Page 34 of The Gods Veiling (The Valorian Veil #1)

The closer he gets to me, the more he looks like the man we used to see more than enough as children. Where Riven got a crazy glint in his burgundy eye from his chaos domain—I believe an unfortunate gene that passed down from our father—Derivius’ blue is fun and mischievous.

His chaos can be deadly, always unpredictable, but he’s always had a purpose behind it.

“Tell me what’s going on.”

“I can’t do that, Creed. ”

The pain that flashes across his face guts me. He’s never been one to lie. If he can be honest with us, he is. Always has been. Whatever’s going on, it bothers him that he can’t say.

“Then tell me the truth of her. Why did you do this to her, to us? Does she understand what’s going on? Did you explain to her what splitting a god’s soul will do? Does she understand the danger not only her bodily vessel but part of her being is in?”

“No, I didn’t. I figured the god who knows the most about souls would take this time to learn something new himself and teach her.

All she knows and understands is her soul has been split.

The rest you all need to figure out together.

As a Valtrue. I’ve been turning a blind eye purposefully and protecting the schemes you and your brothers concoct.

I’ll continue to do so, but you all must find your way through this. ”

His hands land on my shoulders and I stare into his one black eye. Its coloring isn’t natural. I remember when they both were blue.

I caused that one to turn black.

He caused the scar across my left eye.

“You’ve signed over her death, Derivius. One way or another. We both know that.”

The calculating smile that crosses his face has multiple meanings. It’s always a drawl between a welcoming sight and a warning. You never know until the aftermath which it truly meant.

“No, my boy. I’ve signed over the deaths to those who deserve it. We all just have to get to that battle first.” He turns from me but stops a few paces away and peers over his shoulder. “Inform your brothers and keep in mind, you lose her, you lose more than the power you’ve been given.”

With that, he leaves in a flash of bright white light and his low laugh rings all around me.

The trickle of sweat down my neck and under my shirt fuels the confusion pouring through me. As the turmoil builds, so does the tugging in my chest. The more stress I’m under, the more it bleeds into her soul.

I close my eyes to get it under control, but the comfort of darkness does nothing but push me further.

She’ll have to deal for the night.

I let the feeling consume me as I destroy anything I can get my hands on. Stones erupt everywhere around me from the pieces I hurl against the walls. Not that there were any recognizable chunks of him left, but I want there to be nothing but dust.

A burning sensation sears across my cheek as fragments fly around. The warmth of my blood flowing down my face and across my lips has a bellow pouring from my mouth that shakes the gravel at my feet.

I stomp through the open doorway, not bothering to slide the stone back in place. Let the fucking animals run wild in there for all I care.

After years of asking him for space, the one time I put it to the side to get some answers, I’m left with nothing but anger and confusion.

A slew of claps echo around me and I spin on my heel with my power ready, desperate to be unleashed on anyone foolish enough to sneak up on me.

“That was beautiful. Truly. I really loved how you redecorated the place. For a moment there, I thought you’d somehow got a little of Gladian’s strength with the way you were throwing those rocks around.”

“What the fuck are you doing, Riven?”

I sneer at him as he leans against the building, petting some sort of creature against its will. The damned thing is trying its hardest to get away from him. He keeps it held close to his chest and acts as though he doesn’t feel the thing’s claws tearing his arm up.

“Snugglybug and I were waiting for you to come out. I figured you wanted a moment alone to destroy everything. Run along, sweet pea.” He coos as he puts the creature down and watches it lovingly as it runs for its life. “I wish you all would let me get a pet.”

“That thing isn’t a pet and gods don’t have pets. Nonmagical mortals do. Why did you follow me?”

“Oh, that. I could smell the building chaos coming from under your door. I knew it wouldn’t take you long to come to demand answers. Answers I’m assuming Big DD didn’t give you.”

I cross my arms over my chest and stare him down. “You’re telling me you didn’t eavesdrop on our entire conversation?”

“Unfortunately, those types of creatures don’t fear me like they do you, oh lord of death. It makes no sense. Anywhos, I had to create a distraction, then Snugglybug wanted some scratches. I missed the excitement and arrived when you started throwing shit around.”

