Never Keep (Sins of the Zodiac, #1)

by Caroline Peckham

“I’m no flame fucker, but you will be when I shove this everflame up your ass, Ransom,”

They call me the Sky Witch. Bloodborn Aquarius of the greatest nation of them all. My birth took place in the eye of a storm while battle raged around us and my mother’s screams were met with those of men dying in the fields of glory beyond. I am yearning. I am lust. I am the greatest desire of all who fall prey to my power, and I am lethal in more ways than can be counted. I am Fae. I am Air. I am master of blood and bone. My name holds no power because it is not what I am. My true name is War.

“Eské tamin, Koe morden mas ocil harbrin,” I gritted out in Cascalian. Fuck fate, I make my own tonight.

She had become a nightmare, whispered about behind locked doors; the girl with the face of a deity and a soul drenched in sin.

“Find who did this,” she rasped. “Never rest, Everest. Until they pay for what they have done.”

“Killing an ally is punishable by death,” I replied scathingly. “Removing an organ or two will probably only earn me a whipping or a week in the brig, either of which I’m willing to suffer for the pleasure of making you scream. How about you? Is my life worth yours, because you’ve chosen a particularly lethal place to cut.”

In fact, I would make it my priority to save his sorry life as soon as possible to make us even again so I could go back to not knowing he existed.

“Are you going to tell me why you reek of another man?”

“This doesn’t break you, Ever, do you understand me?” he said firmly. “You have a soul crafted by the hand of the ocean herself. You hold the strength of the tide in your blood, so you will not fade, you will fight.”

“I’ve spent the last year training for this day.” “Then why are you fidgeting like there’s fire ants in your undergarments?” “Maybe I stuffed a few in there for good luck,”

“Tobias was my friend since childhood,” he ground out. “Perhaps you should keep his head in a jar in your office then. That way you won’t miss him so dearly,”

“And now I realise how much time I’ve wasted thinking I would always have you, thinking there was no deadline on us. But I didn’t want to break what we have. You’re my friend first, Ever, but I have to lay an offering of more than that on the brink of our parting, otherwise the regret will feast on me from the inside out. But I want you to train first, to chase your desires and land within the fate you have long been owed, and then and only then, will I ask you to be mine.”

I tossed my apple core into the hands of some ogling idiot as I passed him, shuddering in disgust as he began licking it and groaning my name.

War of the four, divided and torn asunder. Flame, sky, rock and sea collide, While the stars bless the valiant souls of battle. Seek the void, for it shall guide the victor to their glorious path, A weapon of purity, and the gift of null. In a web of lies and cruelty, fate will favour the cresting wave of destiny, And a bountiful empire shall be reborn under one all-powerful rule, Garnering the fortune and favour of the almighty sky.

I realised that The Cobra hadn’t been screaming before. No, the sounds issuing from his lips in the moments leading up to this one had been akin to laughter in the face of what tore from him now.

I watch you when your guard drops. I watch you when you think you are nothing but shadow and I see those truths you hide so well.” “Oh please don’t tell me you’ve discovered my secret knitting club.”

“Oh boy, what a name. I do like it. Miss Everest. Ever. Rest. Ever, ever rest. Never ever rest.”

“I am not afraid, Miss Everest. I like danger. It is quite fun. It makes my heart go ba-bomp.” “It will make your heart go ka-splat if we’re caught and skewered on the end of a Reaper’s sword,”

“If it’s much further I might have to gut someone just so that I can warm my hands up with their innards,”

his silence almost as offensive as the sound of his voice - should he ever deign to use it.

One of the males turned to glare at us as he overheard her, baring sharp teeth as a growl rolled up the back of his throat. Wolf. Or maybe a Bear. Both bled out as easily as the other so I didn’t much care for the details.

“What a pointless way to die,” I breathed, holding her there on the cusp of death. “Finding yourself impaled upon a piece of cutlery simply for being an insufferable cunt.”

“I don’t catch your meaning, actually. In fact, it kinda sounds like you’re going to take me somewhere and whip your dick out. And I promise you, if you do, I will cut it off and feed it to that amorous manatee you were so taken with.”

I had now successfully carried out four assassinations on my prince’s command. The list he had given me was thinning so much that I might have to ask him for more names just to keep my evenings active.

A few other Fae were hurrying towards the closest latrines and I huffed out an irritated breath, yanking on their needs and making them piss themselves before they could get there. One guy wailed in horror as he shit his pants and if it wasn’t for the stench, I would have laughed.

“I know someone whose greatest desire is to shove their head right up the ass of their father – do you think you could make him act on it?”

“I left a set of throwing daggers behind when we packed for Never Keep,” Moraine said eventually. “And Dalia forgot her soul. We’d better go and grab them while we have the chance.”

I felt I was seeing him clearly at last. I was just a thing to him. I’d never been special. I was a toy to chew up and discard at will. A soldier to send to face her death time and again. Hooray if she succeeds, boohoo if she fails, shall we have another tiny cup of fucking tea?

“He wrote the message there with his blade so I would not forget. It is a little sore but the blood has stopped now. So that is good.”

“Blue means you, small dragon. I do hope you remember that. Yes, oh boy. I think he likes it.”

I was studying the blood which coated my split knuckles, trying to remember how many assholes I’d knocked out when I’d thrown myself into the fighting pit at the back of the house of sin, but I kept losing count at six because it rhymed with dicks.

“Oh please, Venus no, no!” he gasped, the thumping stopping as a small part of my brain realised I was boosting his desire to take a shit instead of his lust.

The deep blue walls were coated in ugly oil paintings which seemed to be in a competition for the dullest subject matter; one of a tree stump, the next of an empty bowl, though I had to think the one of a lone napkin took the title.

I wasn’t a damsel in distress. I was just a bitch on a path to destruction

Oops. There I go, accidently knocking tiny shits onto you.

The Endless War never gave, it only took. Land came at the price of graves. Gold came at the price of blood. There was always, always a price, and I had long ago learned it was never one worth paying.

“Run, Ever. Never stop running.”

I turned my hands palm up and inhaled deeply, allowing my eyes to fall closed as I called out to my sisters on their journey to The Veil, begging them to wait for me so that we might cross into death as one.

The Sky Witch was dead and I was simply the shell who lingered in her wake, with nothing but the promise of retribution to keep me breathing.