Page 84 of A Haven of Brimstone and Darkness

Against my shoulder, Aranea circles and circles chattering animatedly as if she can actually talk. The need to communicate so vicious even in one so small without a voice that it becomes a desperation transcending ability.

"What is it?" Kalix repeats his earlier question, directing it to me this time, but I'm moving before I even register giving my body permission. Nearly slipping against the wet stone underfoot, I race towards the doors and into the Academy, down the hall towards the staircase, and then lower. Kalix's dark curse echoes behind me and I know he's following. Down the stairs and through the shadowed halls, I slow my steps as Ara beginsto seize against my shoulder. Her entire body goes rigid and she sinks her little fangs into my skin. Hissing at the sudden pain, I draw up short, slapping a hand against the wall just before I turn the corner and enter the grand hall. Kalix's chest slams into my back, but he wraps an arm around my waist and keeps me from catapulting forward under the pressure of his weight.

"Wha—" Ara releases my shoulder as Kalix clamps a palm over my mouth, stopping my words.

Then I hear it. The shuffling of feet, the soft whisper of sound. Together, Kalix and I lean forward, his hand still clamped over my mouth. Drawing in a careful breath through his fingers, I gather my power and cloak the two of us in shadow. Droplets of inky black drip down from the darkness overhead and swirl in tendrils, curling over our bodies. Kalix pauses but then releases my lips as we lean around the corner to see what's happening in the grand hall.

Azai isn't there, but Nubo is and he's surrounded by Terra. Their faces blank. Their eyes sunken in and their countenances empty of life. They're all dead, I realize. Every single one of them. My gaze scans the ground and freezes when it comes across a familiar face. The Terra that had helped me get ready for the Cleansing sways back and forth on stick-like legs, her body even thinner than before.Iysa.

This place is a prison.Kalix's words the day we'd arrived on Ortus come back to me then. If this place is a prison then what crime have we all committed? I know the answer without thinking—no crime ever needs to be committed for Gods to punish their children. We are dissenters of our parents’ will, trapped in the path of angry Gods who have never been denied before.

"Shit." Kalix's quiet curse has me jolting backward as Nubo turns slightly, the outline of his hairless head illuminated in astriking ray of moonlight. From the shadows, across the hall, Zalika appears, her face twisted into an annoyed grimace.

"Your man on the mainland is dead," she snaps, her voice rough with anger.

Nubo doesn't respond for several moments, his attention elsewhere as he stares down a darkened pathway that I can't see from around the corner. My heart thunders in my breast, faster and faster like it's trying to gallop right out of my chest. Where is Azai? Didn't I see him? Ruen?

I lean forward some more, but despite the shadows I keep clinging to us, Kalix draws me back, trapping me against his chest. A snarl rises up my throat and I sink my nails into his forearms in retaliation. He doesn't loosen his hold. Sweat collects at my brow and slides down the side of my face. I have to know, to see who it is. Who was taken? Will Azai do the same thing to Ruen as the Gods did to Maeryn? I can't let that happen.

I struggle for freedom against Kalix's hold, but he merely bears down all the more. Tightening his arms around me until breath becomes all but impossible. A burning sensation starts up at the backs of my eyes as my mind races. "Let. Go." My demand is met with aggravating silence. Doesn't he care? If one of his brothers is in danger, wouldn't he do something?

My limbs tingle. My body bows away from his, straining to hear what Nubo and Zalika say, but Nubo starts walking, and together, he and Zalika disappear out of sight. The dead Terra sway for a moment more on their feet before turning, en masse, and following after their master. It isn't until their shuffling footsteps can no longer be heard that Kalix finally releases me.

I suck in a quick gasp and turn as his arms draw back. Before he can stop me, I drop the power that holds my shadows to our skin and punch him right in the face. Kalix's head snaps to the side, and for a moment he remains like that—his jaw flexing as if he's trying to contain his anger at my action. I silently dare himto retaliate. All he does, though, is reach up and slowly wipe off a bit of blood that dribbles from a split in his lip.

Licking the droplet of red off his thumb, his dark eyes find mine and then lift over my shoulder. He strides around me, his long legs eating up the distance as he crosses the grand hall and I'm left to run after him. I pause at the center of the hall, Ara tapping my shoulder as I glance to the side, down one of the many corridors that stem off this massive space—the very one that Nubo and Zalika had likely gone down.

Kalix seems to have an idea as he moves for the hallways that lead back to our rooms and I turn, following behind him even though all I want to do is track those two Mortal Gods down and demand answers even if it means carving my nails through their flesh and ripping it out of them. Kalix doesn't stop until he reaches the dorm residences, his footsteps quickening once the doors are in sight. He dives into one room—Ruen's—finding it empty and then Theos' and as I come up behind him, I see Theos sit up in bed, his pale golden hair almost a light in the darkness of the bedroom.

My heart nearly stops.

Theos is here.

My head turns back towards Ruen's open room, the door creaking as it sways inward. The tingling takes over completely as Ara jumps down from my shoulder. I barely notice her as I drift to the open doorway and stare at the bedchamber, taking in its emptiness.No. Maybe he's...

I spin away from the room and dive for mine, ripping the door nearly off its hinges as I open it. Maeryn sits up in bed on a startled shriek. I barely catch sight of Niall on top of the sheets with her as he half dives over her in a protective measure before I'm turning towards the only other room on this side of the corridor. Maeryn's old room with the half-broken door. I step towards it.

“Kiera? Kalix? What’s going on?” Theos' baritone slides across my ears as I push the remains of the door inward to reveal my greatest fear. It, too, is empty.

Which means only one thing. It wasn't Theos they took. It was Ruen.

Ruen is gone.

Ortus’ bell tower chimes somewhere in the massive mountain, echoing through the halls and my head. Vomit crawls up my throat, threatening to spew forth.

Where is Ruen?

“What’s going on?” a soft male voice inquires and I turn to find Niall standing in the doorway of my old bed chamber. His brows are scrunched, and when a pale, feminine hand comes around the corner of the door, he jerks and glances back. His face morphs into one of steady calm. “Stay there, Mistress,” the man says. “It’s alright.”

It’s not alright though. Nothing is alright. We’re in a mountain run by cannibalistic Gods who don’t even care that we’re their children.

Children … parents …

“Dea?” Theos reaches for me as the bell sounds again.

Around the corner are the distant sounds of doors opening and people talking as they shuffle out, called forth by that damned noise. It’s all a distraction.

I jerk as Theos lightly grazes my arm, and he stills, pulling back on instinct. I can’t bring myself to soothe the hurt on his face when I can’t even breathe right.

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