Page 21 of The Blood of Gods and Monsters

Our heads twist to the side where Niall is half tucked behind Theos, curiosity, confusion, and worry etched into his slender features. Just beyond them, Ruen stands in the doorway, his tree trunk sized arms folded over his chest and a scowl curling his lips. I roll my eyes. That scowl is always there. It’s practically branded onto his features at this point, but instead of arguing with the hard glint in his eyes, I release Maeryn’s hands and sit back, holding mine up in a sign of surrender. Maeryn, too, sits up, though a bit slower.

Not by a single blink of his eyes does Ruen reveal if he even notices the Gods awful odor that now lingers in his bedroom and more specifically over both Maeryn and me. That, more than anything he’s shown before, is impressive. The repugnant foul stench clings to both of us while Niall and Theos stand with their hands clasped over their mouths and noses.

“You two,” Ruen barks, nodding out into the main room. “Bathe and change.”

“I-I’ll go get them some new clothes,” Niall chokes out, obviously trying to stifle his own breaths so he doesn’t inhale more of the stench coating the air. He turns and practically sprints from the room without waiting to see if Ruen will agree.

With a glare at the two Darkhavens, I lumber to my feet, and after a moment, reach down to offer Maeryn a hand. She takes it and climbs to her feet as well. “You don’t have two bathing chambers,” I remind them, dropping her hand. “So who’s to decide who goes first?”

Ruen arches one scarred brow at me. “I didn’t think you were a prude, Kiera,” he replies, cocking his head.

“You were supposed to be the only one bathing,” Maeryn mutters.

I cast a look her way. “You’re not that bad off,” I tell her, scanning her form. Her hands and arms are the worst and that’s not even from me taking her down. Had it been up to me, I would’ve smeared the disgusting stuff on her face and in her hair.

Maeryn curls her upper lip back and flashes me her middle finger before lifting her skirts in gross goop covered hands and stomping towards the door. Without unfolding his arms, Ruen steps to the side and lets her pass. I roll my eyes and follow her out.

Chapter 9

Theos

Once Maeryn and Kiera are sequestered away in the bathing chamber, I call for another Terra to clean up the mess they made of Ruen’s bedroom. Though I have no qualms about leaving him to take care of the filth himself, Kiera’s been sleeping in there for the last several nights, and knowing what will happen now that she’s awake … well, none of us want her to be far away. The room beneath ours is too much distance now.

Silence reigns between Ruen and me as the frightened little Terra tasked with the cleaning duties comes in, moving like a wraith as he flitters back and forth between the room and out of it to retrieve more supplies. Each time the door opens, the stench wafts out, and my upper lip curls back. I do not miss that smell—the scent of dirt and other things I’d rather not mention. It reminds me too much of my time in the facilities where the Gods—or rather, Atlanteans as Caedmon had revealed—stick the children that don’t immediately portray abilities.

The second the Terra has finished his task, the door snicking shut behind him, Ruen breaks the quiet. “We’ll need to tell her what to expect when she comes out.”

Casting a look over at him, I let my gaze trail down the hollows of his cheekbones—deeper than they were three days ago—as well as the shallow bruises beneath his eyes. Three days she’d been asleep. Three days we’d made excuses to the God Council. Had she not woken up today, I fear we wouldn’t have been able to hold them off much longer.

“She’ll feel betrayed.” By the Gods, I feel betrayed. When Caedmon had sent us a note after our return saying that he would take care of the consequences of Kiera’s brimstone removal, I hadn’t expected that he would tell the God Council about her. None of us had.

Ruen reclines in the chair and stretches his neck back as he props his legs up on the edge of his reading table. “I know.” He exhales the words.

I turn my head as the sound of something upstairs greets my ears. Watery splashes? The dull murmur of voices on the other side of the door trickles down to me, but I can’t pick out what the two women are saying. A thought occurs to me and I scowl, realizing that I’ll likely have to call the Terra back to clean the bathing chamber once the two of them are done. After the women are done washing themselves, it will likely smell of the vile concoction I’d thought I’d forgotten from my childhood.

I inhale sharply, trying to drag calm into my lungs, but all I get is the reminder of sickening mud and shit scent of that stuff. Shaking my head, I stomp towards the fireplace, ripping an iron poker from its holder alongside it and jabbing it into the logs with vengeance. The wood cracks under my powerful thrust and breaks in half, embers filtering up the chimney as the crack rebounds around the room.

“We need to be careful while the Gods are in session,” Ruen says slowly.

Jab. Jab. Jab. “I know,” I snap. I break the large remains of the log in the fireplace into several more pieces before reaching down and snatching another from the nearby pile—stacked neatly against the stones. I toss two into the mess. More ash and red embers emerge, fading quickly after a moment before flames erupt over the new dried wood.

That’s just what life is, isn’t it—you think you can overpower it with help, and then, eventually, the pain eats away at them too. With disgust, I slam the poker back into its holder and reach up, cupping my hands over the mantle as I force myself to stare into the crackling flames that roar to life.

“Where the fuck is Kalix?” I ask.

Silence greets my question and then the telltale sound of boots hitting the floor hits my ears as Ruen drags them off the table. I glance back once as he bends and snuffs out the half-burned candle with two fingers. The single trickle of smoke flitters up as he takes his hand away and then blows to the side, smacking into the pile of books he’s been poring over during the nights we’ve waited for our—well, I don’t exactly know what the girl is to us, but I do know that Kiera means more than any other woman has before. Not just to me, but to Kalix and Ruen as well.

Kalix isn’t bothering to deny it. He knows he’s obsessed. I’ve seen the way he looks at her—a mixture of curiosity and excitement thrumming in his gaze. A shiver chases down my spine. That look from him is rarely a good thing. Ruen is different though. I don’t even know if he realizes that he follows her with his eyes whenever she enters a room. He tries not to, but I’ve known him long enough to know when he’s truly not interested and when he’s forcing himself not to be.

With Kiera, Ruen is always forcing himself to look away. That, more than anything else, is telling.

“He sent me a note this morning,” Ruen finally says, responding to my question.

I straighten away from the fireplace, turning, but not stepping away as I face him. “And?”

Ruen’s brows pucker as he frowns down at the open book on the table before lifting his blue gaze to mine. “His serpents have confirmed that the Gods are in the Academy—Tryphone as well as Azai.”

“We knew that already,” I grit out. “Caedmon said as much.”

---