The Builder's Greed (The Legendary Builder Book 2)

by J. A. Cipriano

  “Are you saying I need to have sex with Gwen?” I asked, totally confused. “Because I’m pretty sure she doesn’t want me anywhere near her.”

  “She does, and you’re an idiot who still doesn’t realize the guy needs to make the first move sometimes. It helps the girl feel desired and valued.” She met my eyes. “Make the move, Arthur. Sooner rather than later. Otherwise, you may not get the chance, and you’ll regret it. Not because she’s great at sex. No, you’ll regret it because Gwen is amazing and you don’t see it. And I say that as someone who doesn’t even particularly like her.”

  “Right, okay.” I nodded. I sort of thought I actually understood. I didn’t want Gwen to leave because she thought I didn’t like her. Worse, I sort of had been doing what Sam had said. I’d slept with all these other girls because it’d been easier, but how much easier had it really been? Truth be told, whenever Gwen brought it up, I made excuses.

  “What are you thinking?” Sam asked, brushing her hair out her face again. “I can see the wheels turning in your brain. There’s no smoke yet, but there will be soon.”

  “She’s a succubus, and I’m pretty sure that means she feeds via sex. What if she steals some of my life force?” I looked at my shoes.

  “That won’t happen,” Sam said, dismissing my concern with the wave of her hand. “For one, I can feel her pulse already beating within you.” She touched my chest with one finger. “Not sure how that happened, but it means you’re already bonded. Her feeding on you is the absolute last thing you need to worry about.” She met my eyes. “Besides, we both know that’s not the real reason.”

  “Yeah.” I took a deep breath. “I don’t want her to feel like I’m bad at it. I mean, I know it’s stupid, but I really want to do well.” I swallowed. “Besides, she’s probably really good at it, and I’m, well, me”

  “I’m going to try not to get offended by the implications of what you just told me.” Sam gave me a long look. “Instead, I’m going to tell you something you should know.” She took a deep breath. “Arthur, none of that matters. All that matters is you. If you don’t see that, you’re both blind and dumb. You’re special, and she doesn’t care about how good you are in bed because she wants to be with you.” She shook her head and looked at her feet. “Most of us don’t care how good you are. I mean, our first time was fucking terrible. You’ve gotten better, but it was mostly special because it was with you.”

  “Well, okay then.” I sighed. “That’s kind of a kick in the junk.”

  “Sorry the truth hurts.” She leaned forward and giving me a peck on the cheek. Her face scrunched up and her nostrils flared. “You smell different.” She pulled back and cocked her head, looking at me. “Tell me, Arthur. Did you succeed? With Mammon, I mean. I assume that’s why you’re here.”

  “Yes.” I opened the bag. I pulled out the gauntlets and showed them to her. “They’re all revved up and ready to go.” I slid them onto my hands, and as I did, Sam’s mouth fell open in shock.

  “Your eyes turned silver, Arthur.” Sam reached out and touched my cheek. “You’re colder too. You even sort of smell like her.” She pulled away and looked at me again. “Did you fuck her?”

  “Yeah, it was part of the deal.” Saying so was sort of embarrassing, but I didn’t think she’d care about the actual sex, so I thought there might be an important reason she asked.

  “First, that’s fucking gross.” She shuddered.

  “Second?” I asked, looking down at the gauntlets. Like always, when I wore them, I could feel the power in them. I hadn’t been able to make them do anything at all, but I figured that was a practice thing. Once I sat down and put some effort into it, I was sure I could do something. Besides, the book had revealed more pages about the item, I just needed to apply myself to them. Once I read them of course.

  “She’s marked you.” Sam touched my neck. “There’s her mark here. It’s like a silver hickey. It wasn’t there until you put on the gauntlets. Now, anyone who sees you will know what you’ve done. She’s basically fucking branded you, and you were too dumb to fucking notice.”

  “To be fair, she did that the second time we slept together,” I said, touching my neck. That pissed me off, but then again, that whole memory was a blur of pain and pleasure. “And I seriously thought I was going to die getting these gauntlets.”

