24. Kiera
Chapter 24
Kiera
T hump. Thump. Thump.
“Ugh.” A groan rumbles out of my chest as I lift a hand into the air and swat at the thumping noise in my head before lowering back down.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
I repeat the action, except this time, I realize that my pillow is as hard as a rock. Blinking open eyes with lashes that try to fuse together to prevent me from seeing the reality of morning, I realize that it’s not quite a rock, but damn near close. It’s a very hard, very male chest.
My eyes shoot to the face belonging to the man of said chest, which is covered in scratches and the half-moon marks of nails digging into flesh. I find Theos on his back beneath me. One arm is tossed over his upper face, but I can make out the light shadow of blond beard growth along his jawline and the familiar line of his regal nose. He breathes slowly, evenly, still lost in slumber. But I’m not.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
I sit up as the return of that irritating pounding in my head makes my insides coil like a snake about to strike. The back of my hand grazes something as I move, and I jerk my head over, finding Ruen on his side next to Theos and me.
His face is scrunched in a mass of agony despite his slow and steady breathing that mimics Theos’. Like Theos, his skin is covered in claw marks down his chest and abdomen as well as various smaller bruises on his throat and shoulders. I sway where I am, my body not seeming capable of holding itself up without a struggle. Still, I force myself to breathe through my teeth and take stock.
Like both Theos and Ruen, I’m completely naked. Examining my limbs and belly and hips, I frown at the copious marks—bruises, bitemarks, and scratches are everywhere. There’s a particularly sore area where my shoulder and neck meet but without looking into a mirror, I can’t see the reason for it. Glancing at Theos and Ruen emits the same result. The three of us appear as if we’d been involved in a brawl—nude. If that’s the case then there’s no doubt what occurred.
Sex.
As I move to get off Theos completely and slide down to the bottom of the bed, the soreness between my legs confirms the story. The achy pains aren’t just between my legs though. My back, my ass, my pussy, and my jaw all feel well used.
I try in vain to recollect the images of what might have happened the night before. All I get is a vague sense of pleasure and … pain? That could just be the continued discomfort in my head.
Planting one hand against my temple and hoping the pressure lessens the agony of a thousand hammers drilling into the inside of my skull, I glance around the room. The last thing I remember was dancing in the garden of statues during The Cleansing.
“When did we get back to our rooms?” I mumble absently, my eyes moving over the familiar surroundings.
From what I can tell, we had somehow managed to get back to the residential corridors and fall into Ruen’s bed. The sheets from the mattress are missing though, having been ripped free hours before most likely.
Ducking my head, I search around on the floor for something to slip into as cool air wafts over my naked form. My nipples pebble and I cross my arms over my chest, shivering a little.
Ironically, I don’t find any clothes—it's as if the mors pallium from the night before has disappeared entirely—but I do find the bed sheet, half hidden beneath the foot of one of the bed posts. Deciding that it will do, I pull it free and wrap it around myself several times before tucking it into the place between my breasts.
My head still hurts, more so than ever before. The pounding is a steady presence in my mind that makes thought nearly impossible. I’d seen it many times before with others in the Underworld, including Regis and even Carcel. Though I’d never experienced one before due to my unwillingness to drink myself into a stupor, I know what it is. A hangover.
“Ugh.” Wanting to both throw up and dig my own brain out with a shovel, I stumble towards the door and open it to slip into the hallway. The corridor spins, the ceiling and floor trading places. My feet trip over one another and my side slams into the wall, causing a loud rush of air to escape me along with a mumbled curse.
“Not feeling quite yourself this morning?”
It takes me a moment to realize that someone has spoken to me. My insides practically quiver when I look up into a familiar pair of deep forest green eyes. Kalix, unlike his brothers and me, looks perfectly fine. His hair is slightly wet from a recent shower and raked away from his face.
My eyes travel down over the naked planes of his chest to the trousers riding low on his hips, causing the lines on either side of his groin to stand out even more. There aren’t nearly as many marks on him as there are on the rest of us, and for a moment I wonder if perhaps he had snuck off the night before. Then my head supplies me with an image so vivid—his hands on my thighs, holding them open, spread as air slipped down the planes of my stomach and over my?—
I jerk myself from the image, not sure if it’s a memory or a dream. My stomach muscles tighten and my head seems to take that opportunity to start back up again, those thousands of hammers going faster than before.
The hallway spins again, and I slip off the wall, watching in morbid fascination as the ground comes rushing up to greet me. Thankfully, it stops midway and I feel strong arms close around me, lifting me off my feet.
“Can’t hold your liquor?” Kalix inquires, not seeming all that upset or even weary by the drink from the night before.
“You … didn’t drink?” I ask, my words sounding garbled to my own ears as he carries me off somewhere.
I don’t bother to ask where he’s taking me. It seems pointless. After all, once Kalix has decided he wants to do something he does it. Few people could stop him, and though I suspect I might be one of those few, I don’t have the energy to fight him right now.
