Page 20 of A Haven of Brimstone and Darkness

Everyone leans back and remains silent as the Terra finishes his duties before disappearing down the row, delivering more bowls to newcomers that have arrived. Kalix tosses his half-eaten bread into the bowl and then lifts a spoon to scoop a mouthful out and swallow it back.

As one, Theos, Ruen, and I watch him, curious. He chews lightly for a moment before swallowing and offering a shrug. “It’s edible,” he tells us. Theos casts a look at his own bowl doubtfully.

Unfortunately, despite my conviction that the food is not to be trusted, there’s only so much a person can hold out. I reach for the food with a grimace. Our questions are put on hold as we try to consume as much of the odd concoction of food as possible. As I expected from the scent, it’s over-spiced and yet somehow fatty and hard to swallow, but I manage to choke down a good half of my bowl before sliding it away and washing it down with one of the jugs of water stationed at the end of the table and a stale bread roll.

“Well, even if what they’re feeding us isn’t fit for animal consumption,” I say absently, rolling the bread between my palms in front of me, “if they’re still bothering to keep up the pretense, then we won’t be killed right away.”

Maeryn chokes on a bite of her own bread roll and coughs wildly into her hands as three pairs of serious eyes—green, gold, and blue—settle on me. I look back at them and blink.

“What?” I ask when no one says a word. “You can’t say I’m not right.”

Ruen pushes away his bowl and crosses his arms over his chest. “We don’t know that they want to kill us,” he says, keeping his tone low.

I roll my eyes. “What, then, could they possibly have brought us here for?” I demand. Before he can answer, though, I forge ahead. “That stupid Spring Equinox thing?” I snort. “Don’t play the fool, Ruen, you’re too intelligent to believe that.”

“K-kill us?” Maeryn’s shaky voice reignites my compassion. So often, I forget that Maeryn wasn’t raised like me or the Darkhavens. Compared to us, she’s as innocent in this world as Niall is.

Dropping bread onto the table next to my bowl, I turn towards her. While I want to offer some sort of comfort, I don’t want to lie to her. When I look at her waxen face and pale lips, eyes round and shimmering with fear, it’s even more difficult to speak.

“Why would they want to kill us?” Maeryn asks, glancing between me and the Darkhavens. “We’ve done everything they’ve asked of us. They have no reason?—”

“They don’t need a reason,” Kalix says, cutting her off with an annoyed sound from his throat. Her attention swivels to him. “The Gods rule this world and us and we are nothing to them.”

“We’re their children,” she defends, even if from her tone I can tell she doesn’t hold any sort of affection for our sires.

Kalix leans his elbows onto the table, making the mass of wood creak under his weight. “Where is your mother then, Maeryn?” he asks. “When was the last time you saw her? Spoke with her?” When nothing but silence answers his question, he snorts derisively. “That’s what I fucking thought.” He waves a hand through the air as if dismissing her. “We’re nothing but their mistakes. They drop us off at the Academy’s doorstep and go on with their lives. Now, they want to thin the herd, so to speak. We’re nothing but baggage to them and potential power.”

Shit. Shit! Fuckingshit.I shoot Ruen a quick hard look, but he’s already turning to Kalix, grabbing ahold of his brother’s arm and hissing something dark in his ear. I’m already focusing my attention on Maeryn.

“Mae—”

“Don’t.” Maeryn holds up a hand when I try to say her name, her eyes fixed squarely on the wooden surface of the table. “Don’t lie to me, Kiera,” she says. “Even if I hate him, I can at least acknowledge that he’s being honest. Cruel as he said it, Kalix isn’t wrong. My mother hasn’t sent me a letter in over a year and even before that, it was sparse. I know I am no great pride for her. None of us are to our God parents.” She lifts her head, the red curls that frame her face seeming less vibrant and flatter than ever before. A misty sheen settles in her eyes as she faces me. “I’m sure there are things that you’re involved with that are dangerous and I know they have to do with the Gods, but…” She lowers her hand and glances over her shoulder. I follow her gaze to Niall standing against the stone wall, his back straight and his face holding onto impassiveness by a mere thread.

When he sees that Maeryn is looking at him, however, any attempt at indifference washes away to reveal the yearning he has for her. So deep and powerful, that it makes my own cold dead organ of a heart beat a bit faster.

“Don’t tell me,” Maeryn half whispers. “Don’t tell either of us if you can help it.” She works to keep the tremor from her voice, speaking slowly as she does. “We already know too much and neither Niall nor I are fighters. If they try to get information from us…” She sucks in a breath. “You can’t trust that anything you plan won’t be revealed.”

To some, such an admission might be seen as cowardly or even pathetic. Not to me. The fact that Maeryn knows her limitations and is unwilling to lie about them only serves to increase my respect for her. Her hands tremble when she settles them on the edge of the table as she rises from her seat.

“If you need my ability, call for me,” she murmurs, lowering her voice as she draws her legs and the mass of her skirts up and over the bench. “But otherwise, don’t ask us for more.” She looks at me as she stands to her full height, her cheeks flushed with what I can only assume is shame.

I don’t hesitate to reach for her, snagging her hand and holding on to it as I stare up into her rounded, lightly freckled features. “Thank you.” Making a low noise in her throat, Maeryn tries to retract her hand from mine, but I grip it tighter. “I mean it,” I tell her. “I know it’s hard to admit faults, Gods, but I fucking know it’s hard.” I offer her a smile and then gently rub the back of her knuckles with my thumb. “Knowing what you can and cannot do is not something you should be ashamed of.”

She shakes her head, the curls flying around her face as she chokes on a watery laugh. “Only you would say that,” she replies.

I nod in Niall's direction and fix her with a new, different, look. “All I need from you is to take care of him,” I say. “He’s a good man and I…” Fuck, was it always this hard to tell the truth? To be so open and vulnerable? “I don’t want to see him, or you, hurt,” I finish.

Maeryn’s shoulders sag and it isn’t until that moment that I realize how tense her body actually was. “Of course, I’ll takecare of him,” she says as if that fact was obvious from the start. “That’s why I can’t help you with whatever you’re planning now. I can’t get him involved and if I’m involved, so is he.”

Tilting my head to the side, I grin up at her. “So, it’s like that then, huh?”

Immediately yanking her hand from mine, Maeryn gives me a withering glare and lifts her skirts. “You, of all people, shouldn’t be asking about my love life, Kiera,” she replies coolly before flashing a glance at the men behind me on the other side of the table. “You’ve got more than enough on your plate.”

Too fucking true. Laughing lightly, I watch as Maeryn turns away and strides down the aisle between the dining hall tables towards Niall.

Behind me, Theos’ dry tone breaks the spell of ease she’d woven over me. “Well, there goes our only healer,” he says.

Turning back to the Darkhavens, I purse my lips. “We’ll manage,” I tell him. “She said if we needed her abilities we could call on her.”

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