“Farewell,” she called cautiously.
Vale closed his eyes and thought of his void.
The dirt opened up and swallowed him, and the woman in his arms gasped and clung to him. Before he could assure her that all was well, they were rising again—this time out of the silver pool he had stepped into minutes before.
The comforting scent of his void washed over him, all sulphur and ash. He had been amongst it for so long, he had forgotten what it was like without it.
“We are here,” he announced, depositing the human woman onto the mossy ground.
She stood, wobbling. For a moment, she merely gaped at their surroundings: leaves dripping darkness, boneplants glowing silver, dark birds flying overhead, the silver pool they had stepped out of. Everything thrummed with an invisible pulse that could only be described as a heartbeat.
However,shecould not sense the thrum. She was only mortal, after all. But there was a moment where she stared behind them into the silver pool they had entered through, and she looked almost… enchanted. Like this void was not to be feared, but to be cherished.
Then that moment ended.
The woman whirled to him, her terror thick in the air. “D-don’t eat me yet, okay?”
Vale wondered who the Circle of the Jeweled Fist was trying to kill. They must be important if they were willing to risk her.
“I have many skills,” the woman blurted, brushing her crimson hair out of her face and only succeeding in smearing her bloody arm across her cheek. She winced, wiping it off her face. “I’m a hard worker! I can set traps, and make clothes, and read?—”
Vale cut her off. “I did not bring you here to eat you.”
“Oh!” The woman did not look relieved, though she was still trying to hide her fear. She actually smiled this time, small and tremulous. “What did you bring me here for?”
Her uncle’s words echoed through Vale’s head:she has many skills.Why did he think her uncle was not talking about her ability to read?
The woman stared up at him, those green eyes so alluring that Vale almost found himself leaning in.
Almost.
“To tend the void,” Vale said instead. “I need an assistant.”
Two
Ivy’s breath left her in a relieved whoosh.
Her uncle had urged her to seduce the beast.Seducehim! All because of the stories of the Bygone Queen, where a human witch entranced a Skullstalker into making her his queen.
As if Ivy was capable of seducinganyone, let alone a Skullstalker. Until she had seen the Skullstalker in person, she didn’t even know it hadlips. She always heard their whole face was a skull, not just the top part.
“Unless you would prefer me to eat you,” the Skullstalker continued in that deep, gravelly voice that sounded like a warning even when he wasn’t growling.
Ivy startled. She had been silent far too long, she realized in a panic.
“No!” she said with a nervous laugh. “This is good! I’ll be a perfect servant, I swear.”
“Assistant,” the Skullstalker corrected.
“Assistant,” Ivy said faintly. “Yes.”
Wasassistantbetter thanservant? It had to be. Her uncle had an assistant when he worked at the palace. He was treatedwell enough. Also, unlike assistants, servants didn’t get to quit. Was this Skullstalker being…kindto her? She doubted it.
Skullstalkers were the worst thing a mortal could encounter. They weren’t mindless, bloodthirsty beasts. No, they were bloodthirsty beasts who were atleastas intelligent as a human. Ivy had been hoping to appeal to that intelligent side to buy her enough time to do what she was sent here to do.
Her injured arm throbbed. Ivy hissed in pain, lifting her arm to examine the cut. It had dripped blood all over her white linen dress, which was strangely dry despite emerging through that silver pool.
“You are distracted by your wound,” said the Skullstalker.
