Page 67 of Corvus and the Broken God

Then the door opened, and I came face to face with my lover’s wife.

She stared at me, clearly surprised. At least I’d had time to get used to her existence, but I should’ve been ready for her to return so soon. Being a bird for days on end was not easy to bounce back from.

“Who are you?”

I placed the tray down next to me, too worried about facing off a goddess to care I was naked in her perfect presence.

I stood and faced her, only an inch or two smaller than the goddess of suicide. “I’m Freya.” I held out my hand. “A friend of your husband’s.”

She looked down at my hand, sticking out awkwardly between us. Then she laughed. It was an angry laugh. She glanced at the open cage as she worked out the truth.

My hand dropped to my side. “Do you happen to have any clothes I could borrow?” I looked down at my naked form. At least I wasn’t hungry anymore.

The surprise on her face melted into rage, pure and deadly. If she was an immortal demigod, then I was nothing more than an irritating ant—one that had made the dire mistake of angering the powerful goddess.

I took a step back. “Never mind. I’ll just get out of your hair. Thank you for the food, by the way.” I slowly took another step in the direction of the door, smart enough not to turn my back on her.

“If you leave, I’ll make sure he’s killed tonight. For good.”

I ignored her cruel words and stopped, facing her fully. I straightened to the top inch of my insignificant height and steeled my spine. I had screwed everything up the last time I had faced off with Cassandra, but these stakes were life and death. I would do everything I could to survive; otherwise, we were both dead. Only I had no idea how.

I took a deep breath. “Okay. What do you want from me?”

“Answers. Now.”

“Oh, yeah, sure. You probably want to know who I am and how I got here. Well, I’m not anybody special. Not like you, Ixtab, or any of your friends. Maybe not friends, but those of you who gather every fifty years.” Shit, shouldn’t have said that. She didn’t blink. She just watched me with cold eyes as I rambled, giving her more and more rope.

“Anyways. I just stumbled upon Camazotz accidentally. I literally got lost, and my car broke down fifty feet from his driveway.”

At this revelation, Ixtab rolled her eyes. “You have got to be kidding me. Living by himself in the middle of nowhere, and his other half shows up at his door.”

“His other half?” The insult was in there somewhere, even if I couldn’t quite get it.

“And then what happened, little toad?”

“It’s Corvus, actually, but never mind. Are you going to kill him?”

“Yes, my husband is a disgrace. I may still have affection for him, as you heard, but since he has replaced me with something so pitiful,” she waved her hand at me, “I have no use for him anymore. And neither does anyone else.”

Oh no. I had only made things worse. “So, how can one of you be killed?”

Her eyes narrowed as she considered whether to answer me, her sinister smile telling me exactly what she thought of my chances of survival. “Beheading. Our bodies can withstand a lot of torture, and we may feel like we are dying, but until we lose our heads, we can survive it.”

Huh. That was not what had happened to him at the meeting, but good to know all the same.

“And now? What is the status of his punishment currently?”

“Why? Do you think you will escape me?” Her laugh sounded like pure amusement.

“No. I am under no delusion you plan to spare me.”

“Good.”

“So, then, what is the harm in telling me?”

She paused, studying me as if I were an exotic type of insect she was getting ready to squash. “You’re not a complete idiot. Of course not, he wouldn’t put up with you if your ugly face hid an empty head.”

“Right. Thanks. So, please, tell me what you did. Then you can kill me.”