Destroyer of Legends

by Clayton Wood

“Still lost.”

  “Yeah, but still. Holding your own against Dio is impressive.” She hesitated. “So…this Zagamar is taking over your mind?”

  “Not anymore,” Hunter replied. He explained how he’d gone to the Deep to prevent Zagamar’s influence from growing. And how it’d made his wings grow almost instantly to full length…a clear sign it’d worked.

  “So you chose a bird, huh?” Sukri mused. She glanced at his wings enviously. “Not gonna lie, I’m kinda second-guessing my pick now.”

  “What’d you choose?”

  “To be a cat-woman,” Sukri answered. “Like Kayla.”

  “That woman we met earlier?” Hunter asked. She nodded. “I remember seeing her in the Shrine of Mammals when I was trying to decide what to be.” He grinned. “Thought she was…”

  “Sexy as fuck?”

  “Actually, that’s exactly what I thought. Like, word-for-word.”

  “Yeah, me too,” Sukri admitted. “And now here I am,” she added with a sigh, gesturing at her wrappings.

  “You went for the…full effect?”

  “Yeah. I was kinda drunk,” she confessed. Hunter chuckled.

  “Me too.” He paused. “And there was this hot chick who did the procedure. I wasn’t about to say no.”

  Sukri glanced at him, arching an eyebrow.

  “Did you…?”

  “No,” Hunter replied. “Wanted to. But no.”

  “Huh,” Sukri murmured. “Funny. A hot chick convinced me too.”

  “Kayla?”

  “Yup.”

  Hunter raised an eyebrow, grinning at her.

  “Did you…?”

  “Like I’d tell you,” she scoffed.

  “Well, I’m going to pretend you did,” he replied. “In fact, I’m gonna imagine it tonight.”

  “You gonna wank off to it?” Sukri teased. Hunter shrugged.

  “I might just do that.”

  “Pfft. Men,” she grumbled.

  “Can you blame me?”

  “Hell no,” she replied. “I’d do the same.” She shook her head ruefully. “Guess we’re still two peas in a pod, huh? Nice to see that some things haven’t changed.”

  “Yeah,” Hunter agreed. “You’re still the same old Sukri.”

  She grew quiet, staring at her feet as she walked.

  “What?” he asked.

  “I’m not the same old me,” she muttered. “Not even close. The Guild made sure of that.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Those medallions they gave us,” she explained. “They fucked with my head. Made me…do things. Bad things. And now look at me,” she added, gesturing at herself.

  “If it makes you feel better, I thought I murdered my own mother and got my brother and Vi killed.”

  “But you didn’t,” Sukri countered.

  “Yeah, well, I hated myself for weeks after what I did. I thought about committing suicide. I didn’t even want to live with myself, much less anyone else.” He put a hand on her shoulder. “I know what it’s like to do something terrible, something you think you can never come back from.”

  “No you don’t,” she retorted, pulling away. “You didn’t do something terrible. You just thought you did.”

  “Yeah, but I know what it’s like to feel like I did.”

  “Not the same,” she muttered, lowering her gaze.

  Hunter suppressed the urge to push the issue, letting it go. After a long, uncomfortable silence, she glanced up at him, smiling with her eyes but not her lips.

  “Guess we’re both pretty fucked up, huh?”

  “Yeah,” he agreed.

  “I miss the old me,” she mused. “When the most I had to worry about was my shitty job.”

  “Literally,” Hunter quipped. They’d been in waste management, after all. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that there really isn’t anything such as ‘me’ here. We’re ourselves and a bit of everyone we meet. We just have to be careful who we choose to interact with.”

  “Ain’t that the truth,” Sukri muttered. “Remind me not to join a frickin’ cult again.”

  “Yeah, and don’t get all your friends to do it too.”

  She punched him in the shoulder. Hard.

  “Low blow, asshole,” she grumbled. “Thanks for reminding me how I got everyone I cared about killed.”

  “Dio killed Gammon, not you,” Hunter retorted. “And if anyone got Kris killed, it was me. Master Thorius wouldn’t have sent us on that suicide mission if it weren’t for me, remember?”

