Page 126 of Psycho Gods
The storm picked up.
My muscles were warm and ready to be used, and I exploded forward with unbridled adrenaline.
Adrenaline pumped through my veins.
Snow whipped my face, and my eyes watered from the frozen air.
For the first time since we’d started to train together, I outran the kings back to the camp.
For hours, they couldn’t catch me because fear was truly the best motivator.
But I wasn’t running from them.
I was running from myself.
Chapter 20
Corvus Malum
THERAPY
Riposte (noun): a retaliatory verbal reply.
DAY 11, HOUR 5
“So how did the last week of—” Dr. Palmer looked down at her clipboards like she was reading off something prepared by the High Court “—training and battle go?”
I shifted, and my thigh bumped against Arabella’s.
Rain splattered against the window, and it was gray outside.
At the beginning of the session, I’d made sure to take the spot next to her on the couch. We were pressed flush against one another because there wasn’t enough room for all four of us.
There was a patch of frost beneath her feet on the carpet, and as I shifted my foot closer, the ice melted into water.
I needed her next to me.
Lately my control on my fire was tenuous at best, and it wanted to explode from me and burn the world.
Whenever I was around Arabella, the urges intensified. But the pain was nothing compared to the memory of her begging on a palace floor while she was tortured.
The threadbare couch creaked as I spread my legs wider and reassured myself that my Revered was okay. If anyone wanted to torture her, they’d have to go through me.
Arabella mumbled something under her breath about manspreading and wanting to stab me.
I pretended not to hear her.
Cracking my knuckles, I focused on the severe-looking therapist instead of releasing my flames and demanding that Arabella tell me every single wrong that had been done to her.
Eventually I’d discover it all.
In the meantime, I was making a list.
Dr. Palmer cleared her throat and peered at us over her thin spectacles.
No one spoke.
This session was the worst one yet because she kept asking us to recap our last week.