I had been expecting Ahnbe to show up eventually. Even had her sister and rival not been setting an endless parade of shenanigans into motion since their titanic battle over the local Dungeon Moon, Ahnbe had defended me that day. She would want recompense. Unfortunately for me, those shenanigans were most certainly afoot, and there was no way my self-declared matron would be anything less than pissed on learning of my fumbling attempts at steering clear of them.

  On an unrelated note, I was going to have to do something about that stupid rabbit. And soon. It had not worked as a deterrent at all, and I knew the little bastard had been spying on me.

  “Ahnbe,” I began, quickly holding up my hands in surrender, “before you get upset, I can—”

  What? Explain? I was only a passenger on this wild ride. There was no way I could account for everything going on.

  “I was only trying to keep the peace,” I tried instead.

  “KEEP THE PEACE, HE SAYS,” the voice boomed again, sarcastic for all its volume.

  Less than a second later, an enormous form sailed overhead to thump to the path before us, setting my Dolilim scurrying into a medley of protective stances. Still, through the forest of feminine legs, ready squats, and lashing tails, I was able to get a good look at my official benefactor and unofficial antagonist.

  It seemed Ahnbe had emerged from the body of some sort of monstrous tiger today—or the head of it. Her upper torso was jutting out from where the creature’s neck used to be, giving her the overall appearance of a feline centaur or a wingless sphinx.

  From the waist down, the monster was intact, but instead of the snowy coat you might expect of a beast native to such extreme altitudes, its pelt was a burnt orange with red stripes running vertically down its sides. Oddly, the fur of the red bits was significantly longer than the rest, giving it the shaggy appearance of a bush… or the grasses of the plains below, now that I thought about it.

  Meanwhile, the goddess bits were just as disturbingly gorgeous as ever, equal to her sister in every way. Every sweep, every curve, every finely wrought globe of milky delight, a feast for the eyes and a trap for the soul. But I knew better than to stare at any of that for long and instead kept my eyes firmly glued to her face.

  Her quartet of horns framed her features perfectly, one set curving back behind her pointed ears and down before sweeping forward and over her shoulders, while the other pair extended straight out to either side, eventually succumbing to a gentle curve at their tips. In contrast, her hair was nothing like symmetrical. It was a riot of colors and shifted about constantly, as though her head had been adorned by a bed of snakes. Then there were her eyes, each glowing and slitted like a cat. One was green. The other red.

  The sight of them instantly brought the Demon Queen’s most recent manifestation to mind, and how only her normally hidden eye was her own midnight black. But that was not the only similarity. Now that I knew to look for it, it was obvious the two sisters were related, so nearly twins you would be hard-pressed to tell them apart were it not for the obvious secondary features. But while Xhinn’s presence pressed on me from above like some malignant gravity well, Ahnbe’s was more akin to that primal fear that fills you when an uncaged predator is stalking about. Standing before her was no issue. Keeping yourself from running in a blind panic very much was.

  Thankfully for my self-esteem, my legs were not working.

  “KEEP THE PEACE?” she boomed again. “WAS IT FEAR THAT PROMPTED YOU TO LAY HANDS ON MY SISTER’S TIT? DID SHE THREATEN YOU? FORCE YOU?”

  “I mean… k-kind of,” I tried, but my voice was so tiny by comparison that it was a little like having a conversation next to a jet engine. “I only meant to touch her shoulder.”

  There was no need to mention how much I had enjoyed the experience. Or how my manhood had reacted… the traitor.

  “THAT IS NOT THE TALE I WAS TOLD,” she thundered. “NOR THE SCENT WAVED ‘NEATH MINE NOSE! SHE HAD PROOF, WRETCH! PROOF OF YOUR TREACHERY.”

  “Y-you can’t b-blame Dearest for th-th-that,” Arx stammered through her constant need to hiss. Ahnbe’s presence had both of my girls decidedly on the other side of the fight-or-flight equation, so primed for action, I could almost see the hair rising from their necks. “She… Sh-sh-she seduced—”

  “SILENCE! KNOW YOUR PLACE, SERVANT.”

  “She’s right, though,” Xyn chimed in—and almost casually, she was so calm. My pounding heart envied her. “Donum is not strong enough to resist Mother’s charms. Nor your own, should it come to it. You know this perfectly well.”

  Ahnbe’s eyes turned cold, and a growl rumbled from her throat so low and menacing it made those of my Dolilim sound like feral chihuahuas by comparison.

  “YOU…”

  Xyn waved. “Hello, Auntie. You’re looking… well-fed.”

  My eyes popped wide in complete shock. It was one thing to be casual in the face of certain doom, but to outright insult a goddess? To her face?!

  Ahnbe turned fully toward the unrepentant lilim, seeming to grow larger with each passing second.

  “HOW… DARE—”

  And that was all she said. She just stopped, mid-sentence.

  For a moment, all was still.

  A look of confusion had crossed over the Shepherdess’s face. Then, as though remembering something, she chuckled, and the near overwhelming rage that had filled the vision of terror before us drained away, releasing the stranglehold on my lungs in its wake.

  “Oh, you mean this,” she continued in a subdued-for-her tone. It was still loud, but not quite to the extent that I feared for my eardrums with her every exhale. With a casual gesture, she held her hand outstretched.

