He glowered at me, a dark god in a barren wasteland of scorched earth and anger. Snow whipped angrily back and forth.
Silver eyes narrowed. “Tell me you used one of your wings to stab me or that you tried to counter my fire with ice. Because that’s what we expected you to do.”
All three of the kings were standing uncomfortably close as they waited for me to speak.
I kicked a rock, ducked my head, and mumbled, “I was going to get to that.” My cheeks burned with embarrassment, and I couldn’t look at them.
I had no idea why I’d fallen asleep instead of trying to stop them.
It was bizarre, even for me.
A rough sound escaped Malum’s throat, and Scorpius sneered, “Please tell us. What part of the stopping us did you get to?”
I ripped a flap of skin off my lower lip.
Threw it to the rocks.
Lifted my nails to gouge harder, but Orion grabbed my wrist and brought it to my side, his long lashes fluttering as he looked down at me with concern.
“You’re upsetting her,” he whispered. “Take a step back. Give her some space.”
Shockingly, Malum and Scorpius obeyed.
“Here, let’s get you dressed,” Orion mouthed as he grabbed my undershirt and pulled it over my head.
Still reeling from my own strange behavior, I stood still and let him dress me. He zipped up my coat and brushed snow out of my hair.
“There,” he whispered. “Are you feeling warmer?”
I nodded stupidly.
He smiled down at me, and a new warmth prickled in my chest. “I took a nap in the heat,” I blurted out.
There was a long pause as they processed what I’d said.
A muscle in Malum’s jaw ticked, and he opened his mouth. I turned my head to the side to avoid his censure, but my eyes widened.
Rocks were scorched black miles down the mountainside and stopped inches from the valley.
Holy sun god.
Sadie. Jinx.
They’d almost been murdered because of my idiocy.
Emotion and energy burst through my veins, and I vibrated from the onslaught.
Malum said, “What do you—”
I didn’t catch the rest of his sentence because I darted down the side of the mountain, intent on getting back to camp.
Boots pounded against rocks as they sprinted after me.
Malum bellowed at the top of his lungs, “What the fuck do you mean? You took a nap?”
“I don’t know!” I yelled over my shoulder as I ran faster. “I got really tired.”
“Excuse me?” Malum’s voice was so deep that the hair on the back of my neck stood up. He didn’t like my answer.
Neither did I.
Scorpius swore. “You’re going to be the death of us.”
“I don’t know what came over me,” I shouted into the night as I kept running. “It was weird.”
“Do you think this is a joke?” Malum’s voice was closer. “Do you think all this is a bloody fucking lark? Do you know what’s at stake—I was really worried about you!”
I sprinted with all my might.
Pretended not to hear him.
Nothing was funny.
It was all falling apart around me.
Crumbling.
Memories of Orion chasing me down a marble corridor played in my mind as black boots slammed against icy rocks, and I slid forward.
My arms pumped.
I threw myself down the side of the mountain, half sliding, half sprinting as fast as I could with my heart hammering in my chest. I was going insane.
The storm picked up.
My muscles were warm and ready to be used, and I exploded forward with unbridled adrenaline.
Adrenaline pumped through my veins.
Snow whipped my face, and my eyes watered from the frozen air.
For the first time since we’d started to train together, I outran the kings back to the camp.
For hours, they couldn’t catch me because fear was truly the best motivator.
But I wasn’t running from them.
I was running from myself.
Chapter 20
Corvus Malum
THERAPY
Riposte (noun): a retaliatory verbal reply.
DAY 11, HOUR 5
“So how did the last week of—” Dr. Palmer looked down at her clipboards like she was reading off something prepared by the High Court “—training and battle go?”
I shifted, and my thigh bumped against Arabella’s.
Rain splattered against the window, and it was gray outside.
At the beginning of the session, I’d made sure to take the spot next to her on the couch. We were pressed flush against one another because there wasn’t enough room for all four of us.
There was a patch of frost beneath her feet on the carpet, and as I shifted my foot closer, the ice melted into water.
I needed her next to me.
Lately my control on my fire was tenuous at best, and it wanted to explode from me and burn the world.
Whenever I was around Arabella, the urges intensified. But the pain was nothing compared to the memory of her begging on a palace floor while she was tortured.
The threadbare couch creaked as I spread my legs wider and reassured myself that my Revered was okay. If anyone wanted to torture her, they’d have to go through me.
Arabella mumbled something under her breath about manspreading and wanting to stab me.
I pretended not to hear her.
Cracking my knuckles, I focused on the severe-looking therapist instead of releasing my flames and demanding that Arabella tell me every single wrong that had been done to her.
Eventually I’d discover it all.
In the meantime, I was making a list.
Dr. Palmer cleared her throat and peered at us over her thin spectacles.
No one spoke.
This session was the worst one yet because she kept asking us to recap our last week.
I would rather die.
In summary, our Revered had allowed herself to get stabbed in battle and had almost bled out, she’d had sex with the twins in front of us at a party, we’d scorched the side of a mountain, she’d run away from us and straight into the arms of the twins, and we were no closer to mastering our abilities.
It had been the worst week of my life.
Easily.
Dr. Palmer sighed with exasperation, then squinted at her clipboard. “It says here you successfully defeated the ungodly at the first battle. Tell me about it. Did anything especially traumatizing happen?”
Arabella choked.
I patted her back and glared at the therapist. “Get her water. Now.”
Dr. Palmer frowned but handed over a cup of water.
Arabella gulped it down while I rubbed soothing circles on her back and tried not to tangle my fingers in her blue curls.
She didn’t pull away.
My fingers clenched as I remembered a slur was carved into her skin. I forced my hands wide and kept rubbing.
The arm on the other side of the couch went up in flames.
Scorpius muttered something derogatory under his breath as he smacked out the flames with his sleeves, and Orion tried to peer past me to look at our Revered.
I draped my right arm over his shoulder, and he snuggled against me. He turned his face so he could stare at her.
Water splashed over the rim of the water cup and fell as snowflakes onto her clothes as she took a sip.
A noise of distress rumbled in my chest.