Sky Lord, Rowan Erlking [best free ereader txt] 📗

simply wander around the docks in that state to sneak off. He had caught her once more. Perhaps now the hunter would collect his bounty.

 

Chapter Fifteen: The Cordril

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Tia awoke still under Jonis’s arm. It was dark. Perhaps midnight. Her head was clear, though her hand ached terribly. She glanced at it. The tube was out, and the back of her hand was wrapped in gauze. Blinking, she stared at her arms. The iron braces were also off her wrists. The chains lay next to the oar, set aside. Tia looked to the other side and saw the Cordril hunter’s face just a few inches from her own.

He was asleep, not on guard like before. His arm weighed heavily over her back, his hand resting on her side. She could hear him softly breathing. The cat scratch across his face was peeling off, revealing a light pink streak that would eventually go away. She had not dug very deep with her claws. Either that or he healed phenomenally fast.

Trying to lift his arm, Tia scooted back, holding her breath. But he moaned, pulling her back in to his side. His grip was stronger than she had expected.

Attempting to break free once more without disturbing him, Tia scooted upward, crawling to where he had tossed the oar and chains. She managed to get her torso out, but his arm rested now across the small of her back and he had pulled in once more, sighing in his sleep. Propping herself onto her elbows, Tia pulled forward with a jerk.

“It’s not morning yet. Go back to sleep,” Jonis moaned, reaching out and pulling her back down to lay beside him.

Tia shoved him now. “Let me go. I’m not sleepy anymore.”

He leaned up, rubbing his blurry eyes. Jonis yawned with a slight glance around. He draped another arm over her shoulder, pulling her back to the ground. “It’s too early. Come on back down. We’ll snuggle for warmth.”

“Snuggle for—” She huffed. “Let me go! Tomorrow, all you are going to do is bring me back to that awful Patriarch. And I’m not going!”

Jonis sat up again. “I am too tired to argue with you. Either you sleep now while it is still dark, or I will have to sit on you to keep you still. Which do you prefer?”

Tia glared at him. “I prefer that you leave me alone.”

He made a face. “Look. That wasn’t one of the options. Do you want me to list them for you again?”

She swung out to slap him. Jonis caught her hand, gently clasping her wrist.

“Now that wasn’t very nice,” he said, gazing intently on her.

Her chest heaved, staring at him. She looked at his hands. He wore gloves. Turning to stare at his face, Tia realized he was waiting for a response. All of his body was covered except for his face. No other skin lay exposed. He was well prepared to take on a Sky Child.

“It isn’t very nice for you to keep on chasing me like this,” she snapped back in a hush. The darkness reminded her too well that she was still hunted.

He coughed out a laugh. “Gee, and I thought I saved you from those pirates.”

Tia blinked at him.

“You were not in the best shape when I found you, after all,” he said.

She turned her glare to the ground. “You only did that to collect the bounty for yourself.”

Jonis shrugged. “I suppose it could look that way. The Patriarch did offer another inviting sum for your return.” He mused, shifting his legs into crosswise position. “But really, what would it benefit me now that I got my answers to my questions last time.”

Tia turned and stared at him. “Your questions? What? If he would actually find the treasure of the Sky Lord through me?”

He winked an eye. “No. I wondered what he would do with you after he discovered he couldn’t get the treasure of the Sky Lord. And I saw.” He then frowned. “You have disappointed me terribly. I was sure you wouldn’t give in to his advances. But he informed all the staff he had his thrill quite well that night.”

A loud disgusted huff erupted from her. Tia glared as if ill at the ground. “He bragged about that?”

Jonis tilted his head to the side, still frowning at her. “Why wouldn’t he? You were a great challenge for him to conquer.”

Tia huffed again, pulling her arms into herself. “Well, he’s a liar as well as a creep. When you and the guards left me alone with that monster, I fought him as much as I ever did. I exhausted him before he could even finish his assault.”

“Exhausted him?” Jonis leaned back. “You don’t mean you—”

“I sucked out as much energy from him as I could without having to assume his shape. He was so wiped out, he fell right asleep.” Tia stuffed her arms under her chest, folding them tightly. “When he woke the next morning, he said he would make me suffer for what I’d done.”

“So that’s why you had turned him down,” Jonis said peering at her, his face still expressing disappointment.

She glared at him. “No. I turned him down because I could see into his heart. I know exactly what kind of man he was. There would have been no freedom in that relationship. I may be cursed, but I will not let myself sink under the control of such a fiend. It would be much worse.”

“You worked for the Underlord. Is that not the same?” Jonis asked, leaning forward.

Tia met his eyes. “I was a starving when the Underlord took me in—only a child. What did I know about the world except that he was kind to me?”

