Page 50 of A Haven of Brimstone and Darkness

Kalix’s expression darkens at my words and he shakes his head. “I remember bits and pieces,” he tells me. “But the memories are corrupted.”

“Corrupted?” I ask. What could that mean?

Pressing two fingers into his temple, Kalix’s lips turn down into a scowl. “I remember everything,” he says, almost sounding as if he’s talking to himself rather than me. “A leftover ability from all of the venom.” He rolls his tongue over his teeth, his eyes growing distant. “Ishouldremember everything,” he corrects himself.

“But you don’t?” I guess.

He shakes his head. “I can see things, feel things from last night,” he murmurs. “Ultimately, though, it’s as if I’m standing in front of a stage where a play is taking place through a thin black curtain.”

I watch him, wading closer to the edge where he sits as his words echo around us.

“I can see the movement of bodies, hear moans and words spoken, but they’re all shadows. I cannot tell who is who or what they’re doing, I can only guess given the clues.”

Water surrounds me even as I stop next to where he is and place my arms on the edge, folding them and lowering my head to rest on top of them. “I know alcohol can make a person forget themselves,” I say, thinking back to all of the times I’d caught Regis drunk off his ass after a particularly rough job.

He’d been willing to kill whoever he needed to in order to find his brother, but some jobs took more from his soul than I think even he realized. He’d come back from a hard one and just drink until he couldn’t stand. I’d help him to his room and then the next day, he’d act like it’d never happened. Not the job. Not the drinking. And certainly not the words of pain and agony he’d whispered just before I’d left his room.

“Forgive me, Grell,” he’d begged quietly, tears streaming from his closed eyes. “Forgive me…”

“It shouldn’t have been so bad for us though.” Kalix’s words draw me back to the present and I lift my head, facing him.

“Why do you say that?”

He arches one brow, the thunderous expression dissipating in an instant as he taps his still bare chest. “Mortal Gods,” he says as if that should explain everything, and perhaps it does.

The Gods, unlike mortals, struggle to feel the effects of mortal liquors. They have to drink more than twice the regular amount to feel anything. Like them, I’d noticed that none of the Mortal Gods I’d been around in the Academy had ever seemed toget drunk even when they’d had several glasses of wine or other alcohol as they dined. Perhaps I would have been fine all along, but I’d never been willing to chance it.

Why did I last night?

Somewhere in the bathing chamber, a door opens and groggy voices echo forth. “Come on.” Kalix stands. “We should go back.”

He holds out his hand and I take it, planting a foot against the wall of the pool with enough force to allow him to pull me straight up out of the water. The clear liquid sluices off my body and for a moment, Kalix’s face goes lax. As if he’d forgotten I was naked, he sways forward, his free hand lifting against me, cupping my hip. He drags me against him until I feel the weight of his erection pressing into me. I wince though. My insides still feel roughly used and though I have no qualms about fucking him, I would rather not do so here where anyone could find us.

That thought brings a strange image to my mind. Ruen on his back against a stone slab. My body atop his, my legs spread as his cock drives into me. Theos in front of me, my hair gripped in a tight fist as someone’s hands pry my buttocks apart and hot oil drips down the crack of my ass.

I shake my head, dispelling the image as I rip my hand from Kalix’s and hurry for the sheet I’d left. I draw it around myself once more and though my wet skin makes the fabric cling a bit tighter, the layers I create in having to wrap it around my body multiple times at least hide more than I’d revealed the night before.

Kalix and I leave the bathing chamber and head for the dorms. As we walk, I consider the fact that my biggest regret is not knowing if the images I saw in my mind were real … or fiction.

Chapter 25

Kiera

Kalix and I return to the dorm rooms to find the others awake and feeling about as well off as I am. Though it’s clear that both Ruen and Theos have cleaned themselves using the wash basin that decorate each of the rooms, the circles beneath their eyes spell exhaustion. Everyone goes to their rooms to finish dressing.

Finding that the small collection of clothes I brought with me has been washed and returned to my room in the time I have been away, I change into them and meet the others in Ruen's bedchamber. Although both Ruen and Theos are now dressed, the two of them slump into the chairs at Ruen's table, the books scattered about with their pages flung open.

A knock sounds on the door and Theos groans loudly, cupping his temples with his hands as he hunches over and swallows rapidly. My head throbs with empathy. Kalix chuckles and rises from his usual position by the window, moving to the door to open it. To my surprise, Niall stands there, clad in his usual Terra uniform of dark breeches and a matching tunic. I rise to my own feet and move towards the door, but as soon as he steps inside and I see the tray of drinks in his hand, I gag and whirl back around.

Diving for the empty washing bowl on one of the stands in Ruen's room, I hunch over it and begin to dry heave. I can feel liquid in my belly, rolling and rushing up only to drop back down as if something else is keeping it inside. My bones feel weak as my whole body seizes with the urge to vomit and still nothing comes of it.

"Ugh." After a while, the heaving slows to a trickle and then nothing at all. I wipe my brow with the back of my palm, finding both coated in sweat. Even though I didn't actually throw anything up, the sour taste in my mouth lingers as if I had.

"Fuck off, Kalix," Theos barks, drawing my attention.

I turn back to the others to find that Niall is now gone. Damn it. A groan rumbles up out of my chest as I lean heavily into the wash basin stand. I'd hoped to talk to him, to find out how he's been faring or if he's heard anything from the other Terra that came with us.

"Drink it or I will take great pleasure in funneling it down your throat, Brother," Kalix deadpans, not giving any hint to the earlier disquiet he'd admitted to me about not being able to remember much of the night before.

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