  There was a person in it.

  I… have no idea how I could have missed that. I guess being on the verge of wetting yourself can give you tunnel vision.

  “Yes, I picked it up down in the valley. There was an entire brigade of them, marching through my wilderness without a fear in the world. Ha! No longer.”

  I glanced up from the struggling armored figure. A brigade? “You killed them?”

  “Not personally,” Ahnbe returned, already bored with the topic. “But you cannot expect to trespass through plainstalker territory without consequence.”

  “Was that what we scented?” Xyn chuckled, from all appearances, completely unperturbed. “You hear that, Arx? You were right to lead us around.”

  Arx had to moisten her lips before she could speak. “Right. Yeah. Of course, I was.” Then, much more quietly, she added, “By the fucking ‘stits…”

  “Uh…” Shit. Now what?

  I took a moment to carefully observe the goddess’s captive. By their ears, I pegged them as laoi, and despite the shredded condition of their tabard, I recognized the colors as belonging to the local constabulary. But their face was obscured both by distance and the pot helm over their head.

  Plainstalkers… a brigade… and traveling through territory we avoided.

  I did not need to look again at the goddess’s lower half to put together what must have happened. Whoever this was, they had to have been a member of the posse that was chasing us—or had been chasing us; if there were any survivors, I doubted they would be of a mind to continue—who had been beset upon by a horde of wild beasts. And then the Shepherdess had popped out to take one of them captive.

  Lucky me.

  That the goddess had intervened was without question, but the why was throwing me. Nothing about her mood was shouting helpful, and even had she been so inclined, this should have been mortal business, not something a goddess would have bothered herself with.

  “And… what were you planning to do with this person?” I probed.

  Ahnbe eyed me for a moment before bringing the still-kicking soldier to her nose. “I haven’t decided yet. This one smells of you, though.” Her tongue parted her lips, and she began to lap at the poor sod’s head like a mother at her kitten. “I thought I might keep it a while. Maybe as a snack for later?”

  The chorus of nervous swallowing around me was almost loud enough to drown out the sobs of fear from the captive soldier, whom from the tone I now recognized as female.

  “Lord Donum? Lord Donum, is that you? Please. Please help m—ut!”

  “Quiet, duckling,” Ahnbe admonished, practically cooing as she again relaxed her grip. “Your lord cannot help you against me. Now can he?”

  Her lord? Me? There was only one person who ever called me a lord, and she was safely ensconced within my own skull. There was something fishy going on here.

  Hmm… she said something about a smell. Yeah, smells like a plot.

  Steeling my nerves, I manfully dragged myself forward. “Alright, Ahnbe. Drop the act. What are you up to?”

  Ahnbe settled onto her haunches with all the poise of a lioness post-meal, content to toy with the terrified calf of the mother she had just devoured. “What act? This one belongs to you, does it not? Do its cries not call to you? Do you not wish for its safety?”

  “Lord Donum, please!” the woman tried again, then for some reason she turned to Jax. “Mistress! I beg of you!”

  I glanced at my First in surprise, but Jax looked completely flabbergasted—when her near-constant snarling allowed for it, anyway.

  “QUIET, I SAID! Balls…” Ahnbe thumped the woman with an enormous finger, causing a loud twang to resound from her helm. Still grumbling, the goddess frowned down at me. “What’s wrong with your legs?”

  My mouth worked for a moment, trying to sort out which part of this fucked up scenario to address first. I decided on the simplest. “If you must know, that ‘treachery’ you mentioned ended up knocking me into a week-long coma.”

  “HA! SERVES YOU RIGHT!” The shockwave of her voice prompted a small shower of pebbles to rain on us from above, and for some moments, I feared an avalanche. Thankfully, it was too early in the season for that. It was cold enough, but the snow had yet to accumulate that far. By the time I turned to the Mother of Monsters again, her gleeful expression had mellowed into one confusion. “But what does that have to do with your legs?”

  “Uh… I didn’t move for a week straight?” I explained, but on seeing the Shepherdess’s blank expression, I elaborated, “So now my legs are all messed up from not using them.”

  “That can happen?!” She was halfway to her feet before she remembered herself and plopped back to the ground. “Why has the Fifth not fixed you? She knows of your condition, yes?”

  “She knows,” Xyn replied pointedly. “That was the bargain he and Mother struck. In exchange for his life, she now looks upon him freely—through me. She sees what I see. And hears what I hear.”

  Ahnbe seemed not to care or completely missed the veiled threat. “Then why has she not fixed him? It was her own doing.”

  Xyn shrugged from her perch against the rock face. “I am not the keeper of her secrets. Perhaps it suits her purposes to leave him this way. But then… now that you’re here…”

  The goddess sniffed before turning away. “And why should I? What bargains have we struck? What obeisances has he observed? Hmm? I am only his Matron. I have only ever fought at his behest.”

  “Ye only ever raped him,” Jax finally managed.

  “SILENCE!” Ahnbe roared. Her lips curled over her teeth, and unlike the Dolilim, hers were only fangs. “Try my patience a third time, and I will find a river to toss all of you into. I doubt you will enjoy the plunge from here.”

