Page 83 of Joy Guardian

“Gefred! Let her go!” Kurai bellowed, leaping toward us.

Another man slammed into him, knocking him to the ground. Then the woman jumped on his chest and shoved her sword against his neck.

“Don’t move or I’ll—” she raised her sword to deliver a blow before she even finished her warning.

He crossed his daggers, blocking her attack.

“You really don’t understand the purpose of giving a warning, Malis,” he grunted.

She growled like a feral animal when he tossed her off his chest.

“Malis!” The man who held me, Gefred, flung me aside. Lowering his head, he rushed Kurai.

Kurai slipped to the left, gracefully avoiding the impact, but the other man was already waiting for him. He tossed a rope around Kurai’s neck. The rope slid off his golden collar and caught him just under his chin.

My body went cold with terror.

“No!” I screamed. “Don’t hurt him, please. Take whatever you want. “Here!” I stretched my arms withleilathastoward them. “Take it, use it, feel it. Just please, please let him go.”

Malis tossed me a distrustful glance. The third man, the one who’d brought in the loot a few minutes earlier, rushed to me first.

“Never thought I’d get to try it,” he muttered eagerly, unfurling all his tendrils at once.

“Hey! Who said you’d be first, Raimus?” Malis stomped her foot, heading to us promptly.

The other two men paused, staring at me. With the rope around his throat loosened, Kurai drew a frantic breath.

“Don’t, Ciana. You don’t have to do it.”

“But I want to,” I said, holding out my arms to Raimus.

My emotions weren’t worth Kurai dying over them. It was that simple.

Raimus’s tendrils plunged into myleilathas. I winced at the invasion of another being into my feelings but held still, making no effort to resist.

“Yuck! What the fuck is it?” Raimus spat out, yanking out his tendrils and quickly retracting them back into his arms.

Malis stopped in her tracks. “What do you mean? Isn’t she supposed to taste joyful?”

“Supposed to.But that’s not what she tastes like. She fucking hates me!” He pursed his lips, looking deeply offended.

I didn’t know Raimus enough to truly hatehim. But I couldn’t hide the fact that I severely resented this whole situation. Fear for Kurai’s life pounded in my chest. Try as I might, I couldn’t muster even a drop of joy for their consumption.

“Well, great,” the man with the rope dropped his arms. “Fuck the Joy Guardian. He’ll die anyway now. But I was so hoping to finally taste some joy. Fuck my luck.” He tossed the rope away with force.

“Are all these Joy Vessels defective like her?” Gefred surveyed the other three humans who kept to the cages, watching us from a safe distance.

Peter and Maria looked rather miserable, and the defiance on Shyanne’s face didn’t promise much joy to anyone either.

Unsure what to do, I went to the only place I wanted to be at that moment—closer to Kurai.

“You promised them joy?” I asked.

He nodded.

“And now, you will die because of it?”

“Well.” He arched an eyebrow, which gave him a slightly mischievous expression. “That may not happen for quite some time.”

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