Page 39 of The Scattered Bones

“Sellah!” Kaid garbled through the blood as they hauled him from my room. “Sellah! Do not touch her. Don’t you dare touch her!”

The soldier punched him for the third time, and he fell silent while I cursed obscenities that had never left my tongue before.

“Kaid?” He didn’t answer me. “Kaid?”

“Shut up.” My captor clamped his fingers over my lips, and with all the ferocity within me, I bit him. He swore, and before I could register his movements, he struck my temple. Pain exploded, and my hearing dulled. I think I heard Kaid spewing violence and rage, but the ache in my head deafened me to all as Valka’s acolytes dragged us to the inner sanctum.

Hreinasta sat on her throne at the rear of the Holy of Holies, but she wasn’t who I noticed. This place was for the purest souls, for those who didn’t tempt the priestesses. No man was allowed to set foot inside this room, yet the largest male I’d ever laid eyes on stood beside the goddess, his size monstrous compared to Kaid’s looming height. I’d never seen a true god before, Hreinasta hiding within the bodies of mortal women, but there was no mistaking the monster clothed in ornate armor. His eyes were pure white, his irises the faintest tint of grey. His black hair was trimmed with military shortness, and his muscles were as much of a weapon as the wicked sword hanging at his hip.

Valka. God of War.

If he was here. Death would follow.

His acolytes threw me before Hreinasta’s throne, Kaid’s shirt barely covering my nudity as I fell to my knees. She was significantly smaller than Valka, her human host approaching forty cycles. She wore the same vessel as she did when I was offered to the temple, her tanned skin still smooth and lovely, her braided hair beginning to show the signs of age. The only reason she held onto this body was because she was waiting for me. Otherwise, she would’ve discarded it the moment her hair grew white. And I hated her for it. This haughty woman stared down at me, her hatred bleeding through her aura, but it wasn’t her. The mortal shell had no idea what was happening. A selfish goddess lacking self-control had stolen twenty cycles of her life, and if I could kill Hreinasta without harming her innocent host, I would do it with my bare hands.

“My vessel,” she said, her voice melodic in its disgust, “how you have disgraced me.”

“I am not your vessel,” I spat, all thoughts of self-preservation vacating my body in my rage, but then Valka stepped forward, and I froze, the magnitude of our situation suddenly dawning on me. Valka, a male, the god of war, was here in the temple of the pure primordial goddess. In the inner sanctum where no man was permitted entrance.

Blind with panic, I lunged to my feet, aiming for my husband, but a soldier caught me before I made it a single step and threw me to the floor. My body slapped the unforgiving tiles so hard that my skin burned red, and Kaid roared in rage. Our gazes met, and the eight soldiers could barely contain his violence.

“Don’t touch her!” he bellowed as he kicked and writhed and punched. “Keep your hands off my wife.”

Valka strode unbothered to Kaid and drew his sword. The blade was an unholy monster, an impossibly large length of metal, and my stomach heaved.

“What are you doing?” I shouted, scrambling over the floor, but a soldier grabbed my hair, yanking me to a stop. “What are you doing?” I was inconsolable, my voice more fear than words.

“It was Varas’ ashes that gave you away,” Hreinasta said calmly behind me. “The smudge on your white garments, my vessel. Proof that you were no longer pure. Proof of your disobedience.”

“Don’t touch him!” I screamed, ignoring her. “Don’t you touch him!”

“Your sins will not go unpunished. Humans do not get to disgrace the gods,” she continued.

“I’ll kill you if you touch him.” I surged against my captors, their fists ripping hair from my head as I lunged, and one of them had to climb on top of me to keep me from escaping.

“Get off her!” Kaid didn’t care that War approached him with a blade sharpened for the slaughter. His eyes were on mine, always on mine, and the pain etched on his face was too much to bear. “Get your filthy hands off my wife.”

Valka wordlessly stepped before Kaid and pressed an unnaturally large palm against my husband’s chest above his heart. Power pulsed through the room, the shock wave almost visible, and Kaid stumbled at the force.

“Your soul is now tied to every inch of your body,” Valka said with a cold and ruthless voice. He was unlike anything I’d ever experienced, and the dread coiling in my gut threatened to kill me.

“You will remain awake until the end,” War continued, and Kaid stopped struggling for the first time as he stared in terror at the hulking god.

“Don’t touch him!” I screamed, fear and horror and bile clogging my throat. Kaid started thrashing again at my voice as the soldiers held me down, and his shirt bunched up to reveal my bare body.

“Get off her!” he cried as they manhandled me, his shirt ripping as they struggled to contain me.

“If you don’t stop resisting, thief, I will carve her up as well,” Valka said, and Kaid froze, all the fight leaving him.

“Let her up.” Tears rolled down Kaid’s cheeks, but I couldn’t stop screaming. “Let her up and cover her. I’ll accept my fate without a struggle if you just unhand her.”

“No!” I surged forward, the shirt covering nothing as I thrashed, but I didn’t care. Gods be damned, let them see all of me, for my vows to Hreinasta didn’t matter. My wedding vows had replaced them.

“Sellah.” Kaid gazed at me as if we were the only people in the world. “Don’t be afraid. Nothing they do can erase my love for you.” He looked at Valka, bravery and defiance coloring his aura. “I will accept what must be done, but let my wife go. Don’t hurt her. Please.”

Valka stared cruelly down at Kaid, and then, surprisingly, he nodded. Hreinasta gasped behind me, but War bristled at her outburst, and she fell silent. A small part of me felt unnerved that the primordial goddess cowered before another. She was the first, the greatest, yet a single shudder from Valka silenced her. It spoke of just how terrifying War was. Of how fragile her human hosts were.

Kaid nodded at Valka, and with tears streaming down his face, he fell still. The god reached down, pulled off my husband’s pants, and then walked to me. With a single nod, Valka dismissed the soldiers pinning me to the ground and handed me the pants. I lay prostrate and half-naked before Valka while the man I loved stood completely bare, but I didn’t want his pants. I didn’t want what this gesture meant, and I couldn’t move as my stomach threatened to heave itself onto the floor.

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