Page 13 of Pain Run Rampant
I shrug. “Or it was a small piece, but enough. I don’t know, but… I did all that I could. I don’t think Invictis is just a weapon.” I lower my voice, afraid to say these next words out loud, “I think he’s a god.”
“A god?”
“Yeah, you know, all-powerful, ancient, beings beyond our mortal comprehension, that sort of thing. I know Laconians worship their empresses, but maybe before the first high empress, the people who lived here worshiped him.”
He pinches the bridge of his nose. “If the ancient Laconians worshiped gods, if they worshiped that thing in there… then why would Invictis wipe them out?”
I shrug. “I don’t know. I do know that the old gods in pretty much every mythology back on earth can be fickle and mean and cruel. They’re gods. They do what they want when they want and they never apologize. I don’t know if that’s what he is, but… he’s not just a weapon, Frederick. He’s more than that, I know it.”
The way Frederick looks at me after that makes me feel as if he’s disappointed in me, and I instantly hate it. “You could be saying that because of its influence on you. It could already be changing you and you don’t realize it yet. I don’t want to lose you to that thing.”
“You won’t,” I promise him.
Frederick glances back at the small hut. “Well, even though it seems you won’t be alone on your journey after all, I am still going with you.”
My mouth falls open. “But—” When those amber eyes turn toward me, I shut up.
“I will not let you go off and wander the regions of Laconia while in the company of that thing in there.” He points to the hut. “Perhaps you see it as a man, but I know it is not. I would never trust you to be alone with that thing.”
“I can take care of myself.”Even though I don’t have magic currently, which he doesn’t know, but I think today he’s had enough truth bombs.
Frederick sighs. “I know. I don’t mean that I don’t trustyouwith it. What I meant to say is I don’t trustitwith you. It mightlook like a man, it might sound like a man, but it is not a man. That thing is the reason I had to leave my home as a child. It’s the reason you grew up on another world. It has killed so many people, led to the deaths of so many more. Our mothers, our empresses, our families. That thing in there is a monster, nothing more.”
He’s right. I can’t argue with him. He’s totally right, and I know it. I’ve known it this whole time. It does hit a little differently when you hear someone else say it, though, especially when that person is the normally calm and quiet Frederick.
“So, yes, I am going with you. I’ll watch your back around that thing.”
In my head, I hear Invictis mutter, “He’ll watch more than that, I’m sure. Shall we tell him of the time you undressed for me? I’m certain he would love to hear all about it—”
Ignoring that comment is the hardest thing I’ve had to do in days, and I address Frederick by saying, “Fine, but you have to learn to ignore the shit he says. He will say anything he can to get under your skin. You think he’s just a weapon, but trust me, he’s as annoying as any other man, no offense.”
“Uh” is all he says to that, and I can tell he doesn’t like being lumped in with the asshole, but it’s true. Men will be men and all that shit.
“Come out here, Invictis,” I say, and in a flash of yellow light, he appears beside me, still wearing that blasted smirk. “I guess you’re both coming with me. That means you will both be on your best behavior. We’re going to be one happy family on this trip, is that understood?”
Invictis folds his arms over his chest and frowns. “I don’t see why I should. I don’t like him.” When he says that, Frederick scoffs. “See? Even the way he breathes makes me murderous.”
Frederick huffs, “What—wait. Are those my boots?”He notices the one thing I didn’t have the tailor replace.
“You will get along with him because I’m telling you to,” I say to Invictis, and to Frederick, I add, “Yes, those are your boots. Now, shall we get this show on the road?”
I stump both men by that saying, neither one understanding it. You never know how many weird sayings you have in your vocabulary until you’re transported to another world and you’re faced with people who just don’t get it.
Chapter Seven
Traveling with Frederick and Invictis is the least fun thing in the world. Though I try to make them get along, for obvious reasons, they don’t. They bicker, their personalities clash, and it makes the days stretch on to infinity.
We don’t follow any maps; I know where to go. It’s intuitive. I guess some magic must still be inside me, because how else can I explain how I know where to go?
We go to Pylos first, mostly because the route we’re going to take doesn’t have many streams or rivers. We’ll be eating the food we brought with us on the trip. Throughout the days, we keep a good pace, though Invictis says he could get us there in the blink of an eye if I unbind him and let him ascend into his six-winged form. He can also blink us there with his light, but Frederick refuses to partake in anything of the sort, so we’re stuck doing this by foot.
I don’t blame him. I wanted to do it by foot so that I can try to, I don’t know, reconnect with nature on the way and get my magic back.
One night, we’re resting near a campfire Frederick made when Frederick asks, “If you can travel across Laconia in the blink of an eye, can you do the same between worlds?” When Invictis only stares at him from across the campfire, he adds, “Could you take Rey home, I mean? Not that I want her to leave, but… I know how much you miss it.” That last part is spoken to me.
I give Frederick a soft smile. I sit a few feet away from both men, neither one wanting to be near the other.
“The only reason I was able to bring us here was due to the fact that I was still connected to myself,” Invictis mumbles unhappily. “I was separated, a piece of me with Gladus and apiece of me trapped on a throne in Acadia. Without a link like that, I could not transport any of us to Rey’s world.”
