Psycho Gods: Part 2 – Chapter 8

Conflagration (noun): a large disastrous fire.

DAY 1, HOUR 3

I fantasized about slamming my head into the chalkboard.

Eight hours ago, when we’d returned from our scouting mission to the first ungodly settlement, Jax sent the soldiers back to their barracks to await instructions. The shifters, angels, and our legion piled into the strategy room to plan.

After two useless hours of trying to brainstorm as a group, Jinx, Malum, and I had been elected as the unofficial war strategists.

The planning was better now that the angels weren’t arguing with everyone and Sadie wasn’t giving inane suggestions every five minutes.

It still wasn’t going well.

“We forgot to factor in that we need to move quietly. Erase it and start again,” Jinx said with exasperation.

She sat on the long table in front of the chalkboard with a ferret draped across her shoulders like a scarf. Warren hung limply with his tongue hanging out of his mouth.

He appeared dead, but I knew we weren’t that lucky.

Jinx held out her pointer stick and tapped it on the board demandingly. Pillows were piled up behind her back, and the remaining portion of her leg was wrapped in white gauze.

We were still waiting on an enchanted prosthetic, or even a hover chair. How the High Court had not acquired either by now was beyond me.

Jinx scowled at me like I was an idiot.

I glared back.

If there were a window in the strategy room, I would have chucked myself out of it eight hours ago. There wasn’t. I’d double-checked.

Instead, I gritted my teeth as I erased the battle strategy from the board that we’d spent the past hour working on.

The worst part was that she was right.

Again.

We’d stupidly forgotten that we had to eliminate the ungodly quietly.

The numbers on the board mocked me: seven academy, five shifters, six angels, four assassins, three devils, six leviathans, sixty-nine foot soldiers.

One hundred soldiers total.

It wasn’t a large number.

The best part of it was if anyone died, they couldn’t be replaced, compliments of the dumbass contract signed by the High Court and the sun god.

Loophole-proof.

Depression-inducing.

Mania-fueling.

I was exhausted after trying to consider the strengths of all our fighters, the best way to kill the ungodly, battle formations, and how to secure the perimeter of the palatial settlement.

Jinx pushed her black sunglasses higher up her nose.

The room was dimly lit, but she wore them as a peace offering to show she wouldn’t erase our memories anymore.

My right eye twitched.

I wasn’t mollified.

Jinx could be altering our memories every day and we’d have no clue. Sadie was a big advocate for the glasses, and the shifter legion seemed to think they were sufficient, which made sense—they were all idiots.

Said idiots were currently sitting on the floor in the back of the room playing a card game with Orion and Scorpius to pass the time, as if we were at a social gathering and not preparing for war.

The demons were the only people in the room who had the decency to sit slumped over, looking depressed.

Everyone else was smiling and chitchatting.

A headache throbbed harder in my temple, and the eraser in my hand was streaked with ice as cold burned my fingertips.

Lately I was covered in ice, and it seemed to expand out around me.

I shivered as I remembered the blue flames that had trailed off Mother’s fingers when she was feeling emotional.

Was I becoming just like her?

Sweat dripped down my temple, and I wiped it away before it could freeze.

One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six.

I focused on the numbers and not the emotions scouring my insides.

An angel laughed loudly, and I jolted.

They lounged in the leather chairs and sipped from china cups like aristocrats suffering ennui. Rina had made a call into her earpiece, and a worker had appeared with a tea cart and finger food.

I fantasized about bashing the kettle over their heads and shoving mini cucumber sandwiches into their unconscious mouths, pressing my hands to their smiling lips and freezing their mouths closed, turning them into blocks of…no. I was not going there.

“How did we forget such a pertinent factor?” Jinx slapped her palm to her forehead as she stared at our strategy board. “We’re being stupid and careless.”

I rubbed my aching forehead in agreement.

We’d been strategizing for what felt like an eternity, and we were working in circles.

