12. Thayla
Thayla
My glare swiftly morphs into a face full of worry as Creed hits his knees.
For a fleeting second, I’m shocked frozen as confusion and fear trample through my chest. When he tries but fails to stand, reality crashes back into me.
I clear the distance between us and sink to the ground. He grunts and groans, shoving Sevryn’s hands away as he tries to help him up. If he didn’t look seconds away from passing out, I’d punch him.
Instead, my hands cup his cheeks.
“Are you okay?” I ask.
He pants, attempting to catch his breath, and my unease bleeds through me.
“I’m…fine. Just need to get home.”
He snarls as Kyzen and Riven don’t give him an option but to accept their help. They snatch him to his feet faster than he can bitch about it.
“You,” I growl, shoving my finger in Sevryn’s chest once I stand. “Why did you let him go to the Soul Chamber without me?”
“First off, asshole, there’s no letting Creed do anything. Second, we didn’t go to the Soul Chamber. That would’ve been the better location in my opinion.”
A faux shiver runs through him and he grimaces. Well, I thought it was fake. The chill bumps littering his arms say otherwise.
What the hell happened?
“Did someone do this to him?” Amick asks. “Our father?”
Sevryn rubs the back of his neck. “I mean, technically, yes, but he wasn’t actually here.”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” I say.
“You three come the fuck on,” Riven bellows back to us.
My heart jumps into my throat as he and Kyzen are practically dragging Creed to the wall to get out of here.
Amick, Sevryn, and I race forward, catching up with them in a few seconds. I round them and slam my palm against the stone wall, giving it my permission to allow us through. The way Creed is attempting to force his eyes to flutter open has my soul going ballistic in my chest.
“Go,” I order as Amick waits at my side. “I’ll be right behind you.”
He nods, but his displeasure about leaving me standing here by myself is clear. I don’t waste a second slipping through right after him, though.
“V, I need you to come to the entrance of Hell and get us, please. I don’t think Creed’s going to be able to starshoot himself home.”
A frantic hoot echoes through my mind, and I shake away the noise as we barrel our way through the exit. His flash of white light greets us immediately.
“Oh my,” he says.
“Oh my what?” I ask.
“He’s drained himself. I’ve never felt him so…”
“Don’t you fucking say the word,” Creed grunts.
Weak. V was going to say weak. He doesn’t have to say it. I feel it.
My soul is screaming about it. His is responding with the smallest flutters.
“V, get us home,” I beg.
His power wraps around us and in a millisecond, we’re released in our living room. Kyzen and Riven settle Creed onto the couch while Amick rushes to the kitchen. I pace and think.
He recharges his power by…death. But not death he’s caused.
Fuck. It isn’t like we can just go searching for that.
“Should someone go get Jay?” I ask.
“No,” Creed barks, then coughs. “Fuck no. No one outside of us is going to see me like this.”
“Fuck that,” I shout. “We’re going to do whatever is necessary.”
“Rest, little goddess,” Kyzen whispers as he grips my hand. I want to snatch away, but I don’t. “He’s just going to have to rest.”
My teeth grind together as my gaze flicks between him and where Creed’s slumped across the couch.
I fucking hate this. My soul hates this. I’ve never felt so helpless.
“Sevryn, explain,” Amick demands after he passes Creed a glass of water, to which my grumpy-ass man waves him away.
“I’ll explain as soon as I fucking can. Everyone stay off Sevryn’s shit. He doesn’t know half of what happened.”
The scowl on Sevryn’s face says that’s the truth and he’s not happy about it at all.
“Okay, big guy, open up.”
“Riven, get whatever that is away from me.”
“No, no, now. Trust me. Between this little concoction and my power, we’ll have you right as death in no time.”
My eyes narrow on the glowing vial in Riven’s hand. It looks suspiciously like one of the ones Willow gave me, yet it’s a different color.
“I’m serious. Get that the fuck—”
“Ugh, fine. The fun way it is,” Riven says, then…giggles.
Uh-oh.
Before any of us can do anything, Riven straddles Creed’s lap and chains wrap around his arms as he attempts to fight him off.
His head thrashes back and forth as Riven’s fingers wrap around his jaw and pry his mouth open.
I cover mine with my hand as he dumps the contents down his throat and slams his jaw shut.
Creed has no choice but to gulp when Riven pinches his nose closed. Kyzen and Amick latch onto him and drag him to the floor as he lets out a loud-ass laugh.
“What the hell were you thinking, Riven? You have no fucking clue—”
The shush Riven gives Kyzen cuts his words off, and we all glare at him. He doesn’t take his eyes and sinister smirk off Creed.
My chest rises and falls in very unmeasured breaths as his soul squeezes mine. It’s not in pain, though.
