60. Kami

60

Kami

" I told her to tell you," Serl is saying, his voice a bit hard to understand because I'm squeezing his neck so hard.

I wish I felt badly about that.

I don't.

"I accept your hold, Beloved Caethybdue. Forgive this arrogant prick for thinking he could deny fate." Serl dangles from my six-fingered hand.

I am half listening with my goddess side—goddess side?!?—while the other part of me wonders how I managed my body's change into something immortal.

I have got to figure out how to keep this body and these powers. With this special ability, we can't possibly lose the Radiant Trials. Then I'll be able to stop the war god.

Which is exactly what Sebastian wants me to do.

Everyone wins.

After that, well, I'm not sure what happens next.

I mean, beyond killing all our enemies.

"Are you sure you won't change your mind again?" I sound waspish, but it's not me that's answering. At least, not all me .

It's odd. I'm speaking yet I'm not, but I don't feel distant from this consciousness. Not apart. But a part of it. Becoming whole.

Of one piece.

"No, Goddess. Please. Trouble is coming to?—"

"To us all. Of course I know, you imbecile. I told you this six months ago. Remember? You had pressing issues too important to handle my task. And what was so pressing, I ask?"

"Yeah, what?" I hear Ries say, though the others quickly shush him.

I feel amusement for the water mage as I answer, "Some girl you dumped not a week later, wasn't it?"

Serl has the grace to flush. I see the spread of red beneath his cheeks. Vampires, unlike most monsters, have a lot of human still in them. Serl bleeds red, like regulars, yet is as far from Pure as an angel is to a pixie.

I'm also a bit confused because Caethybdue sounds peeved with the vampire but also fond.

"At least you're talking to me again." He sounds sulky.

I glare. Rather, Caethybdue glares. "You will take this journey and stay until it's finished. Yes?" I shake him and add, pushing through her power, "And you will never tell a soul, immortal or otherwise, what was said here. Understood?"

I squeeze harder.

His eyes widen, and I smell a whiff of lovely terror. "Yes, yes. I heard nothing. I'm sorry."

"That you are." Caethybdue glares then sighs. "This is why I prefer my avatars to be girls. But I do love you." She sets him down and begins to shrink inside me.

"And I you, Great Goddess."

I don't know why, but I'd swear I hear him talking to her inside my head, which makes no sense. Because if he could talk to her without vocalizing it, why didn't he before ?

I love you, Mother.

Mother?

I stare at him, aware I've grown back into my own body.

"There," Serl says. "Now we both know each other's secrets. Happy now?" He taps my forehead.

"Ow."

"Oh relax. I didn't hurt her."

I realize he's talking to the group of monsters converging on us.

My monsters.

That thought makes me smile.

"You're all daft," Serl growls then says to us, "Look, I had to talk to the goddess. Now I need to go. You five need to end these Radiant Trials. Kill everybody you can."

Malkar moves closer. "Why shouldn't we just kill you now? You heard things you had no right to, leech."

Serl grimaces. "If I didn't have orders to fill, I'd drop you where you stand, lizard."

Malkar visibly draws back. The only way to describe the fury he emanates is to say a blanket of rage seems to drop over him from head to toe to quivering tail. " Lizard? "

He stabs Serl in the neck with a whip-lean tail too fast to follow.

Blood spurts then stops. Serl swears and cuts at said tail, but Malkar is there and gone, standing behind Serl with Serl's dagger in hand.

"No," I yell just as Malkar stabs…nothing.

"Fast fucker," Crash shakes his head.

"I'll get him next time." Malkar sighs and moves to tuck the dagger into his trousers.

"Get your own, lizard." Serl appears and vanishes before anyone can blink .

"Asshole!" Malkar shouts more profanities and paces while the four of us watch.

In a low voice, Oz says, "Anyone else seeing what I'm seeing and making the connection?"

"Lizard?" Ries whispers.

"Tail and wings, and those eyes?" Crash whispers as well.

None of us say it, but I'm pretty certain we're all thinking it.

Malkar might very well be a dragon.

Creatures of myth worth more dead than alive, their body parts sell for thousands in gold all over the world.

They are feared and coveted in equal measure, and they never show themselves to anyone not their kind. If he knew we suspected, he'd kill us.

And yet, he must know.

He's been dropping cute little hints about his identity.

Dragons are one of the few species that don't just use magic. They are magic. So when they die, their parts can be used to power up artifacts and magic conjuring in mages.

The practice is barbaric, but then so are the elves who commonly fought with them. Which makes me wonder at the gems the guys pulled off that elf Oz killed when Malkar killed the banshee.

We stare, wordless, as he stalks back to us.

"What?" he snarls.

Crash shakes his head. "Take a chill…lizard."

Maybe the fire fae really is crazy, because Malkar goes for his head.

Crash dances away, grinning like a loon, and engages in some roughhousing while Ries and Oz place bets on who goes down and stays down.

I try to add some common sense. "Shouldn't we be more careful and rest up for the last trial? "

Oz snorts. "Hell, no. Let those two vent and get all that frustration out of their systems." In a lower voice, he adds, "Otherwise, Malkar might throw a hissy and eat us, and Crash might blow us all to hell."

"Yeah, and you've been there." Ries nods. "You have no desire to go back, do you?"

Oz turns to Ries, stares in silence, then starts laughing.

Since I'd expected him to smack Ries in the face for his insensitivity, I'm just confused at how the guys are dealing with everything we've learned.

Ries sees my distress and gives me a quick hug. "We'll be all right. Just let the idiocy run its course."

I shrug. "Whatever. I'm taking a much-needed nap."

"Sure thing, Lady Death."

"Shut up, Prince Pain in my Ass."

"Oh, that's one we haven't gotten to yet. Thanks for reminding me."

I'm in bed, my eyes half-closed, when what he said sinks in.

Pain in my ass. Like, pain, as in… Ries and my ass?

Wait.

You can do that? There?