Page 49 of A Haven of Brimstone and Darkness

“You did?” I scowl as he nods, that pleasant little smile still in place. “Then why don’t you look like someone is trying to crack open your skull with rusted axes?”

He chuckles, the low sound reverberating through his chest and into my side where I rest against him. “Nothing hurts more than overcoming a snake’s venom,” he replies.

I stare at him. “Snake’s venom?”

Those green eyes of his move back to me for a brief second before lifting to watch where he’s walking. “Don’t you know how familiars become familiars?” he asks.

I shake my head. I’d always had the ability to call spiders to me. Ever since I could remember, though, I supposed I’d really only noticed it after my father died. There’d been so many spiders in the Underworld’s training facilities that they’d been too difficult to overlook. At first, I’d been frightened of them, but then…

Well, I’d already lost enough by that time that being scared of such small creatures had felt ridiculous. My affinity for my spiders had grown stronger from then on, though not nearly as strong as it has been in the last few weeks—a direct result, I suspect, of the removal of the brimstone in my neck.

Kalix continues walking, his steps seeming to eat up distance faster than ever, and yet, he doesn’t stop even as we leave the dorm rooms of Ortus Academy behind. There are no sounds of people walking, no voices echoing in the grand corridors, and no hint that there's anyone else in this entire building save for him and me.

"You have to prove your strength to the creatures that will become your familiars,” Kalix says, his voice a deep purr that vibrates through my bones. I shiver and close my eyes, resting against him as I listen to him speak. “They test you in many ways, but one obvious way is to strike at you and see if you survive their attack.”

So, he’d been bitten then, by one of his snakes, I guess. “You were sick?” I guess, keeping my eyes shut.

“For a bit,” he admits. “Not long. Each time, I seemed to overcome it easier and easier.”

“Each time?” My eyes open once more and I peer up at him. “How many times did they bite you?” I ask.

His eyes remain facing forward, but there’s no hint of emotion on his face. I can’t tell if he’s uncomfortable talking about this or if he simply doesn’t care. Were he anyone else, I’d guess the first option, but for Kalix, what is normal is rarely the answer. His snakes hadn’t killed him, therefore, why should he care? At least, that’s how I would think if I were Kalix.

“Every snake has different venom,” he says, not quite answering my question in the straightforward way someone else might have. “I am immune to all of them.”

All of them?My lips part in shock. “There are hundreds of different kinds of snakes,” I say.

Jade-green eyes meet mine as his steps slow and he stops in front of a set of double doors, lighter than the rest, wooden like oak, but painted a soft white gray. “There arethousandsof different species of snakes,” he corrects me, and before I can ask if that means what I think it does, he answers. “And yes, I know each of them personally.”

His foot jerks beneath me and kicks at the door. A beat passes and then it opens, a haggard-looking older Terra appearing in a tan robe. His gray features are sunken in like all of the others and his eyes dull. He lights up briefly when he spies Kalix.

“S-sir,” he stutters. “D-did you forget something?” Then his gaze falls to me and he practically shrivels. “Oh, my apologies. The bathing chamber has been cleaned. You are welcome to use it again at your leisure.”

The old Terra male steps to the side sweeping the doors open as Kalix carries me inside without a word. The pounding in the back of my head eases marginally as I’m overwhelmed with surprise.

Bathing chamber. He’d brought me to a bath, I realize. Why then, had we been forced to wash in our rooms? Why had Terra carried buckets and buckets of water the night before? We could have just come here.

As if sensing the direction of my thoughts, Kalix chuckles. “Haven’t you realized it by now?” Kalix asks, drawing my attention away from the massive room with skylight windows opened up to the cloudy morning sky.

“Realized what?”

“The Gods have never cared about what is convenient for others,” he tells me as he brings me over to a smaller pool set towards the back of the giant room, away from the others and half hidden behind a row of pillars. “And neither do I.”

As his arms leave my body, my gaze turns to the bathing chambers. Like Riviere, it seems to be one big open space with pools of hot water. The skylights above let out some of the steam rising from the water’s surface, but the room is still overly warm. My stomach cramps and my headache comes back in full force.

Pressing a hand to my forehead, Kalix forces me back until I’m facing the ceiling. He peers down at me with a small furrow between his brows. “Ruen and Theos are likely going to have the same issue,” he says.

“I don’t suppose you have an antidote?” I ask when he releases me and I tip my chin back down to my lap, breathing through my nose as I try not to throw up the contents of my stomach all over the pale linen bedsheet I’m still wearing. I have nothing else to put on and I won’t be striding through the halls of Ortus naked. I already feel far too exposed and vulnerable sleeping in walls made of solid brimstone.

Kalix doesn’t answer me, and after a moment I realize it’s because he’s no longer there. Peeking out from beneath the fall of my hair over my face, I don’t see him at all. He must have gone beyond the wall of pillars. With a sigh, I struggle to my feet and untuck the sheet from my breasts, letting it fall to the floor.

Stepping over it, I head for the closest pool. Maybe it will help or maybe it won’t, but I can’t resist the urge to get into the pool of hot water a second longer. Finding the stone steps that leaddown, I carefully steady myself on one side of the pool's wall as I sink into its depths. The hot water laps at my sides, making the cuts and bitemarks sting slightly. A rolling wave of aching tenderness spills over me before being swept away once more. My wet hair clings to the skin of my shoulders and neck, but I don’t care. I submerge myself deeper until the only thing above water keeping me breathing are my nostrils. Then I close my eyes and float.

I don’t know how long I remain alone. It could be seconds, minutes, or even hours, but when I open my eyes again, Kalix is there, sitting at the edge of the pool, cold eyes watching me from beneath dark lashes. There’s a heat in his gaze that hadn’t been there the first time I’d met him. Oh, sure, there’d been curiosity. Excitement. The promise of an end to boredom. But not this all-encompassing inferno that threatens to swallow me up and never let me go.

Despite the warmth of the water around me that hasn’t yet cooled—no doubt thanks to some Divine spell placed upon it—I shiver. Anticipation? Or something else?

I lift myself from the water’s surface, breaching it just enough to speak. “Why am I so sore?” I ask, tilting my head. “I don’t remember anything that happened last night.”

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