10. Kiera
Chapter 10
Kiera
T he bathing chamber is nearly silent as Maeryn and I sit back-to-back in the giant tub I’d cleaned a time or two since coming to the Academy. I’d been in it once—but that memory is tainted by what had happened after. Theos and his … questions.
Back then, I’d been a bit too concerned with Rahela’s death—partially caused by me, but finished by Kalix—to really think about how big the tub I’m in now is. I shouldn’t be surprised that it’s big enough for both Maeryn and me considering it’s large enough to cater to one of the Darkhavens. Yet, I’d never thought to find myself in this thing again, and most certainly not with Maeryn.
The sound of water droplets dripping onto the surface of the water echoes back to my ears as the woman behind me shifts forward slightly. “Here,” she says and a bar of soap and a washcloth is shoved over my shoulder.
I’d already managed to scrub off the worst of the brown sludge she’d dumped on me before filling the tub and getting in. Now, my hair hangs in limp, wet clumps down my spine. I take the cloth and soap and start on my front.
“You never answered my question,” I say as I slide the cloth up one arm and down the other. My eyes catch on the little white bubbles of soap that cling to my skin, frothing up more with each pass.
Maeryn’s spine goes rigid against mine and she shifts once more, causing a wave of water to ripple around us. “What question is that?” she asks, though she doesn’t sound like she truly wants to know.
My hands slow to a stop and I turn to glance at her. She keeps her face turned away, as if trying to give me some semblance of privacy. I know better than that now. It doesn’t take a genius to know that she was likely the one to change my clothes for me. The Darkhavens are bastards, but Ruen is the most like other men—concerned with some misplaced sense of modesty. He would have ensured someone other than him or one of his brothers took care of the task.
“What happened in the last three days to make you so nervous about telling me?”
A heartbeat passes. Silence fills the chamber, save for the sounds of our bodies shifting ever so slightly in the water and our breaths into the cool air of the room. Finally, Maeryn sighs and her head dips toward her chest.
I drop the washcloth into the water with a resounding plop , giving up the pretense as I cup water into my hands and rinse away the suds. “That bad?” I ask lightly when I feel anything but light.
No, I’ve never felt heavier. Like the weight of some unseen force is pressing against me, crushing me into the world and there’s no fighting what I cannot see.
“The Gods have called for you.”
I don’t know what I expected Maeryn to say, but it certainly wasn’t that. Turning fully, I bend my knees and bring them up towards my chest, wrapping my arms around them. “What do you mean the Gods have called for me?”
Long corkscrew curls of amber and copper fall off her shoulder as Maeryn turns and mirrors my pose. She, too, presses her back against the other side of the tub, dragging her legs up to cover her nakedness. Moss green eyes gaze back at me with worry shredding their normal composure. Her lashes, the same copper and normally painted darker with makeup slowly lower as she drifts one hand through the surface of the bath water.
“Kalix came for me three nights ago and said that you had the brimstone removed from your neck by the one who put it there,” she answers. “He said that you weren’t well and the others wanted me to check you out.”
I remain silent, letting her get out the events that have taken place since I fell unconscious. The mention of the brimstone makes me want to reach up and touch the place behind my neck. Strangely, it no longer burns or tingles each time I remember it. Had that truly been the brimstone and not just a pain made up in my head?
“Brimstone is a mystery to many of us, but one thing we do know is that it suppresses Divinity—almost as if it has a natural barrier against our abilities.”
Watching her fingers create figure 8s in the water, I think back to what Caedmon had said about how the Gods came to be in this world. The Brimstone Mountain had cracked open when the world tore open for them to enter ours from theirs. Was it something about the magic that had created that fissure that made the brimstone the natural weapon against their kind, that made it reject Divinity—magic?
“The brimstone suppressed your natural abilities for a long time,” Maeryn continues. “When that brimstone was removed, all of your abilities—the ones you didn’t even know you were missing—came back at once. It overwhelmed your senses and as a result, your body shut down.”
