The Demon Girl by Penelope Fletcher (each kindness read aloud TXT) 📕
The Lord Cleric punched her. Her head flew back and a spray of blood wet the dry mud and spattered over the leaves concealing me. Face wet with tears and whimpering, she tried to crawl toward the trees and dragged up clumps of earth with her fingernails.
"You must let me go." The words sounded muffled, like she had a mouthful of something foul.
The Lord Cleric executed a neat half turn and stamped on her thigh. There was a sharp snap, like I'd picked up a twig and yanked on the ends until the fibers split apart and cracked open. The fairy's leg buckled into an unnatural shape and she screamed. The sound was guttural, a direct translation of pain to sound. I slapped a hand over my mouth to smother my own shriek. Not because of the broken bone, I'd seen and heard tons of those, but because I'd caught the Lord Clerics profile and recognized the handsome face. The Lord Cleric dragged the fairy back into the centre of th
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- Author: Penelope Fletcher
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“Okay then, Breandan,” I said serenely but my heart thumped too hard and he coked his head as if he could hear it. I went on nonetheless, “What do you want? Why are you in the forest, alone?” The best defense is a good offence, and I could give as good as I got. “This is demon territory y’know. I can admit I was freaked and a bit off course.” He snorted a laugh and my temper bloated into righteous indignation. “It’s dark out here. I was running away from the Clerics because they had dogs.” My eyes darted to and from his now, uncomfortable with the lie. “And Idon’t like dogs. They bark. Loudly. And how do you know my name?”
There was a beat of silence as his eyes held mine. “You will have to get out of the habit of lying. You won’t be able to do that for much longer. And anyway, you don’t have to explain anything to me. I understand. I know you, and that is why we have come for you.”
“Are you from the slums?”
For a bad moment there I had assumed he was from the Sect. I would be in a world trouble if anyone saw me out here. I was beyond the Wall, which was forbidden, and I had seen I didn’t want to think about the horror I’d seen, and how I’d been foolish enough to get caught seeing the thing I saw. I had disobeyed a direct order from a Cleric, something I, a Disciple training to be a Cleric, should never do. No, I was not so sure anymore. If Breandan was from the Sect he’d have called to the Clerics, not hidden me from them. If he was a civilian, I didn’t see how he could come to be lost Outside. After all, you would have to get past the Wall to make it out here. There was not a human alive that didn’t understand the dangers of going over the Wall and into demon territory.
I felt stupid then. If there was not a human alive who didn’t know how dangerous it was Outside, what the hell was I doing Outside? I was going to have very serious words with myself.
“Coming for you is not something I chose, and believe me, if I could change it I would.” He paused and shook his head. “We are stuck. You belong to me,” he repeated. “And I to you. Now we have touched it is sealed. Alright?”
Sealed my ass. I decided then and there, I did not like this boy.
“You cannot appear next to me in the middle of demon territory and say such silly things,” I said, strained. “You’re beginning to scare me.”
That was another lie. I was beyond sacred now. My body couldn’t keep up a constant pitch of terror, so it had simply gone beyond terror and pressed a big reset button. I was too afraid outside to be anything but calm inside. Voice unattractively shrill, I lowered my clenched fist and took a deep breath. I moderated my voice.
“Let’s start with where you’re from?”
He sighed and scrubbed a hand over his head. “A place not too far from here. You are very lost.”
I shifted on the spot. “Are you transferring to this region to be a Disciple?” It happened. Rarely, for it was too hazardous to travel large distances through demon territory, and it was only attempted once a settlement had reached a population density that put all the humans there in danger. But it did happen. He shook his head. “Are you visiting Cleric at the Temple?”
I was reaching, but that could explain how he could be so comfortable in the forest. Clerics were not like regular people and often came from hardy families. The Clerics were the fastest, strongest most intelligent and intuitive of humankind. That is why they managed to keep us so safe.
His face darkened. “No.” The word was fired at me like a bullet.
Without preparing myself for the answer I asked with catty aplomb, “Are you a demon then?”
“Oh yes,” he said softly.
I waited for the fear and for the panic. I waited for the scream of terror to rip from my throat, but it never came. I waited for him to grab me, and murder me, and cut me into pieces and hide me under the small patch of wild flowers over there. But he said and did nothing. The clever thing would have been to get the hell out of there and start running again. But I didn’t want to, and I was curious as to who and what he was. I wanted to know why he was stood in front of me, and what he was after.
His gaze raked over me again and again, looking for something.
“If you didn’t think you were safe you would ask me to leave,” he said. “And, if you wanted me to leave, I would have done so already.”
I hated that his words made sense to me. “Stop trying to be clever, demon-boy.”
“I’m trying to help you, demon-girl.”
