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I flinched.
None of us spoke for long moments.
That was it.
That was where my sway ended.
Still, it reached further than I’d imagined.
“Children aren’t wicked,” I said and reached my hand to his, surprised by the way he immediately let them intertwine as though he feared I might otherwise slip away. “Even you have to know that.”
“Oh, little one, if you believe this will go unpunished, then you are mistaken.” He stared at our interwoven fingers. “Very well, I shall ride the lands and rot the children once gossip has calmed. I’ll rot John then, too, if only so I won’t have to hear his name from my wife’s lips ever again. But there is something else you will give me in exchange.” He shifted on the bed, flame of the candle driving out the gray coldness of his eyes, replacing it with something less cutting. “On a moment of my choosing, you will come to me. You will not be allowed to refuse me, and you shall kiss me until your lips are benumbed. You will commence the act we share as man and woman, and see it through until we are both spent, not once denying its pleasure. Deal?”
With a nod, I made a deal with the devil.
Because to him, I had value.
That realization cracked through years of condemnation. As much as I had been worthless to John, what if my value never lay with the man in the first place? What if my purpose had always been to bring rot to those children I’d never been blessed with?
And if the woman who rode with the King of Flesh and Bone had negotiated this much out of him, whatever else might his wife achieve?
Chapter14
Ada
After a few hours of restless sleep, Enosh woke me by stroking a finger down the length of my nose as he whispered, “I sense how tired you still are, but we cannot stay much longer.”
Head still fogged, muscles weak with exhaustion, I nodded and sat up. “They formed a mob?”
“Nothing but a handful of fools rallied together by the town’s priest.”
“You saw them?”
He rose and extended his hand to help me to my feet and toward the chamber pot. “Through the eyes of the dead that I’ve posted around the area to keep word from spreading.”
“Good, or every follower of Helfa will be after you, trying to capture you and drag you before the high priest. Every king, every lord, every duke… High Priest Dekalon has their fealty.”
Something I’d once considered justice now proved quite the inconvenience. I couldn’t have others meddle in my plan to get the god to return to his duty. Something I’d considered laughable last night—until I remembered I had all of eternity to get it done.
“Mankind rebelling against a god…” Enosh thumbed the stubble on his chin. “A nasty habit of your kind that springs up every couple of centuries or so, doubting themselves, doubting their beliefs, doubting me.”
I limped over to the washbasin on a table in the corner. “We best avoid the roads.”
“We still need a priest to wed us. Quietly.”
“What does it matter? You have my vow.”
He slipped on his shirt and let his black jacket form around him. “I am indifferent either way—mortal customs or a promise given before a false god—as long as I receive the exact same vow you gave once before.”
I swallowed my sigh and turned to him. “I believe there’s a small temple hidden in the forest not far from here. My father once brought crates of salted fish there.”
“Very well.”
Not even a finger twitched on him as he let thin chips of bone form around me. Row upon alabaster row encapsulated me like fish scales, though matched the flow of fabric, its collar snug and high.
I lifted a brow at him. “Armor?”
Unable to walk down the stairs on my own, he once again picked me up. “A precaution. Such a terrible inconvenience at times, mortality.”
