Page 68 of The Blood of Gods and Monsters

I look up to see him pulling the dagger from his stomach as if he doesn’t even feel it. How is that possible? The blade slides out, and he cleans it on his thigh before placing it back in its scabbard. Something wet trickles down the side of my face. My head throbs.

Azai straightens and then reaches for a second dagger, one that had been hidden at his back. This one isn’t silver, but as black as stone, and it glints in the sunlight streaming through the doorway.

In the distance, I hear Ralf crying out my name. Azai jerks his head to the lone other man in the room. “I want everyone cleared out of this village,” he orders. “When we’re through here, raze it to the ground.”

“N-no.” My protest is breathy and my chest feels tight as if it’s caving in. Ralf can’t lose his family too.

Azai doesn’t even bother to acknowledge that I’ve spoken as he approaches me. I try to scramble back, but when I move, my knee screams out. I suck in a harsh breath as Azai bends over and captures my head with his hand tight in my hair. Pain sears through the back of my skull and when I look up at him, fear and anger swelling in my gut, I think I know now who my mom was always running from.

It was from this man. This monster.

“Look at me, boy,” Azai commands, brandishing that black blade. “This is your first lesson as the son of a God.” He brings the knife closer and closer to my face. Sweat beads on my brow, but I don’t close my eyes. I keep staring back at him.

When he sets the edge of the dagger to the skin above my brow, I almost lose control of my bowels. Fire stretches over my flesh, parting it as blood gushes out, flowing into my eyes—eyes that I keep open and locked on the man in front of me.

Blind or broken, I will know the one who stole my life from me and if it takes a thousand years, I will kill him for it.

Chapter 29

Kiera

Present Day…

Malachi doesn’t show up for class the day after my liaison with Ruen. Though I don’t owe the bastard the Darkhavens had manipulated into humiliating me on my first day as their Terra a damn thing, his absence as well as his name in Caedmon’s book, is a distraction that follows me through the day. When classes finish and we’re released to the arena for battle training, I fall behind Theos, Kalix, and Ruen.

Even knowing he doesn’t share the same training time as the four of us, I still search for him in the corridors on the way. I see several familiar faces but not his. When I checked the book this morning, its contents had changed. More names had been added and Malachi’s is now crossed off. That has me on edge.

“You’re falling behind,” Theos says, pausing and turning to the side as he glances back at me. He tilts his head at my face, a lock of white-blond hair falling over the top of his forehead as he does so. “What’s wrong?”

“Do you know where Malachi is?” I ask.

His expression changes to reflect his surprise, brows raising, and lips parting. “Why do you want to know?”

I shake my head. “Not here.”

Ruen and Kalix stop too, several paces ahead of us. “He was transferred to the Academy at Ortus,” Ruen says.

When he looks at me, the place in my lower belly pulls taut like a string. I ignore the sensation and nod my acceptance of his answer. “Is that normal?” I ask. “For a transfer between academies? Also mid-semester?”

Ruen’s eyes narrow. “It happens,” he says slowly, but I hear what he doesn’t say. He finds it odd as well.

With little else to do about it now, the four of us continue until we reach the sandy arena and take our places before Axlan as he stands with his arms behind his back and his legs spread shoulder-width apart.

“Good afternoon,” he calls out, sounding far more formal than usual.

It doesn’t take long to spot why. Above our heads, in the balcony reserved for the Gods during actual battles, there are two figures perched and looking down on us. I recognize their faces from the one time I’d faced the God Council.

The dark-skinned Goddess known as Makeda sits straight backed with her hands resting on the stone armrests on either side of her. Her wide cloud-like hair is pulled back into a single puff that encircles her head with a golden crown set amidst her curls. Curious but reserved eyes fall to me and I straighten almost instinctively under her scrutiny.

At her side, Danai sits in a similar posture as Makeda. Her presence is the one most of the students of Axlan’s class recognize. The Queen is here.

Whispers echo to me from where I stand towards the front of the crowd.

…What is she doing here?

…Do you think they’re planning to host another battle to entertain the God Council?

I’m going to impress her with my abilities, just you wait and see…

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