The Hollow Gods (The Chaos Cycle #1)

Chapter 42

Chapter

Forty-Two

Mason

Mason Evans was at odds with himself. The final pieces of the puzzle were dangling in front of him, but to pursue them, he’d have to abandon the wounded villagers that had been shredded by Kai Donovan. He wanted to flip a coin, but he had nothing on him. All he had was the dream stone, and he already knew where its vote would be cast.

Mason turned around and followed the pair towards the cabin. Who knew what possibilities were in Kai Donovan’s blood? Who knew what Kai Donovan was? A man? A wolf? Mason couldn’t abandon that—not now.

“I think we broke him,” Mason heard the girl whisper.

“He’s fine,” Kai dismissed her concern, then turned to frown at Mason. “Hey, unpucker your asshole. Makes everything run smoother.”

Mason’s mouth popped open, but he was at a loss for words. My asshole is just fine, thank you , he wanted to retort, but decided against it. He saw what happened to those men; he didn’t want to get on Kai Donovan’s bad side.

When they stepped into the cabin, Mason’s eyes fell on the woman he’d met at Gavran’s treehouse—Ama. Was she the one speaking before he awoke? She was sitting at the table, her face serene like she’d been expecting them.

“Did Gavran bring me here?” He couldn’t stop the words from leaving his mouth. His mind was still on the two men outside—that one ear lying in the grass as its cells slowly died, making it impossible to reattach.

“Who’s Gavran?” asked Kai, raising an eyebrow at Ama. She smiled but said nothing.

“You don’t know him?” Mason’s stomach churned as he re-imagined Kai spitting out the ear like it was gristle off a lousy steak.

“Never heard the name,” Kai shrugged, then turned to Ama and motioned his head in Mason’s direction. “You know this guy?”

“We’ve met once,” Ama acknowledged.

“You said we’d meet again,” Mason recalled.

“And we did.” She seemed undaunted. “What was the commotion outside?”

“You attacked those men,” Mason accused Kai. “I know they were armed, but you attacked first. Maybe they wouldn’t have used their gun if you’d been less confrontational.”

“I don’t need to stick my dick in a tiger’s mouth to know it’ll get bitten off.”

“Mason,” Ama drew him back, “you might find this hard to believe, but I trust Kai’s instincts. I don’t think he would have attacked unless he already knew those men posed a serious threat. You might have all ended up getting hurt if he didn’t.”

“Or butchered like a cheerleader in a ’90s slasher film,” Kai added, stripping his shirt off and examining the wound on his arm.

It was a deep nick—possibly in need of stitches—but Kai didn’t even flinch as he cleaned the blood off with a rag and some whisky. Mason watched, suspended in medical horror, as Kai took a swig of the liquor after pressing the cloth to his arm, then tossed it to the end of the bed. The bleeding had already stopped, further convincing him there was something special about this man’s genetic makeup. Kai Donovan was built like a rock. And given the way he fought those men, Mason couldn’t help but wonder if this rogue had once been part of the military. Perhaps some experimental program? But that didn’t explain the markers of wolf’s blood Sashka found. Nothing could explain that.

“I’m sorry, Ama, but that’s illogical,” Mason argued when his thoughts grew too loud. “We can’t speculate what those men might have done. There was still time to talk things through.”

“What about this whole situation even approaches logic?” Miya interjected. “They had guns. They obviously wanted to hurt someone.”

Emiliya Delathorne wasn’t the sweet, demure Amanda he remembered—and yet she still tormented him with a familiarity he couldn’t place. He peeked at Kai—an oppressive presence in the corner. Even though he said nothing, he also let nothing slip.

“Why are you looking at me like I fucked a horse?” he grunted when he caught Mason side-eyeing him.

Mason wasn’t sure what he’d gotten himself into, but he’d wanted the truth, and no one said the truth would be pretty. He didn’t know how deep this rabbit hole ran, but even with Kai threatening to defile the sun from his sky, Mason was determined to follow it to the bottom.

“Just never seen anything like you before,” he replied.

Kai smirked and tipped the whisky bottle Mason’s way, his dark eyes mocking him. “And you were never meant to, golden boy.”