“If I hadn’t woken up, would you have put that stuff on me while I slept?” I ask, curious, even though my original question has yet to be answered.
Her lips twitch at the reminder. She nods. “Yes, I know it’s awful, but it does work. It works with younger Mortal Gods who are either struggling to awaken their abilities or who are afraid of their abilities and unintentionally suppress them mentally. When something happens and their abilities come out, the foul smell of the concoction has the distinct effect of helping them to liberate themselves. After two days of you not waking, I figured it was the only thing that could help.”
I nod slowly. I still don’t like it. That horrible odor is going to haunt my nightmares and I still feel like there are clumps of the stuff glued to my back even though I rinsed and washed it thoroughly.
I wave my hand in her direction. “Alright,” I concede, “but that doesn’t explain why the Gods are asking for me.”
Copper lashes lift and those green eyes of hers meet mine once more. “I don’t know how else to tell you this but to just come right out and say it,” she says, her throat bobbing and her brows pinching down. “They know, Kiera.”
They know.
I don’t have to ask her what they know. Only one thing could lead her to act so concerned and, yes, I’ll admit I see it now, scared. Her composure isn’t just shredded, it’s obliterated. Fear lines her perfect features. My lungs seize as the air in my chest escapes in one long rush. My heartbeat thrums in my ears. Black and white spots dance in front of my vision as horror descends.
The Gods know what I am.
I can’t breathe.
I don’t realize that the room has turned pitch black until a muffled gasp from Maeryn alerts me and I blink open my eyes only to see … nothing. Absolutely nothing. There is not a single spec of light. I reach out, feeling water at my fingertips, and then smack my knuckles into the side of the standing tub. Wincing, my pain causes my panic to ease back slightly and a fluttering of curtains above our heads draws my attention.
No. Not curtains. Shadows.
With a gasp, I hold out my hand and call them back to me. What once felt so difficult, like I wasn’t even controlling them so much as the shadows were following me, has suddenly become as easy as breathing. The shadows encompassing the room fall immediately, cascading in long strings onto the floor and slithering across the floor until they reach the tub.
Then, one by one, they slide up and into the water before melding to my skin and sinking inside, disappearing. Across from me, Maeryn’s face is paler than usual, her eyes wide and her hands are locked over either side of the tub’s rim.
“K-Kiera?” She stutters out my name, confused and horrified.
“I’m sorry,” I say and mean the words. I hadn’t meant to scare the living shit out of her. I hadn’t ever lost control like that. It was more work to use my powers than to keep them under wraps.
The pale rounds of her freckled breasts heave up and down with each sharp inhalation. “Y-you just … the whole room. Those weren’t spiders.”
I grimace and shake my head. “No, they weren’t. I’m sorry. I’ve never done that before.”
My skin feels colder now than before and I realize that the warmth of the water is now drained. I cross my arms over my chest as a shiver moves through me. Maeryn blinks and stands, reaching for a drying sheet. She quickly steps out and wraps herself before nodding to me.
“You need to get out,” she says, unfolding the sheet and holding it up.
I stare at the smooth skin of my palms for the longest time before responding. The shadows are gone, visibly, but I can still feel something under the surface, sizzling beneath my flesh. After a few more beats of no response, I shake my head and lift myself out of the tub. I take the offered sheet from Maeryn, and as I wrap myself, I return my attention to the words she’d said before.
“You said the Gods know about me.” She tenses but nods her confirmation. “Why haven’t they come to take me away for lying and betraying them?”
“Caedmon is the one who revealed your heritage,” Maeryn answers, and somehow, it doesn’t shock me. He said he would figure out a way to make sure that things would be fine. I don’t exactly know how this helps, but with the brimstone removed, my abilities were bound to resurface anyway. The Gods would have found out eventually.
“He said that you were unaware and as an orphan had no knowledge of your parentage. He told the Gods that you never exhibited signs of any abilities, but perhaps being around others with Divinity somehow … unleashed your own. They wish to see you and determine who your God parent is.”
I frown, feeling the skin above my brows puckering at the revelation. “They can do that?”
