Page 141 of Soul Forge

He arched an eyebrow, and then he was moving through the water until Elda was trapped against the side of the basin. “Love is something Ican’tfeel, Varro. I don’t cuddle. I don’t share my feelings. Demons don’t love. We’re not capable of it. Everything you’ve heard about me should tell you that.” His nose skimmed her throat. “We feelwant.”

“You’re n-not a full demon,” she stammered, keeping her hands balled into fists to prevent them from brushing his damp torso.

“True,” he nodded, pulling back enough to meet her gaze. “And the part of me thatiscapable of love has already confessed it. The angel married you. The angel protects you. The angel needs you. I, however,wantyou.” Vel turned, seating himself against the side of the bath and pulling her down onto his lap. A radiant blush spread up her neck. “But you wanthim. So, you can have him. Call it my blessing if that makes you feel better. Don’t call on me again.”

“Wait!” But he was gone. Sypher’s garnet eyes blinked up at her. He frowned, glancing down at her seated on his lap with his hands at her waist, hers resting on his collarbones.

“…I see your conversation went well,” he remarked, looking back up at her face.

“Not really.”

Sypher’s head tilted. “What happened?”

“He threw me in the bath, told me he hated you for being an angel, said he was incapable of love, sat me on his lap, and then told me never to speak to him again.” She spoke quietly, her cheeks glowing crimson.

“And then retreated, leaving us in the most awkward position he could think of.” He sighed. “That sounds like Vel.”

“You haven’t panicked at me touching you without invitation,” she noticed.

“I trust you, maite.”

She sat back, putting whatever distance she could between them without pulling away. Her fingertips found the huge scar running diagonally from his shoulder to his hip, tracing the injury until it disappeared into the water. His eyes followed the movement.

“What did Cynthia do to you to give you such a mark?” Elda asked softly.

He swallowed like the memory made him nauseous. “She gutted me.”

The admission was simple, and it hit like a punch to the stomach. “Why?”

“Because she was broken.” His head dipped. “Cynthia was born to an abusive, hateful father. She and her mother suffered daily. It was a miracle she even survived her infancy. When her mother finally succumbed to her father’s beatings, he sold Cynthia to a slaver. She was seven.”

“That’s horrific.”

“I know.” His tone was sad for the child, despite the hatred he harboured for the adult. “She was with the slaver until she was fifteen, and she suffered at his hands as well. Awful, horrific abuse. Cynthia never had a chance, and by the time Lazarus decided to select her, she was beyond help.”

“Why would Lazarus choose someone like that?”

“Power. He sensed the talent for necromancy buried inside Cynthia, so he sent me to collect her. I killed her slaver, healed her, fed her, and kept her safe.” The corners of his mouth turned down. “She didn’t understand that I wasn’t helping her for my own gain. She was waiting for me to take payment for my kindness. I can’t blame her, really.”

“If she’d had any humanity left in her, she would have known you meant well,” Elda decided.

“Given enough time, perhaps she would have realised that, but Lazarus wouldn’t wait. He met her while she was still a child,and he showed her what the Compulsion did. That was Cynthia’s first real taste of power.”

“Let me guess. She liked it too much?”

“She did. The moment she learnt to use it, I was enslaved. Over time, after she had me hunt down and murder her father, I became the outlet for her anger. She started trying to break me.” He pointed to a thin scar at his collarbone. “This was the first scar she inflicted under the Compulsion.” He tapped the huge wound across his torso. “This was the last.”

“What made her stop?”

He smiled bitterly. “While she stood there with my insides in her hands like they were an interesting toy, she realised that I couldn’t be broken by physical pain. My body would heal.” A faint shudder rippled through him at the memory. “So, she turned to mental torture instead. It didn’t take her long to figure out how to ruin me.”

“She set you against Nova,” Elda realised, a lump forming in her throat.

“She did. I butchered everyone I could get my hands on, including Selena.”

“How did you meet her if Cynthia kept you enslaved?”

“The Compulsion is weakened by distance. Cynthia chose to live there, so I went to the other side of the city where I could be free of her for a short while,” Sypher explained. “I was wounded, barely conscious, and trying to find somewhere to rest. Selena followed me and confronted me, thinking I was a thief of some kind. I collapsed, my armour vanished without my magic, and she learned the truth.” He smiled sadly. “She patched me up, and I spent the next three years seeing her whenever I could. I thought I could hide it from Cynthia. I was wrong, and for my deception, I was forced to destroy everything I had left to care about.”

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