I just stare at him, then turn on my heels to trudge my way back to the trees. His mischievous chuckle grows closer to me, and I’m tempted to starshoot to the house to avoid him .

“So all three of my brothers took on some deadly risk today, and all failed miserably, it’d seem. Someone should’ve put me in charge of something other than babysitting books and we would’ve got some shit accomplished.”

“You’ll be babysitting something more than books soon enough,” I grumble under my breath as we step into the darkness of the forest.

Three paces in, my feet fall still. My gaze watches as the wild beasts run rampant, chasing down four different Amicks that are squealing like injured swine.

Riven’s hand slaps down on my shoulder as he dies of laughter and points at each one like I can’t see for myself.

“Oh gods, I wish his stuffy ass were here to see this.” He gasps, wiping fake tears from his eyes. “Back to the babysitting. I’m not doing that.”

“You are.”

“I’m not. Why aren’t you on my side about this? You literally just bitched that she’s a god and can take care of herself.”

“Shit changes quickly if today hasn’t proven that enough already. It’s no longer a matter of sides. It’s a matter of if we want to keep our power, we keep her alive.”

He groans like a child and kicks over one of the Amicks who runs by us. The creatures pounce like ravaged beasts and that brings the delighted, deranged smile back to his face.

“This power boost is going to be delicious. I look forward to the benefits, but I’m not taking care of her.”

The atmosphere shifts with his power, and he withdraws all the chaos in the air. Each of the beasts running around skids to a stop, then turns their snarling jaws to him. One look and a warning noise from me has them scampering away.

My voice comes out stale as I continue stomping my way through them. “Yes, of course. It’s perfectly acceptable you evade your new responsibility.”

“Thank you. I’m so glad you finally see it the same way I do.”

My sigh is full of defeat, and he mimics the sound with one full of relief. I don’t say anything else or warn him as I call my power forward, wrap it around me, and starshoot to the house. He’ll know what and where I’m going by the white light.

My body rematerializes outside our door and the small closet now perched beside our house makes me sneer in disgust.

An Attendant…she better have a good excuse for accepting that.

The living room is silent, and I force my steps to match as I make my way to Amick’s door. Two quiet knocks are all it takes and the sound of his chair by his desk skidding across the floor filters through .

“Family meeting?” Riven whispers in my ear and on instinct, I throw my elbow into his gut just as the door opens.

Amick blinks at Riven’s coughing and I barge past him when I see Kyzen already sitting in one of the chairs by his desk.

“Yes, by all means, be my guests. For the second time today.”

My eyes roam over the room that never really changes. It’s basically a smaller replica of the Athenaeum, except it has a bed, closet, and bathroom.

The wooden desk is covered in the books that he was obviously poring through before we interrupted. Kyzen looks exhausted by the whole situation, which means Amick was making him use his powers again to scan the, I’m sure, worthless material.

I wait until the door clicks behind us and for Riven’s muttered curses to quiet down enough for me to be heard.

“Derivius has a plan, apparently.”

I summarize for them what was said and what happened at the temple.

Apart from a couple details.

Their glares at me going there without telling them first quickly enough morph into calculating stares. He may be a god we love, but that doesn’t mean we trust him fully on any given day.

All gods are self-serving. Whatever it is he’s come up with will benefit him just as much, if not more, than us.

“You didn’t say shit about any of this just now.” Riven huffs as he tosses a small glass globe up in the air repeatedly.

Amick’s neck is starting to turn a furious shade of red, but he focuses on me. “This is a part of his revenge plan.”

“I know. We’ve always known we played a role in his plans, but now that includes her for whatever reason.”

Derivius would give us all our power back if it didn’t mean the wrath of all the Beginning Gods would come down on him. They can’t kill him. It isn’t allowed by the orders of the Valories, but they can make his life even more of a hell than they already have.

That’s not a risk he’s willing to take. His revenge against them is too precious. Too many years in the making.

Whatever his new plan is, those rules of Beginning Gods not killing one another came off as null to me by his comment. It sounded like he’s planning their demise, not just their downfall.