  “True,” she admitted. “So…what’s two screw-ups like us gonna do now?”

  “Well, you can always come live with me,” Hunter offered. Sukri raised an eyebrow at him.

  “Little forward, don’tcha think?”

  Hunter blushed.

  “I mean with the Ironclad,” he clarified. “My mother is invincible like Xerxes. And we have a whole army, not to mention Vi. No one will be able to hurt you with them protecting you.”

  “I don’t know,” Sukri replied. “Kayla offered to have me stay in the Kingdom of the Deep.”

  “With her?” he asked. She hesitated.

  “Kinda. Yeah.”

  “Is that what you want?” he pressed. She shrugged.

  “I don’t know,” she admitted. “A part of me does.” Hunter grimaced.

  “Guess I can’t compete with that.”

  “Hey now,” Sukri admonished. “Don’t sell yourself short, Hunter. You’re not half-bad-looking yourself you know. Kinda had a crush on you back in Tykus.”

  “You know, I was wondering about that,” Hunter admitted. “When us and Gammon went for Starfuckers, you knew Gammon wouldn’t drink them.” He didn’t know at the time, but the drinks had been exposed to feelings of lust…and anyone drinking them would get all hot and bothered.

  “Oh hell yeah,” Sukri replied. “I was totally trying to get in your pants. Until I felt that whore’s stench on your bed…what was her name again?”

  “Trixie.”

  “I didn’t want to be like her, you know? I wanted it to be…”

  “Real?” Hunter inquired.

  “Yeah.”

  She went quiet then, shaking her head slowly.

  “I get it now,” she said. “Gammon was in love with me for years, and never told me. But when he got his chance, he refused to date me. Said he was a Polarizer, and didn’t want to think that he could make me love him just by my absorbing his love for me whenever we were close. He wanted it to be real too.”

  “Sorry,” Hunter mumbled.

  “Well, we’re both Empaths, so I guess we don’t radiate emotions well. So we don’t have to worry about that,” Sukri reasoned.

  “That a proposal?” Hunter inquired with a devilish grin. Sukri’s eyes dropped to his body.

  “Well, you do have really nice pecs now,” she admitted. “Frickin’ bulging out of your shirt, by the way.”

  “They flap my wings,” he explained.

  “I don’t give a shit what they do. I just like the way they look.”

  “Gosh, you’re so deep.”

  “Ha ha,” Sukri grumbled. “If we ever date, I’m gonna treat you like a piece of meat. Just warning you.”

  “Oh no,” Hunter mock-complained. “Not that.”

  “And I expect you to do the same,” she continued with a smile. Hunter chuckled, leering at her. Which wasn’t hard to do; even with multiple layers of wrapping covering her body, her generous curves were still easy to appreciate.

  “Hey, if you end up looking like that cat-lady, I won’t be able to keep my hands off you,” Hunter warned. Sukri smiled, but the expression soon faded, and her gaze dropped to her feet. At length, she glanced at Hunter.

  “Let’s just…keep things friendly for now, okay?” she proposed. Hunter smiled.

  “Deal.”

  They walked in silence then, the twigs and fallen leaves littering the forest floor crunching under their boots, each step bringing them closer to t
he Ironclad lair. And what Hunter suddenly hoped very much would become Sukri’s new home.

  Chapter 21

  It was sunset by the time Hunter and Sukri decided to quit for the day, ending their hours-long trek through the woods. They’d spent most of the day trying in vain to find their way back to the Kingdom of the Deep. Hunter had climbed a few hills, scoping out the terrain, but it hadn’t been particularly helpful. Then he’d tried using the sun as a compass to guide them. There was no direct route available given the steep cliffs in-between them and their destination, forcing them to try to circle around. The more they did, the harder it became to keep track of where they might be. And with the sun setting, it was nearly impossible for Hunter to figure out where they were going.

  In other words, they were lost.

  Hunter picked a clearing for their camp, gathering brush and sticks for a fire, then lighting it. He gathered stones to place around the fire – they would radiate heat long after the fire had died – and got to work building a lean-to. Sukri helped when she could, then stood there, watching him, a funny look on her face.

