Minor Gods by A.M. Yates

Author:A.M. Yates [Yates, A.M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: A.M. Yates
Published: 2019-03-26T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

April 6th

FOG GOD’S GRIP LOOSENED.

The world spun as her vision returned. Her lungs hitched, heart pounding, skull thudding and aching.

A dull cracking noise filled her ears. At first she thought it was coming from inside the building, but after a second, she realized it was closer. And the red glow . . . where was that coming from? She blinked, forcing her eyes to focus.

Below her, jagged lines of red sprawled. The glowing fissures widened and grew brighter. Heat licked at her legs. Fire. Breaking through the pavement

No. Not fire.

Lava.

The ground undulated. They stood stranded on an island of concrete. Six inch wide lava flows burned away the fog around them.

“I don’t believe it,” Fog God said just before their island of concrete pitched and they were thrown off it.

She flew through the fog, over the rivers of burning red rock, and into a wall. Or what she thought was a wall, until the dark mass steadied her. Flames—livid purple, blood red, chemical green—rippled up his arms and over the shadow that was his skin.

She looked up at the face of billowing black smoke. She couldn’t see the mask underneath. As soon as the summoner had put it on, the mask had transformed into the god’s mortal guise. The features were too fluid to be recognizable, but still, she knew it was him. His eyes were molten and flashing, core and explosion, breath-thieving and blue. Vivid, impossible, star-imploding blue.

Her fire god.

“That’s not very nice,” Fog God said, once again hidden in the mist.

The fire god, or his summoner, pulled her close, gripping her upper arm with a strong, mortal hand. As she passed through his guise, sweat-inducing fingers of heat slid over her skin. Her shoulder bumped into the summoner’s chest. The thief’s chest. Not a woman.

“Well, now, isn’t this an interesting turn of events?” Fog God mused, though his tone was strained by anger.

“Leave.” The voice of the fire god and summoner overlapped, indistinguishable—deep and warm, lighting fires all through her. “Quickly.”

“Monosyllabic,” Fog God said, “but to the point. Very Batman. But this isn’t going to play like DC, hero. Besides, you’re in possession of a fire god, a god of destruction, right? That’s all we want. Some good old-fashioned destruction. A little rebalancing of nature. You understand that, don’t you? The world’s getting trashed. We’re the cleanup crew. That’s all. We just need Josie to help us get started. I don’t want to hurt her. I want to enlist her. We need her talent. We could use yours too.”

Fire Guy’s hands were, predictably, hot. He touched her wrist with his fingertips gently. He lifted her arm. Her skin was sheathed in blood. “What do you call this?”

“I asked her not to fight,” Fog God said tightly. “I’m asking you too. We don’t have to. I’m not into spilling Core blood—”

Josie tensed. “What about my mother?”

“The Triune had her chance to do the right thing,” Fog God said. “She chose to stand by and do nothing while the planet is destroyed and the gods are left weak and impotent.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.