My head jerked up and I searched the darkening gardens for him.
Prince Poison was climbing mossy stone stairs.
The steps curved around a pool filled by a dazzling green waterfall. From the pool of water, little sprouts of round land punched up with grass greener than forest trees in the Rain Season.
When he reached the top, his star-like eyes glittered across the paved porch at me. I slipped off the stump and made up for earlier with the deepest bow my back could tolerate.
“Walk with me.”
His command barely hung in the air a second before I was rushing to his side. Maybe a bit of company in a terrifying God would distract me from the pit of loneliness within.
Not even Ava waited around to eat meals with me anymore, and she’d only just been granted the freedom to walk the halls.
The prince settled on a slow pace around a cluster of streams. I kept his stride and imitated him, clasping my hands behind my back.
I had no idea what was proper when walking beside a God.
“You have blood on your head.” His fierce gaze was fixed ahead at the curve of an upcoming bridge. “I would hope you are not the clumsy type.”
“I’m not.” The words blurted out before I could chide myself. “Almighty,” I added as an afterthought.
A smirk ghosted over his blushed lips. Or maybe they were stained with blood.
“Almighty is a title aniels give to their Gods.”
Heat rushed to my cheeks. I cast my gaze downwards.
“Prince will do.”
I could only manage a nod in answer.
“Now, will you tell me how blood happened upon your forehead?”
For a beat, my lips puckered and my heart skipped in my chest. But then, I let out a heavy breath and thought, what’s the point?
It wasn’t like it was going to stay a secret. Prince would find out anyway.
“I got into a bit of a scuffle.” My admission stopped him dead in tracks and he hooked his blazing eyes onto me. “One of the girls in the vilas corridors,” I explained, fingers twisting together behind my back. “Roxhana. She …”
What did she do, really?
Push me? Prod me? Mock me?
Was any of that worthy of the beating Monster gave her?
“Roxhana.” He spoke her name with a weary breath and relief flooded me. Not a hint of affection tainted his tone. Approval was absent.
With the heatedness of her jealousy, I’d wondered…
I don’t know what I wondered. All I knew was that I was relieved.
And a little glad.
And very much a fool.
“Worshipers can, at times, think themselves above their station,” he said.
“Is that what she is?”
Not an object of your lust?
“Roxhana was raised in my temple by her mother.” He carried on his stroll. I moved into step at his side. “Those who are born in a God’s temple sometimes rise to ranks above the worshipers who come to us. They forget so easily that while they were born into our temples, they were never chosen.”
A smile dared to touch my lips. I hid it with a downwards look.
The Prince rounded on me.
Instantly, my shoulders stiffened and I gazed up at him, breath held.
“Do not fear my presence, Valissa.” The way he purred my name made my stomach flip. “It will only make your time with me much harder than it has to be.”
A frown tucked into my brow.
“Fear of a God should come only when you fall out of favour,” he said and tucked a lock of hair behind my ear. “Stay in my favour and you’ll have very little to fear.”
I didn’t feel all that reassured with the last of his words.
“Come.” His hand found the small of my back and lingered. “I want you to see.”
The Prince guided me over the bridge and down a narrow path roofed by pink branches and falling petals.
A pond rose up at the end of the path.
Stone statues of winged warriors surrounded the pink water. A woman stood in the pond, swathed in a sheer wrap-dress that lit my cheeks aflame and stirred an unusual feeling of lust in my belly.
Gods were too tricky. All she had to do in that moment was smile at me and I would have done anything for her.
Guess it didn’t help that arousal was flaring up in me all the time in these damned stardust walls.
Need to get this out of my system.
I lowered my lashes and kept my gaze guarded.
The God smiled as she saw us coming out the path, and she climbed out of the pond.
Her grey wrap-dress glimmered under the stars. It seemed to shift and move, like shadows born in light.
My eyes widened. I looked at the water. Something heavy unravelled in my chest as I realised, the shimmers over the pond weren’t normal. Not from the moon’s reflection or the glittering stars.
They were souls.
Mortal souls.
I took a step back; I didn’t make it as far back as I’d have liked.
The Prince’s hand on the curve of my spine was as solid as lead.
“Praeteritus,” said the Prince.
It sounded like a greeting to me. I knew of no God with that name. But I guess they wouldn’t run around calling each other long titles. In her case, I guessed that title was Keeper of Lost Souls.
Faintly, I wondered if Prince Poison had another name, because if he did, Praeteritus did not speak it.
Her smile was warmer than the sun at midday as she swept towards us.
I stiffened against the Prince.
I would have run if his hand wasn’t bolting me in place.
Keeper of Lost Souls wasn’t one of the Gods known for cruelty. In fact, she was one of the benevolent Gods, a beniyn.
But then, her temple had a reputation for losing a lot of new worshipers that suddenly devoted themselves to her.
The thought made me wonder how many of these little ponds she had.
The Prince angled his face down at me. “This is Valissa.”
“How pretty you are.” The God practically danced from foot to foot in front of me, her spidery grey fingers flexing—I didn’t doubt she fought the urge to snatch me up and drag me into her pond of souls.
