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“Help her!” Axel screamed. “How could this happen? Theodore, you’re the fucking priest. You know all the runes. If you don’t fix her, I’ll skin you alive!”
“I don’t know how,” Theodore yelled back. “It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. As I said, this has never happened before.”
Axel’s icy wind slammed into me as I rolled and writhed on the ground, tearing my robe off in agony and shrieking as the fire scorched me like hellfire from the inferno—not that I’d ever visited Hell.
This was Hell.
“Get out!” Zak shouted at the Dominion soldiers and the other initiates, and the hall emptied in seconds except for the demigods and their priest.
For a nanosecond, I was grateful to him for preserving my last scrap of dignity.
“Hang in there, Marigold,” Axel shouted, crouching beside me, devastation written all over his face. Like he cared! He’d brought me to this. “We’ll figure out a way to stop the burn.”
“She must have hidden power that we don’t know about,” Theodore diagnosed, as he and the demigods all squatted around me, peering down at me. “The runes are sentient, but they haven’t been this active for centuries. It must be her power calling the runes’ power. When they sensed the power in her, they jumped to her without me etching a basic rune on her.
“She insisted she was human, but you said she was anything but human, right, Demigod Axel? You must have sensed the power in her, too. I think you’re right. The runes have triggered or activated her veiled powers, as they were designed to do. I believe that she contains more than one god’s power, and the powers in her are fighting for dominance.”
“This makes no sense. How can all twelve runes choose her?” Zak said. “We’re the demigods, the most powerful beings on Earth. Even we don’t have all the powers. Even we have less than three dominant powers. I need to call my father.”
“By the time you get a hold of Zeus, Marigold might be dead,” Axel grated. “I’m calling my father now. At least he’s on Earth.”
“But Ares is in the battle zone with Lucifer,” Paxton said. “Aren’t they negotiating another treaty now?”
While the bastards kept debating, fire boiled every inch of my skin. At this point, I wanted only death. I couldn’t bear another second of this torment.
“Behead me,” I shouted as I clawed my skin to expel the fire or the poisonous runes. “End this torture now, Axel, and I’ll forgive you for this hell you brought me to.”
“I can’t,” he said. His hand touched my face. “I can’t let you die. Please, give me a bit more time and let us figure out how to save you.”
“There’s no saving me,” I screamed. “Give me a quick death!”
I lunged for the ritual dagger, still in Theodore’s hand, determined to slice my own throat and end this. But that fucker ducked away swiftly, and the force of fire dropped me on the ground again.
When a new wave of agony hit me, I lost my shit.
I cursed the demigods between my hoarse screams. “Fuck you! Who gave you the fucking right to decide who’s worthy? I had a good life, fuckers! At least I was free and had friends... and you had to rip that life from me and send me to this inferno.”
From the reflection in Axel’s grief-stricken eyes, I could see my eyes glowing red.
I saw red.
I wanted to kill him. I wanted to kill them all.
“I’m a human. I can’t contain the runes, assholes,” I shouted in rage. “A human life means nothing to you. My life means nothing to you.”
“If you were a human, you’d have been burned to ashes by now,” Theodore argued.
What nerve he had! How could I pass this burn to him?
“Shush, Marigold,” Axel tried to calm me. “Your life means everything to me. I’ve opened a link to my father and called for his immediate assistance. He’s coming, and we’ll figure it out. We’ll save you.”
“Yeah, you just keep saying that, you lying son of a bitch,” I shouted and sobbed and screamed. And when I cursed, I felt a bit better. “All you want is to win the war against the demons, so you have to drag everyone you think can fight into your Dominion ranks. Five initiates died today. Actually six, since I’ll soon join them. I’m only twenty. I haven’t even really lived. And I’m still a fucking virgin! Damn you! Damn you all. After my death, I’ll come to haunt you as a ghost, a poltergeist, actually. I’ll be worse than the devils you fight. I’ll be your everyday’s fucking nightmare. Especially Axel! I’ll haunt you! You won’t have a second of fucking peace...”
“Blasphemy!” Theodore said. “I’ve never heard anyone curse so much. We should just give her what she wants and end her.”
“Shut up, Theodore,” Axel said. “Touch her, and I’ll end you.”
Then I was lifted off the ground while I thrashed violently.
