Page 68 of A Haven of Brimstone and Darkness

I grip Kalix’s head hard and bend him backwards so that his face is pointing to the sky. A small snake circles one of my ankles, not yet sinking its little fangs into my skin, but warning me with its body that if I hurt him, it will retaliate. I can’t help but smile at that. Even in our loneliness, he and I—our insanity—we still have our little monsters to keep us company. To protect us.

Bending, I take Kalix’s lips with an untapped fury. Green eyes remain on mine as he opens his mouth and receives me without a hint of fear. His pupils pulse and then narrow, lengthening as the kiss draws out longer and longer. He reaches for me, his hand coming up to cup the back of my skull, holding me to him as the strands of my silver hair fall over one side of my face, blocking out Theos and Ruen’s confused faces.

Hear not with your ears.I repeat Makeda’s words like a mantra in my head. Over and over again until the words sink past my mind and into my bones and muscles, spreading power throughout my body.The tips of my fingers begin to tingle and I know the moment that Kalix feels it too as his fingers contract on the back of my head and he opens his lips wider.

All around us, his snakes writhe and move as if sensing the tumult of what I’m trying to do to him.Open for me,I practically beg in the silence as I lick at his lips and delve into his mouth with my tongue.

Breaths become scarce as I refuse to release him until I’ve made it through.Almost … there!At the first instance of an opening, I shove the image into Kalix’s mind. He jolts as the series of threads and strings collide with his own mind. Were I not holding him so tightly, he might have slipped completely off the edge.

What have you done to me, Little Thief?Kalix’s words in my mind aren’t angry, but curious and suspicious.

I’ll tell you later,I reply, releasing his mouth finally to gasp for air.For now, share that image with your serpents and command them to follow the trails.

Damn arrogant bastard doesn’t even seem winded, though his cheeks are redder than before and the tent in his trouserstells me he’s not completely unaffected. I find myself smug at that as he turns and gets to his feet, eyeing me.

I take a step back as I assume he gives his snakes the order, and our familiars scatter into the forest, slipping up trees and through the underbrush. Kalix moves forward and I take another careful step back. Our eyes are locked, and his chest rises and falls with slow precise breaths.

“What did you just do?” Ruen’s voice breaks the spell between us, stopping Kalix in his tracks.

I release a sigh of relief and turn towards him, but before I can open my mouth, a high-pitched squeal—like a screaming pig—sounds nearby. Fuck.

I dive for the trees, rushing forward as I hear the rough and unhidden sounds of bumbling legs in the woods. Breaking branches, crushed bushes, male and female laughter. None of it comes from behind me where I know the Darkhavens are following. My legs eat up the distance until I come crashing out of two trees into a clearing where a group of Mortal Gods wielding their weapons are cheering around the man from earlier, the one that had demanded a prize from Azai.

A wounded boar huffs where it rests on its side, and inside my mind a thread wavers—the silvery fabric of its strength growing dull, fluctuating with each breath the animal takes.

“Stop!” I call out, running forward. No one hears me as the man lifts his blade over the boar’s prone body. The closer I get, the more blood I see coating the animal’s side, matted into its fur. “Stop!” I try again as he lifts the sword higher.

He’s not going to stop, I realize in the next instant. Even if he does hear me, he doesn’t care. He doesn’t know or realize what he’s doing. None of them do. They cannot see what I do.

As the sun hits the flat steel of his blade, crimson flashes over my vision. With a cry of outrage, I unleash the built-up wrathinside me, and in an instant, black smoke tears away the red haze and turns the rest into dust.

Screams echo back to me as I continue running towards the boar. The thread in my mind is not getting any better and I have mere moments to save them.

“What the—” From the shadows, Kalix surges past on my left, going straight for the Mortal God that had faced Azai. The darkness clears enough for me to dive over a few of his friends where they fell on the ground when my shadows seized the area.

Collapsing to my knees next to the creature, I put my hand over the deep cut in its side. Confused as they are, both Theos and Ruen are at my side. “What do you need?” Ruen demands.

“Water,” I say quickly. “Gauze. Something to wrap the wound.”

“It’s not going to stop bleeding, Dea,” Theos says, but Ruen doesn’t bother arguing. He’s gone in the next instant, likely to double back to a creek we’d jumped over to collect water—I don’t know how and I don’t have time to think about his methods as I lean down and press my ear to the boar’s smooth underbelly which is facing out to the side. So damn vulnerable.

I hush the creature when it whines. “I’m sorry,” I murmur, sensing a softly feminine presence within her. The thread in my head weakens, growing thinner. Her breaths are coming too fast, too irregularly. Ruen isn’t going to make it back in time. Tears burn the backs of my eyes.

“Kalix!” Theos’ bark is followed by his disappearance and I glance over to find that Kalix is holding the other Mortal God up by his throat.

“Did you not hear her tell you to stop?” Kalix demands, his face a mask of annoyance.

“Don’t kill him,” I bark out, earning a bit of that annoyance turned my way before he shakes his head.

“Put Maral down, Kalix,” Theos demands, and at least now I know the man’s name.

Glancing over my shoulder, I bite out a curse. They’re already gone. I catch sight of two of them—one being the girl who’d been wearing a blue tunic earlier—as they disappear into the trees.

Closing my palm over the wound and turning back to the boar, I hold my hand steady as blood surges out from between my fingers. She whines, so many emotions encompassed in that one sound that it nearly breaks my fucking heart. Fear. Confusion. Hurt.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper, bending closer as I stroke her soothingly.

Not sure what else to do, I press harder on her wound and focus on the split pieces of the flesh. There’s no willing them to knit back together; I am not Maeryn and that is not my gift. Instead, I press inside her, letting tendrils of my darkness ease into her body through the open wound. One by one, I find the hurts—the bruises, the cuts on her body—and I cover those areas with my shadows, deadening the senses. It’s temporary, but will at least take the pain away.

---