Page 31 of The Gods We Defy (All Gods Must Die #2)

CHAPTER 31

K estral wouldn’t leave my side for hours after Veles’ reveal. As if I would disappear in front of his eyes at any moment.

It took me hours to convince him. Luckily, he was called away on royal business, unluckily for me, my plans to search for the green stone were quickly derailed when I was told I had to meet in the forest for the last purge.

Again, I don’t see some of the other chosen that I know made it out of the second trial. Yasmin, Indira, and Hael to name a few.

I have a feeling me being in all three purges has something to do with who Vidarr deems worthy to continue on. I must not meet his requirements.

Such a pity .

He must be annoyed that he can’t kill me off. The thought makes the smile behind my mask grow and I finally pay attention to his little speech.

“As this is the last purge before the final trial, it will be somewhat different. Instead of calling on the Sidhe hound for a hunt, we’ll be calling on a different kind of creature. A Puca. Many in fact.” Vidarr dips his head to his men, and they drag out multiple large black sacks filled with something that moves inside.

“Some believe the Puca to be lost spirits from the Otherworld while others believe them to be demons.” He nods to his men again and they upturn the bags, and a line of small, chained creatures stumble out. Some have white fur while others have black. But their faces…

“Their appearance as you can see is a mix between a small hound, a rabbit, and a goblin.”

I don’t know what a goblin looks like but from the unsightly creature in front of me, I can only guess how repelling it is without the rabbit and hound mix. The Pucas are all slightly different sizes, the one similarity being their golden eyes.

“They all can shape-shift and with their new forms, come new abilities,” Vidarr continues.

Shape-shift into what? And abilities? How are we supposed to outrun them all?

Dozens of questions run through my mind, but I don’t dare to speak them aloud.

“Your scent has already been given to one of them,” Vidarr continues and relief filters through me realizing only one will be hunting each of us. That is until I catch the look Vidarr gives me.

“The one scented to you will hunt you and only you. The same rules apply. Stay alive until dawn and you’ll have passed your final purge. There will also be more men on guard ensuring you stay inside the forest. Try to leave it early and they will hunt you themselves.”

His men give us all a savage look, hoping we do. “I’ll give you until the count of ten… Nine… Eight…”

I start running and don’t look back, heading for the lake on the other side of the forest.

Minutes pass before something scrambles behind me. Yips and whimpers slowly morph into howls and growls.

I glance over my shoulder as I run, my eyes widening on the group of shifting Pucas. I spot at least six . Not just one.

Narrowing my eyes, I run and jump up along the nearest tree trunk and backflip over the group as they head straight for me. Unsheathing my sword, I attack the nearest cluster of smaller ones while a few shift and grow.

Another Puca transforms into a hound and dips its head low before shooting forward. I sidestep it but slash my sword across it as it gets close. It drops to the ground with a thump.

One jumps from behind me, landing on my back. I manage to throw it off me but not before it gouges its sharp teeth into my shoulder.

More of the smaller Pucas attack, having changed into hounds, snakes, dogs, and other animals I have never seen before. But it’s the slow transforming creatures that I’m worried about.

One looks like a dark horse like Blaze, but I doubt this one would be as kind.

My gaze flickers to the slow transforming creatures, I make a dent in the smaller group and get running before they completely transform.

The purge has just started and I’m injured, already losing blood, and I need to stay alive until dawn. But if I can get far enough away, maybe I can find a tree to climb and rest in for a while.

I run until I hear no sound, until I find a clearing and a small grove of trees.

Pausing for a moment, I catch my breath and glance around.

The trees are thicker here, the snow whiter and cleaner, fresh and untouched.

I take it as a good sign and look around to choose a tree. I select the largest when the sound of hooves and paws hit my ears.

Whipping around, I find a huge black horse, two beast-like hounds, and a wolf step into the grove. I size each one up, wondering how I’m going to attack all when four chosen follow behind them. One with a familiar silver and black mask.

Nevan.

None of the four Pucas even acknowledge the approaching chosen, their golden gazes and undivided attention solely on me.

Two of the hounds pounce forward and I raise my sword, hearing a whine as my sword hits the belly of one. I kick the other, barely missing a bite to the stomach. Turning toward the wolf, I move forward when something curls around my ankles stopping me.

I glance down to find the tree branches coiling around me and crawling up my legs.

Raising my sword, I slash downward when another branch whips out and wraps around the sword, yanking it from my hands.

The branches drag me to my back just as the wolf springs forward. I raise my hands and push it back, but it snaps down on my arm making me gasp as its sharp teeth pierce my skin with a fiery burn.

Punching it hard with my other hand, I try to release its grip, but it wrestles me, trying to snap it off. I punch harder and harder, pushing the throbbing pain to the back of my mind as I focus on saving my arm.

Finally, it releases me with a whine but taking its place is the black horse, rearing over me as it slams it hooves down.

I push my Sidus light out around me and the beam of light spreads, the dark horse falls backward, fleeing from it.

The branches tighten around me as the four chosen step forward, realizing these Puca clearly only received one scent.

