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Now that's just rude. Why does he think it's okay to sneak into my bedroom and insult me? "Maybe you're wrong and you're the Arrogance aspect after all," I snipe. "Because you're kind of an asshole."
He gives me a toothy smile. Here, his teeth aren't sharp fangs like they were back on Earth. It's a perfect grin—almost too perfect—and I suspect it's all part of his plan to steal Riekki's spot as the god of knowledge. Can't look too evil, after all. Wouldn't want anyone to think you're up to something. "You're making this easier for me all the time, mortal. But I do hope you won't take this personally." He gets to his feet, adjusting his clothes as he gazes down at me. "I just need a god on my side, and you're in the way."
Making this easier…in the way…?
A pillow slams down over my face, muffling my shriek of surprise. I flail, and in the next moment, it feels like he punches me in the chest. He punches me again, and water sprays across my belly and my skin. Something hard and cold and painful lodges in my chest, pinning me down. I let out a gurgled squawk of surprise and my hands flutter, reaching for that strange thing pinning me to the bed—and my hands encounter a knife.
The knife is seated deep between my breasts. It's not water I'm feeling coursing down my skin, it's my blood.
He's stabbed me.
"Like I said," Seth calls, his voice muffled through the pillow over my face. "It's nothing personal. But I need Kassam at his full power if we're to take down the goddess, and you're just a mortal."
Oh god. Something wet bubbles up in my mouth and I can feel it spilling over my breasts, my skin. That hot spear remains lodged in my heart, and I can't breathe. I'm dying. When Seth lifts the pillow off my face, I still can't breathe. It's like my lungs have flattened. He stares down at me, his expressionless, cold face blurry. Blackness claims me. I sink into death…
…and wait.
40
Nothing happens.
I realize it at the same time Seth does, my eyes fluttering open to see him frowning down at me. He grabs the knife shoved in my chest and gives it a vicious twist that sends a rippling chill up my body, and I automatically reach out and slap at him.
"Ow," I manage.
Seth snarls. "No." He shoves the knife in deeper, and all it results in is a bubble of blood pushing out from my lips. My lungs feel like they're flooded, yet somehow I'm still…here? When I shove a hand at his face, he slaps it away. "Die already!"
"Fuck…you," I manage, and shove a middle finger at him. I don't know why I'm not dying— clearly my body wants to—but somehow I'm sticking around. Is this how it normally works? I don't understand. My slippery hands flutter again and find the knife lodged deep between my breasts. I grab it, and it takes a few tries before I'm able to tug it free. More blood gushes onto the bed.
Really, I had no idea I had so much damn blood.
Seth rakes a blood-spattered hand through his hair, jumping up from the bed and starting to pace. "That sneaky female…she burned me." He lets out a hard laugh. "Lachesis, you absolute bitch." He shakes a finger at me. "She's doing this on purpose."
"What?" I manage, trying to sit up. It feels like I have a pulled muscle in the middle of my chest, but I don't want to lie in bed and just…bleed everywhere. It feels important to sit up, and I'm shocked when I manage to do so. "Fffuuuucckkk."
"You can't die," Seth says bitterly. "Lachesis promised not to pull your thread, remember? I killed you, but you won't die, and now we're both fucked."
I touch my chest, at the brand-new, deep wound there, and…I don't know what to do. I'm too numb to be hysterical, even though I probably should be. There's a gaping hole where my heart should be, and fresh blood just keeps gushing out. I grab the blanket, now sodden with my blood, and push it against my skin, trying to stem the tide. It takes a moment for Seth's angry words to sink in.
Lachesis won't pull my thread. Is that what she promised Kassam? I don't remember the wording, but she did promise not to pull me early. Maybe she's getting back at Seth for leaving me here.
Fucking Seth. I turn my hostile glare toward him. "You betrayed us!"
"No, you little fool." He pauses, pinching the bridge of his nose as if a headache is forming. "I betrayed you, not him. Him, I'm trying to help. You think we can waltz in, as powerless as we are like this, and conquer anything? We're little better than mortals right now." He gestures at me. "If you die, Kassam returns to his full glory, since you're the only thing holding him back. Then, we'd have the full force of the nature god on our side…but Lachesis has decided to send me one last 'fuck you.'" He shakes his head, as if he's the injured party here. "Try and soothe his anger when he comes back. He'll need me if he wants to take down Riekki. Only together can we hope to bring down any sort of army she has created."
