Riven #3
“I believe so. The times I’ve used either of them, you can’t actually see my power come out of me or anything. It’s just a…knowing inside of me.”
“Exactly,” he says, clapping his hands together.
“That is your awareness. Most of the time, you just know.
Good, bad, heavy, small. You feel the weight of an agreement rising or, in this case, a consequence coming, not the result.
What you did this morning was warn him. You said, If you do this, something will happen.
“That’s Consequence doing what it does best…making someone aware, even yourself, that reality is about to answer. Now, if you’d said something like—If you raise a hand against them, I’ll cut it off—that would’ve been you deciding the outcome.”
She releases a deep breath and lets her hands slip from her hips. “Okay, so I didn’t overstep the line of corruption?”
“No, you didn’t,” Derivius says.
“If you want to corrupt something, we can go to the—”
“Don’t finish that sentence,” she warns me, and my smile widens.
I suppose naughty jokes aren’t appropriate in front of her friends.
I was only trying to lighten her anxiety.
Her worry is telling.
Her dance with Daddy dearest’s dark power has her fearful of messing with the power she’s grown to accept.
“How was my explanation only partially correct?” Amick asks again with far less patience.
“The two of you are overthinking this.” Derivius smirks, studying Thayla and Amick like puzzles he’s enjoying putting together far too much.
It’s bringing me great pleasure.
“First, the part that you got correct was she can declare the consequence for someone who’s wronged her directly. Us gods love a good tit-for-tat.” He winks at my laugh. The others don’t.
“That isn’t the only time, though. She can declare a consequence without bringing corruption into the equation if the consequence isn’t self-serving. Meaning, if it benefits others more than herself, or the benefits outweigh the harm, she can declare the outcome.”
Silence hangs from Amick’s and Thayla’s mouths while a huh falls from Creed, Kyzen, and myself. Doren doesn’t seem surprised, but Yemi, Rose, Sevryn, and Lambrit are.
“If that’s the case, this morning, she could have, in fact, said I’ll cut your hand off, and had been fine. The god losing his hand wouldn’t have benefited her, but it would’ve protected all the Attendants,” Kyzen concludes.
“Precisely. So, it’s my opinion, Thayla, you were actually much nicer this morning than you had to be. Good job.”
“I appreciate that.” She chuckles and so do I.
“Why isn’t that condition listed in any of the God of Consequences’ materials?” Amick asks, then he jerks his head like understanding just slapped him. “If the gods believed responsibility would always be taken out of their hands, they’d stop being responsible altogether.”
“Correct. We are selfish creations, aren’t we?” Derivius asks with a sarcastic laugh, then he laces his hands behind his back. “Now that that’s been addressed, what did Thayla do that’s now messing up Amick’s evidence?”
“What? I didn’t do anything to his evidence. I don’t even know what all evidence he has besides the bodies,” she states, once again placing her hands on those delicious hips of hers.
“Oh, on the contrary, angel. You unknowingly did some shit,” I sing-song and flinch when she raises her mug as though she’s going to chuck it at my ass.
“The bodies have been perfectly preserved. There’s a barrier surrounding them, so they haven’t decayed a day since they were left in the forest,” Creed says, and the mug in her hand drops as fast as her jaw does.
“What?” she and Yemi ask.
Bestie shoves herself up off the couch and moves beside Thayla with pure, unfiltered shock scripted across her brows.
This is so exciting.
This is my favorite kind of Chaos.
“Well, that is something,” Derivius says.
“I…there’s no way I did that. I was unconscious when they took us to Hellveilious. Are you sure it was me and not Yemi? Not trying to throw the blame on you or anything, but when that happened, I didn’t even know that was a power I had.”
“It’s not her power we sensed all over them. It’s undeniably yours,” Creed says low, nodding at her shaking head.
Yemi opens her mouth, but Amick beats her to it. “Your power more than likely released on its own and placed a protective barrier between their bodies and yours. It would seem it just…stayed.”
“Is that even possible?” Thayla asks Yemi.
“I mean, yeah. With a strong release, especially with enough emotion behind it, you definitely could’ve put up a permanent barrier. On top of that, you not knowing you did it, you wouldn’t have known to take it down.”
“Shit,” Thayla mumbles, whipping her gaze to Amick. “What does this mean? How do we explain I put a permanent barrier around them without your—Creation and Accord finding out I have that power? For the Valories, have I fucked this up for you?”
“No, you haven’t. We’ll figure this out.” Kyzen’s reassuring answer has a shaky breath pouring through her lips.
I’m ready for everyone to leave so I can kiss those lips.
“Well, there isn’t much to figure out,” Lam-the-man says, garnering all our attention. “Take Thayla to the bodies so she can remove the barrier, and at the same time, Yemi will place her own. That’ll cover up how the bodies have stayed preserved and keep Thayla’s power a secret.”
I jump from my seat and give him a round of applause.
He figured that shit out pretty quickly.
“Fuck no. That exposes Yemi’s power,” Sevryn barks.
“Yemi would’ve been summoned anyway once Amick presented the fact that the Attendants were killed after kidnapping the two of them. K isn’t going to let any question go unanswered,” Derivius says.
“Plus, I was already going to ask Nero to be present in case a Mediator was needed,” Amick says, and everyone responds with a startled “What?”
Except for me.
My realization has me gasping.
“Fuck,” I shout, clutching my head. “What about Vullie? I can’t snitch on my deal—friend.”
Amick stares at me, unblinking.
“I wasn’t going to bring him up. He could be resourceful. There was more sleep paralysis powder in Harriseen’s office. I was going to present that and let it be.”
Sigh. That’s a relief.
“You’ll have to make that convincing to get past Rel—Accord.”
I roll my eyes at the tenderness in Derivius’s tone at the mention of her.
“I will,” Amick says.
“Well, then it seems like you all have it figured out, so I need to be heading back. Ladies, good luck with the bodies. I’ll see you all soon.”
Derivius dips his head and starshoots out faster than anyone can say anything. We didn’t have much to add anyway. Yemi looks like she’s five seconds from puking. Thayla looks like she’s ready to turn something, maybe someone, to ash.
That would literally make my day if she did that.
Talk about a perfectly chaotic day.