Chapter 2 Thayla #2
He drags his gaze back to mine, and despite the glare of death I’m giving him, I swallow subtly at the pure, unfiltered rage on his face. It’s gone in less than a second, and the smile that replaces the look has my stomach filling with wings and unease.
“It seems he’s finally picked a side. I look forward to our next encounter, Thayla Godrun. I’ll give my son your regards.”
With a condescending smirk, he flicks his wrist through the air, then disappears from my sight.
“Give him back to me now, you motherfucker!”
My scream falls on deaf ears, and my fist pounds against the barrier blocking me from where he just was. Unlike a moment ago, it’s now solid as stone.
It grows tired of my pointless assault and ricochets my ass back. Directly into a pair of strong arms that wrap around my waist.
Amick’s body shakes with a ferocity I’ve never felt from him before.
It thumps against my back and wreaks havoc on my chest. Creed takes his sword from my clenched hand, and the tremors passing through him pulse up my arm.
The Kyzen who stands at my side and latches his hand around my forearm still isn’t the Kyzen I know.
A glide of power breezes through the air, taking the new barrier with it and revealing an empty but bloody battlefield.
Even the bodies are gone.
“Mell! Get your damn hands off me. Mellcom!”
My body spins in Amick’s arms toward the shouts coming from Jeremiah. I track his frantic pacing as he slings Mara and Chasin away from him.
“Where the fuck is he?” he screams into the sky.
My attention continues to scan the bloodstained dirt until I find Gladian with the Valtrues—what’s left of the Valtrues—that protect the stronghold.
Mellcom isn’t with him.
“Shit.”
It’s not only Riven that’s gone.
Kir—he took Mellcom too.
My murmured curse isn’t so quiet after all. Jeremiah’s furious gaze whips to me, and he, Mara, and Chasin stomp the short distance between us.
“You.” Jeremiah growls, pointing his finger at me.
Creed, Kyzen, and Amick move to block me, but my low, harsh whisper halts them.
“Don’t. Let him say what he wants to say.”
“This is your fault. You charged through the fucking barrier like the crazy bitch you are.”
My nostrils twitch, and my fingernails bite into my palm. My power pulses in his direction, and I don’t stop it.
I let it flow free, wild, and rightfully pissed.
His face contorts in a mixture of confusion and something akin to heartbreak.
Crazy bitch…
My oh fucking my, the number of times he’s called me that.
I don’t know if I can count that high.
I remember the most memorable time, though. It was only a few months ago. He got his ass beat in training, and I chuckled. It pleased my throbbing heart to see him get back what he’d given me.
My mocking earned me a punishment I’ve desperately tried to ignore.
It’s hard to ignore in this moment because of the shame searing through my skin as I stare into his hate-filled eyes.
The moment we walked into the house that morning, he backhanded me so hard I thought my tooth had pierced through my lip.
I swear to the Valories, I taste the blood on my tongue now. His features twist as though he has a salty tang in his mouth as well.
Mellcom went about his business in the kitchen, leaving Jeremiah to leer over me and cuss me seven ways to the stars.
You stupid, crazy bitch.
I pulled myself up, stomped to my room, and stayed there for the day, figuring that was all I’d get for something as simple as laughing.
I was wrong.
He snatched me out of my bed that night and dragged me to his room. I fought and shrieked the entire time as he tied me to the end of his frame.
My heart pounded in my throat just as it’s doing now.
The thud has me taking an unconscious step toward him.
Unlike now, in that moment, I was scared shitless for whatever he had planned next, but I didn’t let him see that through my glare.
Imagine my surprise, disgust, and honestly, even more heartbreak as he marched back into his room with a giggling Danica on his arm.
All those years, I used her crush on Mellcom as an excuse for why I couldn’t be friends with her. She tried and tried to make amends after our insignificant fallout.
In that moment, her eyes held mine as he stripped her shirt away, and I knew I was always right. I may not have wanted friendships, but obviously, my gut knew she wouldn’t have made a good friend, anyway.
I sat there, stoic—numb—as he bent her over the side of his bed and fucked her right there beside me. We stared into each other’s eyes the entire time with very similar emotions but for very different reasons.
Same as we’re doing presently.
Our disgust and disappointment are mutual, I suppose.
When he asked if I thought this was funny, I should’ve said no. Instead, of course, my big mouth said, “funniest three minutes ever.”
He pulled out of her, shot his nasty-ass cum all over me, then left me there. Mellcom came and untied me in the morning. He wouldn’t let me shower before training.
