Page 17 of Exquisite Monster
Straining against the chains, I made it clear that I could and would free myself if I could, and when I did, I would separate his head from his body. “What difference does it make? She’s gone. She’sgone.” The words felt hollow. She was gone, but she wasn’t dead. Still, I felt the pain. “How does telling me how she died change anything?”
Andaros searched my face, looking for some kind of deception, and found none. He thought he was so much smarter, but he forgot how long we’d been alive. I knew better than he could possibly imagine how to pretend something. The three of us had been pretending for centuries.
Finally, he shrugged. “It was no more than she deserved. I threw her down the center of the world at Evrítha.”
Incandescent rage filled me. My fire burned in my chest, and I was going todestroythis man. Pain slammed into me as I was struck and forced back into the muzzle before I could try to fucking burn them to ash.
Andaros laughed as they poured the hot potion into my mouth. “That was more fun than I thought. Maybe I’ll tell the others too so I can watch them try.”
I relayed what he’d said, fighting sickness and rage. But all three of us had the same question. If Lena fell down the center of the world, how the fuck was she still alive?
CHAPTER NINE
________
KATALENA
It was so dark I nearly tripped over the fabric pooling around my feet. I cursed, catching myself on one of the stone trees. “Varí?”
He spewed some fire into the air, lighting up our immediate surroundings so I could find my feet once more. We needed a specific root and mushroom for the potion I was brewing today. Something which could allow you to see in the dark. So, of course, the ingredients we needed grew in complete darkness.
“I’m not sure what good this does,” I muttered. “Not like I’m going to be able to find ingredients from the center of the world on the surface.”
These will grow in caves and dark places on the surface, girl.Gleym’s voice echoed in my head.
Varícoughed smoke, which was suspiciously like a laugh.
“You’re listening to me?”
It’s hard not to when your clomping echoes through the caves like an earthquake.
I grit my teeth and hiked the fabric up around my knees, stepping around the rock that had tripped me in the first place. Wet moss squelched beneath my feet. It was oddly soothing, but it didn’t do anything for my grip.
Gleym was a hard master. There were moments when I saw kindness, but more often she was brusque and stern. Which was just as well. Neither of us were here to be friends. I was trying to get through the knowledge she thought I needed so I could get back to the surface.
Every day that passed—or what I thought might be a day—made anxious worry slither under my skin. It built slowly, an ever-present guest in my mind. I didn’t know if I’d be able to save them, but if I could and I missed it because I’d lingered here too long, I wouldn’t survive.
There.
At the base of a stone tree, I saw the little mushrooms. They glowed an eerie shade of blue and had long, spindly stems and steep caps. If what the book said was true, then the roots should be nearby. They were a symbiotic pair.
Kneeling, the damp from the moss soaked through the dress while I gathered the mushrooms. But not all of them. In a symbiotic system, I couldn’t take all of either party. Not if I wanted them toreplenish.
I wasn’t sure if Gleym cared about their replenishment, but I did.
The dirt was looser than I imagined, the bright red roots appearing like blood in the small burst of fireVaríkept using to light our way. The glowing potion still wasn’t fully cured. The number of them in the workshop provided good light, but they weren’t at their brightest. It would have been helpful here. Or the one I was foraging for, which gifted the user with perfect sight in the dark.
Gleym likely wanted me to understand the value of what I made alongside the process of making it.
Despite the loose earth, the roots clung to the ground, almost ripping my skin as I pulled out what I needed. It fought me, and suddenly I was fighting back, pulling the root as hard as I could,screamingat it until it broke free.
Everything fell out of me in a rush, and I slumped to the side with the roots in my palm, heaving breath.
Varíplaced his claws on my leg, and I shook my head. “Sorry.”
It was like the struggle had unlocked something visceral that I couldn’t contain. The rage and pain that were lurking beneath the surface. They didn’t serve me, and I needed to keep them at bay, but they were still there. And that small point of pain and struggle let them break free so easily.
“We have what we need,” I said quietly, and stood. It wasn’t hard to find our way back, withVaríflying in low loops around me, lighting the air when I needed it.
