Page 72 of The Blood of Gods and Monsters

“What was that?” Ruen’s voice is a dark angry growl as he approaches.

“What was what?” I ask, frowning as the pair reach us, Kalix moving to help Theos to his feet.

“Your eyes went completely black,” Theos tells me as he and Kalix come up on my right side. He dusts off sand from his trousers before reaching for my arm. “Did I cut you too deep?”

I shake him off, pulling my arm from his grip. “Of course not,” I say with a roll of my eyes. “I’m not as delicate as you think I am.”

“Oh, I know you’re not delicate, little liar,” Kalix says, somehow appearing closer than he was a moment ago.

With a grimace, I arch a brow his way. “Is that your idea of flirting?” I ask.

He shrugs. “No, my idea of flirting is having you on your back, legs spread for my?—”

“That’s not flirting,” Theos bites out, cutting his brother off.

I turn away from the lot of them and start to dust myself off as well. “They wanted to see what I could do,” I say absently, trying to figure out what the hell Danai’s expression had been. What emotion was she showing? There had been something different about her today. Something I hadn’t seen the first time I’d met her.

Not being able to figure it out is driving me mad.

“Come on,” Ruen huffs, stomping forward and snatching my arm up before I can slap him away. “We need to talk.”

The only reason I don’t yank myself out of his hold and punch him in his too-perfect and stupid face is because he’s right. We do need to talk. I haven’t forgotten the original reason I went in search of him last night.

As we exit the arena, I search for Niall, but he’s nowhere in sight. I’ll have to find him too. Make sure we’re okay because no matter how my status has changed, he’ll always be the first friend I ever made outside of the Underworld and I don’t want him to think that he’s become nothing more than another Terra. Not to me. Never to me. But before I can do that, I need to get Ruen’s insight.

Something is happening to the Mortal Gods and I don’t believe they’re being transferred.

My instincts are screaming that this has something to do with the taboo the Gods have broken, but I don’t know what.

Chapter 31

Kiera

Days pass after the mock battles in front of the God Queen and Makeda. I inform the Darkhavens about what I’d found in the records of the Academy library and then, for the first time, I show them my book.

“This isn’t leather,” Ruen states as he palms the exterior of the beautifully crafted tome. I swallow roughly, but I don’t tell him what it’s made of. Every time I touch the thing, I try not to think about it.

Theos peers over his shoulder at the pages he’s flipped the book open to. “There are so many names.” His tone is strained, as if he’s forcing himself to show less emotion. “You’re right, that’s Malachi’s surname—and Enid’s.”

“Her name isn’t crossed out yet,” I say, “but Malachi’s name was. Then I found out that he was transferred.”

Across the open space of the Darkhaven’s living quarters, Kalix lounges in a chair by the fireplace, flipping a silver dagger up into the air before deftly catching it between his thumb and forefinger. He repeats the actions over and over as his eyes haze over with barely contained boredom.

“The rest of these pages are blank,” Ruen murmurs as he flips through the book. His midnight gaze lifts to mine. “Is there a reason for that?”

I shrug. “I don’t know,” I admit openly. “Caedmon gave me the book when I was just a Terra—it was originally just information about the Hinterlands. Then it changed. He said it’s a book of prophecies.”

“So these names are a prophecy?” Theos frowns and then jumps when a dagger flies past all of our heads and embeds itself between two stones in the wall.

“Kalix,” Ruen’s cold tone is a chastisement.

The response is a low deep groan of annoyance. “This is stupid,” Kalix snaps. “The book isn’t telling us anything.”

I turn when the chair beneath Kalix creaks as he gets to his feet, boots slamming onto the floor. “I say we go to Caedmon and make him tell us what the damned prophecy is.”

“You can’t threaten a God to get information,” I remind him, though honestly I wish we could. Though I’m frustrated with Caedmon’s secrets and I’m not entirely sure if he’s with us or against us yet, something deep within me says he’s not trying to harm us.

Kalix’s lips split into a wide smile. “Oh, little liar.” He tuts at me. “You should know better. There are other ways to get someone to spill their secrets.”

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