Thayla #2
“Suma was already wrapped around her finger, and when she started talking to Kira about ruling it all, together, he fell to his knees for her. Not emotionally, mind you. He will always love Creation more. Sabe tried to work her way to Val next, but that was a lost cause from the start. His choice words with her sent her running to Kira in tears. That’s where Kira and Val’s issues really took off.
“Kira tried to reason with Val, and Val put his ass in his place. Embarrassingly so. Kira tucked tail and ran, but in his rage, he fucking obliterated every last one of Val’s temples. Dear Boundaries wiped his hands of us and said good fucking luck without me.”
He slumps back in his seat, staring at the wall like he’s watching the events play out around us.
“Then…” I clear my throat and he finally looks at me. “Then she moved on to you.”
“Not right away, no. First, the portal to Elementra closed and caused us all to go into an uproar. We blamed Val. Figured he ran off to that realm and made that happen. As we know—well, as I know—he didn’t.
The six of us remaining took all the power from the people, bound our knowledge of where the original Gods Binding is, argued over many, many more decisions, then spent the next few hundred years getting along as best as we could. Then Sabe made her move.”
Made her move…
Unease rumbles in my belly. Both my Chaos and Seduction tingle as if they don’t like the sound of that either.
“What did she do, Derivius?”
My whispered question silences everything. His heavy breathing, the wind whistling outside, the creatures scampering around. It all falls into a quiet, unnerving stillness.
“She planned it so perfectly. Played the role so unquestionably. I was a fool. I should’ve seen through the illusion. I’ve always been blind to Rella, though.”
“Played what role?” I ask low.
He lets out a haunting laugh as his irises start to swirl.
“The role of the love of my life. She used an illusion to disguise herself as Rella, and I made love to her. In the bed we shared every night. It was so perfectly planned. So gods-forsaken fucking perfect!”
The pebbles scattered across the ground vibrate with his bellow. My heart thunders in my ears as my head shakes.
“How…how is that even possible?”
“Oh please, little troublling. You must have figured out the structure of us Beginning Gods by now. Our Domains, the Designations, the abilities.”
“I…”
My thoughts scramble as his pointed look bores into me. Every lesson Amick’s taught me or whatever book he forced me to read attempts to run across my mind at the same time.
“The Defenders stemmed from Obliteration. The Guiders from Accord. The Rulers from Consequence. The Healers from Creation. The Plentiful from Seduction. The Attendants from Chaos,” I say and he nods.
“There you go. Keep putting two and two together.”
I stand, pacing in front of my chair as the pieces click together.
“Amick said we each, as in all becoming gods, have a touch of all the Beginning Gods’ powers within us since it was their essence used to make the Gods Binding.
A touch of each Domain God that was created beneath them was added along the way.
One of their essences will always come through more dominant, declaring our domain, just as it does our Designations. But it isn’t that simple.
“Each Domain God isn’t simply touched by a Beginning Gods’ essence.
They’re given a real, deliberate ability that already exists.
The power of Illusion didn’t just form from the Binding or a mixture of the gods’ essence.
It didn’t appear because of a Designation.
Sabe—she—already had it. Illusion was never created… it was inherited.”
I plop down in my chair with my mouth gaping at the smile on Derivius’s face.
“Now you got it. Just like the God of Pain, the God of Strength, the God of Death…we’ll call them the leaders of the Defender Designation.
They each hold a touch more than everyone else of Kira’s abilities.
Then from them, the becoming gods get a little less, and similar but varying abilities come from that. ”
“But…” I trail off, tilting my head to the side. For a fleeting second, it all made sense. Now it doesn’t. “There are Domain Gods that have certain Designations that don’t match with the Beginning God it came from.”
His lips split into a massive, crooked smirk.
“You.”
“And the God of Boundaries. Just as my power complements others’, so does his.”
Yemi…
I shift my head back and forth, attempting to absorb this.
The Beginning Gods are so much more powerful than I previously understood.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always known they were, but this puts it into a petrifying perspective.
Wait. Riven.
“Riven’s Chaos. Is he actually warping the essence around him or—” I shut my mouth, attempting to get my question right.
He snaps his fingers and points at me, well, at the chair I’m sitting in, and chuckles.
