I rushed Abel and flew toward him, pulling him off his horse. He was completely taken aback. I felt so strong that I barely noticed his attempts to fight back. I threw him down onto the dirty street and swept my sword toward him.
He blocked me with his own blade an inch from his face. He wasn’t carrying Monster Cleaver, just his usual sword with the du Lac moon on the scabbard. He quickly rolled to his feet, fending me off with the blade, as fluid and fast as ever. Abel had always seemed to be twice as fast as other men, and with eyes in the back of his head. In the past, I never would have been to keep up.
Today, I was his match. Sir Kal tried to get in on it and I struck him back and still brought my blade back around to Abel in time.
Gods, yes. This was the power I'd always imagined I could have, but before it was always in my head. The jewelry had unlocked something in me, power surging through every move, so my sword could fly as if it weighed nothing at all. Our blades clashed and when I had my sword crossed over Abel’s, he was struggling to resist my strength.
“Idiot,” he grunted. “I’m trying to help you. I had to explain your escape last night somehow. If the emperor knew I was a guardian, he would have to lock me away.”
“Good.”
“Get to Leonidia and you can find allies there.”
“Gaermon is as far from the gate as you can get. Heavily guarded. We’ll never make back north. You know it.”
“Give me time.”
“I’ll give you nothing. Elder Dion. King Raio the third. Hawk Mountain. You’re a murderer.” I shoved him and he kept fighting me.
“Sir Forrest! Abel! Stop!” Phoebe pelted me with one of her shoes.
I barely registered her cries. This anger inside me had been building up for too long; since the raid on Hawk Mountain. I didn’t know I was a guardian then. All I knew was that I was on the wrong side, as I saw an entire clan killed down to the last child, even Lija, the only woman I would ever choose for myself.
But it was her death that led me to Elder Dion. To finding out who I really was. To Phoebe.
In all the chaos and speed of our fight, I still saw clearly. I wasn’t afraid. I slashed Abel’s sword arm. I knew Phoebe would scream and all I could hear was the buzz of the kill. He took his sword into his right hand. He was left handed. I knew he wouldn’t be able to fight effectively. I closed in on him. I would drive it through his heart.
“Stop!” Phoebe jumped out of the carriage and ran over. “You must stop fighting each other right now.”
I didn’t look at her. There was too much pent up inside me to stop. But instead of the sword, I went for a punch.
Abel’s eyes flashed at me, and something horrible swept through my arms. It was cold like ice and I couldn’t move. It hurt, too, and the longer it went on, the worse it was. I made a choked sound of surprise.
And then Abel backed off, and the ice that had pierced through me was gone, but I couldn’t feel my arms.
Abel swept his right elbow toward my face. When Phoebe tried to move toward us, he pointed his sword at her in warning. I dodged his first blow but I could sense the tide had turned on me. Abel wasn’t human, and he had been fighting about as long as I’d been alive. He struck me with the blunt side of his blade and then his fist came at me. The last thing I saw was Phoebe’s face flying toward me.
Chapter Twelve
Phoebe
I threw my body over Forrest’s body.
“Kill me and you’re killing yourself!”
Abel sheathed his sword, quite calmly now.
Niko’s men had actually done a pretty good job of handling Abel’s other men. Two of them were unconscious, and only the old one with the purple and the eagles painted on his armor was still standing, but he wasn’t looking that great. The toughs were still on their feet.
“What is she saying?” asked Sir Eagles, as I mentally dubbed him. “Do you have a tie to the priestess, Commander?”
Abel looked away from me.
“That’s why you wanted to let them go,” Sir Eagles pressed. This was probably what Abel wanted to avoid.
“I want her as far away from me as possible,” Abel said. “That’s all. My tie to her is unwilling. You have no reason to question my loyalty. Who conquered Rungenold and Gaermon in his majesty’s name? But it is true that if she dies, I die. And she’s harmless if she goes south. She can’t do anything unless she opens the gate. I can sense her everywhere she goes, and I will know if she tries to go north.”
“You’re one of her guardians…”
Abel…is this really how you feel? Is it a trick?
He still felt so closed off to me. I was afraid he really was loyal to the emperor.
The toughs moved closer to me, holding their weapons at the ready. “Get in the carriage,” one of them said.
I didn’t want to leave Forrest. Quickly, I kissed his lips. His mouth tasted a little like blood. “Get up, Forrest…”
His eyes cracked open but I’m not sure he saw me.
“Come on.” I hauled on his arm and somehow I managed to get him to get up and stumble toward the carriage with his bulk leaning on me. I felt Abel watching us but he didn’t stop us.
“Is his royal majesty aware of this situation?” Sir Eagles asked.
“Yes. He is,” Abel said.
“We need to arrest them.”
Abel’s arm was bleeding, I noticed. He gave me a strange look.
“I could heal you,” I said.
