hate it if I saw her struggling not to cry.
If you drop her, she’ll forget about the pain of not being wanted.
The urge to do so twitched at my fingers, but I forced them to tighten. I was not like Evangeline, who probably, most definitely, almost certainly would’ve dropped them. I had an actual soul. I just...had intrusive thoughts every once in a while. But that didn’t make me a bad person, according to my therapist. And I’m pretty certain Dr Rey hadn’t said that just because I had told him I constantly thought about wanting to turn him into a onesie, starting by skinning his toes. He was an honest man, Dr Rey.
As I thought about the answer (because I had clearly not thought this through), I shifted her brother on my shoulder. He was fucking heavy – mostly grown, and he seemed to be made up of nothing but knees and elbows.
You could drop him, the little voice said.
Do it.
Do it.
Doooo iiiiit.
“Where’s the nearest orphanage?” I asked, talking over my own thoughts. Given Raza had been at war with all of its neighbours for millennia, such a place was basically a staple of every town.
“Mmpmfhmfmm,” the boy said.
“There ain’t one.”
“What?”
“Mmmpfmfmfm.”
“Not you,” I said while turning to look at the girl in expectancy.
“Mmmpfmmfmm.”
“Not you!”
“I ain’t said nothing!” the girl said, glaring back at me.
For fuck’s sake. Okay, fair, that miscommunication was on me. I looked at her when I said it. I took a deep breath before saying, “Sorry. I meant not the boy while looking at you to hear your answer.”
“I can’t leave you!” I jerked to the left, away from the screaming lungs in my ear. The boy had clearly spat out his gag (dammit), and my wings flapped awkwardly as I struggled to right myself, the two kids’ extra weight not helping in the slightest.
“You saved my life,” he continued, “so I can’t leave you until I save yours.”
“No –”
“He has a point,” the girl cut in. “That’s a life debt.”
“That’s all very honourable,” I said as I scanned the town below me, desperately trying to find the orphanage. “But I release you from it. You can –”
“That ain’t how it works,” he said. “You saved my life. Now I have to save yours or serve you until I die.”
“You have a whole life ahead of you –” I tried, seeing nothing but fucking pubs and houses below me.
“And now it’s yours.”
“Look, I don’t have the time to raise you. I’m –”
“And me,” the girl said. “If he ain’t going, I ain’t either. And ya saved me too from that hellhole. So I also owe ya a life debt.”
“Now wait a damn –”
“Ya can try to drop us off at an orphanage, but I’ll just tell them our ma’s still alive.”
“Then we’ll bust you out of jail,” the boy said, nodding solemnly as if this was actually happening.
And it most certainly fucking wasn’t.
What in Hel’s name was I going to do with two kids even their own mum didn’t want? I was on a mission to kill Evangeline. “You can’t –”
“If ya drop us off, we’ll just follow ya. And I’m real smart,” the girl said. “I know people. If we lose sight of ya, I’ll just use my connections to find out where ya live.”
“It’ll be easier if you just accept –”
“Okay!” I snapped, aware that every moment I spent out here flying around trying to find a damn orphanage was another moment I could lose Evangeline’s trail. “I’ll take you home.”
And then I would leave them.
It was only a temporary home, so I didn’t need to go back.
And I could inform child services they were there on their own, so they would be picked up by the end of the day.
“Could you untie me first so I can fly myself?” the boy asked. “Your shoulder isn’t that comfortable…”
My shoulder, Mr Made Up of Nothing But Knees and Elbows?
Gritting my teeth, I landed on a branch and released his sister before slowly lowering him to the ground. He laid on his stomach, his arms and legs behind him. Pulling out a knife from inside my robes, I cut away his binds.
The teen jumped to his feet, shaking out his limbs and cracking his neck. Then he immediately lunged for his sister, who snarled at him and opened her arms for his tackle.
They hit the ground, and she pummelled his back while he tried to choke her.
Just leave them to kill each other, the voice whispered, and gods, I’d never been more tempted to listen to it. No fucking wonder their mum had tried to get rid of them.
Shaking such thoughts away, I ran towards them and yanked the boy off his little sister. “Enough!” I shouted, drawing the attention of everyone in town around us.
Doing my best to ignore their judgemental looks of ‘gods, he can’t control his own kids’, I grabbed hold of the girl to keep her from going for him again. “You want to serve me, then fine,” I whispered, “but rule number one: no hitting. Over anything. Got it?”
The girl glowered at me but nodded. The boy mumbled, “Yeah.”
When I released them, my muscles tensed, ready to grab the two again.
But surprisingly, they actually listened.