“Why?” I ask Nevan. The last time I saw him in the cave he avoided looking at me. He didn’t want anything to do with me and I him. So why he would go out of his way to team up with these chosen and hurt me now?

He doesn’t reply and the other chosen around him chuckle.

More branches slither along the ground, moving closer to me before rising and shooting forward. Each branch slicing across my body like a blade.

A low growl sounds out, making us all freeze.

“It’s the Sidhe hound,” one of them chuckles. “It’s scented her blood.”

But is it my friend or a different hound?

“Let’s go and let it finish her off,” a chosen says, backing up.

“I want to watch,” another grits out.

The chosen who was trying to get away stops with a sigh. “Fine.”

The Sidhe hound steps into the grove but his eyes are fixated on the four chosen and the Puca.

Relief fills me as I realize it’s my new-found friend.

It shoots forward and strikes, biting a Puca’s neck before snapping it in half.

With blood still on its teeth, it turns toward the four chosen and takes a threatening step forward, its growl a low warning.

“Why isn’t it attacking her? Her blood is all over the place.” They start scrambling back as the hound moves closer to them.

“Shit.” They make a run for it and the hound chases after the four of them, leaving me on my own as the branches slowly release me.

With a groan, I force myself to my feet and hiss at the burning pain throughout my body.

I look for my sword but don’t spot it anywhere. I move in the direction I last saw it sail through the air, when a sound of boots crunching in the fresh snow comes from behind me.

With a wince, I whip around but quickly relax when I spot a maskless Oryn moving toward me.

His eyes widen as he moves closer. “What happened?”

“I’m having a bad day,” I joke when all I feel like doing is crying.

With the relief of seeing him, my adrenaline quickly wanes, and I dip forward. He catches me and holds me up.

“Thank you,” I tell him and reach a hand up to his shoulder as I try to force my body to right itself.

“I’m sorry,” he says. “I need to win this,” he mumbles, making me frown. I push back wondering what he means but spot the glint of the blade too late as he slams it into my stomach. My mouth opens on a gasp before he yanks it out and shoves me backward.

The snow cushions my fall, but I don’t feel it, only feeling the blazing sharp pain in my stomach. I glance up to Oryn and my blood coating his blade. The same blood that coats my trembling hands as I cover the wound.

“Why?” I whisper as my chest grows tighter and tighter making it harder to breathe.

He doesn’t answer. Instead, he picks up a black and white patched mask and places it on his face.

Nevan’s mask, meaning it wasn’t Nevan earlier that joined the chosen but him.

And he came back to finish the job.

He turns and leaves without a backward glance as my body grows heavier. The cuts and slash of pain along my body soon become numb as a deep cold settles in around me. I turn my head and watch the blood seeping into the white snow around me.

Too much blood. It’s too much. My mind grows foggy as it tries to fight against the numbness for a little longer.

I glance up at the sky as it grows gray, a vicious storm slowly rolling in, making me realize maybe this is it. That this is how it all ends. Not from the purges or games or trials but by someone I thought was my friend.

My eyes blur as tears falls and the storm grows above me as if too, recognizing the harsh reality of what has just happened.

Thunder bellows out around me and lightning strikes from somewhere nearby. The storm continues to grow worse. After a while the cold gives way to complete numbness, a small comfort as the darkness seeps into my vision.

A flicker of light startles me as a figure kneels down beside me, his hands underneath me as I float somewhere with it.

I try to move but I can’t, the numbness too heavy.

“I’m not going to hurt you.” I force myself to focus on the voice, turning my head and glancing up at the one who holds me. Only to find Nevan’s sad expression gazing down at me.

“For what it’s worth,” he says. “I am sorry. For what you just went through and… before .” And then there’s nothing but darkness.

A cold, empty darkness wraps around me, feeling almost endless. Blinded in the dark, I push my senses out to try and figure out where I am, when a warmth wraps around me and yanks me out of it.

It feels like moments later that I jolt awake, the feeling of something pulling me still lingering around my body as I blink away the sleep from my eyes.

“She’s awake,” someone says, and a hand tightens on mine.

I glance up to find Kestral’s pale face staring down at me. I’m in his room.

“I’m okay,” I tell him, trying to ease the worry and fear from his eyes.

At least I feel okay. There’s no numbness or cold or pain. And my stomach. I sit up, pull the blankets down, and look at my stomach. There’s nothing there.

Someone also changed my clothing.

“A healer saw to your injuries.” Kestral clenches his jaw as he stares at my stomach.

“Who?” he asks with an expression full of fury as he fists his trembling hands.

I open my mouth to tell him everything when I realize we’re not alone. Asra, Veles, and Cyra are here too.

“It was close,” Veles grits out. Asra’s and Cyra’s already worried expressions deepen.

“It was another purge,” I tell them and feel the air in the room shift. “It’s supposed to be the last one before the final trial. But instead of unleashing the Sidhe hound, they released dozens of Puca.

A vicious round of curses fly around the room.

“One was supposed to have been given our scent to hunt us. But lucky me I got an entire group.” I glance up at Kestral and spot a steely swirl of rage in his eyes.

“Four chosen decided to join them as well,” I tell him.

“Someone stabbed you. Who was it? Describe their mask and I’ll hunt them down myself,” he says with a vicious snarl.

