Virtue - a Fairy Tale (11 page)

The cottage was tiny, and it appeared to have weathered a small battle recently. Everything had been thrown about, and part of one wall and the roof were missing. Lux lay pinned in a bed, his shirt removed. His bare chest revealed a large dark circle over his heart, the mark left from Ira’s magic scorching through him.

“What’s going on?” Lux demanded.

“Why don’t you tell me?” Wick asked. She stood in front of the damaged wall, a tub of wet clay and a pile of thatched roofing by her feet.

“You’re the one that’s holding me captive!” Lux growled and pulled at his wrists again, but they refused to budge. A piece of thread managed to immobilize him. “What is this? Why can’t I move?”

“It’s irin hair.” Wick brushed a lock of her hair from her forehead, leaving a muddy trail behind on her skin. Her dress and skin were stained with clay and dirt from the work she was doing. “That particular strand came from Sofiel. Have you been acquainted with her?”

“No, I’ve never met an irin.” Lux lay back on the bed, growing frustrated. “Can you please let me go? I don’t have time to waste.”

“You’re peccati, aren’t you?” Wick put her hands on her hips and stared at him. “There’s no point in lying. Your reaction to the irin hair confirms it.”

“If you know what I am, then why are you asking?” Lux asked.

Instead of answering, Wick stepped closer, inspecting him. She still wasn’t sure she’d made the right choice bringing him back here, but she thought he might be the only key to finding Lily.

After she heard the canu howling, Wick had tried going after Lily, but she’d been too weak. As soon as she’d been able, she’d gone out, but all she had found was Lux. He’d been lying on the ground, the front of his shirt burned open with the mark on his chest.

Peccati couldn’t be burned by flames, so the only thing that could’ve left that kind of mark was one of his own. Wick didn’t know what that meant, but she brought him back to her cottage in hopes that he could tell her something about Lily.

She pinned him to the bed and tended to his wounds. He’d been heavily battered when she found him – broken bones, bloodied nose – but he’d already started healing. Peccati had rapid healing rates, but she used potions to help speed things along.

“I’m not going to hurt you, if that’s what you’re afraid of,” Lux told her wearily. “But I can’t stay here any longer. I have to find someone.”

“You mean Lily?” Wick asked, and he instantly tensed.

“How do you know about her?” Lux narrowed his eyes. “Who are you?”

“I’m a friend of Lily’s.” She crossed her arms over her chest and returned his glare.

“You’re Wick?” Lux felt some relief at that and relaxed a bit. “Do you know where Lily is?”

“No. I was hoping you would.”

“No.” He sighed and stared up at the ceiling. Lily was either at Valefor’s or on her way. “I need to go so I can find her.”

“Why do you care so much about her?” Wick asked.

“I just do.” He turned back to her. “And if you care about her at all, you’ll let me go so I can find her. I know you don’t trust me, but I can save her from where she’s going. I’m her only hope.”

“You shouldn’t go anywhere just yet. You’re still healing.” Wick reached down and took the irin hair from his wrists. It didn’t hurt him at all – he was just incapable of moving it.  “Don’t try anything. I have magic, and you’re not well.”

Lux sat up, feeling the ache in his body for the first time. He healed incredibly fast, but she was right. He wasn’t done yet, and his bones cracked when he moved.

“Does Valefor have her?” Wick moved back, watching Lux as he stretched. With her wand tucked in the waist of her dress and the irin hair in her hands, she wouldn’t hesitate to stop him if he made a wrong move.

“I don’t know. Not yet, I don’t think.” He cracked his neck, wincing at the pain. “Last I know, Ira took her.”

“Ira?” Her face paled. “You mean ‘wrath?’”

“Yes.”

As each virtu exemplified one of the seven virtues, each peccati was one of the seven sins. Ira had been built for wrath. Quick tempered, mean, violent, and more powerful than any of the other seven, he had one purpose in life – be angry and make everyone else angry. Lux hadn’t stood a chance against him.

Of all the peccati that could’ve taken Lily, Ira had to be the most dangerous.

“Where’s my shirt?” Lux looked around the room, eager to get on his way.

“It was destroyed.” Wick turned and gestured to his jacket hanging on the chair, the one Lily had left. “I believe that’s your jacket, though.”

