Chapter 33 Amick
Amick
The heat slinking its way through my blood isn’t just because of the fiery bath the five of us are sitting in.
A foreign rage that I have no idea how to manage continues to burn through me as I track the invisible designs Riven’s and Creed’s fingers make on Thayla’s back.
How could this have happened?
She wasn’t the only one to get pulled overboard, but she was the only one not returned within seconds.
Brogden’s two crew members, Mara, and Jeremiah got pulled over by the Ravarie, but each was returned with a white tentacle instead of black wrapped around their waists.
She was gone for minutes.
I can’t imagine the way she feels right now.
The way that water stole the breath from my lungs had all logic leaving my mind. Her name bellowed from our lips every time we were returned, then we dove back in.
I’d face that icy fear a thousand times again for her.
“You okay back there, Candyman?”
My exhale leaves my lips slowly as she turns in Riven’s lap to face me. Neither his hand nor Creed’s budges. They just slide to her stomach. Kyzen moves in closer, running his hand up and down her leg as he tries to ground himself back to reality.
“No, I am not.”
Her gaze softens on me in a way that has my heat morphing from boiling to simmering.
“I can feel it. I just can’t tell if you’re that upset with me or the whole situation.”
“I’m upset whatever just happened to you happened, but I’m not upset with you. I despise many things, but I absolutely and utterly hate the thought, knowledge, and witnessing something bad happening to you. I feel it so strongly, I don’t know how to process it.”
“Amick…”
I shake my head. “You are the center of my realm, Mysenta. The thought that we’re sailing a deadly sea to another dead end is driving all other rational and logical thought from my mind. I can’t continue to waste time and risk losing you.”
Her gorgeous eyes well and I thank the Valories when color finally creeps into her cheeks. Her core body temperature was concerning me.
“We’re not on a dead end,” she whispers as she leans her body back.
“Stop grinding against me.”
“Just give me a second.”
She obviously can’t see behind her, but if she could, she’d see the relieved, caring smirk on Riven’s face that he usually only lets slip when he thinks none of us are paying him attention.
I always pay attention to him despite what he thinks.
“Shit, I thought I lost it and got scared there for a second.”
“You were scared you lost a rock? Did you pick it up off the sea floor?”
An oomph falls from Riven when Creed and Kyzen punch him in the ribs.
“Don’t make fucking jokes like that,” Creed grunts at the same time Kyzen says, “Too soon for jokes like that.”
I stare at the small square item pinched between her finger and thumb.
“It’s not a rock,” she says, then exhales.
The not rock expands right before our eyes, transforming into a perfect cube.
“An illusion cube. How in the realm did you get that?” I ask.
“I’ll explain everything in a second. Do I open it the way I closed it? Just put my hand on it?”
“Yes.”
She nods, then lays her hand on top of the box. I watch in utter fascination.
The illusion cubes were created prior to the time that beings had the power to starshoot their items. Once that ability manifested, these creations became a thing of the past.
I’ve only ever laid my eyes on one and it’s in the High Chancellor’s office.
I’ve had a dark desire to ask Riven to steal it for me, but I’ve never allowed myself to utter those words. Only keep the fantasy locked in my mind.
Now I’ll never have to worry about it. My Binder has one and I know she’ll share with me.
That thought is proven true when the sound of a lock clicking echoes around the bathroom, and without lifting the lid off, she passes me the cube.
“Oh, Amick, wait. You might want—”
I gasp and almost drop the precious package in the bath as power erupts through the room.
It pulses, syncing with my heartbeat and amplifying it tenfold.
My eyes swirl glittering gold as I peer down at the small globe that’s protectively surrounded by bronze casing. My hands carefully, slowly, grip it as I pull it free from the cube.
My power pushes forward and I dive headfirst into its truth as my gaze falls into the white essence of the Beginning Gods that swirl within it.
I grunt as the images and actions of this Binding roar across my mind. Vile, vile, unspeakable acts were committed with its power.
The capabilities, the possibilities with this are as endless as they are enlightening and endangering.
A strangled gasp falls from my chest as the Binding decides that’s all it wants me to see.
I pass it to Kyzen, who’s standing before me, concerned and ready to assist. He sets it back in the cube as I get to my feet and place my hands on my knees, then I draw in as much air as I can.
