Chapter 4

ChapterFour

He finished his tour throughout the towns with a flourish. And that was to say that he did so with an incredibly disgruntled expression and a boredom that made the other mayors wonder if they’d done something wrong.

Perhaps they had. They didn’t bring him a woman like the one who had confronted him in Greenbank. Accosted, that was the correct term for it. She’d nearly struck him and then had taunted his intelligence in the middle of a busy tavern.

He’d like to say that had never happened before, and it had been a while, but alas. Nothing was new anymore. Never was.

After he’d finished with his regular business, he’d headed back home. Returning to his own castle where there was a fair city surrounding its safe walls. Only the best were allowed to live in Lust’s Castle. They were the nobility, the rich, the beautiful. People who stood out in every town that he’d gone to and thus he’d brought them here.

He might be a vain man about his own looks, but he was as equally vain about those who surrounded him. He refused to allow anyone “lesser” to grace the halls of his home. His beautiful court of simpering fools who never left him alone.

The castle itself was a work of art. He’d had it built in a glade that led up to a cliff side. No matter what room he stood in, his eyes were filled with a different kind of nature’s beauty. On the eastern wing was a view of the mountain range that stretched high up into the heavens and as far along the ridgeline as mortal eyes could see. On the western wing, he could stare into forests that never seemed to end. To the south, the plains where most of the food crops were grown every year. But it was the northern wing that was his favorite. Because it had a view of the edge.

Every kingdom in this realm floated in nothing. Open air. Each of his brothers had been given their own kingdom, all of them connected through light bridges that were heavily guarded. Lust enjoyed standing at the edge and letting the wind play through his hair.

All it would take was one misstep, and he’d fall. Tumble right down into the nothingness below and learn just how little there was there. Or how much waited for him.

His brothers used to say there were creatures lingering in the depths. Monsters who had lived for thousands of years, starving in the darkness, waiting for a single person to fall. Sometimes, if he listened hard enough, he thought maybe he could hear their echoing groans.

But perhaps that was merely fancy.

An icy cold wrapped around his ankle, coiling up his body as though a freezing snake had decided to climb him.

“Affection,” he snarled. “I thought I told you to leave.”

The damned spirit never left him alone, however. The creature was little more than a wisp of a spirit at this point. Why it had wanted to cleave itself to Lust, made no sense to him. A spirit of affection needed to be around people who could at least feel that emotion. Otherwise, how did it feed?

This one was hard to shake, though. It didn’t want to leave.

Humming low under its breath, it finally finished its journey and laid across his shoulders like a mink stole. "You’ve returned."

He hated how it felt wrapped around him. Its weight dampened the sensations that usually ran across his skin. As though lust had to be filtered through it before he could feed off the humans’ emotions. And he needed to feed. Constantly. That was why the demon kings, as that woman had so aptly called them, were so powerful.

“Oh,” Affection murmured. “You met someone.”

“I did not,” he grumbled in response. “I had a run in with a local, that’s very different from meeting someone. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t say that to anyone else.”

“Hm.” Its voice was higher than most voices in this area, although he thought it sounded rather melodic. Like a flute, sometimes. Other times perhaps the high strain of a violin. “So you think that was just a stranger? But you can’t stop thinking about her. Can you?”

“She basically ordered me not to.”

Amused, he told the spirit the entire story and turned away from the darkness below their feet. While he wouldn’t mind tumbling into oblivion, the spirit attached to his shoulders was young and had much to learn. Perhaps another time he’d investigate the creatures below.

He brought the spirit back to the castle while finishing up the story and then sat on a bench just outside the northern door.

“So she’s completely stumped you?” Affection asked.

“I’m not sure I would say that. She was a surprising human, yes, but that doesn’t mean I’m any more interested in her than any of the others.” He didn’t think, at least.

Why was he so interested? She’d threatened him, proven herself to be a surly little thing, and then decided to flounce off where he couldn’t find her again. He should let her memory fade from his mind like the rest of them.

“Because she was different.”

