Sword Sisters by Alex Bledsoe, Tara Cardinal Read Free Book Online Page A

Red Reaper. I mean, the prophecy was written down by a witch whose handwriting looked like someone had attached a quill pen to the foot of a panicky squirrel. So what if I was destined to mother the Red Reaper, and it turned out to be a red-haired, fire-souled son? I suppose a male Red Reaper would be better liked, more accepted by the humans who seem to favor men in all things even though it was a woman who brought them to life. You know, maybe I’m not so sure I’m fond of these humans. They seem silly, violent, and self-absorbed. And very, very weak.
    Hell, maybe I should stop fighting so hard and just join a brothel. Yes, that would be serving on my back. But I’d be safe. I’d be displayed as the freak that I am. I wouldn’t have to hide it. I’ve heard some men have a taste for the bizarre. That’s me, all right, with my Demon skin, flaming red hair, and thick limbs. Mistress of the Bizarre.
    Would they despise themselves afterwards for coming to me? What would it be like to lay with a man? I’d never done so, not with a human, which of course is strictly forbidden, or a Reaper, who are all way too old for me anyway. Truth be told, I wasn’t even sure how. I suppose that’s the sort of thing a mother discusses with her daughter. But my mother was too busy pretending to be dead and talking to the birds and the bees to make time to chat with me about the birds and the bees.
    I had a chilling yet curiously welcome thought. What if I am to die a virgin?
    I suppose it should’ve been terrifying, but it was romantic to me. Many warriors choose celibacy as a way of securing and focusing their chi exactly where they want it. They don’t waste precious life force on mundane matters of the flesh.
    They’re also incredibly lonely people. And there’s a difference between loneliness and being alone. The second didn’t scare me.
    The first, though? It terrified me.
    And it terrified me because of that kiss. That kind, gentle, practically chaste kiss from a brown-eyed boy who saw me for what I was and didn’t run away.
    “You know what?” I said to the mouse. “I’ve had it with this place. It’s time for a change of scenery. You can take over my room now, mouse; I won’t need it anymore.”
    I stood, straight and proud. I looked up at the clouds visible through the skylight above me. “By the marriage gods of Hassazag, I swear I will find you, Aaron. I will return your kiss. And then you—if you wish—may return my heart.” Or you may keep it and give me yours in return. Because if the Reapers didn’t want me, if the world of men needed me merely as a brood mare, they could all damn well go to hell.
    “Be nice to Vikki; she could’ve poisoned your cheese months ago and hasn’t,” I told Gray.
    I leaped for the skylight.

CHAPTER SIX
     
    I ran through the woods, past the safety zone, easily avoiding all the patrols and guards. It’s not like they were expecting anything anyway: Except for bandits and the occasional disgruntled rabble, there were no incursions or battles to be had. And they certainly weren’t expecting anyone to sneak away from the castle.
    Finally, I reached the Forever Forest proper. It didn’t get that name because it was small or easily traversed. No, it was gigantic. In fact, on the maps, it ended only at the sea, and even there, no one was quite sure of the shore’s outline. Great swaths of territory were simply blank because no one knew for certain who or what lived there.
    Since the end of the war, some humans had gone back into it, cleared spots, and erected settlements. But there was no established trade route among them, and unless they came to the castle for the public festivals on the solstices and equinoxes, we didn’t know they existed. So Aaron could literally be anywhere.
    But I knew he was in here somewhere because he’d been hunting. You didn’t hunt on the open plains, where the deer could see you, or across the cultivated fields unless you sought only rabbits