No thank you.
I tucked myself closer to the Prince.
It should have surprised me that his hand turned gentle on the small of my back, or even that a warmth took his eyes as he looked down at me, but in that moment, I was too busy keeping my wary stare hooked onto the Keeper to pay him much mind. I feared that if he let me go for a second, I would be gone forever.
But the Prince did let me go.
His hand grazed from my back, up to the curve of my jaw. He might not have been wearing a sharp nail on his glove but his fingertip dragged along my jawline to my lips like the tip of a knife.
For a moment too long, he just studied me. “Leave us.”
A sudden dismissal that rinsed my insides out as though they were little more than sopping wet clothes to be hung out to dry.
Foolish me for expecting a second more of his time … or wanting it.
I bowed deeply, first at the Prince, then at Keeper.
Once I was upright, I wasted no time in getting the hell out of there before the pond became my new home.
It wasn’t until I was staggering onto the stone porch that I caught myself wondering if the Prince dismissed me so quickly because what he wanted to show me—the pond—was in fact something that terrified me.
That probably wouldn’t be the first time it would happen. I got the feeling that the Prince would scare me a lot, and half the time he wouldn’t even know it.
13
I’d put off going back to the vilas halls for as long as my eyes could manage.
Hours spent wandering the waterfall and streams in the gardens eventually wore me down. Even a short sleep under a deep-purple plum tree wasn’t enough to revive me. Too much of my energy was haemorrhaging in my lessons.
Eventually, I was trudging my way back through the palace. Night faded to dusky pinks as I climbed the never-ending staircases in this labyrinth. My legs cried out with every step, punishing me with promises of deeper aches tomorrow.
As I plodded down the corridor to my room, I kept my wits about me—as much as my foggy tired brain could manage. Prince Poison might not care that I headbutted one of his worshippers, but that didn’t ease any twists of sickly concern in my belly. Those girls weren’t the type to let it go. I’d only painted a bigger, clearer target on my back.
I wondered if that target was so big now that it stretched over to Ava as well.
I shoved into the room with heavier feet than usual and called out for her.
Darkness had the room in its cold embrace.
As I kicked the door shut behind me, I waited for my eyes to adjust.
“Ava?” I called again. I started to shrug off my cropped coat. “Are you in the privy closet?”
The flutter of my coat landing on the carpet was the only the sound in the room. No answer.
She couldn’t possibly have still been out in the vilas halls. I hadn’t wandered around them much, but from what I knew there weren’t many places to go. Especially not all night long. And dawn was starting to creep in through the gap between the curtains.
Maybe she’d been and gone already. After all, I had been out of the room all night.
I sighed in the pitch-black room, then stretched out my arms. I felt my way through the room. Before I could crash on my bed, I had to use the chamber pot and I had no choice but to wrestle this dress off my body. The maids weren’t too pleased whenever I slept in the dresses.
Crinkles give them wrinkles. Something Ava had said the other day.
Fingers stretched, I shuffled until my palms flattened against something firm.
The room divider.
That was my first thought. I was touching the room divider that hid the wash basin. But it wasn’t torn paper and splintering wood that pressed against my hands.
It was skin and… muscles.
I gasped.
I jumped back in the dark. My boots caught on the hem of my dress and I staggered. Before I could catch my own balance, two firm hands grabbed out from the dark and latched onto my arms.
The headbutt came first.
14
Searing hot pain exploded behind my eyes. The heat of blood rushed down my face like a stream.
I was stunned, breath stolen by shock. A raspy wheeze was all that managed to escape me before I came tumbling back to reality.
Someone was in my room. A man. Attacking me.
I erupted.
A scream tore through me. I brought up my knee and aimed for between his legs. In the dark, I was a fish flailing in a net. Done for.
“Helppp!” Blood choked my voice.
I yanked and pulled and twisted to get out of his grip, but it was useless, like wrestling a statue.
“Krivasko.” A word I didn’t know, spoken in a voice rougher than sandpaper. Not a second after the word guttered from him, his head crashed down on mine.
I grunted.
My head lolled back, eyes drooping. Blood—so much blood pouring down my face, catching on my lashes, seeping into my mouth.
I choked on it. Then the man let me go and I crumpled to the floor.
As I lay there, wheezing and limp and my eyelids fighting against me, I heard the thuds of his footfalls. He was running away from me and I thanked the Gods.
The faint creak of the window being unlocked crept through the room. I was clutching at the straws of sound, as though they were strong enough to keep me awake.
He fumbled out of the window.
Wind swept in and billowed the curtains.
For a fleeting moment, I caught sight of his back.
Black hair.
My vision was crimson with my own blood.
Black hair.
Just as he jumped out of view, the door burst open.
Light flooded the room, but not me. I was slipping away.
Black hair…
Darkness snared my fading sight and I caught a flicker of a guard’s face.
Then I fell into sweet nothingness.
15
Shadows lurked all around, just out of sight.
The room was a shipwreck.