  “I’ve no doubt,” Sam said, holding her hands. “No judgment here on that. Hell, if I had a penis and the opportunity to bang Mammon, I might do it too.” She shrugged. “My point is that she marked you and you didn’t even realize. You need to be more careful, Arthur. Who knows what that mark will do?” She touched the gauntlets. “I know you wanted these, but think about what really happened. The Princess of Greed gave you a piece of her soul. That can change you, and probably not for the better.”

  “You seem to know a lot about this,” I said, sort of annoyed. While I’d have rather known I was being marked, I’d known about the soul thing, and I’d done it to save my people. I was willing to pay that price as many times as I could. Sam seemed like she got it. She was always the most level-headed, but she wasn’t now. I could see it in the way she was fidgeting.

  “Yeah.” She huffed out a breath. “We had a deal, right?” She moved closer and kissed me, hard, like it was the last time she’d ever get to do it.

  “What was that for?” I asked when she broke away.

  “Because I may not get to do it again, and I wanted one last kiss to remember you by when you throw me out.” She looked at the sky and fidgeted like she really believed it to be true. Only that was impossible. Nothing she’d have done in the past could make me stop caring for her.

  “Sam, I’d never do that—”

  “We’ll see,” she said, looking right at me. “Do you remember what Gabriella called me?”

  “Um…” I said, thinking back. “Samael? I think. Something like that. Why?”

  “That is my name.” She unfurled her wings. The black feathers practically blazed in the light of the windows streaming through the wall behind her, seeming to cast her in an aura of darkness. “I am Samael. The Venom of God.” She took a step forward, and as she did, her eyes turned as black as coal. “Archangel of Death.” She took a deep breath. “Or at least I was.”

  “Wait, you’re the Archangel of Death?” I took a deep breath as Sam banished her wings, returning to normal. Her chest was heaving, and her forehead was sweating like she’d just run a race. Sam had shown me her wings a few times before, but she’d never really used them like the others.

  “I was, once. Many years ago.” She turned away then, leaning on the bench in front of the window and staring out into the murky horizon. “Then I was stripped of my power and flung from Heaven. I slammed into the ground many miles from here, in what was once known as Tula Peninsula. Only now it is referred to as the Tula crater. A maw of jagged, broken glass a mile wide.”

  “And why would that make me not like you?” I said, shaking my head. “I guess I’m missing something.”

  “I was once powerful. Maybe the most powerful. I was death incarnate. I wielded that power in battle, bringing down all who opposed Heaven. Spreading death across the battlefields of our enemies.” She turned to look at me. “Until I stopped.”

  “You stopped?” I said, looking her over. “You mean, you are that powerful and you just gave it up? Why didn’t you help when Nadine was here? I’ve seen Mammon, seen Gabriella. You could have beaten her.”

  “I am no longer powerful.” She held up her hands. “I am merely a shell of what I once was.”

  “Well, we need to get you back up to full strength to fight Dred, to fight the Darkness.” I nodded, already trying to figure out how to do that.

  “Now you come to why I have fallen. Why I was flung from Heaven, and why I know so much about the mark of Mammon.” She met my eyes. “I know because I have given one, myself.”

  “You’ve given a mark?” I asked, looking at her. “But you’re an angel…”

&nb
sp; “I can see you working it out in your head. I was the one who gave Dred his first Armament. He was not then as he is now.” She hung her head. “After I gave him the mantle of Death, he fought beside me becoming more and more trusted. Together we pushed back the Darkness as man and woman as equals. Then as we were to rally for the final charge into the heart of the Darkness and take the fight to the Empress, he betrayed us.” Sam shut her eyes. “Four of my sisters were captured by the Darkness and forced to give up their own marks to Dred.”

  “Sam, that isn’t your fault.” I moved closer to her.

  “No. What was my fault was that I still believed in him, still thought there was good in him. So even after that betrayal that caused four of my sisters to give their marks to the one who seeks to undo us, I met with him in secret.” She took a breath. “I thought I could bring back the kind sweet man he’d been, but when I met with him, I realized the truth. Dred was too broken, too beaten by his previous circumstance to ever be noble. Not really, anyway. I should have known, but I didn’t.”