He suddenly strode right up to me and leaned down. “Priestess, the Emperor knows everything. He knows I was meant to be a guardian, and that I am your guardian. He knows I let you escape. He is allowing me to protect you, insofar as he wants to protect me. I am precious to him. I told him that if he imprisons you, you will surely kill yourself. This is the only thing saving you and your only chance to follow my orders or I’m sure his punishments will get more creative. You must leave the city immediately and go south. Stay far from the gate and live a peaceful life as best you can. Make trouble, and you might find yourself in chains for the next eighty years. Understand?”
The stupid bond between us felt so strong that even as I was saying these things I could hardly believe him. It was like if my mom suddenly told me she hated me. I would simply know it wasn’t true. I would know she was enchanted or doing it to protect me. “Why do you believe him, Abel? All they do is use you and keep you from being what you’re really meant to be.”
He leaned close to me and for a moment I saw torment in his eerie, pale eyes. “It’s too late for me to be anything else,” he said.
He physically picked me up under the armpits like I might pluck Wretch off the dinner table, and put me in the carriage. “Go. Now.”
He shut the door. I guess the toughs decided they were going along with it because suddenly the carriage was moving.
I sniffled, and then I swallowed it down. Get it through your head, Phoebe. He might feel the bond, but it’s just too late for him. At some point…you’re going to have to deal with it head on.
Forrest was slumped on the seat. He was unconscious again, and shivering. I touched his arm and his skin was very cold. I knelt on the floor of the carriage as it lurched along and smoothed a hand over his forehead. “Forrest…?”
Forrest had been hurt before, but something about this was different. “Abel did some kind of magic on you, didn’t he?”
I gently kissed his lips.
Nothing.
“Forrest?”
By the time we got back to Niko’s place, Forrest looked even worse, and his skin felt clammy and cold. Niko met us outside when the carriage pulled up, took one look at him and said, “Magic.”
“What do we do?”
“Let’s get him in bed by a fire, first of all. What happened?”
“Abel happened.” I was unable to contain mingled anger and hopelessness at his betrayal, but I already wished I could see him again. Who’s the real traitor? My own stupid brain. I told Niko and Gilbert everything
as Niko’s men carried Forrest inside and upstairs. “I hate admitting it, but Forrest was right. We have to give up on him. I think maybe we should go to Gaermon. Some of the Gaermonans might help us.”
“Gaermoni, not Gaermonans,” Gilbert said. Sometimes he could be so persnickety.
Niko’s expression turned dark. “We’re not going to run.”
“We can’t stay here. Forrest and Abel were this close to killing each other. Abel didn’t even make it one day before he came after us. It’s way too dangerous.”
“I’m not going to run.” Niko pushed open the bedroom door. “I don’t have connections in Gaermon. I can’t help you there. And my fortune says simply to be patient.”
“I don’t care! I can’t handle anything like this happening again! If one of them would have—“ I felt like I was choking the more I thought about it. I kept seeing them striking each other. “I need to get away from Abel myself. I don’t want to see him anymore.”
“No need to worry,” Niko said. “You won’t leave the house without me again, and if we see him, I’ll deal with him. Shadow to shadow.”
“Niko…” He was pissing me off. “You need to listen to me.”
“I do listen to you.”
“The book said you would try to control me. You need to—”
“The book is astute, isn’t it? Someone needs to not be stupid if we’re going to survive, and I’m the oldest among you.”
“Forrest is older than you,” Gilbert said. I guess he was just going to annoy everyone while he was brooding over Rin.
Niko walked up to Forrest, who was now spread out unconscious in bed. This was the room Niko had given Forrest, I guess. It obviously seemed like a guest room but was quite opulent, the large bed surrounded by a heavy carved wooden frame and gauzy curtains drawn back. The wallpaper was pale green with a pattern of swans. Not a very Forrest-y room.
“You said Abel might be an ice dragon?” Niko asked.
“Yeah, I—“ I couldn’t even remember telling him that, but after a while I couldn’t remember who I had told what or how much they told each other.
Forrest stirred a little. “Niko…you’re fucking wrong…Abel…can’rust ‘im…” He was out again after a bit of incoherent murmuring.
Niko sighed. “Just rest.” He looked at me and then he handed me the older copy of the book. “Page thirty-five.”
Chapter Thirteen
Phoebe
Healing Magical Injuries and Curses
The guardians of the priestess may face any number of magical opponents, and elemental injuries are to be expected. If an Elder is present, he may aid in the ritual, but in the event that the priestess is alone, she should proceed as she would with any other injury, only it is recommended to stroke the sigils with the stone before proceeding. The great healing powers of the priestess should be sufficient to overcome any injury, no matter how dire, as long as life remains in the body and the sigils.
So said page thirty-five.
“Here we are again, huh?” I said.
This wasn’t the first time I’d had to heal Forrest. Of course, this was my job. I guess we’d be doing this a lot. So far it was always Forrest. Of course, he’s always the first to rush in…
I rubbed his shoulder. He seemed totally out of it again. I kissed his lips. Nothing, and they were so cold, it was disconcerting.
“Okay…” I didn’t even know how to begin with getting his clothes off, so I just went straight for the trousers and unfastened the buttons.