Chalk scratched loudly against the other end of the blackboard as Malum added “stealth” to the list of factors we needed to take into account.

The enchanted binoculars had mapped the structure that filled the valley, and the visual was projected onto the blackboard. Jinx tapped on the tablet, and the enchanted swords also appeared.

“The infected will cut through our weapons,” I pointed out.

Malum scribbled down the information onto the board.

Jinx looked at me and said, “Duh.”

“I was just saying,” I mumbled.

Jinx patted Warren’s furry head. “Well—don’t say stupid things.”

Chalk cracked between my fingers, and I breathed roughly through my nose. My breath froze into tiny pieces.

Five. Ten. Fifteen. Twenty. Twenty-five.

“Hopefully not everyone in the compound is armed,” Malum said as he studied the list of objectives we had written out. “We need to eliminate the armed people first.”

Jinx looked at him like he was an idiot. “Obviously.”

Malum’s jaw clenched, and his shoulders smoldered with fire. After a long moment of him breathing harshly, the flames disappeared.

Too bad.

I was hoping he’d explode and kill us all.

It was a minor consolation that Jinx was torturing someone besides me.

One thing about the fourteen-year-old was that she was going to make you feel stupid, no matter who you were. It was usually one of her best traits, but right now it was hellaciously annoying.

Every time we thought we had a plan of action, Jinx remembered another factor that rendered it impossible.

The root problem: how did you eliminate a sprawling compound filled with an unknown number of parasitic monsters without alerting them to your presence?

Trick question.

You didn’t.

You gave up and let the murderous parasites take over the universe because frankly, it wasn’t my business what the ungodly did.

Too bad the others didn’t see it that way.

The shifters, the angels, and my teammates were outraged that the ungodly could spill out through portals and end civilization as we knew it. They acted like it was personally offensive.

Personally, I hoped the ungodly won.

People were annoying, and if it was my time to be the host of a monstrous crustacean, then that was my destiny.

It was called giving up, and everyone needed to practice it more.

“We can’t forget about the portals,” Jinx reiterated.

I doodled a self-portrait with chalk and said, “Best-case scenario, they don’t have any portals nearby.” The chalk scratched loudly across the board as it turned to ice, and I picked up a new piece.

Malum countered immediately, “But the worst-case scenario is they have a portal in the center of the base.”

I pretended not to notice how gruff his voice sounded.

Pain definitely didn’t streak down my back.

My lips most certainly didn’t tingle as I remembered how he’d kissed like he was trying to devour me.

Nope.

I added more blood to my dying stick figure, but since the chalk was all white, it didn’t give the visual effect I was going for.

Pitiful.

Malum cleared his throat harshly, and I glanced over with exasperation to find him looking smug. It took me a second to realize he thought he’d one-upped me, like we were back at Elite Academy, competing to see who was the smartest.

Who was going to tell him there was no competition?

I was already winning.

“Most likely scenario is there is a portal because of their weapons,” Jinx said in a duh tone like we were both stupid. “But it will probably be located outside the base—likely in the surrounding mountains. The energy field from portals disrupts matter and makes it difficult to build around. You need advanced enchanted materials, and the city appeared to be constructed from bricks.”

“So back to plan A.” Malum’s chalk squeaked loudly as he wrote. “Surround the base and trap the ungodly.”

“Have we tried to negotiate with the infected?” A male voice asked from across the room as the angel named Arthur looked at us expectantly. “Why don’t we try to talk to them first?” He pursed his lips. “It can’t hurt.”

I covered my mouth to stop myself from saying something I’d regret.

Some people needed a chair to the face.

In the far corner, Vegar muttered something about idiots as he played with Zenith’s hair, and both demons looked disgusted.

Chalk creaked in Malum’s fingers, and we shared a long-suffering glance of disbelief.

For the first time, we were in complete agreement.

A long moment passed, then Malum raked his hands across his shaved head and said, “No, we have not tried to negotiate with the parasitic creatures.”

