Page 2 of The Goddess’s Thief

“My other mate marks say differently.” I shrugged, though something inside one of my shoulders was damaged from the punishing grip the priests still had on me. It got worse when they yanked me back to my feet, and Edan reached past the tie of my shredded cloak, tearing the shirt I wore beneath it—Goran’s shirt—off one shoulder and halfway down the middle. The mark at the top of my bicep from Lachlan showed, along with my breasts, but he didn’t even look at those. Instead, his eyes skidded across my body to land on my abdomen.

“What is this?” His lips curled back from his teeth. He leaned over, sniffing at my stomach. At the tiny, snowflake-shaped scar that lay just below my belly button. “Who dared?”

If I hadn’t been so scared, I would’ve laughed. Both gods had been big on asking about how I dared. “Oh, that one? That’s my ice god’s mark.”

“Your ice god?” The absolute shock in his tone made his voice crack. One of his hands actually rose and landed on his neck, reminding me of court ladies who would clutch their necklaces in feigned horror.

I batted my eyelashes. “Yeah, my ice god. Skadi. He took good care of me. Built me a nice, cold house.” It was an exaggeration, but the longer our conversation went on, the more the flames died down, the corners of his lips twitching upward in a familiar way. Was Serak there, listening? I let out what I hoped was a sensual hum, though I wasn’t sure I pulled it off. “Skadi knew how to treat an Omega. I told him you made my stomach hurt, so he kissed it. All. Better.” By the end of the taunt, I was using a high-pitched babyish voice. My crew back home in Turino would’ve pissed themselves laughing.

I almost laughed when Edan stepped away from me, disgust painting his features. “Kissed? He kissed you?”

The spot on my abdomen fluttered, like Skadi was there. Ugh. Had he left some part of him in there? Dragons lay eggs, the mean little voice in my mind whispered. Maybe…

I pushed the thought away and answered casually. “In a manner of speaking. What do you call it when a god puts his tentacle thing in⁠—”

I fell back onto one of the priests as he screamed, and the ground shook beneath us. The volcano behind him erupted, red lava oozing from the top and down into a now-glowing crater. I heard distant screams that cut off suddenly. Men’s screams, I hoped.

The fire god in front of me began having some sort of fit, his face changing. His eyes kept flickering from red to deep blue, and his mouth moved as if there was some conversation going on. Was Serak in there, talking to him? Or had the thought of me being with the ice god broken something in Edan?

Maybe it was mentioning the tentacle. Come to think of it, Lusca had flown off the handle and attacked Skadi when I’d used that word. I was starting to think that tentacles were on a level of intimacy even knots didn’t reach.

The two guys holding my arms never let go, though I could smell urine on one or both of them. Then Edan’s head dropped to his chest, his shoulders rising in jerky movements as he took deep, rasping breaths.

The earth trembled for a long while, and we stood there, waiting. When it finally passed, Edan straightened and sighed gently. “Welcome to my hell, Ratter.”

Not Edan. “Serak.”

SERAK

The moment she stepped foot on the island, every shred of hope I’d ever had died.

But resolve took its place. Edan may have burned her with my hand trying to claim her, but I would keep him from doing worse.

She’s telling the truth, my lord. You know it’s true. Omegas choose. She cannot be forced.

Fire raced along my veins, a familiar agony. I fought to stay conscious, knowing what was at stake if I failed.

His tone was dark as he replied in my thoughts. Then she dies.

And you lose your bride? After waiting so long?

Edan’s priests, the masters of the Alldyns Vug, held down the woman I loved while I pleaded with the fire god in my mind. His mind, really, as he consumed my body and brain with his power.

He’d almost burned me out more than once in the past few months. My body grew weaker the longer he possessed me, though he could restore my strength and vitality for short periods with his fire when he chose.

But channeling him was painful in a soul-deep way, and my mind slid closer to death by the second. Even now, my shoulders slumped and my lips moved as she stared.

What must she think of me? My body was thirty years old, but I knew I looked older. Scars from burns and blades littered my skin. My hair was darker than it had been when we first met, my voice now a rasp, and my hands trembled constantly as I struggled against his presence inside me.

I’d considered myself strong and handsome before. Not now.

It didn’t matter. I’d survived for a long decade on one hope: that I would die before I helped Edan lure Rada back to Pict. That possibility had vanished two weeks past, when he’d broken my mind as she stood on a pyre outside a castle in Mirren. Now, all I could do was convince him that she needed time, though she would never bend to him.

You’ve waited so long, I repeated. When he remained silent, I went on. Let me seduce her for you. She’s an Omega, but very different from the others. I know how to appeal to her. Let me entice her into giving herself to… us.

His silence gave me hope, though I knew better than to let it show, even in my mind.

It is your right to have her body, my lord. But you want more than that. You want her child. The one who will release you from this… I almost said prison, as the Alldyns Vug that contained the bubbling maw of lava was exactly that, but I knew better than to speak that word. This unfair limitation. You deserve to spill your fire across the whole world.