Thayla #3
He and his sigh full of sass follow me as I march through Amick’s door. My brows scrunch as I definitely don’t see Yemi in the living room. There’s still a snoring fucking Beginning God on my couch, though.
“Yem. You here still?” I yell.
“Kitchen,” she hollers back.
The smell of coffee hits me right in the face as soon as I make my way in there.
“My hero,” I say. She laughs as she turns around, but the mirth and look on her face melt away a moment later. “What? What’s wrong?”
“Did you sleep last night?” she asks.
“No, absolutely not. I had too much to do. Speaking of which, where is everyone? I got a plan and we all got a lot of work to do.”
“Okay, slow down,” she says as she grabs my shoulders.
I twist free from her grip and shake my head.
“I will not slow down. We’re running out of time.”
She doesn’t say anything as she holds my gaze. Yes, I see the worry written across every feature on her face, and it’s endearing, but I don’t have time for that. I sneer as her look continues to soften, and she quickly fixes her face.
“Okay. What do you need from me?”
An exhale pours through my lips and my jaw unclenches.
“I need you to gather everyone. Your Valtrue, Lambrit, Rose, Havar, and Ellian. Have them come here now. We need to be on the go as soon as the sun comes up.”
“I can do that, but I need something from you.”
“What?”
“Take a breath. You’re going to take this cup of coffee with you and take a shower. I’ve already got you a plate of breakfast made, so once you do that and get dressed, you’re going to eat. Then we’ll execute whatever genius plan you’ve spent the night working on and go get your men back. Okay?”
Go get them back…
If only it were that simple.
“Okay,” I breathe, “I can do that.”
I swallow the lump in my throat as she silently fixes my coffee. My knees threaten to buckle when she picks Riven’s cream from the icebox to sweeten my drink with.
Gods. The giggles that would be coming from him right now.
Either she didn’t believe I’d keep my word, or she just prefers my door, I don’t know, but she escorts me through my room and doesn’t actually leave until I disappear into my bathroom.
I take the realm’s quickest shower. It saved me a lot of time skipping the hair washing bit.
In my eyes, I still kept my side of the agreement.
My outfit choice of the day is armor. The one we’d wear if we were entering the Abandon. Venturing there isn’t a part of my plan, but you can never be too careful.
The empty, quiet house strikes me like a blade across my chest. A numbness that I both embrace and can’t stand comes over me as I make my way to the kettle.
“Do you have a cup of that to spare, little troublling?”
“Shit,” I hiss as the hot liquid splashes against my fingers, then I whirl around, glaring at Derivius. “A warning you were awake would’ve been nice.”
He smirks and I’m tempted to throw my mug of coffee at him.
“I apologize. An explanation as to why I woke up on your couch would be nice as well.”
I arch a brow at him, then gesture for him to fix his own damn drink. My hip leans against the counter as I watch him stumble toward the stove, then tilt back the piping hot cup of black coffee.
Gross.
“What all do you remember about last night?”
“Well,” he hums, taking another sip, then he tightens his lips as he thinks. “I went to my temple and chased out some creatures who were making a home there. Apparently, we all forgot to shut the stone the last time we were there. Then I vaguely remember you showing up and yelling at me.”
“I didn’t yell at you.”
He chuckles. “I’m pretty sure you did.”
Whatever.
“You passed out and I had V starshoot you here so you didn’t sleep in that chair.”
“What chair? There are no chairs there.”
I huff and roll my eyes as I grab the plate Yemi left covered for me on the counter. My ass plops down into my seat at the table and I stab my fork into the eggs.
Any other time, it’d taste divine. Right now, it tastes like nothing.
“You were sitting in a chair by the time I arrived. Surrounded by empty bottles of booze.”
He grimaces as he takes the seat across from me.
“That explains the headache.”
I hum.
“Did…” he trails off, staring at me. “Did I say something that upset you last night?”
“No,” I say before diverting my gaze behind the rim of my mug. I set it down gently and link my fingers together on the table. “It’s time for you to go, though.”
“Go?” His head jerks and his forehead furrows in confusion. “I need to talk to you about some things, though. The boys—”
I lift my hand up for him to stop.
“Not right now.”
We hold each other’s stares for a long, uncomfortable moment.
“Very well,” he says as he rises from his seat. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry for clearly upsetting you.”
I bite the inside of my cheek.
Feel something, Thayla…he’s hurting.
