Page 91 of Artemysia
“Woohoo!” Ivy paces her elk with Throg’s. “Would you be able totrack me if I got taken? What do I smell like?”
“If you got taken, woman, they’d regret it and leave you behind the first chance they had.” He stretches a long arm between them and pulls her closer by her belt. She leans to him, bending sideways on her elk to nuzzle his arm with her nose. “But yes, I’d find you in a second. You smell like heaven on earth. Pure heaven, my little demon.” He kisses her cheek before riding on.
My little demon.
The oldest villages in South Kingdom believe in the demons dwelling under the mountains and the gods commanding the celestial heavens. But younger generations no longer take to the stories.
I trail behind Throg and Ivy, grateful that I have them.
To be honest, I never really believed in heaven or hell, but after today, I am sure both are real. We must live in the shadow-thin veil separating the two. Crushed. Suffocating between ecstasy and anguish.
I know this now, because in the last few days, I’ve been pulled in from one side and out the other, and it’s becoming hard to tell which one will consume me.
“All of you are dead, if she comes to harm. I swear it.” - Riev
It pisses me off to have to ride away from Delphine. The demons in my soul wish to fight my way out of this. But I beseech any gods who may exist in our forsaken world—besides the two idiotic moon gods—that Delphine stays away and finds her way back to Stargazer safely.
What have you done, Riev?Well, shit. At least they let me ride my elk. On her, I might have a minuscule chance at escape. She’s fast. And, despite throwing me at first, she was able to break free of Syf control during the last attack.
I pat her neck.Good girl. At least you listened to Delphine in the end.That goes for me too.
I hope she understands why I left without a fight. I’d have fought to the death if her safety weren’t at stake.
The entire army of Syf trails behind me and their king as we ride away from Delphine, locked away in the cave.
“If you’d stop snarling like a wild animal, you might be interested in what I have to say,” the Syf king remarks.
It’s impossible to focus on his words when I’m this distraught about leaving Delphine behind.
“Riev.” King Foss employs the most emotionless voice I’ve ever heard. This fucker makes Galke seem exuberant and animated. “You are the product of your Syf father—my older brother—and a human woman he loved enough to break every law.”
Syf father.
Break every law. By having me. My existence is an abomination.
I freeze, because itcan’tbe the truth.
It can’t be the truth, because I do not want to be Syf. Can I become like the others, then? The murdering beasts?
“My brother’s love was his downfall,” the Syf king continues, every word slicing into my deepest wounds. “When my father the king found out about you, a monstrosity in his eyes, he ordered that you be destroyed.”
My stomach drops. A monstrosity in both the human and Syf worlds.
“But years later, rumors in a select inner circle whispered that your parents had faked your death to sneak you out of Artemysia before they were killed themselves.”
My ears prick up, despite myself. “Who killed my parents? Syf?” Why should I trust this fucker?
The king must lie to keep me shocked and confused and subdued. If I accept his story, it means I am half-Syf. And I’ve spent my whole life proving I’m not.
I can’t turn into a bloodthirsty maniac now, can I?
I don’t so much as look in his direction as he speaks.
He doesn’t answer my question. “It’s debatable whether you belong in Artemysia at all.”
They tried to kill me, and they killed my parents. I’ve murdered their subjects. So no, I do not belong anywhere.
“How did you find me?”
