War God for Hire- Gladiator David Burke (bookreader TXT) 📖

guards looked at each other, uncertain, but Kyle said, “I won’t touch her.”

After that, and for the next three hours, he did his best to keep his mind on her voice and the words as he went through what essentially amounted to ‘See Spot Run’ level drills. He did have to admit that she was good at teaching him, and he added another hundred simple words to his vocabulary, but more importantly, he got a better understanding of simple grammar. He knew he was learning child-level speech, but he had to start somewhere.

When she signaled the guards to lower the ladder down again for her to exit the cell, he placed his hand on it, causing her to shiver.

Kyle immediately stepped back and said, “Sorry. Thank you.”

He hadn’t intended to scare her, but he felt good to be able to say a few words on his own. She looked at him for a moment before nodding and then climbing up the ladder. He did everything in his power not to stare up the short form-fitting dress she was wearing.

He was even mostly successful.

“You definitely have more interest in the fairer sex than Krig ever did. Maybe reincarnation has helped you. And you seem to be equal opportunity interested. First a lycan, and now an elven sorceress,” Hilde trilled.

Kyle paused for a moment. He could let her get under his skin and tease him like some grade-schooler shouting about trees, kissing, and baby carriages. Or he could tackle it head on. He had nothing to be ashamed about. Kierra freaked him a bit because, honestly, she was all furry and he didn’t know if that made her more like an animal, even if she had curves in all the right places.

Nyda was definitely nothing to be ashamed of. She was gorgeous, with a rocking body wrapped up in the cuteness of her petite size. The best way to handle a conversation like this was to go on the offensive so you could take charge, and he knew the thing that almost always worked with women who were trying to be a bit aggressive.

“If you think I get worked up over elves and lycans, then you should see how hot I get for fiery celestials,” Kyle thought back at her while trying to inflict the sense that he was staring right into her.

He didn’t understand how this soul connection between them worked, but he poured his energy into it. The attempt was instinctive, and he just went with it. Kyle had never been an overly spiritual person. If push came to shove, he believed in a god or God, although what his current situation said about that was something else.

Despite that now, he felt another aspect inside himself.

He was used to being attuned to his physical body, knowing exactly how far he could push himself. That was part of the secret of his success. Suddenly, though, it was like there were multiple layers to him that he hadn’t known existed before.

As he pushed in, he felt something part. Like there was a vast emptiness around him. It was bottomless and threatened to devour him, but he forced it apart. It felt almost like he was trying to shovel the water of a vast ocean apart with his bare hands. The substance moved, or perhaps lack of substance might have been a better way to describe it.

Then it rushed back around his fingers, but he didn’t want that to happen. He wanted to drive his point home to Hilde, so Kyle pushed harder. He willed it not to be so, and the fabric shifted around. A small, round window formed in it, and he looked into a glorious hall fit for royalty with a throne of gold draped with a crimson cloth.

Sitting upon that throne was the most gorgeous woman that he had ever seen, wreathed in flames and sporting two wings. He knew without knowing, that this image he beheld of her was only a physical representation of her spiritual being. Yet he was captivated.

Where Kierra was curvaceous and Nyda was delicate perfection, this woman exuded sensuality. She was the matured conclusion of what every other woman he had ever known hoped to be. And best, she wasn’t wanton; her appeal was simply a part of her, as simple as breathing. It was an expression of her fiery nature.

Then he started panting and his body trembled with a strain unlike any he had ever felt. It was impossible to describe it in terms that he could understand, even to himself. The effort was draining him completely, and he felt a bitter cold sucking the very life out of him. Kyle hated to let the image of her go, but he had no choice but to pull back, lest he die.

As he collapsed on the stone floor of his cell and the darkness overcame him, he heard the anguished cry of a soul and knew that he had seen Hilde.

Chapter 12 - Finding a Place

The next morning, he woke when a bucket of icy water was poured all over him from outside his cell. Two different guards stood up above and laughed at his sudden scramble to wake up. In his haste, he had failed to control his strength and crushed the table. Even the stone wall was cracked on one side where his leg had kicked out in response to the water.

He was so angry that he yelled out in English at them, “Hey, what the hell? Just say something. I’m a light sleeper.”

There was this urge within him to leap up out of the cell and teach these insolent curs a lesson they would never forget. Well, that wasn’t quite true. If he did what he had in mind at that moment, it would likely be the last thing that he did.

He reined in his emotions. He was angry, but killing people for throwing some water on him was not something that was part of the way that he