  She pulled open her shirt, revealing the flesh above her heart, and unlike before, a blackened sickle covered the spot.

  “Sam, what happened?” I asked, reaching out to touch her, but she stepped back out of my reach. “Tell me.”

  “He used this mark. The one I’d given him out of love, out of trust, to pull out all my power and cast me down to this place.” She met my eyes. “So you see, Arthur. I am unable to help you beyond what I can make with these hands.”

  “Okay, so?” I asked, confused. I looked her over. “And what’s the bad thing you did?”

  “What’s the bad thing I did? I just told you. I am responsible for Dred. I gave him his power. I—”

  “No, you gave power and aid to someone who betrayed you. That’s hardly the same thing. Hell, what he did, it’s despicable, but that doesn’t make you tarnished or broken. That makes you stronger for having endured it and continuing to fight in the best way you could.” I moved closer to her and wrapped my arms around her, pulling her trembling body against my chest. “You’re a goddamned hero in my book.”

  “Arthur, I-I haven’t told anyone this story before.” She looked away from me. “I am so ashamed.”

  “Don’t be,” I said, turning her chin toward me and kissing her. Only unlike last time, I lingered on her lips, trying to match the desperation from before with something different. With love. “Sam, someone way smarter once told me something. All that matters is you. If you don’t see that, you’re both blind and dumb.”

  She started crying then, and as her tears soaked into my shirt, I realized something. They weren’t tears of sadness. No, these were something else, something purifying. Like the fresh rain washing away the remains of a war-torn battlefield. Of renewing the land to make it fertile once more.

  “Thank you,” she whispered, wiping her eyes with the back of one hand as she leaned against me.

  “You’re welcome, but I’m not sure what for,” I said, looking down at her. “I didn’t do anything. I’m just a fuck up, mostly, so I know what it’s like to do things you expect to turn our one way and have them go sideways.”

  She laughed slightly. “I suppose that’s true. You are kind of a fuckup.” She squeezed me tightly before releasing me. “But I guess I needed a good fuckup, ya know?”

  “Yeah, I know,” I said, nodding to her.

  “This is where I tell you I’ll be fine and to go find Gwen,” Sam said. “Much as I’d like you to stay with me.” She wiped her eyes again.

  “One more thing,” I said, and this time I opened the sack and upended it onto the table, spilling the broken pieces of Clarent out into the light. “I need you to fix this.”

  “This…” Sam stared at the pieces. “This isn’t fixable.”

  “Yeah, I hear you say that, but I don’t believe you,” I said, hoping I was right because I was fucking terrified she was right. I hadn’t realized how damaged the sword had become because it had happened so gradually. It was chipped and broken, the pommel smashed. And without it, I couldn’t see stats.

  “I’m serious, I don’t think I can fix this.” She met my eyes. “I can’t put the blade back together again. It’s not Humpty Dumpty.” She shook her head. “Even if I recast the blade into a new one, I’d need Stygian Iron, and we can’t get that.”

  “Why not?” I asked, wondering if Mammon could get some.

  “Because it requires a bunch of rare metals, and assuming we could get them, I don’t know how to smelt them.” She sighed.

  “Oh, I can fix that,” I said, grabbing the ruined hilt and turning to look at her stats, only as I did, I realized there was a problem. I couldn’t see her stats anymore.

  33

  “Oh, no,” I whispered, barely able to form the words as horror rose up inside me. My pride shattered as I grabbed hold of the broken sword and spun, pointing it at Sam and willing it to work. Only it didn’t. Nothing happened at all. I might as well have been holding a fucking table leg.

  “What’s wrong?” Sam asked, watching me closely. “Do I not have enough experience or something?” She gave me a weak smile. “I could always grind out some armor or something. We can always sell that. Don’t have much metal though…” she put a finger to her chin, clearly thinking about what she could make with what materials we have on hand.

  “I don’t know,” I said, swallowing my horror and trying to remain calm. Even still my knees were shaking, and my hands were sweating. Without the sword I was nothing. If I couldn’t alter stats and spend experience, what fucking good was I?