Arthur scoffed, “Well, we should try.”

Jinx turned around on the table and asked, “Who?”

“Are you speaking to me?” Arthur looked pointedly at where Jinx was missing a leg, and the unspoken insult hung heavy in the air.

Rage flared across my sternum.

Knowledge that Jinx would eviscerate his existence was the only thing that held me back from stomping on his throat and painting the floor red.

At the back of the room, Orion whispered into Scorpius’s ear, and the blind king shot to his feet. His high cheekbones were sharp as knives, as his face tightened with rage on Jinx’s behalf.

“Who do you want to negotiate with?” Jinx elongated each syllable like she was talking to an infant.

Arthur opened his mouth.

“Wait, I know.” Jinx’s tone was deceptively nice. “The confused civilians who are cognitively unaware that they are infected with parasitic creatures?”

She laughed cruelly.

“Or do you want to negotiate with them when they lash out violently, controlled by the monsters inside them? When they scream mindlessly about death?”

Arthur paled.

Jinx continued mercilessly, “Or perhaps you wanted to talk to them when they’re being ripped in half?” Her fake smile dropped. “No—I get it. You want to wait to talk to the crustacean-esque creatures who each have an exoskeleton mask for a face and six legs with pincers. The ones who rip the people in two and emerge from their desiccated carcasses. The ones that bleed green and are expanding through the realms.”

No one spoke.

Arthur put down his teacup with a loud clatter.

“Any other inane suggestions that anyone wants to waste our time with?” Jinx spread her arms wide to the rest of the room.

“Someone did not read the informational packet,” Sadie muttered loudly. “Stupid airers.”

Scorpius chuckled and sat back down.

It took me a moment to realize that my best friend had come up with a derogatory slur for the angels because they called people grounders.

I pinched the top of my nose.

I no longer supported women’s rights.

Jinx turned back around and rapped her pointer against the board next to my face. “Concentrate. We still have a stealth problem.”

I banged my head gently (as hard as I could) against the board.

Infected with enchanted weapons, ungodly, a compound full of both. We had to kill them all quickly and efficiently without giving them enough time to flee.

How?

I rolled the elements around in my head and considered different tactics.

Malum spoke up and sounded assured. “Orion entrances everyone with his voice, then we eliminate them while they’re unconscious.” He nodded. “It’s the only thing that makes sense.”

I hit my head harder against the board and said, “Except we don’t know if you would entrance and kill all our soldiers.” Like you did with Jinx, was left unsaid as I continued, “We’ve been over this. Murdering the few soldiers we have aside, we also don’t know if I can stop you again.”

“You’re our Revered, and you’ve stopped me before,” Malum replied forcefully. “It should have been impossible, but you did it. You’re ice for a reason—you’re destined to put out my fire when I lose control. It makes perfect sense.”

I cracked my forehead against the blackboard.

“Stop hurting yourself,” Malum snarled.

I hit my head harder.

A flaming hand yanked me away from the board. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

Did he want a list?

“Don’t touch me.” I shoved at him, and for a second, we wrestled with each other. His muscles bunched as they tensed, and I pretended not to notice pain streaking across my back.

He smirked down at me as he easily countered my movements, since he was built like a tank and at least had one hundred pounds of muscle over me.

His fire was momentarily doused by the ice that radiated off me.

Silver eyes flashed with mirth.

He loved that it was easy to overpower me.

Sun god, he was such a bully.

I kicked him in the shin with all my force, and he squinted with pain. When he released me, I brushed my shoulders off with as much decorum as I could muster.

Which unfortunately, was none.

Malum winked at me. “If you wanted to put your mark on me, all you had to do was say so. I’d get a tattoo for you any day, ice princess.” His voice was gravelly as he stared down at the blue streaks of ice I’d left across his sweatshirt where I’d touched him.

I pretended not to notice that he adjusted his belt.

