Page 58 of The Gods Veiling (The Valorian Veil #1)

“What a gift from the gods. Mellcom, go find Jeremiah and Chasin, then get to the center of the Court,” Gladian says, then turns back to us. “Are we waiting on the rest of your Valtrue?”

“No, they’re attending to their duties. It’ll just be the two of us.”

“Unfortunate. This would be a good thing for your Binder to observe.”

Creed takes a step closer to him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“No maliciousness, simply the truth. She needs to know what punishment in the Godsdawn looks like. You can’t hide the ugly from her. She lost that privilege when she was paired with the four of you. She hasn’t gained any for that reason either, though.”

I’ll be gods damned.

I don’t like what he’s insinuating at fucking all.

He and the High Chancellor’s ass have made comments about her not getting any leeway because she’s our Binder. Yet they expect her to carry herself and attend to all our roles as though she’s on the exact level as us.

So yes, the fuck she does get privileges.

I arch a brow and cut my eye to Creed to see which one of us will be setting that record straight. He takes the lead.

“She most certainly has. The privileges, as you call them, that we have, so does she. That’s the last time I’ll address that, and I’d advise you to heed that warning, Gladian. Pass it on to whomever you believe needs to hear it as well.”

I tap my fingers against my lips as a little snicker slips free. Fuck, I love it when Creed goes all top god. He has so much more control than I do and is way better at showing Gladian respect because of his standing.

If it were up to me, we’d just squash him like the pest he is and then Creed could just take over commanding the little Defenders.

He doesn’t want that role, though, so it is what it is.

“I’ll keep it in mind,” Gladdy snarls as he stomps past us out of his chamber.

“You know your laughing makes the situation seem less serious,” Creed grumbles as he starts making his way back to the Court as well.

“I can’t help it. These situations just tickle my bones.”

My laughing has him turning those beautiful gray eyes on me as he steps closer. I’m tempted to boop his nose as well, but reading his mood, he may bite my finger off .

“Don’t make what’s about to happen out there any worse. I feel your shit swirling all around me. Knock it off.”

“Sure thing.”

“I’m serious, Riven.”

“Your serious concern is noted.”

He growls as he turns away from me and stomps down the corridor. He can’t stand it when I use Amick’s favorite word choice. My stuffy brother only says that when someone says something he doesn’t care to acknowledge or agree with.

By the time we reach the Court, all the Defender gods who were training when we walked in have gathered in a crowd behind where Gladian’s Valtrue will soon move to stand. The five of them are currently smack in the center, surrounding the post that’s placed there for his punishments.

He’s showing his handy-dandy whip off to his Valtrue like it’s his prized possession.

What a strange object to be obsessed with.

“Are you going to the middle?” I ask Creed.

“No. That wouldn’t be wise after what just happened. May as well let him get his sense of superiority back.”

“Oh goodie. You can sit with me in the front row then.” He gives me a deadpan stare that I wink at.

I take the stone stairs two at a time and walk to the center seats that are directly across from the whipping post. As soon as I kick my legs up on the side and get myself comfortable, the gods from the meadow walk in with Ike.

I smirk at the dried blood under his nose, then quickly frown when I remember I’m still upset with Thayla for taking that from me.

Other than that, his shoulders tremble and his eyes are red and swollen. That’s the only evidence he cried and pleaded his whole walk here. Now the features of defeat across his face say he’s ready to just accept and get on with his punishment.

Golden-haired god and his little buddy who’s always near him take Ike from the Meadow Hands as they step to the side with Gladian. They’ll tell him the entire scope of the offense he committed, then his punishment will be decided.

“I say Gladdy will give him seven lashes,” I whisper to Creed.

“Seven is a low ball. Ten at least.”

“Really? You think he cares that much?”

“About the Veilatara? No. But I believe he enjoys punishing people, and this Veiling has had him in more vicious form than normal. He needs someone he can take it out on and get away with it. ”

He has a very good point. I’m sure Gladian was ecstatic to have the upper hand on us when his Valtrue was complete. Then our little Binder stumbled out of the Gods Veil not five minutes later and fucked that all up for him.

