4. Amick #2
“I swear to warn you before I do it, though.”
“Not warn, Riven. You ask before you slip me some weird-ass shit.”
He groans, craning his neck back. “Fine. Fun sucker.”
She rolls her eyes as she brings her coffee to her lips. She tries to hide her grimace, but we all catch it. Creed shoves his chair back, grabs the kettle from the middle of the table, and stomps toward the sink. “That’s the last time I try something new,” he mutters.
“Oh, so you fucked the coffee up?” Kyzen asks, laughing at Creed’s scowl.
“I didn’t fuck it up. I infused some Maca root to give us a boost of energy today. How was I supposed to know it’d taste like shit?”
Thayla, Kyzen, and Riven fall into a fit of laughter while I stare at Creed, utterly confused. He spends more time in the kitchen and around herbs than the rest of us combined. He should absolutely know what anything he fixes tastes like.
What a baffling morning.
A knock at the front door silences the laughter instantly, and we all turn toward it. We know who it is, but their arrival is a sharp reminder of the conversations to come.
“I got it,” Kyzen says as he rises.
Thayla releases a long sigh and picks her mug back up, then scoffs when she remembers it tastes dreadful. A smirk crawls across my lips, and as if she senses it, her eyes flick up to mine.
My blood heats from her wink and smile.
“Damn, you don’t even have the coffee ready yet?” Sevryn asks as he barges into the kitchen like it’s his house. “What are you doing?”
“Fuck off. I’m fixing a new kettle now,” Creed grunts.
Riven, Kyzen, and Thayla snicker.
“Food’s done at least,” Havar says as he reaches across the table to pluck a piece of meat from the plate with his bare, grimy fingers.
Thank goodness Yemi smacks him.
Lack of sleep is affecting everyone’s judgment.
Slowly but surely, they all make their way to the table and start fixing their plates. Conversations move as smoothly as they can, but everyone feels the undercurrent in the air.
Thayla isn’t speaking unless spoken to. Her eyes roam over everyone, and she’ll laugh if something amuses her. She’s present but not participating.
She gives Creed a grateful smile and returns his kiss as he sets her mug in front of her. Her eyes drift shut as she inhales the scent of the proper cup of coffee.
“So are we going to talk about this shit or what?”
A glare crosses my brow, and every head snaps toward Sevryn.
He shrugs. “What? I was just addressing the issue. We all know we can’t say shit about going into that restricted room, so that means we’re discussing Thayla’s dad.”
“Thane.”
Her quick, cold correction drops a tense hush over the house. She flexes her fingers repeatedly before wrapping them around her mug and huffing.
“Or Val. The God of Boundaries. Whatever you want to address him as.”
“What do you want to address him as, Thay?” Lambrit asks, offering her a small, comforting smile.
“I don’t know.”
None of us speak as she shakes her hands out and rearranges herself in her seat. I study every move she makes—the way she rolls her shoulders, crosses and tucks her legs beneath her.
This has caused her deep emotional distress.
I’m quite upset with the God of Boundaries.
“Amick and I were talking in the shower, and I’ve realized that I—we—need to have a conversation with him. And, Kyzen, I could really use your help with how to start.”
“You can have anything you need from me, little goddess.”
She blushes, and I tilt my chin in approval. Perfect answer.
She smiles down at her plate as she pushes her fork in circles. After a moment, she stops toying with her food and laces her fingers together.
“I’m…struggling,” she says so low I barely hear her.
I do hear her soft admission, though. So do my brothers.
We each lean closer. “I know myself well enough to know that if I shove all this down like I desperately want to and pretend I’m fine, it’ll rot inside me until it becomes something ugly. But I—”
She cuts herself off with a groan and flicks her gaze up to the ceiling. She blinks repeatedly. I’m not sure if she’s trying to gather her thoughts or fight off the emotions.
Regardless, I don’t interrupt. My soul caresses hers and her shoulders sag. When she straightens again, to my surprise, she doesn’t focus on my brothers or me.
Iric shifts in his seat and raises his brow. She nods.
I notice the change in her immediately when his power brushes across her skin. She lets out another slow breath, her body relaxing. Her gaze roams over each of us.
“After Iric and I spoke, I decided mentally and emotionally I was done with my parents. I didn’t care if they returned or if they were even…
alive. It was a dark thought, but it was my truth.
Now that I’ve seen him, heard his voice, been close enough to almost smell him, that feeling is gone.