“She wasn’t,” he corrected. “I’ve seen that color hair a thousand times, and nothing else was even remotely remarkable otherwise. She was just another woman who lives in this kingdom.”

“But she tested you.”

“And others have.” He shrugged, shifting the spirit up and down on his shoulders. “It wouldn’t be the first time a woman tried to gain my attention by pretending to be different from the others. Sometimes women will try to be more pushy, take charge, they think it will get them farther than the women who fall all over themselves.”

“Playing hard to get?” Affection asked.

“Exactly.”

“But that’s not what she was doing. She told you she was the beginning of something new.” The spirit moved along his shoulders, hovering in front of his eyes in a fine white mist that had some substance but was nearly impossible to see. “And you believe her.”

He searched inside himself for an inkling of that emotion. Lust wanted to feel surprised again. He wanted to feel as though someone or something could make him feel something new.

That feeling didn’t exist anymore, though. All he felt was a strange sort of rage that she’d tempted him at all. That she’d tried to make him believe, for even a second, that she could surprise him.

“No,” he replied. “I don’t believe her. I’m just disappointed that she can’t do what she said she would.”

The spirit hummed out a low breath, disappointment making it shake as well. “That’s not fair.”

“Living thousands of years was never the plan, now was it?” Lust lifted a hand and gently pet through the mist. “We were supposed to come here and live a normal, mortal life. We took these forms so that we could lead these people and then everything got all messed up.”

Sort of.

They’d all made a pact, he and his brothers, that they would lead these kingdoms until they felt safe enough to leave. So they could return to the spirit realm where they were born and continue on anew. But then they’d realized what a pleasure it was to be alive. And everything had gotten muddled up after that.

Affection shook in his hands, and then he heard the faintest sound of laughter in his ears.

“Are you laughing at me?” he hissed.

“Well, you’re lying, aren’t you?”

“I am not lying.”

“You’ve got her square of fabric in your pocket.” It uncoiled itself from his shoulders and slithered onto his lap. Affection then nudged his front breast pocket where he did have that fabric.

“Only because I haven’t thrown it out yet,” he replied. Cross with the spirit, he pulled out the fabric and intended to toss it onto the ground but... Then he smelled her again.

That cold scent of peppermint struck him hard. It reminded him of the coming winter and how the first real snow always blanketed the land in silence. It was a beautiful moment. Cold and glittering and quiet.

Why would a scrap of fabric make him think of that? It was foolish. Ridiculous. A woman shouldn’t make him feel like this and yet...

He lifted the fabric to his nose and inhaled deeply.

Maybe Affection was right. There was something about her that lingered in his mind, no matter how hard he tried to ignore her. She wasn’t different, though. She wasn’t anything new other than a woman who seemed to think rather highly of herself. He’d seen people like her come and go throughout his life for centuries now.

“Maybe,” Affection started quietly. “She’s not new. She’s not someone that will change your mind about the world or all that you’ve done. But she might be entertaining for a while. You’ve surrounded yourself with the same kinds of people for such a long time, Lust. She might not be someone you haven’t met before, but trust me when I say she might be new enough to make things interesting around here again.”

Ugh, he hated it when the damned spirit was right. It always gloated for hours on end after he admitted it.

“Fine,” he muttered. “I’ll send out a few messengers to see if they can find where the hell she got off to.”

“Why would you do that?”

“You just said you thought I should bring her back here.” He stood, dumping the spirit onto the ground. “You were the one who thought up this plan, and now I will enact it. My patience has limits, Affection.”

And with that, he strode back inside the castle.

He’d need to talk with the captain of the guard. The man might be a little difficult to manage, but he did his job well. Hamish had seen many attacks on the castle and had even stopped an assassination attempt all on his own. Though it might have been foolish to risk his very mortal life for a very immortal spirit, Lust appreciated it all the same. If anyone could find her, it was Hamish.

“Lust!” Affection called through the hall, slithering along the floor as it desperately tried to catch up to him. “I’m not finished!”

