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Are you fucking shitting me? The thought crossed Caelan’s mind without being directed at any specific god. Tula had made it possible for him to use the power of the gods without it being too much of a drain on him. And now she was pouting in the corner because of what? He’d gone with Caris’s gift rather than slaughtering several soldiers?
“Cael? Cael, speak to me. Are you okay?”
Drayce’s voice slowly penetrated the fog wrapping around his thoughts while a cool hand pressed to his sweaty cheek.
Drayce’s hand was cool? He was never cool to the touch.
“I’m okay,” Caelan answered when he could get his tongue working. “Just…need to catch my breath.”
“He’s hot. Like with a bad fever,” Drayce announced.
A second hand was suddenly pressed to his forehead and Caelan forced his eyes to open. Rayne was leaning forward from the rear seat, his blessedly chilly touch resting on his forehead and concern drawing lines across his face. “He is hot. Extremely hot.”
“Side effect of the Goddess of Fire?” Eno asked.
“Possibly. I’ll see if I can bring his temperature down.”
“Well, we’ve lost our tail for now,” Adrian interjected. “Both vehicles are totally out of commission, but they’ll be calling support.”
Eno grunted, and there was a squeak in the direction of his seat as if he’d turned to face forward. “I’ll find us an alternate route to switch off on. They’re going to be searching for us on the main roads to Brightspire.”
“Camp,” Caelan groaned and then sighed happily as a cooling feeling swept through his body from Rayne’s hand.
See! At least someone cares about my well-being, Caelan snarked in the direction of Tula.
The Goddess of Life huffed, but there was an added feeling of the darkness and fatigue being pushed aside.
Thank you, Lady Tula, Caelan murmured, trying to at least sound genuinely grateful in his head.
“I’m okay now,” Caelan stated, lightly patting Rayne’s hand on his forehead.
“You’re sure?” Rayne demanded. The healing power withdrew, but Rayne didn’t immediately remove his hand.
“All good now.” Caelan blinked and pushed himself up until he was sitting straighter. He glanced around to find that the glass was completely missing from the rear of the car and a cool wind was whipping through, helping to remove the lingering scent of burnt fabric. Luckily, the weather was considerably warmer in Ilon than in Stormbreak. He turned his gaze on Rayne and lifted both eyebrows. “What about you?”
“A bit singed, but I’ll recover quickly enough,” Rayne answered, offering up a reassuring smirk.
“You said something about camping. You want to find a place to camp?” Drayce prodded.
Caelan nodded. He shoved a hand through his hair, slicking back sweat-drenched tendrils from his eyes. “I do. We need to make a better plan. Or possibly several plans. I knew chances were high for us to encounter New Rosanthe, but I wasn’t expecting them to be at the border. I thought it was going to be more like covert forces sneaking through Brightspire.”
“So did I,” Rayne muttered.
“Can we contact General Morgan and tell her to send some troops to cut a path through the Empire?” Adrian asked.
“No, unfortunately, we can’t,” Caelan grumbled.
“Ilon’s government has made zero requests for assistance,” Rayne added. “If our troops were to cross the border, it would make Erya no different from New Rosanthe. Just another invading force, regardless of what our intentions are.”
“Well, that sucks,” Drayce mumbled under his breath.
“Pretty much,” Caelan agreed. He nudged Drayce with his knee, drawing his lover’s eyes over to him. Caelan smiled warmly and Drayce relaxed, the tension that had pulled his shoulders tight slipping away.
He really was okay, but it was a clear wake-up call that all the gods in his head needed to be working from the same playbook. They couldn’t start going on strike simply because they didn’t care for their teammates. Caelan might have hoped that Caris could be something of a buffer against Tula’s negative influence, but with the Goddess of Fire came new problems that he was simply not prepared to deal with.
“Find a place off the beaten path for us to camp for the night. Away from cities and potential prying eyes. We need to spend some time looking at the maps. There has to be a way into the capital that won’t attract too much attention,” Caelan instructed.
“On it!” Eno called out. He was tapping away on his phone, pulling up the digital maps they’d all downloaded.
