23. Thayla
Thayla
Air tears into my lungs and I lurch upright with a violent cough.
My chest burns as though I’d been held beneath water for far too long. Another ragged gasp follows, then another, each one scraping my throat raw.
What…Where—
The realm spins around me as soon as I attempt to turn my head and take in my surroundings. I throw out my hands, shifting myself on all fours as dizziness crashes over me. Loose dirt grinds beneath my palms, cool and familiar against my skin.
I squeeze my eyes shut.
Breathe. Just breathe. Think.
What’s the last thing you remember?
Hands. A voice. Obliteration’s Veil.
The realm slowly steadies as those moments come back to me.
My fingers flex and the dry sand slips between them, then…dissolves. It doesn’t crumble or blow away. It simply unravels into wisps of charcoal essence before reforming beneath my palms.
My breath catches and I jerk my hands to my chest as I fall back on my heels.
“What the…”
My pulse hammers against my ribs as my gaze lifts and finally observes the scene around me. Haze stretches in every direction, disorienting but not obscuring what’s surrounding me.
Clay walls. A wooden post. Multiple weapons racks.
Recognition slams into me.
No.
“I was kneeling right where you are that night.”
I whirl around on my knees too fast, hitting my ass painfully. That doesn’t stop me from attempting to crawl backward as fast as I can.
My frantic movements slow as Mellcom watches me.
He doesn’t take a step forward, shift his feet, or tilt his head. Nothing. He just stands there, holding the God of Obliteration’s Binding in his hands, and…smiles at me.
“What the hell is going on, Mellcom?” I ask, slowly pushing myself up to my feet.
“So much you couldn’t even begin to fathom, Thay.”
The nickname knots something deep in my chest, but I shove any emotion that arises back down to the depths of the bottomless pit I’ve created for him in my heart.
My fingers flex as I focus inward on myself while holding his gaze.
Boundaries. Nothing. Not even the familiar tingle against my spine.
I reach farther.
Chaos. Accord. Creation. Seduction. Obliteration. Consequence.
Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.
Every domain woven into my body greets me with the same suffocating wall. They don’t stir, twitch, or vibrate. They all respond with nothing but emptiness.
A slow chuckle rumbles from Mellcom’s chest.
“You’re wasting your time reaching for your power. It isn’t going to work here.”
My eyes flick instinctively toward the weathered rack closest to me. Every blade, spear, chain…gone.
My breathing shallows as his grin widens.
“So predictable, Thayla. You have no powers or weapons here. You can try to outrun me, but we both know I’ll catch you. I suppose I wouldn’t mind going a few rounds of hand-to-hand with you.”
He shrugs like that could just be a fun little activity we do to pass the time.
“Where’s here?” I ask.
I already know. It’s quite fucking obvious.
What isn’t obvious is how the hell am I getting out of here.
“The Gods Veil. Well, the God of Obliteration’s Veil. Quite different from the one we stepped into upon our arrival in the Godsden, but a Veil nonetheless.”
I nod slowly as, unfortunately, Harriseen’s words blare through my mind.
“Multiple things will happen when you pass through the Veil. First, you will enter a subconscious state. Where that state of mind leads you is undetermined because it varies from being to being. Some appear in the stars, some lying in bed. It’s a place of your own mental creation.”
“Is this my mental creation or yours?”
He huffs a small laugh as he looks around.
“Mine. I always come here.”
His body shifts a mere inch, but it’s enough for me to see behind him. A breath rips from my chest, and my feet fly forward before I can stop myself.
“Guys—”
Mellcom’s hand wraps around my throat and his grip tightens as he snatches my back against his chest. He squeezes, choking the air out of me as he forces me to face forward.
Through the thin layer of gray, I see them.
My men.
Creed is bellowing. I can’t hear him, but I know he is. His swords crash against the Veil again and again. Each strike sends ripples through the charcoal wall right along with Kyzen’s fist.
Riven…
He’s laughing. Not because he finds anything funny. His eyes swirl in both burgundy and blue so fast it makes me dizzy. No matter how much power he releases against the Veil, it doesn’t move. Doesn’t change.
Amick is studying every inch of it, searching for a way to get in.
Or get me out.
My nails dig into Mellcom’s wrist as his grip cuts my airway off completely for a terrifying moment. Just as my eyes start fluttering shut, the realm shifts around me and I hit dirt once again.
I gasp for breath, crawling a few feet away from him as I fill my lungs.
He doesn’t say or do anything other than position himself back in front of my fucking exit as I push myself to my feet.
