Page 25 of This Vicious Dream (Kingdom of Death #1)

Calysian

Madinia’s horse bolts, hooves skidding as they disappear into the fog of dust rising around us. Fox staggers beneath me, his ears flattened against his head, muscles bunching and trembling each time the ground shudders.

I lean low over his neck and dig my heals in, urging him on as loose rocks and clumps of dirt tumble down the hillside behind us. The sharp cracks of splitting stone echo through the air, and Fox leaps forward, hooves scattering gravel in every direction.

My gaze locks on Madinia’s receding form as her mare gallops blindly ahead. Trees uproot, and a fissure splits the ground just footspans ahead.

Her horse rears, and Madinia buries her hands in Hope’s mane.

Fox doesn’t hesitate, giving me a burst of speed, his hooves barely finding purchase as the ground beneath us continues to fracture.

Ahead, Hope stumbles. Madinia hurtles through the air, thrown violently from the horse’s back.

The world sharpens, time slowing, my pulse pounding in my ears.

Madinia hits the ground hard, a landslide of rocks pouring toward her like a wave. Her mare turns and bolts, leaping out of sight.

The slope behind Madinia groans, boulders the size of whisky barrels breaking free and tumbling toward her—as if directed by some dark force.

I launch myself from the saddle and slap Fox on the arse. “Go!” I sprint for Madinia.

She’s trying to push herself to her feet, her ankle twisted beneath her. She hits the ground once more, her face a mask of pain. I reach her as the first of the smaller rocks slam into her body, pushing her toward the edge of the chasm. For once, she doesn’t fight, allowing me to throw her over my shoulder as I strike out with my power, breaking the larger boulders into smaller pieces.

But they keep coming, and I can feel the malevolence within them.

“Faster,” Madinia demands, and despite the danger, despite my irritation with her, I almost laugh.

“Quiet, harridan. Let me save us in peace.”

She struggles, attempting to wiggle free, and I slap her arse.

A feral snarl. “I’ll kill you.”

“That will need to wait until I’ve finished saving your life.”

I’m still weakened after using so much of my power to push Fox just days ago, so I rely mostly on my physical strength, clenching my teeth as I sprint for safety.

We clear the edge of the slide, and I let out a single breath of relief. Close. That was too close.

A deafening crack splits the air, and the ground in front of us gives way. A jagged chasm yawns open, swallowing the path and everything on it.

I have no choice. I throw Madinia to the right, where the only stable ground remains.

She hits the ground and rolls. My boots skid in the loose dirt as I launch myself after her, but the earth shifts beneath me, bucking like a living thing. The chasm splits wider, chunks of rock splintering as the ledge crumbles beneath my feet.

I lunge sideways, landing hard on my shoulder, legs dangling over the hole.

Madinia crawls toward me, her face pale, streaked with dirt. Her hand finds my tunic and she pulls.

“I’m too heavy,” I grunt, my entire body straining, until I finally manage to roll myself over the edge.

The ground settles, and Madinia coughs, waving at the dusty air between us. I wipe a smear of blood from her chin and she narrows her eyes. “Next time, give me a little warning before you hurl me into oblivion.”

“Noted. You’re welcome.”

Her lips curve. And for some unknown reason, I have the strangest urge to chuckle.

Fox is nowhere to be seen, but his hoof prints lead toward the forest at our back. Madinia’s mare bolted in the same direction, so hopefully he will corral her…if she hasn’t snapped a leg in her desperate flight.

Madinia shifts, barely hiding a wince.

I lean close. “Can you move?”

“I’m fine.”

This woman. “Be still. Let me look.”

She allows me to gently shift her leather leggings, and this time I’m the one who winces.

“It’s swelling. We’ll leave your boot on for now, and I’ll examine it once we’re away from this place.” More bruises are already appearing on her face, and I clench my teeth.

Madinia flicks her hand toward the ruin of the landscape. “That wasn’t natural.”

“No.” I scan the ridge above us, where the landslide began. Rocks and debris are still shuffling, but no obvious culprit steps forward to claim responsibility. The air feels wrong. Heavy. Charged with something more than the aftermath of an earthquake.

Something that feels like my power. But not.

The sound of hooves fills the air, distant but unmistakable.

Madinia stiffens. “It’s another regiment. Or worse—Kyldare and his witch. How much power do you have?”

“Enough to kill twenty or so. Most of my power still hasn’t regenerated. You?”

She shakes her head. “Nothing from the grimoire. That link is…gone. Just my own power.”

We both wait, attention turned toward the approaching regiment.

“They’re coming from the east,” she says.

The exact direction we’re heading. I lift her into my arms as the sound of hooves grows louder. When a cloud of dust appears to our left, I sprint for cover, placing Madinia behind a cluster of jagged rocks and positioning myself behind her.