“We all will,” Veles declares while Cyra and Asra nod.

My chest tightens when I remember. “I thought… I thought it was Nevan. He wore his mask.” I glance up at Kestral as he freezes.

“But it was Oryn,” I reveal. “He… he was the one who stabbed me.”

Shock and sadness fill me when it hits me. Hits me that Oryn would betray me like this. Would try to kill me.

Kestral stays calm. Too calm. He nods, placing a kiss on my head, and then gets up and moves towards the door. Asra immediately blocks him.

“I’ll kill him,” Kestrel tells Asra with a vicious expression.

“You know you can’t.” Asra gives him a pointed look. “ But when the time comes…” He gives him another look; one I don’t quite understand. But it has Kestral nodding and turning back, making his way over to me.

“He will pay Seren, I promise you,” he vows.

I glance down at my hands, remembering the blood coating them. “He was supposed to be my friend. I don’t understand…”

Kestral’s fingers slide through mine, squeezing my hands tight.

“These trials change people,” Asra says with a harsh sigh. “They’re supposed to break you down and build you anew. But sometimes you don’t rebuild in the same way. Sometimes they break you and you become weak, and that makes some people desperate.”

I nod but… it was Oryn.

I glance around the room again at each of their expressions and finally see the worry past their anger.

“Something else happened. What is it?”

Kestral swallows hard before sharing a loaded look with the others and they move closer to the bed.

“It was the reason I wasn’t here with you. I never would have…” He sighs, shaking his head. “The iron wall was attacked,” he reveals, and a spike of fear slashes though me.

“By demons?” I ask.

“Yes, but it was a diversion.” Asra slides a hand down his face. “We didn’t realize it until far too late.”

I frown. “Were there many injured?”

Asra and Kestral share a look, one that has my stomach churning. “There were casualties,” Asra replies slowly. “But whoever let them in knew about the three kingdoms and their location.”

My body turns to ice. I give Asra a look to continue. To tell me where my mind immediately went, isn’t true.

“One kingdom was destroyed. Completely wiped out before we managed to get to there.”

My heart drops. “My?—”

Kestral squeezes my hand. “Findias was not breached. It’s the furthest of the three. But…”

My panicked gaze flits from Kestral to Asra. “But?”

“The shield came down on all three,” Kestral reveals.

The shield is down. One Kingdom destroyed. And Findias… Findias was not breached… Yet .

“Go and fix it,” I tell him. Them. Why are they here when they should be there, helping.

Kestral gives me a look full of pity, or compassion, I can’t tell between the two right now as panic and fear overload my senses.

My family. My mother . They’re all in danger.

“I can’t… I can’t leave you…” Kestral admits with a wince.

“Kestral—”

“You nearly died,” he grits out.

“Not only that,” Veles says, “but the last trial was moved up at the queen’s request. It’s now the day after tomorrow.”

I am no longer shocked at this point. “But… I haven’t…” Pain splinters through my head at the near mention of the green stone. “I’m… I can’t…” I can’t leave here. Even if I somehow pass the trial, I haven’t found the stone. And now my time to find it is imminent.

“Seren!” Kestral shouts out as he moves closer to me.

“I can’t go to them because of the…” I grab my head as the sharp pain grows and expands.

“Stop, please .” Kestral places his hands on the side of my face, fear clouding his eyes. So much fear I almost feel it.

“We know,” he tells me, reminding me, assuring me. “It’s contained for now, but my best men are already making their way there. Asra and Cyra are heading there now. They just wanted to make sure you were alright before they left.”

I give them both a grateful look with a wince before finding Veles’ eyes.

“The green stone?” He confirms with a nod. “I’ll find it,” he vows with a look of determination.

But he doesn’t understand. He was searching in drawers, thinking it was a trinket. He’ll never be able to find it if that’s the case.

“In walls…” I force out as the pain splinters across my brain once more. But I push it back and keep going, needing him to understand.

“And floors…” My nose starts bleeding. I ignore the look of panic as they all move toward me.

“Stop, Seren!” Kestral demands, but I keep my eyes on Veles as he watches me.

“And grounds…” I tell him as my body sways with the room and I fall toward Kestral. His arm comes around me as the stabbing sensation in my head multiplies tenfold.

“Seren, please …” Kestral begs softly, but I need Veles to understand. I need him to, because if he doesn’t then I’m already dead. I don’t have long to find the stone now with the last trial moved up. I need his help. Veles nods and stays quiet, his entire focus on me.

“Bri…gid…” I spit out, along with blood as my stomach churns with nausea.

“Seren! Stop it!”

“Healing…” I tell him and feel the drops of blood slide down the sides of my face.

“Get a healer here now!” Kestral demands as chaos erupts around me.

“Seren… please stop, I’m begging you.” Kestral tries to turn my face to him, but I need to tell Veles one more thing.

“Green… stone… in… hall…ways…”

He nods, his expression telling me he understands before reaching forward and placing a kiss on my head.

The warm drops slide down my face like tears. My gaze finds Kestral’s fearful expression as pain shatters across my brain one last time. And then nothing but sweet oblivion.