Chapter 27 Creed #2
The wood of my favorite spatula groans from the grasp I have on it. I point it at his ass and lower my voice.
“If you ever do some shit like that again without all of us there, I will beat you so fucking bad, you have to spend a week in the healing villas. I’m not playing with you.”
The asshole scrunches his nose at me.
“That’s a little excessive all over waking you up to make some cookies.”
“I’m not talking about the gods damn cookies.”
“Lower your voice.”
My head jerks toward Amick, and I release a deep breath as he peers around the corner and down Thayla’s hallway.
“You’re mad at me for killing the God of Shadows?”
“No.”
“Yes.”
We both spare Amick a look, then meet each other’s glares again.
“If you’re not mad at me for killing him, then what the hell is this hissy fit about? Because I was the one who got Thayla out of her room?”
My soul twitches and I slowly lower my spatula to the counter.
Every step I take toward him is measured. I try my fucking hardest to get a grip on my anger.
It’s a slippery bitch.
“Hissy fit? You think I’m throwing a hissy fit?”
“Yes.”
“Fuck you, Riven.”
“Fuck me? Seriously?”
“Yes, seriously. Fuck you for once again doing something that could’ve gotten you killed. You think because the outcome is positive that excuses the fact you, again, did something that could’ve taken you from us.”
“Oh my gods, you’re being dramatic. I literally took Kyzen with me as backup.”
“Yeah, and what if something had happened to him?”
“Nothing was going to happen to him.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Ah, I see. You’re mad I took him instead of you. Is that it?”
“Don’t, Riven. Don’t taunt him right now.”
“Stay out of it, Amick. If the big bad God of Death wants to throw threats of ass beatings out, he can admit what’s made him so sensitive.”
My eyes blaze white as my power ruffles itself out in my chest. I keep a tight hold on it and don’t allow it to seep from my skin. No matter how much his irises swirl, I don’t relent my grip.
“That’s exactly why you should’ve taken me. Because I’m the God of Death.”
“Sorry to burst your big little ego, brother, but snatching Obsidian’s soul wouldn’t have worked. He never would’ve let you close enough to try.”
“It might not have been his soul I needed to fucking…”
I trail off, sucking in a deep breath as I take a step away from him. My hands tangle in my roots as I turn back toward the kitchen.
I can’t do this. I’ll fucking punch him. Then that’ll stress Thayla out if she hears us fighting.
Just cook. Ignore him.
“What the hell are you trying to get at? You would’ve what? Snatched my soul and brought me back from the dead. That’s kind of crazy, you know.”
My head bows and shakes as I grip the counter.
He doesn’t get it.
Honestly, I don’t think he understands at all.
I breathe through the fury burning inside of me. This is a conversation that needs to be had. We should’ve had it already. I just got to keep my cool to get through it.
“If you or Kyzen had died out there, I wouldn’t have been close enough to snatch the sliver of Thayla’s soul from either of you. Or yours, for that matter, if your body could’ve been healed.
“She is sealed to you now, Riven. Sealed, as in her soul is fully infused with yours. If something were to happen to your soul, hers is going to shred off, then enter the realm right along with yours. The only way to prevent that is if I’m there to snatch it out of existence, hold it, heal it, then give it back to her. ”
His eyes widen, then snap over to Amick’s harsh breath.
“If you were to do that, her soul would be damaged from ripping from his but not completely destroyed. Eventually, all the pieces living in us would heal it. Just like you explained when you were contemplating removing her pieces from us.”
“Yes, but now instead of wanting to remove her pieces, I want them to remain in us. Strong and complete like it is, but if something were to happen, I know what to do to protect her. I can’t fucking be left out of life-or-death situations.”
I sigh and make my way back to all the breakfast shit I have strung from one counter to the next.
Wordlessly, I finish getting everything ready.
Muffin mix gets poured in a pan. Eggs get whisked. Shit gets put away.
The silence that swarms me is deafening.
“Amick, go rearrange the living room however suits you. Riven, go bring your mattress and mine out here. Maybe if we make a fucking fort in the living room, she won’t lock herself away from us.”
That’s all the motivation Amick needed to get his ass going.
The sizzle of the meat hitting hot butter has my shoulders relaxing and my lids drifting shut.