Some great salvation I am, I think with a snort.
“I did.” It takes me a moment to remember what I’d said to Kalix to earn that response, but when I do, I find myself tipping my head back to look up at him.
“You did?” I scowl as he nods, that pleasant little smile still in place. “Then why don’t you look like someone is trying to crack open your skull with rusted axes?”
He chuckles, the low sound reverberating through his chest and into my side where I rest against him. “Nothing hurts more than overcoming a snake’s venom,” he replies.
I stare at him. “Snake’s venom?”
Those green eyes of his move back to me for a brief second before lifting to watch where he’s walking. “Don’t you know how familiars become familiars?” he asks.
I shake my head. I’d always had the ability to call spiders to me. Ever since I could remember, though, I supposed I’d really only noticed it after my father died. There’d been so many spiders in the Underworld’s training facilities that they’d been too difficult to overlook. At first, I’d been frightened of them, but then…
Well, I’d already lost enough by that time that being scared of such small creatures had felt ridiculous. My affinity for my spiders had grown stronger from then on, though not nearly as strong as it has been in the last few weeks—a direct result, I suspect, of the removal of the brimstone in my neck.
Kalix continues walking, his steps seeming to eat up distance faster than ever, and yet, he doesn’t stop even as we leave the dorm rooms of Ortus Academy behind. There are no sounds of people walking, no voices echoing in the grand corridors, and no hint that there's anyone else in this entire building save for him and me.
"You have to prove your strength to the creatures that will become your familiars,” Kalix says, his voice a deep purr that vibrates through my bones. I shiver and close my eyes, resting against him as I listen to him speak. “They test you in many ways, but one obvious way is to strike at you and see if you survive their attack.”
So, he’d been bitten then, by one of his snakes, I guess. “You were sick?” I guess, keeping my eyes shut.
“For a bit,” he admits. “Not long. Each time, I seemed to overcome it easier and easier.”
“Each time?” My eyes open once more and I peer up at him. “How many times did they bite you?” I ask.
His eyes remain facing forward, but there’s no hint of emotion on his face. I can’t tell if he’s uncomfortable talking about this or if he simply doesn’t care. Were he anyone else, I’d guess the first option, but for Kalix, what is normal is rarely the answer. His snakes hadn’t killed him, therefore, why should he care? At least, that’s how I would think if I were Kalix.
“Every snake has different venom,” he says, not quite answering my question in the straightforward way someone else might have. “I am immune to all of them.”
All of them? My lips part in shock. “There are hundreds of different kinds of snakes,” I say.
Jade-green eyes meet mine as his steps slow and he stops in front of a set of double doors, lighter than the rest, wooden like oak, but painted a soft white gray. “There are thousands of different species of snakes,” he corrects me, and before I can ask if that means what I think it does, he answers. “And yes, I know each of them personally.”
His foot jerks beneath me and kicks at the door. A beat passes and then it opens, a haggard-looking older Terra appearing in a tan robe. His gray features are sunken in like all of the others and his eyes dull. He lights up briefly when he spies Kalix.
“S-sir,” he stutters. “D-did you forget something?” Then his gaze falls to me and he practically shrivels. “Oh, my apologies. The bathing chamber has been cleaned. You are welcome to use it again at your leisure.”
The old Terra male steps to the side sweeping the doors open as Kalix carries me inside without a word. The pounding in the back of my head eases marginally as I’m overwhelmed with surprise.
Bathing chamber. He’d brought me to a bath, I realize. Why then, had we been forced to wash in our rooms? Why had Terra carried buckets and buckets of water the night before? We could have just come here.
As if sensing the direction of my thoughts, Kalix chuckles. “Haven’t you realized it by now?” Kalix asks, drawing my attention away from the massive room with skylight windows opened up to the cloudy morning sky.
“Realized what?”
“The Gods have never cared about what is convenient for others,” he tells me as he brings me over to a smaller pool set towards the back of the giant room, away from the others and half hidden behind a row of pillars. “And neither do I.”
As his arms leave my body, my gaze turns to the bathing chambers. Like Riviere, it seems to be one big open space with pools of hot water. The skylights above let out some of the steam rising from the water’s surface, but the room is still overly warm. My stomach cramps and my headache comes back in full force.
Pressing a hand to my forehead, Kalix forces me back until I’m facing the ceiling. He peers down at me with a small furrow between his brows. “Ruen and Theos are likely going to have the same issue,” he says.
“I don’t suppose you have an antidote?” I ask when he releases me and I tip my chin back down to my lap, breathing through my nose as I try not to throw up the contents of my stomach all over the pale linen bedsheet I’m still wearing. I have nothing else to put on and I won’t be striding through the halls of Ortus naked. I already feel far too exposed and vulnerable sleeping in walls made of solid brimstone.
Kalix doesn’t answer me, and after a moment I realize it’s because he’s no longer there. Peeking out from beneath the fall of my hair over my face, I don’t see him at all. He must have gone beyond the wall of pillars. With a sigh, I struggle to my feet and untuck the sheet from my breasts, letting it fall to the floor.
