Page 22 of The Blood of Gods and Monsters

More and more, I am quicker to anger. That’s what happens when everything you’ve ever known is turned on its head. Cursing silently, I drag a hand up my face and shove back the longer locks of my hair, pulling them away from my face as I stalk forward.

“What about the notice we got this morning?” I demand. “The summons?”

Ruen’s lips curl down at the corners. “The summons is still in place, once she’s—” He pauses and looks up as the door opens above our heads. Long silver hair, wet from the bath, flitters over the railing as Maeryn leads Kiera into Kalix’s room. A moment later, the two of them are in the bedroom and the door shuts behind them. Ruen blows out a breath. “Once she’s done with Maeryn, we’ll tell her, and then … we’ll go before the Gods.”

I curse aloud this time, the word ripping free from my throat. “What was Caedmon thinking?” I don’t know who I’m asking. Ruen is just as likely to know as I am and I know nothing.

“I don’t know,” Ruen says regardless.

I close my eyes, blocking out the sight of him and the room. Even still, I can hear the sounds of the women above, and the lingering scent of the sweet herbs and soap from our bathing chambers filters down to erase the last of the mud scent from the concoction Maeryn insisted on. I inhale it deeply, letting it calm my frayed nerves.

Deeper and deeper we go into this rabbit hole. No weapons. No choices. Just three blind mice following after a fluffy tailed assassin who’s done nothing but lie to us for months. I can’t even help it anymore. Knowing that she lied, knowing the real reason why she came to the Academy makes no difference. Still, I want her. I crave her.

“Caedmon won’t let her die,” Ruen says a moment later, but even he doesn’t sound convinced.

After a breath, I open my eyes and settle my gaze on his. “No,” I agree. “He won’t. He wants to use her still.” To kill Tryphone, the King of the Gods.

I don’t know all that Kiera has been through, but it feels cruel to ask that of her. Why her? Caedmon said she was of Tryphone’s bloodline. That means that Tryphone has a child out there somewhere.

My hand drops away from the top of my head and I stride forward until I’m standing next to Ruen’s reading table. My hands land on the table before him. The white blond strands of my hair fall back into place, partially obstructing my view.

“Whatever happens,” I say quietly, distantly aware of Maeryn and Kiera moving about in the rooms upstairs, “she stays with us.”

Ruen doesn’t even hesitate. He jerks his head in a nod.

“We’ll tell her about the summons, but she won’t go alone. We are with her,” I continue, “all the way.”

Beneath the dark wash of fabric he wears, Ruen’s shoulders tense. “Yes,” he agrees, despite the shift. “We are with her.”

Chapter 10

Kiera

The bathing chamber is nearly silent as Maeryn and I sit back-to-back in the giant tub I’d cleaned a time or two since coming to the Academy. I’d been in it once—but that memory is tainted by what had happened after. Theos and his … questions.

Back then, I’d been a bit too concerned with Rahela’s death—partially caused by me, but finished by Kalix—to really think about how big the tub I’m in now is. I shouldn’t be surprised that it’s big enough for both Maeryn and me considering it’s large enough to cater to one of the Darkhavens. Yet, I’d never thought to find myself in this thing again, and most certainly not with Maeryn.

The sound of water droplets dripping onto the surface of the water echoes back to my ears as the woman behind me shifts forward slightly. “Here,” she says and a bar of soap and a washcloth is shoved over my shoulder.

I’d already managed to scrub off the worst of the brown sludge she’d dumped on me before filling the tub and getting in. Now, my hair hangs in limp, wet clumps down my spine. I take the cloth and soap and start on my front.

“You never answered my question,” I say as I slide the cloth up one arm and down the other. My eyes catch on the little white bubbles of soap that cling to my skin, frothing up more with each pass.

Maeryn’s spine goes rigid against mine and she shifts once more, causing a wave of water to ripple around us. “What question is that?” she asks, though she doesn’t sound like she truly wants to know.

My hands slow to a stop and I turn to glance at her. She keeps her face turned away, as if trying to give me some semblance of privacy. I know better than that now. It doesn’t take a genius to know that she was likely the one to change my clothes for me. The Darkhavens are bastards, but Ruen is the most like other men—concerned with some misplaced sense of modesty. He would have ensured someone other than him or one of his brothers took care of the task.

“What happened in the last three days to make you so nervous about telling me?”

A heartbeat passes. Silence fills the chamber, save for the sounds of our bodies shifting ever so slightly in the water and our breaths into the cool air of the room. Finally, Maeryn sighs and her head dips toward her chest.

I drop the washcloth into the water with a resounding plop, giving up the pretense as I cup water into my hands and rinse away the suds. “That bad?” I ask lightly when I feel anything but light.

No, I’ve never felt heavier. Like the weight of some unseen force is pressing against me, crushing me into the world and there’s no fighting what I cannot see.

“The Gods have called for you.”

I don’t know what I expected Maeryn to say, but it certainly wasn’t that. Turning fully, I bend my knees and bring them up towards my chest, wrapping my arms around them. “What do you mean the Gods have called for me?”

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