Page 10 of A Haven of Brimstone and Darkness

He doesn't know that. Hecan'tknow that, and yet, I hope that his words aren't a lie.

With another look around, I take in the faces surrounding us. Ranging from young twenty-somethings to younger still, these Mortal Gods have no idea the monsters that command us. Reaching out, I latch on to Ruen's shirt, squeezing tight enough that all feeling in my palms ceases to exist.What happens to the younger ones if we fail, if I fail? Will they die too or will the Gods let them live?

"Little Thief." I jerk my head up at Kalix's voice and find myself speared by twin pools of forest green that grow closer and closer until they are all that I see. Kalix hovers so close that the heat of him sinks into my bones. "Open your mouth," he orders.

I gasp, unintentionally following his command and he wastes no time. Sweeping forward even as one side of me is held by his brother, Kalix takes my lips fiercely. His tongue delves inside, sliding against mine and all the while, he never closes his eyes. His kiss is as much a brand of his ownership as if he’d slit a dagger across my throat and taken my life for his own. He plies me open and inserts himself, slithering his way inside and curling up with a wicked look that tells me it would take an act of something otherworldly to remove his presence.

With a quiet groan, I finally allow my eyes to close and lean into him, giving myself up to his void. Arms close around me, yanking me from Ruen's hold and into a new, albeit familiar, one. Kalix kisses me harder, the drive of his lips devouring allof my thoughts and fears if only for the beat of a moment. Male fingers dig into my waistline, pulling me tighter to his broad chest. Warmth blooms inside my core, flowering outward.

Inappropriate. This is so fucking inappropriate. We have more important things to worry about. We shouldn't be doing this here, not in front ofthem.Placing my hands against his pecs, I push back. It's like attempting to move a stone wall. Kalix doesn't even stop kissing me. If anything, his kiss becomes all the more demanding. Tilting his head to the side, his tongue swipes over my lower lip right before his teeth sink into the soft flesh there. My body jolts at the sudden sensation and my eyes fly open once more.

"Stop." Breathless, panting, I glare at the man in front of me as Kalix finally releases my mouth. There's the taste of blood on my tongue. My cheeks feel flushed, my body primed and Kalix simply stands in front of me, his gaze dark and focused on me. There's no other indication that he's just as affected by the kiss as I am.

"Something's happening." Ruen's voice cuts through the sexual tension.

Both Kalix and I look towards the skies. The Gods have finished positioning themselves and have all raised their hands towards the sky. I follow the direction of their outstretched arms to the center where a heavy gray cloud has formed much lower than the rest, right over our heads.

That cloud descends closer as a dubious chant rises from the throats of the Gods. I can hear the deep voices of the males melding together with the higher pitched and softer ones of the females, but the precise words? They remain a mystery to me.

Down. Down. Down it comes until our bodies are swathed in the dark milky substance that clings to our skin, our clothes, our hair. It grows ever thicker. Blindly, I reach through and findit not as easy to move, my limbs trembling as if they've been weighted down.

"Ruen?" I call out.

Silence is my only response.

"Theos?" I try again. "Kalix?"

It's as if the clouds compress over the words as soon as they leave my lips, swallowing them up and transmitting no actual sound. I take a step forward, pushing my bones and flesh through the hard wall of invisible mist that fights against the movement.

A shadow passes by me so fast that it's barely a blip in my periphery, there and then gone a moment later. The visible evidence it leaves behind, however, is terrifying. Blinking, I try to erase the shape of a monstrously sized humanoid creature with long claw-like hands and twin jutting horns above its head.

I try to move away from where the creature had darted by, but my body is slower to react due to the dense air. My arms and legs are weighted down by invisible chains, and more so than anything Dolos had ever done with his ability, I feel as though there is no hope, no exit, no way out, and no future. My breath comes faster and faster, slicing out of my throat and turning the inside of it raw. Spinning in a circle, straining my eyes as if I could somehow, by sheer force of will, burrow past the fog that tightens its grip around me.

That low chant of the Gods rises, sounding as if it's coming from all sides, above and below too. I cup my hands over my ears and wince as the volume increases. Their voices rattle in my skull, reverberating. My knees threaten to buckle, but with gritted teeth, I stomp both feet into the ground and hold steady.

All is well. Be not afraid.My head twists at that soft, feminine voice as if searching for the source even though I already know that it resonated from my own head. I see nothing. Iamnothing. Not in this place.

If limbo truly exists and isn't just a concept invented by the Gods—non Gods or whoever the fuck they are—then this is it. There is nothing here. No sound. No foundation. I stumble back and swipe an arm out in a circle, yet I touch nothing but that same dense fog. Panic climbs up my spine only to be tamped down by anger as I stomp it out and instead reach for the voice that had reached for me first.

Who are you?I demand, pouring my energy into the words in my mind and hoping that she can hear them.

Who I am isn't important, child,she responds.But you ... oh, you areveryimportant.

Where are we? What is this place?I demand, ignoring her words.

This is the Veil Between,she replies. A real answer, though unexpected, is welcome even if it merely confuses me further. Before I can formulate another question, she talks again.Worry not, it will not be long now. We are almost done.

Shutting my mental lips, I realize what she'd said. Weare almost done.So, she's a God. I shouldn't be surprised; what other creature could reach out to me with such a crystal-clear voice? Danai? Maybe, but ... closing my eyes, fighting against my memories, I recall how the God Queen had sounded on the rare occasions I'd heard her speak. This voice is nothing like hers. It's not thready, though it is soft. It is not regal, though it is elegant.

Who are you?

This time, the voice doesn't respond, not even to tell me that her identity is irrelevant. It's not.

Breathing in evenly through my nose and mouth, my attention diverts back to the problem at hand. I'm stuck in this dense fog, unable to really move, unable to call for the others, and bound by whatever constraints the Gods have placed upon me until they decide to release me from this prison. I've done this before though. Been relegated to nothing but a body with adisconnected mind. Hours and hours of darkness, no food, no water, no light. Training in the most brutal sense of the word. At least, in this place, I feel no pain—not yet anyway.

Crouching down, I slowly lower myself—pushing against the pressure that wants to keep me on my feet—and sit down upon a ground that is nothing but white and gray matter. Closing my eyes once more, I cross my legs into a folded position and straighten my spine. Then, with one hand on either knee, I begin to count backward from one hundred using the number three as my base.

Ninety-seven.

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