Her betrayal still lingers like a dull ache. And yet we’ve seamlessly fallen back into our own rhythm.

“If we kill the soldiers, we leave obvious signs that we were here,” Madinia hisses.

I’m already pushing my power across the expanse, sweeping our hoof prints away, as the regiment crests the ridge. The soldier at the front slows to a careful trot as he surveys the ruined ground.

“Do you see them?” one of the soldiers calls.

“Them? I thought Kyldare killed the woman.”

“Kyldare seems to think she would have survived. Do you see any evidence they were here?”

“No.”

Dust clings to the air, thick and choking, but it will work to our advantage, making it more difficult to spot us. I pull at my cloak, arranging the hood over Madinia’s hair.

She leans heavily against me, her breath coming in shallow gasps. My teeth clench, the sight of her fear offensive on the deepest level.

Something dark stirs within me.

I’ve changed my mind.

I’ll kill them all.

Madinia tenses. “Don’t you dare,” she mouths.

She’s right. This is the best way to ensure Kyldare can’t pinpoint our location.

And still.

The soldiers spread out, moving with unnerving precision, guiding their horses carefully through the uneven terrain, hooves striking loose gravel. They don’t speak. They don’t need to. It’s clear this methodical hunt has become routine for them.

Madinia’s fingers tighten on my sleeve. “They’re going to find us. You need to move.”

“I’m not leaving you.”

She gives me a sneer that makes me want to crush my mouth to hers. When she elbows me, I drag my gaze from her lips, meeting her narrowed eyes.

“Don’t baby me, Calysian.”

“I’m not. If I stay with you, I can use you as a shield when my ward fails.”

Her lips twitch. “I’m not saying you should abandon me. If you did , I would make you pay. But if you sneak around the other side of the chasm, you can cause a distraction.”

The soldiers are approaching slowly, but they’re spread out, at least ten footspans between them. My only option is to go up the hill behind us. But the ground has been loosened, rocks and dirt still trickling down in a steady stream.

The closest cover for Madinia is a patch of twisted tree roots—half exposed from the shifting ground. Even from here I can see the space is cramped, but if we don’t move now, the solider riding toward us will discover us within moments.

I point to it. “Can you get there?” My mouth is against her ear, and any other time I would smile at the feel of her shiver.

She cooly surveys the distance she needs to cross. Her mouth thins, and she gives a stiff nod. I don’t press her. If Madinia Farrow says she’ll do something, she will do it.

“I’ll head to the left. When I do, you need to crawl.” I pull the hood of my cloak up even further over her head. “Go.”

“Dismount,” one of the soldiers calls to the others. “The ground is too unsteady for the horses.”

The distraction is all we need, and I duck low, sprinting for the hill. I catch one glimpse of Madinia’s round arse, her foot held up in an effort to protect her ankle as she crawls toward the hole.

I find a sparse bush. It’s not enough cover, and my jaw aches from clenching my teeth as the soldiers begin moving forward once more.

Kill them all .

The voice sounds like mine, if I was stripped of all life.

And yet I receive no flood of power from the grimoire I’m searching for.

Truthfully, the advice is sound. And I crave these soldiers’ deaths.

I was not created to hide from threats as insignificant as these men.

But I’m forced to admit our plan stands. If the regiment goes missing, it will point to our exact location. But if these soldiers find no sign of us, they may assume we chose a different route, ensuring we have a clear path to the grimoire.

As long as our horses also stay out of sight.

A solider lingers near our first hiding spot, peering down at something. When he lifts a hand, a victorious smile on his face, I tremble with rage.

Even from here, I can see the long strand of red hair pinched between his finger and thumb as his head whips toward Madinia’s hiding place.

My veins flood with power.

The earth begins to tremble once more, and screams cut through the air as soldiers scatter.

Distraction? I’ll provide a distraction.

The earth begins to split, this time directly beneath the closest soldier’s feet.

He screams, arms flailing, legs stumbling over unsteady ground. A gaping hole opens up, and moments later, I hear the pleasing crack of his neck.

Distantly, I wonder if he’s still holding Madinia’s hair.

The other soldiers are spooked as they approach, eyes wide as they glance in all directions.

“No sign of them. Perhaps this was just a natural phenomenon.”

“And if they were here? Will you be the one to tell Kyldare his little obsession eluded us yet again?”

His little obsession .

Already, Kyldare was going to die screaming. This has added days of torture to his death.

The scars on Madinia’s back flash through my mind, the sound of her choked breaths as she stared at the arrow lodged in her chest.

The earth rumbles once more, and the soldiers scatter, crying out.

My skin prickles, and I slowly turn my head, meeting blue eyes.

“What are you doing?” she mouths.

