like yours can take months to truly heal and even longer for you to be at your best. I have sped up that process so that you can hit the ground running. Because Beatrix is not waiting. And whether you kill her or not, you need to realize one thing: She is still a danger to you—”
“I don’t care—”
“—and the entire world.”
Keeley’s breath caught; she stared at him.
“What? You think a woman willing to kill the sister who’s always protected her would think twice about destroying whole kingdoms to get what she wants? She is determined, your sister, to rule this world. And she will not let anyone get in her way. Even if she fails, many will die. Many will die anyway, but you could help minimize the number. At the very least, give all those worthless humans something to hope for. Unless,” he added, glancing down at the demon wolf god, “it’s only your precious animals you care about.”
Keeley took in a deep breath and then told the centaur god her true feelings....
“I don’t like you. At all.”
He smirked. “Woman . . . I’m a god. I don’t give a fuck.” He turned his giant horse-and-human body so he could walk off with his eight legs, but not before he tossed at her, “Of course, Beatrix thinks of herself as a god too. So imagine what her feelings are about anything.”
CHAPTER 17
Keeley opened her eyes and quickly realized she was in a tent. She wasn’t alone either. She could hear someone humming.
But she didn’t feel unsafe. She didn’t feel frightened. Just angry.
She sat up. The woman humming had her back turned to Keeley, busy doing something with herbs at a wooden table. Keeley silently swung her legs over the side of her bed. The demon wolves were in the corner. She held her finger to her lips and they settled down, silent.
Her hammer rested against the bed and Keeley picked it up, stood . . . and walked out of the tent.
* * *
Petra turned away from her table with a potion-filled cup that she hoped would help the human woman awake. But when she looked at the bed, that woman was gone.
Her gaze searched the tent but Petra didn’t see her patient. She scowled at the demon wolves that had refused to leave while she had tended the human.
After several moments of mutual staring, she asked them, “Did you eat her?”
* * *
Quinn was just clearing the tree line near the lake when he saw her. She stood ankle-deep in the water with a ridiculous hammer in her hand, staring out over the water. She only wore a cotton shirt and nothing else. She didn’t seem bothered, though, by the cold.
He looked around, expecting to see his brother and sister as well as the woman’s own sister and cousin, but she was alone.
With a shrug, Quinn began to move toward her but she abruptly turned and walked out of the lake and over to a large boulder. He watched in fascination as she took the handle of her hammer in both hands, lifted it above her head, and brought it down, again and again, on the boulder. She battered that boulder for several minutes, but what Quinn couldn’t believe was that as she did, she broke the bloody thing into pieces with nothing more than that hammer and brute force.
Finally, after the boulder was nothing but rubble, she let out a terrifying scream filled with rage and pain and utter despair.
When the scream faded out over the river, Quinn heard, “Keeley?”
The woman’s back straightened but she didn’t turn around. She simply pointed her hammer with one hand and asked, “What did you know and when did you know it?”
The War Monk briefly closed her eyes. “I didn’t know she was going to try to—”
“What did you know and when did you know it?” the woman asked again, not to be deterred.
“My order found out about her from our seer. A few days before I arrived at your shop. That she would be named queen. None of my leaders told me, though, because they planned to have her killed. One of the elders, a friend, warned me. But . . . she’s still my sister, so . . .”
Now Keeley faced her. “You deserted your order for Beatrix?”
“Well, if I’d known she was mad, I guess I would have just let them—”
“Did you tell the boy?”
Gemma’s head twitched a bit. “What?”
“Did you tell the boy that he’d be