“I knew you’d see it my way.” His smile felt like acid on her skin.
“I fucking hate you!” she screamed.
“And I fucking like it.” He grabbed his cock as the words passed his lips. It was pressed so tightly against his black leather pants she was afraid it would rip through.
They stared each other down for what felt like eternity before he turned and walked away.
“Wait!” she called as she glanced at the letter in her shaky hands. “I don’t even know where this is.”
The Devil looked back over his shoulder, but didn’t turn. “The invitation is a portal. It will open when it’s ready.” He started to walk again, but then stopped. His posture was that suave relaxation that made her want to kill him, but the predatory gleam in his eye made her breath catch. “I like this game we’re playing, Nyx, but I’d like it even better if you screamed my name when you cursed me. From now on, it’s Tor, and you’d better start getting used to it because it will be the only name on your lips.”
“I’m going to kill you,” she seethed.
“I’m counting on it, kitten.”
He and his Siren lay in the quiet, watery confines of her making as their chests rose and fell in synchrony. As the sun rose over the horizon, its rays were caught in the water and reflected a brilliant rainbow of color against their skin. The colors were as liquid as the flowing stream above and Brooks let it wash over him, basking in the exuberance of the moment.
“What are you thinking about?” Xia whispered.
He sighed and said, “The meaning of life, how I’ll get by without dried prunes, whether or not my abs will stay like this or if I have to work out… What about you?” He turned his head to smile at her and loved the way she lit up for him.
“I’m wondering whether or not your ego is going to fit back into those tight pants of yours.”
“Don’t hate on the pants, Siren. Everyone was wearing them at Club Hel. I fit in.”
She scoffed, her laughter filling the small bubble containing their peace.
“I was actually thinking about how wondrous it is in here, and then dreading what happens when we leave it.”
Xia rolled to face him and propped her head on her hand. “What does happen when we leave it?”Brooks pondered her question. His goal when leaving the illusion of the asylum was to find Xia. Find her, save her, protect her. He hadn’t any other plans after that. Brooks was content to steal away with Xia and never look back. The planet could destroy itself and he would create a whole new one in her honor for them to live in solidarity.
It is more complicated than that. We cannot run from this problem. We owe death to her captor, and torture to those who plotted our downfall. Our power is dwindling, and this universe will fall with us.
Brooks rubbed at a gaping hole in his chest where his chaos used to flow as freely as running water, replenishing as quickly as it spilled. But now? It was moving like molten lava and drying on the surface rather than making its way back into the well. His power was lost to him and he needed to figure out why. He doubted his ability to create even a plant, much less building Xia a new home worthy of her.
And then there was the problem of the scrappy girl who brought him here. She was snappy and intolerant at best, but her revelation on the river bank stirred something inside that he couldn’t quite shake. These people that felt so insignificant before felt longing, pain, and loss just as he did. They fought to survive and found peace in the moments in between.
Brooks reflected on his time in the asylum and recalled the bitterness and anger he’d felt at these self-proclaimed gods as they used the weak for their own agendas and made empty promises of peace to keep them placated. Lytta was the pinnacle of his revelation, and she chose to die to make sure he saw it.
Words in that raspy alto he missed so much flooded his memory.“I gave myself to you so that you may wake and fix what he has broken.”
Lytta. She’d known suffering and devastation, and yet was able to find so much peace within the stars. She wasn’t insignificant. Perhaps it was unfair to think the rest of them were
“I made a friend a promise and I need to make good on it.” Her sacrifice resonated to his very core and, though he would never be the savior she deserved, Brooks would make this world right in her honor. No matter the cost. He turned to his side and mimicked her stance, except where she traced her fingers through the dirt, he coiled a lock of her hair around his. “But before I can do that, I need to figure out what’s happening to me.”
Xia’s brows furrowed as she asked, “What do you mean something’s happening to you?”
“I mean I was once all powerful. I could produce anything within the span of a thought and hold it in my hand the next. But now? I’m empty, Xia. Empty in a way I’ve never imagined possible. Something is wrong with the well of chaos, and I’ve got to figure it out before…” His words faded as a pit formed in his stomach.
“Before what, Brooks?”
“That’s the scary part, Siren. I don’t know.”
The walk back to the village was quiet, but it was a steady sense of peace she’d never known. Brooks laced his fingers in between hers and didn’t let go until they’d arrived back at the ramshackle town.
Xia didn’t know what most of the world looked like. In fact, her feet had never left the black sandy beaches of her island. But she knew that this desiccated village was not a good representation of what lay in the great unknown.
Though she’d lived in captivity, her downy bedding and gilded furniture had been an absolute luxury compared to the living conditions here. It made her heart hurt.
