A Taste of Mercy (A Recipe for Disaster Novel 2)

beckons ever onward.

I still fought, every day I fought against Brenin trying to control me, my magic, my actions. I would not kill for them, but the screaming. The screaming of the pitiful creatures Aerona tortured started to follow me into my sleep. I couldn’t go a moment of the day without hearing that screaming, the only thing that silenced it was the Phoenix Tears, and I hated that solution as much as I hated those that caused the screams. It was the screams and knowing that I would only ever hear more of them that led me to kill the ghoul I faced the last time. I didn’t want to; I had it down on the ground and helpless. “I’m so sorry. But I’m saving you from a much worse fate.” I’d whispered before I took its head off in one clean stroke.

Brenin started to clap, proud of me at last and I felt the shaking hit me without any need for a drug. “Well done my pet, well done!” he cheered for me, coming across the clay. I still had the ichor dripping sword in my hand, ready to use it on him should the chance arise, but Aerona took it from me before I got my moment. “You see, no one had to die in agony today because you did what you had to do. You weren’t selfish today, and so that creature is at peace.”

“I hate you.” My everyday defiance resurfaced despite the successful kill.

“Not as much as you hate you right now pet. But this was only your first stage of training. Tomorrow you get to move on to bigger and better things, learning the art you’ve seen my dear sister Aerona practice so many times.” Brenin patted my cheek and without thinking about it I snapped my teeth around his thumb and bit down as hard as I could. He’d once eaten my little finger so it was about time I repaid the favour.

Brenin backhanded me hard enough I felt something in my jaw crack. It concerned me because I wasn’t sure if it was a tooth, my jaw, or even my neck, but I went tumbling over onto the clay. I tried to get onto my hands and knees, to move away but once again the Demon King lived up to the description of being demonically fast. I was kicked in the stomach hard enough I tasted blood, then my shirt was ripped up my back before I felt the shark-like teeth dig in, biting into the flesh of my back, where hip swells out from spinal column. The lassitude of a demon bite hit me even as Brenin stopped his attack, storming out of the arena before he could damage me further. Even as he stomped away I spat out the broken tooth from my mouth, getting onto my knees despite the pain. I was actually getting used to being roughly treated like that. Aerona approached me and jabbed a needle into my neck, and I didn’t fight her, compliantly bending my head to the side at her more gentle touch. It wasn’t the pure wash of Phoenix Tears this time, a much more diluted version instead, and I was gratefully disappointed as my addiction screamed for it. The Phoenix Tears blunted the edge of pain but the euphoria was no longer enough to turn me into a completely passive puppet. Aerona lopped my arm over her shoulder and helped me stand, and even though I had seen her torture many creatures, I clung to her as if she were a friend.  She walked with me patiently, taking me to a quiet area where food was set before me and I was forced to eat. “Would it make it easier for you to accept your training if I told you that we are trying to save people?” Aerona asked without preamble.

I was emotionally burned out, the withdrawal making me shake slightly, so I just looked at her without really processing. “Explain.” The command sounded flat of all inflection.

“We are no longer the most dangerous things in the dark Callahan. And I hope to whatever Aspect of the Goddess is listening that you and your Wild Magic will be enough.” Aerona replied in a deadly serious voice.

“That’s truly comforting coming from the slaughtering strawberry shortcake.” The sarcasm was a defensive response I’d not thought myself capable of yet.

“Oh I do like you Callahan, and I wish that we could have met under other circumstances, at a different time in my life. I do what I have to do, just like you will. The name of the game is survival and there isn’t an entity in this Realm that is better at that than I am, even if it means doing things that drive me insane. I wish I could help you escape in the hopes that maybe you could help me do the same, but my brother was telling the truth when he told you that we need you. More succinctly, we need your Wild Magic.” As Aerona pleaded, the entire compound started to shake. At first it was so soft that I had figured the tremors were my own body, still struggling through the withdrawal process, but this latest one was no gentle body tremble; it was a proper quake.