9. Thayla #2
He holds his hand out, and Lambrit eyes it, then him, before finally reaching his out.
“I wish I could say the same. You’ve put me in a predicament I don’t care for at all. I’m very disappointed about that.”
My lips curl between my teeth as I hide my smirk.
Best friend first. Intrigued genius second. I’m flattered.
“I completely understand,” Val says, steady in a way that makes me feel off-balance.
“Well,” Meridamus says, glancing around the lawn. “You all look tense.”
“Your faces are unsettling. We’ll grow used to them eventually, I suppose,” Riven says, and Kyzen elbows him.
I sigh.
“I assume the two of you know who everyone is, so you don’t really need proper introductions, right?” I ask.
“If you’d like to give proper introductions, that’s fine with us,” Val says.
I shake my head. “Everyone has somewhere they need to be.”
“Okay then.”
He holds my gaze with undivided attention. It makes me feel like he can see ten layers deeper than anyone else. That’s…uncomfortable.
Amick tugs my hand, pulling my focus.
“We’ll see you soon. If you need me before then…”
“I know,” I say, then stiffen as he leans in.
Normally, I wouldn’t think twice about kissing him—or any of my men—goodbye. Unfortunately, “normally” has never accounted for doing it in front of them.
Affection suddenly feels aggressively visible. I hate this feeling.
I force myself to relax and return his soft kiss. He sees right through me but doesn’t call me out. With a gentle rub to my earlobe, he steps aside for Creed. Creed’s narrowed eyes travel from my heart to my face, and he grunts—very pissy—as he cups my cheek and presses his lips to my forehead.
Riven catches my wrist, and my body twirls around the second Creed, Amick, all of Yemi’s men, Lambrit, and Rose starshoot away.
Oh no.
The slow grin spreading across his face tells me he knows exactly what’s happening in my head.
“I am literally begging you not to make this worse,” I whisper.
“That sounds like a challenge.”
He grips the back of my neck and dips me low, kissing me slow enough to be infuriating but deliberate enough to send heat crawling violently through my body.
He straightens me just as fast as he dipped me, and my head spins. He’s entirely too pleased with himself as he stares behind me.
“Fix your face, pops.” He giggles. “You look like you smelled a pile of taurnshit.”
I close my eyes and huff.
“You’re going to be a thorn in my side,” Val growls.
“I sure hope so. Funny enough, I called your daughter a thorn in my side when she got here. Now look at us—in love, saving the realm, married—”
“Married?” Val and Meridamus bark.
“Time for me to go. Give them hell, little burden.”
With a boop to my nose, he starshoots away, leaving a giggle on the wind. No part of me wants to turn around.
I’m going to kill him.
Slowly but surely, I finally suck it up and face the two Beginning Gods and their scowls.
“So.” I clear my throat. “We—”
“Are you married? Did you really marry the four of them?” Val asks, turning redder by the second.
My glare sharpens in warning.
“First off, it’s none of your business. Second, don’t ever say ‘the four of them’ like that again. There’s not a fucking thing wrong with them, and I won’t tolerate you acting like there is. Are we understood?”
After countless deep breaths and flexes of his fingers, he finally nods.
“Good. As I was saying, we definitely can’t train here in the open. Do you have a place in mind, or want us to pick?”
“Wherever you girls are comfortable will be fine,” Meridamus says with an amused smirk.
“Very well. Yemi, you ready?”
“Yeah.” She snickers.
The wink Kyzen gives me is no help as I spin on my heels and march toward the small gap between the houses. I won’t be taking them to the hot spring, although I’m sure their asses know all about it.
“V, care to carry all of us to where we like to train in the meadows so I don’t have to walk through the woods in awkward silence?”
He laughs in my mind immediately. “Sure.”
His familiar flash of white glows against my shoulder. His weight brings me comfort and settles the wings flapping in my belly—until he wordlessly whisks us away with no warning.
Once his power releases us, I’m back facing Val and Meridamus, who both wobble on their feet. For a moment, their eyes widen as they glance at one another. Then…they burst out laughing.
“Still as strange as it’s always been,” Meridamus says.
“I’ll never grow used to someone else moving me through the realm. It’s unnatural.”
I tilt my head, nostril curling into a small sneer as they fall apart together like teenage boys.
It’s weird.
Kyzen, Yemi, and I share a look, then stare at the two Beginning Gods as they compose themselves.