  “What?” he asked.

  “It’s just…you’re doing all this,” she replied. “How did you learn this stuff?”

  “Vi taught me.”

  “It’s impressive,” she admitted. “The guild didn’t teach me anything…I mean, other than making me absorb skills and stuff.”

  Hunter smirked, finishing the lean-to, a small shelter with an angled roof made of leaves propped up on some thick, straight branches.

  “Vi hated the way the guild taught,” he said. “She thought learning things by doing them was best, and absorbing skills should only be used to enhance your foundation.”

  “Yeah, well, obviously she was right.”

  Hunter sat before the fire, emptying his pockets of the various edible leaves, roots, nuts, and vegetables he’d collected along the way.

  “You really going to eat those?” Sukri asked. “They could be strong-willed.”

  “Nah,” Hunter replied. “I checked for that.”

  “How?”

  “I only pick plants that are at the edge of a cluster,” he explained. “Plants in the center of a cluster of similar-looking plants probably have the strongest wills. But those at the edge have to be weak-willed if the plants beyond them don’t look like them.”

  “Ohhh,” Sukri replied. “Well shit, that just makes sense.”

  “Yup.”

  “Let me guess…Vi taught you that?”

  “Of course,” he confirmed. “Vi taught me everything.” He realized that he missed her very much. It’d been about a week since he’d seen her. Sukri sat down next to him, putting her hands close to the fire. They enjoyed the heat and crackling of the flames for a bit, and then Sukri turned to look at him.

  “She seems really awesome,” she stated. Hunter smiled.

  “She is,” he agreed. “She saved my life. And not just because she prevented me from dying.” He paused, choosing his words carefully. “Vi was the first person in my life who refused to give up on me. And the first person that wouldn’t let me give up on her.”

  Sukri lowered her gaze, staring at her lap.

  “Wish I knew what that was like,” she muttered. Hunter put a hand on her shoulder.

  “Gammon never gave up on you.”

  Sukri grimaced.

  “Yeah.”

  She turned to him then, her eyes glittering in the light of the fire.

  “Would you ever give up on me?”

  “No,” Hunter replied. Sukri glared at him.

  “I mean it, Hunter. I’m being serious.”

  “I am too,” Hunter insisted.

  “You answered awfully quickly.”

  “Sukri, if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that I should never give up on my friends,” Hunter explained. “I got Vi, my mom, Xerxes, and now you. And that’s it. That’s…”

  “What?”

  “That’s my world. That’s everything I care about, right there,” Hunter concluded. “I don’t have anything else. Just the clothes on my back, my sword, and you guys.”

  Sukri swallowed visibly, staring into the fire for a long, long time. Then she scooted closer to Hunter, pressing her shoulder against his, and wrapping an arm around his waist. She rested her head on his shoulder.

  “You really love Vi, huh?” Sukri asked.

  “Yeah.”

  There was a pause.

  “Did you guys ever…?”

  “Oh hell no,” Hunter replied, giving her a look. “She likes women.”

  “Oh. Good.”

  “Besides,” he added with a grin, “…she’d break me.” Sukri arched an eyebrow.

  “And I wouldn’t?”

  “Okay, you can move away now,” he stated, scooting away from her. She punched him in the shoulder – which was already pretty sore from her punching it a dozen times earlier that day – and then promptly pulled him right in beside her, laughing at him.

  “Don’t worry,” she soothed. “I’m tough on the outside, but once you get past that…”

  She leaned in, her face inches from his, her eyes searching his. Her scent was intoxicating, unlike any woman he’d smelled before. It smelled like home.

  “You mean once I get inside?” he quipped, butterflies flitting in his stomach. She pulled back, rolling her eyes.

  “You got a lot better chance at that if you shut up,” she grumbled.

  “Yes ma’am.”