Instead, I pressed my legs together and rubbed at my temples as I took a deep, calming breath. “First, I’m a queen, not a princess. Second, my life’s purpose is not to put out your messes.” Ice crackled as it spread up my forearms.

He mumbled something under his breath that sounded a lot like, “You can be my princess.”

I choked on spit.

He slapped his hand on my back and said, “Careful. Go slow. Take your time swallowing.” His expression was wicked.

Pain exploded down my spine as I realized his double entendre.

Malum trying to be seductive was a dangerous thing.

My face flamed with heat.

“She’s right,” Jinx said, and both of us snapped our attention toward her. “If you use your powers, you could wipe out our soldiers.”

We sighed with relief.

She continued, “We can’t afford to lose people because of your carelessness. Also, all four of you passed out after she stopped you from attacking me. You can’t risk unconsciousness in the middle of a battle.”

Malum raked his hands down his face.

Flames danced across his fingers.

“Exactly.” I nodded and crossed my arms over my chest protectively.

His plan was stupid, and I was smarter; it was confirmed.

Jinx continued, “Aran, you’ll have to find time to practice so you can eventually unleash your abilities in battle.” She tapped distractedly at her tablet. “We’ll need your skills as the war continues.”

“Excuse me?” I whirled around to glare at her, but she refused to look up from her tablet.

I huffed and said sarcastically, “I’ll just pencil in stopping psychotic devils in between flying lessons and fighting the ungodly.”

“Good.” Jinx kept tapping.

Malum looked smug as he grabbed a piece of chalk and walked back to his list of strategies. “Don’t worry, we’ll practice.”

“I’m not practicing anything with you,” I snarled back.

He smirked but didn’t elaborate.

My lips tingled.

We both knew what would happen if we were stuck spending more time together. There was no avoiding it.

I hadn’t felt this sick since I’d learned fifty-one was divisible by seventeen.

Jinx rotated the structure on the tablet, and it spun on the board. “If we don’t contain the perimeter, potentially hundreds or thousands could flee to the portals. One hundred to one million people could be living in the valley.”

My jaw dropped. “One fucking million? Are you serious?”

Jinx pushed her sunglasses up. “The structure could continue underground for miles for all we know. I’m being realistic.”

She wanted us to die.

There was no other explanation.

“No,” Malum countered. “We know this planet’s core has a unique high temperature. It is unlikely life could be sustained underground.”

“He’s right.” I stood up straight.

Jinx mumbled under her breath, “The civilization could have adapted to higher temperatures. But fine, probably four thousand people.” The edge of her mouth curled up in a smirk.

I gaped.

Had she been making a joke?

We’d been working for so many hours that delirium was setting in, and I honestly couldn’t tell.

Movement in the back of the room caught my eye, and suddenly I wasn’t tired. My jaw clicked shut, and I said, “I know what we need to do.”

A good strategist always had multiple iterations of a plan. They also used their best assets strategically to accomplish the hardest tasks the most efficiently.

“We’re going to enslave the ungodly,” I whispered, and Jinx sat up straighter.

“Fuck. You’re right,” Malum said softly, and the air beside me warmed as he walked over beside me.

The potent scent of tobacco and whiskey flooded my senses, and I swayed closer to the intoxicating aroma.

Bronze cheeks blushed scarlet.

A dagger glinted as he swallowed, Adam’s apple bobbing.

Malum wet his lips and said softly, “I like your plan.” For a second, as he stared down at me, harsh bronze features softened. Silver eyes seemed pleading.

His mood swings were giving me whiplash.

The energy between us was volatile.

An ache pounded in my sternum.

“Let’s draw it up.” Malum nodded at the blackboard, and I followed his gaze as if I was in a trance.

We moved at the same time to the list, and he stepped back to let me pass. A palm splayed across my entire lower back as he guided me to the board.

I forgot to shove him away.

His fingers burned with heat.

Goose bumps exploded across my body, and streaks of agony shot down my spine as I stumbled away from his touch.

