Chapter 38 Thayla #2
“Valveilious, mostly. There’s been some shifts in the Domain Gods’ dynamic.
” He arches a brow at us, but we don’t say a thing.
“And I’ve been attempting to get this Worthiness taurnshit revoked, but the others won’t budge.
I know my silence has been upsetting all of you.
I’ve heard your words and I’m sorry for that.
I didn’t mean for it to last this long, but I’ve tried not to draw any extra attention toward you.
“Harriseen is a sneaky fuck who’s done a marvelous job at hiding whatever his true ulterior motive is.
He’s earned a lot of favor in the last few days, and the gods, Beginning and Domain, are in favor of this, hence why I’ve called you here.
I just left them at the Neutral. We’re to reconvene during the measuring and discuss the Valtrues as the results come in. ”
“Gods.” Kyzen and Amick release my hands as I fling them to my head and grip my roots.
“You all are mind fuckers, you know that. I mean, when you say stuff like that or when you say you’re going to run interference, I don’t understand.
Are the seven—well, six of you—actually getting together at a fucking round table and talking shit out? ”
“Yes, actually.”
My hands drop from my head and I stare at him, dumbfounded.
“You’re serious?”
“I am. We made an agreement many millennia ago—a powerful agreement, mind you, not just a verbal one—that no matter how we felt about one another, if something happened that could change the trajectory of the realm, we’d come together.
Even if it was about one of us. Have no fear, it’s purely selfish on all our parts. Change in the realm changes us.”
“How can you sit across a table from them and make decisions for the realm?”
There’s no accusation in my quiet question. It’s genuine confusion. I’ve seen the hatred in his eyes that he has for Obliteration and Seduction. I could never put my differences aside and speak to them calmly.
“I don’t have a choice. I know the boys have explained the gist of my disownment to you. The realm is forbidden from worshipping me, my temples—aside from this one—have been obliterated, and I am essentially their slave. I do as they call and command. Within reason of the disownment, that is.
“There is a formal agreement in place that prohibits them from actually making me a slave. Their beckoning must be reasonable. Obliteration and Seduction could never order me to the Abandon to do as they say, but like the quest for the Binding and how K put me in charge, those sorts of things I must adhere to.”
“So I understood when Kyzen explained why you couldn’t come with us to the Abandon, but essentially, every time you’ve told us you can’t step in, you really can’t? You have to be sneaky in the way you help us or do anything because it’ll get you in more trouble?”
“That’s correct. And Valories know I can create trouble for myself as it is.”
“If you just left a meeting with them, it wouldn’t be hard for them to find out you’ve come here. So what was your point in calling us here an hour before the measuring?” Amick asks.
Derivius tightens his lips and drops his head for a moment. His shoulders rise and fall as he takes measured breaths. The crumbling look on his face both worries and confuses me.
“There’s no getting you all out of this. A couple of the Beginning Gods…don’t know you’re in a completed Valtrue yet. When your results come across, more so Thayla’s since she’s the Binder, there’s no telling how the other two are going to react.”
“The other two? Which ones are you talking about?”
My question has the guys growing tense and the shock written across their faces doesn’t come close to matching what’s racing through their souls. A flare of panic, which I don’t understand, ignites in each of them.
“I’ve done everything I could to keep your father and her distracted as well as done everything they’ve told me to do. They’ve been searching the Abandon nonstop for the missing Binding, but as soon as your results come through, they’re going to know the truth and come looking themselves.
“They’ll finally tell the others what happened and then they’ll side with the two of them about whatever they plan to do with you. Consequence and I will be outvoted. I’m sorry to put you all on the spot like this, but you need to tell her this last truth. Prepare her.”
My entire body flinches with the rush of emotions that spear me through my chest. They’re so sharp, they steal the air from my lungs.
“What in the realm are you talking about? What is he talking about?” I frantically ask the guys.
What damn truth now?
All I hear is their heavy breaths.
I gulp as Kyzen steps in front of me. His face is shrouded in hatred. Not aimed at me, I don’t even believe at Derivius.
He grips the back of my neck and tugs me until our lips crash together. My hand lands against his heart and I try my damnedest to calm its erratic beat.
“This is not how I wanted you to find out. If I’m being completely honest with you, I’d have never told you.”
For the Valories. What the hell? It can’t be that bad.
He releases me and takes a step back. My ears ring as Amick and Creed step up beside him in a line of solidarity that has my insides shaking.
“Our mother is the Goddess of Creation. Who is, and has always been, madly in love with our father,” he says through gritted teeth.
My heart does a flip and sinks through my stomach as they caress my soul, then they turn their attention to Riven.
My worried gaze jerks to him.
He’s staring Derivius down. There’s a tremor in his hands that I’ve never seen before.
He bows his head, then turns toward me.
“The Goddess of Accord. Who…” He pinches his eyes shut.
“Is the love of my life. Always has been and always will be,” Derivius whispers.
“What?” I breathe.
I don’t know who to look at or what to focus on.
Their souls are running rampant in my chest to the point I can’t draw in a full breath.
“I need some sort of explanation.”
“There isn’t much to explain. Our mothers are pieces of shits.
One, ours,” Creed says as he motions his hand between Kyzen, Amick, and himself, “has a fucking skewed view of everything our father does. Even when it comes to us. She pretends everything is done out of love. Which is fucking disgusting. Riven’s has no fucking emotion left in her. She’s nothing but a damn—”
“That’s enough, Creed,” Derivius warns.
“No, it’s not enough. Quit fucking defending her, Derivius. I understand now more than ever before why you do it. I’d defend Thayla with my dying breath, but what I wouldn’t allow her to do is treat a child the way she treated Riven. Ever.
