Chapter 23 Thayla
Thayla
My amazing—orgasmic—morning quickly drifted into a strained, silent afternoon as Amick threw himself into work.
Whatever was written on that slip of parchment that Lambrit wouldn’t let me read had his mind whirling.
It still is.
At dinner, he told us all he had to talk to us about it, but for the past five minutes since we gathered in the living room, he’s been cataloging the bookshelf.
“Thank you,” I murmur as Creed passes me a mug of tea and sits beside me on the couch.
“Where’s mine?” Riven asks as he pops up from his spot on the other one.
“You said you didn’t want anything.”
“No, I said I didn’t want tea. I figured you were going to make something else.”
“Well, that’s what you get for assuming rather than using your words like a big boy and asking for something.”
Kyzen and I chuckle into our mugs as Riven and Creed have a stare off with one another.
My little psycho eventually rolls his eyes as he snatches his blanket off the couch and marches over to me. My squeal echoes around us as he lifts me up and places me back on his lap.
“Riven, you’re spilling my drink.”
“I’m aware. That shit just burned my toes. Could you lift your legs onto the ottoman? You’re making it quite difficult to get comfortable.”
“I was perfectly comfortable where I was.”
“Yeah, I could tell. Your spot looked inviting and I felt left out over there all on my lonesome.”
Creed and Kyzen scoff at him as I squirm around, attempting to get comfortable once again. I laugh at his ass as he groans with every move I make.
Eventually, we get situated where my legs are lying on top of his that are propped on the ottoman, and I lean back against him. His chiseled chest isn’t nearly as soft as the couch, but just as warm. I take a deep breath, inhaling how the blanket he cocoons around us smells like him.
My body blazes as Creed’s hand grips one of my thighs and in scary synchrony, Kyzen grabs the other. I clutch my mug to my chest and try my damnedest not to fidget as they mindlessly trace patterns on my skin.
I don’t think either of them notice that the other is doing the same thing. There’s enough distance between their hands that they wouldn’t feel each other and the blanket hides my body from boobs down.
My breath shudders as Riven tucks his hands in the waistband of my shorts at my hips.
They’re trying to kill me.
Death by nonsexual but intimate touches.
“We’ve got a problem,” Amick says as he stands in front of the fireplace and faces us.
Creed huffs. “We always have a problem.”
I definitely have a problem right now…
“The High Chancellor brought a motion forward in last month’s meeting with the Chancellors to change the yearly completed Valtrue measuring to monthly. They held a secret meeting today and it passed.”
All the caresses across my body stop and their grips tighten enough to let me know whatever Amick’s talking about is bad news.
“What is or I guess was, yearly measuring?”
“All completed Valtrues would have to reoffer their blood to the Volreen. A new parchment would appear with your level of power on it,” Kyzen says through gritted teeth.
“Shit. My blood…Valories, none of our blood can go back into the Volreen.”
“Exactly.” Amick nods and I blow out a harsh breath.
“I clearly see why this is a problem, but I still don’t understand the measuring part. Does the parchment actually say, ‘So and so has this level of power?’”
“No. It restates your Designation and Domain. Along with it, it’ll list your abilities that have come from your power.
The more abilities or the more detailed your abilities are, will give a measure of how close you are to being fully powered.
For example, my previous ‘Deliverance’ stated that I could read an entire page of text in four seconds.
If I were to be measured now, the High Chancellor would see it’s vastly less time. ”
My mouth parts. “I didn’t know you all had Deliverances.”
“They weren’t real Deliverances. Not like what you got coming out of the Veil. Derivius just wrote some stuff about us and gave it to the High Chancellor.”
Kyzen sits up beside me until his elbows rest on his knees and his clasped hands tap against his mouth. My mind spins.
“You haven’t been tested since then because you weren’t a completed Valtrue and you’ve been lying to Harriseen about your abilities.
So he doesn’t have any real idea about your power, but if we’re tested, he finds out everything.
But wait—how does he even know gods’ abilities to begin with? That isn’t on our Deliverance.”
The four of them share a look that I’ve learned by now.
“What? What haven’t you all told me?”
“It’s not that we were purposely not telling you.
It hasn’t been relevant or brought up,” Kyzen says and I arch my brow at him.
“When an ability finally comes forth after a Veiling, you’re supposed to report it.
It’s a law actually in the Godsdawn. We had no intention of reporting yours and we didn’t.
