Page 51 of Psycho Gods

For the first time, we were in complete agreement.

A long moment passed, then Malum raked his hands across his shaved head and said, “No, we have not tried to negotiate with the parasitic creatures.”

Arthur scoffed, “Well, we should try.”

Jinx turned around on the table and asked, “Who?”

“Are you speaking to me?” Arthur looked pointedly at where Jinx was missing a leg, and the unspoken insult hung heavy in the air.

Rage flared across my sternum.

Knowledge that Jinx would eviscerate his existence was the only thing that held me back from stomping on his throat and painting the floor red.

At the back of the room, Orion whispered into Scorpius’s ear, and the blind king shot to his feet. His high cheekbones were sharp as knives, as his face tightened with rage on Jinx’s behalf.

“Who do you want to negotiate with?” Jinx elongated each syllable like she was talking to an infant.

Arthur opened his mouth.

“Wait, I know.” Jinx’s tone was deceptively nice. “The confused civilians who are cognitively unaware that they are infected with parasitic creatures?”

She laughed cruelly.

“Or do you want to negotiate with them when they lash out violently, controlled by the monsters inside them? When they scream mindlessly about death?”

Arthur paled.

Jinx continued mercilessly, “Or perhaps you wanted to talk to them when they’re being ripped in half?” Her fake smile dropped. “No—I get it. You want to wait to talk to the crustacean-esque creatures who each have an exoskeleton mask for a face and six legs with pincers. The ones who rip the people in two and emerge from their desiccated carcasses. The ones that bleed green and are expanding through the realms.”

No one spoke.

Arthur put down his teacup with a loud clatter.

“Any other inane suggestions that anyone wants to waste our time with?” Jinx spread her arms wide to the rest of the room.

“Someone did not read the informational packet,” Sadie muttered loudly. “Stupid airers.”

Scorpius chuckled and sat back down.

It took me a moment to realize that my best friend had come up with a derogatory slur for the angels because they called people grounders.

I pinched the top of my nose.

I no longer supported women’s rights.

Jinx turned back around and rapped her pointer against the board next to my face. “Concentrate. We still have a stealth problem.”

I banged my head gently (as hard as I could) against the board.

Infected with enchanted weapons, ungodly, a compound full of both. We had to kill them all quickly and efficiently without giving them enough time to flee.

How?

I rolled the elements around in my head and considered different tactics.

Malum spoke up and sounded assured. “Orion entrances everyone with his voice, then we eliminate them while they’re unconscious.” He nodded. “It’s the only thing that makes sense.”

I hit my head harder against the board and said, “Except we don’t know if you would entrance and kill all our soldiers.” Like you did with Jinx, was left unsaid as I continued, “We’ve been over this. Murdering the few soldiers we have aside, we also don’t know if I can stop you again.”

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