A Fire in the Flesh (Flesh and Fire, #3)

Outside, I gripped the bars of the door. I hissed, fiery pain erupting across my hand when I pushed the door shut. Then, quickly, I shoved the key into the lock, turning it.

“Fucker.” Sparing one last glance at Callum, I started to turn but then stopped, looking down at the key in my hand.

I moved to the side, in front of the bed, and carefully extended my arm through the bars. I flung the key into the cage, watching it slide deep beneath the bed.

“Just in case,” I told myself as I spun. If I ended up back in the cage, I’d at least have a key.

The shadowstone was cold beneath my feet as I crossed the chamber. My mind quieted when I neared the doors. It was almost like donning the veil of nothingness because I felt nothing. No fear for my life. No fear of failure. That had been trained out of me, but unlike the times my mother had sent me to deliver her messages, I didn’t feel like a monster.

I felt like vengeance and wrath come to life.

The embers in my chest hummed. Cleaning my hand on my gown, I curled my fingers around the gilded door handle. I doubted these were unguarded.

Opening it, I kept myself hidden and pressed against the wall. A second later, I saw that I’d been right. Through the crack between the door and wall, I saw a guard’s white and gold armor.

I waited, knowing it was likely a god, and there could be more. There should be, but only the one entered.

One?

Kolis only had one guard stationed outside the chamber. Seriously?

I was kind of offended.

The moment the guard caught sight of the mess in the cage, he halted. “What the—?” He cursed, gripping the edge of the door and moving to close it.

I struck, pushing off the wall. Gripping the back straps of his chest armor, I thrust the glass into the base of the guard’s skull as I leapt, driving my knee into the center of his back.

The god grunted, staggering forward under my weight and the unexpected blow. He went down on one knee, his hand reaching for the hilt of the short sword at his waist.

“I don’t think so,” I snarled, wrenching the god’s head sharply to the side. The crack of bone was sickening yet satisfying.

I didn’t think a broken neck would keep a god down for long, but shadowstone? That would. Leaving the fractured glass cock embedded in the back of the god’s skull, I reached for the sword—

The air charged around me as I unsheathed it. I could feel it dancing across my skin when the god straightened his neck. The cracking of bone turned my stomach as he planted his palm on the floor. Bluish-red blood darkened his brown hair.

“You fucking bitch,” he spat. “What in the fuck is in the back of my head?”

“A cock.” I lifted the sword.

“What?” The god froze.

“A glass cock,” I said with a smile, driving the blade down.

The shadowstone cut just below the bulge of glass protruding from the base of his skull, silencing whatever the god was about to say. The blade cleaved through bone and tissue with little resistance, ending the rapidly building power.

Stepping back, I ignored the warm pulse of the embers—the urge to undo what I’d done. To restore life, not take it.

But that wasn’t going to happen.

Sword in hand, I turned to the door, finding a sunlight-filled hall—a breezeway of sorts. Closing the door behind me, my gaze darted to the leafy palms beyond the rounded archways. Ahead was another door, and to my left, a solid wall made of gold and marble. Fine cracks had formed webs all along the surface.

I didn’t want to go farther inside if this was Cor Palace. But what if Ash was being held somewhere in there? Kolis had ordered Attes to take him to the cells. The House of Haides in the Shadowlands had cells beneath the sprawling structure. So did Wayfair Castle, my home in the mortal realm.

“Shit.”

I probably should’ve attempted to question the guard first. Then again, that wouldn’t have been wise. It would’ve only given the god time to use eather, and that was something I couldn’t fight.

I had a choice to make, and I had to decide quickly. Go into the palm trees and see where that led, or travel farther into the palace.

Ash would not be in the palms.

Grip firming on the sword’s hilt, I stalked forward. A warm breeze wafted through the opening, sending several pale curls speckled with blood across my face. I reached the door at the end of the hall and yanked it open.

It was a chamber—a bedchamber—darkened by drawn, heavy curtains. The smell of stale lilacs was strong here, and I had a sinking suspicion this was Kolis’s room.

Situated against one wall was a large, unmade bed. Clothing lay strewn across the floor. White pants. Tunics. Bowls of fruit sat on a dining table. Crystal decanters were everywhere: on the nightstand, the table, and the end tables by a large sofa, some half full of amber-hued liquid, others empty.

Did Kolis overindulge to help him forget the atrocities he committed? I snorted. That would mean he actually felt bad about what he did, and from what I’d seen and knew, I didn’t think that was the case.

I headed for the double, gold-plated doors and pushed one side open.

A wider, absurdly long hall greeted me, windows and alcoves lining one side and doors on the other. Either luck or the Fates were on my side today because the hall was empty, and no hot, breathy sounds came from the alcoves as they had when Ash and I had first come to Dalos.

I went forward, trying each door as I passed. Some were locked. Those that weren’t were either completely empty spaces or contained only narrow beds, barely more than cots. Some rooms held four to five of them.

I didn’t want to even think about what those chambers and beds were for.

I kept going, searching for any door that may lead to a stairwell, all the while afraid that it would be like the House of Haides, where the entrance to the underground level was near the study and close to the throne room.

Well aware that Callum could wake at any moment, I picked up my pace, trying door after door until I found one that opened into a narrower corridor. I entered, scanning the numerous wider openings framed by gold-plated columns on both sides of the hall. My skin tingled as I picked up on the whispering sound of cloth.

My steps slowed when I neared an opening to my left. I peered around one of the columns and felt the air leave my lungs in an unsteady rush.

I had to be right about being in Cor Palace.

Because all I saw was white.

White robes and veils that covered nearly every inch of those inside the sunny, airy space. There had to be dozens of them. They stood by windows, sat on thick, ivory-and-gold-tasseled cushions. If any of them spoke, they did so quietly.

They were the Chosen, brought to Iliseeum during the Rite to serve the Primals and their gods. Because they were the third sons and daughters, they had more essence of the gods in their blood than their siblings did, which allowed them to be Ascended into godhood—a tradition revered in the mortal realm and once honored in Iliseeum for the purpose it served. It replenished the realm of gods with those who remembered what it was like to be mortal.