Page 79 of Courting War
Theo wasn’t nice. She wasn’t kind. She had no positive attributes . . . but wanted to repay him. She wanted to be nice to the one who dared take care of her.
Her resolve firmed into granite. She would aid him and start by asking him what he needed. Theo wasn’t used to working with a partner, but this was Kellyn’s life on the line. It was his game.
Theo turned to him and sucked in a breath. The boy was posed like an ancient statue leaning against the wall. He had a hand on his chin, and his eyebrows knitted together. Confounded yet gorgeous.
“What do you need?”
He didn’t answer the question. As if waking from a daze, he asked, “What is going on?” Kellyn’s face was a tapestry of horrified confusion. “Gallagher—a goddess—answers to you?” He said it as if mystified.
“Oh,Morriganis amajorpart of the War Court.” Gallagher played with the name on her tongue, having far too much fun with it. “It’s almost like she bosses us all around.”
“Almost.” Theo gritted her teeth. She was going to kill Gallagher for this later.
“What are you, Morrigan?” Kellyn asked his tone a mixture of phantom fear and cat-like intrigue. “You’re not human.”
“Yes, Morrigan, enlighten us. What are you?” Gallagher trilled, laying on her stomach and clicking her heels together on the bed, her head in her hands.
Theo flashed her aI'm going to flay you alive, look, which only caused the goddess’s smile to widen.
“I'm complicated.” Theo needed to change the subject. The boy needed to stop delving into her past. “Kellyn, in these games, what do you want? How can we help?”
He swallowed, still clearly not understanding.
“Gallagher will help us win these games, but we must know what you need.”
Kellyn rubbed his face and flashed an untrusting glance at Gallagher. “I want all the champions to live.” He sucked in a breath and stared at the blue-haired goddess measuring the level of trust. When he refused to say more, it became clear that he didn’t trust her.
“Gallagher will help us,” Theo tried to reassure him. “You can tell us whatever is on your mind.”
Kellyn arched a redwood brow. Unconvinced.
“The one thing she loves more than anything else is destroying things. That can be focused on destroying what we want her to, like the gods’ machinations.”
“True.” Gallagher’s feline smile was dripping with mirth.
“Gallagher, promise that what we say in this room stays between the three of us,” Theo said. A god’s promise was binding. If Gallagher agreed, she couldn’t tell, even if she wanted to.
“I promise that what we speak about in this room will stay between us,” Gallagher said and gave a soldier’s salute. “I won’t tell another soul without permission.”
Kellyn shifted his stance, loosening his muscles, but he was still on edge. “I want to best the gods,” he said with a gravely seductive voice that sent shivers through Theo. “For what they did to Emmett, for how they use all our weaknesses. I want all of the champions to live so that the gods don’t get their power.”
Theo’s chest warmed, and her mouth curved with . . . pride. The boy spoke directly from her heart. Beating the gods at their own game perfectly solved their problems.
Theo had refused to play the games because it was what her mother wanted. But this plan was better. Play the games to defeatthe gods’ greatest wishes. It was perfect! A way to get vengeance on the Queen of the Gods.
“A worthy goal,” Theo said while Gallagher purred, “Sounds like fun!”
“The one problem is that the other champions will never help us, because they believe the Theoden champion is cursed due to the Goddess’s absence.”
Theo winced. Another reminder of her apathy causing her people pain. She couldn’t make up for the past but could help her champion now. “Gallagher, you have to go to them and find a way to get them to work with us.”
“Oh, I'm going to enjoy this so much,” Gallagher said as her form slowly, piece by piece, fell to ashes as she refracted away. “You’re going to love how I'm going to get them to come.” She wiggled her nose and disappeared into a cloud of ash.
Theo groaned. That didn’t bode well.
Chapter Twenty-Three
KELLYN
