Page 73 of The Gods Veiling (The Valorian Veil #1)

Her cream of choice tonight is Riven’s, which is by far the sweetest option. A gloating little smile lights up his face like he’s pleased she chose his. I don’t think the fact that sugar helps situations like this even crosses his mind.

“Table or couch?” I ask.

“Couch.”

I arch my brow at her and she hides her smirk behind her mug. The rest of us silently follow her lead and make our drinks while she goes and chooses her seat.

Creed and Riven decide to sit on the opposite couch together, while Amick and I take a side each of hers. None of us speak.

This is officially more awkward than our first day together.

“We—”

“Mellcom is my adoptive brother and Jeremiah, if you all didn’t catch it from his comments, is my ex.”

My nose scrunches. That does make the most sense, judging their words and actions, but him? She can do so much better than that little mouthy fucker.

“Those two are irrelevant to the conversation we’re about to have.”

“I wish that were true, Amick.” She blows out a breath as she stares down at her coffee.

Her eyes are glossed when she picks her head back up.

“They entered me into the Veiling in Oddian without my knowledge or permission. I never wanted to come here. I didn’t want to get my powers, or be with the gods, or do any of this. I didn’t choose this for myself.”

My mouth gapes open, as do my brothers’ as we stare at her in horror. That shouldn’t even be possible. Her blood had to be offered.

“What?” Riven growls.

She takes a deep breath. There’s a war raging within her and whatever her next words are going to be makes the hair on my arms stand up. This is about to piss us all off.

And I was right.

As she explains the whole scheme the two of them devised to obtain her blood, my body grows hotter. The fury I usually keep firmly locked away pounds inside my chest .

It’s sickening they had the motives to fuck with her life like this and then turn around and act as though they’ve done nothing wrong.

“I mean no offense to you, Thayla, but your story doesn’t add up. You’re making it sound like Mellcom, and his accomplice knew you’d be chosen, and that’s impossible,” Amick speaks his concerns quietly but matter-of-fact.

“I wish that were true too, but unfortunately, that’s the truth.

He did know I’d be chosen. He also knew he would be, and he prayed very hard for Jeremiah to be as well.

There’s a god who apparently has his eyes on me.

And it isn’t Derivius. Well, not completely him.

He most certainly does, but he’s not to blame for this instance.

I know you all know about his involvement because I…

” She pauses once again. I wouldn’t call the look in her eye guilt, but something in that domain.

“I eavesdropped outside of Amick’s door my first night here. I didn’t just hear the shouting. I heard everything you all said.”

My heart tries to fall out through my stomach as that night replays through my mind.

Shit.

We argued about what to do about her. I said we had to babysit her. We didn’t only have to protect ourselves but her as well. That we were stuck with her. I talked about removing her tie…

The unknown reality was, she didn’t even want to be here, and she heard all that shit.

Fuck. She probably thinks the way I treat her is purely an obligation.

“Thayla, you know a lot has changed in the last month, right?”

Her face is unreadable. “Has it?”

“Yes,” I state as firmly as I can.

She isn’t an obligation. I may have felt that way to begin with, but that’s because I couldn’t wrap my head around why the hell Derivius, any of the gods, would give us a Binder. As soon as she’s done telling us what she’s comfortable with, she’ll know why that was such a big deal to us.

“There’s a lot to my history in Oddian that I’m not exactly ready to share. The gist of it is, though, a year ago on the last Veiling, I spoke out against the gods, loudly, in the center of the arena in front of my entire training group.”

“That’s what the High Chancellor’s note on you meant. That was the altercation that resulted in your punishment,” Amick concludes.

“Yes. I said a lot of things that morning, but what stuck out was me shouting to the sky ‘Fuck the gods’ and I meant it. I still mean it wholeheartedly. My truth is, I don’t pray or worship.

Not even to Derivius. I really and truly can’t stand the gods.

Some of them that I’ve met haven’t been as bad as I thought they all were, but my opinion hasn’t changed much.

Especially the more I learn the history and hierarchical structure taurnshit. ”

The relief in myself and my brothers is visible. We’ve been tiptoeing around the topic of our opinions on the gods because we didn’t know if she was close to one outside of Derivius. The gods, especially the older ones, are ruining the Valorian Veil.

