Creed #2
It’s like he senses she needs someone to lash out at, so rather than it being Lambrit or one of us, he jumps in and takes the worst of it.
It doesn’t bother him. He smirks in her face and that pisses her off even more.
Poor Yemi is constantly on her toes, waiting for the two of them to start swinging on one another.
“You are mothering so hard right now, little burden. It’s so hot,” Riven teases, eyeing her up and down.
“I’m not mothering. I’m worried about how she’ll be once the newness and excitement wear off. She’s having a blast right now, but what about when the house gets quiet and it’s time to go to sleep?”
“Then I will do whatever she needs me to do,” Annalise says as she strolls over and grips Thayla’s hand. “How you’re acting and how she’s acting is completely normal. It’s an adjustment period, and it’s going to have its rough moments, but it’s going to be okay.”
Thayla huffs as she pinches the bridge of her nose and bobs her head up and down.
“You’re right. I know.”
“Why don’t you all head on home and relax for the rest of the afternoon?” Ellian asks. “It’ll be another adjustment jumping right back into your roles tomorrow.”
“It won’t be at all,” Amick says as he laces his fingers with Thayla’s. “It’s exactly what we all need.”
He either completely ignores or simply doesn’t give a single fuck about the scowls the rest of us send his way.
Regardless, Ellian and Annalise tell us bye while they round the rest of the kids up to head inside.
“Lambrit, do you want us to come over there or you two come to our house?” Thayla asks.
“Rose and I are going to head home…alone,” he says, giving her a small smile.
“We’re going to head home too,” Yemi says as she gives Thayla a quick hug. “We’ll see everyone later.”
“Yeah, of course,” Thayla says after she blinks herself out of her stupor.
I don’t think she remembers how to just sit at home anymore.
“Come on,” Amick says. “Creed needs to start cooking dinner soon anyway.”
I scoff at him and cross my arms.
I have a good hour, maybe two, before I have to do that.
“Okay then. I’ll see you four at home.”
Before anyone can say anything else, Thayla starshoots out, and I hang my head.
“I didn’t mean to upset her,” Lambrit mutters.
“You didn’t,” Kyzen says. “It’s just been a long week.”
“She’s spent longer than the last week taking care of everyone but herself.” Everyone whips their attention to Iric. He rubs the back of his neck, giving us an apologetic smile. “I’ll see you four at home.”
Yemi, Sevryn, Nero, and Doren nod, standing here awkwardly like they’re waiting for one of us to flip our shit over what he said.
We won’t.
We’ve got eyes that see how our Binder’s been for the past week.
Plus some.
She was ready to go toe to toe with Beginning Gods for us and now this.
We know how much it’s been affecting her.
I grunt a goodbye, then wrap my power around me. The moment I step into our living room, my head tilts to the side. The house is still sitting in the same silence we left it in this morning.
My footsteps echo through the house as I make my way down her hall and pass through her door. My eyes narrow on the emptiness. I open her back door and don’t find her sitting there either.
“Thayla,” I call as I make my way back out of her room.
“She isn’t in here,” Kyzen yells back.
The three of them stand in the opening between the kitchen and dining room, staring at me in confusion.
“Then she isn’t here at all,” I snap.
“Well, there’s only one place she’d go right now,” Riven says.
He doesn’t get a chance to starshoot out when V’s hoot cuts through the air.
“Yes, she’s at the hot spring. It’d be best if we let her stay out there and vent for a while. She’s in good hands.”
We each visibly relax and take his advice to heart.
“Some time with Seismet will be good for her. If she decides to take a dip in the hot spring, though, I want to know,” Riven says.
“I’ll let you know.” V chuckles.
“Is she mad at us? At me?” Amick asks.
Kyzen turns toward him. “What makes you think that?”
“I killed Jeremiah and she hasn’t said the first thing about it.”
“What did you want her to say? ‘Thank you so much for throwing the dagger for me, Amick. You’re the best.’” Riven laughs as he flops onto the couch and laces his fingers behind his head.
Amick rolls his eyes. “Of course not, but I did think she’d say something by now. I’m afraid she’s pretending it didn’t happen.”
“She’s not pretending,” I say. “She’s been holding every fucking thing together. For Lambrit, Laney. Hell, she just saved our asses not too long ago, now this shit.”
“Exactly.” Kyzen sighs, running his hand down the back of his neck. “She had a breather, and the moment it felt like she could relax, this happened. We need to make sure we’re there for her when she finally crashes.”
“Which will more than likely be tomorrow since you fuckers are forcing us back into our roles,” Riven scoffs.
“We can’t put our lives on hold any longer. We do have a mess of a realm to figure out,” Amick says.
“All I’m saying is, this week wasn’t some fantastic fucking break. It would’ve been nice to do fuck all nothing but lie in our house with our Binder and forget the realm for a while.”
“Life doesn’t stop for death, Riven,” I say and everyone snaps their attention toward me.
“It sucks, but that’s the truth. We paused it for as long as we could.
We were there for her, for Lambrit and Laney, but now we have to get back to the bigger fight.
If we don’t, we’re just letting our father find more chances to continue doing shit like this. ”
Heavy silence settles over the room as our gazes scan each other. That’s been a harsh reality that no one has wanted to call attention to. Our father did this. Along with the Goddess of Seduction.
They, together, with fucking Mellcom’s help, killed and kidnapped handfuls of innocent people.
This can never happen again.
“We’ve got three Bindings, and the last four are going to be incredibly—”
“Impossible.”
Amick scowls at Riven, then carries on. “Difficult. We can’t go back to Valveilious right now or anytime soon, so we’re eventually going to have to ask Derivius to take a risk.”
“You want him to steal them for us?” I ask, and he shrugs.
“I’m not saying that’s what I want or don’t want. It’s an option we may have to explore.”
“That’s a big fucking ask.” Riven laughs.
“Well, it isn’t like he still doesn’t go to the Goddess of Accord’s dwelling, so if the opportunity arises, I expect him to follow through. He’s played a massive role from behind the scenes in all of this. He may have to get more involved than he wants to be. Choosing a side means that.”
There’s a finality in Amick’s tone that’s undeniable. He isn’t going to hear an argument about this. He sure as fuck can be the one to have that conversation with Derivius.
It’s time he gets the fuck over Accord anyway.
I grunt at myself.
I’d never get over Thayla.
“So when Thayla returns, we’re going to lavish her in our love, do whatever she needs us to do tonight.
Creed, you will cook dinner, and tomorrow, we get back to focusing on the realm.
We will find the four Bindings, the original Gods Binding, and we will return them to their proper state.
We will free the Veilatara, continue to help the Attendants, and fix Hellveilious. Then…we’re going to end our father.”
He turns toward his door, not hearing a word from the three of us. We all share a look.
It sounds like our brother has just decided that the God of Obliteration is going to die.
If anyone can find a way for that to work and not destroy the realm, it’s him.