Page 74 of A Reign of Storm and Madness

How much does he know? How much had he heard?

“What are you doing here?” I demand. “You agreed to stay at the coffee house.”

The muscles in my thighs bunch and jump, dancing beneath my skin as the urge to fight him off and flee rises from my belly. I press it down. No, not yet. I need to know what he knows.

Eyes that were once a calm sea have become a stormy ocean, full of wrath and madness. They start to glow, the blue color receding as something vicious comes forth. The crimson color of blood seeps through the exterior colors, swallowing them up until there’s nothing but the red of his irises and the black of his pupil.

Ruen glances down, his eyes seeming to glow brighter as they snag on … my hands. I follow his gaze, noting that the shadows are still clinging to my fingers. I shake them free and they disperse. Accusatory eyes rise back to meet mine. I swallow roughly.

“I can explain,” I start.

A hand clamps around my throat and I lock my gaze on Ruen’s as his fingers squeeze until the air stops slipping in through my lungs. Had it been just hours ago that he’d pressed his front to my back and I’d wondered what it would feel like, him with all that power and repressed strength thrusting into me just like his brothers had? It feels like a lifetime ago now.

I don’t try to remove his grip, though I could if I truly wanted. Ruen might have trained in the Academy, he might be versed in swordplay and survival in the battle arena, but I am versed in the simple act of the kill. Not the spectacle he was expected to perform. I try not to think about the fact that both of us merely did it for survival. That piece of information won’t make slaughtering him if I have to any easier.

“You think I would trust the word of a forbidden God child after you lied to me?” Ruen’s question is a hissing arraignment. I’d blow out a breath if I could, and as if he senses that desire, his hand contracts even tighter around my throat.

My lashes flutter as more dust rains down around us when he slams the flat of his other hand against the stone over my shoulder. Something sharp digs into my spine. I keep my gaze trained on the man above me.

“Are you going to kill me?” I manage to get out when his grip eases the slightest bit to allow the smallest amount of air in. Despite that, my voice still sounds choked as he bares his teeth at me and my words.

His eyes flicker between both of mine and then, as if he can’t help himself, they fall to my lips for a brief second before shooting back up and narrowing. “I haven’t decided yet,” he states.

My fingers curl into fists at my sides. “I’m not fighting you,” I tell him. Not yet. Not until he makes his decision. My heart has restarted and thrums in my breast, galloping faster and faster with each passing moment that my fate hangs in the balance. It clings to a string as slender as a spider’s between the two of us.

And I wait.

“You fucking lied to me,” Ruen growls, repeating some of his earlier accusation.

I nod. “I did.”

“Kalix knows.”

I close my eyes. Of course, he would figure that out. Ruen is no idiot. Yet, already I can feel my freedom slipping further and further out of my reach, if it’d ever truly been within reach in the first place. Ice fills my veins, colder than even Rahela’s water Divinity. I reopen my eyes and fix Ruen with a flat look. “Yes.”

Another curse tumbles out of his mouth. My lips twitch in amusement despite my current predicament. “Is that boy even really your brother?” Ruen demands. Furious red eyes settle on me once more.

That boy? “Regis?” I clarify. I hadn’t heard anyone call Regis a boy since he’d reached fifteen and had shot up a good six inches taller than all of those of his same age group. Ruen jerks his head down in an affirmative, his grip on my neck easing a bit more and I gulp down another breath.

Ruen can be a good ally if I can keep him from spilling my secret. More than an ally, he can be a good partner. He’s powerful. It’s clear from the looks I’ve seen others send his way at the Academy. Theos might be the playboy who seems nonthreatening, but Kalix is the one everyone fears. Ruen is the one they look to in order to keep someone like Kalix in line. If I can’t convince him to keep my secret, I’ll have to kill him. I know I will, and I really don’t fucking want to kill someone that doesn’t deserve my blade.

“Regis is my brother in every way that matters,” I tell him honestly. “He knows me the best and he’s a good person, Ruen. If you tell…” I let my voice fill with trepidation and a little bit of pleading. He doesn’t need to know that the second he openly decides to go to the Gods is the moment I’ll gut him. “They’ll come for him and they won’t just kill him. The Gods will torture him for keeping my existence a secret.” They would torture and kill everyone in the Underworld if only to set an example of what happens to those who don’t worship the Gods properly just as Dolos had done to me in the Academy.

“Is he—”

I’m shaking my head before he’s even finished the question. “He’s completely human.” And just to add a bit more to the heaping plate of what I’m hoping is uncertainty on his shoulders, I add, “he’s fragile, Ruen. He wouldn’t survive whatever they do to him.”

The red in Ruen’s eyes fades slightly and I glimpse spots of blue rising forth. Hopefully, that means his anger is lessening. A beat passes and then another. Ruen releases my throat to grab my arm and he begins dragging me after him.

“Come on,” he grits out. “We’re going back to the Academy.”

“Are you going to—”

He doesn’t allow me to finish my question. “No,” he bites out, flashing me his teeth and furrowed brows before he amends, “not fucking yet anyway.”

It’s as good of an answer as I suspect I’m going to get from him right now. So, I let him drag me through the slums—our pace much slower than the one I’d set to come here from the coffee house. He’s trying to keep a low profile in Riviere as much as I am. I consider that as well as all the ways this could go wrong.

If I re-enter the Academy with nothing more than Ruen’s word that he won’t betray me—again, my mind reminds me snidely—there’s no telling when he’ll decide keeping my secret is too much of a risk for him and his brothers. But if I don’t go back with him now, then I’ll most certainly have to kill him. I bite down on my tongue and keep walking.

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