Page 36 of Courting War
“Hello, kind stranger—” a slithering yet lilting voice whispered on the wind but was cut off by a harsh and grinding tone that added, “And Agony inhuman flesh.”
From the midnight blue yew tracing, the bookshelves clawed a beautiful woman formed from moss and trees, trailed by a hunched-back man chiseled from stone. He looked as if he had the weight of a mountain on his back, rocks clinging to his body.
Nymphs.
Earth Nymphs.
They smelled of fresh soil, wet rocks, and pinecones laced with decaying mushrooms.
“The path to your salvation is on your left,” said the pretty nymph with a chirp and a singsong voice.
“Or is it on the right?” the rock man asked, his pebble eyebrow lifting with ghoulish delight.
A wind nymph burst to life beside Kellyn’s ear and whispered, “Straight forward is the object you seek.”
All three creatures blocked the path, chaos dripping from their tongues.
“I suggest you tell me the way!” Morrigan seethed.
The wind nymph shook her moth wings, spraying water on them. “Tsk, tsk, naughty little human. That isn’t how you obtain the correct answer.”
“Isn’t it?” Murder lurked in Morrigan’s eyes, and a vicious smile painted her lips. “What if I curled my fingers around your neck? It wouldn’t get me the correct answer, but it would feel satisfying.”
Kellyn’s heart skittered. He believed her threat. He wouldn’t put it past her to murder him, given the proper opportunity.
“Tell me where the book is,” Morrigan said through her teeth.
Book?
Did she know the challenge?
There weren’t any other options that made sense. Had Theodra strategized with her as all the other gods did with their champions? She was her priestess, after all.
When the nymphs refused to answer, Morrigan took matters into her own hands. With one fluid motion, she reached her hands up, placed one hand on either side of the lady earthnymph’s head, and snapped her neck, the movement jerking Kellyn forward because of the chain connecting them.
His mouth dropped with shock, but he said nothing—words swallowed by his nerves and horror. Wind sprites refracted into the air beside him and licked up his emotions.
The girl killed an immortal. She was a devil. Cruel and wicked.
I'm going to die . . . quickly.
Kellyn drew a step back, and his heart hammered in his ears.
The gall of this priestess to openly defy these beings.
Kellyn wanted to shrink back into a bookshelf and disappear. Humans had gotten their entire families slaughtered for less.
Every muscle in his body tensed, and he prepared for an attack.
Which didn’t come.
Instead, the nymph formed from rocks pointed down the left hallway and backed up in fear, rolling like a boulder back into the piles of tomes.
An irritated and fearful silence descended between Kellyn and Morrigan. It carried the sensation of lice clinging to his hair.
“Don’t look so horrified,” Morrigan said, crossing her arms. “Monsters resurrect in the games. It’s the deal they made with the gods.”
Kellyn gulped. That didn’t make it better.