Stepping over it, I head for the closest pool. Maybe it will help or maybe it won’t, but I can’t resist the urge to get into the pool of hot water a second longer. Finding the stone steps that lead down, I carefully steady myself on one side of the pool's wall as I sink into its depths. The hot water laps at my sides, making the cuts and bitemarks sting slightly. A rolling wave of aching tenderness spills over me before being swept away once more. My wet hair clings to the skin of my shoulders and neck, but I don’t care. I submerge myself deeper until the only thing above water keeping me breathing are my nostrils. Then I close my eyes and float.
I don’t know how long I remain alone. It could be seconds, minutes, or even hours, but when I open my eyes again, Kalix is there, sitting at the edge of the pool, cold eyes watching me from beneath dark lashes. There’s a heat in his gaze that hadn’t been there the first time I’d met him. Oh, sure, there’d been curiosity. Excitement. The promise of an end to boredom. But not this all-encompassing inferno that threatens to swallow me up and never let me go.
Despite the warmth of the water around me that hasn’t yet cooled—no doubt thanks to some Divine spell placed upon it—I shiver. Anticipation? Or something else?
I lift myself from the water’s surface, breaching it just enough to speak. “Why am I so sore?” I ask, tilting my head. “I don’t remember anything that happened last night.”
Kalix’s expression darkens at my words and he shakes his head. “I remember bits and pieces,” he tells me. “But the memories are corrupted.”
“Corrupted?” I ask. What could that mean?
Pressing two fingers into his temple, Kalix’s lips turn down into a scowl. “I remember everything,” he says, almost sounding as if he’s talking to himself rather than me. “A leftover ability from all of the venom.” He rolls his tongue over his teeth, his eyes growing distant. “I should remember everything,” he corrects himself.
“But you don’t?” I guess.
He shakes his head. “I can see things, feel things from last night,” he murmurs. “Ultimately, though, it’s as if I’m standing in front of a stage where a play is taking place through a thin black curtain.”
I watch him, wading closer to the edge where he sits as his words echo around us.
“I can see the movement of bodies, hear moans and words spoken, but they’re all shadows. I cannot tell who is who or what they’re doing, I can only guess given the clues.”
Water surrounds me even as I stop next to where he is and place my arms on the edge, folding them and lowering my head to rest on top of them. “I know alcohol can make a person forget themselves,” I say, thinking back to all of the times I’d caught Regis drunk off his ass after a particularly rough job.
He’d been willing to kill whoever he needed to in order to find his brother, but some jobs took more from his soul than I think even he realized. He’d come back from a hard one and just drink until he couldn’t stand. I’d help him to his room and then the next day, he’d act like it’d never happened. Not the job. Not the drinking. And certainly not the words of pain and agony he’d whispered just before I’d left his room.
“Forgive me, Grell,” he’d begged quietly, tears streaming from his closed eyes. “Forgive me…”
“It shouldn’t have been so bad for us though.” Kalix’s words draw me back to the present and I lift my head, facing him.
“Why do you say that?”
He arches one brow, the thunderous expression dissipating in an instant as he taps his still bare chest. “Mortal Gods,” he says as if that should explain everything, and perhaps it does.
The Gods, unlike mortals, struggle to feel the effects of mortal liquors. They have to drink more than twice the regular amount to feel anything. Like them, I’d noticed that none of the Mortal Gods I’d been around in the Academy had ever seemed to get drunk even when they’d had several glasses of wine or other alcohol as they dined. Perhaps I would have been fine all along, but I’d never been willing to chance it.
Why did I last night?
Somewhere in the bathing chamber, a door opens and groggy voices echo forth. “Come on.” Kalix stands. “We should go back.”
He holds out his hand and I take it, planting a foot against the wall of the pool with enough force to allow him to pull me straight up out of the water. The clear liquid sluices off my body and for a moment, Kalix’s face goes lax. As if he’d forgotten I was naked, he sways forward, his free hand lifting against me, cupping my hip. He drags me against him until I feel the weight of his erection pressing into me. I wince though. My insides still feel roughly used and though I have no qualms about fucking him, I would rather not do so here where anyone could find us.
That thought brings a strange image to my mind. Ruen on his back against a stone slab. My body atop his, my legs spread as his cock drives into me. Theos in front of me, my hair gripped in a tight fist as someone’s hands pry my buttocks apart and hot oil drips down the crack of my ass.
I shake my head, dispelling the image as I rip my hand from Kalix’s and hurry for the sheet I’d left. I draw it around myself once more and though my wet skin makes the fabric cling a bit tighter, the layers I create in having to wrap it around my body multiple times at least hide more than I’d revealed the night before.
Kalix and I leave the bathing chamber and head for the dorms. As we walk, I consider the fact that my biggest regret is not knowing if the images I saw in my mind were real … or fiction.