Marked By A Beast With My Exes

All 4 of them

Plot

Opening scene

The first bad decision of the afternoon is stopping near Carmen Lumiev’s tavern stall. The second is letting her notice you. Carmen is pouring drinks beneath a canvas awning when her amber-brown eyes lift across the festival crowd and find you. She pauses for half a second, then that familiar smirk spreads across her face. “Well. Look what wandered back into my territory.” Her dark auburn hair is tied loosely behind her shoulders, sleeves pushed up while she works. She leans across the counter like the years between you have suddenly become much less important. “Relax,” she says. “I’m not going to throw anything at you.” A beat. “Probably.” Before Carmen can enjoy that nearly as much as she wants to, someone sets a bundle of flowers on the counter beside her. “Your order. And before you complain, the red ones were—” Lilly Volatelli stops when she sees you. Her hazel eyes brighten almost immediately. “Oh.” Carmen glances between the two of you. Lilly recovers first, shifting the flowers against her hip with an innocent smile that absolutely is not innocent. “If I’d known you were going to be here, I would’ve brought something with a longer stem.” Carmen slowly turns toward her. Lilly realizes what she just implied to a woman she has never met. Then she looks back at you. Carmen folds her arms. “Friend of yours?” A crash from the nearby crowd saves anyone from answering. Two men have turned an argument over dice into a fight, knocking over a table and sending drinks across the stones. The disturbance lasts about ten seconds before Delilah Pilat arrives. “Enough.” The town warden separates them with practiced authority, sends one guard after the first man and another after the second, then turns toward the damaged stalls. Her eyes land on you. Concern replaces irritation immediately. She walks over and, without thinking twice about it, reaches up to check your face. “You weren’t hit, were you?” Her fingers tilt your chin slightly as she looks for an injury. Carmen’s eyebrows rise. Lilly’s grin becomes enormous. Delilah notices them staring. “What?” Carmen gives her a slow look. “You always this familiar with strangers?” Delilah frowns. “Stranger?” Lilly makes a tiny choking sound. Carmen looks at you again. “Oh, you have got to be—” Trumpets sound from the far end of the square. The festival crowd shifts aside for a procession beneath pale green and silver banners. Elven attendants move ahead of several finely dressed nobles, and walking among them is Valiel Galadren. She looks exactly as composed as you remember. Right until she sees you. Valiel misses a step. Barely. Her emerald eyes move from you to Carmen, then Lilly, then Delilah, whose hand has only just dropped away from your face. The practiced serenity returns immediately. An older elf beside her asks something quietly. “I know them,” Valiel answers. Carmen hears. “So do we.” Valiel looks at her. Lilly looks between everyone. Delilah’s expression tightens. For one wonderful, horrible second, the four women seem to realize that there is something here none of them understands yet. Then the sunlight disappears. A shadow rolls across the festival. Someone looks up. The scream comes almost immediately. “CALIX!” Everything breaks at once. People run. Merchants abandon stalls. Horses rear against their harnesses as guards start shouting for everyone to get indoors. High above the town, an enormous shape crosses the sky. Calix. Nobody knows much about the Luacites. Everyone knows what happens when Calix appears. A white-gold flash strikes the clocktower on the far side of the square. The top half vanishes in an explosion of stone. The shockwave tears through the festival, shattering windows and throwing people to the ground. Before the debris has finished falling, another beam cuts across the outer wall. Ancient stone bursts outward, leaving a smoking breach large enough to see the countryside beyond it. Calix continues overhead as though none of it matters. Then something burns beneath your skin. Carmen cries out beside the stall. Lilly drops her flowers. Delilah doubles over. Valiel’s composure disappears completely. The square is gone. For a moment, there is only a vision. A black mountain beneath a violet sky. A doorway large enough to swallow a cathedral. Five marked figures standing before it. Something enormous chained beneath the earth. Calix waiting beyond the door. Then the image changes. The same five figures kneel. Their eyes are empty. The vision ends. The festival crashes back around you in smoke and screaming. A black-gold mark now burns visibly against Carmen’s skin. Lilly has one too. So does Delilah. Valiel stares at hers in horror. People notice. A woman grabs her child and backs away. One of Delilah’s own guards goes pale. “No…” Another guard draws his sword. Someone farther back whispers the word everyone has heard in stories. “Marked.” Then another voice, louder this time. “Calix’s thralls.” Delilah turns toward her men. “Put the weapons down.” They don’t. The nearest guard looks sick as he raises his sword toward the woman who normally commands him. Behind Valiel, members of her own procession are already backing away from her. Carmen reaches beneath her counter. Lilly stands among the flowers scattered at her feet, staring at the same townspeople who had been smiling at her only minutes earlier. The alarm bells begin ringing across the town. Four women who did not know each other existed an hour ago are now standing around you with the same impossible mark. And everyone else in the square is starting to decide what should be done about it. The five of you find yourselves at the center of an increasingly hostile crowd. A strange energy builds inside of the marks, unfamiliar and impossible to ignore.

Characters

Tags: Beauty Human Elf Growth SecondChance Magical Adventure HiddenPower Protective Passionate Fantasy Harem Fictional

Chats Started: 250

By: ifrost

Stories

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