The Hollow Gods (The Chaos Cycle #1)

Chapter 37

Chapter

Thirty-Seven

Kai

Even while he slept, there wasn’t a scrap of sensory information that eluded Kai. He knew something was wrong when in the middle of the night, he was awoken by the girl’s heart hammering hard enough to feel against his chest. Her arms were like ice, but her face was scorching.

Kai tore the blankets off and sat up, his gut sinking when he realized she was still asleep. He’d hoped the threat would be some intruder he could rip to pieces—another hunter or a bear.

No such luck.

He looked Miya over, but she was physically unharmed, which meant only one thing.

Abaddon was diversifying.

He cursed under his breath and pulled her into his lap, trying to rouse her with a gentle shake. “Lambchop.”

She shuddered and tried to scramble away, flailing her arms. He caught her wrists, but she yanked them back with surprising vigour.

“No!” she shrieked, still unconscious. Her heels slid against the mattress as she fought against an invisible foe and thrashed violently until she nearly tumbled to the floor.

Kai tried to grab her, but she slipped through his grasp like water. His urgency mounted with her terror, adrenaline and cortisol an acrid odour in his nose. Her fear needled him beneath his skin like ants crawling in his veins, tramping his nerves.

“Please wake up,” he pleaded, fumbling to keep her close, his mind paralyzed as he grappled with what to do. Ama wasn’t there to help, but why should she be? He should’ve been able to deal with this himself.

Helplessness ensnared him like a bear trap. He hadn’t felt this way in years—not since Alice died, not since his body first bent and broke and left him at the mercy of his surroundings. Miya was harbouring his demon because he’d let her take a step towards him when he should’ve turned her away. She’d known his secret before they’d even spoken—was the first to ever know—and that’d been enough to crack the lock on his defensive cage.

A whimper crawled from the hollow pit in his chest, morphing into a wrathful shout that echoed through the cabin before drowning in the rot of the old wooden walls. He hated feeling powerless, hated that he wanted to curl into a ball, hide his face in a tail he didn’t have, and sleep until the next snow.

She saved your fucking life , he reminded himself.

Little Red Riding Hood had more teeth than the Big Bad Wolf.

She grasped weakly for his arm as though unsure if she wanted to stay put or pull away, but Kai only wanted her to wake up. A heaviness pressed against his lungs, leaving him straining for each breath.

“What do you need?” he whispered, desperate for guidance. Even the raven’s squawking would’ve been welcome. He wove his fingers with hers, a gesture he thought useless as he watched her struggle against the malice he’d been battling all his life. Every second that passed was sheer torment, a winding downward spiral of self-loathing and shame. But Kai couldn’t tease apart his myriad of emotions; he only felt the subsequent anger, and the desire to act.

Do something.

He squeezed her hand, wishing the pressure was uncomfortable enough to penetrate her nightmare.

Just. Fucking. Do. Something.

Mired in panic, Kai sunk his teeth into the underside of Miya’s forearm, sparing no tenderness as blood filled his mouth. He continued clutching her hand as his jaws locked tighter. When she didn’t react, he only bit deeper, harder. Crimson spilled over his lips and down her arm, soaking into her clothes and staining the sheets.

Kai heard Abaddon’s wicked laughter, an echo from another realm. He was no doubt pleased. He’d succeeded in making Kai hurt the first person he’d grown attached to since Alice.

Succumbing to the futility, Kai released Miya’s arm and wrapped his hand around the wound to quell the bleeding. He rocked forward and released a guttural roar. Blood smeared his face, dripping from his teeth as he squeezed his eyes shut.

The laughter came closer, rumbling from outside. When Kai looked up, he was no longer in the cabin. A dark hallway framing a single door stretched out in front of him. Standing on four paws with his centre of gravity low to the ground, he could smell what was on the other side of that door. He had to reach it.

“You’ll never make it in time,” rumbled the voice of Abaddon. “You’re always too late.”