  She took a moment to let her words sink in before continuing, “Do not forget, he was the one who first spoke words of seduction. He was the one who first sang of my beauty, who laid me to the sand with sweet promises upon his lips.” I could have imagined it, but I would have sworn her eyes had the sheen of unshed tears. “He was the one who first betrayed with his… bargains! Not I.”

  “He did none of those things, thief.”

  I glanced at Xyn quickly. She had not moved, but I could see the hostility radiating from her.

  “You speak of dreams. I suspect we both know what that means for him.”

  The corners of Ahnbe’s mouth tightened. “Perhaps. Yet he has never failed to beguile upon my visits. Can your mistress say the same?”

  “Like I said.” Xyn smiled knowingly. “I am not the keeper of Mother’s secrets.”

  …beg pardon?

  But before I could address that little implication, I noticed the Shepherdess’s lips again curling over her fangs, so I was quick to wave my hands in the air. I needed to take this kettle of violence off the boil before it erupted.

  “Okay! Okay… Look, Ahnbe, I think we can both agree that I am not in any position to refuse you or your sister whatever you want, so there’s no use getting upset with me for going along with your whims. What am I supposed to do? Call on you to fight every time she shows up? Piss her off even more? I was in the middle of town with hundreds of innocent people around! So can we please stop pretending I had any choice in this?”

  “But… but…”

  Emotions ran rampant across the goddess’s face. But then she seemed to notice the many stares fixed on her, and she stiffened. “Everyone look away! Immediately! I would speak with my Chosen alone.”

  I blinked at her. “Them turning away isn’t going to—”

  Ahnbe’s eyes flashed, prompting me to clear the butterflies she had just shoved down my throat.

  “I’m sure it’s fine.” Jax and I exchanged glances, and I cast a significant look toward the yet-unconscious Lynnria. Thankfully, Jax took my meaning, and hurriedly dragged the girl by a heel to safety. Not that I expected the act to do any good should things turn south, but with the girl out of sight, there was one less target for Ahnbe to vent her rage on. “This is a private conversation, everyone. Do as she asks.”

  Arx looked from me to the goddess in confusion, apparently still a page behind. “But… we can still hear—”

  “No, we can’t,” Xyn said, then quickly hooked an arm beneath the other woman’s, whipping her about. Faintly, I heard her whisper, “I’ll explain later.”

  With a nod, I turned back to the goddess, where my gaze briefly settled on her hapless prisoner. She was still conscious and staring between the both of us, wild-eyed, but she had not uttered a peep since Ahnbe had thumped her head. That seemed to be all the Shepherdess needed to consider her a non-entity. The guardswoman was still alive, though, so I decided it was in her best interest to follow suit.

  “Well?”

  “Well, nothing! This isn’t fair, Donum,” she hissed, every bit as loud as my normal speaking voice. “I know your dreams are… unusual, but you can’t go around whispering sweet nothings into a lady’s ear, then at the next opportunity, leap into bed with her sister.”

  “Again, she didn’t give me a choice.” Neither of you did.

  “You touched her! I saw it. You gave her pleasure! Maybe she forced you for a few things, but that was all you.” Her tiger parts shifted uncomfortably, as though debating whether to pounce. “You’ve never touched me like that.”

  I blinked with surprise. “I… I wasn’t as strong the last time we met. Is that really all you wanted?”

  “Of course not!” she snarled. “I’ve showered you with gifts. I’ve looked after you! You never even thanked me for saving your life!”

  “I’ve been a tad busy!” I argued before I could think better of it. So I took a breath to calm myself. “But you’re right. I haven’t. Thank you. Seriously. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. It can’t have been easy coming to blows with Xhinn.”

  Her cheeks dimpled, and she huffed, suddenly embarrassed. “Oh, what’s a little rough-and-tumble between sisters? We kick over the traces like that all the time.”

  I blinked again. The hell?

  One second she was a terrifying rage-machine, and the next, she was a blushing maiden. It was… kind of cute.

  Kind of.

  “And… thanks for taking care of that posse, I guess. You didn’t need to do that.”

  She looked at me. “What posse?”

  “What… what posse? Y-you didn’t…?” I met the captive woman’s eyes just long enough to catch her furiously shaking her head. “Never mind. So you wanted me to touch you?” My hand clenched reflexively, cramping with the memory of the last time. “That’s… that’s not so hard. I could… I could even try to give you a hug—”

  The rest of that sentence turned into a strangled gurgle. I could not tell you what I had meant to say, though. I must have contemplated what it would actually be like to hold a twenty-foot tiger centaur with goddess parts, and my brain shorted out on me.

  “No…” She shifted again, unaware. “Well, yes, I would like that… if you think you’re ready. But I want something more lasting. More permanent. It isn’t fair that Xhinn gets to watch you and hear you whenever she likes, while I have to resort to spies. Your scent doesn’t come through at all!”

  She brought the terrified woman to her nose again and inhaled as though she were a fragrant flower.

  By that point, curiosity was burning in my gut like a furnace, but I held my peace. The less Ahnbe thought about the woman, the more likely she would remain unharmed. Not that I should have cared much about someone who had, not so long ago, been chasing us with the intent of stringing us all up, but no one deserved to be eaten alive.

