Page 64

Malice

Fuck. Boots storm through The Hollow Chamber, the incoming ambush shaking the rafters.

With centuries of experience on their roster, Malice would waste time asking how the fuck he and the goddess never figured out this trap. Tragically, he doesn’t have that luxury.

Muttering a curse, he bolts into motion with Wonder.

Snatching the volume from her hand, Malice rams it back into the shelf, then clamps onto the goddess’s wrist and hauls her down the nearest lane.

As they charge through the aisles, his grasp practically crushes her bones, but he can’t let up, won’t fucking let up.

Besides, she’s not the dainty type and has taken harder grips from him.

Case in point, Wonder squeezes his hand back, not about to let Malice maintain the tighter hold, much less take the lead. Competitive as ever. If they weren’t running for their lives, he’d smirk with pride instead of classifying this as the wrong time to compete over who gets to be the savior.

And goddammit. The mob will identify Wonder because she left her archery behind.

Red is too harmless a color for Malice. Instead, his vision blackens at the edges like it’s been charred. No one will touch his goddess. They’ll lose their limbs before they get near her.

But if he’s forced to exercise his longbow, the infantry will register with whom Wonder’s been plotting. And that will put her in deeper shit than a cesspool.

Because yeah. Malice knows who the fuck is after them. He might have gotten his ass kicked out of their homeland at an early age, but he did his homework long before then. Each attacker possesses unique qualities, from lethal agility to unflappable focus.

Malice’s talons puncture Wonder’s flesh, urging her faster. Surging ahead, they bound toward different passages, tugging on one another while trading I’m right-you’re-wrong glances. This way and No, this way and Trust me and I know what the hell I’m talking about and Listen, for once .

Gridlocked, they realign themselves, keeping pace with one another. By the fucking way, since when does the restricted section contain traps?

His tactful mind goes into overdrive. This area was conceived by the original Fate Court, to stash secrets they hadn’t wanted the populace to discover.

The Stars may have allowed it, seeing as The Court acted chiefly out of protection, yet The Stars also planted their own mysteries here.

The difference is the latter mysteries were meant to be found, so it makes no sense for the constellations to designate a snare.

But it does make sense for The Court to have constructed one, given Wonder and Malice’s historic break-ins. The rulers must have installed this pitfall as an additional precaution.

Pumping their limbs, Malice and Wonder pivot toward a cul-de-sac, then plummet into a hip-slide across the ground, hunkering as they propel toward the bottom shelf of a built-in bookcase that swallows them whole.

They pass through and shoot along a horizontal channel.

All too quickly, the artery dumps them into the Illuminated Manuscript Gallery.

Leaping upright, they barrel past glass cases displaying thick gilded volumes, each cover stamped with emblems of authenticity. Want to know how to slander a deity and get away with it? Interested in tormenting mortals? Eager to rig an archery duel? Readers will get their answers here.

Wonder and Malice charge across the Chamber.

A door leading back to the upper levels stands at the opposite end.

As they jet toward it, his ears pick up the twang of a bowstring.

Growling, he’s about to shove Wonder out of the way when she twists from the weapon’s path, having detected its trajectory.

The nimble goddess dodges the projectile, which shatters a casement, glass exploding into molecules.

Motherfuckers! Vandalism isn’t usually a gripe for him, but every inch of The Archives is sacred, destroying its contents grounds for decapitation.

It’s the second of two dealbreakers in the span of three minutes.

The first and most crucial is they’re aiming for his wildflower, which isn’t going to happen on Malice’s watch.

These deities will be forfeiting several vital organs once he gets his claws on them.

Another bowstring vibration. His retinas sizzle as he whips around and lets an arrow fly, the weapon slicing through the room and intercepting the next shot. At the same time, an asterisk flickers from the sideline. He spins in that direction, the point of another projectile heading for his throat.

Wonder barrels into Malice, her weight jostling him out of harm’s way.

They crash, their bodies smacking the ground, limbs tangling like webs.

Landing behind a manuscript display shields them from the firing squad.

While Malice scrambles to a sitting position and props his back against the case’s pedestal, Wonder squats in front of him.

