“It’s okay,” Celeste said. “She has every reason to be cautious. No offense was taken.”
“May I see it?” Astra asked.
Cai handed the talisman to her. When she took it in her palm, she carefully turned it over several times and examined it from every angle.
“I know what this is,” Astra said. “This talisman has the ability to harness dark magic.”
Cai’s interest became suddenly heightened. “As in, my dark magic?”
“Yes. The ancient alchemists created talismans for all sorts of purposes, some small and some great. The talismans created to harness great magic were the most difficult to create and usually involved a great deal of sacrifice in their making. This particular talisman is one of those. Someone went through a great deal of suffering to make it.”
“How can you tell?”
“The stone in the middle, do you notice anything odd about it?” Astra asked him as she handed back the talisman to Cai.
He looked at it and tried to put his finger on what was so abnormal about it. “Yes, I noticed it when I first saw it, but I’m not sure what it is about the stone that gives me pause. There is something uneasy about it, and yet it is also something of great power I can tell.”
Astra nodded and the downward tilt of her chin carried a solemn heaviness upon it. “The stone is a petrified eye. A dragon’s eye to be exact.”
“A dragon’s eye?” One of the boys from within their pillow fort called out. “Cool!”
“No, it’s actually not at all cool,” Astra said as she reached for the talisman again. She held it in her hand and stroked it with her fingers as if it were a wounded bird. “As I said, there was a great sacrifice in the making of this talisman. It should be respected for it contains a great ability to help you control the dark magic that flows through you.”
“Do you mean that if I wear this thing around my neck, that I will be better able to control my power, to avoid the extreme outbursts that so often happen when I lose control?”
“Yes.”
“Why was I not told before that something like this exists?”
“I don’t think anyone knew there were any talismans of this nature left. They were all mostly destroyed by the old gods.”
“Tell me,” Astrid said to the oldest sister, who was still just quietly listening from her seat at the table. “Do you know where Gretel found this object?”
“No,” the girl replied. But Cai looked at her as she spoke, and he knew she was lying. He said nothing of it, and instead gave the girl the benefit of the doubt that she was not revealing the information right now for a good reason. He would ask her about it later, in private.
“Button has a talisman too,” the littlest girl said as she fell against Cai’s chest and squeezed her bear tightly, giving it a big sloppy kiss on top of its thread-bare head.
Celeste laughed, touched by how sweet and innocent the girl was.
There was, of course, no reason for anyone to believe that the small child was actually telling the truth.
“Alfred, away from the window!” the woman suddenly shouted as she kicked over her chair in an attempt to run across the room.
They turned to look quickly at where the boys had been playing and saw the woman’s boy standing in front of the closed-up window as if he were mesmerized. A wound out from the cracks beneath the windowsill like tentacles reaching for prey. The woman pulled her son and the other boy backward toward the table where the others were sitting as the dark sorcery crept into the house.
Cai got to his feet and swiftly handed the little girl and her bear over to Celeste. He went to stand in front of the widow and readied to use his magic to push the plague back out and away from the people sheltered inside the dwelling.
“Wait,” Astra said.
He turned to look at her, and she tossed the talisman to him.
“How do I use it?”
“Hold it to your chest and call upon your magic. It will come to you as always, but you will be in control.”
Cai did as she said and pressed the talisman to the center of his chest with his left hand. With his right arm, he extended his hand outward toward the window and called upon his dark magic to come. When he felt the pressure rise within him and saw the blue veins bulge in his arm, he wrapped his fingers around the tentacles of corrupted air and pushed them back out through the tiny cracks. Then he wiped his fingers along the wall, and where he touched, a liquid alloy melted over the open crevices and sealed the building airtight. Once the job was done, Cai’s power simply receded back within him, this time putting up no struggle. He thought he noticed the prickling feeling in his eyes lessen, but he wasn’t sure. Regardless, his dark magic obeyed him, and within moments, it was gone. He lifted the talisman and looked at the stone. Astra was right; there was great power inside of it.
CHAPTER FOUR
“I think that was the most excellent shower I have ever had,” Matt smiled as he laid beside Helia on the bed.
She rolled her eyes and tried to hide the pain that she had felt when she saw how badly Matt had been injured on Hel. “Please, I know it hurts. You’re so cut and bruised that the falling water must have felt like a shower of needles.”
“Eh, doesn’t matter,” he said. “You were underneath that falling water with me, so obviously, that’s all I was thinking about.”
She smiled and leaned forward to kiss him. Their bodies had both been put through such an ordeal. Their muscles were torn and weak. Their skin was cut and bruised, and their organs so tired from having pushed to keep them alive despite the dire circumstances they both endured. Even so, the want for each other rose within them.
“I was so worried you had been killed,” Helia whispered.
“As I was also worrying the same about you.” Matt grimaced. “I heard your screams,” he said. “I heard them from beneath the dirt, and I couldn’t dig out to get to you. I am so sorry, Helia. How can you ever trust me to protect you if I failed you like that?”
“I trust you with my life, and besides, I can—”
“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Matt interrupted. “You can protect yourself. That’s not the point.”
“What is the point then?”
“That I want to be what you need. There is no honor in my failing to protect you, not when there are so many gods here who would not fail you.”
“You are a god now, remember?” Helia ran her fingers through Matt’s dark hair and traced the stressed lines that were creasing in his forehead.
“Yes, I know, but—”
“You are what I need, and you have the one thing in the universe that I want from no one else, the one thing that no other man can give me.”
“What is it?”
Helia took her hand from his face and dragged it down his chest, along the muscles of his torso, and into his pants. She closed her fingers around his cock and immediately felt it surge with rushing blood. As fatigued as they both were, they did not feel tired or sore now. They felt only desire. Tremors of pleasure shot through his body as he convulsed in response to her touch. He pushed himself against her hand, and when she encircled her fingers around the tip of his delicate skin, he could stand it no longer.