I gasped. Under his clothes, around his sigil, his skin was turning downright blue and almost sparkly, like he was transforming into an ice sculpture. “What did Abel do to you?” I couldn’t help but feel like some of this was my fault. I had trusted that Abel wouldn’t hurt any of us, that our bond would win out in the end. Now, I had to accept the truth, didn’t I? He was lost to me.
You have to accept it or you might lose Forrest instead…
“I’m so sorry…”
I took out the stone that activated the sigils and brushed it against the sigil on my pelvis until it glowed and warmed and stirred my desire, and then I did the same for Forrest.
His skin there grew warmer but it didn’t seem to radiate outward. On the other hand, well, what can I say, it made his cock hard.
I snorted as I struggled to drag his trousers down. “Of course it did. You know, I’m glad an Elder is not present to aid in the ritual. Gross.”
I wasn’t use to taking charge with the guys. When I thought about it, it was in my head that girls let guys do things to them and that was how it worked, but increasingly, I found that I liked the idea of flipping the script. They were all take-charge guys in their own way; oh yeah, even Gilbert definitely liked to be in control. But in the end, they all needed me.
Of course, this went beyond taking charge; Forrest wasn’t even conscious. He probably wasn’t going to mind waking up this way, though. And maybe I wouldn’t mind it either because he was undoubtedly going to be furious about Abel and maybe he wouldn’t get much doom and gloom talk out before he succumbed to my magical sex powers. I could just imagine the expression on his face when he realized what was happening…
Girl, you are feeling this more than you want to admit, so let’s just do it.
I straddled him and positioned myself—
Oh, shit that was cold. Stupid ice dragon. I slowly lowered myself onto it, hoping my body heat would start to warm him up, but that wasn’t happening, at least not yet. His cold shaft made me shiver from the inside out, and it was a little painful on my tender skin. Still, I forced myself to keep going until he filled me. Even then my body heat seemed to have no impact.
“Forrest…” I collapsed onto his chest and tried to pull his lips toward mine; maybe that would work now? He was a lot taller than me and it was hard to even reach him as long as he was deep inside me, when he was too limp to meet me halfway.
So, that wasn’t going to work.
Even though it was painful, it was still hitting some good spots inside me, driving me to want more of him. I sat up again and just started riding him. Gods, this was pretty nice in its own way. Once I found a good spot I could just hit it again and again without him moving and messing it up. I had to close my eyes, though, because when I saw him there all pale and unconscious I felt awkward and guilty all over again.
In that way, I even relished the pain of this icy spear driving into me like it was marking every inch of my delicate flesh; I was taking his injury and making it my own. What was more intimate than sharing the same pain?
And in a way, even Abel was a part of this…
I slid my hand down to press on my sigil and applied a slight pressure on my clit by pushing down on the flesh just above it. I felt like I could feel his cock even more sharply now. I groaned, the intensity building quickly now. I loved this moment when I couldn’t think of anything except this.
“Ahh…mmm…” It was painful and incredibly good as I fell into an orgasm.
His skin seemed to warm up all at once at the same time the limp body beneath me suddenly bucked awake.
My eyes flew open. I was still in the throes of it and all I could do was gasp, “Wait…”
“What happened? Abel—“ I felt him shiver.
“He…um…he…did an ice thing on you…ice magic. I had to heal you…”
I started to try to move off him so we could have a normal conversation and his hands clamped down on my thighs. I collapsed against his chest instead. He started slowly grinding into me. His hand stroked my hair.
“Phoebe, damnit…” He sighed. “I remember now. He froze me from the inside out, felt like…”
“You seem okay now.”
“Mostly.” A brief, devilish grin flashed across his face, and he rolled us over so I was underneath him.
“This is a cruel way to wake a man up,” he said.
“I thought it would be pretty nice.”
“I have a lot of things I wanted to say and now I
can’t think straight.”
“I am totally fine with that. I don’t actually want to hear any of the things you have to say.”
“Hmm…” Our sigils pressed together in this position, and where he had been cold, we were both heating up. “How many times did you come on me while I was unconscious…?”
“Just…the—now.”
“I see,” he said. He looked like he wanted to say some really naughty things, but Forrest usually left it there—with just the look. He still had a moral code, I guess. Bleah.
“What are you thinking?” I asked.
“You won’t trust Abel now, will you?”
I just replied with my eyes. Don’t ask me that…
“Really, Phoebe?”
“I won’t put you in danger again. I mean—I don’t trust him…no. I really don’t. I just don’t want to talk about him.”
He growled, and started fucking me harder, and I was glad. I would rather work it out that way. I wished he would understand…Forrest and Gilbert, Niko and Abel…no matter what happened among them, or in the rest of the world, I was all equally their priestess, and there was nothing I could do to change that.
Chapter Fourteen
Abel
What does a man do when he finds out his entire life has been a lie?
From a distance, it might seem simple. I’m sure the path was clear, to the priestess. She saw the burn that had marred my skin since childhood, and she knew I had been lied to. I suppose I had always known. I had strange powers; I wasn’t like other men. There was no doubt in my mind I had been used for my power.
But it wasn’t simple at all.
Priestess Bound Page 10