I expected him to get angry, but Malum stood still beside me, staring down at his hands as he flexed and unflexed them like he was confused.

His features sharpened, and something dark flashed in his eyes. He took a step closer and crowded into my space so he was centimeters away from touching me. He never made contact.

“Write out your plan on the board, Arabella—now,” he whispered darkly. The or else hung in the air between us.

I gulped, unsure of what was happening between us.

The reflection of flames burned in his eyes as he stared down at me, and his bronze cheekbones flushed red.

My stomach fluttered.

The next minutes passed with horrible tension as my chalk scratched in the mostly silent room.

Malum pointed out a few corrections, but for the most part, he loomed over me. Every few seconds, he’d look down at the hand that had touched my lower back and flex it.

Was he fantasizing about lighting me on fire?

I never knew where I stood with the leader of the kings, and he never failed to put my teeth on edge.

There was no way around the truth: he was terrifying.

“It makes sense, but the leviathans are better suited to guard the perimeter,” Jinx said as she tapped her pointer stick against my plan, and Malum stepped away casually like he hadn’t been seconds away from losing control in a crowded room.

I shivered and wrote down the change of personnel, too frazzled to argue with Jinx.

Whiskey and tobacco filled my senses.

Little streaks of pain shot down my spine with each breath.

When the three of us turned to the room to present our plan, I flushed, embarrassed that they’d seen me acting like a simpering fool around Malum.

Surprisingly, no one was paying us any attention.

The angels, shifters, and demons were all talking among themselves.

Only four men noticed.

Luka and John were both staring at me, but neither seemed annoyed, because their expressions could only be described as adoring.

Enraptured.

Loving.

In contrast, Orion sat next to them with his stunning brown eyes narrowed as he whispered into Scorpius’s ear. The quiet king also stared, but his expression wasn’t soft and loving like the twins’; it was harsh and obsessive. He stalked me with his eyes.

I shivered.

Orion had chased me down the marble corridor.

My exhaustion ran bone-deep.

The room’s temperature became oppressive as Malum shifted so his forearm was pressed against mine.

It was an innocent touch, yet I burned alive.

“Listen up, everyone,” Malum said loudly, and his baritone voice reverberated through my bones. “We have a plan.”

Everyone in the room stopped talking.

Malum nodded down at me like he was letting me take charge.

I grimaced back, pressed my pipe between my lips, and inhaled greedily. I’d never loved being the center of attention; that was more Sadie’s thing. I’d rather fade into the background. Disappear.

Public speaking was onerous, and I was already tired enough.

“This is what you’re going to do,” Jinx said with authority, and I stopped paying attention to my surroundings.

No, I didn’t care that a child had more leadership skills than I did. I was too busy enjoying my smoke.

A few minutes later, alarms were blaring inside the buildings of the war camp. “Jinx, you stay at the camp, and Warren, you guard her,” Jax ordered as we left the room.

We reassembled in the cafeteria.

John and Luka were frantically patting over my body, pulling at my weapons and holsters to make sure I had everything.

I rolled my shoulders and tried to ignore the persistent ache beneath my skin where my unused wings lay.

I pretended the floor wasn’t growing icy beneath my feet.

As far as I could tell, none of the other angels radiated ice. They wielded it expertly in the controlled form of their swords.

Jinx was tight-lipped about the whole affair, but she’d revealed the Angel Consciousness had removed the blocks on my power because I’d proven myself selfless enough with control over my temper.

I bit down on my lower lip until I tasted blood.

My gut churned.

I had a feeling it wasn’t normal for an angel to radiate ice. I had a bad feeling that I wasn’t in control at all.

Good thing I was an expert at coping—I ignored my problems and pretended they didn’t exist.

“You need to be alert,” Orion mouthed as he shoved a cup full of cold liquid into my hands. “It’s—”

I threw the contents back and gulped it down before he could explain.

“Iced coffee.” He narrowed his eyes, long dark lashes fluttering, as he whispered angrily, “You shouldn’t consume any substance without knowing what’s in it. It’s not safe.”