“My…my fa—” Val says as his chuckles taper off. I refuse to admit what the sound does to my heart. “That was something. Are you all used to V’s starshoots?”
The way he says his name with such familiarity settles in my chest like a stone.
“Yes. What are we doing first?” I ask.
The amusement fades from their faces, and guilt tries to wedge itself in my throat, but I swallow it down.
“Well, before either of you attempt anything, I want to know what you’ve already done with your abilities,” he says, straightening his shoulders and lacing his fingers.
“Don’t you know that already?” Kyzen asks.
“To an extent, yes, but I’d like to hear them explain what they’ve done.”
Yemi glances at me, excitement creeping back into her expression. I give her a genuine smile and nod for her to answer first.
“I’ve created plenty of physical barriers. Mostly defensive ones. An emotional barrier that I’ve now taken down. A sound barrier around a group of us. And I temporarily made an isolated one against the Goddess of Seduction’s power around Seductions.”
I don’t miss the way Meridamus adjusts his shoulders.
“Very good. So you’d say you’re most proficient with physical barriers?” Val asks.
“Yes, sir.”
“Please, no sirs, Yemi. Val is fine.”
Val…ugh.
“How about you, Thayla?”
“Mostly physical barriers as well, emotional ones, and that one time I accidentally put a barrier around a couple of bodies. I suppose that was physical too.” My brows furrow when not a hint of anything crosses his face. “Did I put that barrier around those bodies?”
“Yes, that was your barrier.”
My power of Accord stirs in my mind, and I cross my arms.
“But?” I ask. “I can tell when you’re leaving something out. You know that.”
“I wasn’t aware your awareness was that strong,” he says, rubbing the back of his neck. “I simply reinforced your barrier, that’s all.”
“Why and when did you do that?” Kyzen asks before I can.
“At first, I did nothing. Eventually, her barrier would’ve faded, and I was going to let it.
But then Amick killed Harriseen. By that point, her barrier was still holding but had grown weaker.
I filled in the cracks so the bodies wouldn’t decompose.
If they had, Kira would’ve argued their legitimacy in Amick’s trial, and Rella would’ve agreed.
His outcome would’ve been very different. ”
My annoyance evaporates almost immediately.
I didn’t expect him to admit that. He doesn’t look at me for gratitude or appreciation for his silent interference.
He simply delivers his explanation like it was obviously the right choice.
Meridamus, on the other hand, watches me carefully, waiting to see what I’ll do with the information.
I don’t do or say anything. I settle on silence.
The wind moves steadily through the tall grass, tickling my shins, while Val studies us with unnervingly precise focus. His features aren’t cold or distant but…intentional.
I don’t remember him being so intensely observant.
Meridamus shifts his weight, drawing Val’s attention, and they exchange one of those quiet looks people give each other after years of understanding without speaking.
Or maybe they’re talking mentally.
Fuck, I don’t know.
Small smirks cross their lips. Then, without explanation, the God of Boundaries lifts his hand and a barrier flashes into existence around us.
Like the one separating us from the Abandon and Hellveilious, this one shimmers faintly. Unlike those, my awareness of it isn’t accompanied by warmth. The full weight of it presses against my spine.
Meridamus raises a teasing brow before lifting his own hand. Power curls around his body like smoke caught beneath water, deep bronze in color. It crawls across his skin until every inch of him is covered.
He steps closer to the barrier and presses his palm against its surface.
My eyes widen and my mind races. His bronze glow slides along the boundary before spilling to the ground like water down a waterfall. It is—but isn’t—stopping the power.
Yemi straightens beside me. “It redirected it.”
“What?” I ask.
“His boundary is redirecting the power rather than stopping it completely,” she murmurs.
“Yes,” Val says.
Confusion colors my thoughts. “Why, though? Ours usually just stop things.”
“Because that’s what you want them to do.”
Before I can respond, he drops the barrier. The pressure against my back vanishes, and then the sounds around us fade.
The meadow keeps moving. Grass and limbs bend beneath the wind. Meridamus says something. Yemi shifts beside me, but absolute silence crashes over me so entirely my chest tightens.
She grips my arm and says something, but I hear nothing. I tell her that, but her forehead wrinkles and her lips mouth, “What?”
Then sound slams back into existence all at once.
My head flinches at the onslaught.