23. Thayla #2
He was using a great deal of his power…
Mellcom wouldn’t have been able to tell if he never actually saw him.
No.
“Also, there’s no denying it. After I told Obliteration and Seduction everything that was said, the consequences that could come from not listening, they knew exactly who the god was.”
My stomach knots. Meridamus hasn’t hinted at this not once.
After all the hours we’ve spent together this past week.
“What consequences did he tell you?” I ask as I start my pacing once again.
His gaze follows every step I take.
“None of them matter anymore. Except for one.”
“Well, which fucking one, Mellcom?”
A quiet laugh escapes him as my anger rises. There’s nothing condescending or cruel about it. It’s laced in fondness. The same kind that’s shining in his eyes.
“Don’t look at me like that,” I growl.
“It’s hard not to. It’s easy to see how they fell for you, fell for the lie you all have been spoon-fed.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“It means you’ve spent every moment since we arrived here believing you were chosen.”
My brows knit together.
“I was chosen. Unfortunately.”
“No.” He shakes his head, almost pityingly. “You were selected.”
The distinction makes no fucking sense to me.
“Excuse me?”
He adjusts the Binding in his grasp and folds his arms across his chest.
“Tell me, Thay. How many times have you heard that prophecy repeated?”
Honestly…not enough times.
Never in its entirety.
He chuckles as my forehead continues to wrinkle.
“The prophecy spoke of five gods,” he continues before I can answer. “Five who would become either the realm’s greatest salvation or its complete obliteration.”
“I’m aware.”
“How many of you are there?”
I blink.
“What?”
“Not including the Beginning Gods, how many gods have come that could fulfill that prophecy?”
My mouth opens.
Closes.
“Five.”
My answer sounds unsure even to me. He catches that and his smile grows.
“Correct.” His voice is infuriatingly calm, but the smirk he’s still wearing is not. “You are not one of those five. The prophecy was never about you.”
My mind turns his words over and over.
Five gods.
Salvation.
Obliteration.
Five…
“That night, the God of Consequence said that if I wasn’t the one to tell you the truth, then the consequences of that would be that the realm wouldn’t shape into what it needs to. Now, it can.”
The truth and so, so many other details race through my mind.
“Not to restore, but to reshape. She was who they were missing.”
“It could’ve been worse. Instead of me, Seduction could’ve had the fifth like they planned.”
“Oh, my sweet, sweet Thay—”
Derivius…
I stumble back a step and Mellcom follows. My head thrashes back and forth as I eye him up and down.
“No,” I breathe.
“Yes,” he says, strolling forward until he’s far too close to me. “Finish putting the pieces together. Speak the truth out loud.”
I can’t. I don’t want to.
No, no, no.
“Speak it, Thayla!”
His bellow rattles my bones. Faster than I can blink, his hand shoots out and his fingers wrap around my throat once again. My jaw locks as he snatches me until I’m against his chest.
Gods. I see it so fucking clear now.
His green eyes, blond hair, and gorgeous skin. The way girls used to fall at his feet. He gets it from her.
His need for control. His conning tendencies. His…manipulation.
He gets that from him.
“You’re the fifth,” I choke out. He relaxes his grip a fraction. “You’re the son of the God of Obliteration and the Goddess of Seduction.”
He smiles down at me, running his thumb gently across my thundering pulse.
“That’s right. I am.”
Air desperately wants to rush from my lungs. It can’t.
It lodges itself right in my throat where his fingers hold me still.
“And together, myself and my—brothers—are going to fulfill the prophecy. The realm will fall to Obliteration and be shaped into what it’s supposed to be. Then…”
He runs his nose across mine and I jerk my face from him. He snatches me right back. The darkness clouding his eyes has mine narrowing.
“We’re going to get rid of the least favored of the four sons.
I really can’t imagine spending a lifetime with any of them, but it was easy enough to agree to as long as the singleton was gone.
Once he’s out of the way, you can go back to fulfilling your fake place as the sons of Obliteration’s Binder. ”
For a fleeting second, all hearing escapes me. My eye twitches as his words roar around in my brain.
As long as the singleton is gone.
Fake place.
Something inside me…snaps.
My knee drives upward with every ounce of strength I possess. I fucking love the way his eyes go impossibly wide.
The breath explodes from his lungs as his grip tears away from my throat. I don’t wait for him to double over. My fingers lock around the Binding.
“Mine!”
I wrench the globe from him so violently it nearly slips through my hands. His curse barely leaves his mouth before I swing.
The crystal sphere cracks against the side of his face with a sickening thud and his head whips sideways.
Again.
“It’s my fucking responsibility I didn’t ask for.”
I scream as I bash the precious creation against his face again.
“My fucking life.”
The globe collides with his forehead.
Blood erupts down his face and spills over his eyes. I throw my head back, laughing as he frantically tries to wipe it away.
“My fucking men!”
I swing again, and he finally catches my wrist.
Not before that last blow lands square across his nose with a crunch that sends blood spraying between us and happiness through my soul.
His fist connects with my ribs, and more laughter rumbles through the pain. I rip my arm free and throw myself at him.
We crash to the ground in a tangle of limbs, and the Binding tumbles from my grasp, rolling through the dirt.
I dive for it and he grabs my ankle, tugging me back a foot.
Rage blinds me.
I kick backward with no rhyme or reason. I just…fucking bash my foot wherever it can land. My heel connects with his jaw hard enough to snap his head aside. He grunts and his hold loosens just enough.
I scramble forward on my hands and knees.
The instant my hand closes around the Binding, I surge to my feet.
Run. Get to the Veil. Get out.
My feet pound against the fake-ass arena ground. Each stride gets me closer to the charcoal haze stretching before me.
One more step. Another.
The realm tears apart. Cold crashes over me and slithers over my skin in a slow, sickening embrace. The moment lasts both forever and a matter of seconds. Sound slams back into existence. I stumble through the Veil, catching myself before my knees can hit the marble.
Steel. Screams. Power.
“Thayla!”
Kyzen’s voice.
Gods…I love that voice so fucking much.
My head snaps up and shock holds me still for a breath. The room has become a battlefield once again.
More Dark Gods have flooded the chamber while I was gone.
Kyzen’s fighting off a number of them while holding my gaze. Creed’s eyes blaze whiter than any star in the night sky. Riven’s laughter borders on hysterical. Amick is bleeding.
No. Absolutely fucking not.
Power explodes from my chest before I even think. The nearest line of Dark Gods doesn’t scream. They don’t have time.
One moment, they’re charging.
The next…
Ash.
Silence follows for barely a heartbeat as I scan over everyone.
“Run!” I scream.
No one hesitates.
Kyzen reaches me first, grabbing my forearm as the others surge toward the doorway. Hope sparks in my heart and my soul stretches toward the four of them.
One step. Two. Three.
A deep, amused chuckle rolls through the chamber and every hair on my body stands on end.
“No,” I whisper.
That laughter rumbles even louder as black ropes wrap around my waist and hoist me off my feet. A scream tears from my lungs as the guys latch on to me. Their grips do nothing.
“Not so fast, Thayla girl. You have something—quite a few somethings actually—that belongs to me.”