“Now you’ve come to warn us they one, haven’t been informed we’re in a completed Valtrue, and two, they also don’t know we broke the fucking rules and saved him from the Abandon.
You know good and damn well, Accord is going to lay the fucking law down about that.
Valories, not to mention, if she finds out we gave ourselves power out of the Binding and our Binder is tied to the Messenger, we’re really screwed. ”
Creed’s bellow has dust falling from the ceiling that may very well cave in at any moment. I swear, my lungs attempt to match the heavy breaths he’s taking, but I can’t.
“How did we break the rules by saving Riven?” I ask.
That’s the main thing that stuck out to me.
“He was technically taken under fair circumstances. The Binding was tampered with. That was a breach of the original agreement for us going on that quest. In her eyes, she’ll view it as we broke the agreement by not allowing him to fulfil his consequences,” Amick says.
“Told you, little burden. Accord isn’t emotional. It only cares for agreement, alignment, and clarity.”
“Riven—”
“Don’t.” He shakes his head, cutting off whatever Derivius may have wanted to say.
“I’m so confused and have so many questions.”
“Well, Big DD here could give you all kinds of answers. Why don’t you tell her the fucking truth? Your truth. Why don’t you tell her how my mom fucked—”
“Riven,” I mumble. The louder he shouts, the more Derivius slouches in on himself. “I know you’re upset. I’m upset. His story is for him to tell, though. Don’t say something you’re going to regret.”
He balls his fists at his sides.
“Fine. I’m done with this conversation. Thanks for the fucking warning.”
I spin on my heels as Derivius calls for Riven to come back, but it doesn’t matter. He’s already out through the threshold and if the door wasn’t made of pure stone, he’d slam it shut.
The only thing that keeps my feet from following him is the frantic caresses he’s sending down my soul. I respond to each one.
“I’ll go after him.” Creed grunts, giving Derivius the realm’s smallest nod and me the realm’s quickest kiss.
“So you’re warning us this because you’re worried how our mothers are going to react? As in you think they care enough to come down here and actually lay their eyes on us. Or will it be simply from concern because of Thayla? What?” Amick asks.
“All of that. I’m also worried K is going to convince them you all are too strong not to be more closely monitored.”
“Closely monitored? What the fuck does that mean?” Kyzen asks.
“It—”
“There’s a clause in the agreement made on our behalf that states if it seems our powers are growing closer to what they were when we were in the Abandon, we may need to be relocated out of the Godsdawn and be placed with one of them in Valveilious or return to the Abandon.”
“What?” Kyzen and I ask as we stare at Amick’s cold, calculated face.
“Whose side is the God of Consequence truly on Derivius?”
“On ours. He knows K and Seduction are too far gone.”
“You’re one hundred percent certain about that?”
Kyzen and I continue to flick our gaze between the two of them. We’re now equally lost on why this is even important.
“Yes. Why are you asking, Amick?”
My face flushes as nerves cascade down my body when Amick looks at me with so much…worry, admiration, devotion. Hell, the man is staring at me like I’m his reason for breathing.
I move to his side without a second thought.
“After our results come through, inform the other Beginning Gods that my brothers and I are invoking our right under the Law of Doppia Disaccord.”
A slow, mischievous smile curls across Derivius’s lips. His steps toward us are calculated and precise. One of his hands lands on Amick’s shoulder while the other cups my cheek, then he tugs Kyzen closer to us.
“I knew you’d figure it out, my boy.”
“Took me long enough.”
“Perfect timing.”
He slowly backs away from us with a whole new attitude than the one he’s had the entire time since we walked in here.
“You best be going. You don’t want to be late and give ol’ Harriseen any excuse to use against you. I’ll see you all soon.”
With that, he starshoots away. I don’t do anything but stare at the spot he was in, then around at the rest of his last remaining temple.
This is depressing.
I really, really want to know what happened that landed him in this predicament.
“What have you done, Amick?” Kyzen asks.
“We don’t have time to discuss that right now. Plus, we need to be prepared for however they’re going to react.”
“Then fucking reassure me, whatever you just decided for us is a good thing.”
Kyzen’s frustration is evident. It’s racing across my chest, but completely opposite to that is Amick’s contentment. My gaze locks on his. He runs his thumb across my lips as a smile takes over his.
He glances at Kyzen and nods once.
“I gave us our way out of the agreement they made on our behalf. I promise to explain it all as soon as the measuring is over.”
A surprised laugh belts out of Kyzen. He covers his smile with his hand, but he can’t hide the happiness in his eyes.
“You’re serious? That’s what you’ve been working on?”
“What’s he been working on?” Creed asks as he and Riven come stomping back into the temple, looking far angrier than these two are now.
Just because I’m getting distracted by this fantastic news, we still have a lot to talk about.
“He found a way out of the arrangement made for us. He just told Derivius to throw it in the others’ faces.”
Kyzen doesn’t restrain his laughter any longer as he wraps his arms around Amick and me. His body and soul vibrate with an elation I could bathe in.
Creed and Riven ask a hundred questions, but that doesn’t stop them from also wrapping their arms around us. My nose smashes into Amick’s chest as I’m literally squashed between their massive-ass bodies.
I turn my head and rest my cheek against his heart and just…listen.
I listen to its beat and the happiness bleeding through all four of their voices. My eyes drift shut as his soul grows bright with the feeling of acceptance.
Honestly…
I believe this is the most I’ve ever heard them compliment him.
Not only him. Each other.
Valories. They deserve for this to work in their favor.