  “Uh… well, Xyn is Xhinn’s servant, so what’s stopping you from sending one of your own—”

  “Donum! Have you gone mad?!” Mia, who had remained wisely silent up to that point, practically shouted into my ear. “Do not give her ideas!”

  I winced, immediately recognizing my own folly. I already had four women clamoring for my constant attention, another one incorporeal and awaiting a body, and two more still who would likely have joined them—or more likely, killed them all and inserted themselves into the vacancies—had the slightest intimacy not resulted in severe repercussions for my mental health. Adding another to the mix was the absolute last thing I needed.

  But it was too late.

  Ahnbe narrowed her eyes. “What are you on about? What ideas? Are you proposing I send a servant to follow you about?” She harrumphed. “Preposterous. Insulting as the description might be, I hold no illusions as to my own nature. I am the Mother of Monsters. The Destroyer of Kind. What servant of mine could tempt you?”

  The guardswoman gasped on hearing that, and her strangled sobs began anew. Apparently, she had yet to realize, to that point, just who it was that had captured her, and now her imagination was filling with all sorts of terrible fates. Just getting eaten had been plenty bad enough.

  “Uhm…” Shit, shit, shit… think, Donum. Think! “No, you’re right. Of course, you’re right. I—I haven’t even touched Xyn,” I forced out a dismissive chuckle, “so there’s no way—”

  “You haven’t?” Ahnbe leaned forward, suddenly interested. “Why not?”

  If my legs had been working, her focused attention would have knocked me back more than a few steps. “Well… that’s…”

  She sniffed at me curiously. “You’re not even lying! How delightful. For one of her prowess to fail at your seduction?”

  She rose slightly, taking the wind upon her tongue. “I can taste her desire, too. Why, she’s almost fainting with it!”

  My eyebrows rose. She is?

  Ahnbe hummed thoughtfully. “What…? No… no, I know her schemes better than that. Perhaps she imagines playing the hero, stealing you away from me… and all these others? Yes, that would be just like her. She would want to keep you all to herself.”

  Xyn whirled. “Auntie! I wouldn’t dare.”

  “Not while I’m looking, you wouldn’t.” Ahnbe wagged her finger. “Don’t think I’ve forgotten that egg you absconded with.”

  Xyn rolled her eyes. “How could I forget? You’ve only reminded me of it every time we’ve met for the last two-hundred years! And it was Nyx’s idea!”

  “You little…” A low growl rumbled out of Ahnbe’s chest. “I spent decades crafting that child, and you wasted it on a devil’s deal with that idiot hunter!”

  “Oh, come on! He had a Tamer Class. It was the perfect bait.”

  “He slaughtered it after less than a month!”

  “Did he?” Xyn shrugged. “Well, don’t blame me. I wasn’t the one who designed it to grow that fast.”

  “YOU… I…” Ahnbe curled her finger into her fist until it shook. “You should not be listening! Did I not say this was private?!”

  Xyn sighed, but she turned away just the same. “Yes, Auntie.”

  “Now then…” Ahnbe grumped. “What were we talking about?”

  “I don’t remember,” I lied quickly.

  “Oh, yes! A tempting servant.” She tapped her fingers together gleefully. “What could I possibly make that you could not resist? Especially if that creature has failed to beguile you. Why, I wouldn’t even know where to begin!”

  Oh… she beguiles me plenty. I blinked. Hold on. Make?

  But Ahnbe was not focused on that part of the conversation.

  “Does she now?” she whispered, this time actually remembering to keep her voice low. “And yet you resist her still. Why?”

  My lips twitched. “Would you believe… because I didn’t want to upset you?”

  Her reply was instant.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  “No.”

  I sighed. Do I seriously have to get into this? Now?

  I lowered my own voice, despite knowing it to be pointless. All of my girls had exceptional hearing, and would be highly motivated to listen in on this conversation. “It’s complicated, okay? The others haven’t accepted her yet. They don’t like that she has mixed loyalties. I barely know her. And…”

  …and we haven’t had any time alone.

  “I see…” Ahnbe grinned. “Then perhaps my task is not so hopeless as I believed. Still… a child of beguilement? Not my usual fare.”

  I clapped my hands beneath my nose, not at all liking where this was going. I well remembered the last time Ahnbe had gotten creative. “Please… please, don’t think you need to go out of your way on my account.”

  She only chuckled. “There’s no use in pretending these social niceties, little thing. I can smell your discomfort. But your choices are two: either you grant my representative a place in your coterie… or,” she pointed toward Xyn’s turned back, “I rip that one to shreds.”

  I suspected we both knew that tearing a lilim apart was more formality than finality—I was confident I could even find Xyn another body—but there was no need to bring that up. It would only annoy the goddess, and with all the things I had learned about my nighttime situation, I really did not need that kind of mental image knocking around my subconscious.

  “What did you have in mind?”

  “Nothing yet,” she returned frankly. “My children are meant to tear and rend. To poison and consume. They are the trials the kinds must overcome. Why would such a creature need to be seductive? What would it even look like?”

  I only just caught Jax muttering something behind me. The first was lost to the wind, but she ended with, “…fucking mental?”

