Page 78

Yes, the world was beautiful. Oh so hellishly beautiful, veiled in a rose pink tint like a winter sunset. And there was Mavus with his alluring green eyes, promising sins for sale. All for a good price.

“Bad boy,” I purred, sitting up and stroking his cheek. “What did you do to me?”

I was calm. All too fucking calm. Like every anxious thought I’d ever had had suddenly ceased to exist. And not only that, but my fears were gone too. My doubts. My longings. All of it was silent in the face of what remained. Power and glory and pretty, pretty Mavus.

He opened his hand, revealing an empty vial, but what had been inside? I looked down at my arm where I’d felt the butterflies dancing, still feeling them now as they flew through my skin and brought laughter to my lips. A pink dust was all that remained of whatever Mavus had given me.

“I wasn’t sure what else to do, lass. You lost yourself. What happened?”

I pressed my hand to his face, pushing him back so that I could get up, marvelling in the lightness of my limbs. I was a cat, a predator that had been trapped in the body of prey. Why had I ever doubted myself?

“Careful now, lass. I gave ya a small dose, but it’ll still last an hour or so.

Now tell me what happened to ya just a minute ago.

” Mavus hounded after me, but I was busy prancing from one corpse to the next, leaping this way and that, light-footed and assured.

My body was a weapon, honed and crafted, made for killing, yet all that remained here was the dead, dead, dead.

I twisted around, standing on the chest plate of a bloated Flamebringer, cocking an eyebrow at Mavus. “You haven’t told me what you gave me yet. You’re a sneaky snake, Mavus. You riddle this way and that, always circling the point. But I won’t answer you until you answer me .”

“Battle stims, doll,” he said, his brows lowering as he folded his arms. “There ya go, now answer my question in turn.”

“Battle stims,” I inhaled. “Those are naughty.” I waggled my finger at him. “Bad Mavus. Selling illegal things. You’re a bad liar, you know?”

“I didn’t sell ya nothin’,” he said, a lilt of anger to his voice now. “Tell me what just happened to ya.”

“You’ll have to catch me first!” I spun away and leapt from body to body, crushy and squishy and squashy and ick . But oh how fun it was to play, for all that heaviness to leave me at last.

The butterflies in my veins were giggling and I joined in, letting my manic laughter carry to the sky.

Cancer would like that, she’d clack her claws and have a chuckle, while Scorpio would give her a stern look, but grumpy Mr Scorpio would be hiding his smile too, and then there was Pisces.

Sweet, wonderful Pisces, she’d be swimming this way and that, happy as a clam and urging me on.

“Stop that!” Mavus barked, the sound of heavy footfalls racing after me.

His crew were giving me funny looks, pausing their hunt to watch me instead so I gave them a wave and did a cartwheel before leaping behind a boulder and pressing my back to it.

“One cherry, two cherry, three cherry-”

“Four!” Mavus leapt around the boulder, his hand slamming to my chest and pinning me there.

“Big man,” I commented. “But I have this .” My dagger nudged his dick, pin-pricking it and he wheezed out a breath. “Oopsy.”

“You little hellion, take a breath. This shit is strong and you need to keep ya head. And so help me, get your dagger off my precious cock or I’ll gut ya in ten ways ‘til dawn.”

I smiled, all cat, part badger. Because badgers were vicious too and I’d always felt an affinity to them.

“Say please,” I purred. And I really purred. Didn’t know I could do that actually, my chest was thrumming with the sound, and how nice a sound it was. Maybe I had never been happy enough to do it until now.

Mavus took in a deep breath then exhaled the word I’d asked for. “Please.”

I retracted my dagger, sheathing it and tilting my head as I waited for him to remove his hand from my chest. He did, but he didn’t move back, he moved in, head tipping down, serious sauce swimming in his eyes.

“You need to come with me back to Wandershire, lass. The stims want ya to fight, and there’s only allies out here.

You kill one of my Fae, and I’ll be forced to put ya down. ”

“Even if it was an itty bitty accident?” I asked sweetly, batting my eyelashes. He was right, the hunger to kill was ripe in my blood. I wanted to get stabby and slashy all at once.

“Even then,” he chuckled. “Now come on. Back to Wandershire with ya.”

I sighed, taking his arm when he offered it, feeling like a real lady, like one of those gown-wearing princesses of Stormfell – bitches that they were, they sure did know how to be regal.

Mavus guided me back across the battlefield and I waved serenely to his friends, all of them sharing looks, and a couple waved back. Were they my friends now? Of course they were. Who wouldn’t want to be friends with me? I was delightful. Powerful. Magnanimous.