“Thank fuck,” Riven exclaims dramatically as he flops back on the couch with his hand to his heart. “You’re such a confusing thing. I’ve dropped multiple hints and each time you don’t give me a straight answer. You just told me yesterday you’d pray for me.”

“Yeah, well, we are in the Godsdawn. I figured not many of these self-absorbed assholes would catch my sarcasm. I’ve never really prayed for you. And don’t fret, Riven, I’ll spend the rest of our lives not praying for you.”

“That’s such a weird way to ask me to be your husband, but I accept.”

She scoffs and shakes her head, while Amick scowls over at him. I just chuckle because this is far less worrisome than anything I thought she was going to say.

Creed leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees. His thumbs rub his mug mindlessly in his nervous tick and his eyes are drawn down. “Go back to the god who’s interested in you. If it isn’t Derivius, then who? What are you talking about?”

She shrugs slowly. “I don’t know.”

I listen keenly to every detail she relays about the two so-called dream visits Mellcom had and how in the Gods Veil, Derivius swore it wasn’t him but he’d find out who.

I do believe that. There’s much I could say about our off-the-wall mentor, but he’s not one to lie. He’ll straight up tell you he isn’t going to disclose what information he doesn’t want to, but he doesn’t lie when he does talk.

There’re multiple gods powerful enough to enter someone’s dreams. That’s one way they relay their messages, so it’s not a small group to narrow down. It’s not going to be easy.

“What else happened in the Veil?” Amick asks.

Thayla’s eyes lock on Creed’s for an intense moment. I try to read what’s being said silently, but neither of them gives anything away.

“I’m not quite ready to talk about that just yet. I still need a little time to figure some things out for myself. ”

Amick nods, satisfied with that. He usually does appreciate people taking their time to figure out what they can for themselves. More questions than answers drive him nuts.

I don’t voice my disagreement, but it eats me up not to know. Something happened there, and it affected us all. I know that for a fact it isn’t just our new amount of power that released.

I feel myself changing. I see it in my brothers.

I just don’t bring it up to them.

“So multiple gods are fucking with all of us, huh?” Riven tosses his hand up and lets them slap down on his thighs loudly.

“It’d seem so. I’ve been warned multiple times now by both Derivius and Seismet that there are things happening in the realm and we’re at the center of it. I don’t understand why, though.”

“Seismet, does he converse with you often or normally? Or does he just drop some ominous lore every now and then?”

She smirks at me. “I’m Seismet’s Godly Companion. He dropped that truth on me while we were flying. He told me about Verlet and you all as well.”

“Big-mouthed damn Veilatara,” Riven grumbles.

I already knew that. Every obvious sign was there when we went to the meadows. I just needed to know if he had told her or not yet.

“We are. I wouldn’t say it’s a secret we keep as it’s pretty obvious to any of the Meadow Hands when we go there to visit, but it’s also not something we just share with everyone.”

“Understandable and I agree. I don’t necessarily want anyone to know about Seismet and me. Although I’m pretty sure him bursting into the Abandon and flying me away is going to have people talking.”

“It will, but more so behind your back.”

“I figured as much…”

We each drift into silence and sip our drinks. The awkwardness that had lifted is slowly starting to creep back in again. None of the four of us want to make the next comment. I really don’t. She seemed so tense admitting to us that a god is toying with her life.

We’ve been dealing with that all our lives. That isn’t detrimental news to us. Whoever that god is, they’re nothing compared to the ones who fuck with us.

“Do you all regret having me as a Binder even more now?”

“What?” Creed, Amick, and I ask, as Riven confidently says, “No more than I already did.”

“I don’t believe you know how to read social situations very accurately.”

My entire face scrunches up as I tilt my head at Amick. Thayla bites her lip before covering her mouth with her hand. His comment to Riven is so serious that I know he isn’t being sarcastic, but I’m one hundred percent positive he doesn’t see the irony in it.

“None of us regret that you’re our Binder—”

“Don’t speak for me.”

“Shut up, Riven,” I say, throwing my hands up at him.

He rolls his eyes and crosses his arms over his chest. “Speaking for everyone but Riven, I’m telling you we don’t regret that you’re our Binder.

I’m sorry you’ve been here this long thinking that we felt stuck with you or that we have to babysit you.

You hearing our highly emotional conversation that first night was just that. Highly emotional.