Page 20 of The Blood of Gods and Monsters

“It’s probably better that you don’t know exactly what it is.” Maeryn’s voice is full of sympathy.

“Wait.” I whip around as she dumps the second container of spices into the congealed mess of quickly muddying water in the bowl. “You’re not bringing that anywhere near me.”

“It’ll help you,” she says. “I know it’s not going to be fun, but if your senses can overcome this.” She pauses and gestures to the bowl before she withdraws a long metal spoon and starts stirring it. I swear to the Gods, I think I see a face forming in the mess, one screaming for help. “Then all of your sensitivity problems will cease.”

“Maeryn, I’m not saying this to scare you, but to warn you,” I say slowly rising from the bed. “If you put that thing near me, I’m going to stab you in the throat.”

She glances at me and bites down on twitching lips. The bitch is amused. This is so not funny. I take a step back and she finishes stirring the bowl of disgusting liquid that’s growing firmer by the second. I don’t know what it is and I don’t care to. What I do know, however, is that the scent wafting towards me is worse than anything I’ve ever encountered.

“You shouldn’t fight it,” Maeryn tells me simply. “You have a bathing chamber upstairs that you won’t have to share with anyone, so if you just get this over with, you can—no, don’t!”

I bolt for the door before she’s finished speaking. My hand latches on to the handle and jerks it open, and I run, head first into a tunic covered chest.

Blinking in confusion, Theos’ face gapes down at me as I hear Maeryn yell for him. “Hold her still!”

Fuck. I try to dive around him, but before I can, Theos’ arms band around me. He lifts me off the floor, my feet dangling helplessly as I kick and thrash, before striding back into the room and kicking the door closed behind him, effectively ruining my attempt to escape.

“No!” I shout as Theos releases me and without hesitation, I rear back and punch him in the face.

My fist collides with his cheek as his golden eyes widen with shock. My knuckles skip over his cheekbone, narrowly missing his eye socket before slamming into the side of his nose, and his head snaps left. Blood spurts. A grunt follows the movement but then a cold semi-liquid is poured down my spine and I shriek, whirling around as a glob of the putrid stuff that Maeryn had put together slaps me on the chin and drips down towards my breasts.

Mouth hanging open, I stare at her for a moment and the fact that her hands are coated in the stuff. “Did you just … throw it at me?” I ask, gasping as the acidic scent wafts upward and burns through my nostrils.

A groan sounds behind me. Theos’ hand latches on to my shoulder before I feel it recoil, and the sound of disgust in his voice when he speaks leaves no question as to the reason. “Fucking Gods, what is that smell?”

Maeryn blinks as if she, too, is surprised by her actions, but still, she doesn’t back away as I feel a wet glob of something sticky and grotesque slide towards my ass over the thin material of the nightgown. She takes a step back as I take one forward. Holding up her brown sludge covered hands even as she drops the now empty bowl to the floor.

“Trust me,” she says quickly, holding those hands of hers up. “It’s better to get it over with than to suffer the new sensations?—”

“How did you know what I needed?” I ask, cutting her off even as I narrow my eyes on her and toe the bowl out of my way.

Maeryn, as if sensing my intentions, dives towards the bed and scrambles across the sheets and blankets. With a curse, I reach out, nearly snagging the hem of her skirts as she leaps toward the opposite end. Grinding my teeth, I widen my stance as she reaches the opposite half of the bed and turns, offering me a pitiable apologetic shrug.

“It happens to a lot of younger Mortal Gods,” she answers. “Sometimes Divinity takes a few years to form and when it does a bit too suddenly, it overwhelms the senses until you experience something that dampens them once more, makes them easier to handle. Theos knows. He’s experienced the same thing.”

Turning my head, I scan a scowling Theos as he thumbs away a streak of blood beneath his already healing nose. “Yes, and I was happy to forget about that disgusting concoction.”

The pattering of footsteps sounds a split second before a streak of cream, brown, and red shoots past the end of the bed. I don’t hesitate. I dive for Maeryn’s retreating body and take her down to the floor in a tackle of limbs and shrieks. A piece of muddy sludge slips off my ass and plops onto the floor behind me.

“Theos!” Maeryn shouts. “Get her off me!”

Distantly, I hear the bedroom door creak open, but my focus is completely on pinning the girl’s wrist beneath me to the floor rather than seeing who’s entered. “I could, but I also don’t want to get punched again,” Theos replies.

Maeryn grits her teeth and bucks up into my hips. My grasp slips against the goop covering her palms. From where my hands hold hers down, sparks of pain shoot through my limbs and muscles. A gasp leaves my lips and I drop down on top of her as a hiss escapes my throat.

“Fucking … bitch,” I breathe out.

With a smirk, Maeryn lifts her chin at me. “Healers can do more than just mend wounds, bitch,” she shoots back.

Maybe any other time, I’d respect her attitude—Gods, were I not the one she just flung shit that smells worse than any horse manure I’ve ever encountered at—I’d be on the sidelines laughing my ass off.

“W-what’s going on?” Niall’s timid tone penetrates my skull and with a groan as Maeryn sends another shot of whatever kind of energy-Divinity-magic she possesses through my body, I rear back and snap my skull down, slamming it into hers in a last-ditch effort to get her to stop.

The cry she unleashes is half outrage and half pain, but the bolts of fire and lightning stop slamming into me. Maeryn kicks against my hold. “Come. On!” she yells. “You needed it!”

“Catfight,” Theos tells Niall.

“That’s enough.” Both Maeryn and I fall still as the new, booming voice of none other than Ruen Darkhaven spears into the room.

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