  I shut my eyes, taking a deep breath and counting backward to ten. Sam said something, but I hadn’t heard it. All I could think about was Clarent. When had the stats part stopped working? Was it when the blade first broke? Was it just cumulative? I didn’t know and that concerned me too. Maybe I should have just stopped, just turned back without the Armament.

  A thought struck me, and I dropped Clarent. The broken hilt bounced across the hard-packed dirt floor as I pulled the Once and Future Builder from its pouch and flipped it open, looking for something, anything that could help.

  “Arthur, what’s going on?” Sam asked, and her voice let me know she was close. I felt her hand on my shoulder a second later and knew she was peering over my shoulder at the pages while I rifled through them. “Arthur?”

  “The sword isn’t working,” I said, looking over at her, only she was blurry. Why? I wiped my eyes with the back of one hand, and that seemed to help. “I can’t see your stats. I can’t see anything’s stats.”

  “Oh.” There was a lot of emotion in that word. It reminded me of when I’d been told my parents had died. It wasn’t quite that bad or anything, but it was the same idea. A gut punch from reality. A moment when all your hopes, all your dreams, all your carefully laid out plans are hopelessly derailed. It leaves you with few options, none of which are what you really want. For everything to go back to how it was.

  “I don’t know what to do, Sam. If I can’t fix it…” I stared at her, unsure of what to do. “I’m dead weight.”

  “You aren’t dead weight, Arthur. You are more than your ability.” The way she said it as she took my free hand in hers almost made me believe her. “We all are. I know that better than anyone. I was the Archangel of Death, and now I’m a blacksmith. Maybe your role will change, but you are still valuable.” She turned, dragging me toward the table. “I will try to fix your sword. I’ll do everything I can to think of a way.” She put my hands on the gauntlets. “You need to figure out how these work.” She nodded back toward the book. “That talks about it, right? At the end of the day, each of the Armaments in that book will grant you a power. Even if you cannot regain the sword’s ability, you owe it to us to learn to use the others.”

  “Yeah, okay,” I said, knowing she was right. It still hurt, having my ability ripped away. It wasn’t just the power of it per se. No, it was that I’d come to rely on it for everyday things too. I could always loo
k at two items and tell from their stat windows which was better. Only I couldn’t do that now. I’d be as blind as anyone else.

  “You’ll make do, Arthur.” Sam kissed my forehead. “No go and let me work on this.” The confidence in her voice felt fake, like she knew there was nothing to be done, but I nodded anyway. She was right after all. Whining and beating myself up over the past wouldn’t help. The only thing that would help would be moving forward.

  “What’s upstairs?” I asked, pointing at the stairs in the corner. “I saw they added a second level, which seems odd and all given the chimney thing you have for the smoke.”

  “Um… what?” Sam asked, following my gaze to the stairs. “Nothing’s up there. Empty boxes maybe. It’s for expansion.” She tried not to let the desperation seep into her voice. She knew as well as I did that with the guilds at our throats, we wouldn’t recruit anyone without my abilities to entice people. She didn’t say that though, not that she had to.

  “Great,” I said, nodding to her as I picked up the gauntlets and made my way toward them. “I’m going to study. Don’t let anyone see me unless it’s really important.” I took a deep breath. “I don’t want people to see me like this.”

  “Understood,” Sam said, and for a moment she looked like she was going to say more. Instead, she turned to her bench. “Looks like we both have work to do.”

  Sam was right. There wasn’t anything up here whatsoever. Light streamed through the windows, letting me know it was closer to mid-afternoon. It was weird because this day had started so positively and had ended total shit. Now Gwen was angry at me, and my sword was broken. Both were because I was an idiot, essentially.

  Still, I couldn’t let my shortcomings drag me down. I had to move forward, had to evolve. If I didn’t, we would lose, and I wouldn’t be responsible for that.

  I pulled the gauntlets on my hands, and as I did, I felt the strength of them fill me. What’s more, I felt Mammon’s presence with me, and it was strangely comforting even though it should have been frightening. Thanks to Sam, I now knew my soul was hopelessly entwined with the demon. I’d best make sure it was worth it because something told me, I’d just come to scratch the surface of what that’d cost me.