Page 85 of A Reign of Storm and Madness

I nod. “Maeryn, you can’t kill him.”

She turns back to Rodney as Laria begins to struggle in my grip. It takes no real effort for me to pinch her nose shut as my palm remains over her lips. I lean down close to her ear. “I suggest you don’t make a sound, Laria,” I warn her. “I’m not exactly in a forgiving mood today and neither is Niall’s Mistress.”

Laria’s eyes widen as she glances from me to the Mortal God currently pinning her laughably much larger brother into the wall with little more than a small hand on his throat. Even if Maeryn’s natural Divinity is geared towards healing, she still has the same added benefits of her Godly blood. Extra speed, strength, and agility.

“I’m only going to ask this once,” Maeryn sneers into the man’s face. “Where. Is. Niall?”

Rodney wheezes, his face darkening into a bluish-purple as his air supply is cut off. She grips him tighter, not realizing that his lack of response isn’t intended. “He can’t answer you if he can’t draw breath,” I remind her.

Maeryn blinks and releases his throat immediately. Rodney crashes to the floor at her feet, coughing as he sucks down air. I release Laria’s nose and mouth and she, too, gasps down large lungfuls.

“Where is Niall?” I ask her, holding her still against me, her back to my chest. Maeryn turns glittering green eyes on the Terra in my grip.

Laria freezes and the noisy gulping breaths she was previously taking stop altogether as a hiccupping squeak of fear comes out of her. I tighten my hands on her arms until I know they’re bruising.

“Answer the question,” I snap. “Where is Niall?”

“W-why would you th-think we—”

Maeryn abandons Rodney’s shaking body and is in front of Laria and me in a split second. Her hair flies forward with the speed, whipping into the side of her cheek as she comes to a halt. She doesn’t seem to notice.

“Where is he?” she demands.

Laria whimpers. “W-we tied him up in D-Dolos’ office,” she says shakily. “T-to teach him a l-lesson.”

A lesson? I close my eyes, begging for peace and tranquility. It doesn’t come willingly. Tying Niall up in the Dean’s office isn’t a mere punishment from his peers. It’s a death sentence unless we get to him first. Dolos wouldn’t necessarily care why Niall was there or that he wasn’t there of his own free will. Sneaking into a God’s office without permission is tantamount to treason and he’d just gotten through telling everyone that he would no longer be providing mercy to those who broke the rules as he had supposedly done with me.

When my eyes reopen, it’s to find Maeryn’s face bearing down into Laria’s trembling frame. “Why?”

Laria starts to cry. Tears leaking from her eyes and rolling down her cheeks as she shakes against me. “I-it’s her fault,” she blubbers, nodding back to me. “She shouldn’t be here. She’s a disgrace to the Mortal Gods and Divine Beings. He’s been going around telling everyone that she was forgiven by the Gods and thus she shouldn’t be punished, but because of her, we all—”

Maeryn’s palm snaps out and grabs hold of Laria’s face, tightening until I know there will be lines of purple fingerprints engraved in the Terra’s cheeks for days following this. I don’t even feel sorry for her.

“If you ever come near my Terra again,” Maeryn says, her tone quiet and lethal. Her nails dig into Laria’s skin, drawing blood. I blink, but don’t say a word to deter her as she continues. “If you harass him, speak to him in anything but a polite tone, no—if you fucking look at him ever again…” The wild mossy green eyes of hers darken. “I will find you and him,” she nods back to Rodney as he holds his throat, staring up at us where I’m holding his sister hostage before one of the Mortal Gods they worship so devoutly. “And I will slit your fucking throats and watch you choke on your own blood.”

“B-but you h-have healing a-abilities—”

Maeryn laughs, the sound anything but amused. “I choose to heal,” she tells Laria. “If you come for what is mine, I will choose to kill. Do you understand?”

Laria nods quickly. “Y-yes, Ma’am.”

Maeryn looks back at Rodney, who lowers his eyes immediately, wide shoulders trembling. “Y-yes,” he answers her.

Maeryn steps back, eyes falling to me. I reach back and jerk my tunic out of my waistband, grabbing my dagger and lifting its blade until the sharp end of one side is directly against the artery in Laria’s throat.

“Say a word of this to anyone and you won’t have to worry about her coming to find you,” I say.

Laria quickly shakes her head. “N-no,” she blurts. “No, of course not. We won’t say a word.”

I run the wicked length of my blade over her neck, letting her feel the prick of its stinging edge and she squeaks out a fearful plea to stop, one that I ignore. A small line appears against her skin, not deep enough to kill, but just enough to let her know that this is no play we’re putting on. Unlike the Gods, every move I make is not meant for entertainment, but for survival and protection.

In the next instant, I release Laria. Her legs wobble and she steps forward as if surprised that we’re letting them go so easily. A line of blood dribbles down her neck towards her collarbone. She reaches up and touches it lightly, and when her fingers come away with the red liquid, she bolts for her brother. Grabbing ahold of him and the two quickly leave the classroom.

“We have to get to him before Dolos returns to his office,” I say, looking at Maeryn.

She nods, and together, the two of us slip out into the quiet, empty hallway. Neither of us says another word as we move. She doesn’t ask about the dagger I put back in my tunic beneath my jacket and I don’t comment on the obvious affection she’s showing towards Niall—certainly more so than any Master or Mistress I’ve ever seen reveal to a Terra servant.

The last time I traversed the corridors of the Gods’ building, I’d been led by the Academy guards and sure that my doom was waiting at the end. The long hallways—with one side decorated in stained glass windows that throw shades of red, gold, and blue onto the floor and walls—feel somehow longer now than they had before as Maeryn and I sprint down them.

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