Which I’m all on board for. But what’s it going to cost us ?

“So what the fuck do we do then? Follow her around like lost little Snugglybugs and protect her so we keep our new power for when shit goes down to Hell? Literally.”

I shake my head as Amick looks at Riven like he’s grown an extra one.

Kyzen cuts in as he stands from his chair.

“We don’t have to follow her around. She’s on rotation with us and lives with us.

Plus, don’t act like that. We would’ve protected her regardless of whether it meant keeping our power.

She’s done nothing wrong to deserve otherwise.

We try to figure out what he wants exactly out of this arrangement he took upon himself to make.

“It’s obvious she isn’t the type who takes well to being told to give up what she knows.

If she had no issue telling the High Chancellor what happened in the Veil was none of his business, us ambushing her for whatever information she has isn’t going to work.

There’s this thing called getting to know someone we’re all going to try. ”

“Think fast.”

No one thinks or even moves. The globe Riven had been tossing around crashes through the stack of books and Amick falls statue-still as they tumble across his desk.

Fuck me.

“I’m not sure how any of you have survived this long. No worries, though, leave getting the information from her to me.”

“Absolutely not,” Kyzen says while keeping a close eye on Amick. “A good place to start will be tomorrow at lunch. She heard us all yelling tonight, and that’s why she didn’t come back out. She went to Yemi’s house instead.”

“If she can’t handle yelling, she’ll never survive here. What did she hear?” I ask.

“She didn’t make it seem like she heard anything but the yelling and decided to give us space. I told her we’d meet for lunch and talk things out. So how about tomorrow, everyone just be on their best behavior.”

Our eyes turn to Riven.

“What the hell would I do? I haven’t even talked to her yet.”

I scoff. “You’re both beings of chaos. That’s a recipe for disaster.”

“Riven, you spoke to her earlier. You called her a burden, for fuck’s sake. More than once,” Kyzen adds as he moves to start picking Amick’s stuff up.

“Don’t. Out.”

The single low command from Amick has us all moving out of his space. We know when he’s had enough and even Riven knows better than to test that.

Usually .

“You’re sure there wasn’t anything else, Creed? He gave you no indication why it felt like we all got stabbed in the heart when our marks appeared before she did?”

Kyzen’s calculating questions make me flinch internally. He’s too fucking observant.

“No. I’m assuming it’s because it was just his will, not that of all the Beginning Gods. He forced it.”

He holds my gaze as he places his palm on his door. “I’ve considered that. It makes the most sense, but something’s missing.”

I grunt and head into my own room. No more than two steps in and that little tether now cushioned in comfortably starts tugging in my chest. I doubt they’re experiencing it as strongly as I am, but it won’t be long before they start questioning it even more.

No part of me feels guilty for lying to them. Sometimes it’s necessary.

Our lines are already divided. It’s clear that Kyzen and Amick are okay, possibly even happy about having a Binder. They just want the answers to why. Riven and I aren’t okay with this. For different reasons.

If they knew it’s more than a tie and that we now hold her soul, it’d push Amick and Kyzen closer to her, and it’d set Riven the fuck off. Until I know the extent of what it means to harbor a soul rather than set it free or lock it up, I’m keeping this to myself.

Then I’ll decide how I feel about this situation.

The many souls I’ve had to deliver down to Hellveilious beg to be set free. The echoes haunt me every night. Their pleas and essence aren’t things my brothers can hear or see like me.

They’ve seen what a god who’s missing part of their soul looks like, though. What they act like. Death is far greater a gift than being stuck in your corporeal body with no reason to live. Eventually, they always give up the fight. They always die.

I’ve never seen a situation like hers, so I don’t have the first fucking clue who she’s going to turn into.

If she tells them first, I’ll play dumb or face their fury for however long it lasts. If she doesn’t, the two of us will keep this unspoken secret between us.

In the meantime, I’ll keep her—and her sweet little slice of essence invading my body—the fuck away from me and my being until I can figure out how to make her whole again .

That’s going to be the challenge. My power’s begging to be set free so it can devour the delicacy living beside it for the time being.