We were all quiet for a while, Hemlock and her crew lost in memories and the rest of us thinking about what she told us. Suddenly, I noticed a change in the borders. It was getting rocky, with dirt flying everywhere. It wasn’t like the sand dunes of Hemlock’s land, but more the type of land you would see at a site where ruins are. Rocky and dusty with little to no vegetation, only rocks. The air was getting stale, and it had a faint smell to it. I wouldn’t have noticed it if I hadn’t had other air around me just moments ago. It was almost like there was life here once, but now only death lived here.
Hemlock and Talican pushed forward, getting ahead of everyone as they stopped us from continuing. They looked around first, keeping a watchful eye on the rocks and the shadows they cast, searching before they turned back to us.
“The last group to explain are the cannibals, but I feel like their name is self-explanatory. They are the people that have gone crazy here, the ones that can’t handle it, the ones that go starving as they wander around. These people try to eat the rest of us, the cruel ones included, because to them, we are all a potential food source. They also think that if they eat someone with magic that they will absorb it and that’s what keeps them strong. I never believed that, but they do.” She looked back at the rocky formations ahead of us.
Talican was the one who spoke in his harsh and firm tone, “And now we are entering their domain. They are fast, running on all fours, and they like to hide in shadows and wait until it’s the most opportune time to snatch you. Be on high alert. Don’t mess around or else they will kill you. Let’s go.”
“Yes, my green deadly fairy!” Hemlock raised her fist as she looked at Emerald with glee. “Let's go kill us some flesh eaters!”
Chapter 23
Hemlock’senthusiasmwasquicklyhushed the closer we went into the cannibal's land. We walked around the borders, keeping to the outskirts as best we could. From what Hemlock told me, in order to get to the librarian’s lighthouse cliff, we only had two options; take a direct shot diagonally or sneak along the line between the cruel ones and the cannibals, and go up the outskirts of the cannibal’s land. We all voted to take the longer but safer route.
For a good hour, I kept a close eye on the guys. Since we were taking the outskirts, we knew it was safer, but we still didn’t want to attract attention from either side of the line, so we stayed as quiet as possible. I thought Zayden would have the hardest time being quiet, but he surprised me, he took his time to make sure his feet didn’t drag and he kept his mouth closed as we signed to each other to warn about issues or directions we were going in.
All the guys were doing well, cautious yet quick. They were even better than a couple of the people Hemlock brought. It made my heart swell with pride. “They are impressive. Even the pretty one, which is surprising.” Hemlock whispered next to me. I swiveled over to look at her, lifting my finger to my lips to remind her to be quiet.
She mimed a silent chuckle, pointing at me and holding her stomach. I thought my patience was tested when the guys fought with each other, when Zayden tried to push my buttons, when Ajax got pissed off, but Hemlock has truly found my limit and yet, I still find her mildly amusing.
She was the direct opposite of me. Where I was trained and precise, she was wild and all over the place. Where I was quiet and cold, she was loud and expressive. While she looked for and wanted friends, I was trying to just keep a lid on my tight circle of companions. All of those differences and I still have never found someone who could nearly match me in a fight. Someone I could respect on that kind of level that was my age. So, I put up with her ridiculousness and her saying whatever comes to her mind, because I might never find another like her.
I rolled my eyes at her and pointed to the path, telling her to get her ass moving. She nodded as she pointed to my hair, putting her thumbs together to make a butterfly. I could almost hear her voice call out in my mind,Okay, my green butterfly. I shook my head. I was no butterfly. I was the opposite of a butterfly. I was something bright and beautiful once a long time ago and then I went into a cocoon of bloody training and out came a caterpillar. Which was just a tad depressing if I really thought about it.
Talican held his hand up to halt us. Hemlock and I looked at each other before we both moved to the front, trying to see what the problem was. I could hear a scuffle, a shuffling of feet and a small cry before the sound of a slam ringed in the air.
“Shut the fuck up, bitch. This is your fault. You shouldn’t have tried to kill your master and then we wouldn’t have to throw you over to the cannibal side to your death.” Some oily voice said in a low, hushed tone from below. We were on a trail above a shallow cavern, and it seemed they were just below us.
“He is not my master. He is my rapist.” A small, weak voice sounded in an equally hushed voice.
A deeper, crueler voice sounded. “That’s what you all say. Fucking women. You have a hole for fucking. It’s not rape, it’s you being useful.” My hand twitched, anger coursing through me at his logic. That kind of thinking was the reason my father had to keep my gender hidden as a child. I even had to hide it from some of my trainers because this was what they would’ve told my father when he called in his favors. That I was a girl and was only useful for one thing. It was only a handful of trainers that knew I was a woman and would only take me on if I proved I could handle it. They all were surprised by how much I could handle. How much stronger I was than them.
