Vassal by Sterling D'Este (ebook reader computer TXT) 📕

Delyth’s ice blue eyes in confusion. How could she be willing to abandon her Goddess? How could she see Alphonse as someone worth setting aside a lifetime of beliefs?

How could Delyth choose her? Alphonse was nothing. Even Etienne had seen that in the end…

The healer’s hands spasmed slightly, gripping Delyth’s tighter. She wanted to believe. She wanted to see hope where there was none. She wanted to feel.

But.

“But I’ve already lost,” Alphonse whispered, ashamed of the truth of those words. “She— she’s too strong. Too powerful.” Her grip loosened.

No.

Hope was too dangerous. She couldn’t let Delyth hope even for a moment.

“Etienne left because he knew the truth, Del. And he was right. I could never withstand Enyo. I can’t even stand up to Tristan, and he’s just a loudmouth rogue. I’m not like you. I’m not a fighter. I’m not…” She couldn’t even say the rest. Brave, strong, enough. She couldn’t even heal anymore.

“I’m nothing.”

༄

Delyth tightened her hands around Alphonse’s fingers. Why couldn’t she see herself the way the priestess did?

Didn’t Alphonse remember the countless times she’d healed them all? How she’d brought them together with games and stories? How she’d faced all of the horrible things that Enyo had forced her to do and still somehow retained her essential self? How she’d loved Delyth after she’d proven herself a killer a second time over?

Now, even broken, she was kind.

The warrior shook her head.

“There is more good in you than all these mountains, and that includes Tristan and Etienne and Enyo. You have held out against her so many moons… so much longer than anyone else possibly could. Trust yourself, Alphonse.”

The healer’s eyes were glued to Delyth’s as if she were memorizing the lines of her face and the dark wings spread out behind her. Alphonse rocked forward on her knees, leaning across the distance to kiss Delyth, her mouth earnest. Warm and lingering.

Delyth’s heart leaped. It felt as though the healer believed her, as though she finally understood what the priestess had known for moons.Alphonse was so strong. And together, they still had hope.

Then, Alphonse pressed gentle lips to her forehead.

“Run,” she murmured, her face tensed in desperate determination. “I’ll stay awake all night; when I fall asleep, she’ll be tired too. You could flee Delyth. You could escape this madness. You could survive and make a new life. A happy life, where no one calls you halfbreed or Cabot or anything but your name.”

“No.” Delyth’s voice was hard and thick. “I’m not going anywhere.”

She drew her wings in tight against her back, upset and trying to hold it in.

Alphonse wanted Delyth to abandon her. To flee.

“You can’t ask me to do that. I love you, Alphonse. I— I just learned that there was a way to stop this all along. I—” She sucked in a deep breath. “I can’t leave.” It was true. She would never willingly leave Alphonse, and there was another reason besides. “You heard my oath, Alphonse. If Enyo reaches her full power, then I will have to serve her.”

Delyth pulled her hands back and looked down at the creases in them, at the rough hills of callus and the valleys between her fingers. If she was made to fight for Enyo, would she ever clean them of blood? “We have to try,” she whispered. “I can’t lose you.”

Or me.

❀

It was true… Alphonse had heard their bargain. What small piece of her heart that still beat had broken over it.

Delyth was stuck. Nearly as trapped as Alphonse.

But…

“You already have the parts of me that matter, Del. My soul. My heart. My love.” As fleeting as those things seemed. “Enyo will just have my body…” The thought made her blood run cold.  “I don’t want her to hurt you. If you—If you stay with her…” She’d make Delyth into a monster.

“Please, Delyth.” Alphonse reached between them again, touching her paramour’s cheek, her shoulder. The healer’s hands were so cold now. Her entire body was. “Let me save you. I… I don’t know how to bind Enyo, Etienne is the only one who has that kind of magic, but I can save you. I can—I can stop this all…” Her words faltered, afraid to admit what had been brewing in her mind ever since Etienne had fled.

The final choice she had. Her final act of defiance. If she was brave enough to make it.

“Please, Delyth, you’re the only person I’ve ever loved. Please…” Alphonse swallowed, scooting closer, greedy for every connection she could make before it was all over. “Please let me save you, at least.”

Delyth reached out to pull Alphonse the rest of the way into her embrace and wrapped her arms around the smaller woman. She was shaking, the leather of the wide sails of her wings trembling faintly behind her. “Alphonse… aderyn bak… what are you even saying? We aren’t out of hope yet, bykhan. I can get to the temple. Separate Enyo from her artifact. Find someone to bind her. We can still make it out of here. Together.”

Alphonse very nearly choked on the pet name. That anyone had ever thought her precious enough to give a special name…

Weakly she wrapped her arms about Delyth’s torso, turning to hide her face against her paramour’s neck. To hide in that velvet-soft darkness. One last time.

“I love you, Delyth,” Alphonse replied, afraid to agree they would make it out together. Afraid to make promises neither could keep. But…

To save Delyth, she would do what had to be done. She’d protect her friends and her home.

“I’m glad,” she murmured after a moment. “I’m glad you chose me.”

༄

Delyth pressed her cheek against the top of Alphonse’s tawny head and wept quietly, her tears disappearing into the healer’s thick hair.

“I love you, Alphonse.”

She no longer trusted her voice with anything else. Her throat was too raw, choked with pebbles.

But of course, she had chosen Alphonse over the Goddess. It hadn’t really felt like there was any choice to make at the end.

Chapter XXVIII

Eighth Moon, First Quarter: