Thayla #2
The question claws its way up my throat before I can stop it. It feels too important to leave unasked, though.
“Not like the one you’re…tied to, but in a way.”
I nod, although I still want to push for more. I don’t. I get the sense that if she wanted me to know, she’d say it.
“Can I use this in the meantime?”
She shrugs, the gesture easy but not careless. “That’s a decision only you can make. The consequences depend entirely on how you use your unlocked power. If you do, remember, it has to be cleansed to its original state before it goes back into the Gods Binding.”
Right.
Crystal-clear globe.
No gray smoke.
“I’m sorry, Thayla,” she whispers. “For dropping all of this on you. I know exactly how this feels.”
I suck my teeth and stare down at the grass beneath my boots, grounding myself in something solid. When I lift my head again, the sincerity in her face makes my chest tighten. She doesn’t say that lightly.
She means it.
“I’d love to say it’s okay, but it isn’t. That doesn’t mean I blame you. It just…fucking sucks,” I admit, my voice rougher than I want it to be.
“I know.”
Her harsh exhale whistles through her lips like the truth of saying that costs her something, then she reaches back into that swirling, silvery liquid.
“Here. Take these. A small gift.”
“What are they?” I ask, peering into the sack as she slides its corded handles on my wrist.
“A batch of healing tonics. You never know when they’ll come in handy. Hopefully, they work.”
“Well”—a corner of my mouth lifts despite myself—“the one I took didn’t do anything for my powers, but my body feels amazing.”
Her answering smile is wide and genuine. “That makes me really happy. I can’t wait to tell my grandpa the gods are drinking his tonics. He loved his time in this realm.”
“Damn,” I blurt. “He was here before the portals closed?”
I wince.
That was probably rude.
Then again, she’s kind of old, only a little younger than my parents.
So her grandpa would have to be…really old.
“Uh. I’m not old.” She gasps through her smirk with a hand to her heart. “Two hundred and fifty-one has never looked better, thank you very much.”
I choke down a snort. “You’re absolutely right. You don’t look a day over thirty, actually.”
Her smile softens into something warmer, something that makes my chest ache. She’s been looking at me this whole time like she’s known me far longer than she should. Like she recognizes something in me I haven’t figured out yet. Regret still lingers in her eyes, but so does hope.
“It’s time for us to go,” she whispers.
Her power crashes down around us. Her men move instantly, surrounding her, while mine step closer to me. Hands find my arms, my back, my shoulders. I breathe.
“Ready, princess?” Corentin asks.
She clears her throat and nods.
“All right, Abandon Bros,” Draken drawls, “I’m looking forward to that flight, so don’t fuck everything up.”
“Draken,” Willow, Corentin, Caspian, and Tillman bark.
Riven chuckles. “Count your days, dragon man. Verlet and I are going to wipe the sky with your big ass.”
“I don’t believe I care to go for a flight,” Amick mutters.
“Me neither,” Creed agrees.
“How about a tour of a real library? Millennia of history.” Caspian smirks, and Amick’s attention snaps to him immediately. “And food from around the realms.”
He obviously clocked Creed’s likes as well.
The strokes of Kyzen’s fingers along my back still as Willow’s and Tillman’s gazes flick to him. No words pass between them, but the nod Kyzen gives is deliberate.
“Find comfort in each other and know that this doesn’t rest on just your shoulders. Lean on each other and your friends. Check in on them. None of them expect you to carry this alone.”
Willow’s gaze meets each of ours for a heavy moment. Before she can turn away, I step forward. The question I’ve been holding back finally breaks free.
“What are you going to the barrier for?”
She meets my eyes without hesitation.
“To bring my people home.”
Shock roots all of us in place.
So that’s where the Elementrians have been hiding.
“Until next time,” she whispers.
“Wait, next—”
And they’re gone.
No light. No portal. No warning.
One blink and the meadow is emptier than it was before.
The lingering power fades, and my shoulders sag under the weight of everything I’ve been given.
It wasn’t answers. Not really.
Just…the direction to go with the responsibility I wish like fuck we didn’t have.
“Thayla,” Kyzen breathes.
My head spins as he whirls me around. He doesn’t waste a second crashing his lips against mine and squashing the Gods Binding, plus the vials between us as he tugs me to his chest.