His words had the same impact as a blow to the head. I twitched liked he’d pinched me all over and staggered back.
I knew then something menacing was coming around the corner. I had to accept what he had told me next, right? Not to acknowledge the undeniable truth would be foolish. A tear slid down my face and landed with a soft plunk on my front. I had always been different, strange, but within the realms of human strange. Undoubtedly, I knew I’d gone beyond the boundaries.
He stepped closer, closer still, and our clothes rustled as they touched. Lowering his forehead to touch mine, warm fingers found my hands and coaxed them to entwine with his. I did not like the way my body was reacting to him. It overruled logic and it was beginning to upset me. Something was happening to me and I didn’t understand what. Worse, I couldn’t explain to myself why I was still there talking to him.
His finger tapped my chin up. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said it like that, but I was never good with words.” His voice was serious and complicated. His hand clasping my chin released the knot that had formed in my stomach, and with a sob, I dragged in a breath to control my tears. “Don’t do it,” he warned and used his hold on my chin to tug my face closer. “To cry over learning the truth is useless. It should empower you.” He stroked my cheek, wiping the tear there. “You’re sad,” he said brusquely and watched me fight to control myself, “That tells me I have not done this right. Maybe now is not the time to have this talk. I have responsibilities I cannot ignore simply because it will hurt not to be around you. I’ll explain better when I return.”
With no other option I nodded slowly. And then I knocked his hands off me. Whatever was so important he needed to leave me well, that was fine. “You don’t have to justify anything to me,” I said. “I don’t know you and I don’t expect to ever see you again.” He didn’t owe me a thing and I was happy he was leaving.
I could get back to being lost, and worried about being lost.
“So stubborn. I can admit not to see you will be hard. Can you not look outside yourself for a moment to do the same?”
The intention was to tear into him about his stupid, confusing statements that made no sense, but as my head turned his lips brushed along my chin. Gravity shifted and flowed into his eyes to ground me. The world darkened to nothing as they drew me deeper into their shaded depths. My lips parted in a sigh, and my hands swept around his waist as he pulled me closer. His hand tangled into my hair as my own moved over his lower back. I breathed in the heady smell of sunlight from his chest, and the scent became a taste on my tongue. Exploring the dip in his spine, I glided the pads of my fingers into the shallow grove flowing uninterrupted to his shoulder blades. My hands left his back then I hesitated in my exploration. The sensation that slicked over my palms was, odd. Hovering a few inches away from his skin the air felt warmer, thicker.
He jerked back and spun away to look into the forest. He peered around us, and the waves of hostility pulsing from his body cranked the tension in the air up. He stood, all wound up and tense, so I got all wound up and tense, and we fed of each other until I was panting. It was uncomfortably wearing for someone like me who was already beyond terrified.
Breandan said, “Rae, go back to the Temple now. That direction.” He pointed into the trees. When I didn’t move he twisted me around by the shoulder, and pushed me in the direction he’d pointed.
I kind of stumbled a few steps forward before I stopped, and realized I didn’t have to do what he said. “But, you can’t tell me I’m a demon then stop explaining.”
I wanted to stay, badly, but sense was telling me I had to leave like he said.
“You don’t have to argue with every word I say. We’ll come for you later. Go now.”
Returning his steady gaze with one of my own, I picked up on something I’d been unconsciously registering. There was a barrier between Breandan and I. Pulling my brows together, I tilted my head to watch him, watch me. Not a physical or tangible barrier; invisible. He shimmered and rippled into something different. A soft nimbus coated his entire being. Pearlescent it repelled my gaze.
“Stop hiding from me and I’ll go,” I said. “You want me to trust you and I can manage some trust since you haven’t killed me. But you have to trust me back. You say you’re a demon, well then what kind? Show me your true form.”
“I don’t have the time for this.”
“Come on, it can’t take that long. Show me then you can run off and do whatever you were doing before you just had to help me.”
He made a noise of frustration and pointed again. “Will you at least move in the right direction as we talk?”
I nodded curtly. I was persistent not stupid. If he was this antsy something bad must be coming this way.
“If we run I can get you back and maybe catch it up. Follow me,” he said.
And then he was gone. One moment he’s walking, and the next he’s a silver blur zipping through the trees ahead of me.
It was odd, because I knew it was demon fast, but I could track his movement with my gaze. Was it crazy that I wanted to follow him? Grudgingly, I admitted to myself I’d never wanted to follow someone so badly, and I was never one to shy away from a physical challenge. I’d run blindingly fast from the hounds, and the only difference between now and then was that I was scared. Huh, piece of cake. I had loads of scared stored up around the solar plexus area. Tapping into the well of energy inside me was too easy, and I burst forward.
Everything was so bright and lively, and it was nothing for me to flow across the land at
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