She fixated on the midnight-blue specks floating in the misty shadows around them. The particles whirled and flared like sparks, infusing the air with a power that stung the skin of her arms and chest.
This isn’t real.
Her grief and guilt were alive, but to this extreme, in the middle of a vengeful fight of all times?
No.
It was disillusionment.
The ruination of the soul.
Acacius’s specialty.
Marina’s heart drummed against her sternum, fluttering in the base of her throat. She shifted her awareness from the overwhelming quake of her emotions to the quivering of her equilibrium. Nausea pooled in her stomach.
Keep your promise.
A flame flickered in her gut, reigniting her life force.
She huffed out a laugh, staring down at Acacius’s boots. “I already wish for death. You’re only doing me a service.”
She would dig his arrogance out of his chest and crush it like a peach’s pit.
An electric charge rose the hairs on her nape.
Acacius’s body tensed, and he whipped his head around. Ribbons of his divine power furled around them, tugging against her to teleport away.
Marina locked her arms around his waist. Onyx chains formed from her backside and latched into the floor, fighting against the gravity of his teleportation.
The muscles in Acacius’s arms flexed, and she constricted her embrace around his frame with all her strength, cracking his bones.
A deafeningboomand a flash of indigo blasted through the ceiling. A bolt of lightning forked like arteries through the air. Debris flew across the lounge in an eye’s quick blink.
An electrical current pronged through her, melting tissue, until it felt as if her blood were bubbling. She held the cry in her throat hostage, her body convulsing against Acacius. Lightning scalded her insides, buzzing and splitting every synapse she had.
The release of the shock was instant.
She gasped.
Her legs trembled, and it took all the will she had to remain upright, unravel from Acacius, and summon the strength to shove him by his chest.
He stumbled back on wobbly legs.
Deities rushed to get out of the path. Always lurking nearby. Never doing the smart thing andgetting out of the fucking way.
Acacius’s calves collided with a leather sofa, knocking it over onto its back. Marina caught sight of the refractive paths of bullets burying into his torso as he toppled over and hit theground. His feet hung over the ledge of the sofa, and he made no move to get up.
“Took you long enough,” Marina said through clattering teeth, the shock still alive in her system.
Viviana materialized in front of Marina, her long, pale-blonde strands metallic under the purple lights of the lounge. “Nice work.”
“Your concern is endearing,” Marina muttered.
Viviana rolled her eyes, turning her attention to the High God in front of them. “What a pity. I expected him to put up more of a fight.” She slipped her hands into the pockets of her pressed trousers.
Mansi strutted out of the cloud of dust, twirling a slender rifle around her index finger. The jewels lining her bronze torso and defined bicepsclinkedwith each step. Under the circling lights, they glinted in her dark, wavy hair.
She aimed her weapon down at Acacius with a proud expression. “Why hello, Lord Acacius.”
