Page 14 of The Blood of Gods and Monsters

Ruen, for a change, doesn’t tell Kalix to back off. Instead, he nods in agreement and then flips his eyes back to Ophelia. His hand appears at his back and I blink as he delves behind his cloak and under his tunic and, with careful fingers, he removes a dagger I hadn’t known he’d been carrying in the same place where I so often kept my own. “I will give you three seconds to decide,” Ruen states before tossing the dagger in Kalix’s direction.

My eyes follow the blade as Kalix plucks it from the air and then turns it over his knuckles, catching it again and tapping his chin with the sharp end, smiling a bit wider.

“Starting now,” Kalix says.

Chapter 7

Kiera

“Get. Out.”

Three seconds is an eternity when you anticipate bloodshed and dread it. They end with those two words, hissed between Ophelia’s pearl white teeth as she glowers at Ruen. I have to give her my respect for those words and her stance. Ruen is not a normal man. He’s not mortal and, I suspect, he could potentially end Ophelia—no matter how well trained she is—in an instant.

Kalix’s fingers on my upper arms ease ever so slightly. The scent of smoke permeates my nostrils causing my nose to twitch with discomfort. I glance down, seeking out the origins of that smell. A perfunctory once over of Kalix tells me it’s not him. I turn my attention to the scene before me. Ruen’s cold, dark gaze is still locked on Ophelia and despite her ordered words, he hasn’t moved a muscle. Finally, my gaze falls to Theos and what I see sends tendrils of shock through my core. His eyes are blazing, the black completely gone as the golden irises glow with unnatural power and his hands are sparking. Golden flashes erupt from his fingertips, searing up to his palm, and then disappear before starting all over again. The edges of his tunic sleeves are singed. My lips part and I take a step towards him, both confused and wanting to … what? Stop the strange flares of minuscule lightning? I don’t know. Yes. Maybe.

I’m drawn up short by Kalix’s hold.

“You will unleash her from your contract,” Ruen states, the only sound apart from the breaths that fill the room.

My head swivels back to the two of them.

Ophelia’s full lips curl up into the facsimile of a smile. It’s more of a baring of teeth than a true smile. “I will discuss this with Kiera,” she says by way of answer. “Not you.”

Ruen’s head is shaking before she’s even finished. His cool gaze turns into ice chips that threaten to form a sword and stab through her jugular.

“You will remove that stone from her neck or I will kill you here and now and do it myself.”

Those words should not soften me towards him. They don’t, I tell myself even knowing it’s a lie. When was the last time someone demanded freedom for me? When was the last time someone fought for me? My chest tightens. I know the answer.

Ten years ago.

“I wish a word with my ward, Darkhaven child,” Ophelia sneers with insult. “You will leave or you will get nothing from me.”

I take another step forward, wishing to ease the storm brewing between them before it gets worse because, yes, it has already begun. Kalix doesn’t let me go but he does allow the movement as he, too, steps forward. I can see the truth of rage in the darkened night sky of Ruen’s gaze as he turns and glances over at me.

I know what he wants. My response. My decision. I could fucking forgive him for everything he’s done to wound me for that one seemingly insignificant little action. “I want to talk with her too,” I tell him.

To my utter surprise, he nods his understanding. He does so with no small amount of displeasure on his face, but then he takes a step back from Ophelia and I return my attention to the woman who raised me.

“We will be outside,” he says before casting a seething glare at Ophelia even as he continues to speak to me. “Don’t be long, and if you do not come out with that stone removed, I shall remove it myself and then cut this woman down.”

I don’t know if he’ll actually follow through on that threat, but I’m not sure I want to find out so I simply tilt my head in acknowledgment of his words and then stride forward, out of Kalix’s grip. Ophelia doesn’t move from her position in the doorway of the smaller room, but she does cant her head and jerk her chin.

“Out,” she snaps to Carcel and the man obeys, though he doesn’t look happy about it. Then again, Carcel has always been a shit to me and his mouth is little more than a constant pinched asshole so there’s nothing new in his expression.

Ophelia finally steps into the quiet, smaller room. Carcel shoulders past me, shoving into me so fast that it takes all of my self-control not to snatch him back by the collar and plant my fist in his gut. His childishness has long since lost its necessity considering that neither he nor I are children any longer. If he wants to continue to hold a grudge against the time his mother spends with me, that's his prerogative.

Just before the door closes behind me, I see Kalix take two strides forward, and as if he saw right into my mind, he grabs Carcel by his tunic and throws him into the wall with little effort before slamming his fist into his face. If Ophelia sees or hears Carcel’s grunt of pain, she says nothing. She doesn’t even return to the doorway as Carcel begins to curse.

I quickly enter the room and the door swings shut behind me, leaving the two of us alone for the first time in … months. Since long before I ever came to Riviere.

My heartbeat doubles as I stand, silent and still, watching Ophelia round the table that takes up the majority of the small room’s space. The walls, covered in the same ornate, but dusty, wallpaper as the larger room make the space feel more confined somehow and the skin at the back of my neck begins to burn and itch. I refuse to reach up or acknowledge it in any way so I simply stare at the woman that I’ve seen as both a jailer and … a parent for the last ten years.

Once she’s on the other side of the table and has placed it between us, Ophelia braces her hands, palms down on the edges, and lets her shoulders sink down.

“I did not wish to see you again like this, Kiera.” Her voice is quiet, tight.

My skin draws tighter against my skull as I clench my jaw. “Like what?”

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