4. Kiera
Chapter 4
Kiera
W ind whistles through the bodies stationed upon the hard pack of sand and dirt underfoot. Despite the natural chill in the air, I feel all too warm pressed against so many. No one has more than a single bag with them, but even more don't have anything at all. The Gods will provide all , or so we've been informed. Even though the Darkhavens know the truth, what I've told them, I feel as if I'm the only one who truly comprehends where we're going.
We're not going to an Academy revered as the first of its kind. We're going to our deaths.
Like frogs sitting in a bowl of water heated over a fire, we have no idea that the longer we stay here, the hotter it will get. Until we're being boiled alive and eaten by those that lord themselves over us.
Gods. That word is a vile reminder of all things evil in my mind. Fucking Gods.
A figure appears on the balcony above us and then more of them, each shadow of a person cropping up several yards from the next. They span outward, circling the stands where the students are crammed on the ground of the arena. Faces both familiar and vague surround us all as they situate themselves in a large circle. It's just one big cage, this arena. It always has been.
A shiver slithers down my spine and I take a step closer to the man at my side. Ruen doesn't hesitate to reach out. His arm closes around my shoulders and drags me closer. "It's going to be okay," he whispers, pressing his lips into the hair at my temple. "We will not be separated."
He doesn't know that. He can't know 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 all of 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 of them. 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 find it 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. I am nothing. 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 are very important.
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. We are 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 a disconnected 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.
Ninety-four.
Ninety-one.
Eighty-eight.
Eighty-five.
On and on, I count down. Each inhalation is the sharpest of blades dragging over my tongue. I don't care. I keep listing the numbers, and I keep breathing. More shadows dart past, quick and silent. The only hint that they ever existed lies in the separation of the fog they leave behind for moments before the clouds go back together, forming the netting that cages me.
Soon, the heavy weight on my frame, shoulders, and back eases slightly. I open my eyes and look up. The chanting has stopped. Nothing but silence surrounds me. No, that's not quite right. Tilting my head to the side, I listen for any hint of other changes. In the distance, the sound of crashing waves—like the ocean—echo back to me in their natural, rhythmic pattern. I get to my feet and find that it's easier to move.
Is the fog lessening?
"Kalix?" I call out, licking dry cracked lips. "Ruen? Theos?"
There isn't a response, but a new shadow appears a few feet away. Unlike the others, this one doesn't dart away but remains still as if it's a statuesque guard. Then a second shadow and a third. More and more appear, cropping up in all shapes and sizes, but one thing is for sure—these shadows have neither claws nor horns.
"Kiera...?"
I turn and that voice is closer. It's familiar.
"Theos?" I reach out a hand and one of the shadows moves closer. It takes several minutes—a lifetime—until the dark shroud surrounding the body that approaches me dissipates and I can see the actual person.
Relief is a living thing inside my chest and I nearly throw myself at Theos as he blinks and slows to stop in front of me. How he seems to have walked a great distance when, before this started, we were standing right next to each other, I don't understand. In this moment, though, I don't care.
Theos' arms close around me and tighten. We stand there together for several more minutes, watching in shock and a strange sort of awe as the fog disappears completely in slow stages, revealing a completely new place than the one we'd been in before. Gone are the walls of the arena. Gone are the stands and the balcony and the ring of the Gods, holding their arms over our heads and chanting.
In its place is nothing but sand and ocean and ... a dark crown of brimstone hovering on the frothy sea waves.
Ortus Academy sits like a sea monster of old backdropped by a sky so gray that there's no hint of the sun hidden behind its clouds. Dark spikes of brimstone jut out from the island that houses the first-ever Mortal Gods Academy. All around us, more and more bodies appear. The fog rolling in from the ocean receding just as suddenly as it came with the students fading back into existence from whatever Divinity—or magic—had been used.
"Transportation Divinity," Theos murmurs. Yes, that must be it. The Veil Between had been used as a conduit to change our places, to get the whole of Riviere Academy here in what felt like the blink of an eye.
As I stare across the churning waters and over disturbed sand, I come to the ultimate decision that yes, the Gods have something planned for us all. The Spring Equinox celebration they’ve claimed as their reason is just that—a reason, an excuse. Whatever they want from us, I have the impression that it's just as bloody and cruel as the fading memories I'd stolen from the God King.
Turning my head, I scan the length of the beach, searching ... searching ... there. I spot Niall and Maeryn several paces off, together with a few other female Mortal Gods and their Terra. A hand touches my shoulder, but the scent that invades my nostrils is a familiar rum and spice. Theos' body is warm against my side, and I find myself swaying towards him, wanting to steal some of that heat.
Catching the action at the last second, I straighten and force myself to remain planted firmly in place. The fog separates even more and I arch up, frowning as I spy a series of boats in the distance, bobbing along the ocean's surface. Fishing boats for the nearby city? No. My eyes widen and I thump back to the ground as they grow closer, their front bows slicing through the water.
The figureheads towards the front of the prows are long, carved wooden structures. I've seen them before, long ago, but nothing like this. The ship closest to the front has the most disturbing depiction of a woman with a fin for legs that I've ever seen. It would be almost beautiful were the woman not but a dissolved half-fish whose scales are gray with age and time, chipped and shriveled, and the female half nothing but a skull and bones. The long hair carved into the wood acts as a halo around what likely would have been a beautiful face. The bones look real and not carved from the ship's frame. A shiver skates down my spine.
My throat goes dry. "If we get on those ships," I say. "We'll be trapped on that island." No way out. No other path but the one Caedmon laid at my feet all those weeks ago.
I know it as a truth deeper than any that has come before.
Theos' hand lifts away from my shoulder and drifts down. This time, when he touches me, I can't stop my response. His fingers twine with my own and he holds our palms against one another. "No matter what happens," he whispers back. "We will always have a way out."
Foolish. I want to tell him that being an idealist is sweet, but in the face of the harsh reality we're about to face, it's nothing but a dream. Dreams turn into nightmares. Nightmares can't be escaped.
Still, I clutch his hand in mine, squeezing until I'm afraid of breaking his bones. Out of the clouds still lifting from the beach's surface, two figures cut out and make their way towards us. Kalix and Ruen. They approach with rapid footsteps neither stopping until we're huddled into a circle. It's better Regis isn't here. If we're to do this then we'll need someone on the outside of the Academy, someone who can send information and gather ships.
Trapped. Locked in. Pinned down.
My nails turn in, digging into the back of Theos' hand. He doesn't even flinch. He just squeezes me back, letting me know that it's okay.
Staring beyond Ruen and Kalix, at the creature of brimstone and darkness that lingers amid those chaotic waters, I realize that this is where it all began. Ortus Island is the great brimstone mountain that even the Gods fear. We are at the edge of our world and we may not come back.