Page 22 of A Reign of Storm and Madness

It would piss Ruen off so fucking much, an evil treacherous little voice murmurs in the back of my mind.

My tight muscles relax slightly at the idea and I find myself peering down at Kalix with a new interest. It would piss Ruen off, and I’m still holding a damned grudge for what he’d done. Fucking not just one but both of his brothers wouldn’t be enough to pay him back, but it would be a start.

“Something on your mind, little mortal?” Kalix quirks a brow.

“Maybe,” I hedge. I don’t move to explore my sudden interest in him though. Not yet. I still need some information, starting with how the fuck he’s managing to get into my room without waking me. This isn’t the first time, but I damn well intend to make sure it’s the last.

Kalix’s breath brushes my cheek as he turns his head towards me and the feel of his lips touching my jawline has those goosebumps shooting up my neck as the baby hairs along my arms stand on end. I am a small creature caught in the claws of a predator delirious with the power he wields over me.

“Why are you here, Kalix?” I demand. “How did you get into my room when my door was locked?”

Out of the corner of my eye, I spot something at the edge of my room—the moonlight coming in from the window glinting off scales smooth and black as a tail slithers through a hole in the wall. Immediately, I jackknife into a sitting position. My jaw smashes into Kalix’s head with the sharp movement and a burst of pain hits and then fades just as fast.

He rears back and blinks down at me, surprise etched into his features as his brows jump towards his hairline. “What the fuck was that?” Somehow, I already fucking know and I turn accusing eyes on the man above me. “Were you fucking spying on me?” Rage pours through me, red hot and volcanic. A molten fire that runs the length of my arms, causes my own power to slip free—just once, a bolt of current hissing between us.

Kalix sighs and leans back, putting a hand to the side of his neck and cracking his head to the side as he peers at me through lowered lids. “Of course I was,” he says as if it’s obvious.

My fingers inch back towards my dagger. He notices, and I freeze. Instead of being insulted, however, Kalix snatches the dagger up and flips the handle around, holding it out to me by the edge of the blade pinched between his fingers.

“Go on,” he challenges in a whisper. “Show me what you’ve got, little mortal.”

I want to. Oh, how I want to. If anyone could benefit from being knocked down a peg or two, it would be Kalix Darkhaven. The urge to be the one to bring him down from that pedestal of his rides me harder than his brother ever had.

Using the edge of the hilt, he tucks the grip beneath my chin and tilts my head back so that I’m forced to look directly at him. “What are you?” I demand.

His eyes glitter with delight as if he’s been waiting for that question. The dagger falls from his hand and I catch it deftly before it can stab me in the thigh as I find the figure of a man above me suddenly gone and in its place is a snake. Not just any snake, either, but a massive green and black-scaled serpent with cold crimson eyes. The snake unlocks his jaw and a forked tongue flicks out.

I jolt as it flutters over the soft inner skin of my thigh, a gasp escaping me at the odd sensation of something damp, though not slimy, ghosting over my flesh. One moment it’s there and the next, Kalix is back.

All of the air in the room is gone. I gape up at him in shock. It hadn’t been a dream. The feeling of something slithering up my legs. The way he’d disappeared when I’d been taken to Dolos. For some reason, my mind had reasoned it away. I’d expected him to admit that he had familiars—I wasn’t so naive as to think I was the only Mortal God with the ability—but not … this. The ability to shift into a fucking snake.

This time, when Kalix smiles at me, I focus on the twin canines on the upper row of his teeth, slightly longer and sharper than the rest. Fangs.

“Any more questions, little mortal?” he taunts me, wrapping his arms around me and dragging me down the mattress until my back presses into the uncomfortable fabric. “Or perhaps you’ll finally give me what I want and stop tormenting me by making me work for it.”

I stare up at him. “Are you going to take it regardless of what I say?”

He pauses as if it never even occurred to him that I would refuse him. Still, my heart flutters in my chest at the sight I’d just witnessed. I take uneven, shallow breaths to calm myself, reaching for that place I’d trained myself to seek whenever I was too close to these kinds of emotions. Panic does nothing. Fear is only good in increments. If I let too much completely take me over then I’m as good as dead.

Cocking his head to the side, Kalix observes me with an unnerving intensity. The red gaze of the snake is gone and replaced once more by the jade of his green eyes. Another moment and my heart slows further until the repetitive thud thud thud of the organ reverberates in my ears and fades from existence. Quiet once more.

“You fear me,” he states. A non-question. “But you don’t run, you don’t scream, you don’t cry, you don’t beg.”

“No,” I agree. “I don’t.”

He hovers over me, his face close enough to mine that his breath brushes over my lips. “Why?”

Because I would rather die than let my fear control me. I don’t voice that thought.

Kalix is all dark Divinity and sensual threat. His very presence commands attention and I am helpless to do anything but look back at him and let him do his worst. No matter what that may be.

Silent seconds pass into minutes. Kalix angles his head lower. “Fine then,” he murmurs softly, gaze falling over my face and then stopping on my lips. “Keep your secrets, little mortal. But I will have payment for my protection.”

Protection? Before I can ask what he means by that comment, his head descends and his mouth pushes against mine, and I am utterly consumed.

It’s only now that I realize that there’s something decidedly lethal about Kalix Darkhaven and it has nothing to do with the excitement in his eyes when he holds a sword or is coated in blood. It’s just … him.

Chapter 14

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