Page 221 of Psycho Gods

“Peachy,” I said sarcastically.

“Want me to kiss it better?” he quipped, and I smacked him with my pillow. He laughed darkly and sauntered away.

I flopped backward onto my bed, put my pillow over my face, and tried to smother myself.

The skin on my throat burned with heat.

The worst part.

I wanted more.

Chapter 40

Aran

WARPED SOULS

Adust (adjective): burnt or scorched.

DAY 28, HOUR 14

A few hours later, I stood on a mountainside with the bane of my existence as a blizzard raged. Snow whipped in a frenzy, and sheets of ice slammed against us mercilessly.

The twins, Orion, and Scorpius had all disappeared without a word and left me alone with the blight on womankind who had choked me this morning like he owned my body.

The problem was I hadn’t hated it.

I’d spent the entire trip up the mountain daydreaming of Malum holding me down as he did wicked things with his mouth.

“Okay,” Malum said as he cracked his neck back and forth like he was preparing for battle. “So—I’m going to release my flames, and you need to try to stop me with your ice. Can you do that?”

I didn’t reply.

Stupid questions didn’t deserve answers.

I inhaled enchanted smoke and exhaled Horse. He circled and spun in the snowy air above my head.

Up on the mountainside, visibility was at an all-time low as the wind whipped angrily through the basin. The sky was dark with cloud cover.

Only idiots would venture up a mountain in a blizzard, and here we stood because of Malum.

It made sense.

He stretched his flaming arms out wide. “I’ll take your lack of response as a yes—let’s do this. Are you sure you don’t want to use your wings? Knox says they are the source of your power.”

I gave him a death glare. “I’m sure.”

There was a 0 percent chance I was taking off my coat and exposing my wings in the middle of a blizzard.

Knox kept saying that our power generated from our wings, but Mother had lit me on fire nightly and she didn’t have them. He could shove his bad advice where the sun didn’t shine.

My fingers curled in my warm mittens.

After our morning fight (Malum had an episode and I watched), he ranted on and on about responsibility and the importance of making progress.

Then he’d dragged me up the side of a mountain.

“Like I said earlier,” he said, like he thought talking about it more would change something, “I think it will be helpful for you to use your powers against my flames without all of us being present—I think we were trying too much at once. Let’s start small.”