  “Guh!” Dammit, woman! I only just calmed her down!

  She was right, though. Lilim were pretty much the definition of a seductive monster. So pretending I had not heard, I hiked a thumb over my shoulder. “Something like them, I guess.”

  Thankfully, Ahnbe had not so much as twitched at Jax’s outburst. It seemed she was content to continue the charade of our deaf audience, provided they kept their backs turned.

  This was so weird. Was this how she normally treated her servants? Had this been what was going on during our last conversation? I remembered her speaking to them once or twice back then, but had there been an array of them standing around, pretending they could not hear? For the whole thing?!

  Watcher, blind me. I was so embarrassed, I could die.

  Ahnbe only looked at me. “Lilim are nothing like my children. They are temptresses and deceivers. Tricksters not destroyers.”

  I could have argued otherwise, but I let it go. I knew at least some of my lilim were sensitive about that kind of thing. Those claws were sharp, and accidents had happened.

  But lilim were hardly unique when it came to seductive monsters.

  “Well, as long as she has all the right—”

  My mouth snapped shut. What am I doing?! Are you actually entertaining this idea? Don’t help her, moron!

  Unfortunately, the damage was done. My moment of clarity had done nothing to halt the accompanying onslaught of mental images.

  I make no apologies. The internet was a thing, and I had been a bachelor for a long time. I was bound to eventually run across… certain image sites.

  And I had no idea who Mercy Thompson was. I swear!

  Ahnbe had the audacity to gasp.

  “What a horrifying concept! Why the very idea…” She grinned wolfishly. “I love it!”

  “Aw, man…” I groaned.

  “Don’t fret, little thing. I don’t care at all for loyalty… as long as I get to watch. And smell. And… and feel, maybe.” She bit her lip and averted her eyes. “So I won’t make the same mistake as my sister. This shall be a servant for you, and you alone!”

  “That is… so not what I’m worried about.”

  “Hush.”

  Turning, she pulled the captive woman close and began to look her over, poking and prodding as though to memorize her every feature. And soon enough, she took to yanking at stray bits of chain mail, ripping her armor away like it was rotted paper.

  “Lord Donum?” the woman called, understandably concerned. I say that to underplay her actual expression, though. The guard was so visibly panicked, she was in a full-on flop sweat. “What is she doing?”

  “That’s an excellent question. Ahnbe, whatever you have in mind, surely you don’t need her for this?”

  “Easier this way,” the goddess murmured absently.

  Easier? What’s easier? My eyes widened with horror as my imagination filled in the blanks. Which was not such a leap; my imagination had been the thing to set Ahnbe on this path.

  She wanted something to beguile me… I was attracted to women… Easier to start with a woman! Oh, fuck!

  Looking around quickly, I spotted the little rabbit. “Why d-don’t you use—”

  “I could eat her, if you’d rather.”

  The rest of my sentence died in my throat.

  Whatever events the next few minutes might hold, whatever fate Ahnbe intended for my former pursuer, death was not in the cards. Death might be preferable, but that was not my call. So I glanced at the woman for help. I could not say whether she had reached the same conclusions I had, but she was shaking her head so vigorously, I feared she might pull something. Clearly, winding up as brunch for the Shepherdess of the Creatures of the Dark was the last thing she wanted.

  Nnn… fuck! Double fuck! I gritted my teeth. Please, don’t let me regret this…

  I was absolutely going to regret this.

  “Never mind. Continue.”

  The Shepherdess only barely acknowledged that I had said something, so engrossed was she with her study. After a scarce few moments, she had the woman completely stripped, helm and all.

  The guardswoman was well built and quite muscular, as you might expect from someone in her profession, but despite her unfortunate and helpless situation, I will not do her the disservice of proclaiming her beauty. That was not a thing she had pursued for herself. I doubted she had invested even a single point into Charisma. Not that I blamed her. Few understood, as I did, how crucial the stat could be when it came to manipulating the Words, but then, few realized that was even possible. I just wished I could manipulate other things—these goddesses, for one.

  Naturally, the woman had sharp, pointed ears and, like everyone else of this world, was hairless from the neck down. Meanwhile, the mop formerly concealed by her helm was a near florescent sea-green and had been cropped for practicality on a plane with her chin. Her eyes were the only part of her that seemed even vaguely familiar.

  Okay, I must have seen this person somewhere before. Back at the inn, maybe? The tournament?

  Satisfied, Ahnbe flipped the woman around, then began to gently scratch a series of Runes into her back. And over the guard’s ineffectual protests, I could just make out the goddess muttering something under her breath.

  I was entranced. Though I could make out not a single Word, I could see them taking shape, see them carving themselves into the woman’s flesh. Golden lines flared, only to dull into near inscrutability the moment their completed Rune was formed. Lines and complex swirls grouped bunches of them together. Ideas were joined one to the next in a mesmerizing tapestry, more art than arithmetic. And all so fast!

  Then she was done.

  Ahnbe held her work at arm’s length for some seconds, surveying the now-completed whole with a critical eye. Then, with a nod, she Spoke some phrase of command and snapped her fingers.