Maeryn just shrugs and casts me an apologetic look as she moves across the bathing chamber to the clothes that had been left for us by Niall earlier. “I don’t know,” she admits. “But if he says that’s what they want, then that’s what they will demand. Caedmon has managed to hold them off. No one knows that you’ve been in the North Tower this whole time.”
“Where do they think I’ve been then?” I ask, curious.
“I assume they suspect Caedmon is keeping you hidden for now, but even his word can only last for so long. They want to see you, have demanded your presence, and each day, they grow angrier. Everyone in the Academy can feel it.” Her eyes turn to the window and even I note that the winter sky outside appears darker, as if a storm is hovering around the entire Academy. “Caedmon has sent many notes to update the Darkhavens, and they’ve thankfully given me some insight, but they’ll want to tell you themselves too.”
I remain near the tub as I watch her lift a new gown, just as long as the last one she’d worn—the one I’d dirtied in our fight. Pressing her biceps close to her sides to keep the drying sheet pinned, she holds it up slightly. It’s a sword gray color with black beading around the middle to form a faux belt. The neckline is square with a small trim of lace that matches the trim at the hem and on the ends of both sleeves.
“Another reason why I went with that concoction was because we assumed it would also wake you up and you needed to be awake by today because Caedmon cannot hold the Gods off any longer with whatever excuses he’s made. He’s been telling them that he’s keeping an eye on you and that you’re under his personal control. Last night, though, someone stole into his chambers here at the Academy and the Gods are angry that they found no sign of you.”
“They sent someone.” That’s not shocking. The Gods are rarely patient. What is a surprise is that they’ve managed to wait three days before making their demands.
“Yes,” Maeryn says, not realizing that my words hadn’t been meant as a question but as a confirmation to myself. She sighs and shakes her head at the dress before picking up the second one. Of course, Niall would bring both of us dresses. Like the first, this dress has a floor length skirt, but that’s where the similarities stop.
“The gray one won’t do if you’re meeting the God Council,” Maeryn comments with a nod before setting the second dress down and picking up the first. “I’ll wear it.”
Moving away from the tub, I trail behind her as she takes the first gown and ambles away to a partition that had been set up in the corner. Disappearing behind the three-sided wall, a moment later, Maeryn tosses her drying sheet over the top. I stop in front of the remaining gown and lift the fabric.
It’s soft to the touch, and a blue so rich and deep that it almost looks black. There are no embellishments save for the glittering gems that litter the lower half and string over the square neckline. The sleeves are two-inch strands of the same satin fabric as the dress and then a long translucent fabric that when I place my hand beneath, makes it clear that it’s just for fashion rather than for any sort of true usefulness.
“Can you lace me up?” Maeryn calls out as she steps from around the partition.
Blinking, I drop the dress and face her fully. I tuck the ends of my drying sheet between my breasts to keep it up and then motion for her to come closer. The gray is beautiful with her pale skin and the smattering of freckles, but I remember her in trousers and tunics, holding a sword. She might look beautiful and fragile like this, but I know more than most that looks can be deceiving. After all, that’s how I made it this far.
Maeryn strides towards me, and the skirts swish around her ankles but stop just above the floor so that I can see her bare feet peek out from beneath them. Flipping around to face away, she gathers the length of her wet curls and reveals the sewn-in corset style back that needs lacing. I grip the top string and start to work.
“I suppose the guys told you how Caedmon knew about me?” I ask casually, my fingers moving in increments as I weave the strands through their appropriate holes and then tighten the last section before moving on to the next.
“Yes,” she says, blowing out a breath. “It was a shock for me.”
“Did they tell you everything else?” I make it to the halfway point and tighten the upper sections all over again to be safe. The fabric grows tighter and tighter to her frame, molding around her as if it were tailored. Who knows, maybe it was.
Maeryn glances back at me once, her eyes unreadable, before she turns back around. “No.” That’s all she gives me. I want to ask if that means they told her nothing more than that Caedmon knew about me or if there’s more she knows. I don’t, though, because I’m done and our time is up.