“Thank you.” Lux went over to the chair, his gait more labored than usual. He ought to take time to finish healing, so he could be at his peak to rescue Lily, but if he didn’t go fast enough, there wouldn’t be a Lily to rescue.

When he picked up his jacket, he saw it was covered in dirt and had a bit of blood on his sleeve. His heart throbbed with a now familiar guilt. Lily had gotten hurt when he’d left her in the woods. He never should’ve left her, not that she seemed to be doing that well when he was around.

“Who are you?” Wick asked, pulling him from his thoughts.

“Lux,” he replied absently and slipped on his jacket.

“As in Luxuria?” A cynical smiled crossed her lips. “
Lust
? I never should’ve taken the irin hair off of you.”

Really, she should’ve known the moment she saw him – his tailored suits, blond hair slicked back, and the chiseled curves of his chest and stomach. He was gorgeous. Not to mention the spell he had Lily under. She’d blush any time she talked about him. Lux had been made to lust after girls, and have them lust after him in return.

“It doesn’t matter what you think of me.” Lux tried to ignore her as he fixed the collar of his jacket. “I’m going to help Lily.”

“You’re not going near Lily.” Wick pulled her wand from her waistband and stepped toward him. He held his hands out to her in a gesture of peace. He could take her, but he didn’t want to. “I’m not going to let her be some conquest for you.”

“She’s not going to be!” Lux shouted.

“As if you would pass up the chance for the bragging rights of the millennia!” she scoffed. “The luxuria bedding the castimonia. What a stunning feat that would be.”

“What?” His stomach dropped, and it got harder to breathe. “She’s the castimonia? She’s …
chastity
?”

 Lily was a virtu, the exact opposite of him. He reached out for the chair next to him, and he collapsed back into it. He suddenly felt too weak to stand.

“No. Why wouldn’t she tell me?”

“I don’t think she knows yet.” Wick lowered her wand as she studied him. His eyes were widened in shock, and he’d had the wind knocked out of him. “You really didn’t know?”

“No.” He shook his head and swallowed hard. “I never even suspected.”

“Then what were you doing with her?” Wick asked skeptically.

“I already told you. It wasn’t about that.” Lux ran a hand through his hair, feeling sick and confused.

“You can’t possibly care about her.” Wick dismissed it before he even suggested it. “You’re not capable of love.”

“I don’t know what I’m capable of anymore,” he said resignedly.

“The fact that she’s not with you is evidence that you don’t care,” Wick countered, but even she wasn’t sure of that. Lux had been in a terrible state when she’d found him, like he’d put up a hell of a fight.

“Ira’s too powerful.” He stared down at the floor. “I fought as hard as I could, but I did nothing against him.”

“How could you do nothing to him, if you fought so hard?” she asked.

“I’m lust and he’s wrath!” he yelled. “I’m a lover, he’s a fighter!”

“You’re a demon!” Wick countered.

“I’m a minion!” Lux got to his feet.

“As if there is a great distinction!”

“There is! I’m not evil incarnate!”

“No! You just spread its message! How many girls have you bedded? Do you even know?” She stepped closer to him, unwilling to be intimidated by his larger size, and glared up at him.

“Why does it matter?” Lux wanted to meet her gaze, but he averted his eyes. His new found shame was getting on his nerves.

“It doesn’t. Except that your only mission in life is to corrupt the innocent, and few are more innocent than Lily.”

“I don’t want to corrupt her,” Lux said emphatically, meeting her eyes this time.

“Then what are you doing with her? How do you think this will all end? A sin and a virtue, living happily ever after? Do you think her master would allow it? Or yours?” Wick calmed her tone, dropping the antagonism, and simply asked him the question.

“She doesn’t have a master yet,” he pointed out. If Lily didn’t know that she was the castimonia, she couldn’t have taken the vows to serve anyone.

“Oh. Is that your plan, then? Bring her back to
your
master?” Wick asked icily.

“No! I don’t want her anywhere near him!” Lux shouted, surprised by his own vehemence. “I’ll kill him if he does anything to her. If he touches a hair on her head –”

He balled his hand up into a fist and gritted his teeth to keep from lashing out at anything around him.

“You really care about her?” Wick wasn’t sure whether she believed him. This all might be a show he was putting on, but she didn’t know what he would get out of that.

“Yes.” Lux thought about it a moment before finishing.  “More than I’ve ever cared about anything.”