“Can I do just a little bit of killing?” I asked. “Maybe some of these dead people aren’t fully dead.”

“Much as I’d be real amused by you stabbin’ the dead folk, our next leg of this journey will take us through dangerous waters. You’ll have ya chance at killin’ the beasties of the sea then, lass. But the stims will have worn off by then, no doubt. Of course, you can have more…”

I groaned. “Then give me more.”

He glanced my way, those eyes full of mischief and dancing pixies. “One dose was free. Two ain’t.”

“You said I could have anything I wanted for delivering you my wares,” I reminded him, flicking him in the ear. “The contract may be done now, but I didn’t get anything for my latest haul.”

He fell quiet as he led me up the steps onto the winding streets of Wandershire and pulled the cloth from his mouth. I did the same, noting the smile curling the corner of his lips. I booped that smile with my finger and he glanced down at me curiously.

“We’d need to make a blood-tie, lass. I don’t ever risk the tide turning against me. You want more stims then you gotta make a deep kinda promise. One that’ll have grave consequences were you ever to rat me out.”

“Okay,” I said brightly. “Sounds great. What do you want? My blood in a jar? A vial? Lathered onto a cockroach’s butt crack?

Whatever it is, it’s done. This is… everything ,” I sighed, shutting my eyes and just feeling all those butterflies, seeking out any doubts I might have against this.

But there were absolutely none. I couldn’t see a single reason not to do this. Cockroach’s butt crack included.

“Alright then,” Mavus purred, a greedy look in his eye as his fingers curled tightly around my arm and the butterflies danced there in place of pain. It tickled, making another laugh spill from my lips. I never wanted this to end. Never ever, ever….rest. Everest.

I laughed harder.

Funny words. Oh mama you were funny.

I thought of her now and what bliss it was to feel no pain when I summoned her face, only sunshine and joy, even when I recalled the agony in her eyes as she died. How the acid had tickled…no…burned? I couldn’t remember the burn now. It was all too tickly.

This was bliss. No more hurting. No more, no more.

“Let’s head to me bureau, I’m sure we can work out somethin’,” Mavus said eagerly, guiding me away. “In the meantime, tell me about those Reapers. What did you see exactly when you were at Never Keep?”

He cast a silencing shield around us, putting us in a bubble. They should call it that. A silencing bubble. That was a much more fun name.

“Oh that. I saw the monster they’re keeping in there. Well, not keeping exactly. Half summoned or something. Almost ready to step into this world and destroy us all apparently. That monster knew things, it did Mavey-pie. It saw me. It liked me, I think. Well who wouldn’t like me? I’m a delight.”

“A monster you say,” he growled, a deep grit to his voice. “Go on.” There was a burning hunger for information in his eyes and I wanted to feed it like I’d fed scraps of bread to the gathering gulls on the beaches of Castelorain.

“It told me a secret, Mavus. A big, big one. One I shouldn’t tell anyone.

The Fury knows though. That’s why he wants me so badly.

He’s obsessed with me. We had to kiss to seal the er-” My throat clogged up with the words and the butterflies tried to fight against the magic, but I couldn’t say any more.

“Anyway, he tastes good – don’t tell him that. He has a big cock too, I felt it once.”

“For the love of Cassiopeia, get to the point,” Mavus demanded.

“The point? I guess the point is I’m the Void .

You know, the one from the Elysium Prophecy?

I can stop people from casting magic. I did it to a Reaper once.

Didn’t realise it at the time. That was while I was torturing him.

Then Kaiser killed him. Oh, and he totally released a Vampire.

I don’t know why, do you think he’s in love with him? ”

Mavus shoved me against a wall, his eyes wild. “The Void? Say that again. Say more dammit.”

“More,” I teased. “More, more, more.”

“For the love of the sun.” Mavus shook me roughly and the butterflies laughed harder.

“I am the Void and the Void is me. But shhhhh.” I pressed a finger to his lips. “We’re not allowed to tell anyone. Not ‘til I get to Cascada. We’re going to win the war. I told you I’d be legendary.”

Mavus slapped a hand to my mouth. “Alright, no more ‘til we get to me bureau. Stars, you’ve come at last.”

He dragged me down the street, but the problem was, the people there were starting to scream. Yelling, wailing and blocking the way forward.

The group of Mavus’s traders began doing the strangest thing, tying each other up and punching each other, while all of them cried out as if they were angry at their own actions.