Free Villains by Rhiannon Paille Page A

think of her as an unnatural thing and she couldn’t face his hatred for her.
    “This prophecy is incomplete,” he said after a long pause.
    Aria forced herself to look at him and he seemed pensive, staring at the parchment with intent while running his thumb along the headband of the crown she made. “I didn’t know Tor was writing prophecies.”
    Kallow shot her a quirky smile. “He’s writing them about you.” He held up the parchment and Aria stepped forward to get a better look. She leaned closer to Kallow, and felt his eyes on her. Sure enough the crown she created was on her head. Symbols dotted the sides of the parchment but she didn’t understand them. The only other thing on the parchment besides her was the sun, with streaks of light extending from it. One of the streaks of light held a key at her mouth. She didn’t understand the significance in the least, but a shiver ran through her. She pulled away as he stood, the crown in one hand, the parchment in the other. He placed the parchment on the table exactly where Tor had left it and turned to Aria, bracing the crown with both hands.
    He neared her and a million sensations shocked her body. He placed the crown on her head and it stayed. She half expected him to put his hands on her shoulders and she tilted her head towards him, wanting to touch him, taste him, inhale the intoxicating scent of him, but he pulled his hands back and stepped away, heading towards the opening in the cairn.
    “I got what I came for … if you don’t mind….”
    Aria snapped out of it and twisted her hands together. “I can escort you to the shores if you wish.”
    Kallow smiled. “I would like that very much.”
    The way back seemed to go by faster than the way there. Kallow kept a steady pace and Aria trailed behind him, unsure why she decided to go with him in the first place. Maybe it was all the moaning souls, or the tempting poisonous flowers, or her company. She highly doubted it was the latter, she wasn’t someone to fall in love with, she was someone to be feared, loathed, cautioned about.
    Kallow stopped in his tracks and bent down, snatching something from the ground. Aria almost collided with him but changed directions and floated ahead of him, slowing to a gradual stop. She turned only to see him holding a small green garden snake, only it was becoming petrified by his touch, one end turning solid. “Quickly, give me your wrist,” he said as the petrification reached the midpoint of the snake. Aria thrust her right arm forward not quite sure what he wanted. Kallow twisted the snake around her wrist, doubling it until the petrification reached the mouth and Kallow made the snake eat its own tail.
    Aria stared at the trinket in awe, the bracelet now fused to her wrist. It felt heavy and she expected it to go right through her, but like the crown, it was instilled with some form of magic and it stayed clamped onto her like the mark Cassareece etched onto her soul.
    “What does it mean?”
    Kallow smiled. “It symbolizes the cycle of life and death. We call it the ouroboros.”
    Aria wanted to be happy that he had given her a gift, but like everything else she had been given it brought her back to death. “I don’t know if I like it.”
    Kallow didn’t seem afflicted by her words. “Where I’m from, it means anything that dies will come back to life. It’s a very good omen.”
    Aria smiled, joy replacing the sorrow in her heart so fully that she felt like it might color the night sky in violet tinged stars. “Then it is the best gift anyone has ever given me.” She met his eyes and held them for a long time before he shifted his gaze and passed her.
    “Come, the shores are near.”
    She didn’t want him to go, but she couldn’t make him stay. She trudged along behind him until she smelled sea salt and her chest constricted. Want and need fought a battle inside her and her voice was caught between. She reached out to steady herself and caught hold