Mistress of the Damned

Flipp

“Are you even listening to me, Flipp?”

I threw down the spear onto the deck, and put my hands on my hips. Xagon was driving me insane. We were supposed to be training that day and he was just drilling me. Xagon stood there shirtless, looking every bit like a ripped God, but acting like an arrogant ass.

“I told you to arch the spear and all your doing is flapping it around.”

I glared at him. “Excuse me? Is there any reason why you’re having a tantrum right now? I don’t need to be here.”

“Oh, you don’t? You have almost been killed multiple times on the ship and kidnapped. If it wasn’t for your Demon friend, you would be a prisoner right now.”

I shushed him. “Do you mind not referring to me as a friend of a Demon. Your crew hates me enough already, and I don’t need to be shanked while I sleep.”

He chuckled.

“Oh, is that funny?”

“I think we need to get back to training.”

“No, I think I’m finished for the day,” I said, as I picked up the spear and tossed it at him. He caught it in the air and frowned at me. I walked away from him, and headed below deck. I made a stop at the kitchen to grab some supplies for the two prisoners. It pissed me off that the Sirens still weren’t feeding them. Were they planning on selling weak and half-starved slaves? I felt as if they should let Drayven go. He wasn’t their property and they could just let him go when they docked. But they felt that he could be a danger to their ship, and I couldn’t blame them.

I headed to the cargo hold and when I entered the room, I could tell I had interrupted a conversation. I slid in two bowls of rice and beans into their cages, and some bread. The canteen they would have to share.

“Lilith, when are you going to let me out?”

I sighed. “That’s not my call.”

“You could waste these Sirens with all your powers. You are not a prisoner.”

“You’re right about that, but I don’t want to waste them.” I couldn’t deny that despite my reservations with the Sirens, I did feel a connection to Xagon and Azil. I didn’t want to hurt them; I didn’t want to hurt any of them, even the crew. Although, I wished that the crew didn’t hate me so much.

I sat beside Jesye’s cage, and waited while the two of them ate. I watched Jesye and realized how much I enjoyed being around him.

“Can you tell me more about how you ended up here?”

Jesye had a mouth full of bread when he looked over at me. He had warm eyes and small smile as he swallowed.

“What do you want to know? It wasn’t exactly my proudest moment.”

“Why do you talk like that? There is nothing wrong with you.”

“In my world, there is. I am meant to be powerful, like the rest of my clan. If I don’t fight, I am useless to them. Now that I’ve been clipped, it’s even worse for me. I’m better off being a slave.”

“Please, don’t say that, Jesye. I think you’re incredible. Not everyone is born to be a fighter, and it’s okay if you are different from the rest. Maybe you just aren’t meant to be in the underworld.”

“And where am I supposed to be? What other species would accept me instead of killing me, or taking me captive?”

“I would accept you.”

He smiled at me, the grin infectious. I wished he did it more.

“Did you know Drayven in the underworld?”

“No. We wouldn’t have been in the same circles. He is a warrior, and sadly, I am not.”

“I wasn’t planning on leaving the underworld, but the Denon’s convinced me that we needed to be at the auction. There had been a lot of rumors that Lilith was to be auctioned off that evening, and we wanted to claim her and bring her home.”

“Lilith? She was to be at the auction?”