I couldn’t give a fuck less about that as I give myself over to him.
His comfort.
My free hand rests on his racing heart, and I refuse to break our kiss until it slows.
“I’m so sorry,” he whispers against my lips. “We failed you this—”
“No. No one failed anyone.”
Well…we all failed those poor people.
Fuck.
My soul pinches tight, and Creed grunts, snatching me out of Kyzen’s embrace. He grips and turns my jaw from side to side, searching for something, but I’m not sure what. I clench his wrist and lean into his hand.
“Are you okay?” I ask.
“I should be asking you that.”
His gray irises fracture and a small amount of white breaks through.
“Creed,” I beg low.
He answers with his lips rather than his words. Each stroke of his tongue is desperate and restrained in equal measures.
“No, I’m not okay. My soul hurts.”
Mine responds to that immediately, wrapping around his and caressing it with every ounce of love I possess in my body. I force my emotions to stay in check. It’s fucking difficult. He truly means his soul hurts.
It’s in physical pain as if missing those calls left slashes across it.
His exhale fans across my cheek for a second before he spins me around and places me against Riven’s chest.
My little psycho devours my mouth without a word. His power pulses beneath his skin, and a shiver races down my back.
“You’re full to the brim,” I pant when he pulls away from me.
“Well, it’s been a pretty chaotic morning. My powers are being assholes. They’re fighting and I don’t know which one to let free.”
“Neither. Just you. It’s you and me.”
He groans, letting his eyes fall shut. “I wish it were that simple right now. I can’t decide if I want to go murder some pieces of shits or run away and take you with me.”
I swallow down my snort, and a small smirk crosses his lips.
“Just don’t do either without all of us, okay?”
“Okay, little burden.”
His gaze flicks over my head, then back down to me. He lays a quick kiss to the tip of my nose, then twirls me around.
The blank, completely disassociated look on Amick’s face punches me in the gut. I’m not even sure if he actually sees me.
“Candyman,” I mumble, stepping up to him and running my hand up his chest.
He peers down, glaring at the Binding in my palm, then he lifts his gaze to mine. He doesn’t speak.
His featherlight touch glides a piece of my hair behind my ear, and he rubs my earlobe before laying his lips to the corner of my mouth.
Worry eats away at me as I pick up nothing, not a thing from his soul. I mean that very literally. There is no knot, but it’s as though he’s somehow shut every part of him down.
“Amick, I need you to come back to me. You’ll have time to think on your own, but for now, I need you to guide me.”
He blinks. Repeatedly.
“Are you hurting?”
The concern and rapid shift of all his focus on me pull a small smile to my lips.
“No, I’m not hurting. I’m physically fine. No corrupt power, none of that. I’m just overwhelmed and my powers are being a little…slow.”
He nods. “Given the extensive use to fight off that power, then get it out of you, that’s understandable. Not to mention, you haven’t had an opportunity to recharge in any form. We’ll fix that when we get home.”
My face flames.
How can he say that so seriously, but the meaning behind it be so…naughty.
“I’m sorry, Mysenta. I knew we were stepping into a trap, but no part of any scenario I created would’ve led me to believe what our father did was a possibility to worry about. Then I didn’t ask our visitors nearly the number of questions I should have. I’m very disappointed in myself.”
“Amick, don’t apologize and don’t be disappointed in yourself. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“I didn’t do a lot of things right either.”
“You—”
V’s hoot cuts me off, and we snap our attention to him, Seismet, and Verlet.
Damn. I almost forgot they were there.
I was so consumed and thankful to finally be able to embrace my men.
“None of you should be disappointed in yourselves. Everything that happened today was out of your control. The God of Obliteration using his Binding on Thayla was unforeseen or warned.”
“But Willow and her Nexus showing up wasn’t? You knew they were coming?” I ask.
I attempt to keep the bite out of my tone and take Willow’s warning to heart like she told me to. Deep down, I know she’s right. Some truths that he, Seismet, or even Derivius know, I don’t want to hear it from them.
I want to hear it from the people responsible.
Like my parents…
It’s still difficult to accept they’ve got answers we could really fucking use but won’t tell us.