  Sukri leaned in again, staring at him for a long moment, then leaning in all the way, pressing her lips against his. He responded, kissing her back. She was surprisingly gentle, not forceful like he remembered when they’d made out a little back in the Outskirts. Back then she’d seemed rushed, as if she was just trying to get to the sex. His bed – with Trixie’s will contaminating it – was probably to blame for that.

  Now she took her time, leaning in and kissing him softly, savoring the moment. She bit his lower lip gently, then released it…and then opened her mouth, exploring his with her tongue.

  It felt amazing.

  She pushed him backward, lowering him onto his back under the lean-to, then crawling on top of him. Then she hesitated.

  “This okay with your wings?” she asked.

  “Yeah.”

  She smiled, resting her chest and belly on his…and her pelvis on his extremely engorged groin.

  “Sorry,” he mumbled. She smirked.

  “Must be doing something right.”

  “You are,” Hunter agreed immediately.

  She put a finger to his lips, then leaned in, grabbing his head in her hands and pressing her mouth firmly against his. Again she explored him, with her tongue and her hands. Her mouth tasted as good as she smelled, and each kiss made him feel positively giddy, a tingling sensation spreading through him. He’d never felt anything like it…not with Trixie, and certainly not with the Lady. That’d been lust. Sex, pure and simple. But this…

  Sukri pulled away, running her fingers down his chest, then cupping his pecs in her hands. She kneaded them gently, smiling to herself, then let go, staring at him. He frowned.

  “What?”

  “You feeling what I’m feeling?” she asked.

  “I um…I don’t know,” he admitted. “But I’ve never felt anything like this before.”

  Sukri gave him a look.

  “You just telling a girl what she wants to hear?” she pressed. “I need you to be honest with me,” she added, her tone deadly serious.

  “Your mouth…your smell, it just…” Hunter began. “I can’t explain it, but damn.”

  “Right?”

  She rested on top of him again, kissing him slowly, taking her time. Forcing him to take his time. To enjoy it. To relish it. And despite her groin pressed again his, and the urgent pressure in his member, for the first time in his life Hunter didn’t care if they had sex.

  All he wanted was this.

  She continued to kiss him, grabbing the sid
es of his helmet and trying to pull it off. He stopped her, giving her a rueful look.

  “Might not want to do that,” he cautioned. She frowned, pulling back a little.

  “Why not?”

  “I can, uh, absorb memories,” he admitted.

  She jerked back suddenly, the blood draining from her face.

  “What?” she blurted out.

  “It happens less when I have my helmet on,” he explained.

  “You can absorb my memories?” she pressed, backing away further and getting to her feet. Hunter grimaced.

  “Not with my helmet on,” he insisted. She stared down at him, then shook her head.

  “I can’t do this,” she blurted out.

  “Wait, what?”

  She turned away from him, going to the opposite side of the fire, then sitting down. Hunter stared at her from across the campfire, then sat up.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  “Nothing.”

  “Sukri…”

  “I’m going to sleep,” she muttered, laying down and turning on her side away from him. Hunter stared at her in utter confusion, then laid back down himself under the lean-to.

  Okay…

  And though neither of them said anything more that night, it was a long time before either of them fell asleep.

  * * *

  Dominus sighed, staring up at the white ceiling far above his head, red wooden beams running just underneath it at regular intervals to support it. The mattress underneath him was soft but firm, one of the most comfortable he’d ever laid on. But after more than a day of rest, he was getting antsy. Camilla had indeed called for help after the ordeal in her cipher room, her guards coming to carry Dominus back to the mansion. Her physician, a portly man by the name of Phelbus – a man whose competence was slightly outmatched by his confidence – had tried to tend to him. Dominus had turned the man away, suffering Phelbus’s insistence that Dominus would die without his help with uncharacteristic patience.

  Eventually Phelbus had left, giving Dominus time to focus on what was truly important: food.

  He’d consumed every meal brought to him, and within hours asked for more, much to the amazement and curiosity of Camilla’s staff, who had never seen someone eat so much in their lives. But Dominus had lost a great amount of tissue during the attack, and if he didn’t eat, his body would take from itself to heal him, pulling resources from his other muscles. He was going to need his strength…especially if Zagamar had truly returned.