Goddess of Pain - Katie May Page 0,90

me?” An invisible fist flies at my face, whipping my head to the side. I taste blood in my mouth, the coppery flavor eerily familiar to me. Let’s be honest—I’ve eaten my own blood way too many times.

“Fuck you,” I whisper as three more punches are leveled at my face. The first one grazes the side of my cheek, but the next two I’m able to duck and twist away from. I can feel her foot on my back, shoving me towards the ground, but when I whirl around with my knife, she’s nowhere to be seen.

“I’m the Goddess of Manipulation, you dumb bitch.” Her voice seems to be coming in all directions. The ceiling. The corner of the room. Behind the couch. The fireplace.

I push myself onto my hands and knees, but immediately, Mandy stomps her invisible heel onto my fingers. Bones crunch, and I release a pained wail as I cradle my broken hand to my chest.

“Not so strong, are you?” she taunts. And suddenly, there are two of her. No, three. No… I count at least a dozen Mandys circling me like a pack of wild, starving wolves. Her eyes glow maliciously as one of the Mandy clones rushes at me. I lift my knife protectively, but she simply glides through both the blade and my body like mist. Before I can even catch my bearings, the real Mandy jumps on me from behind and begins to slam my face repeatedly into the floorboards. Her knees rest on each of my arms, making moving virtually impossible.

With each new burst of pain, my power begins to grow and grow like a weed wrecking havoc. No amount of poison will be able to kill it.

“You. Stupid. Bitch.” She slams my face down a tenth time, and I swear I see stars dancing in my vision. I’m sure I’m a hot fucking mess, but right now, my power doesn’t want to focus on healing me.

It wants to destroy Mandy, the Goddess of Manipulation.

“You’re really not that special,” she sneers, wrapping my hair around her fist and tugging my head back. “When Athena contacted me about this job, I was a little hesitant. After all, everyone in the Realm of the Gods has heard of the great and feared Goddess of Pain. But you’re actually quite pathetic. Honestly. I don’t understand what those guys see in you. Oh well. I’m sure once you’re dead, it won’t be too hard to—”

Before she can finish whatever vulgar, idiotic thing she was going to say, my power explodes out of me. Literally explodes, like a burst of errant fireworks.

Mandy releases my hair, no doubt taking a few strands with her, and my face collapses once more on the floor, in a puddle of my own blood.

Her screams reach me from behind, and I slowly twist myself onto my back.

Agonizing pain is etched upon her beautiful face as my power eats away at her flesh. As I watch, mesmerized, her skin crackles like rivulets of lava are coursing through her body. A black, tar-like substance oozes from her eyes, ears, and opened mouth, but it doesn’t hinder her petrified screams.

Her panic-filled eyes meet mine, and then…she explodes. Literally fucking explodes, blood raining in all different directions.

Oh. My. God.

I’ve been alive for centuries, but never before has my power behaved like that. It’s almost as if, in that moment, it had a life of its own, as if it sensed that this woman wanted to take it from me. It exploded out of me like a churning volcano, decimating everything in the general vicinity.

Body shaking like a leaf in the wind, I stumble to my feet, placing a blood-soaked hand against the wall. I can barely walk, barely breathe, and I know that I have a few broken ribs. I squeeze my eyelids shut and attempt to call on the pain circulating through me, but before I can even mend my broken fingers, a familiar gasp reaches my ears.

“Don’t fucking move,” Athena hisses, and I wrench my eyes open to see the Goddess of Virtue standing in the doorway. In her arms, with a knife to his throat, is my older brother Henry.

Raw panic courses through me, overriding even the physical pain of my bruised and battered body.

“Let him go.”

“Emmy?” Henry’s voice is choked with emotion—fear and worry being the two most prominent. “What’s happening? Who did this to you?”

Fear sparks in my chest as I hold his icy blue gaze.

“You’ll be okay,” I assure him,