Page 3 of The Blood of Gods and Monsters

She moves to the cell door as if she already knows my answer. Maybe she does. She seems to know my thoughts better than I know them myself. The lock clicks open and the bars swing outward. The woman stands in the entryway and holds out her hand to me.

“My name is Ophelia,” she says, introducing herself at last. “Will you make a deal with me, young God Child?”

Using my hold on the bar to my cell, I drag one foot up and stomp it into the dirt and stone floor beneath me. Then I do the same with the other until I’m standing on shaking legs. I stumble, catching myself on the side of the cell as she just stands there. Ophelia doesn’t reach out to stop me from falling and she doesn’t move any further into the small cramped space.

Ophelia waits for me because this needs to be on my own power. I need to make the decision. Inhaling sharply, I lean away from the bars, my bound hands grazing her fingers until she closes her hand around one of mine.

“Yes,” I answer. “I’ll make a deal with you.”

Her lips curve into a smile that sends tendrils of fear skittering down my spine. I mentally stomp on that fear.

Become what I fear, she’d said, and I wonder if she knew that meant I’d become someone like her. Will I become someone like her?

“Good girl.” Ophelia tugs me forward and out of the dank cell. It’s not freedom. I know that. But it’s a start and a start is all I need.

Chapter 2

Kalix

Present Day…

Idon’t like this. In the dimness that lies beyond the window, two shadowy figures—one with hair of silver moonlight and the other with hair of white dawn—slip deeper into the darkness below the window of the great room. The fire in the hearth at my back cracks as the logs break and the scent of pine and ember fills the room. My eyes remain locked on the glass, but now that Theos and Kiera are out of my sight, I switch my attention to the reflection the window presents.

Ruen paces the length of the space behind me, back and forth, back and forth. His booted feet echo up the walls with each passing step he takes. One step. Three. Five. Ten. He pauses for a moment, the soft swish of his clothes shifting through the air as he turns, and then the process starts all over again.

A seed of displeasure uncurls in my gut. When have I ever felt so much wrongness in a decision?

Never, I acknowledge. No. I do not feel wrongness. I do what I want and I do it when I want. Why, then, am I now allowing someone else to dictate my actions?

The answer comes to me as clear as any opening for attack. The beautiful creature that I’ve become obsessed with known as Kiera Nezerac confuses me.

I turn away from the window and stride across the room. In a blink, I’m past where Ruen paces and I rip up my cloak, slinging it around my shoulders and clipping it into place. The thudding sound of steps at my back ceases.

“Where are you going?” Ruen demands.

I pivot back slightly to glance at him over my shoulder. “I am following them,” I state the answer, not a question of my own, and certainly not a request.

His hands fist at his sides and he shakes his head. “You can’t. We decided to?—”

“You decided,” I say, cutting him off. “I did no such thing. I will follow them. You may stay if you wish.”

I turn to go.

“Kalix.” Ruen’s angry growl does nothing to slow my pace as I stride towards the door. His feet stomp against the floors. “Gods damn it, Kalix. Just—” My hand settles on the knob. “Wait a damn minute! I’m coming with you.”

Only at his last words do I finally pause, arching a brow as I cast a look over at him. Ruen glares at me even as he grabs his own cloak and tosses it over his shoulders. “Why are you so intent on this?” he demands as he fastens the clip to hold the thing on to his body.

I shrug. “Let the Terra go with no more than Theos?” I give a half laugh as a response. “It was a stupid idea to begin with.”

Midnight blue eyes rove over my face as if looking for any sign of deceit. I let him. I have no reason to hide my desires. “She’s just a girl,” Ruen grits out, the words squeezing forth through clenched teeth. My lips twitch in amusement. It sounds as if he’s trying to convince himself of that more so than me. “You’ve never been interested in anything this long. What’s so different about her?”

I shake my head and twist the doorknob. “I suppose we’ll find out, won’t we?”

Ruen doesn’t dignify my words with a response as we leave the chambers and descend the North Tower stairs. As we hit the outside area around our residence, the soft scent of Kiera drifts back to meet my senses. It’s something sweet—floral—but then there’s an underlying touch of musk, a spice that cannot be placed.

As Ruen takes the lead, striding ahead of me, my head pivots slowly back to the Academy. Within these walls, all I smell are decay and rot. Something is festering here. I don’t have to have the ability of prophecy to know that much. It permeates every stone, every granule of dirt. Perhaps it has for a long time now. I don’t know and I don’t really care.

Even Olivia was beautiful in death, perhaps more so because she finally stopped whining. A bolt of unease whips through me as an image of Kiera in the same place as my mother slips into my mind. Eyes open and unseeing, body cold and blue with the lack of air. Hanging and lifeless. My upper lip curls back as the bite of rage throbs in my veins.

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