John and Luka continued checking my holsters diligently, like they were terrified they’d missed something.

I rolled my eyes at Orion.

The coffee was strong, and already I could feel the caffeine waking me up. I took a long inhale from my pipe and let the combination of drugs revive my will to live.

Jitters replaced my exhaustion, and I bounced back and forth on the balls of my feet.

Jax and Malum shouted the plan’s directions to all the soldiers.

“Can I have a second coffee?” I held out the empty cup to Orion as Luka checked my earpiece.

“No.” Scorpius seemed to appear out of nowhere. “Take that pipe out of your mouth or I’ll rip it out.”

Sometimes I thought the blind king was calmer and more approachable than Malum. Other times, he was abrasive and cruel. Scathing.

Like a bad trip.

Luka moved with a blur and pushed me behind him, darkness glimmering around him.

“Don’t speak to her like that,” John said in an annoyed tone as he checked my bullet cartridges. “But he’s not wrong, Aran. Put the pipe away.”

Scorpius smirked maliciously and sized up John like he was seeing him for the first time. “Don’t tell me what to do.”

John glared and drove his shoulder into Scorpius’s side. “Oops,” he said sarcastically.

A muscle in Scorpius’s jaw ticked. “Be careful, human. You don’t want to mess with me.”

Instead of backing down from the devil, who was half a head taller than him, John scoffed. “I’ll do what I want.”

Scorpius arched a brow, clearly unused to other men challenging him. “Is that so?” he asked wickedly.

I grabbed John’s shoulders and pulled him away from the sadistic bastard who would tear him to pieces. “Can you not start a fight right now?” I asked him.

John grumbled, “I wouldn’t just start a fight, I’d end one.”

Scorpius barked with laughter like the idea of John beating him was hilarious, and I grimaced because I had to side with the king on this one.

“You’re going to be the death of me,” I groaned.

John pulled on my ponytail. “Cheer up, little Smurf. Before you know it, the ungodly will be dead and we’ll be back here hanging out. Rumor has it the High Court is going to let us party to blow off steam.” He wiggled his eyebrows up and down suggestively. “Plenty of drugs to do later.”

He pretended to smoke an imaginary cigarette, and I laughed at how ridiculous he looked.

Scorpius muttered something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like, “I have something you can blow.”

We ignored him.

“Fine, but I want demon brew,” I said.

John winked. “Of course.”

“And I want to…” I trailed off and mimicked him by wiggling my eyebrows.

John’s lips curled in a mischievous smile, and he pressed a soft kiss to my lips. “Anything for you, darling,” he breathed into my mouth.

I tasted sandalwood and musk.

His lips were soft and warm.

Familiar.

Luka stroked the back of my head as his twin kissed me.

The pain that scoured my back was so strong it was like being doused in ice water.

Scorpius made a harsh noise in his throat, and when I looked over, he was flushed. Strange.

Orion gritted his teeth.

My skin prickled, and the pain intensified.

A spiteful part of me enjoyed knowing that the kings were watching me kiss John.

I wanted them to see what they would never have.

I wanted them to hurt like they’d hurt me.

Backing away from John, I nodded. “Let’s do this.”

I pulled the black elastic hood up and over my head, then tugged it low so it covered my entire face. The material appeared solid from the outside, but it was deceptively breathable and easy to see through.

Everyone did the same.

Clad head to toe in black, we became shadows with no discernable features.

In the middle of the room, Jax counted down from ten, and everyone gathered around the RJE devices. The twins grabbed my hands, and Orion grabbed my arm.

Sharp nails pressed through cloth into the back of my neck, and I startled at the intrusive touch. Pain traveled across my nerves and flared down my spine.

“Stay close, my Revered,” Scorpius whispered against the shell of my ear. “Don’t forget the bond sickness.”

I shivered.

As if I could ever forget my shackles.

Crack.

We disappeared.