Hey, this parenting thing isn’t so hard after all. Kids just needed a firm –
Smirking evilly, the girl kicked her brother hard in the groin, dropping him to his knees.
“Hey!” I said, rounding on her.
“I ain’t hit him!” she said smugly.
And fuck me, I’d never wanted to ‘not hit’ a child more.
I sucked in a deep breath as the boy groaned, rocking back and forth as he cupped himself.
Just fifteen minutes, I told myself. Just fifteen minutes to fly them to my house, lock them inside, and report them to child services. That was is. Then I would be free. Just fifteen minutes.
“No hitting or punching or any sort of violence? Got it?”
She glared at me and mumbled something.
“Got it?” I snapped, my patience running paper thin.
“Yeah!” she snapped back.
“Then prove it by helping your brother up.”
Cursing under her breath, she moved to help him up. I half expected him to try to push her off the branch or bite her (gods knew, these children were feral), but all he did was ignore her hand and glare at her.
“Okay,” I said quickly as I stepped between them, not wanting the tension to tighten until one of them snapped. Again. “Home’s this way. Come on.”
I spread my wings but didn’t lift off until the kids did the same. When they took to the air, I flew in front of them, leading them to the house I was renting here.
I landed in front of a simple one-story building built into the branch of the tree, dug my keys out of my robes, and opened the front door. The boy ran in with a whoop of excitement. The girl was more hesitant, but there was still a light hop to her step.
My chest tightened at the look of wary hope on her face. Clearly, neither of them had ever known what it was like to have a real home. With people who loved them.
Fuck.
Can’t keep them.
“Come on,” I said, ignoring my desire to really help them. “I’ll show you to your rooms.”
“Rooms?” the boy asked, darting back into the hallway, having blitzed through the place when we’d first entered. “As in, we get our own one?”
“Yeah.” I walked quickly through the house, through the light corridor, past the arches leading into the kitchen and living room, and to the four doors at the end.
“That’s the bathroom,” I said pointing to the first door on my right. I opened the door beside it, then the one directly opposite it. “Decide which one you want. I need to step out for a second.”
“We’ll come with –”
“No,” I said, taking a step back. “If you two are going to serve me, then you first need to clean the house.”
“But how can we protect you if –”
“I’m more likely to die from germs than anything else,” I said, pulling shit out of thin air. “I have a bad immune system so I can’t be around any dust.”
They stared at me with wide terrified eyes before the boy blurted, “Of course! We’ll make it completely dust-free. Right, Dee?”
She nodded sharply. “Where’s the cleaning stuff?”
“In the bathroom under the sink.” When she went for the door, I grabbed her shoulder and swivelled her around. “Pick a room first. Then clean.”
I didn’t want to actually turn them into slaves. I was hoping they would bicker enough in my absence that they wouldn’t get to any cleaning before child services arrived.
Leaving them to look around the rooms and discuss, I headed for the front door. I just started to open it when a small hand grabbed the back of my robes.
“Sir?” Dee asked, her voice soft and hesitant.
I closed my eyes, trying not to think about Evangeline slipping out backdoors or being dead in some alley before I could kill her myself. Opening them, I asked, “Yes?”
“Thank you… No one’s ever…cared what happened to us before.”
Well, fuck.
A lump building in my throat, I turned and squatted down to look at her. A bruise was developing under her left eye from where her brother had hit her. Her blonde hair was matted with dirt, and her clothes hung on a body way too skinny. But it was the look in her blue eyes that killed me the most – hope.
In me.
A man who was just about to abandon her.
Can’t keep them,.
“Life is never easy,” I said, reaching for words that would hopefully stick with her even when she realised I’d left them too. “But you have your brother, and you are strong. Don’t ever doubt yourself, Dee. Other people are just shit sometimes.”
“Like Ma.”
“Yeah...”
She nodded sharply, then threw herself at me, rocking me back onto my heels. Her scrawny arms looped around my neck. “You won’t regret this. I promise.” Turning, she ran off back to the bedrooms before I could think of a response.
Staring after her, I almost stepped in that direction.
But I had waited my whole life to kill Evangeline.
And she was finally, finally within my reach.
Besides, these kids will be better off without me.
I stood.
Someone more suitable will adopt them.
I turned.
But they’re teenagers… No one’s going to want –
Cutting the thought off, I yanked open the door.
My wings fluttered with an energy too strong to stay buried inside. My hands fisted with guilt. Flapping my wings hard, I flew as fast as I could back to the fighting pits in Alira.
Evangeline was my priority.
Until she was dead, nothing else could matter.