“I’ll help you rescue Lily,” she said finally, convinced of his intentions. “But once she’s free, I’ll do everything to keep you from corrupting her.”

“Don’t you see? I’m not corrupting her. She’s taming me,” Lux gestured around him. He would’ve elaborated further, about how he’d been unable to pursue anyone since meeting Lily, but he thought that might hurt his case.

“That’s not how it works.” Wick shook her head sadly. “When you mix dirt with water, the dirt doesn’t get clean. The water just gets dirty.”

He turned away from her so she couldn’t see how her statement had rattled him. He’d only been thinking of protecting Lily, but he hadn’t really thought about whether or not she’d need protection from him.

“Lie down and finish resting,” Wick told him and went over to her shelves. “I need to get things together before we go, so I have something to help you fight.”

“We really don’t have much time. Every moment she’s with Valefor…” Lux trailed off, not wanting to finish the thought.

“Then you need to be as strong as you can be if you’re going to go up against Valefor.” Wick shot him a look over her shoulder. “He is the most powerful daemon on Earth, isn’t he?”

Lux grumbled in response and grudgingly lay down on her bed. She was right, but he hated doing nothing.

“I don’t know why I’m trusting you,” Wick said, mostly to herself, as she shoved vials into a small sack. “You’re all master manipulators and liars, especially luxuria.”

“I don’t know why you speak so harshly of me. We’ve never met before,” Lux pointed out tiredly.

“No, but I know your kind.” She opened a vial and tasted a bit of the potion, checking to see whether it was still good, then recapped it and tossed it in her pouch. “There’s a reason I live alone in the woods.”

“Look at it this way. I haven’t tried bedding you yet, and if this had been before I met Lily, I certainly would have.”

Wick was a beautiful woman, despite her attempts to hide it, but the thought of being with anyone other than Lily made his stomach twist in knots. He’d never known it was even possible to feel this way.

“I’m not sure if that was meant to be a compliment, but I didn’t take it that way,” she replied absently.

“No, it wasn’t. Merely facts.” Lux stared up at the hole in ceiling. “How did that happen?”

“What?” Wick went over to the large wooden chest on the other side of the room to search through it, and she glanced up at the carnage done to her cottage. “Oh, that? Just a fight with a sorceress.” Something occurred to her, and she stopped rummaging to look back at him. “You wouldn’t happen to have anything to do with Scelestus, would you?”

“No, I’ve never personally had any business with her,” Lux said, then realized that was a lie by omission. While he’d always been known for his silver tongue, he wanted to reform. “Valefor and Scelestus planned some kind of exchange, but I’m not sure of the details. All I know is that he sent me to fetch Lily from her, but instead of bringing her to him, I left her in the woods.”

“Ah, yes. Leaving a young girl alone in the Necrosilvam. What a wise decision,” Wick mocked him.

“I didn’t know what else to do!” Lux sighed. “In retrospect, I regret it entirely. I should’ve stayed with her.”

“There’s nothing to regret. I took care of her then, and I’ll take care of her now,” Wick said. “She fares much better with me than she does you.”

“She’s still with Ira, no matter who you blame,” Lux replied icily.

“Not for much longer.” She found something in her chest and held it out to him. “Here. Put this on.”

“What is it?” He sat up as she tossed white cloth at him.

“It’s a shirt.”

“I thought you said you didn’t have a shirt.” He slipped off his jacket and pulled on the shirt. It didn’t have buttons, but the collar hung open a bit, the way he liked it.

“No, I said your shirt was destroyed. And that’s not just any shirt. It should protect you from magic, so your friend Ira won’t decimate you if you see him.” She went back to digging through the chest, hoping to find something else useful for herself.

“Well, thank you.” He adjusted the shirt, fixing it so it laid right on him. “I know it pains you to help me.”

“It really does,” Wick sighed. “But I don’t see that I have a choice in the matter.”

“Why did you even bring me back here?” Lux got to his feet, feeling too frustrated to rest any longer. Most of the aches in his body had worn away, and the burning in his chest had disappeared almost entirely. “You hate me so much, but I’ve never met you. I’ve never done anything to you.”

“You didn’t have to,” Wick said. “My best friend, my
only
friend was the castimonia, and she spent her whole life trying to spread good and fix the damage you and your brethren did. When she died, she left me to watch out for her daughter. Now Lily is involved with you, everything she stood against. She would be mortified if she knew what was happening.”