“Defenders, I present to you Ike Molder. Up until today, he was a Meadow Hand at the Veilatara meadows. Unfortunately for him, today he lost himself to weakness. Sadly, we know Plentifuls aren’t built like we are, so when a youngling stepped on him while she was being strapped, he struck her in retaliation. ”

The entire group of Defenders boo and I join in, although his little dig at my Designation doesn’t go unnoticed. He’s pandering to his masses. He knows as well as I do there are several Plentifuls that can hold their own.

I’m one of those.

I quite enjoy going rounds with the Defenders.

“He has been stripped of the right to ever enter the meadows again and the Veilatara have requested I decide his punishment. I’ll leave his new role up to the Chancellors to decide.”

I snort at his high and mighty act. He knows he has no say-so in that. Realistically, it’ll be Amick who decides what this loser will be doing for the Godsdawn next.

“Five lashes. Get him on the post and strip his shirt.”

“What?” Creed and I hiss at the same time.

I sit a little straighter in my seat. “That’s it? Are you fucking kidding me?”

Creed doesn’t answer me, but his face is twisted in as much disgust as I feel. Sure, that fucking whip hurts like a bitch, but five lashes for committing an offense that’s punishable by death is a slap in the face to the Veilatara.

Disrespectful prick.

Once the pathetic god is strung up, Gladian and his Valtrue take their spots the distance away the whip will need to travel. The four of them give Gladian his space as he wiggles his arm out and gets the handle comfortable in his grip.

His power swells around the arena center. “Five lashes.”

The once black whip sizzles as gold slithers down its length. His power embeds itself into every fiber, so it’ll intensify the damage each lashing leaves.

The crack of his practice swing booms through the air like lightning striking a tree. The deadly warning has Ike sobbing and sniffling as he mumbles under his breath.

There’s no ferocious grunt or bellow of heads-up as Gladian’s whip sails from behind him straight toward Ike’s back. It’s the most lax, less forceful swing I’ve ever seen him take and my eyebrows draw together .

Ike still shrieks in agony and blood begins to drip down the small slice of skin, but what he just received is nothing compared to what Gladian’s dealt out before.

The second swing comes just as quickly and just as pitiful.

My teeth grit together. “What the fuck is he playing at, Creed?”

“I don’t know. I obviously misjudged his mood.”

No. I think the little ego-sensitive man god is fucking with us. I think he knows how much the Veilatara mean to us, and I believe the Meadow Hands told him everything that went down. So he’s going easy on him to get under our skin.

The giggling and pointing of his Defender bitches behind him make my nostrils twitch. They see that Gladian’s only toying with him. They all should know, he deserves far worse than this.

Fine then…

If he wants to fuck with us on this, then let’s fuck around.

The third and fourth swings are the same as the first two, but as he prepares his fifth and final, I wiggle my fingers out.

Go play.

My power flares to life, causing my eyes to swirl. It leaves my body just as Creed grips my forearm.

Too late, brother.

The last swing lands with minimal damage just like the others, but when Gladian flicks it back, there’s a little bit too much power behind it.

It soars through the air so fast, Mara doesn’t have time to flinch out of the way. The tip of the whip nicks her face, and her scream…her beautiful, painful screech, brings a smile to mine.

She cups her cheek, throwing vicious curses Gladian’s way. He looks dumbfounded, with his eyes narrowed on her. Her lady Defender friends run over to check her over, but in her current fury, she shoves them away.

Two of their bodies go flying backward from the force she put behind that angry little thrust. They collide with the rest of the bunch standing behind them and more people hit the dirt with pissed off grunts.

They push each other in their haste to get back to their feet and the slurs falling from their lips get more colorful.

My knee bounces as my eyes scan the frenzy starting and I push more of my power out. It’s craving to be completely unleashed. I can’t quite let it do that. Someone is liable to end up dead today if I do.

I can let it out enough, though, that this stunt may disrupt training this afternoon and give Gladian a massive fucking mess to deal with .

My head falls back, laughing as the first punch is thrown. The Defender girl is out cold before her body hits the ground.

I stare, mesmerized, at my handiwork as the entire Defender Designation in the Court tears each other apart. All of them ignore the barking orders coming from their useless leader.

He and the other men in his Valtrue try but fail to break up all the madness and fight off my power. Their underlings don’t even realize who it is they’re swinging on.

Poor things. Pick what you’ll focus on.

The fight in front of you or fighting me off.

Ahhhh. Sweet, sweet chaos.

