Page 75 of A Reign of Storm and Madness

Trust does not come easy to a woman like me. I’ve been hurt and captured and sold. I’ve been tortured and trained. Raised in shackles and bound by the damned blood contract that keeps me beholden to the Underworld in spite of the ways I’ve tried to prove my loyalty to them, to Ophelia. Yet, something is telling me to trust this man. To trust Ruen Darkhaven.

Both you and those boys you find yourself growing more and more attached to will need to overcome what is to pass. That is … if they wish to overcome their own monsters.

Caedmon’s words come back to me from that day in the library. They hadn’t made any sense at the time. A realization slams into me so suddenly that my foot catches on the lip of a street corner and I stumble. Only by the hard grasp that Ruen still has on my upper arm do I manage to save myself from sprawling out, face down, on the cobble stones.

“What is wrong with you?” Ruen grits out, yanking me up onto the corner of the street. His words are harsh even as his eyes scan me, looking for wounds, I think.

“He knows.” I breathe out the words, shock and confusion rippling through me.

Ruen scowls. “Yes, I’ve already figured out that much,” he snaps. “When I get my hands on Kalix, I—”

“No.” I cut him off, lifting my eyes. “Caedmon.”

Ruen goes still. The God of Prophecy knew all along what I am—perhaps even … who I am. Whose God child I am.

The rattling of a street cab comes up the street and I glance up to find that we’re right in front of the coffee house from earlier just as the public carriage with its black exterior and scuffed door comes to a shaky stop in front of us. I stare at the door that opens as a pair of men in gray suit coats step out. The men are well dressed, but the wrinkles on their brows and around the edges of their mouth make it clear that regardless of clothing or style, they are in fact human.

“Are you two getting in or what?” the driver shouts from the seat up front, turning his squinty little beady eyes on Ruen and me as he clicks his tongue in annoyance.

Ruen settles a glare on the man and he flinches, quickly turning back as if he suddenly has important business adjusting the reins in his lap. I barely notice, my mind too full of my sudden revelation to pay the man much mind. If Caedmon already knows what I am then it’s pointless to run.

What else must he know? I wonder. Does he know about Ophelia? If he’s the God of Prophecy, has he already seen the future? Had he seen Kalix and Ruen finding out about my heritage? Does he know what will become of me?

“Kiera.” I jolt at the sound of Ruen’s voice and I look up as he holds the door to the carriage propped open with a hand reaching out for me. “Come.”

I stare at that offered hand. If I take it now, there will be no going back. If there ever even was a job in the Academy, I likely won’t be fulfilling it. Because if I take Ruen’s hand and follow him back to the Academy, I know that there will be one more person to reveal my secrets to. Theos. The final Darkhaven had already made his suspicion about me clear the last time we’d…

I bite down on my lower lip, interrupting that memory with a shake of my head. It hurts more than I care to admit. Theos was the first man I’d ever fucked that hadn’t been for a job. He’d given me pleasure again and again and then, he’d ripped it all away for information. Fresh burning opens up at the back of my eyes. In front of me, Ruen’s brow creases in confusion.

Mistaking my watery gaze for something else, he steps down from the opening of the carriage and reaches for me. His hands touch my shoulders and I stiffen, not sure if I should bat them away and make a run for it or just let him.

“Kiera, look at me.” Fire races through me as the persuasion in his tone has my face immediately rising until our eyes clash.

“Don’t,” I grit out, “use your Gods damned Divinity on me.” The words are spoken so softly that I know none of the men or women passing by, nor the cab driver, can hear me. But he can.

Ruen’s face slackens. “I-I didn’t realize I was. I’m sorry.” If I had the energy to laugh right now at the uptight Ruen Darkhaven apologizing to me, I would.

He sighs as I simply continue to glare at him, daring him to say whatever words he’d been about to. “If Caedmon knows,” he says, dropping his voice level with my own, “then you have to come back to the Academy.” It’s as if he can see right into my mind. I want to wrap my hands around his throat and squeeze. “Caedmon is feared by the other Gods for a reason, Kiera,” he murmurs. “If he knows what you are and never said anything even knowing the laws, then there’s a very good reason.”

I try not to think of the risk I’m taking about being so honest with him as I speak my next words. “I can’t risk going back to the Academy if there’s even a chance that you could betray me again.”

He blinks, reminded of the fact that he’d been the reason for my punishment all those weeks ago. With a groan, Ruen thrusts his head back and stares at the sky. He mutters something that might sound like a prayer to the Gods—that is, if I believed he would ever pray to the beings responsible for what he and his brothers have been through. Then, before I can react, he’s lifting me off my feet and shoving me into the cab.

“Drive,” he barks at the man sitting before the horses. “Bypass your other stops and take us to the north edge of Riviere.”

“Now, just you wait a minute,” the driver sputters. “I can’t—”

The man goes silent as my ass hits a seat and I hear the tell-tale jingling of denza clanking together in a coin purse. I have no doubt that whatever amount Ruen handed the man, it’s certainly more than the driver would ever make in one single day of driving the passengers on his normal route.

“Strap in, young man,” the man says suddenly, his tone shifting immediately as Ruen hefts himself into the interior of the thankfully empty public cab that he’s somehow commandeered for his own personal use. “We’ll be there in a jiffy!”

The door snaps shut and Ruen sits across from me, the two of us staring at each other for a long moment as the carriage pulls away from the street curb with the snapping sound of a whip against a horse’s rear end. I barely maintain my calm and unbothered face as the noise cracks through me. I hate that fucking sound.

“I’m not going to bother asking you not to hold that against me for however long we’re together,” Ruen starts.

“Good,” I snap. “Because as a Mortal God like you, my life is just as long and my grudges will hold all the same.”

His lips twitch. That can’t be amusement, can it? Not after what he just discovered. If it is, though, it’s gone in the next instant.

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