Page 28 of The Demon God's Desire
Iyawn, stretching out as I come to. I’m sore in all the right places and I wiggle my toes, a smile curling on my lips as I recall last night. Guilri made me feel so many things I’ve never felt before. It was amazing.
Turning my body, I reach out to him and realize the bed is empty. I sit up slowly and yawn again, figuring he might have slipped out to watch the sun rise.
“What?” I look around, confused.
Heading for the living area, I look around for any sign of him. He’s not outside, he’s not in the kitchen.
“Guilri?”
I start wondering where he went and head to his room, just to check and see if he’s in there. His bed is still made from the previous day and the bathroom is empty as well.
As I check around the house, I realize there are some supplies missing and the revelation comes to me that I know exactly what happened.
My teeth clench and I flex my fingers before making fists with my hands. Guilri left, the rodan bastard. I’m so angry I could claw his damned eyes out. I want to knock his teeth out.
“Fuck!”
But it’s my fault too. I’m smarter than this. I’m too smart to have let myself be seduced like that.
I should have known he was just saying what he thought I wanted to hear in order to lure me into complacency. And my bed, the dripir.
Well, I’ll be damned if I let that rodan bastard get away with this! I grab a pack and start stuffing it full of supplies. I’m not about to let the dripir run out on our deal. The deal was he stays here for one month and it hasn’t been a full month.
He can’t have gotten that far either. He’s not practiced in navigating the desert like I am and I know this desert better than anyone. He’s going to get himself killed out there and I’ll kill him myself before I let him die just to get out of our deal.
Even if he’s made it back to his battalion, or even if I see them approaching us, I’ll just run back to the village and warn everyone so we can flee before they get here. It’s better that way.
Then we can find somewhere safe to start over again. And while it would be my fault in the first place, and I’d never forgive myself, I can’t let all my people die because of my stupid bleeding heart.
Before I head out, I throw on a pair of sturdy trousers, my vest, and another linen wrap that will protect me from the sun. I also throw on a hood that will protect my head and give a little touch to my gold earrings, just for good luck.
Setting out, I follow Guilri’s tracks through the village and spot where he left. It’s easy to follow his tracks seeing as we haven’t had a big windstorm in a while and nothing has come by to disturb them.
It’s clear he traveled north from here. I wind my way around a large rock formation, following his footsteps. Guilri clearly had no idea where he was going because his tracks go back and forth every few dozen yards. It’s like he was trying to decide which way to go.
I’ve packed enough that if I get caught out here overnight, I won’t freeze to death. Thankfully I’m quite experienced when it comes to navigating in the desert on my own.
My mom was quite sick but she still tried to help me gather plants when she could. She was even smarter than I am and she would often help me identify many of the native plants in the area, lecturing me on their uses.
If he dies before we finish the deal, I’ll find a way to bring him back to life just so I can kill him again, I think as I continue forward. That stupid asshole had to make me feel things for him didn’t he? A part of me doesn’t want to believe that he made it all up. Part of me thinks that there’s no way that he could have faked his feelings like that.
But another part of me thinks that it’s just typical dark elf behavior. Manipulating people to get what they want is an inherent dark elf trait. I remember a little of what it was like to be stuck under their tyrannical rule.
They were always trying to find new ways to break our spirits, to push us down. My parents put up with it for years but the second that dark elves started to sniff around me, they were done. They would never let me be taken advantage of by the elves.
That’s why my father helped plan the rebellion. The minute that dark elves started looking at me with adult eyes, he knew that he would rather die than have one of them touch me.
I never got to thank my father for what he did. At the time I didn’t even know about it. It wasn’t until my mother told me in one of her deliriums in her final days that I found out the truth. He sacrificed himself so that I would never have to worry about being a victim to their foul behavior.
The desert feels like home to me now and I continue to follow Guilri’s footprints in the sand. He seemed to get tired and stop for a while, if the prints are any indication. I can’t tell how long he sat for but he definitely stopped to eat. I spot crumbs on the ground as well as a few spots where he dripped water.
At least he was smart enough to get something to eat and drink before he left. I have to hand it to him. He’s smarter than I gave him credit for. That’s one of the reasons I was attracted to him.
I’m not one for vanity but I do know that I’m quite intelligent, naturally. I pick up things quickly and I understand things better than others. In my village, as a healer, I’m one of the smartest around.
But Guilri—he’s quite intelligent as well. I suppose you don’t get to his status in the service without being quite smart. I liked how smart he was. He seemed to start understanding us as humans much faster than most might.
It was comforting, in a way, to be around someone so strong and capable. Being around Allan was like being someone’s mother—he seemed to long for comfort and reassurance all the time from me.