  You might have thought that snap had been a lash for how the woman reacted. Her back arched, her muscles seizing out of her control while the Engraving took hold. And when she finally found her breath, it was only to scream. Then scream again… and again… and again, each new gulp of air reserved for a fresh cry of anguish.

  None of which affected Ahnbe in the slightest. She only waited, impassive as stone.

  I could do nothing. There were no spells I could cast. No arguments came to mind that might persuade her. I could not even stand. I was helpless. Helpless but to sit there and watch.

  I hated it. I hated her. I hated my own weakness. I hated this casual disregard for life. Why could these Watcher-be-damned goddesses not leave me alone?! What was so special about me that compelled them to torment me like this? Or worse, torment others in their mad schemes to get to me. Because my dreams were kind of neat?!

  Or was this just another Tuesday for this… evil… heinous…

  Suddenly, Jax was there. She spoke not a word. Her eyes were not even open. She merely wrapped her arms about me, just another invisible servant there to comfort her master. It was enough.

  Ahnbe was watching us from the corner of her eye, but she only tutted.

  “Enough, duckling. We tire of your caterwauling. Cough it up, and the spell will be done.” Almost affectionately, she began to pat at the woman’s back. “There it comes…”

  Mid-scream, a shiver caught hold of the woman’s shoulders, and she made a sound like she was about to be sick. A moment passed while she struggled to force air one way or the other, but she seemed caught on the precipice of something. Then a spot of light emerged from her gaping lips. Another shiver contorted her neck back.

  And she spat out a small orb.

  I barely got a look at the thing on its journey down. It was about the size of a grape and glowed with the color I was quickly coming to associate with magic. But the moment it hit the ground, it shattered, crumbling to dust—just another speck of dirt on a mountain path.

  Ahnbe smiled. “There. You see? All better.”

  If the woman had heard, I do not know. Whatever life she had left in her seemed spent, and not a dozen wheezing pants later, her consciousness fled.

  The goddess hummed a pleased little tune, turned, then dumped the woman to the ground before me.

  “Here you are. Take good care of this one. I look forward to seeing how this experiment plays out.”

  I just stared at the steaming, sweat-drenched pile of womanhood, my jaw working from side to side angrily. She seemed… intact. No blood anywhere. Limbs, all in the right place. No signs of fur suddenly sprouting. Whatever Ahnbe had done, it was either subtle enough not to be immediately noticeable, or it had yet to fully take hold—rather like what happened when I made a new Dolilim, come to think of it. Just without all that pesky consent or good intentions.

  But I could feel the calm radiating from Jax’s embrace, and I patted her arm to assure her I understood. No matter how much I wanted to rail and scream, losing my head over this would avail me nothing.

  “Ahnbe,” I began instead, keeping my voice as diplomatically neutral as I could. “I didn’t like that.”

  “I noticed.”

  She did not smile when she said those words. Her face showed no twisted enjoyment at the nightmare she had just perpetuated. It was just a simple statement of fact.

  Her hand drifted down to her flank, where she caressed the seam where beast gave way to goddess.

  “You are a strange little thing,” she murmured. “Difficult to understand. Did you not know she was already dead? Her fate was sealed. Her mission had failed, her time, over. But for my Chosen’s mark was I summoned.”

  A melancholy sort of look crossed her face, as though in remembrance of long years passed. Maybe it was the constant soothing presence of my Dolilim at my back, lending me peace of mind, but I had a rare moment of empathy. I wondered what it might be like to exist with such a terrible purpose. To be hated by all. To be feared so totally that no one dared even speak your name, and for so long that it had passed from living memory.

  Was it any wonder that someone like that might succumb to thoughtless cruelty? I was probably the first mortal to speak to her in centuries, never mind touch.

  But Ahnbe’s expression brightened quickly.

  “Ah! That reminds me.” She turned a hand over to reveal a small red gemstone. “Here. This is for you.”

  So saying, she tossed it to me, forcing me to fumble to catch it.

  I glared at the thing. It was about the size of my thumbnail and glittered pleasantly in the sunlight, but there was nothing particularly unusual about it. Just another gemstone. Still, I was not about to take any gifts from this creature at face value.

  “What is it?”

  “No idea. The Fifth gave it to me after she finished gloating over her… prize.” Her expression hardened for a moment, but she took a breath and let it pass. “She said it was the last five minutes of a man’s life and that you would want it. One of her riddles, I assume.”

  My brow furrowed as I considered what that could mean, but before I could sink too deeply into the matter, Ahnbe spoke again.

  “Well?”

  My head jerked up. “Well, what?”

  “‘Well, what?’ he says.” The Shepherdess turned her eyes to the heavens. “Balls, man. Have I not graced you with favor this day? Forgiven your trespasses? A new servant? My adoring—” She stopped abruptly and resettled herself. “What do I get in return?”

  My jaw worked in disbelief. “You just tortured this woman right in front of me, and now you—”

  Jax squeezed again, stopping me before I could say anything foolish.

  “It was your own idea,” Ahnbe returned, either not noticing or not caring. “I thought you would… Well, I’ll admit, I may have been indelicate, but did you think I could create something like that with an intact—no! No, I’ll not explain myself. What’s done is done, and I want my kiss!”

