Page 73 of A Haven of Brimstone and Darkness

My eyes land on Soza’s thready pulse beating rapidly in her throat as she stares up at me, brown black eyes glittering with unshed tears. She swallows and bows up beneath me, struggling to get free, and it is no effort at all to press my knee into her broken wrist as I reach down with my other hand and free her non-damaged hand.

“Try again,” I dare her, waiting. The muscles of her legs bunch beneath mine as she seems to contemplate my challenge. I hold her hand up, immobile in my iron grip.

“D-don’t!” she gasps out.

I shake my head. “I told you to let her go,” I say.

“It’s just a fucking rabbit!” she screams before twisting her head. “Maral! Maral! Help me!”

The responding sound of male grunts and curses is all she gets. I lean down, inhaling sharply and freezing as I realize I don’t smell anything. Blinking, I suck in another breath through my nostrils, expecting the scents of wet soil and leaves. All I get is Soza’s sweat and blood on the breeze.

No scents.

Sense not with your flesh.

I sit up and glance around.

See not with your eyes.

A replica. These are not the real Hinterlands, but a replica—I knew that, had told both Kalix and Ruen, but we’d never talked about why the Gods wouldn’t take us to the real place. Maybe to keep us from escaping? But if it’s not real and just a replica ofa portion of the actual Hinterlands then where would they place it?

Hear not with your ears.

The wind is real. The body straining beneath mine is real. This place, however, isn’t.

The Void. We’re still in the Void.

Black spikes jut up from the ground around Soza and me, closing claws around us and I release Soza with a gasp as she screams again. I don’t hesitate, leaving behind my daggers as I dive for Maeryn, ripping her body up and into my chest as I roll away from the sudden disruption.

Blood slips over my palms and between my fingers as I scramble backward until my spine slams into a tree trunk. Soza screams as the Void creature reacts to my realization and consumes her struggling bloodied body. The claws clamp tighter, forming a cage before my eyes until her body is pressed to them and one arm—the one with the limp broken wrist—reaches out.

Her eyes plead with me even as her lips part on another shriek of agony and her face twists up. Blood blossoms rich and red over her blue tunic, turning the color brown as a spiked claw spears through the center of her back and comes out the other side between her breasts. A scrap of blue fabric flutters against the sharp point just above the bits of flesh lying underneath and Soza’s screams cease entirely as her jaw unhinges and blood gurgles up from her throat.

“Soza!” Maral’s yell is both shocked and angry.

I turn away from the scene, keeping one hand on Maeryn’s small body as I hold her to me.

Maral races back into the grove and gapes down at the opening in the ground. I see the shadow at his back and before I can stop him, Kalix comes up behind the other man. I watch in mild horror as Kalix plants his boot in the center of Maral’s backand shoves him forward—straight into the arching spines of the creature's claws that have erupted from the ground.

Maral falls upon them, arms pinwheeling as he descends and is skewered atop the glistening ebony protrusions. The same gurgling sound of death echoes back to me from Maral’s throat as his hand loosens and his sword clatters to the ground. Kalix steps up to the edge of the beast’s maw and stares down, tilting his head to the side as he watches—as we both do—it reopen its jaws. It’s a mouth, I now realize, not claws, with rows of sharp black teeth that remind me of the bars in the secret prison below Ortus.

Maral’s bleeding body, the last sounds of life coming from him nothing but gasps and bubbles of blood spewing from his lips, is closed in alongside Soza’s. Together, the two Mortal Gods are dragged deeper into the ground. The crunch of bone breaking and flesh splitting resounds throughout the grove as the forest crawls back into place. Dirt sliding and leaves falling from above to cover the second truth of the day.

Just when you’re sure you’ve seen the worst, the Gods devise a new cruel reality that proves you utterly wrong.

Chapter 35

Kiera

Kalix has to help Ruen back to the meeting point with Theos, and the second Theos catches sight of the three of us—all of us bloodied, though only Ruen and I are trembling like we might collapse—he rushes forward.

“What happened?” he demands as Kalix lets Ruen drop to his knees. Ruen grunts and hunches over, placing one palm flat as he vomits into the grass.

I eye the ground like it, too, might open up to release Void creatures that are better left in their own dimension. No step is safe until we leave this place.

“We found Maeryn,” I say, glancing down at the animal in my hands, cupping her against my breast. Wincing, I realize that the front of my tunic is wet with blood. Her red fur hides it well, but she’s wounded. A long line that splits her flesh up her stomach and chest and over her face. It even dissects one eye—similar to Ruen’s scar—but this time, I have the dreaded knowing that it won’t be so easy to skip damaging her sight.

“And a fight,” Theos says in response as he goes to Ruen’s side now that he’s done throwing up and helps him to roll back over.

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