Page 22 of A Haven of Brimstone and Darkness

"They know we wouldn't give our powers to them willingly," Ruen replies, that ever-present groove in his brow remaining in place. "It would kill us."

"Maybe." I shrug. "Or just make us wish for death."

"You're not concerned about this at all, are you?" he asks.

Reaching up, I place the palm of one hand against the side of my head and then crack it to the side. "Why should I be?" I offer in lieu of an answer. "I don't fear death."

A beat of silence passes where nothing but the sound of our boots scuffing against the stone floor beneath echoes around us, and then, "What about Kiera?"

Pausing as the mass of people ahead begin disappearing through an open archway, I turn to look at him. "What do you mean?"

The furrow between his brows is gone as he examines me. "You like Kiera, yes? You wouldn't want her to die, would you?"

"She won't die." She cannot die. I wouldn't allow it.

"She could very well die at their hands," Ruen says calmly. "You gave her one of your snakes when the God Council called her before. You must have been worried then."

"It was to keep watch on her," I remind him. "We were right outside."

"Yes, but now we're in a castle of brimstone," Ruen points out, gesturing above us to the arching ceiling. It's like standinginside a cluster of swords craning towards the sky. I hate it when Ruen asks me questions like this. It makes me feel as if he knows something I don't. "We're weaker here," he continues. "You and I both know that the Gods want something from her."

"They cannot have it," I snap, dropping my palm from my neck and curling both hands into fists. "They cannot have her. She is mine."

"Then we need to protect her, don't we," Ruen says. "Whatever you know or suspect of the Gods, you need to tell us."

Before I can provide him with an answer, a voice cuts through the air of quiet between us. "Sirs, the Gods do not like to be kept waiting."

As one, Ruen and I turn towards the owner of the voice. Dark skinned with glittering eyes of cut onyx, Zalika stands clad in a long robe the color of freshly spilled blood. Her lips spread into a smile and I blink at the sight. Where flat pearly white caps should be, Zalika smiles with sharp spikes filling her mouth, the difference just slight enough that it forces me to look extra hard at the pronounced effect. She gestures towards the now empty archway that the others disappeared into.

"This way, if you please."

Thoroughly annoyed, I contemplate closing the distance between myself and the woman as her back turns towards me. It would be nothing to stride up behind her and take her skull between my palms. To twist it until the crack of her spinal cord severing echoes in my ears and then, promptly rip her skin from side to side as I removed her entire head from her body. As I consider doing just that, the woman pauses in the juncture of the entrance, glancing over her shoulder. Her gaze meets mine and the hall appears to narrow in my periphery. Her smile widens, a small, almost imperceptible movement, but I notice it. No one smiles at me like that. Without a hint of fear or anxiety. A vein inmy throat throbs as a strange sort of emotion creeps across my chest.

It is ... unease? No, I've never felt uneasy before. Intrigue? No, I am intrigued by Kiera and this emotion doesn't resemble such curiosity. What then could it be?

Perhaps ... but no.

Zalika turns back to the entrance, and Ruen and I follow as we step into a large assembly space with rows upon rows of stone benches already filled with students from both Perditia and Riviere. She moves away, faster now, not as if she's escaping me, but as if she has something to do. I watch her go even as Ruen urges me to the side, finding Theos and Kiera nearby and the seats they saved for us.

For the first time in my life, I think I might have looked into a person's eyes and seen nothing but an empty void reflected back. The same I see in my own gaze each time I look into a mirror.

Whoever or whatever Zalika is, she is of my kind.

Cruel. Unyielding. Immoral.

Instead of being more curious about her, I have the distinct urge to rush after her and follow through with my initial desires. To rend her head from her shoulders and end her life. Between two creatures such as we, there can only be one and I will not allow her existence to threaten my own.

Chapter 11

Kiera

The assembly hall is packed with whispering voices. Despite Azai's initial presence, the students of the Mortal Gods Academies have overcome their awe and are now murmuring amongst themselves as Azai ascends a set of stone steps to the dais below where the rest of the God Council awaits. I try not to focus on the empty place where Caedmon should be.

I'm sorry, Ari...those words, spoken in his voice despite how raw and hoarse they'd been echo in my mind. I shake my head.It wasn't real. It's not real.

…was it?

The God Council congregates and then steps forward as one, distancing me from my thoughts. The Goddess I recognize as Gygaea with her long dark brown hair and olive-toned skin is the first to speak, her voice is crisp and clear despite how far away we are.

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