Chapter 4 Creed #2
“I’m not sure if your coming with us on our quest gave you some false sense of forgiveness, but I promise you, Gladian, we haven’t forgiven or forgotten. Our hands are tied. We can’t kill you and get away with it.
“So yeah, I would—I will—leave your Valtrue member in the Abandon to rot in whatever hell my father’s putting him through. The only thing that will change that is Thayla expressing outright that she doesn’t want to leave him behind. You’ll find out her decision when we return.”
I let my gaze roam over their Valtrue.
Starting with Mara.
My threat, warning, dislike for her, whatever you want to call it, is clear in my eyes. It’s shocking her soul is still in such good shape with the personality and mentality she has.
Honestly, I don’t know how Chasin ended up with the lot of them. He’s never snide or threatening. The gods fucked something up for him.
Jeremiah’s shaking in his skin, and his fists clench at his sides.
“He’s my—”
“Shut your mouth and don’t say another damn word unless it’s explaining to me what the hell you two did,” Gladian sneers, cutting the piece of shit’s sentence short.
Obviously, he’s pissed, but there’s something else lingering in his gaze that I can’t quite put my finger on. Nor do I care to sit around and wait for him to explain.
The finality in my words leaves no room for argument, and we don’t wait to give them a chance to come up with one.
The hallways and chambers are deafeningly quiet and emptier than I’ve ever seen them. The lack of distraction makes my eye twitch and my soul ruffles around restlessly.
“Walking or starshooting?” I ask as we reach the exit of the Court.
“Walk,” Amick answers, and I sigh.
“Go ahead. I’ll walk with him.” Kyzen offers.
I don’t know whether I’m happy there’s life back in his eyes or not.
We’re going to need the side of himself that he hates once we get back to the Abandon.
Sourness spreads across my stomach as my power wraps around me and carries me right outside Riven’s door.
Valories, what I wouldn’t do for him to just…
The rapid hope followed by the swift disappointment, then the rush of surprise overwhelms me all in the matter of a second.
“How did you get into his room?”
“Fuck!” Thayla squeals as she jumps, accidentally slamming his door. “You scared the shit out of me. Where did you come from?”
“I starshot in as soon as you came out. How did you get in there?”
I tighten my lips. The accusation in my tone was strong. If I didn’t notice it on my own, the warning glare she’s giving me would spell it out.
“I fell through the door while I was banging on it, asshole.”
My fingers latch onto the backpack strap across her shoulder, and I snatch her fiery ass to my chest. Before she can open that mouth of hers, I slam mine against her.
The maps slip from my fingers as I tangle them in her hair and tilt her head back so I can have all the access to her I want.
There isn’t anything gentle or sweet about my kiss.
I’m fucking livid with the day. She’s understandably high-strung, and for a moment, I need to be lost in her embrace. My soul needs to smother hers completely.
Her heavy breaths swiftly turn into a hiss when I break our kiss and bite her lip.
“I didn’t mean for it to sound like that. I was shocked to see you come out of his room. We don’t have permission to enter it.”
“What?”
“He revoked it a couple of years ago. It’s probably been five or six years now since we’ve been in there.”
“Do you really think I have permission, or my power did something funky and let me in?”
“Did it hurt passing through? Like it was rejecting or trying to force you back?”
“No. I was literally flipping out and threw myself against it, but I just passed right through.”
“Then he’s given you permission to be in there.”
Her breath shudders across my lips, and her soul pinches tight. I wrap my hand around her neck and pull her close.
“We’re going to get him back. I swear.”
She nods, exhaling hard enough that it vibrates my rib cage. A throat clears behind us, and I reluctantly let her go.
“Thought you two were walking back?”
“Her soul finally sent a much more receptive feeling. I needed to see what happened.” Amick’s face falls more relaxed—tender—than it has been all day as he observes every inch of her. “You feel better now.”
She doesn’t respond with words.
His eyes flare wide as she practically throws herself at him and drags his face down to hers. His body tenses for a split second.
Yeah, jealousy burns through my blood, but I still smirk as I watch him give in to her damn near instantly.
“There better be some of that left for me.”
Amick lays one more kiss against her lips before he turns her to face Kyzen. He’s trying his hardest to work up a smirk.
It’s falling short.
It takes him a moment to pull his hands free from his pockets, but once he does, they’re on her.
A moan slipping from her throat has me shaking my head, and Kyzen separates himself from her with a dangerous chuckle falling from his.
“I needed that more than you know, little goddess.”
“So did I. I’m sorry for earlier. I was freaking out—still am—but I got it under control now. I’m ready to go.”
Our small bubble of peace pops, and the fear, panic, and indescribable anger boil right back to the surface. Seriousness washes back over the three of us.
“We have five minutes until the others are supposed to be back. Let’s discuss some things before they arrive,” Amick says as he scoops the maps off the ground.
Before he can roll them out across the table, Thayla clears her throat.
“I don’t want Lambrit, Yemi, Rose, or Havar joining us. V, as much as I want you and Seismet there with me, I also don’t. It’s best you two stay as well.”
