Page 72 of A Haven of Brimstone and Darkness

At the sound of Niall’s name, the rabbit freezes—all twitching and movements ceasing in an instant. Then her head tips back in a very human-like fashion and she looks at me. My heart leaps into my throat. My mouth goes dry and a sense of giddy relief floods me as she takes a bounding jump towards me, her two back feet thumping to create the movement.

“Yes.” I can’t seem to drag in enough air. I reach out a second palm, putting both of them together. “I found you, Maeryn. We found you and we’ll make sure you’re okay.”

She jumps forward and one little paw reaches out, grazing the tip of one finger. The thread in my mind seizes and, on the ground, Maeryn’s rabbit body goes stiff.

“Maeryn?” As she slumps over, I dive forward to catch her. Just before I do, though, an arrow comes careening from between a slight separation higher up on the copse of trees in front of us. It sails over my head.

“Fuck!” Ruen’s curse slices through the quiet grove and I turn back to see him yanking the bloodied end out of his shoulder and tossing it to the ground as crimson wells up, staining his hands and tunic. Kalix unsheathes his sword a second time and glares to the right as two familiar faces appear.

Maral and the girl in the blue tunic.

Maral jerks his chin to the animal at my knees. “Get it, Soza,” he commands, brandishing his own weapon at Kalix with a sly grin. “A rabbit is a poor prize compared to a boar, but I’m sure the Gods won’t mind us taking another to add to our collection.”

Soza dives for Maeryn, gripping her by her ears and ripping her from my grasp before I can snag her first. Holding Maeryn up, Soza yanks out one of her own daggers and holds it before the rabbit’s soft, vulnerable underbelly. I expect Maeryn to kick and squirm, to jump from Soza’s hold, but whatever caused her thread to react that way when she’d touched me has left her fully unconscious and she hangs limply in the other girl’s hand.

My upper lip curls back over my teeth. “Let. Her. Go.” The demand is ripped free from my throat, dragged through the invisible jagged glass shards there as I slowly get to my feet.

Soza arches a brow at me and takes a step back. “After you took our kill?” she scoffs. “No way.”

I reach for my daggers, withdrawing both from my chest holster. “I will give you one chance to release her,” I tell her. “Do so now and I won’t hurt you.”

In response, Soza throws her head back and laughs, her long braids slapping against her sides as she twists and turns her head. To the side, Maral laughs as well.

“So protective of your own kill?” Maral asks, chuckling. “Now you should know how we felt when you stole ours.”

“Ruen?” Though Kalix keeps his eyes on Maral, the directive question to his brother has me cutting my eyes toward him to find Ruen leaning back against a tree, panting heavily.

The blood soaking the front of his tunic isn’t stopping and his face is quickly turning a pale gray. I jerk my attention back to Maral and Soza. “Poison?” I hiss out the accusation as my grip on my daggers tightens. It’s the only reason Ruen would be reacting so poorly to a mere wound that he’d worsened himself by ripping the shaft of the arrow free.

Soza shrugs. “You do what you have to in order to win,” she says.

“And I intend to make the Gods recognize me,” Maral agrees. “I will be the one to win Azai’s prize.”

“You know not what you’re doing.” Ruen’s words are elicited through harsh pants.

No, they don’t, but as I stare into their dark eyes, I have to wonder if they’d even care to know the truth. I crack my neck to one side and press my thumb into the side of my daggers’ hilts. Shifting on my legs, I turn, placing one foot behind the other as I move over a root stretching up out of the ground.

Soza lifts Maeryn’s dangling body higher and finally seems to notice the deadweight of it. “Did you already kill it?” She stares at the rabbit before shaking it slightly. Then she turns her attention to her companion. “Maral! It’s dead already!”

“Who cares?” Maral replies. “We just need to bring it with us and claim that we made the kill.” He eyes first me and then Kalix. “That’s what they did.”

“We did not,” I say coldly, even as I keep my gaze trained on Soza. Let Kalix handle Maral, either way, I doubt these two will leave these fake woods unscathed.

Metal shrieks as Kalix dives forward, attacking Maral with a force that drives the other man back against a tree. I dive for Soza at the same instance, my feet leaving the ground as I soar towards her and take her to the ground.

She cries out in surprise, both of her hands slipping. I wince when her dagger drags back, slicing up and across Maeryn’s rabbit body even as she’s released to the leaf-strewn dirt under us. My body comes down hard on top of Soza, and reacting on instinct, I sink two of my blades into a bit of fabric along either side of her ribs. Soza immediately tries to roll away, but with her tunic bolted to the ground, she merely manages to rip the fabric without freeing herself. She hisses when the edge cuts too close and the scent of her blood rises to my nostrils.

Her own dagger aims right for my throat and I rear back, watching as her arm sails past. I grab it and twist, breaking her wrist with a decisively loudsnap!

“Ah!”The sound of her scream pierces my head and I grit my teeth against the pitch as I pluck her dagger from the ground and hold it to her throat.

The flat of her undamaged hand slaps up at my forearm, unintentionally dragging my hand up so that I slice a line straight up her face, through her lips, and over one cheek. With a growl, I drop the dagger and grab both of her hands. Another shriek of pain emits from her when I press my fingers into her broken wrist as I drag them down and pin them beneath my knees.

Anger slithers beneath my flesh, my shadows whispering sweet words into my ears, licking at my insides. They want to be released. They want to play and I know if I let them, these two Mortal Gods will not survive the fight.

Why should I let them?a distant piece of me wonders.What have they done but kill in the name of Gods that would sacrificethem for their own gain later? What is the good of souls that have done nothing but oppress and kill?

Air saws in and out of my lungs as my mind spirals with a bone-deep need. A need to hurt. To maim. To kill. Above our heads, wind rushes in, swirling around us. The crashing sounds of Kalix and Maral trading attacks is followed by something else—a darker whisper.

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