“He is warping the essence around him, but it isn’t an imitation of illusions or anything like that.
You see what Chaos wants you to see. He wanted everyone to see a Binding instead of a lamp.
I want you to see a chair instead of nothing.
It’s real, until Chaos decides it isn’t.
He and I, we use our Chaos to warp what we want others to see.
You, I believe if you tried, you could use yours to see what you want to see. Fascinating. I love this Domain.”
He laughs, tilting his bottle back. He chokes on the massive drag he takes, then chuckles about that as well. I take a deep breath, preparing to pull him back into the moment.
“So Seduction used her power of Illusion and made herself look like Accord.”
His smile melts away and he tears his gaze from mine as if he forgot what we were talking about that led to this topic. I don’t push while he composes himself.
“She did,” he growls. “Rella walked in and caught us in the act. I peered over my shoulder at her gasp, and as soon as I gazed back down, that fucking bitch dropped the illusion.”
Anger, mortification, pure heartbreak spears through my chest. I couldn’t imagine walking in on that. I’d—Valories—I’d burn this fucking realm to the ground.
Gods. He didn’t know who he was having sex with.
That’s…oh fuck.
“Derivius, that’s rap—”
“Don’t you fucking say it, Thayla. I am a Beginning God. That doesn’t happen…No. Don’t you dare speak it.”
My jaw snaps shut as his shout vibrates my bones. I hold his glare, even as my eyes water. His heartbreak, pain, and anger are potent. It bleeds into me and my Chaos stirs uncomfortably.
He empties the rest of his bottle down his throat, then tosses it behind him. I flinch from the piercing sound of glass shattering. In seconds, he’s unscrewing the top to another.
“Rella stumbled back from me as I scrambled off the bed and tried to explain. I fell to my knees, begging, pleading for her to listen to me. I’ll never forget watching every ounce of emotion she had in her fade away. It was like a whole different goddess stood before me.
“She left the room wordlessly, and I broke. Right there on my knees. Behind me, that fu—Sabe laughed. She said, ‘Don’t worry about her. She’ll get over it and come around. If she doesn’t, it won’t matter. You have me, and I can be her anytime you need me to be.’
“When I stood up and turned around, one minute, she was the Goddess of Seduction, the next…my love. Then she changed back, wearing a smile of smug victory. She tossed her head back, laughing as I wiped a tear from my cheek. The high-pitched melody stabbed me through the heart like a dagger laced in death. I snapped. My power roared out of me, and we waged war on one another. I got the best of her, and I had no intention of stopping.”
“Why did you?” I ask low.
“I didn’t. Suma and Kira appeared and dragged me off her.
They placed me in restraints as they worked on healing her.
It took a month for her to regain consciousness.
At that point, my side of the story didn’t matter.
I crossed a line and almost killed one of our counterparts. They decreed my disownment. Even Suma.”
My jaw locks as shame washes over him.
“Let me get this straight. She used her power, tricked you into having sex with her by imitating another Beginning God, the love of your life. You snapped, as anyone would, which led to two Beginning Gods battling it out, and in the end, the one who was wronged—you—were punished for that?”
“I was the one who took it too far. I know what would have happened to the realm if I had killed her. Maybe if I hadn’t taken it that far, then the outcome would’ve been different.
Maybe the others would’ve heard me out, and they wouldn’t have sided with Seduction because of the condition I left her in.
But because I did that, then showed no remorse for it, they stood firm in their decision. ”
He believes he took it too far…
She raped him.
How much fucking further did she need to go for his actions to be justified?
“Anywhos, Rella and I have never been the same. I crawled on my knees and begged for forgiveness, understanding, something. She told me she needed time and space. So I left. But before that, I swore I was taking something Seduction cared about with me, and that was power.”
“That’s when you stole her Binding.”
“Righty-O. I strolled up to her house, a touch tipsy, and told her she was right, I wanted her. She let me in with a bat of her lashes. As she went to freshen up, I located her Binding and left without another word. Spent me a good few hundred years in the nonmagical realm.”
My head jerks and my eyes widen.
“The nonmagical realm?”
“Yep. Drank and partied my sorrows away with those curious creatures. It was a blast.”
“And you what? Just left the Bindings there when you came back?”