From the corner of his eye, Kai glimpsed Elle standing at his side, her face blank as she wrapped a hand around her own neck, fingers grazing the bruises left by her necklace. He’d failed her, but he wouldn’t fail Miya.

Kai bolted down the shadowy tunnel and slammed his body against the door until the knob shook loose, and he pawed his way inside. A hospital room. He saw Miya’s toes on the cot, digging into the mattress as she shrunk away from flaming, thorny vines that coiled around her body like snakes.

Kai didn’t need to look for the attacker; he knew Abaddon was right next to him. With a feral snarl, he lunged at his doppelganger, knocking him to the ground and ripping into his throat. Even as blood spewed from the phantom’s neck and flooded from his mouth, he laughed maniacally, gurgling when he could no longer cackle. Immune to the carnage, Abaddon spread his arms and stared at the ceiling as he melted into the vinyl—a stain on what was once a pristine floor.

Kai leapt onto the bed and gnawed at the thorns until they snapped. When Miya’s bonds loosened, she looked up from her huddled form, and relief caressed her lips into a smile.

Abaddon had been wrong. This time, Kai made it in time.

Miya threw her arms around the wolf, and he leaned into her embrace, willing his paws into hands that he could actually use.

He knew it’d worked when he felt her skin against his, now warm to the touch as she emerged from the haunting. They were back in the cabin.

Miya heaved for air as she withdrew, her face bewildered and glistening with sweat. Her eyes darted around the dim space before settling on Kai.

“You’re welcome.” He smirked—albeit weakly—and gently thumped his forehead to hers.

She sucked in a sharp breath and twisted her wounded arm around to find the source of her pain, gaping at the splatters of red everywhere. “What the hell happened to me?”

Kai fought the urge to sink into his mortification. “I...didn’t know how to wake you.”

“So you bit me?” Miya inspected the lacerations, a blend of fascination, disbelief, and ire crossing her face. “What if it gets infected?”

Kai sheepishly passed her his whisky. “This’ll kill just about anything.”

“If I’m lucky.” She groaned, pulled out the cork, and poured the liquor over the wound, sucking on her teeth as it burned.

“Cat bites are worse,” he mumbled and took back the bottle. “You’ll probably be fine.”

She cast him a withering look, everything from anger to mistrust working through her expression until she slumped her shoulders and sighed. “I know you were just trying to help. And you did get me out of there.”

Kai chuckled and wiped a speck of blood from her neck with his thumb. “Could’ve done it without the horror aesthetic.”

Miya tugged on her shirt and stared down at the bloody tie-dye. “Well, this is ruined.” Shuffling to a clean spot on the bed, she stripped off the soiled garment, all sense of propriety abandoned with Abaddon’s phantom corpse.

Not that Kai minded. He had no qualms enjoying the show even if every inch of her was sticky with blood and sweat. His eyes trailed over her modest breasts, down the length of her torso, and over the curve of her hips as she peeled off her jeans. A playing card fell from the back pocket—a momentary distraction from the view.

Miya picked up the card mottled in red and turned it over. “King of spades,” she murmured, then showed Kai. “It’s not just Abaddon. I think it also represents you.”

He smiled wryly. “Maybe that’s how I got to the other side. Blood. And your card sorcery.”

Miya fixated on the card. “You may be right.”

Kai wasn’t in the mood for sobering discussions about blood magic. He crawled onto the bed, plucked the card from her fingers, and tossed it aside. The fear had drained from his body, but the adrenaline hadn’t—at least not yet—and his patience was ground to dust. Placing his hands on either side of her, Kai pushed Miya to the wall, desire overpowering restraint as he caught her lips in a hungry kiss. He was done being playful and tired of acting aloof. The moment he smelled her arousal, felt her reciprocity, he pushed away the sullied sheets and dragged her under him. Miya slinked her arms around his neck, wrapped her legs around his thighs, and pushed her hips into his, her breath hot against his ear.

They were both exhausted and bloodied, their inhibitions stripped away by their savage brush with peril.

Words were not needed, but they both knew the test run was over.