Page 104 of A Haven of Brimstone and Darkness

Ruen puts his palms up in a placating gesture. “It’s fine,” he says, voice calm and even. “Nothing’s wrong. Nothing’shappened, but…” He exchanges a look with his brothers. “We do need to talk to you.”

I cross my arms protectively. In the year since the Gods left our world, much has happened and we’ve held many meetings between the four of us to discuss the future. Some instinct tells me that this one is different.

“What do we need to talk about?” My breath is uneven and choppy and no matter how I try to calm my racing heart, using every tool I learned under Ophelia’s tutelage, the last year has spoiled me. There’s been no danger like that I once knew; just list after list of things to do, people to help, society to rework.

If I can do all of that, surely whatever they have to tell me is nothing that detrimental.

Theos steps up to one side of me and takes hold of one of my wrists. Withdrawing it from my body, he clasps his hand to mine, twining our fingers together. The gold circles of his irises bore into me.

“It’s been a full year,Dea,” he tells me, his voice dipping in that gentle way of his. “It’s time for us to move on.”

My frown deepens and I cast a look back to the others. “Move on?” I shake my head. “We have moved on.” I gesture around with my other hand. “Do you not see all of the changes that we’ve made?” Do they think that I am still mourning the loss of my mother? Of the life we once knew?

Kalix moves to my other side, capturing my free hand and locking his fingers around my wrist, a manacle of ownership if there ever was one. Jade-green eyes shift as his pupils tighten and grow slitted like that of a snake’s. Fuck. They’re serious about something, but I don’t know what it is—Ruen cuts off my thoughts with the answer.

“The book, Kiera.”

All at once, the rapid thud of my racing heartbeat slows to a sluggish stop.The book.I close my eyes.

“We need that book,” I say.

“Not anymore,” he replies. “It’s time to let it go.”

Fear drives a wickedly hot blade through my chest, carving an opening so great and wide that it forces me to lift my eyelids and face him, to facethem.

“We’re not ready,” I insist. Caedmon’s book is the last piece of them that remains. “It’s been instrumental in all that we’ve done. Why do you want to get rid of it now?”

Ruen takes a step forward and as his brothers are on either side of me, holding me captive for his audience, he goes to his knees before me. His big body separates my legs and forces me to recline on the desk so that he can kneel between them. The pressure of their bodies so close makes my insides warm and tighten, but Ruen’s dark blue and purple eyes are heated by something more than sexual desire. They’re full of another emotion—love and understanding, compassion.

I force my head to turn, as if looking away is me running from what he wants to give me. Comfort. A part of me hates that I’ve come to rely so much on the three of them, that they now often know me better than even I do.

“It’s a powerful relic,” Ruen begins, “and I understand why you have used it to guide us in the last year.”

“Then, why do you want to?—”

“But,” he says, holding up a hand to stop me, “the book is becoming a crutch.” I shut my mouth and he tilts his head, examining me as if he can see past my exterior down to the heart of my emotions. “You think we haven’t noticed you taking it out late at night?” he asks. “Every time there’s a big question for you to answer, a problem for you to solve, you go to the book.”

“It doesn’t always give me what I need,” I say defensively.

“No, which means its usefulness is waning.”

“It’s part of Caedmon,” I remind him,them.“Do you really want to give that up? Knowing the future might help.”

“There was a reason Caedmon couldn’t reveal all the details of the future,Dea,” Theos says, backing Ruen up.

I shake my head. “It doesn’t reveal all the details.”

“Little Thief.” Kalix’s hand tightens around my wrist.

Fuck. I close my eyes. “Fuck,” I say again, this time aloud. If even Kalix wants to get rid of the powerful relic of the Gods that are no longer in our world, then that must mean they’ve all come to an agreement. When the hell does that happen outside of bed?

Answer: Never. Well, ‘almostnever’ it seems.

“Do you remember what you promised when you decided to keep the book?” Ruen asks.

I do, which is how I know now that this has been a long time coming. I don’t know how, but they must have known that I would feel the need for Caedmon’s book even all those months ago.

“You cannot use it as a crutch anymore,Dea,” Theos says. “You know it and so does the book.”

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