Chapter 4 Creed
Creed
My rumbling groan echoes around Amick and me as we walk out the front door to follow Kyzen.
Everyone’s standing on our front lawn.
Waiting for us.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”
“Your irritation won’t help the situation.”
I don’t know how it’ll make anything worse.
I keep that thought to myself as we slow our steps and I cross my arms. We’ve been jumping down each other’s throats enough already.
Tensions are high and emotions are higher.
We’ve known a situation like this could happen. We’ve prepared for it.
Or so we thought.
You can tell yourself a hundred things you’d do, but you never know until you face it.
We faced it and failed.
For the last however long, we’ve done nothing but shoot down every plan formed, barked at each other, and grown more frustrated as the minutes tick on.
I’m trying my fucking hardest not to think about what Riven will go through until we can get to him, but my power is still riled up from being in the Abandon. It’s itching to get back.
Get him back.
I have every intention of leaving a trail of bodies behind once we reach him.
Until last night, I was on the fence about releasing more power. The thought of gaining new or enhancing my deadly abilities made—still makes—my stomach roll.
Now I’m ready to set this shit free. It’s taking everything in me not to gather my swords and leave on my own.
All I can do to keep my cool is remind myself how dangerous it already is every time I or all of us go over there. We’re more of a commodity now than ever before.
Most importantly…I keep mumbling in my mind that Riven isn’t a child anymore.
He’s the fucking God of Duality, and nothing will break him.
Well…the only one who can is currently losing her mind.
Kyzen shifts from side to side, standing a few feet away from the others. He won’t make eye contact with me, but there’s an emptiness in his glare, and a murderous frown contorts his face.
He hasn’t shoved his hands in his pockets. I guess right now he doesn’t care to get the ticks in his fingers under control.
“She won’t let me go, which I’m aware I’m overwhelmingly undertrained, but I can help anywhere else you need me to.”
Yeah, he’s definitely not fucking going.
Neither is his girlfriend.
Lambrit’s concern is glaringly obvious, but I don’t think it’s just for the state of emotional damn chaos Thayla is in. Riven has allowed him to get closer to him than any other god in Godsden aside from the Akovas. So I believe their friendship is reciprocal.
“Sevryn and I are going.”
“The fuck you are, Yemi. You’re staying right in your house with me until they return,” Havar barks, and my sigh draws all their attention.
I don’t give a shit to listen to their familial spat.
I have my own family member to go find and argue with.
“We need Sevryn’s assistance as he lived in the Abandon years after we left. We need his insights. Yemi’s abilities will come in handy as well,” Amick says.
“Yeah, okay. Thayla will agree with me. She’s not going.”
Havar attempts to storm past us, but Kyzen’s quick to step in his way.
“Don’t involve her right now.”
Havar huffs, ready to open his mouth again, but Amick beats him to it.
“Your protective instincts over your cousin are, I’m sure, endearing to her, but you have no argument for why she can’t go outside of your fear.
Which is fine, but she’s in a Valtrue with someone who can manipulate pain at a deadly level.
She’ll be fine. This conversation is tiresome and a waste of our time.
You all can continue this while we’re at the Court. ”
“There’s nothing else to discuss. I said Sevryn and I are coming. End of conversation. We’ll see you when you get back.”
Yemi grips Sevryn’s and Havar’s elbows, dragging them toward her house. Lambrit and Rose follow behind them with pinched smiles and tension-filled shoulders.
“Meet at the Court entrance,” I say as I command my power to wrap around me.
“I’m not starshooting. I’m walking.”
My nostrils curl at Amick. “Why?”
“I need a moment to clear my mind and focus on everything other than the strain in my soul. I’m struggling to think straight.”
“Is her power influencing you?” I ask.
“No. It isn’t her power. If the two of you haven’t noticed, her power levels are on par with ours now. It’s just her. She continues to stroke my soul, I believe mindlessly, and it’s distracting. It’s as though she’s fearful we’re about to be snatched away from her as well.”
“Is she doing the same to you, Kyzen?”
“Yes, it’s…” He exhales and tightens his lips into a thin line. “It’s the only thing keeping me here. You?”
“Yeah,” I grunt.
I don’t elaborate more than that. Although I know they feel her on a deeper level now, I honestly wish they could sense her soul and emotions the way I do.
The true depth of her feelings for us is far greater than she’s ever expressed.
