Page 44 of Psycho Gods

Life was truly marvelous.

At least I hadn’t been born a man; that would really suck…although, my penis would be huge.

Luka’s hands traced patterns absent-mindedly across my back, and John played with my curls as he whispered something under his breath to his brother. The jewel of death hung heavy against my chest, and a diamond bracelet glinted on my wrist.

I slumped back against the warmth of the twins and cherished their proximity.

Lately, they were one of the few things that staved off the madness.

The perpetual cold inside my bones, headaches, and pain in my shoulders were overstimulating at best and torturous at worst.

Sadie patted my head and sniggered, “Please, I don’t need you to save me—remember, I can enslave you at any time.” She winked. “Plus, we get to battle beside each other in an intergalactic war to save the world. It should be fun.”

I pulled out my pipe and inhaled deeply. “False.” I blew smoke in her face. “Fun is a shopping trip, or when we tried to lose our virginity together at the fae sex clinic.”

We both frowned as we thought about how that day had gone horribly wrong.

I chuckled. “Never forget we both checked yes for elbow play.”

She grimaced and clutched her arm protectively. “I still have nightmares about someone violating them.”

I squinted. “I never thought about it—but how would that work? What is sexual about an elbow? I have so many questions.”

She made a face. “I think it’s pretty clear.”

It was times like this where I worried the most about her.

“What do you mean, it’s clear?” I asked. “Nothing about something called ‘elbow play’ is clear to me.”

The twins made a choking noise behind me, and we ignored them.

“Grow up, Aran,” Sadie said as she shook her head like I was being stupid, then she snatched the pipe from my fingers before I could react and took a long drag. “Damn, I forgot how much this stuff hits.”

I rolled my eyes at her.

Obviously.

I only smoked the best.

“Drugs are not allowed in battle,” a high-pitched female voice said haughtily from a few feet away. “It was stated in the High Court’s informational packet, multiple times.”

Sadie, Horse, and I turned in unison to stare at the gorgeous woman who crouched against the rocks.

Black-lipstick-stained lips contrasted with her cornflower-blonde hair. She was the angel who’d slaughtered the devil and assassin in the Legionnaire Games.

Horse looked away and dug his beak into his wings to groom the new feathers along the tips. He was clearly unimpressed with what he saw.

“What’s your name?” I twirled my pipe with my tongue, and Sadie’s eyes glowed intensely, a scarlet sheen reflected off the snow.

“Rina,” the angel answered through gritted teeth.

“Well, Rina,” I said slowly with a false smile. “The High Court has abandoned us, and we’re all probably going to die at the hands of parasitic monsters.”

She frowned.

“Violently.”

A few feet away from me, the demons shook with silent laughter.

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