Jonis swallowed. “And that man you killed?”

She blinked, looking at the ground. “I was dog, and he was beating me. I didn’t think. I only acted as a suffering wild dog would.”

“But you didn’t run.”

She felt his hand on her shoulder. Tia met his eyes again. He was staring without his mischievous smirk.

“I came to as myself again. I never would have killed that man, had I not been a dog,” she said.

Silence.

He smiled. “I knew it.”

Tia felt his hand pull her close, not understanding why her chest suddenly pounded or why he embraced her. They sat in the darkness, hearing nothing but the creaking of the wind swinging the door loose.

He was warm.

His arms were strong.

She could feel his chest heave.

His hand touched her cheek, turning her head. He looked at her face. His eyes were so sad.

Tia blinked, suddenly feeling his lips brush hers in a gentle kiss. Electric, sparks prickled and stroked her skin, enlivening her senses. She leaned into the kiss.

 

Jonis woke up, rubbing his head and groaning. The chains and the oar were still there on the floor, but the door stood wide open, the sun rising over the masts and the distant bay wall. He sat up, scratching his scalp. She was gone as expected.

“Stupid!” he muttered, hopping to his feet. “Alright. I guess I should go find her.”

He walked around the shack, passing by a few early fishermen sitting on the docks. Turning another corner, he heard weeping. There was a moldy wood fence there, half collapsed. He peered around it with a smirk.

“You didn’t go very far.”  He squatted behind the fence directly in front of her.

Tia was crouched on the ground holding her head, rocking back and forth. She looked up at him. Her eyes were red.

“I had no idea,” she said, still rocking herself.

“Ah, still suffering from rebound, I suppose. Though you knocked me out real good back there.” Jonis scooted in at her side, putting an arm around her. “Next time you won’t try that, right?”

She peered into his eyes. “What are you talking about? I saw what was in your head! How can you have that much information stuffed into your memory?

Jonis blinked at her, opening his eyes wide. He scratched his head again. “What? You didn’t feel the rebound from trying to absorb me?”

“Getting into your head was like walking on glass,” Tia shuddered. “But once I got through, I’ve regretted it ever since. Being you is terrible!”

He still looked surprised. “Wow. No Sky Child has gotten that far in all my memory. Usually they hit the rebound barrier and back off before it really hurts. But I guess that explains what I saw last night.”

She lifted her eyes. “What did you see?”

Jonis drew in a breath. He closed his eyes. “I saw death. That is what all your victims see. He came to shake my hand. Usually when I meet him he is angry because he can’t touch me. But last night he reached out for a try.”

Tia’s mouth went dry. “So that’s what terrifies the ones I touch. I had no idea.”

He snorted, shaking his head. “I suppose some people can’t handle a brush with death.” Jonis turned to look at her pale face. “But you must have had my form for hours. How come you only got this far?”

Shaking her head, Tia stared at the ground. “It was only a few minutes. The sun was coming up when you kissed me. I had thought it was a good time to run…but now, I….”

“Only a few minutes?” Jonis scratched his scalp. “It felt a lot longer than that. Death was really trying to get at me this time.”

“Too much,” Tia murmured. “Too much in your head.”

He lifted his eyebrows. “Yes, I suppose a few thousand years is a lot to absorb.”

“How is that possible?” Tia stared at him in disbelief. “I absorb memories from people I have touched. You,” She caught her chest from heaving so hard. “You have memories that are different.”

“Passed on,” he said with a nod. Jonis shifted closer to her. “I suppose now that you’ve been in my head I can explain things better to you. You know. Jog your, I mean, my memory. This may save us time in the long run.”

Tia blinked at him

“Try to remember,” he said, closing his eyes as if to picture what he was explaining for himself. “Dig into what you had just absorbed, and recall way back several thousand years. Ok?”

She was still struggling with the informational overload. This attempt was the last thing she wanted to do. However, Tia did as he bade, scraping back into the memory she had just sucked out of him.

“See if you can picture the very first day my ancestor came to this world,” he said.

Tia closed her eyes, attempting it. Too much information flooded over her. She grimaced, clenching her head again.

“No. Let me help.” Jonis took off his glove then placed his palm on her forehead. His touch crackled across her skin. Instead of bringing up a memory, she suddenly saw it planted from the source. The memory she had taken from him floated upward into her consciousness to match it.

In her mind’s eyes she saw a strange place. The halls were made of metal, as well as the floor. Rubbery synthetic floor coverings made it so they did not slip as they walked. The people were laughing, chatting in a foreign language she only understood because it was a memory comprehended her in mind. There were these oddly shaped men,