“Creed.”
I don’t turn to look at him.
“What, Riven?”
“I know it seems like what I did was impulsive. Again. But I swear I put thought into it. I just didn’t think about or even consider that. In my mind, my best bet of survival was having Kyzen with me. Shadows don’t have souls, but they can be sliced apart.
“I also thought about the fact that if you were awake and moving around the kitchen, if some fucking asshole came in our house again, you’d protect Amick and Thayla. I was doing what I thought was right.”
My lips curl in as I flip the meat and slide the muffin tray into the cooker. I flex my fingers as I wipe them on my rag and face him.
“There’s no telling what’s going to come from this. We’ve obeyed all these years. We know—you know—what killing one Domain God and being caught could mean for us and our powers.”
“I do, but this was different. My powers didn’t stop me. They encouraged it. V agreed as well. No one knows where he lives and there’s no way for them to tie anything back to us. There’s only a trace of him left in the realm. I’ll keep it hidden.”
We both glance down at his wrist and my nostrils flare from my harsh sigh.
“Is that true, V? Was it really the right thing to do and what kind of shit can we expect from this?”
There’s no hoot, no flutter of wings or bright flash of light.
He’s kept a very low profile in his nook since the second Thayla asked him not to come back into her room.
He refuses to tell us why she doesn’t want to see him.
“There won’t be any consequences for you all to face from this. It was the right thing for the realm, and that’s why I agreed so easily.”
I nod. In a way to him and to Riven.
I can’t argue with him. Honestly, I don’t want to.
His literal purpose of existing is leading gods down the right path and if he says this was the right decision, that’s all I need to hear to justify it.
“I wouldn’t have stopped you. We both could’ve been honest with each other and gone from there. Next time, I need you to tell me where you’re going to be and who you plan on killing.”
He snorts and shoots me a smirk.
“You think that should be my new role? Taking out Domain Gods?”
I shrug. “Wouldn’t be the worst responsibility and it’ll make getting through our list quicker.”
“That shit keeps getting longer, doesn’t it?”
I choke down my chuff and turn back to my pans.
“Are we okay?”
My breath pours through my lips.
“Yeah, Chaos, we’re fine.”
I swear to the Valories…Chaos—in all manners—loves to tempt Death.
I don’t pay either of them any more mind as they rearrange the living room and I finish whipping up the feast at my fingertips.
Yeah, I may have gone a little overboard.
“Damn, it smells good in here,” Kyzen says as he inhales deeply. His stupid-ass smiles at the way my face falls when I realize he’s alone. “Don’t get your panties in a knot. She’s getting dressed and coming out. I was giving her some space and need to change myself.”
It’s only then that I notice his ass is soaked from head to toe in his clothes. I don’t complain about the water he’s getting all over the floor, though, seeing as he looks like a whole new man compared to the one who walked away with our Binder.
He isn’t relaxed in the I just had soul-shattering sex sense, but the everything’s going to be okay way.
I can live with that.
I’m desperate for it actually.
He makes his way through the house, chuckling as Amick fusses at Riven to stop flipping off the couches. He’s remade the bed three times now, and I see the color flaring on his neck.
“They’re more alike than they care to acknowledge.”
I hold in my shiver and make a conscious effort not to drop the plates I just made on the floor.
How the hell did she sneak up on me?
My soul rumbles in my chest when I turn to look at her. Her wet hair dangles down her back and only a small slip of shorts peeks out from underneath her shirt.
She has her face resting in her hands with her elbows propped on the counter. The tenderness in her tired eyes both guts and warms my heart.
That intense, fiery sensation that blasted through me in the meadows, slowly drifts across my chest now as she continues to watch them.
“Acknowledge, admit. They’d both deny it until they were blue in the face.”
She hums.
“Hope you’re hungry.”
She twists her head toward me as I take a step toward her.
“I am.” Her gaze darts to the plates in my hands, then back over to the living room. “I guess that big-ass palette out there is for me?”
“For us. All five of us.”
I no longer have reservations about this dynamic.
It will always be the five of us.
She holds my stare for a long moment. She searches.
My eyes. My soul. Everything.
I let her see whatever she wants to see.
“Okay.”
Okay…she’s going to be okay.
We’re all going to be okay.