What I can and can’t speak of the truth settles over my mind and bile races up my throat. These aren’t necessarily secrets I’ll be keeping from my Valtrue, as none of it truly affects us, but it’s a devastating secret to keep all the same.
Water slooshes over the side of the bath as Thayla jumps to her feet and makes her way to me.
“Are you okay?”
“V,” I call out loud. “Get in here, V.”
The bright flash of light forces me to squeeze my eyes shut and I sway.
Thayla’s hand wraps around my bicep to hold me steady, and I slouch over the side of the bathtub.
“You’ve seen its truth.”
“I have. Some of it at least.”
“The Binding is a very powerful tool. You’ve witnessed what could happen in the wrong hands.”
“What could happen? What did happen?” Creed asks.
“Horrible, horrible things. To a lot of people. Was that our fathers’ power?”
“No, but that is what happens when power becomes corrupt.”
I press the heels of my hands into my eyes to try to force away the black spots and the images of beings’ souls being ripped apart and their blood running black.
It was so much like what happens to the beings my father powers completely.
“When were you going to tell us you, at one time, had possession of this Binding?”
“What?” everyone parrots.
“Once it was in your possession. I didn’t have the Binding long. I was instructed on who to take it to and that is what I did.”
“So you really didn’t know where it was this whole time?” Thayla asks.
“Of course not. That answer I would’ve given you to save us some time. Thayla, why don’t you explain everything that happened to you while Amick settles back down?”
Her gaze whips right back to mine and concern etches across her features.
“Are you okay? That didn’t last long but seemed to have taken a lot out of you.”
“It did, which is normal. The more powerful the truth, the more power it uses. That’s the most powerful object I’ve ever laid my hand on.”
I lower myself onto the built-in seat and lean my hand back as I regulate my breathing.
Thayla perches herself beside me and laces our fingers together.
“You all aren’t going to believe who I met.”
My racing mind can’t help but lock in and absorb everything she’s saying. Although I’m not looking at her, my gaze continues to widen on the ceiling.
The God of Discovery.
Never would I have guessed.
“He’s been pronounced dead since before we were even born.
It’s easy to assume that the God of the Sea is an ally of his.
He was the one who announced he found his body washed up on shore.
Did he say that the Messenger was the one who told him to write the book and somehow get it to Oddian for you to find?
Also, did he say if it was him or someone else who used it, which would’ve caused the Goddess of Seduction to sense it? ”
“Shit…I’m sorry. Honestly, neither of those things even occurred to me to ask. I was a little overwhelmed and freezing to death. We’ll have to ask him.”
“I can fucking promise you, you won’t be going back into that sea to ask a dumbass question that doesn’t help us now,” Riven warns.
“First of all, I can do whatever I want.”
“Yeah, and I can throw you over my shoulder and walk you around everywhere you want to go or tie you to a bed so you can’t do shit.” Creed huffs, no doubt earning himself a fierce glare.
“Damn, Creed, that’s some freaky shit. I’m down.”
I finally lean my head up at Riven’s laughing and Thayla’s silence since I’m obviously missing something.
The only thing I seem to have gotten wrong is her glare isn’t as fierce as I expected. Her face is red from her frustration at Creed, but I don’t know why Riven’s calling him freaky. He throws her over his shoulder all the time.
She’d surely punch him if he attempted to restrain her.
My head turns to Kyzen’s laugh next, but he shakes his head. “Carry on, little goddess.”
“As I was saying, we can ask him because he’s in Yemi’s Valtrue. He’ll be joining us as soon as he finds their last two members.”
My brothers all shout “what,” which will always be ridiculously annoying. I see no point in asking her to repeat herself if she speaks as clearly as she just did.
“That’s impossible.”
“It’s not. I saw his mark. A big, beautiful, petrifying B seared right onto his wrist.”
“So not impossible but shouldn’t be happening.” I correct myself.
“I’ve been thinking hard about this ever since hers and Sevryn’s mark showed up.
It’s become an afterthought with everything else going on but hear me out.
Seeing as we know that the Beginning Gods are interfering and pairing the Valtrues wrong, also the original Gods Binding itself is picking the Chosen and continuously recycling what power it can into the realm, what if, more diverse Valtrues would be paired if the gods didn’t interfere and the Binding did its thing?