  “It was not my idea! It was just a random thought that popped into my… i-into my…” A desert wind seemed to have sucked what moisture remained in my mouth away. Or maybe it was just her demand finally registering. “Excuse me?”

  “Kiss me, Donum. On the lips. Now. Ooh! And with your little… pleasure trick on top. My sister cannot claim that prize.” She began to wriggle with excitement.

  “P-p-prize?” I stammered weakly.

  I thought I had prepared myself for the possibility of touching this being—she had talked of fairness, so it seemed inevitable—but to kiss her? She might as well suggest I kiss a grizzly bear!

  A thirty-foot tall… mountainous razor-ball… of… of…

  Good grief, look at how her breasts are heaving, just thinking about it!

  Goddesses are complicated, okay? One second, you hate them. The next, your hormones are battering your better judgment into submission. And all the while, you’re just trying to get through the encounter without pissing them off or giving them too many ideas.

  “You’ll hurt him!” Xyn yelled suddenly.

  “PRIVATE. CONVERSATION,” Ahnbe barked. “And I will not!”

  “The Demon Queen did,” Jax shouted into my shoulder, not daring to show her eyes. “Touched her ownself to his tongue and left him convulsing on the floor!”

  “I would fix him after.” Ahnbe began to wring her hands. “Except… then he wouldn’t remember it. Balls, this isn’t fair!”

  And just like that, I had a brilliant idea.

  “Silver!”

  “What?”

  “What?” Xyn echoed.

  “I need silver before I can k-k—” Mercy’s tits! Come on, Donum. Spit it out. “Before I can k-kiss you.”

  Ahnbe’s mouth dropped open. “First of all, my tits. Not Maeve’s. And are you suggesting I pay you?”

  Oh. I guess that did sound kind of bad… and stop listening to my thoughts!

  “No, no, no. I need silver to convert into Life Energy,” I explained. But then the lunacy I was suggesting began to settle in, and what little moisture I had worked into my mouth fled. “Maybe a lot of Life Energy. It’s an ability I picked up for dealing with your, uh… with Xhinn. I can bolster my Wisdom with it. Maybe enough t-to try… that. A-and remember it after. Without, uh… without hurting myself.”

  “Silver to Life Energy?” Ahnbe glanced at Xyn. “I see. So she taught you that trick. Alright, then. Let’s see this new toy of yours. Impress me.”

  “Well, I, uh… I—I don’t have any s-silver.”

  I stared up at the goddess as placidly as I was able, trying with everything I had not to let any other stray thoughts filter through. I might have had ulterior motives, but I was telling the truth. Xhinn had taught me well.

  She narrowed her eyes. “And why not? You were in the Dungeon a week ago. You can’t have spent it all so quickly.”

  Fortunately, I had a ready explanation for that, and let me tell you, I had never been so grateful for bureaucracy in all my life.

  “I was accosted recently by a Novitiate of the Lawmaiden. There was a fine involved.” I shrugged with all the innocence I could muster. “Totally cleaned me out.”

  The goddess stared at me.

  “Ginna made you pay a fine?” Ahnbe climbed to her feet, a snarl slowly contorting her lips. “My Sister… Ginna… made my Chosen… pay a fine? GINNA ROBBED ME OF MY KISS?!”

  Okay, maybe I had not thought this out to its logical conclusion.

  “Yes?” I squeaked.

  “I’LL KILL HER!” she thundered. “NO ONE STANDS BETWEEN ME AND MY CHOSEN! NO ONE!”

  And then Arx just had to open her mouth.

  “It’s just a silver piece. What’s the big deal?”

  “YOU DON’T KNOW HER!” Ahnbe wailed. “THAT DEVIOUS CUNT WILL STOP AT NOTHING TO… to—”

  She stopped.

  “Actually, you’re right. One silver piece is not such a great hurdle.” She chuckled, turning to one side. “Thank you, little minion… thing. I was about to do something rash. After all, girl, you don’t know her intentions…this isn’t necessarily a plot. No, you need to get the scent of her before you do something violent again. Hmm…” Her muttering turned incomprehensible for a moment. “Ah! But this is a problem I can account for. The next time we meet, you shall not be so impoverished.”

  Quick as a snake, she snatched up the unconscious guardswoman and began scribbling on her once more.

  “Uh… wait? Wait!” I waved my hands in the air to stop her. “What are you doing? No adding things!”

  “Hush, Sweet. She’ll not feel a thing this time. Just personalizing the design a bit. Your imagination is a fertile landscape, but too random for these finer touches. What possible reason could there be for such beautiful creatures to have an allergy to silver?” She tutted. “Ridiculous! But with the addition of just a few Words, we have a convenient means of solving your issue…”

  You might think dropping a nugget like that might have helped narrow things down, but you would be wrong. I could think of at least a dozen monsters with exactly that allergy just off the top of my head. None of them were good.

  “It’s to give them a weakness!”

  “Do not worry yourself, little thing. I’ve followed the rules. Her strength will be limited by your own…” She muttered absently. “And there. Done!”

  She snapped her fingers, there was a brief flash, and that was that. No horrible screaming or anything. The woman did not even wake up. A moment later, Ahnbe returned her, from all appearances, no worse for wear.

