The Gods Return (The Valorian Veil #4)

Previously In

Thayla

Handing over the Binding didn’t go as planned.

Now…my little psycho is in the clutches of the God of Obliteration and the Goddess of Seduction. The second she dragged him across the barrier, I snapped. I couldn’t stop myself from going after him.

I let Chaos reign.

While my men battled Oblirains and Dark Gods we didn’t even know were there, I stood toe to toe with Kirabaddon. He told me to come with him, give up my tiresome fight, and join him. He’d give me access to Riven.

I refused. I attacked instead.

A barrier slammed between us, blocking him from me but not me from him. I should’ve cut his head off.

He escaped with the surviving Dark Gods, the Oblirians, the bodies…and Mellcom.

Everything spiraled.

Rage flooded me, sharp and uncontrollable, and a memory surfaced—one I didn’t know I’d been holding. It drove me forward like a spear as I pounded my fist into Jeremiah like the crazy bitch he called me.

Moments later, we stormed back through the barrier to Godsden, where Derivius informed me my Chaos is different from his and Riven’s.

Riven amplifies others’ emotions. I force mine onto them.

I can bring people to their knees, make them sob—while refusing to break myself.

The others focused on getting Riven back while I struggled to hold myself together. Creed, Kyzen, and Amick went to the Court for updated maps of the Abandon. While they were gone, I sat in Riven’s room, forcing myself to breathe through the storm in my chest. To control it.

Because if I didn’t, I’d destroy our chances of reaching him safely.

We settled on a plan.

Amick wasn’t thrilled about using the same route he’d planned twenty years ago, but it was our best option. I wasn’t thrilled that it would take two days to reach Riven, but using our powers would expose us to the God of Obliteration.

Before we left, Gladian showed up asking me—of all people—if he and the Valtrues he assembled could come. Creed had apparently put me in charge of Mellcom’s fate.

Whatever. I agreed—with conditions. Derivius would bind them, and Riven remained the priority.

The Abandon greeted us like a graveyard. The forest felt wrong. Too quiet, too heavy, like the land had given up on life. The darkness pressed in, forcing everyone into an uncomfortable silence.

During our final break, Mara approached Yemi and me. She apologized—shocking—and hinted at her true feelings about living under everyone else’s expectations.

She was the least of my concerns.

Seductions.

Even the name carried power. A place where influence saturated the air and people lost themselves without realizing it.

As expected, the Goddess of Seduction had an alert barrier around the building. Yemi nearly drained herself blocking the power so we could enter undetected.

Inside, we split.

Kyzen, Amick, Gladian, Mara, Chasin, Jeremiah, and one Valtrue headed for the fighting chamber.

Creed, Sevryn, Yemi, the second Valtrue, and I went to the…sex chamber.

The sight of naked bodies and the undercurrent of wrongness hit me in my stomach, but none of it mattered once I saw Riven chained in the center of a platform.

I didn’t think. Didn’t warn Creed. Didn’t prepare. I just went for him.

That was my mistake.

His delirium—his Chaos—blinded me to the fact that we weren’t alone.

Sabelline caught me instantly, wrapping me in her power. Creed cut me free just as fast, but she retaliated, throwing him from the platform and summoning her subjects to capture the sons of Obliteration and Sevryn.

While they fought, she spiraled. Talking about hiding me from Kirabaddon, then gifting me to someone else like I was some precious freaking jewel.

Mellcom…arrived just in time.

He tackled her, and they vanished through a starshoot.

I didn’t dwell on it. I fought off the guards chasing him and went straight to freeing Riven.

Seeing him like that gutted me. Worse, I was terrified he’d feel my Chaos and understand what it meant.

Creed’s death sword sliced through his chains like butter, and one by one, the others made it back to the platform.

Eventually, Mellcom did too—beaten, barely standing, but alive.

Then Riven, in true fashion, threw vials into the air without warning.

Thank fuck my power responded to my call and I starshot home just before the building exploded.

Because it did explode. He finally destroyed it.

He wasn’t with us when we arrived, and panic spiked. Until I realized where he’d gone, and I convinced the others to let me go to the hot spring alone.

There…we had our moment.

Truths were spoken. Lines were drawn. From that point on—we were together.

Then he admitted he’d tampered with the Binding.

And just like that—everything shifted.

We had the Binding. The Goddess of Seduction had a torch lamp.

Nothing was the same after.

Yemi could barely look at Sevryn after Seductions forced her to throw herself at him. My men withdrew in the days that followed, shaken by being back in the Abandon.

Emotions tangled through the house like threads we couldn’t untie.

We did get those threads untangled, eventually. Starting with me finding Riven in my bathtub without me.

He needed to know the worst parts of me. I needed the same from him.

When he opened up about his role as the Empowerer, it shifted everything—pushing us exactly where we needed to be.

I took his virginity—didn’t know I was doing that, by the way—and sealed my soul to his.

It was perfect.

The next morning, I set out to break the suffocating silence hanging over the house. Instead, I found Kyzen on the edge of losing himself to the darkness he keeps buried.

That was when I truly understood how deeply the Abandon—and what his father forced him to do—still affects him.

I refused to let him drown in it.

I’ve got him. I’ve got all of them.

That moment cracked something open between us. I told them how they’d hurt me over the past few days. In return, they explained, apologized, and owned it.

It was exactly what we needed.

Not long after, Doren sent me a letter, asking for help retrieving the fourth member of their Valtrue from Hellveilious.