I give her a slow grin I know will incense her. Her eyes fire, and my power begins to drift out of reach.

I’m unsure how I accessed that power, unsure why I was able to link to the grimoire now , and unsure why that access appears to be temporary.

“Kyldare is no longer our problem,” the captain says, his voice tense. “The queen wants the dark god and the grimoire.”

My attention sharpens. Now that’s interesting.

“We’ll leave sentries,” he continues. Clearly the captain is also convinced the quake was natural, otherwise he wouldn’t be loudly announcing the locations of those sentries as he points in each direction. “It doesn’t matter if they’re in the area. Vicana will have the grimoire within days.”

Icy fury sweeps through me. Mine. They think to take what is mine.

Kill them all. Make them suffer.

The sleeve of my tunic catches fire. The flame is small, but it licks at my arm, and I’m forced to extinguish it before it draws attention.

My skin is reddened, and I stare down at it. The little witch burned me. Again.

Her expression is unrepentant. She gives me a smirk, and I roll my eyes at her. Her smirk widens.

Gods, she’s beautiful.

Even with dirt on her face, her face bruised, her hair dusty where it has slipped free of the hood of her cloak. My cloak. Just as she sleeps in my shirt.

Keep protesting, sweetheart. But your actions tell me you want to belong to me.

Whatever she sees on my face makes her cheeks flame, and I wish she was next to me so I could wrap my hand around her long hair and hold her still while I ravaged her mouth.

Personally, I think a tumble would allow both of us to relieve some tension. A good distraction from both the danger stalking us, and her betrayal yesterday.

And still, her words echo in my head.

“I’m sorry. You’re a threat, Calysian. We had to know if you could be contained.”

Madinia had studied me as if I was an insect. A potentially dangerous insect. And the truth had revealed itself to me.

Whatever feelings she has—and despite her pretenses, I know she has such feelings—they are for the man who wandered alone for centuries. They’re not for the dark god. And they never will be.

By finding my grimoires, I’m losing her. And each moment I spend with her will make that loss more painful.

But I can’t end my search. To do so would leave me purposeless. Empty.

The soldiers have retreated, but I hold up a hand, gesturing for Madinia to stay put. She rolls her eyes, waving a hand at her ankle, which must be throbbing by now, and I turn my attention to the wide expanse of ruin in front of us.

My instincts were correct. Three soldiers return within ten minutes, scanning the area for any sign of movement.

I wait them out, and stay hidden, even as the action eats at the darkest part of me.

I do not hide. I am a god.

Clenching my teeth, I force myself to stay put, unsurprised when the soldiers return yet again, half an hour later, disappearing after a quick scan of the fractured earth.

I get to my feet, muscles cramped as I make my way to Madinia.

“Nice distraction,” she says. “Subtle.”

I shrug, and she angles her head, her eyes still on me.

I can’t tell her that the choice wasn’t entirely mine. That I saw the solider with that strand of her hair, saw him look to where she was hiding, and something dark was released within me. Something I could only access at that exact moment.

“Stay out of sight. I’ll check the horses.”

They’re wandering the forest nearby—thankfully both unharmed. Hope is clearly still spooked, but she allows me to catch her, while Fox snaps his teeth at me but complies when I lead both horses back toward Madinia.

I lift her into my arms, and she doesn’t protest, which means she must be in pain. I should have killed the soldiers. And yet they weren’t the ones responsible for this.

“Are you sure he’s dead?” She points at the hole as we walk past.

I lean over, allowing her to see the crumpled body, the soldier’s head lying at an unnatural angle. “If he wasn’t, they wouldn’t have left him behind.”

Madinia nods, and I scan her face. She can be ruthless when necessary, but she also has a softer heart than she would like to admit.

Our eyes meet, and Madinia raises one eyebrow.

“Would you like me to wring my hands? Would you approve if I wallowed in guilt for the lives lost since this began?” Her beautiful face turns cold. “I heard what they said, and anyone who tries to return me to Kyldare deserves all this and more.”

A strange kind of warmth seeps through my chest. “You’re right. They do.”

Our gazes hold for a long moment before she clears her throat and scans our surroundings. “Why did this happen? What does it mean?”

“It means I’m not the only god walking this continent. One of the others has decided to involve themselves, and they’re attempting to stop me from finding my grimoires.”

She clenches her teeth. “And how long have you had that suspicion?”

“From the moment I saw those bones sucked clean in the swamp. Some of the older gods used to enjoy their…sacrifices that way. Even I’ve heard of that .”

“You didn’t tell me.” Her mouth tightens, and she glances away.

I place her on my horse. “Just as you didn’t tell me Rythos would attempt to befriend me.”

She winces, and I swing myself up behind her. “Stay quiet. The soldiers may have posted sentries.”

