Gods & Monsters (Serpent & Dove #3) by Shelby Mahurin

The second the words left my lips, a wide grin broke across her face. “Well done, you.” And then the ground began to crumble, the altar and temple falling away to white sand and still water. A rushing sound filled my ears, and Lou’s chin vanished between my fingers. I clutched only empty air. Sand abraded my knees, and I glanced down to my discarded iron chalice. I touched it gingerly. Still cold.

“You’ve returned.” Constantin’s amused voice punctured the silence as I sat backward, stunned. “After Coco, I might add.” He winked at her where she sat frozen beside me, clutching her knees.

At my anxious look, she muttered, “I’m fine.”

“Did you speak your truth?”

“Every word.”

“You aren’t going to repeat it, are you?”

“Never.”

Constantin chuckled before snapping his gaze to Lou, who started to stir. He rubbed his hands together in anticipation. “Ah, excellent. Right on time.”

I moved to her side just as she opened her eyes. Her gaze darted from me to Coco, to the endless sand beyond us, and she bolted upright, craning her neck to look behind. “Lou?” I asked in confusion, lifting a hand to touch her forehead. Her bite hadn’t healed—I hadn’t expected it to, not yet—and her color looked paler than usual. As white as her hair. She scrabbled backward on her hands, still searching the beach wildly.

“Where are they?” Her voice pitched high, girlish, and my heart dropped. Not Lou at all, then. “Where are they hiding? Where are they waiting? They’re near, they’re near. They must be here.”

I stared at her in disgust. In pity. “No one else is here, Nicholina. Just you.”

“No, no, no.” She rocked back and forth as Coco had done, shaking her head frenetically. Wincing as she did. “It’s a trap. They’re here, oh yes, and they’re waiting, hiding, creeping through the mist—”

Coco knelt in front of her, grasping her chin in her fingers. “They aren’t coming. Accept it. Move on. Better yet—switch sides. Nicholina, my aunt isn’t the person you want her to be. Morgane is even worse. They don’t value you. They don’t accept you. You’re a tool to them—a means to an end—just like the rest of us.”

“No.” The word tore from Nicholina in a guttural snarl, and she clawed at her own face, scoring the skin there. When I leapt to intervene, those nails raked down my chest instead. “You. I shall deliver you with the mouse, yes, yes, yes, and we shall cut your heart into thirds—”

Constantin tsked in disapproval and waved his hand. The mist answered by swirling around her in a violent tornado, trapping her in place. Nicholina howled in rage. “They will kill us both, stupid mouse. Stupid, stupid mouse. We cannot dance, no, but we can drown. Down, down, down, we can drown. There is no hope. Only sickness.”

Then she spoke again.

Warmth suffused my entire body.

“I thought you weren’t”—her voice pitched lower than before, and she gritted her teeth in concentration—“worried about dying? Or have you—finally—accepted the truth?”

Lou.

I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t calm the racing of my heart. It was her. It was Lou.

The waters must’ve weakened Nicholina enough for her to break through, or—or perhaps they demanded truth, even now. They knew Nicholina didn’t belong. They knew whose body she inhabited.

Constantin sighed. “The bickering was diverting at first. Now it isn’t. Spill your truths, all of you, or leave this place in peace. I don’t have all night.”

“Really?” Lou fought to smile, still panting. “What else—do you have to do? This is—your sole purpose—isn’t it?”

He glowered at her. “Charming as always, Louise.”

She bowed, failing to hide her grimace as Nicholina threw them against the cage. “I—try.”

“Your truth,” he insisted, voice hard.

Her face spasmed, and when she opened her mouth once more, I wasn’t sure who spoke: Lou or Nicholina. Either way, their truth spilled from them unapologetically. Strong and without strain. “I am capable of great evil.” The words hung in the air between us, as sentient as the mist. They waited, coiled, for my response. For my clarification. For my own truth.

I looked directly in her eyes. “We all are.”

As if exhaling on a sigh, the words dissipated. The mist went with it, leaving Lou sprawled unceremoniously in the sand. Constantin nodded. “Very good, each of you. One of life’s greatest trials is to acknowledge our own reflections. Tonight, you have seen yourselves. You have drunk of the waters, and you have spilled their truth.” He extended his hand to the shore. An emotion I couldn’t place shone deep in his eyes. Perhaps sadness. Wistfulness. “Go now. Let their wisdom flow through your veins and restore you.” To Coco, he murmured, “I hope you live your truth, Cosette.”

She gazed out at the waters with an identical expression. “I hope so too.”

In the stillness of the moment, Nicholina lunged toward the path with a feral cry. A desperate cry. I caught her before she could escape, hauling her over my shoulder. Her fists pounded my back, weaker than they should’ve been. Her hands still tender and raw. When she moved to kick my groin, I caught her shin, holding it away from me. My own hope swelled in my chest. Bright and savage. “You’re going to injure yourself.”