Page 32 of Flame and Fury

I shake my head, waiting for snakes or bugs or some shit to start squirming out of the food. “I don’t know.”

Whatever it is, I don’t trust it. They didn’t drop us in this beautiful forest so we could have a picnic. I don’t know what their game is though. Is some monster with a taste for demi-god flesh going to lurch out of the stream and try to eat us? Are the trees going to become sentient, ripping their roots out of the ground so they can chase us? Maybe bludgeon us to death with their branches?

Gods. I need a nap and some food. Just not anything from that table.

What I do know is that it’s stupidly hot out. I’m still wearing some kind of long sleeve thermal shirt that was supposed to keep me warm in Vegas. I have a sports bra underneath and it’s looking more and more like the shirt’s about to come off. I can’t do much about my pants, since I refuse to let Preston see me in my underwear, but at least I’m not in leather.

The second thing I know is that I can’t hear anything but the burble of flowing water, birdsong, and the buzzing of insects around us. There’s no noise from traffic, nothing to indicate there might be people close by. It’s daytime which it also was when we left Vegas. However, I’ve recently learned that the gods can shift around houses and move them into random places wherever they want. Does that same rule hold true for pretty little glens in the woods? Since they’re gods I’m going to go with yes.

“I’m starving,” Jade snaps at us as if we told her she couldn’t touch the food. If she wants to crack open a cupcake and find cockroaches inside, be my guest. I’m not touching that food.

Jade grabs a plate and piles it full. There are small pastries stuffed with meat and vegetables, little fruit tarts with perfectly formed lattices on top, slices of crusty bread, and a selection of cheeses that look stinky and are probably delicious. My stomach growls angrily, annoyed that all of that food is going to be wasted instead of being shoved in my mouth.

Dragging myself away, I flop down on the couch, which is thankfully shaded by a tree. I unlace my damn boots and kick them off, tearing off the heavy wool socks that were keeping my feet warm. Should I be barefoot when there’s a possibility that zombies might burst from the earth and try to eat our brains? No, but the heat is pressing down on me, and there’s already a sheen of sweat coating my skin. Having my feet covered was only making it worse.

Jade eats until she can’t physically stuff anything else in her mouth. Sitting back in her chair with a groan, she pats her belly while smirking at the rest of us like we’re idiots. We’ll see who’s an idiot when an alien pops out of her stomach and rips her apart from the inside.

“Is there a point to all of this?” Drake is twitchy. I’ve never seen him this agitated. Usually, he’s calm and smiling. Obviously, something is working him up and he can’t relax.

He’s been wandering around the clearing for the last hour. I’m trying to move as little as possible in an effort to keep from sweating. It’s not working. Everyone else has taken a seat. Greer is on the other end of the couch that I’m sitting on. Atlas is sprawled out in a chair taking up as much space as humanly possible, his legs splayed wide. Nico and Jasper are on the bed, lying on their backs.

“This is stupid.” Preston pushes off his chair with a huff and strides toward the food table. “Nothing is wrong with the food.” Preston waves his hand at Jade who’s already sleeping on another couch. He fills up his own plate and wolfs it down while my stomach angrily eats itself.

“Fuck this heat,” Nico groans, lifting the hem of his shirt to wipe off his face. The fabric is soaked. He plucks it away from his skin, attempting to create some airflow. I doubt it’s working. My shirt joined my coat about thirty minutes ago, but my sports bra is soaked through. I’m this close to taking my pants off, but I’ve settled for rolling them up as far as possible for now.

Nico strides over to the stream with a curse on his lips. I sit up, a prickle of warning making my skin tingle.

“Nico maybe don’t–'' Nico dips his hands in the stream before I finish my warning. He barely has them submersed when a scream tears from his throat. He yanks his hands out of the water, falling backward with a roar.

I jump to my feet, running over to Nico along with everyone besides Preston and Jade.

“What happened?” I shout and then gasp at the sight of Nico’s hands. They’re raw and red, like he dipped them in acid.

“What the hell?” Drake and Jasper grab Nico by the elbows and lead him away from the water. Nico is swaying and I can’t imagine what would happen if he fell in that water.

“We need to rinse his hands off,” Greer barks out, turning toward the table, but I grab her arm.

“Wait.” I shake my head, my instincts rearing up and warning me not to touch anything on that table. “Not from there.” I run over to my discarded coat and find the bottle of water I stowed there this morning. It’s only half full but it will have to do.

“Hold out your hands.”

Nico’s arms are shaking as he does what I ask. Not wanting to waste a drop I slowly pour the water over his reddened skin, waiting as he flips them to finish the other side.

“This is bad.” Jasper shakes his head, staring down at Nico’s savaged hands.

A retching sound behind me has me whipping my head around. Jade is on her hands and knees violently throwing up.

Oh gods. What now?

Preston gapes at Jade, his head swiveling between her and the table of food. Pure panic lights his rheumy eyes. Jade is vomiting and coughing. Her back heaving, as she gags over and over.

I think I’m going to puke just from the sounds. Not like there’s anything in my stomach but the remnants of toast and coffee, but Jade’s dry heaves have me swallowing thickly and focusing on breathing in and out.

Concern lines Jasper’s forehead as he peers down at Nico’s hands and then over to Jade. Everyone besides Preston is standing around Nico. Drake is half holding him up, a supportive arm around his waist. Jasper’s too kind for his own good. He leaves Nico with a squeeze of his shoulder and goes to check on Jade. He places a hand between her shoulders, but Jade swats him away with an incomprehensible curse. Assholes like Jade don’t deserve compassion from anyone. Even though I do feel a little bad for her esophagus.

“Is she dying? Fuck am I going to die?” Preston cries out, grabbing his hair and tugging on the short dark strands as he paces back-and-forth. He doesn’t give two shits about Nico’s burned hands or the fact that Jade’s insides are violently being expelled from her body. Typical.

Still, this is a lot. How did everything explode all of a sudden? The drones are flying overhead, hovering over Jade and Nico. Fucking clerics and the gods engineering turmoil for this bullshit game. I grab a pitcher off the table and launch it at the closest drone. It strikes dead on, sending the drone careening into the stream. It hits the water with a sizzle. In less than a minute the whole thing has completely dissolved.

---