But that doesn’t mean I’m ready to reconcile our relationship. I’m not.”
“You don’t have to be ashamed of that thought, angel,” Riven says without a hint of teasing. “Everyone—well, almost everyone—at this table has had the same thought about their parents.”
Several grunts of agreement echo around the table, and she nods, more to herself than to us.
“You also don’t have to have anything to do with them. Your father, Consequence, or your mother,” Kyzen adds, squeezing her hand.
“Gods, my mother. I’ve barely begun thinking about her. The thoughts I have revolve around what she’s the goddess of.”
That’s…a very good question. One I haven’t considered.
“I don’t have the answer to that, but I do know…”
Doren trails off as all of us snap our attention his way.
“Maybe not right now. Let her finish first,” Yemi whispers, linking their fingers.
I’d like to hear what he has to say.
“Actually, Doren, I’d like you to continue. It’ll give me a minute to get my mind right,” Thayla says.
He nods, though the frown on his face doesn’t lessen.
“I had no clue the God of Consequence was involved with your life like this. I’ve met him three times.
Two of those you know about—when he triggered the Goddess of Seduction’s Binding and gave me the key.
The first time, before both of those, was when he appeared on the shores of the Lost Sea as Alamar and I were planning my death.
I still don’t know how he caught wind of our plan, but he showed up, expressed the consequences of my actions, then left. I swear that’s all I’ve known.”
“Well, obviously the Messenger told him about your plan,” she says.
His mouth gapes, then his shoulders slump. “That’s more than likely exactly how.”
“That’s not all you’ve known, though, dear Discovery,” Riven says, tilting his head as he eyes Doren. “When Thayla first met you, she asked if you knew where her parents were and if you’d tell her.”
That he did. That detail has long since been buried beneath everything else we’ve had to process.
“I did, and you said you did know, and they were alive and well. Well, not well, but safe. So did you know he was my father?” she asks, not masking the hurt creeping into her tone.
“No, I swear.” He jerks his head back and forth. “The Messenger told me exactly what I was allowed to share with you once you found me, but as soon as you asked about your parents’ whereabouts, my power responded. Because I was holding you—”
“You were holding her?” Riven cuts in, but Doren ignores him.
“It led me right to them, and this awareness that I couldn’t tell you washed over me. I decided to just reassure you about their conditions. They weren’t in Godsden at that time, and your mother still isn’t.”
His glow brightens for a fleeting second, then dulls again. The entire table stares at him, waiting for an answer he clearly doesn’t want to give.
“Where is she? Where were they this whole time?” Her face crumples and she curls her lips together. “Doren, I deserve this answer.”
“You do. I just don’t want to be the one to tell you and upset you.”
She leans back in her chair, tapping her fingers against the table. Then they fall still and her lips part. The tug against my soul—and obviously my brothers’—has us adjusting in our seats.
Her breath huffs out. “Behind the barrier. In Oddian.”
His clipped smile says it all.
“That whole time? For twenty years, they were merely steps away from me too many moments to count?”
“I don’t know if they were there the whole time, but when you asked me in the cavern, that’s where they were. That’s where your mother still is.”
“Shit,” Riven mumbles. “That’s why when you stepped between me and the barrier, it rejected us. His barrier was keeping you out. You never would’ve been able to pass through, little burden.”
“But that…it doesn’t make sense. Amick, you said you barely sensed any Valorian power when we were there.”
Her need for this to be untrue is clear in her eyes. I hate to confirm what Doren is claiming.
“It was there, but knowing what we know now—meeting the Vito Nexus—it’s clear the Elementrian power was the stronger energy I sensed.”
She shakes her head. “But wouldn’t you have sensed the God of Boundaries’ power? At least a little?”
“Not necessarily,” Yemi says, and Thayla jerks her attention to her. “The power of Boundaries can easily go undetected. If I taught myself that in a short time, there’s no doubt your—The God of Boundaries has perfected hiding his power.”
The shutdown that washes over my Binder isn’t slow. It’s instant.
One second, her face is flushed with anger and denial. Now, staring back at us is a coldness I’ve only seen her aim at a handful of people. My soul feels the numbness sweeping through her.
Just as fast as it started, it slams to a stop, and she sucks in a sharp breath. Her focus snaps toward Iric.
“Not with us. Not with the people at this table who love you and will fight beside you,” he says.
Her bottom lip trembles. I desperately want to go to her.
Kyzen moves first, cupping her hand with both of his. She stares into his eyes for a long moment.