Riven #2
Her words trip over themselves, fractured and confusing before her face contorts into something familiar.
Rage.
It’s hot enough to burn. It bleeds through her and into me. I fight off the sensation and my Harmony as it tries to wash it away.
Don’t touch shit. Feel what she feels.
I don’t give a fuck if it’s suffocating.
“Der-Derivius told me.” She gasps like she just took a kick to the stomach. “I couldn’t stop thinking about if they could do that to him, what would they do to you all. I lost it. I put the barrier up between you all and him.”
The four of us share a quick glance with one another, then our attention snaps back to her when the sound I love the least comes out of her.
Her first sob.
“Gods, twenty days. That’s what she planned. How the fuck was I going to survive that long? What if she gave you to your father? What if she—oh gods.”
Her breath stutters, and we sink to the ground. She rocks back and forth, clinging to me for dear life. I bite my fucking cheek until my teeth cut through the flesh. I hate this more than anything. I hate that we were so fucking stupid and let her walk out of that room away from us.
“I had to stand there and talk and plan and pretend I was okay. I was dying inside.”
Her forehead presses into my chest as a broken sound tears out of her. It shreds me to pieces, and my hold on her tightens.
“Riven, please make it better.”
Fuck me.
Please don’t ask that of me, my angel.
My soul fucking thrashes through my heart, pleading for me to let it go to her. My powers beg me to do something, but I can’t. If I allow my Harmony to take all of this away for her, these emotions will just be subdued. She won’t really heal. She won’t actually be better in the long run.
All I can do is hold her.
“Kyzen, Creed, Amick…someone, please.”
Their bodies shudder as they lay their hands against her spine, steady and comforting. Their haunted eyes plead with me. I shake my head, then squeeze mine shut.
“Fuck,” she wails, arching her back like their touch is about to break her. “I missed you so fucking much.”
“We missed you, Thayla. It was hard to breathe without you,” Amick whispers.
She thrashes her head back and forth and shoves against my chest. Not in the way that says she doesn’t want me close.
She needs room.
“You are our eternity, little goddess. We’re here with you,” Kyzen says as he scoots back.
Her foot continues to push against him until she’s satisfied with the distance.
“I’ve got your soul, my endling. Let it all out.”
Creed grips the back of her neck, grounding her. The touch only lasts a second as he and Amick shift away from her.
Her fingers dig into the floor viciously. The flesh beneath her skin turns bone-white, and my hands twitch with the most desperate desire to go to her.
Pull her into my arms.
Get her through the rest of this.
She falls still, and the air around her shifts.
A faint ripple pulses…through her.
Her powers move in time with it. The subtle vibrations echo each change in her breathing, each shift in her body.
She lets out a piercing scream as utter Chaos rips free from her. Her entire room is lifted and thrown around in pure, unfiltered, beautiful destruction.
My head tilts up, and my eyes widen at all the shit floating above us. Air gets trapped in my lungs as it all freezes.
Then plummets.
My body braces, preparing to be fucking squashed beneath it all, but it never crashes into us.
A bubble, faintly white, surrounds us.
With a painful grunt, she slams her hands into the floor. The vibrations pass through my knees and sink into my bones. My brothers and I still as ropes of black bleed from her palms. It flows across her room.
Obliterating everything.
Well…not everything.
I glance over my shoulder, following Kyzen’s stunned gaze. Her power swallows everything whole. Aside from the decorations on her mantel.
The statue I made her.
The book from Amick.
The timepiece that thuds with Kyzen’s heart.
The box that holds her daggers is up there as well. Although I know she’s armed with those.
She sits back on her heels and lets her neck fall back as her palms rest on her thighs, facing up.
My heart thunders in my chest as her Creation takes hold of the space, reshaping what was into what she wants it to be.
There are no crazy, drastic changes. Her bed forms beside us first. It’s just as, if not bigger than, it was. Night tables, a few lamps, and some delicate greenery appear, just like she originally had, but there are tiny touches that make it different.
Hers. Her true creation. Not what the house designed for her.
The biggest change, the one that truly takes my breath away, is her fireplace. She used to have a set of wings centered on the mantel that was an ombre of white and purple.
Now, the stone that makes the fireplace is carved into wings that are in a variety of colors just like her eyes, plus the original white and purple.
A gasp rips through my parted lips as a sensation slams into my chest, and my head pivots back around to her.
Those hypnotizing irises glow, and I sense the swirling in her lower stomach.
She is, and always will be, the most gorgeous, dangerous, most fucking alluring creature I’ve ever seen. None can hold a torch to her in my life.
I’ll love her fiercely through utter Chaos or the most level harmonization.
“My power is mine. My fate is mine. You all are fucking mine. And no one will attempt to take any of that from me again. If they do…” A long breath falls from her, and I suck down the stream of air. “They won’t like the reality they find themselves living.”
She’s aligned.
And she’s declared the consequence of what happens to those who cross her line.
A shaky sigh escapes her, and all the power in the room snaps out of existence. It hits her, snatching her forward, and a grunt escapes past her lips. The four of us lunge toward her, catching her before she crashes into the floor.
She pants, rolling in our hands until she’s blinking up at the ceiling. Her head rests in my lap, and I stare into her exhausted eyes.
“You did it, little burden. You did it all by yourself.”
She shakes her head.
“I could never do any of this without all of you.”
My mouth twitches into a small smile. I lean forward and lay my lips softly against hers.
Everything within me settles, mimicking the calmness now flowing through her. My forehead rests against hers, and I breathe in every breath she releases.
“I love you, Thayla Godrun. We love you more than we could ever explain.”
We—I—might not be able to put the words together to describe the depth in which I love this goddess, but I can show her.
And I’ll spend the rest of my existence doing so.