They face each other. Air saws through their lungs as they take stock of the dogmatic assholes on their tail.

A man with hawk features and long braids stalks beside a dark-skinned female in an iridescent gown. A second goddess in white lace approaches, hemmed in by a third goddess with amethyst locks, and a cloaked male with slanted brows.

All five members of The Fate Court enter the gallery, brandishing moonstone arrows. But they couldn’t have suspected that Malice or Wonder would test the odds and find the way to return here, despite their history with this place. The notion is too damn contrived.

So maybe the rulers took extra precautions and increased security everywhere in their realm. Whatever the reason, they did this cleverly, installing the type of snare that waits until offenders have their defenses down.

Evanescing would make sense. For sure, it would have come in handy during this entire fucking chase. Except deities can’t disappear while in close proximity to monarchs, since celestial hierarchy doesn’t allow it.

Basically, there are only two ways out of here. Back the way they came or via the exit door they’d been heading toward.

Wonder’s gaze slices between both options. “If we destroy the encasements to distract The Court, we can make it. We just have to—”

“Not gonna work,” Malice pants. “When it comes to distractions, two is better than one, especially with these mates. Problem is, they’ll expect us to head for the door.”

“What, then?”

“Backtrack to the channel. It’ll stunt their aim, since they won’t be expecting it.”

“Their reflexes will atone for that.”

His lips slant. “Not if someone is a decoy.”

The goddess’s eyes widen, her pupils eating up the green irises. “Malice—”

“Do you know how long I’ve craved you? From the first moment I saw you in The Celestial City, my body went crazy.

I didn’t know what the hell was happening to me.

Ever since then, I’ve wanted to scream at you, tear you apart, torture you, tease you, kiss you, fuck you.

I wanted to make you bleed, make you laugh, make you cry, make you come.

I wanted to punish you and possess you, as if I was two different people.

” Acid leaks from his tongue. “You’re still on my shit list for substituting me for him.

I’m still on your shit list for being a villainous cocksucker.

If we weren’t being hunted, I’d try and fail miserably to walk away from you, whereas you could easily—and should easily—walk away from me.

But it looks like only one of us will be doing any leaving. ”

“No,” Wonder chokes out, shaking her head. “Malice, no.”

“I hate these,” he says, taking her hand and pressing his lips to the scars. “Hate them so much.” Then he glances sideways at her. “Now fuck off.”

“No!” Wonder shrieks. She leaps forward to steal his bow, take his place, and rob him of free will for a second time.

But Malice isn’t human anymore. Because of that, sometimes he’s faster than she is. Whipping from behind the encasement, he targets and shoots, glass detonating in The Court’s path.

This is the part where his wildflower is supposed to run, get to safety. This is the part where she’s supposed to obey his choice like a good little goddess. Unfortunately, this is also the part where she loses him again.

Fine by Malice. He’s not sorry. Not if she lives.

Except when the fuck has Wonder ever behaved?

Disobedience clutters the goddess’s face. Stubborn as hell, she throws herself into the maelstrom, dismissing the door and pitching toward the channel they came from.

Terror seizes his soul. A roar launches from his throat. Amped up on adrenaline and desperate to clear her path, Malice fires, deflecting a series of deadly strikes.

Once Wonder passes the rulers, she doubles back like a gorgeous torpedo, launches behind the iridescent goddess, and rams a boot into the female’s tailbone. On the female’s way down, Wonder swipes the ruler’s longbow, its arrow still nocked.

Glass splinters, flinging shrapnel and scraps of paper across the gallery like literary carnage. The Court believes Malice and Wonder are here to fuck with them: treason against their superiors, anarchy against their kind. To these ignoramuses, the pair of them are dangerous.

True enough. He doesn’t have a problem with that.

What Malice does have a problem with is seeing Wonder trapped in a minefield of exploding debris.

While he aims to protect her, a green moonstone arrow flies his way.

From her vantage point, Wonder unleashes a growl, her shot breaking through the incoming projectile, severing its length in half.

The weapon’s hawk-nosed wielder rounds on her, gobsmacked until he recognizes it’s Wonder instead of his comrade.