“Derivius, wait,” I say as he turns from the table. “Don’t…just go to Valveilious or wherever you go and lie low. Don’t involve yourself with this situation.”
“You don’t want my help?”
“No.”
My heart cracks a fraction as his face crumbles, but he doesn’t argue as I stand from the table and walk to the counter. I give him my back and splay my hand across the cool granite.
“Okay then. If you need me—”
“I know.”
His power disappears from the space as he starshoots out without another word. I take three deep breaths.
“Come on out, Yemi.”
She squeaks, then sheepishly appears from my hallway.
“You felt me come back in your door, huh?”
“Yeah.”
“So…what was that about?” she asks.
“If he doesn’t remember everything we discussed last night, I want to keep it that way.
I also don’t want him to know I’ve got a plan.
All of them, but him, knew that the Goddess of Creation was pulling some shit.
I wouldn’t put it past them to try and say he was involved with me succeeding at what I have planned.
So it’s best to keep him at arm’s length for now. ”
“Makes sense. What is your plan, though?”
“Let’s wait till everyone is here so I don’t have to repeat it.”
“They’re all here. Waiting outside the front door.”
My heart flutters and appreciation pours through me.
Twenty minutes, maybe, is all the time it took her to assemble everyone.
She’s literally the best.
“I don’t tell you nearly enough, but you’re legitimately amazing, Yemi. I’d be lost without you as a friend. I hope one day you don’t decide you’re done with me because of how much shit I constantly drag you into.”
Her eyes grow tender, and for once, there isn’t any pity or sadness on my behalf. How much she truly cares about me reflects in her glistening gold eyes.
“Love you too, Thay.”
A snort escapes me and I choke down the emotion clogging my throat. She doesn’t push or tease me. Instead, she strolls toward my front door to finally let everyone in.
My smile lingers on my lips as a damn stampede sounds throughout my house as everyone charges into the kitchen.
I’m ambushed with questions, but before I can answer a single one, my face is getting smushed against Lambrit’s chest.
“What were you thinking running off somewhere alone? We stayed up half the night worried sick about you.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to worry anyone. I just grew excited and hopeful when Derivius called for me.”
He keeps his firm glare pinned on me, and it only falters when Rose rests her hand on his arm, then moves in to give me a hug.
“We’re just glad you’re okay,” she says.
“I’m fine.”
“You sure as shit won’t be when I tell your men how you ran off alone and didn’t tell any of us where you were going.”
I roll my eyes at Sevryn and his smug-ass smirk.
Before all the peppering of questions can commence once again, Yemi orders everyone to the table and they listen without complaint. I throw her a wink as I starshoot all my research from where I laid it on my bed to the table.
I don’t waste a breath before jumping right into explaining how the Goddess of Creation used her clause to spend one day a year with the guys as a way to trap them in her house for a total of twenty days.
I don’t share anything else that was said between drunk Derivius and me.
Nero’s features twist with my words and he holds his hands out for the agreement. As his eyes skim section after section, I point to the part that I highlighted and spent the most time reading into last night.
“I may be looking into this too much, so I need you to correct me if I’m wrong.
It sounds to me like they have to spend the full day with her.
Since it isn’t clearly defined, obviously purposeful on their part, I’m assuming a full day means exactly that.
A full twenty-four hours. But at the end of that, they can leave. ”
He nods as he continues reading.
“Yes. In more words than necessary, that’s basically what this says. So technically, in three hours from now, their twenty-four hours would be up and they could leave. That’s not going to happen, though, based on what you just described.”
“It’s not. We’re going to break them out right at the forty-eight-hour mark. That way they’ve fulfilled their time without breaking the agreement since it’s still in place.”
“What?” everyone shouts and I hold my hands up to silence them.
“We have twenty-seven hours to collect all the signatures they need on their behalf, then get them to the Neutral in time for their hearing. Even if I thought we could do it in less time than that…”
My lids drift shut for a moment as my fingers flex at my sides.
“Getting them out earlier than that could open us up to more issues and give the Beginning Gods more time to pull surprises like this out of their asses. We time it exactly right, and then show up with what they need, the agreement becomes void and there’s nothing they can do.
By their own definitions, the guys would have fulfilled their end of the Goddess of Creation’s clause and have fulfilled the terms set forth by the Law of Doppia Disaccord. ”
Everyone’s jaws drop as they gawk at me in disbelief.
I know, I’m shocked with myself as well.
“That is a very strategic plan, Thayla. Very impressive,” Ellian says with a big smile.