Page 33 of Goddess of the Broken

“I’m going to take a look out there while we wait for them to pick us up, see if there’s anything about our attackers that I didn’t notice before.”

He jumped forward to catch Tempest as she struggled to get to her feet, pulling her to his chest and stumbling to keep his own balance.

“Tempest, you don’t have to come. You should rest here.”

She could hear the concern in his voice, and deep down, she wanted nothing more than to collapse back to the ground. He was right, though; there may have been things she missed and needed to discover for herself before evidence had a chance to be lost.

She gripped his arms as she straightened herself up. “Let me join you outside, and I will rest there.”

He nodded in agreement and moved aside as Tempest took her first step towards the door. Her feet dragged on the floor; she didn’t have the strength to try and lift them higher. She slowly made her way, with Aiden by her side, into the alley and deposited herself on a crate next to the door.

Several soldiers moved among the bodies in the alley while more of them stood on either side of the alley, keeping the quickly growing crowds at bay. The masks were being pulled off the attackers’ faces one at a time, revealing men and women she didn’t recognize. Nothing appeared extraordinary.

Aiden’s voice made her jump as he asked one of the soldiers, “"Did you find any weapons?”

“No, your majesty.”

“Really? They had...” Tempest stopped as a familiar bronze-skinned face was revealed. “It can’t be.”

“Miss?”

“Put the mask back on that woman,” Aiden commanded quickly, then added more quietly, “That’s one of the contestants of the Dei Electi.”

The soldier quickly placed the mask back on the woman. What Tempest saw wasn’t a trick of her mind, then.

Alina, representative of the goddess of the sun, had been part of the attack.

The more Tempest thought about it, the more it made sense. Soleil could impart her abilities to her representative since she was her chosen one. The Dei Electi created a connection between god and participant that would bless the mortal for rest of their life if they stayed in their god’s favor. Soleil’s power over pure light, worked by Alina, was what had blinded her during the attack.

“Can you hand me one of the masks?” Tempest asked the guard closest to her.

She turned it over in her hands once he retrieved it. The mask itself was simple, an expressionless face carved of wood and painted black. Only a faint pattern was etched across the inside of the mask and a thin blue stripe ran down the ties on either side of it.

The goddess of the sun sponsoring the attacks on the emperor didn’t entirely make sense, though. While Tempest knew her to be prideful and jealous, she was also a very insecure god. Tempest had often helped Soleil when she was feeling redundant or lesser than the other gods, especially Kirata, goddess of the heavens. Tempest suspected that another god had manipulated Soleil’s involvement. The only question was who.

“Tempest,” Sylvia said quietly, “I’m sorry.”

Tempest looked at her. “For what?”

“For what they’re saying about you.”

Tempest’s face darkened. She looked out into the courtyard that connected their rooms. They’d spent the last hour enjoying each other’s company in Tempest’s room.

“What are they saying?”

“That you killed Alina. Well, only half of them are saying that. The rest decided that you were sleeping with Emperor Aiden.”

Tempest’s eyes blazed. “They’re lying.”

“I know,” Sylvia said soothingly, “but it’s hard to prove.”

Tempest looked at Sylvia with wide eyes. “I wasn’t sleeping with him!”

“I know,” Sylvia said again. “I believe you.”

Tempest looked at Sylvia as her emotions warred in her heart. It had been so long since she’d had a friend. For the first time in over a century, she wished she could have someone in whom she could be open with, completely honest about everything. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that she had never really had that before.

“I wish I could leave,” she whispered. “Just get out of here. Be anywhere but here.”

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