“In fact,” I heard a belt unbuckling, and I held my breath, “You’re going to be useful one more time before we throw you to your death. Hold her, Ben. I’m going to fuck that little pussy and you can fuck that little ass till she bleeds from both ends. It won’t matter cuz she’s dead, anyway.” I heard a ripping of fabric as she cried out, and I couldn’t take it any longer. I lunged over the edge, flipped out to ensure I was far enough away from the rock side before I landed in a crouch.
“What the-,” one of them started, but not a second later did Hemlock land next to me, her body buzzing for a fight as she pulled out her long dagger that gleamed in the sun. She looked at me, winked, and pointed to the one on the left, and I nodded. The two men dropped the girl to the ground as the real threats came closer to them. I noticed her shirt was ripped in half in tatters on the ground, her face swollen and bruised from being hit so much. My anger fueled my body as I focused on the man in front of me.
“Well, well. What do we have here? A little girl with a pointy stick. I got a pointy stick for you right here.” His pants were unbuckled and his dick was in his hand, pointing it at me like once I looked at it I would just get on my knees for him. I almost laughed at his pathetic excuse for a dick. Almost.
Instead, I swung my ‘pointy stick’, Nika, and envisioned it slicing his dick in half. I felt the hilt of my sword vibrate, almost like it was laughing at my request. Then it arched downward, sliced a perfect line straight through his dick, splitting it in two.
He cried out, screaming about his dick, about the pain, about the blood gushing out of him, but all I did was walk up to him slowly, “Now you have two pointy sticks. I thought that was what you wanted?”
He started cursing me, telling me how worthless I was, how much of a bitch I was while he fell to his knees, clutching his bleeding two dicks with one hand and tried to reach out and grab me with the other. I just smiled as I kicked him in the nose, wanting him to bleed more. The crunch of his bones breaking filled me with glee. “Well, now you have two holes bleeding like you wanted earlier. I think you should tell me thank you, don’t you?”
He was clutching his nose with his free hand as I stepped over and kicked him, making sure I was breaking ribs as he curled up on himself. Soon, I heard the rattle in his chest as he started to choke on his own blood. I kicked and kicked and kicked until he was within an inch of his life, whispering prayers to the maker god to take him home. I crouched down and whispered in his ear, “You won’t make it to the maker god.” His breath hitched. “I’m going to remove your eyes and your tongue before you die, making it so you won’t be able to see or talk to him, but you will hear him call your name. You will hear the sweet sounds of paradise, a paradise you will never reach, never be able to find.” I watched as he let out a broken sob as I crushed the last bit of hope he had.
“You did this to yourself,” I said before I did what I promised him I would do. I dug out his eyes with my short sword, sliced off his tongue, and left it on the ground like the waste of flesh it was.
As soon as I turned around, I saw the rest of the group was down with me and Hemlock. I saw Zayden helping the girl who looked like she feared everyone else but him. Instead of being jealous, like I thought I would, I was grateful for his pretty face and soothing words. She needed that type of kindness after the cruelty she had been experiencing. She needed to know not all men were like those two pieces of shit.
Hemlock got right in my face, “That. Was. Amazing! I loved it! Loved every second! I wish I didn’t take care of mine so fast and I made him hurt like you did, but you didn’t just make him hurt, did you?” Excitement lit up her eyes as she looked down at the pieces of him on the ground. “You broke him and I have never heard such a sweet sound as his broken sobs drifting into the wind.” She made a drifting motion with her hand as she was grinning from ear to ear before she turned and walked over to Zayden and the girl. I looked to the side and saw her target with a slit throat on the ground.
Ajax and Rykon slowly make their way over to me. I was afraid for a second of what I would see on their faces, see in their eyes. I didn’t want them to be scared or disgusted by me. Then I remembered it didn’t matter what they thought. This was who I was. I was a savage that would murder someone within a blink of an eye, torture someone even after death and not feel a single thing about it other than peace.
“That was one of the hottest things I have ever seen in my whole life, my assassin warrior.” My eyes looked up as I searched Ajax’s eyes for the truth in his words. His eyes were blazing with lust and pride. His breathing was uneven as he looked at the blood on my hands and face. He stepped closer to me, so close that I had to tilt my head to look up at him as he smiled at the blood on my cheek, smearing it with his thumb. “You being covered in your kill’s blood makes me want to devour you where you stand. I want to go somewhere and have you mark me up, have my blood replace his and have you lick it off.”
I shivered at his words, excitement filling me as my body heated in response. My empty pussy clenched, wanting something to fill it, something to grab onto. Wanting to get rid of this adrenaline that was pumping through me by fucking him just like he asked for. He leaned down and captured my lips, licking his way inside like he was a dying man and needed my breath more than his own.
He gripped my back tightly with both hands, searing his touch on my body, even through my clothes. As soon as we parted, we were both panting heavily. At least until someone next to us cleared his throat. We both twisted our necks to look at Rykon, who looked at us with excitement. “You’re either going to need to let me in, big guy, or give me my turn.” Ajax growled at him and gripped me tighter, acting more animal than man, but I could feel my body wanting him. Both of them. I wanted to fuck both of them, all of them, right now.