  She was still sticky with sweat, though. And maybe a tad pale?

  That can’t be natural, can it? She was buck naked, and we were on a snowy mountaintop. My intuition said no.

  I took a breath. “Ahnbe—”

  “No, don’t thank me. That was purely for selfish reasons.” She actually squealed a bit—though with her size, it was closer to whale-song. “I can’t wait until we meet again! An actual kiss with my Chosen!”

  Her grin froze, and she inhaled sharply. It seemed she had remembered we were not alone.

  For once.

  “NONE OF YOU HEARD THAT!”

  The girls were quick to agree.

  “Yes, Auntie.”

  “No, of course.”

  “…ain’t heard nothing.”

  She nodded. “Good. Then, I must go. Things to do. Snooty… busybody necks to wring.” Flushing a bit, she eyed me again. “Will you miss me?”

  Boy, were there ever a lot of things I could say to that.

  “Ahnbe…” I clapped my hands together and forced the biggest, brightest smile onto my lips I could. “…my heart is already pounding with the anticipation of your next visit.”

  “Cad.” Chuckling, she bent down and poked my nose with a claw the size of a Bowie knife. “Once you sample my lips, you will actually mean those words. But I will be patient for now.” Her voice lowered into a sensuous purr, and I felt her next words as though from a furnace across my face. “I am your destiny.”

  I looked at her sharply. That was what Xhinn had said. Or close enough.

  But Ahnbe only smiled. Slowly, she again rose to her full height, and in the same motion, dragged her hand upward and across her body, jostling her full—and frankly jaw-dropping—breasts in the process.

  Yes, of course, I noticed that. I might have been downplaying the soul-shattering levels of her sex-appeal to preserve my own sanity, but I was not blind. Not this time, anyway. And a girl does not do a thing like that by accident.

  “Tah tah, my sweet.”

  Her hand rose to the side of her face, and with a snap of her fingers, she popped like a balloon.

  For a split second, I could have sworn I saw something escaping into the air. Something more. Something uniquely… Her. The Divine. It left me breathless and shaken in a way our encounter thus far had not. Which was saying something.

  But then her skin plopped into a wet heap on the ground, and the moment was gone.

  A long stretch of silence came and went while we collectively regained our breaths. Glance met glance. Nods were given all around. We were okay. Another encounter safely endured… for the most part.

  We were in the clear. No posse after us. No more goddesses with an axe to grind. We had a shitload of tasks on our plate, both old and new, but we now at least had the time and the space to do them.

  Naturally, the first item on the lilims’ docket was about the last thing any sane person would think of.

  Arx took a breath. “Is anyone else feeling… like, super horny right now?”

  “So horny!”

  “Ya kidding? Ooch! Ma tits are like to put an eye out! That beasty can be dead sexy when she ain’t tossing ya into a river. I do nay ken how you do it, Master.”

  “He was hard the entire time, too,” Xyn groaned.

  My face went flat. Okay, yes. It was true, but it was not like I was proud of it. I had just watched a woman getting branded! Still, Ahnbe was a goddess. There were some things that were simply outside of a man’s control.

  “Dammit, Auntie. What kind of mood were you in? My pussy is screaming.”

  “Jax, I can’t believe you just ran up and grabbed him like that.” Arx was bouncing on her toes like she needed to use the restroom. “And right in front of her! ‘stits, I wish I had that much courage.”

  “Courage, nothing! Did ye see them paps on her?” Jax tried to stand upright, but her back kept arching uncontrollably. “And her making that woman howl with it like that? Ach! I never felt so much pleasure in me life. Without the Master there… I were this close to slicking me gash, I tell ye!”

  I may have had an out-of-body experience, so intense was my moment of re-contextualization.

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa!” My hands performed a complete wax-on, wax-off routine. “Are you telling me that wasn’t pain just now?”

  “Oh, it were pain…”

  Arx tilted her head to one side. “…of a sort…”

  “That woman came so hard, she almost died,” Xyn finished, hands on her knees, then sucked her bottom lip between her teeth. “Auntie, you monster! I’m so jealous.”

  “Aye, she’ll be feeling that one a few days, I expect.”

  Well. I guess I misjudged you, Ahnbe. And here I was, giving her a hard time over a little kiss. It was still way too much for me, but I was no longer dreading the experience.

  Of course, just because it was pleasurable, that did not mean the guardswoman had asked to be put through all that. And there was still the aftermath to consider. Whatever that glowing ball had been, I doubted the woman had wanted it splattered all over the road.

  But that was a problem for another day.

  “Alright, ladies.” Ahnbe had left without fixing the damned tingles in my legs, so getting my robe off was a struggle. “A snow orgy wasn’t exactly on my bucket list, but it’ll make a convenient substitute for therapy.”

  “Oh, ‘stits!” Arx breathed in relief. “Thank fuck.”

  Xyn straightened. “I am in, and I will literally kill the both of you if you try to stop me.”

  “Ye’ll get no argument from me,” Jax agreed, and surprisingly readily considering our earlier conversation. “But, uh… Master, what’s therapy?”

  “I think he means a massage.”

  “But he said he was substitutin’. Why just the one?”

  “You know what? Never mind. I think I am going to kill you both.”