Shey Thrudesh-Vo #3
Tyche bent his head and covered his face with both hands.
He scrubbed his hands back and forth several times as if to clear his thoughts.
“Yesuntei. She survived Zyros only to die in that fucking place.” He dropped his hands to his legs with a loud slap.
“The plan had always been to take her sarira to Brightspire and the protection of her temple. And I thought, maybe, I could finally put Wu’s powers to rest as well. ”
“Do you think Cirina appeared when she did because of Kaes?”
“Yes. No. Maybe? I wouldn’t put it past him, but Cirina was rarely far from her sister. I wouldn’t put it past him to force my hand, expecting me to merge Yesuntei’s powers with my own.”
Shey glared at a patch of golden light thrown down onto the marble floor from the bedroom. “I don’t understand. Why would he want you to take on the goddess’s power? Why didn’t he try to take it from you for himself?”
Tyche grinned at him. “Why would he? He’s a major god.
The powers of the minor gods are a raindrop compared to their ocean of magic.
I don’t pretend to understand the schemes of the major gods.
Maybe he’s trying to stir up new problems between the major gods.
Or he wants to challenge Caelan because he’s the new guy.
Maybe he was fucking bored. Immortality is a really, really long time, and there’s only so much to watch on TV. ”
Shey snorted and bumped his arm against Tyche’s. “Ridiculous. I guess he didn’t expect you to put Yesuntei’s sarira in a dragon.”
“Nope. But then again, neither did I.” The wind picked up and blew several strands of hair across Tyche’s face.
He hooked them behind his ear and sighed.
“I had my own powers and Wu’s tucked away.
I was sure if I tried to hide Yesuntei’s inside me for safekeeping, they’d end up merging with mine.
And with Wu’s up here…” He tapped his head.
“Bad things would have happened.”
Tyche grunted. “Mostly, I was scared. I didn’t know what would happen. The only thing I didn’t want was to become another Zyros. She slaughtered countless gods and hundreds of thousands of humans. She soaked Thia in blood for centuries before the godstones stopped her.”
“It was never going to happen.” Tyche looked up at Shey, who tapped the tip of his finger on his nose.
“What I heard from Caelan, Zyros was a ruthless, bloodthirsty hunter as a human. The gods had nothing to do with that. She just used the powers to be more of that. Tyche, God of Luck, is nothing like that. He’s funny, kind, crafty, a bit crazy, and a connoisseur of coffee.
At worst, you would have gone crazy and forced us all to convert from tea to coffee. ”
“Think what a better world this would be if I did,” Tyche murmured.
“Or…should I call you the God of Chaos?”
Tyche’s shoulders immediately slumped. “Pfft…who knows? I said that ’cause I thought it sounded impressive.” He tipped his face up toward Shey. “Did it?”
Shey smiled. “Very.”
“Ugh. Kaes. He appeared after I’d gotten Yesuntei’s sarira out of Haru. The dragon was still flat on his back with a hole in his gut. Kaes wanted the sarira, and giving it to him seemed as bad as giving it to Cirina, so I merged it with my powers.”
“Yet, it wasn’t enough. Kaes attacked, threatening you, me, Haru, Adrian, and all of Sirelis. You merged the God of Accidents’ powers with the others to fight off Kaes.”
Tyche snickered. “Please don’t make me sound noble.
I was scared and pissed. Tired of being bullied by that asshole.
Tired of being the helpless little guy. But now I’ve got this mess of powers and no idea how to use them.
All I know is that I don’t want to kill you, Adrian, or Haru.
” He paused, and his face scrunched up. “Well, I don’t want to kill anyone, but I especially don’t want to kill you—”
Shey swooped in and crushed his mouth to Tyche’s, swallowing the rest of what he was going to say.
Tyche had been through so much, had lived through so much terror.
Shey couldn’t hold it in any longer. He wanted some small way to show Tyche he wasn’t alone anymore.
That Shey didn’t care what he was or his magic.
He simply cared about the man under all of that.
Tyche hummed and kissed him, leaning into it as if he couldn’t get enough of Shey. The kiss stretched on until another icy wind swept through the city, causing them both to shiver. Shey broke off the kiss with a giggle.
He lifted a hand and cupped Tyche’s cheek. “Feel better?”
“Actually, I do. But…”
“What?”
“You’re not…scared or freaked out?”
“About you? Not even a little.”
Tyche sighed deeply, his body sinking several inches into a slump. “Good.”
Shey caught his hand and threaded their fingers together. “How about I show you a way to relax and completely forget about all this for a while?”
The corner of Tyche’s mouth tipped up into a half smile. “Are you making a pass at me, Your Highness?”
Shey stood and pulled Tyche to his feet. “Maybe I want to see if I can make a god moan my name.”
He had a lot more planned than making Tyche moan, but his little god was only going to figure that out after Shey got him in bed.