Madinia

We spend the next few hours taking narrow trails, staying far from the main roads where Vicana’s regiments are likely patrolling.

One of Calysian’s strong arms encircles my waist, the other holding Fox’s reins. His hard chest is pressed against my back, his warm breath feathering against my neck, his body surrounding mine…

I shift in the saddle, and he tightens his grip.

“Are you in pain?”

“No.” I’m glad I’m facing forward, so he can’t see the heat sweeping across my skin.

He leans even closer, clearly sensing my arousal. “Ah, beautiful woman. Even after your betrayal, I would never deny you that .” His voice is a low croon, thick with amusement, and I tense. Fox tosses his head warningly, and Calysian chuckles.

My jaw aches, and I force myself to unclench it. “I apologized for what happened with Rythos.”

He leans his chin on my shoulder. “Well, then, all is forgiven.”

Lies. I know him, and I know how much he values vengeance. It’s one of the few things we have in common. And even if he does forgive me, he will never forget.

Hissing, I shrug him off. “Tell me you wouldn’t have done the same if you were me.”

Calysian is quiet as he considers my words. “Perhaps I would have,” he concedes. He leans close once more, burying his nose in my hair and inhaling.

“Are you sniffing me?”

“You smell good.”

“I smell like dust.”

“Hmmm. And woman.”

“You know, your moods are beginning to become rather…unstable.”

His teeth sink lightly into my neck and I shiver.

He smiles against my skin. “You have an annoying tendency towards near-death experiences. I find them unsettling.”

Ah. So watching me hurtle towards that chasm had encouraged him to move past my betrayal. I’m not sure if I’m pleased or displeased by this.

“And then there’s the other reason.”

“The other reason?”

“When you’ve lived as long as I have, you notice patterns. You didn’t like it when I forced you to admit you wanted me. When you realized you were mine . So you lashed out. Rythos’s treachery was a convenient tool for you.”

I scowl over my shoulder at him, and he shakes his head with mock disappointment. “So predictable.”

“I will hurt you.”

Calysian laughs. “For telling the truth? Besides,” he continues. “You’re a cold, calculating woman with a deep ruthless streak. I’ve always known that about you. And I like it.”

“Oh, do you?” I grit out.

He ignores my sarcastic tone. “I do. Because despite your frigid exterior and your ice-cold heart, you still melt for me.” He leans close again, nipping at my ear, and heat pools low in my belly.

Impulses war within me. I want to snap at him. I also want to turn my head, bury my hand in his hair, and guide his mouth to mine.

Thankfully, Calysian is already turning Fox off the trail, while Hope plods along behind us. “We’ll camp here tonight.”

He lifts me from Fox, placing me gently on the ground, where I balance on one foot. When I attempt to limp away, he catches my upper arm. “Wait here.”

My ankle aches enough that I comply. He sees to the horses, then returns, carrying me to a spot he has picked near a small stream.

“We’ll need to boil our drinking water,” he murmurs. “Now let me take a look at that ankle.”

He frowns over it, wrapping it in a cool, damp rag.

“This should help with the swelling. I’ll wrap it properly when I return.”

“Return?”

“Dinner. I’ll hunt.”

Calysian is a dedicated carnivore. And he stayed away from camp last night, missing dinner. My own stomach rumbles, and he smiles down at it.

“Don’t fret,” he says, his eyes meeting mine, “I’ll see to all your needs.”

My thighs clench. “I thought you were furious with me.”

“I am. And I’m pleased to be the one to introduce you to angry sex.” His eyes darken, and he gives me a look filled with so much dark lust, my breath catches in my throat.

I should deny him. Should deny that I want him. Calysian waits, and when I don’t speak he brushes my hair tenderly back from my face.

“Stay here,” he says, his gaze turning clinical as he sweeps his eyes over my weapons. He gives the knife at my side an approving nod. “Keep off that ankle.”

He prowls into the forest, but I know he’ll stay close.

I watch the horses as they lower their heads, nibbling at the scarce grass. Calysian will feed them properly when they’ve cooled down.

Angry sex.

My skin heats, as I watch water rippling in the stream. It has been days since we touched each other that way.

I should have known my commitment to “just one night” would weaken. And yet, that little voice whispers that I just need one more , and then I’ll be able to calmly walk away from him.

That voice is a liar. I snort, shaking my head.

Maybe if I—

My instincts scream a warning, and I push from the tree stump, attempting to surge to my feet.

But it’s too late.

A huge hand clamps over my mouth, strong, male arms dragging me across the camp. I sweep my flames toward my attacker.

Shielded.

An unnatural, reinforced ward.

One I’ve seen before. One I’ve felt before.

Thick, choking terror fills my lungs, turning my limbs to water.

Kyldare.