So we met him and Nero, their other Valtrue member, at the entrance.

Hellveilious is nothing like any place I’ve ever seen.

We had to jump into a dark pit to reach the heart of it.

The Division, where gods wait to be separated into whatever level they’re going to for their crime, then descends into a world without sun, moon, or stars.

Just an endless city beneath a black sky, filled with undead Veilatara and criminals waiting for redemption.

Creed’s power runs through the Division. Every soul that passes through a door connects to him, while the rest flows into the Soul Chamber.

That’s where we found Iric.

At first, we thought he was just an Attendant with a pure soul who didn’t belong there. Turns out he didn’t. He’d been sent there wrongly.

Zareb, the god overseeing the souls, argued with Creed, but in the end, Iric came with us.

To my absolute displeasure, we learned something worse—every time Creed releases souls from Hellveilious, his own becomes more tethered to it. Eventually, permanently.

That’s why he’d been neglecting his duties.

When my soul reached for his in that chamber, it severed the newest thread forming.

If I have to, I’ll go with him every time to make sure Hell never claims him.

On our way out, we encountered Phoelius, the God of Redemption. He took an unsettling interest in me and left me with words I still haven’t unpacked.

A god is only granted his worthiness by the goddess who stands before him.

Once we returned, we didn’t get a moment to breathe.

Derivius arrived with Gladian’s Valtrue and several Dark Gods to search our house for the missing Gods Binding.

V had hidden it, but that didn’t stop them from tearing the place apart.

When the High Chancellor found his statue head in my room, he recorded a crime against me, bound my body, and declared I’d face punishment of his choosing.

He sent me to the imitation room in the healing villas.

There’s nothing healing about it.

It’s meant to break you.

I lived through so many fears. Kirabaddon killing V, my friends leaving me because I’m too much, the trauma Mellcom put me through.

And my worst fear—my men wanting my soul untangled from theirs.

When I came out, reality didn’t feel real. It still didn’t after two excruciating days.

Shadows followed me through the forest and meadow as Riven and I raced. He said rage runs faster than fear.

Eventually, the others shared what they had endured in that room too, and truth slowly settled back into place.

It was both heartwarming and devastating to learn Riven had been marked by Obsidian before killing him—for me.

But the most important thing came when I finally admitted it to myself…

I love them.

All of them.

My heart tore open again when I joined Kyzen in the shower and forced him to look at me. There, above his heart, was a little mark left behind from Obsidian as well.

Our moment alone eased his worries and my apprehension about the dinner we were having at Yemi’s that night.

It was supposed to be a nice, friendly, informative dinner.

All we really got to the bottom of was Doren admitting that it was the God of Consequence who messed with the Goddess of Seduction’s Binding both times, which alerted her to its whereabouts.

We didn’t get much more from that point on because the drugs Riven slipped into their drinks really kicked in.

Life tried to settle down after that. We trained, worked on my power of Consequence, and found small, quiet moments together.

The quietest—and loudest—was the surprise they planned for me.

Offerings. Confessions. Promises that felt fragile in a realm constantly on the verge of collapse.

They told me they loved me.

I told them the same.

But peace never lasts.

The Power Worthiness Test arrived. Before we could even reach the Sanctum, Derivius summoned us to his temple—one I didn’t know still stood.

Barely standing.

He forced the guys to reveal the last truth they’d been hiding. They didn’t want me to know, and I understand why.

The Goddess of Creation is Creed, Amick, and Kyzen’s mother.

The Goddess of Accord—whom Derivius loves—is Riven’s mother.

If that wasn’t shocking enough, Amick told Derivius to inform all the Beginning Gods they are invoking their right under a law called the Law of Doppia Disaccord. Their way out of the agreement made on their behalf.

We didn’t have time to process that thoroughly.

During the Power Worthiness Test, Amick killed High Chancellor Harriseen after uncovering enough corruption to justify it.

Everything went silent.

The rest of us surrounded him protectively, waiting for shit to really hit the fan.

It came immediately.

He—and the other Chancellors—were pulled toward the Volreen. The Godsdawn needed a new High Chancellor, and it wasn’t wasting time picking one.

Amick was chosen.

But Ellian prayed to take his place. Something, maybe someone, answered.

So now, Ellian holds the role.

After an explosive, very sexy moment shared between the five of us, we sat in my bathtub while Amick explained everything he’s truly been working on. His plan on how to break their agreement, free the Attendants, help the Veilatara, and fix Hell.

Everything.

It’s equal parts terrifying and impressive.

The realm went into lockdown right after the Power Worthiness Test, and Derivius warned us Amick would face the Beginning Gods in a trial.

I’m fucking worried about that.

And just when it felt like we might breathe—everything shattered again.

In a rare moment of peace, Creed dropped to his knees, bellowing in pain.

Without warning, the God of Pain began slaughtering innocents in the Abandon. Sevryn had been trying to free them, and that’s what got him sent to Hell.

We couldn’t help them.

The God of Pain unleashed everything. On them and on Sevryn.

Then…Obliteration struck.

Corrupted power slammed into me like a blade through my stomach, stealing the air from my lungs. I swear I would’ve died if V hadn’t arrived when he did.

He pulled us out and dropped me into the hot spring.

When I surfaced, gasping, someone was already there.

A stranger.

Willow Vito.

And she said she was here to help.

Which, in my experience, usually means everything is about to get worse.