V hoots softly. “I’ll stay behind, but if you need me, you call.”
“Thank you,” she breathes. “Hopefully, the others are that agreeing.”
My brothers and I exchange looks.
Kyzen takes the lead.
“Lambrit, Rose, and Havar will stay behind. We talked to them as soon as we left.”
Her exhale is cut short the second she notices what he left out.
“And what did Yemi say? There’s no damn way she’s going to talk Havar, Sevryn, and me into agreeing she goes.”
Kyzen rubs the back of his neck, and she grips the back of the chair as she stares him down.
“Havar put up a small fight.”
She slams the chair into the dining room table and immediately starts pacing as she runs her fingers through the loose strands of hair around her face.
“Gods damn it!”
“Thayla.”
“No, Amick. I don’t want reason or advice right now. She isn’t freaking going. End of discussion.”
“Listen to me, Mysenta, and listen well. I’m going to say what I want to say right now while the others aren’t here.”
“What would it matter if the others were here or not? I’m not changing my mind.”
“It matters because I’ll never, ever, call you out in front of mixed company.
In the eyes of them—your friends—other gods, whoever it may be, I’ll always, undeniably, have your back.
In the comfort and privacy of our home, I’ll tell you when you’re in the wrong. You’re wrong to stop Yemi from coming.”
“How? How am I wrong? This is so dangerous on so many levels. She could get hurt.”
“She could. Any of us could.” His eyes soften when her body flinches.
“Accept not only that, but the fact of the matter is, Yemi was chosen and paired to you as your Attendant. That in its core, original sense means there’s a strength in Yemi that can match your own.
That doesn’t necessarily mean power, but we don’t know that because one, she doesn’t have all her power and two, she’s been too fearful to let out what she has.
“Have more faith in her than what you’ll show her you have by denying her this.
She stated she wants and is okay to go. Don’t undermine her decision and make her feel weak because you’re fearful she may get hurt.
You’d never allow one of us to get away with making you feel that way.
I can’t let you get away with doing that to your best friend. ”
Her shoulders slump and her hands fall from her hips. A denial rages in her eyes, but eventually, she gives up her fight.
“Damn it, Amick. I hate that you’re right.”
“You should be used to that by now. I’m right far more often than I am wrong.”
Her snort forces her pinched lips to curve into a grin, and I roll my eyes.
Her ass never gives up that easily with me.
I swear to the Valories she gets turned on by our spats.
I mean…I can’t say I don’t, but whatever.
My annoyance flares at the knock on the door, and I suppress my sigh when Kyzen goes to answer it.
Fuck, how can five minutes go by so fast?
Everyone other than Sevryn surrounds Thayla, and her shoulders bunch up. They obviously can sense that her Chaos is under control now. Earlier, they were giving her space that I think she both wanted and was offended by.
She forces her face to stay unbothered, but their undivided attention is doing nothing but overwhelming her again.
“Come here, Thayla, and look over this map.”
She doesn’t scoff, glare, or balk at my command as she gives her friends’ hands quick squeezes before snuggling to my side.
I suck in a harsh breath as the little tease brushes her soul up against mine.
“I’ll be honest with you all about a couple of things. One, I can’t read this map. I don’t know what I’m looking at. Two, I couldn’t focus much on what all you have and haven’t decided on. I heard Amick disagree with multiple things thrown out, but I didn’t comprehend shit.”
“You didn’t miss much. We’re still at square one. Now that we have Creed’s map of the Abandon, we may be able to see the safest route.”
“And quickest.”
“Amick,” Kyzen huffs and pinches his nose.
Her attention bounces between them, easily picking up on their disagreement that followed us into this conversation.
“What’s the biggest obstacle standing in our way of nailing down a plan?”
“Getting there without being detected. We want the element of surprise. K, Seduction, and Riven all know we’re coming. There’s no doubt in any of their minds, but the when is the question. If the five of us use our power to get there, we give ourselves away,” I tell her.
“Five? Oh fuck, Sevryn, I forgot you have a piece of shit father over there too.”
“That I do. We also don’t know if the God of Judgment relayed the message to him that I’m dead, but regardless, if I use my power over there too soon, he’ll know.”
“Lovely. I assume, Kyzen, that’s what you meant by safest?”
He nods, as does she before she carries on.
“So we need to—hold on. Wait. You all go to the Abandon to fight. You also go for…other reasons. How do you…”
Her words trail off, but she’s working it out in her mind.
The glare she aims at me is unholy.
She could earn the title Goddess of Death from that look.
“Am I just now working out that your father knows every single time you go to the Abandon? And yet you still do it by yourself with no backup. Are you fucking kidding me, Creed?”
The desire to defend myself and my actions is strong.
The reality that one of our greatest fears has come true makes me take a ragged breath.
“From now on, I’ll go about it differently.”
“You bet your ass you will.”
Valories, that mouth of hers is as addicting as the way she’s stroking my soul.