38. Thayla #4
Rage flickers across his face and his power lashes from his palm in the blink of an eye. I don’t budge. I hold his sweltering glare. I want him to see my lack of fear.
His Obliteration crashes into the barrier surrounding my body. His snarl continues to twist as he shoves even more out. Only for it to be rejected again.
“Valthaneus!”
He bellows as his eyes bleed black.
“Your denial and arrogance will always astonish me,” I say as I step toward him. “It isn’t the God of Boundaries protecting me. It’s his daughter.”
His nostrils curl as if he believes he can smell a lie.
The look is very unflattering.
“You’ve been stripped of your Binding and a large portion of power from the Veilatara.
Your right-hand man is dead. As is your lover.
Our Defenders are laying waste to your army.
The Gods Binding has granted us the full scope of our powers—something you have always feared happening if we weren’t under your thumb.
Yet you still stand before me like you believe you’re going to leave this day victorious.
It’s truly remarkable to witness. I wish I had more time to study this reaction. ”
A humorless laugh leaves him as a sword appears in his hand. He twirls it, getting a feel for it. Or maybe he holds his delayed outburst will faze me.
I’m honestly not sure.
“You, my failure of a son, astonish me. Of all five children I created, you, the only one without a power to protect yourself, believe you are going to defeat me alone?”
“No.”
I shrug and spin the spear in my hand.
“I’m never alone, though.”
My father’s gaze shifts past me, and for the first time since I approached him, something other than arrogance crosses his expression.
Kyzen moves first.
The air changes and time bends. The space between one heartbeat and the next stretches impossibly long as his power wraps around our father.
His eyes widen as his movements slow.
Creed’s power follows. Death crawls from his fingertips, black tendrils that match his Obliteration so well, race across the ground before surging toward him.
Riven’s Chaos crashes over the distance between them, twisting the air around our father and disrupting every attempt he makes to regain control. He still manages to push his power out, and it collides with theirs, shaking the ground beneath my feet.
“Is that all my sons have?” His purely black gaze finds mine. “You truly think this is enough?”
I don’t answer.
Because I know what he doesn’t.
This was never about enough.
Another wave of power launches toward him.
Kyzen’s Time. Creed’s Death. Riven’s Duality.
His Obliteration tears through their combined force, ripping holes through every attack they send his way. But each time, he has to fight harder. Each time, he becomes more unsteady.
Every response is a fraction less precise.
He’s still standing, but he’s no longer untouchable. His attention remains locked on my brothers. On the powers he believes are the only ones capable of bringing him down. He doesn’t look at me.
He doesn’t see me step forward.
He doesn’t see the spear lowering in my hand.
That is his mistake. His arrogance.
The same mistake he has made our entire lives.
He never looked close enough to see what was right in front of him.
The spear leaves my hand.
A roar rips from his throat as it buries itself into his thigh, and his knees give out beneath him. His gaze snaps to me.
There’s no anger or hatred. Just sheer surprise. As if he cannot understand how I could possibly be the one who reached him.
I don’t give him time to figure it out. My fingers close around the hilt of Creed’s sword dangling in his grip. One of the ones he forged with his own hands. One of the ones he created for a son he wanted to turn into a weapon.
The irony almost makes me laugh.
He gave Creed the means to destroy.
He never imagined it would be used to destroy him.
Creed releases it and in the same breath, Riven’s Harmony wraps around our father, Kyzen’s power wraps around me, propelling me forward.
The blade slides through his chest straight into his heart.
For one impossible moment, we simply stare at each other. His eyes drop to the sword between us. Then back to me.
I twist and pull it free.
Black blood pours from the wound, and he blinks as he sinks against his heels.
“My…sons.”
“By blood. Nothing else,” I say.
Blackness seeps from his eyes and trails down his cheeks in a stream of tainted tears. Like a ripple in a puddle, his power pulses out of his body.
The last drop flees him, and he falls still. The sword slips from my fingers the moment his body crashes against the dirt.
I wait.
For the anger, satisfaction, emptiness that I was certain would come. I didn’t expect this level of relief to wash over me. I feel like I can breathe.
My brothers align themselves with me, standing shoulder to shoulder as we stare down. None of us speak, nor do we have to peer behind us to see who steps up. We make room so our Binder can stand in the middle of us.
Right where she belongs.
“Obliterate, Mysenta.”
She doesn’t hesitate to stretch her palm out.
The five of us watch quietly as the God of Obliteration floats away as nothing more than ash.