My laugh is still ringing loudly as I follow Creed over the side of the arena wall. I dance and twirl my way behind him as he stomps over to Ike. Any god I find gaining their wits about them, I focus my power on. I can’t have them snapping out of it too soon.

My chaos soaks up their minimal anger and intensifies it to new heights.

One god getting off easy is enough for the day.

I want them all bloodied and beaten.

The healing villas are going to be packed here soon.

The sniffling man shudders and cries out as Creed approaches him. The whining noise makes me sneer. Lucky for him, my brother doesn’t get pleasure from praying on those below him.

It’s not that I do either. Okay, I do, but in certain circumstances, of course.

It all depends on how these pretentious, self-absorbed gods act. When they start to be bullies and take shit like this as a joke, you have to remind them of the pecking order around here.

Ike grunts and groans as he holds himself up after Creed frees his arms. He doesn’t so much as spare the waste of space a glance as he walks toward the exit of the arena.

I, on the other hand, kick him back over when he finally gets some balance under his hands and knees. Personally, I think he should crawl the whole way to the healing villas.

“Come on, Riven. You’ve unleashed enough. Pull some back and let it run its course.”

I groan. “Fine, fun sucker.”

I don’t pull any of my power back .

I’ll do as he says and just let it run its course, though. They’ll eventually be able to break free from it on their own.

I follow behind him with a smirk on my face. It quickly morphs into a fake pout when he peers over his shoulder at me.

It’s back in place when he turns around.

The entire walk through the tunnel, I hum happily in tune with the grunts and shouts following us out of the Gods Court. A cheerful sigh escapes me when we emerge at the end and start walking toward the house.

“Uh, I needed that. My sweets hasn’t come out to play in so, so long.”

“You use your chaos every day.”

“Well, yeah, but I mean, it itself hasn’t come out on its own since Thayla got here. I’ve had to poke and prod it. That was just the release we needed.”

He scoffs. “You’re blaming her for there not being a need for chaos? You don’t think shit is a little chaotic enough without adding to it?”

“No, no, I do not. It could be so much worse than this. So, in fact, you’re welcome. And yes, I’m blaming her. It’s her fault. I don’t know exactly what she’s doing to cause my power to be so lazy, but that’s what’s happening.”

“Then I owe her a thanks. I can’t believe you just pulled that shit back there.”

“You said that without even a hint of anger, so I’m going to assume you feel like you have to say that but don’t really mean it.”

He doesn’t deny it.

The closer to the house we get, the more my excitement starts to die down. The drop in all those happy emotions has a yawn escaping me and I stretch my arms over my head.

As soon as we get to the house, I plop my ass on the couch and spread out. I kick my shoes off and holler at Creed in the kitchen. “I’m taking a nap. Wake me up for lunch.”

I’m pretty sure he grunts at me as I gather some throw pillows. I need three of them. One for behind my head, one for between my knees, and the last I cuddle close to my chest. That yummy, deep comfort that the promise of a nap brings settles over me and I’m out like a light in seconds.

That beautiful feeling is over far too fast. One minute, I’m sleeping peacefully in nap land. The next, Creed’s sweet voice is calling my name.

“Wakey, wakey, Riven.”

Soft caresses trail down my face, and I whine as I try to knock it away. “Creed, stop.”

His laugh has changed. It’s higher pitched and makes my heart flutter .

“Not Creed. It’s so sweet that he makes your heart flutter, though.”

“Get out of my head.” I try to cover my face, but the pillow is snatched from me.

“I’m not in your head. You keep talking in your sleep. Lunch is ready and Creed told me to wake you up.”

Finally, I peel one lid open. Standing over me is Thayla’s mischievous, smiling face. “Bad, bad burden. Leave me be and let me sleep.”

“Fine, eat or don’t eat. I don’t care,” she says before leaning in so close to me, her breath whispers across my ear. “You can drop the burden shit. Your lips lie when you’re awake but speak all your truths when you’re sleeping.”

My eyes fly open, and she squeals as she jumps out of the way of my arms reaching for her. She hauls ass around the couch and hides behind Amick.

I fling myself up and glare over at the two of them. “Was I talking in my sleep?”

“Yes. Loudly,” Amick says, then walks to the table with a dying of laughter Binder hot on his heels.

Fuck me.

Well, that’s exactly what she was doing in my dreams.

I need to get her the fuck out of my head.