Chapter Eight (Part 1)

Paradise had always been just a little too bright for me. Too pristine, too safe. When I first stumbled into it after clawing my way through the venomous forest, it was culture shock at its finest. Nothing was trying to eat me, and that in itself, was wrong. The venomous forest was all I knew, and I hated knowing that this haven existed just beyond my reach. The universe had decided beauty and safety were not mine to have, and I could have lived with that.

Except that I got to have a taste of what it was like on the other side. I got to taste beauty and sunlight and fruit that was sweet and nontoxic. The universe never should have allowed me to see what I couldn’t have, but it did, and forever after I was ruined.

The universe didn’t hate me. It didn’t hate, period. It could become angry, disapproving, or it could be joyous and loving, but it didn’t despise any of the creatures in the god realm.

But it still felt like it. If the universe hadn’t made me find that silver pool that took me to paradise, I may have never left the forest. I may have resigned myself to my fate. But the universe led me to that pool on purpose. It let me taste paradise, knowing full well that paradise didn’t want to taste me.

It was hard not to see that in a vindictive light. I tried to rationalize it, understand it, and what I eventually landed on was that it was punishment.

Punishment for what, you ask? Easy. For thinking, for even a second, that Idris would welcome me. I had been stupid, blindly looking for him, when I should have been getting comfortable in my prison.

I was allowed to visit paradise, of course. When there were meetings of the gods, I had to go to that bland meeting room in Idris’s kingdom. I snuck into paradise every now and then to find a whore, to grab supplies. But I didn’t linger. I stayed a few hours at most, and that was it.

And now, standing in the foyer of Idris’s gaudy fucking monstrosity of a palace, I wondered what kind of punishment the universe would dole out for this. The longer I stayed, the worse it would be, and Idris wasn’t keen on letting me go anytime soon.

Maybe the universe would punish Idris for once, for being stupid enough to hold me here. But I wasn’t going to hold my breath.

Peace, Wisdom, and I were out of place in the shiny, well-lit foyer, dressed mostly in black like we were going to a funeral. We had all packed bags before we left, and now we were just waiting for Idris to get some rooms ready for us.

No one had seen us yet. We teleported straight from the edge of the forest to Idris’s palace, and thank the gods for that. I was already on edge and pissed from my fight with Idris, plus the encounter with the intruder. If anyone so much as looked at me the wrong way, I was going to rip their head off.

Idris seemed to sense that, because he didn’t send a servant to show us where to go. Instead, he secured the rooms himself, and came back to the foyer to fetch us. We followed him from the foyer to a white staircase that spiraled up into the right side of the palace. An identical staircase sat to the left, leading to the other half.

Idris took us up to the third level. The hallways were done in all blue and white like the rest of the palace, with white oak flooring and pale blue walls with white accents. Frames hung on the walls at regular intervals. Some were gorgeous oil paintings or delicate watercolors, usually of nature scenes. Others held carefully preserved documents, pages from books and the like. Probably poetry or some other pansy shit. I didn’t get close enough to check, uninterested in what literature Idris was passionate enough about to have framed.

Idris led Peace and Wisdom to two rooms side by side. Each room was tidy and well-furnished, with a large double bed across from the door, a white-painted dresser and matching vanity to the left of the room, a pale blue, plush sofa to the right complete with a mahogany coffee table and fully stocked bookshelves. A connected bathroom was also to the right of the room, decked out with a shower, a tub, and all the toiletries one would ever need. The rooms smelled lightly of rose.

Peace made himself at home right away, flopping face first onto the bed in his room with a big ‘oomph.’ I shook my head at him and his ability to get comfortable wherever he went. It was a talent I would kill to have.

Wisdom was more reserved, like usual, but she seemed to like the accommodations, nonetheless. She was drawn immediately to the wide balcony behind the sofa in her room, throwing the doors open to smell the fresh, clean air of paradise. The air in the venomous forest was so thick you could choke on it in some places and so thin it felt like you would asphyxiate in others. The air here, by comparison, was addictive and refreshing.

Idris and I left them to settle in while Idris took me to my room, which I assumed would be right next to Peace and Wisdom’s rooms. Except, Idris led me past all the rooms in that hallway to take me back to the stairs, where we went up.

I glared at the back of his head. “Where are we going? Why am I not staying on the same floor as Peace and Wisdom?”

“I’m trying to protect you, Rook. Therefore, you need to be closer to me.”

I scowled. “Fine. Whatever. Why can’t Peace and Wisdom be closer to you too?”

Idris ignored me, which meant he was just an asshole, and he didn’t have any fucking reason for putting them so far away from me.

Unless… no fucking way.

“Are you trying to separate them from me, you bastard? I fucking knew you were going to take them away,” I spat, coming to a dead stop on the steps. Idris also paused, shoulders tensing. “Protect me, my ass. You wanted an excuse to bring them to paradise so they could see how much better it is here, didn’t you? Asshole.”