It’s relaxing.
The pale flush in his cheeks slowly pinkens and his fingers flex repeatedly against his thighs. His tired, droopy eyes close for a breath long enough to make me uncomfortable.
A gasp pours from my mouth as they flare open in a blaze of white.
I rush forward and fall to my knees in front of him.
“Creed,” I breathe.
He raises his hand and traces his thumb across my cheek.
“I’m okay,” he says with a small smile.
“You’re not going to be once I’m through with you.”
He chuckles and hauls my ass off the floor and into his lap. The others surround us, staring down at him like they’re waiting for him to have a horrible reaction to whatever that shit Riven gave him was.
Nothing abnormal happens.
“See. You were all flipping your shit for nothing. Feel good, don’t you, Death?”
Creed stares daggers at Riven.
“If you ever do that again, I will kill you.”
Riven smiles.
“No need to tease me with a good time. I was just taking care of my little brother. Looks like Vullie figured it out.”
“Looks like?” I ask, craning my neck around. “What the hell was that?”
“I told you I was going to give him a vial of what our dear Elementrians left us in hopes he’d be able to make something similar but for us. Took him a couple of tries but looks like he figured it out.”
“A couple? I told you, you could have one vial.”
“Well…” He shrugs. “I needed a few extras.”
“V,” I bark.
“It was for a good cause. I wouldn’t have let him take all of them. And it seems it worked out.”
I swear to the Valories.
“You know what, whatever. That’s the least of my concerns right now,” I say, releasing a heavy breath. I could headbutt the smirk off Creed’s face. “What happened?”
“I’m going to tell you, but we’re missing some people. I’d rather just go through this once,” he says, staring around at each of us.
“Sevryn, go get your Valtrue. Make it quick,” Amick orders.
“Not just them,” Creed says. The soft look he gives me has a knot forming in my stomach. “I’m going to call for Derivius as well. Also, if you’re comfortable with it…”
I swallow.
“You want Val and Meridamus here.”
He nods once.
“What I just experienced was full-on Beginning God fuckery. They’ll have answers I need. We don’t have to talk here. We can go somewhere else.”
I hate to admit part of me wants to refuse him. I really don’t want to see them right now after what happened, and I’m definitely not ready to invite them into our home. The other part, the much louder, already decided part, wants to do whatever he needs me to do to get him his answers.
My love for him is far stronger than my want for a break away from those two.
“We can stay here. Call for Derivius and tell him to find the other two,” I say.
“The other two are pacing around the back lawn.”
“What?” I ask.
“You gave them quite the scare falling to the ground, then rushing off without an explanation.”
“Shit,” Creed mutters. “My soul tugged yours.”
“Tugged?” I laugh. “No, sir, it literally snatched me to my knees.”
He flinches. “I’m so sorry.”
My heart melts at his sincere tone.
“You have nothing to be sorry for, my sweetling. Tug or no tug, I would’ve come for you the second I realized where you went without telling me.”
He hums a small laugh, then snatches me into his chest. My lips meet his, and for a moment, nothing else matters. Until an exaggerated gagging noise kills the moment. For once, it isn’t Riven.
“I’m going to get my Valtrue. I’m ready to know both sides of the conversation,” Sevryn grunts.
“Were you not present the entire time whatever happened was happening?” Amick asks.
“It’s so fucking complicated. Just wait till you hear this.”
I climb off Creed’s lap, hollering for Sevryn to wait for me as he heads toward the front door.
“I’ll be back in a second.”
“Derivius will be here in just a moment as well,” Kyzen says, squeezing my hand as I pass him.
With a quick nod, I pick up my pace and give Sevryn my middle finger as he tells me to hurry the hell up.
“I still want to fuck you up.”
“Whatever,” he scoffs. “That feeling will go away when you hear this. We’ve gone through some crazy-ass shit before, but I swear this takes the cake.”
My eyebrows scrunch together. He’s being serious. Whatever happened in Hell not only hurt Creed but obviously freaked them the fuck out.
With a grunt and a shove to my shoulder, the asshole heads to his front door while I round the corner of the houses to the back. My footsteps slow as Val’s and Meridamus’s voices drift to me.
“I’m going to go knock.”
“Bad idea, Val. She’s made it in and out of Hell in a matter of a few minutes. She’s fine and we’ll see her when we see her. She made it clear we’re unwanted individuals in her life.”
I’m not shocked at all that they know where I went.
I’m ignoring his last comment.
“I swear your nonchalance grows tiresome by the century,” Val mutters.
“As does your worry. She’s no longer your baby girl but an almost fully powered goddess.”
“She will always be my baby girl,” Val spits out and my heart thuds uncomfortably. “She just rushed off to Hell without a word, which means something happened to Creed.”