Page 5 of Kissed By the Gods
“You heard her! What’s impossible?”
The man’s eyes are twitching between the two of us now. He tries again to lift my boot but doesn’t budge me even an inch. My boot might as well be a boulder on his chest.
“Speak!” I command.
“There’s nothing you can do to me that will be worse than …” He stops mid-sentence, looks directly at me. “There’s nothing you can do that will be worse.” There’s true fear in his eyes, but not of me. Unacceptable.
I drop the scythe to the ground. It’s too long, too impersonal. I reach an arm behind me, palm out and fingers extended. I’m guided by a knowledge, by a knowing, that is beyond me yet comes from within.
My pruning shears land perfectly in my palm. My fingers flash with heat as they curl around the metal handle. Another extension of myself.
The soldier’s eyes are completely dilated, his gaze locked on my hand with the shears. He’s beyond words, shaking his head in denial.
I drop to a knee on the man’s chest and bring the shears to his left ear. I lean forward, to whisper. “I know all about ‘worse’.” I smile, but it’s ugly, pained. Bitter, like my mother’s. “After all, I was taught by the king’s best.” I nudge his ear with the shears—another tool I sharpened until my own fingers bled—and am rewarded with a trickle of his blood.
“A-a-a-altor!” the man finally spits out. “You fight like an Altor.”
What the hell? Selencians don’t have Altor, the warriors blessed by the gods to fight the Kher’zenn. If we did, we sure as hell wouldn’t be baseborn serfs for the Kingdom of Faraengard.
Seb must be as confused as I am, because he kicks the man again.
“What do you mean? Only Faraengard has Altor warriors,” Seb says.
The man opens his mouth, as if to speak, but instead of words, a green foam bubbles out.
“Leina, get off him! We need answers.”
Seb tries to pull me aside, but I’m already scrambling to get off the soldier’s chest. It makes no difference. The man is convulsing now, choking on his own bile. His face turns unnaturally red, his eyes bulging as he grasps desperately at his throat. He stays like that for an agonizingly long minute, his tormented eyes meeting mine one last time, before hundreds of little black bugs start crawling out of his ears, nostrils, and eyes to devour him from the inside out.
Seb and I pull each other backward so fast we nearly fall on our asses, but in the next moment the man and the bugs are gone.
I stare at him in shock. “I didn’t do this, Seb! I swear I didn’t do this!” I may be cursed with unnatural strength and uncanny senses, but I’ve never pulled man-eating bugs from nowhere.
Seb’s arms wrapped around me, his eyes taking in every detail. He’s always been one to see the broad strokes. “I think that was the ‘worse,’ Leina.”
My mouth drops open. I close it, open it again. Try to speak.
“You think he was … cursed? Or something?” I finally get out.
Seb’s eyes are wide, staring at the place where the man was. Not even bloodstains remain on the grass. “Or something.”
A keening cry behind us yanks me out of my stupor, and both of us turn to see Leo kneeling next to our mother’s body.
Oh gods. His cries bring into sharp focus what we’ve lost. What I’ve done. Tears form in my own eyes, and the nausea churning in my stomach makes me certain I’m going to retch.
Seb races over to Leo and snatches him up, hugging Leo so tightly against his chest I’m afraid he might suffocate him.
“S-s-s-e-e-e-b,” I start, but my teeth have started to chatter. I stop and try again, clenching my mouth closed tightly to try to control the rattling. “Seb. Can Leo breathe?”
“Gods, Leina! He can’t see this!” Seb’s large hand trembles as he cradles the back of Leo’s head, pushing him deeper into the linen of his shirt. Leo flails, trying to get back down to Mother.
I try to nod, but my head feels both too heavy and too light.
Seb takes a shuddering breath and squeezes his eyes closed. When he opens them again, he seems to have aged a decade. The rage and grief painted across his face shouldn’t belong to a 19-year-old. Seb shoves Leo into my arms. “Get him inside, away from … Get him inside. Start to pack.”
“P-p-p-a-a-ack?” The chattering of my teeth is uncontrollable now as my entire body shudders. I’m so cold I could swear there’s ice in my veins. Leo’s shrieks threaten to shatter my sensitive ear drums. I panic as I try to hold on to him, terrified I’ll crush him, but my strength has deserted me. I can barely keep the frantic boy in my arms.
“Pack all the food and supplies we have. We can’t stay here now.”