“As you can see, there are some differences to the Gods Veil in the Godsdawn and this one,” he says, waving his hand around. “This Veil listens to one god and one god only. If you don’t have his permission, you don’t enter.”
“I don’t have his permission.”
“Oh, but you do.”
He shakes his head, laughing and fucking smirking at me. My fists ball at my sides, but I refrain from making a sudden move.
“You’ve had his permission since the second he met you.
He’s been counting on an opportunity to rise that puts you in the exact situation you’re in now.
We definitely didn’t think you all would have the audacity to come here and pull some shit like you did today, but we knew it’d be a matter of time before we got you where we needed you.
Now, when he gets here, he’ll grant you the power that’s rightfully yours. ”
My gaze flicks over his shoulder, then back at him.
I hate to call his words comforting, but knowing that I’m not currently absorbing any of the corrupt power floating through the air already eases me the smallest bit.
Now, I have to figure out how to get the fuck out of here before Kira does start pounding this power into my body.
“You were watching,” I mutter. “That whole time you knew we were there.”
“Not the whole time, no. I couldn’t exactly make out what the hell happened to Kelshin, but when bodies continued to pile up, I knew it was you. I just bided my time and waited for you to show yourself.”
“Of course you did,” I scoff. “So this is how you spend your days now? Trapped inside this vile-ass Veil, soaking up corrupt power?”
He tosses his head back and laughs, and I want nothing more than to knock his fucking teeth down his throat.
“I’m the furthest thing from trapped. I’m the freest I’ve been since we set foot in this land of lies.”
“Land of lies…” I repeat, chuckling low. “The irony behind you calling it that when you’ve done nothing but lie since before we even arrived here.”
The mirth finally fades from his face, and I match the scowl he shoots me.
“I’ve tried countlessly, and quite frankly, tirelessly, to tell you the truth, Thayla. You haven’t wanted to listen.”
I throw my hands in the air before letting them fall to my hips as I pace back and forth.
“First off, it’s kind of hard to believe a damn thing that comes out of your fucking mouth. If you don’t recall, you stole my blood and entered me into the Veiling. And that was just the first betrayal.”
“I haven’t betrayed you once!” he bellows, taking a step toward me. I don’t retreat, but I prepare myself for anything. “We—you and me—have been betrayed since birth.”
My steps slow. I side-eye him as his chest rises and falls rapidly.
“What are you talking about?” I ask low.
I know how I was betrayed at birth, but him…
I don’t know what he knows.
He studies me for a long moment before his attention shifts to the dirt at my feet. My gaze stubbornly follows.
“I was on my knees right there when he came to me in my dreams.”
I nod.
“That’s right. The mystery god who just conveniently came to you and told you to enter me into the Veiling. Which you didn’t listen to the first time around and instead, made my life even more of a living hell for a year after that.”
“Your life wasn’t a living hell,” he says far too calmly. “I did everything I did to prepare you for the life I knew we’d be entering.”
“You had no fucking clue what kind of life was waiting for us. You did it for control.”
“A little, yes,” he admits and I rear back like he hit me.
My sneer is unkind, but his face stays as smooth as marble.
“I didn’t tell you everything that was said that night in my dream.
It’s all irrelevant now, but yes, I did some of the things I did to control you because he told me the consequences of you falling for the wrong things.
The more I could control you, the better I could protect you.
I failed. You still fell into the wrong hands. ”
My ears ring. The consequences…
“Who was the god, Mellcom?” I ask low.
His lips flatten.
“The Beginning God of Consequence.”
Silence crashes over me.
No. No, that…
That doesn’t make sense. Meridamus?
I search his face for the smug grin. For the tell. For anything that says he’s throwing names around just to see what sticks.
I find nothing.
“I swear to you, I didn’t know it was him when I told you about my dream after the Veiling,” he adds. “I didn’t know for sure until after Seductions and I opened a line of communication with the Goddess of Seduction and the God of Obliteration.”
Meridamus. His name pounds through my skull.
He was the one…
Mellcom has no clue who Meridamus really is.
“So you don’t know this for sure still. You only know what they’re telling you?” I ask, then hold my hands up. “What did his voice sound like? Have you seen or heard from him since then? Has he come to you again?”
“No, I haven’t seen or heard from him since then. His voice was deep and almost whimsical. It echoed around in my mind. I told you the morning of the Veiling it was unmistakably powerful and it sent me to my knees.”
Oh gods. No. It makes too much sense.
The barrier wasn’t around him.