He knew what Jeremiah had done.
My face falls unnaturally still and lethally serious as I force the memory out of my mind. It’s challenging to do when the person who caused that dreadful experience is standing a mere foot from me.
“Is he dead?”
His body flinches. “That would make you so—”
“Is. He. Dead?”
The breath he takes is so harsh, his chest expands and his nostrils flare.
“No, he was taken when all the others starshot away.”
My gaze scans the bloodstained, empty battlefield again.
That’s what the God of Obliteration did when he flicked his wrist.
“Then you and your Valtrue have a chance to get him back.”
“That’s taurnshit. After every fucking thing he’s done for—”
My fist cuts his shout off mid-sentence, and my body follows him to the ground. The screams leaving my throat are raw and overwhelming. I let the heartbreak of this whole damned day surface and erupt out of me.
I chant ‘fuck you’ with every landed strike.
“Take another step toward her, and I will cut your head off.”
My eyes whip to those calm, deadly words spoken through Kyzen’s lips. His sword presses against Mara’s throat, and with one wrong swallow, she’ll earn herself a deep, unhealable cut.
I sneer at the tears welling in her eyes.
Pitiful.
Strong arms wrap around my stomach, and my body becomes bathed in a power that makes my blood sing. Creed’s chest lifts me with each of his struggling breaths.
“Enough,” Gladian barks as he stomps toward us until he’s standing with what’s left of his Valtrue.
Kyzen scoffs at him but removes his sword and moves to Amick’s side.
Deep in my mind, I know I should rein him in, but first, I have to figure out how to rein myself in.
“Three dead from the stronghold. According to them, a small entourage escorted him here but didn’t make a move until they crossed back over. He gave them the go-ahead and immediately attacked. Either he knew one of you was going to follow or he planned on letting his army break through today.”
We all spare Gladian a minuscule amount of attention as we turn and head toward the barrier. Creed puts me on my feet after I tap his arm for the twelfth time, and we wordlessly continue stomping away.
I’m not sure any of us can form words right now.
Between the havoc in my soul, the madness in my mind, and the worry in my heart, nothing will come out as it should.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Gladian’s voice carries to us, but its echo fades as we cross through the barrier.
The second the warm embrace releases us, Creed grips my elbow and tugs me closer.
“What the hell happened, Amick?” Kyzen asks, low and icy.
“I don’t know.”
“What do you mean you don’t know? Seduction claimed—”
“I’m well aware of what she claimed, Kyzen. I was standing right there.”
“Then what did you do?”
The two of them slam to a stop and stare one another down. The accusation coming from Kyzen has the tension in my chest nearly suffocating me. My soul shudders from the hurt that flashes across Amick’s face.
“You…think I did something.”
My shoulders shake as my eyes bounce between them. Kyzen’s stern glare fractures, but I can’t get my whirlwind of emotions to slow.
That apparently displeases Creed to no end.
He snatches me away from them and ignores the glare I’m giving him for his manhandling.
“A little fucking help would be nice.” He growls, and I jerk my elbow from his grip.
“Well, what the hell do you need help with?” I ask in a tone as shitty as his.
He cuts his eyes at me, but there’s no heat or anger reflected at me. I actually scoff at the tender look on his face.
“I now see where the difference lies.”
My gaze snaps to Derivius, and I find him already staring at me.
“What does that mean? And where were you this whole time?”
“Right here. I couldn’t cross that barrier with all of you. For multiple reasons.”
“Why—”
“We don’t have time for this. Can you settle down whatever power this is coming out of her so we can get to the house and figure out our next steps?”
I bristle at Amick’s tone and what came out of his mouth.
“There’s no way I just heard you right. I know for a fact, Amick, you haven’t been working with me for a week on accepting my power, and now you’re telling him to restrain it the second it gets too chaotic.”
“This isn’t Chaos, and I’m not—”
“This is exactly that. I’m sorry mine isn’t giggles and cute, deadly creatures that you’re all so used to, but this is my Chaos.”
The rolling in my belly slows with the recognition.
He, Creed, and Kyzen examine me with varying degrees of confusion. The pain, anger, panic, and multiple other things we’re all experiencing trample through my chest, and my soul doesn’t know which rope to focus on.
“That’s the difference we all didn’t recognize. Where Riven’s Chaos intensifies the emotions in the air, Thayla pushes her emotions onto others,” Derivius states.
Shit, I didn’t realize that.
No wonder everyone was on their knees crying.