We’ve never in our lives had someone care so fearlessly about us. Derivius, the Akovas. They’re exceptions, but that’s a different kind of care.
Hers is…fierce, explosive, consuming.
We’re as much hers as she is ours.
She may not be the best with words, Valories know I’m not, but who the fuck needs words when you can feel someone’s entire being going crazy because a part of them is missing.
She’s ready to rip the realm to shreds to get him back, and damn if that doesn’t do something to my tarnished soul.
Every time her possessive gaze ran across one of us, I felt it.
Her attention has a weight to it.
I want to be fucking smothered by it.
I need my eyes back not only on her, but on her string of soul that connects to my heart.
Then, I need us to fucking leave and make our way to my brother.
The walk to the Court is strenuous for Kyzen and me. Neither of our shoulders relax, nor do we speak. Amick’s face continues smoothing out as though this walk provided him the distance he needed to get his thoughts straight.
Thank fuck.
Now we can make an actual plan and get the hell out of here.
It’s not that the maps he has are inaccurate. The landmarks, paths, structures, all of that nuance is correct.
What they’re missing is the information I’ve gathered on the countless occasions I’ve gone there alone.
I bet they regret all those times they jumped down my throat about doing what I do now.
“Move.”
The waste of space gods scurrying out of my way as we stomp toward the chamber Gladian and I used to hold our meetings in.
The second we turn the corner, my vision blurs, and my power tries to rush to the surface as pure fucking rage ignites under my skin.
This disrespectful, entitled asshole.
My lethal glare pins Gladian and his Valtrue in place where they’re already leaning over my maps.
My nostrils flare at the minuscule glance Gladian offers me when he looks up.
“About time. I was wondering—what do you think you’re doing, Creed?”
I ignore his shrill of my name as I snatch up my map and grab the other off the wall. My shoulders brush against my brothers as I stomp past them to get back out of the room.
They fall in stride with me silently.
I don’t have it in me to engage with the God of Strength right now.
I’ll fucking kill him.
“You don’t have the right to just take that for yourself. Don’t make me get the High Chancellor involved. He’s content with us working together on this.”
Our footsteps slam to a halt, and Kyzen finally slides his hands into his pockets.
Yep. The God of Strength is barking up the wrong damn tree today.
My jaw locks tight as we turn back to face him, Mara, Chasin, and Thayla’s pathetic fucking ex. I don’t know if it’ll come unhinged to allow me to speak.
“The only reason this map exists is because he goes across that barrier. Alone. On his own. You have a right to nothing at all. Do as you wish. Get the High Chancellor, the Beginning Gods, whoever you want involved. It won’t change a thing.”
Gladian balls his fists and narrows his eyes at Amick.
Be smart, God of Strength.
You don’t want to tempt death today.
“You all know good and well I won’t sit back while you go rescue your brother and leave my Valtrue member behind.
You can’t do this alone. We all know Riven was taken to Seductions and there’s a good chance Mellcom has been too.
I’ve already assembled two completed Valtrues to accompany us. We need each other.”
“Wrong,” Kyzen grunts. “You may need us, but we don’t need you. You think just because you can throw the word Seductions around, you know what you’re talking about, but you don’t have a fucking clue.”
“If we see your treacherous Valtrue member, we’ll let our Binder decide if he can come back or not,” Amick tacks on.
“He isn’t a fucking traitor. He got taken.”
Gladian throws his hands in the air as his bellow travels down the chambers. Footsteps around the corner shuffle in a hurry, exposing their eavesdropping and scaring the shit out of them.
Pathetic Defenders.
Regardless, his little tantrum has my head tilting a fraction as my gaze jerks from him to Jeremiah.
I can’t wait until Thayla gives one of us permission to kill him or Amick snaps on his own.
He’ll be the least likely to get any shit from her.
I settle the wrath brewing in me enough to speak.
“You’re as lousy as you were the day you set foot in this region, and your soul is even more tainted. You know what you’ve done was cowardly and wrong, or you would’ve told the rest of your Valtrue the truth by now.”
Gladian’s eyes narrow as they drift to Jeremiah and then back to me.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
I point my finger at Jeremiah’s paling face.
“Your Valtrue members put my Binder’s blood in the Volreen without her knowledge.
They’re in cahoots with a higher-up god, and that’s how they got here.
I hate to say I’m thankful for something as atrocious as that, but I know I got the realm’s greatest Binder out of their betrayal.
Then you took it upon yourself to fucking whip her.