Page 18 of A Curse So Vile

So this is what my final days will be like. Curing an ailing child, and dealing with her family, who will no doubt be enraged by what I’m going to do. She smirked at the irony, or perhaps she merely enjoyed the thought of Dorthea’s ill temperament.

Cole walked close beside her, shirtless after the battle. His chest was how she’d imagined it would be, chiseled and begging to be touched. His flank was just as tantalizing, but nothing fascinated her more than the bulge in his pants.

It wasn’t a secret to her that to take his mind off his worries, Cole would often think of sex. The scent coated him like a shroud.

And for Brenna’s gift that she would bestow upon Fiona, his lust would be her reward.

“So, this Den of yours…are you a noblewoman?”

Brenna couldn’t stifle her chuckle. “A noblewoman? Do I strike you as fancy?”

“No, not really, but your clothes are well made, and you have no shortage of coin. Perhaps you are some merchant’s get.”

“Wrong still, though I am one of the few that have blood not of the Dusklands pumping through my veins. My grandmother joined the Den nearly fifty years ago. She was from Cresite Terras.”

“Was there a marriage pact?”

“No. The town she was from, Dissocio, kept foul practices and killed outsiders. She ran from her home in the middle of the night knowing that if she were to run to Maritimas, she’d likely end up a slave. The Heartlands was her best bet, but for whatever reason, she was compelled to go to the Dusklands. Here, she met my grandfather, and so began my family line.”

“I should have guessed you’d come from a line of strong women.”

The corner of Brenna’s lip curled into a smirk. It wasn’t often a man could handle a strong woman, especially a human male, but she could tell Cole was intrigued.

“Now, tell me about your family.”

“My tale isn’t nearly as exciting. My mother and father were from the Heartlands bordering Maritimas. They tended to horses for those who could afford such luxuries and made a modest living out of it. My mother also had a stall in town to sell wares. My father died of a pox when I was six, leaving my mother to raise me. Six years later, my sister came. I had wanted a brother, but when I first laid eyes on Fiona, I realized my folly. I vowed to protect her, letting nothing do her harm. What good that did.”

“She’s lucky to have you.”

Cole’s eyes darkened, and the scent of guilt replaced lust.

“No, actually…she’s not. I fucked up. Badly.”

Brenna trained her eyes forward, unsure if she wanted to hear his confession.

“Many a woman succumbed to my charms. It’s not so much that I seduced them, they just kind of threw themselves at me. And not just commoners. Ladies from nearby castles would send for me to shoe their horses, then pull me aside and took whatever pleasure they could from me.”

“Oh…lucky man.”

“You’d think so, and I certainly felt that way. My reputation got around, and every day I was going to someplace new. One woman even sent a carriage for me. Had me brought clear across the Heartlands, and for what? To throw me on a bed and straddle my face.”

“Like I said, lucky man.”

“She was near eighty.”

“Oh…”

“Yeah. They weren’t all aged and haggard, but I never knew what I was going to get.”

“And you’re telling me this because?”

“Because you should know what I did, and how my sister suffers for it.”

“You need not say—”

“But I must.” He cleared his throat. “I was standing in a stable, pretending to look at the horse, waiting, when a beautiful woman approached. She was red of hair, with skin the color of pale milk, dotted with freckles. She was shy, giggling as I went about my inspection, and when I looked over at her, I found she’d shed her gown, and underneath, she was naked as the day she was born.”

“Lucky man.” Brenna couldn’t help but grin as she imagined the woman from the inn some ways back.