Yes, well, the spirit would never be finished if he let it keep talking. The damned thing liked the sound of its own voice.

The captain would need to know more about the woman to hunt her down. He had a feeling that would prove more difficult than any of them expected. She was a wily little thing, especially having already slipped away from him. First, they would start back in Greenbank.

Why she’d been there, he had no idea. She clearly wasn’t a local with clothing like that. And she certainly hadn’t been following him since Sapphire Falls. That was the first lie he’d caught her in, but he had a feeling it was the easiest. She’d had no idea where she was.

And she’d reacted like a tourist, he realized, slowing as he approached the captain’s station. She’d moved in the tavern as though intensely uncomfortable. All the more reason to be certain she was a ploy from Minerva to get him under her thumb.

He didn’t want to make a kingdom wide manhunt for her. The last thing she needed was to be dragged to this castle in chains by a group of militia who thought they were doing the right thing.

Lust supposed he could wait until the next festival season. He’d probably see her then, but that felt like a very long time. The thought was startling for him. After all, he had nothing but time.

She didn’t, though.

Mortals died all too quickly, and that made him... uncomfortable.

Strange. He hadn’t had that thought in a long while, either.

Tugging on one of his horns, he almost didn’t stop at the captain’s station at all. Maybe he should just find her on his own. Maybe he could go back to Greenbank and ask questions. They wouldn’t deny him an answer to anything he wanted to know.

He stalked through the door and entered the room, where many of his leading guards already were. Apparently, he had missed an important meeting this morning, or they were all talking about how to kill him. It had happened before.

Lifting a hand before the captain spoke, he stalked to the large table in the center of the room that was carved with a map of his kingdom and slapped the fabric down into the center of it. “I need you to find this woman.”

His captain stared at him with a blank expression, while the other remaining four men wore expressions of shock, horror, and intrigue. Curious, he’d expected them to all jump to attention. Not just stand there slack jawed.

“Well?” he said.

“Um.” The captain shook himself free of his stupor. “Who would you like us to find?”

“There was a woman in Greenbank. My footman can tell you more about her if you need information. Dark hair, pale skin, not from the area but for some reason was there. It’s lingering in my mind.”

A frown creased the captain’s already lined forehead. “Is she a threat, sir?”

“I’m not sure yet.”

Another voice interrupted them, slithering up from the floor. “She’s not a threat and you know it!”

Affection took its time rolling over the table, knocking over a few chess pieces they used when they were talking about the towns. The pieces each represented a town or a figure they were keeping an eye on.

He stared down at it in exasperation. “I told you to go away.”

“Well, I would if you weren’t wasting time.”

“Me?” He jabbed a finger at his chest. “Wasting time?”

If Affection had a face that was easier to be seen, he swore it would have frowned at him. “Yes, you. You’re missing the details that are right in front of your face! The details someone already told you!”

“What details?”

“The fabric.”

“Yes, I’ve seen it.” He grabbed it again, shifting it closer to the spirit. “Her perfume has nothing to do with finding her. The blood on it won’t help us track her down unless you want to hire a sorceress and frankly, I have no interest in them.”

“That’s the detail!” Affection undulated in front of him, the mist rolling in a happy dance. “The detail you missed!”

He had no idea what it was prattling on about.

At least, until his captain took the fabric from him and smoothed it out. The man shifted it into the light, stretching the fabric so a hidden detail in the folds revealed itself.

A rune. Sewed into the fabric for protection. He’d seen enough of them to know how to read the sorceresses’ language, but not enough to do the spells himself. That magic was entirely their own.

Groaning, he slapped a hand to his forehead and hissed out a long curse. “She’s a sorceress?”

Affection leapt on the table and scattered the remaining chess pieces that were still standing. It did a quick circle along the edges of the wood before returning in front of him. “Yes! Your footman already told you that, and you just forgot.”

“Silver Thread,” he muttered, baring his teeth in a glare.

His captain made the same disgusted sound and then tossed the fabric onto the table again. “You still want us to track her down?”

The problem was yes.

He did.