Idris turned to face me, eyebrows drawn down harshly over his eyes. He took a large step toward me, getting in my face, but I refused to back down.

“Rook,” he said firmly, “if there is one thing you can trust me on, it is my intentions for Peace and Wisdom. I will not take them away from you. And to be honest, I don’t think they would let me take them away even if I wanted to. I would never do that to you. You have my word.” His bright blue eyes bored into my red ones, earnest, practically pleading with me to believe him.

“And if you can’t trust me,” he continued, “trust in them. They can make their own decisions, Rook, and they have long since chosen to stay by your side. Nothing is going to change that.”

I glared up at him, still suspicious, but…he was right. Like always. Goddamn it. Peace and Wisdom had had every opportunity to leave me. They never did, and they would fight tooth and nail if someone tried to take them away from me.

I let some of the tension drain out of me and rolled my eyes at him. “Sure. I guess. Still doesn’t explain why you’re making us stay miles apart.”

Idris shrugged and continued up the stairs, taking us all the way up to the seventh floor. Of course, Idris’s room had to be on the highest level. It was the closest to the sky, closest to the light.

The seventh floor was the same size as the other floors, but it had fewer rooms – in fact, it looked like there were only two, both the size of luxury suites. Idris slept in one. I got the other, and when Idris opened the door to show it to me, I immediately gave him a droll stare that he returned blankly.

The room was basically its own apartment, with a large bedroom similar in design to the ones Peace and Wisdom had, separated from a living area complete with three pale blue couches set up in a partial square, four bookshelves, a tv, and a balcony large enough to hold a swimming pool. There was also a full kitchen, stocked with all the appliances one could ever need, and probably enough food to feed an army. The bathroom was right across from the bedroom. It was at least twice the size of the bathrooms in Peace and Wisdom’s rooms, holding a jacuzzi tub, a shower large enough to fit five or six people, and a counter with two sinks.

I pinched the bridge of my nose, counting to ten in my head to quell the urge to punch Idris right in his dick. Once I felt a little calmer, I glared at him from the corner of my eye.

“Peace, Wisdom, and I could all live in this one room comfortably. Why the fuck do you have apartments up here?”

Idris had the decency to look a little embarrassed, rubbing at his chin. “…You don’t like it?”

I sighed, and all the fight left me. There was just no fucking point. Whatever. I didn’t care anymore. Honestly at this point I hoped the androgynous trespasser got me. Staying in this posh, brightly colored palace was starting to make my skin itch.

I came into the room, flinging my bag onto one of the couches and plopping down in another one. I sank into it, the material cradling my aching legs and back from sleeping against a tree the past two nights. Damn that was nice. This was some advanced comfort shit.

I expected Idris to leave me to my own devices for a bit, let me get acclimated, but then again, when had he ever left me alone when I wanted him to? He followed me into the room, wandering over to sit on the third couch. I eyed him warily, curling my lip because I just knew he was about to start talking to me again, like we were BFFs or something.

“We need to talk about this person in the swamp, Rook,” Idris said, and I closed my eyes with a sigh.

“Alright. Talk.”

Idris shifted on the couch, getting comfortable, the soft covering on the cushions murmuring under his weight.

“Given the way they…behaved, I was wondering if it was perhaps someone you knew,” Idris started.

I frowned, cracking one eye open to pin him with a dubious stare. “I don’t know anyone except Peace and Wisdom, dipshit. Does the fact that I live in an uninhabitable forest mean nothing to you?”

Idris rubbed his hands over his knees slightly, the only indication that he was nervous, or perhaps embarrassed. “You admitted yourself that you occasionally seek pleasure in prostitutes. I only wondered – ”

I choked out a laugh, keenly feeling the absurdity of this moment. Idris, king of the gods, was asking me if a whore had become so obsessed with me that they poisoned a river and tried to kidnap me.

Yeah. No. Not possible.

“Number one, the fact that you think a whore could figure out how to survive in the venomous forest is frankly ridiculous. Only gods can do that for any length of time without anyone there to help them. And two, I promise you, none of the whores I sleep with are infatuated enough with me to bother. And finally, the fact that they slobbered all over their own finger doesn’t mean they’re a prostitute. Any weirdo off the street can do that. It’s not rocket science.”

Idris looked up to the ceiling in frustration, as if asking the universe for help dealing with me. No lightning bolts came out of the sky to destroy me, so I can only assume his request for help was denied.

“I only bring it up because it seemed as if they might know you…intimately,” he said slowly, struggling to maintain his calm. “And you and I both know that your presence has a certain lustful effect on others – ”

“So, what?” I interrupted, annoyed. “You think it’s my fault?”