The High Chancellor never brought it up directly. ”
“Well, he definitely knows I have power. If you don’t recall, he threatened—oh my gods.” I sit up, sloshing my tea all over Riven’s blanket. “Gladian reported me after the shit went down in the Court. What the hell did he say was my ability?”
Riven snickers behind me. “Stunned Chaos.”
“What?” I ask as I peer over my shoulder at him.
“How did you know that?”
My head snaps back toward Amick. “Why wouldn’t he know that?”
“I didn’t tell any of them.”
“Neither of you knew?”
Creed grunts. “Figured something had been reported, but those aren’t issues I get involved in. That’s Kyzen’s and Amick’s area of expertise.”
“I’m just finding out as well,” Kyzen says, scowling at Amick. “After that whole incident, yeah, I knew something had been reported. I figured we weren’t discussing it because whatever was said was a lie and we weren’t drawing attention to it.”
“I didn’t want attention drawn to her and that’s why I didn’t bring it up. At that time, we still didn’t know what her power really was and I wasn’t going to correct Gladian or the High Chancellor.”
“I appreciate that you were trying to keep attention off me, but you still should’ve told me.”
He tilts his head. “I see that now and I’m sorry. In my mind, it was safer that Gladian, Harriseen, and myself were the only people who knew. Well, and evidently Riven.”
Speaking of the sneaky little shit, he lets out a small laugh that has me bouncing on his legs. I glare over my shoulder at him.
“How did you know? And what does stunned Chaos even mean?”
“Oh, that doesn’t matter now.”
He flicks his wrist dismissively and I pinch the inside of his thigh. He hisses a slew of curses while trying to rub the pain away.
Which causes him to drag his arm against me, and I fight my body’s reaction.
I’m trying to be serious right now.
“Vicious, little burden. Gladdy told ol’ Harriseen your power held him stunned, but he felt the chaotic energy surrounding him. The two of them decided that was your ability.”
“That wasn’t even my Chaos. That was my Consequence.”
“Well, if you had read the book I had you acquire today, you would’ve learned that consequences can feel chaotic.”
I roll my eyes teasingly at Amick. The last thing I wanted to do after our mind-blowing sex was read about the Beginning God of Consequence.
“Okay, back to the problem at hand.”
“Thank you.” Amick sighs. “So issue one is this mandatory measuring is in two weeks. The second problem is he’s also requiring chosen Attendants to be measured as well.”
I fall completely still.
“Would Yemi being tested reveal everything going on with her?”
“More than likely yes. There’s no doubt the Volreen would reveal not only her unbound ability to speak on her Domain, but also the fact she has a completed Valtrue.”
Fuck.
“So what do we do? How do we get out of this?”
Amick shakes his head and my shoulders straighten as a pit builds in my stomach. The others tense around me.
He always has some sort of backup plan.
“The only solution I have as of right now is we refuse. What issues that brings about is unknown and very risky. The High Chancellor has the right to measure power. It’s written law.
He’s responsible for overseeing all Becoming Gods in the Godsdawn.
Technically, him requiring this isn’t breaking any rules, but he has motives he’s not being honest about for doing this. That’s very clear.”
Our heads pivot toward the entrance hallway at the sound of three gentle knocks at the door. Confusion crosses all our features.
“Are you expecting someone?” Creed asks me and I shake my head.
“Answer the door, little troublling.”
My body flinches at Derivius’s voice and I grab Kyzen’s hand as he steps over Riven’s legs to go see who it is. He tugs me up after I struggle to get the tangled blanket from around me.
“I was just told to go answer.”
His eyebrows draw down. “By who?”
“Chaos.”
They all get to their feet, but they allow me to walk the distance to the door on my own. I have every intention of laying into Derivius’s ass as soon as I lay my eyes on him.
We’ve all tried countless times to get in touch with him since we got Riven back. What have we got in return?
Silence.
“You’ve got some nerve—”
The words die on my lips the second I see all the people standing behind him.
My grip on the door tightens and my arm jerks with the need to grab a weapon that I don’t have on me.
“Hello, Thayla. I apologize for showing up unannounced.”
“What the hell is going on?”
My quiet question has a tense smile forming on his mouth. I gulp as my eyes roam across Gladian, Chasin, Jeremiah, Mellcom, and Mara. Her gaze holds mine, but I don’t know what the fuck her tight nod means.
Behind them…there are at least ten, maybe more, Dark Gods.
I instantly recognize the same ones who escorted us to the God of Obliteration’s temple. The others are a brutal bunch, ready and willing to start some shit.