Page 50 of The Gods Veiling (The Valorian Veil #1)
“Fine.” With that, I stomp past Creed and keep facing the exit.
My eyes frantically bounce across the few Attendants lining the wall at the archway that leads down the long walkway. I don’t see Yemi among them. She isn’t inside the tunnel either or right outside the Court.
“Where’s Yemi?”
“She was just—”
“I’m right here,” she yells, cutting Kyzen off.
I whip my head to the left far too fast and my vision blurs. I see two Yemis, two Jays, and two Leahs as I stumble into Creed, who holds me up effortlessly. I try to pull away, but he makes some damn growling noise as he keeps me steady .
“Whoa, take it easy. Come here. Sit down for me,” Jay coos as she grips my arms and leads me down to the ground. “Hand me those rags, please.”
Yemi practically throws them at her as she kneels down in front of me. “She was the closest Healer I could find that wasn’t busy. I knew you wouldn’t want to go back to the healing villas after that.”
“I sure as shit don’t want that, but she needed to be healed too. Are you two okay?”
“We’re fine now. There’re always a couple of Healers on standby. Our…friend is here today, so he jumped straight to us. He had us patched up quickly before moving on to the worst.”
Leah makes a small giggling noise before clearing her throat and casting a nervous glance over at my Valtrue, who’s silently watching me.
“Got some satisfaction from that, did you?” I ask.
She shrugs. “The last time this happened, they toyed with us. They dragged it out and ignored all our surrenders. This time was much different and more merciful.”
“Because of you,” Jay whispers.
“I didn’t do anything more than get you all into a better position to defend yourselves.”
She huffs as she keeps cleaning up my blood. “No, you did more than that. You gave us a chance. None of the dominant Defender females are brought down unless they’re up against one another.”
“It’s ridiculous you’re even pitted against one another. Why the hell is that even a thing?” I again point my question directly at Creed.
“That’s Gladian’s training style.”
“And none of you have ever thought, ‘You know, this is wrong, I’m going to say something to stop this?’ You all just stay put in your little Holding, whatever that is, and watch this shit go down?”
“The Holding is a reinforced blockade designed by Gladian. You can’t see the wall, but he embedded his power in the threshold. Once you pass in, you can’t get back through until he allows it.”
“Thank you for the information, Amick. Anyone want to acknowledge the rest of what I said?”
Again , my eyes land on Creed.
This is his Designation. He needs to explain.
He doesn’t.
Instead, he marches away in the direction of the house .
I scoff, but the sound accidentally morphs into a moan. “Oh stars, what’s happening?”
“I’m so sorry. I should’ve warned you,” Jay murmurs with wide eyes, but she doesn’t remove her hands from me.
“Warned me—oh.” I bite my bottom lip to keep from groaning.
I swear I have to keep my eyes from rolling to the back of my head. My body feels like it’s floating in a bath of euphoria that I never want to get out of.
“I heal your body, but my ability tends to…heighten your feel-good hormones.”
“Are you about to heal me by making me orgasm in front of people?” I shriek and Yemi laughs. “It’s not funny. At all. We have company.” I twitch my head over to the guys.
Kyzen’s huge smile makes me blush. “Don’t mind us, gorgeous. You just keep singing that sweet song.”
I groan and Jay’s fingers flex. “Uh, usually, I’d say no, that wouldn’t happen, but you…”
“But me what? What’s wrong with me?”
She hesitates and I know it’s because of my Valtrue. She seems incredibly nervous. I should tell them to walk away so they’ll stop making everyone so antsy.
She lowers her voice. “You have a lot of improperly healed damage. It’s just natural for my power to want to fix it.”
That quickly shuts down the impending orgasm. My mind instantly drifts to the countless times my only option was to treat myself after training. We didn’t have godly Healers back in Oddian who could take care of any injuries for us.
Those memories somewhat keep the ‘feel-good’ hormones as Jay called them, at bay. As she continues to work her glorious godly power, my body begins to feel better than it’s ever felt before. Even my anger at what just happened simmers down.
When a little sigh passes her lips and she finally releases me, I wiggle my relaxed limbs, then stand. The heat coming off my cheeks is pure embarrassment, and I refuse to look at the guys.
I clear my throat and stay focused on her. “Thank you for helping me.”
“You don’t have to thank me. You saved my butt today. It’s the least I could do. Granted, I would’ve done it anyway.”
She smiles brightly and I mimic her gesture. If all the gods who are Healers are like her, then maybe I’ve judged them all too harshly. She’s a sweet delight, from what I’ve experienced .
Well, I take that back.
There’s definitely one who is not sweet like her at all.
She and Leah say their goodbyes and tell me I was badass today. Sure, it makes my ego feel good, but it makes my stomach hurt. I didn’t want to come here and be a badass.
I don’t want to pointlessly fight anymore.
“What do you want to do about dinner?” Yemi asks when we’re about halfway to our houses. She’s obviously over my awkward silence.
“Creed’s taking care of that,” Kyzen answers for me.
“Food’s honestly the last thing on my mind. All I want to take care of is getting this armor, dirt, and blood off me.”
“I’m sure there’s something else you want to take care of too.”
Kyzen’s low tone causes fire to spread through every inch of me. It’s not even doused by Riven’s laugh as he picks up the subtle innuendo.
“She just listed the things she wants to take care of.”
I smirk at Amick’s obliviousness.
Exactly, Candyman.
I most certainly am not going to take care of myself in the bath.