If someone had told me a water-bull had raged through here and destroyed everything in its path, I would have believed them. But I couldn’t think about tattered dresses or torn stockings or the demolished cupboard, not when another raid was sweeping through every inch of the ruins, led by aniels and guards.
I was as limp as a dead fish on my crumby bed, barely keeping my eyes open.
Ava’s round, washed-out face hovered above me. Worry shone in her teary eyes as she blotted a damp cloth over my forehead.
“Ava,” I rasped and reached out for her.
A familiar smile of warmth pinned to her face. She took my hand, leaving the cloth resting on my head.
“Lissa,” she smiled, perched on the edge of my narrow bed. Her tone was gentler than morning sunshine peeking through windows, and I felt an uneasy stir in my belly. “Do you know what happened?”
Black hair.
“Someone was in the room…” The strings of my voice were pulled too tightly. I paused and took a deep breath that dizzied my pulsing head. “It was dark.”
Jasper had slowly slipped over to us; I didn’t realise until he cut in. “What did they want? Can you remember anything about the attacker?”
Brows pinched, I turned to face him.
Official red was smeared all over him in a crisp uniform. He was on duty.
I found it hard to believe I was a reason of duty, that a half-dozen guards and some aniels were flooding the shadows of my room, picking through the dresses littering the floor, rummaging around under Ava’s bed, were here for me.
“Valissa.” Jasper snared my fading attention and crouched beside the bed. He hooked my gaze. “Focus—just like in your lessons. I need you to focus. Do you remember anything about the attacker?”
A frown was still glued to my face.
That violent pounding in my head made the room tilt and Jasper’s face blur right in front of me. I heard what he said, but finding an answer was the challenging part.
It was as though all of my memories were piled together somewhere in a grey area of my brain, hidden and tangled.
“No.”
I managed to shake my head; and it was a bad idea. Hot pain swelled behind my eye and I grimaced.
Ava snatched the damp cloth from my head and dunked it in the pot of water. Worry pinched her face as she wrung out the cloth, then brought it back to my head, dabbing gently.
Jasper’s mouth turned down at the corner. “Nothing?”
In answer, I blinked at him wearily. He glanced over his shoulder at Adrik.
Looking back at me, he pressed, “Skin tone, aniel, vilas, what the attacker was wearing?” He made an impatient sound. “Eye colour? Hair?”
“Black.” The word choked out of me.
I snatched the crimson sleeve of his coat and tried to sit up.
Ava pushed me back down. I loosened my hold on his sleeve.
“Black hair,” I wheezed.
Ava looked to Jasper as though he held all the answers.
For a long beat, he stared down at me. Then he peeled my sweaty hand from his sleeve and placed it back on the bed.
Jasper paused for a moment. Then his expression cracked too suddenly, and a stir of unease swirled my tummy.
Fear flickered through his wood eyes and he snapped his attention to Ava.
In a swift, fluid move that I could barely catch, he jumped over the bed—over me—and landed at Ava’s side.
Not a second later, a hush fell over the room.
With a grunt, I swatted the cloth off my head and sat up on my elbows. The room was still spinning and the shadows still stretched.
And yet, I had no prob
lem seeing him step in through the door. I saw him as clearly as I’d seen my mother’s blood dot through the air above me all those years ago.
Prince Poison wandered inside.
He moved slowly, but it wasn’t at all disarming. He had the steps of a predator, the kind that us on Zwayk would stay out of the woods just to avoid.
My head was spinning but even through the daze, I saw the Prince’s eyes blazing like white-hot fires.
His fiery gaze landed on Adrik and a foreign language growled from the Prince. I didn’t understand a word of what he said, but that didn’t stop the shudder from clutching my spine.
Out the corner of my eye, I noticed Ava shift uncomfortably out of Jasper’s grip.
Even in a time like this, I couldn’t help notice his interest in keeping her guarded from the Prince. Fleetingly, I remembered how he looked at her whenever he came to collect me for lessons.
It was something I checked to ponder later.
I watched as Adrik and another aniel, whose black and silver hair fell in stripes down her narrow back, spoke with the God in their native tongue.
For those moments, I didn’t exist. I don’t think I so much as breathed or blinked. The Prince paid me no mind until he cut off the aniels’ voices with a wave of the hand.
Finally, he turned his murderous gaze on me.
I shrank back in the bed, feeling smaller than ever. I would have welcomed the mattress swallowing me up right then.
“What did you see?”
His question startled me.
I hiked up my eyebrows, snubbing the flare of pain behind them, and picked at my fingernails.
“Nothing.” I cast my gaze downwards in shame. “It was too dark.”
“Am I to believe that?” he pressed and took a menacing step closer to me. “You saw nothing in the corridor either?”
I shook my head.
The Prince studied me for a moment; a long, silent moment that carried more pain that what sizzled through every piece of my skull. “No guards?”
Again, I shook my head; and every single guard in the room stiffened. I could almost hear the sharp intakes of their breaths.
Time froze for a moment.
No one moved; no one breathed or blinked.
We were statues in a God’s neglected garden.
Gods and Monsters, Books 1-3: A Dark Gods Bully Romance (Gods and Monsters Box Set) Page 11
