“What is it?” I whispered to Siret, though my voice carried in the eerie silence.
“They’re waiting,” Siret muttered back. “You just broke Staviti’s hold over thousands upon thousands of hostage souls … there’s no way you don’t have his attention now.”
I glanced back to Leden and the herd of panteras gathered patiently beyond the garden. They were also waiting; everyone was holding their breath and withholding their support until I had proven myself to them—and nothing short of an actual confrontation with Staviti would convince them. They didn’t care about Emmy’s ability to make flowers bloom, and my show ofalmostdestroying the worlds had done nothing more than alarm them and make them feel unsettled. Not that I needed their approval to know that I had done the right thing, to know that Ihadmade a small difference … but I did need their approval to go against Staviti. If I were honest with myself, there wasn’t anything I could do to convince them to revolt against Staviti without revolting against Staviti myself. I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath and sensing for a sudden surge of power—as I assumed that was what it would feel like when Staviti appeared. Feeling nothing, I wove my way through the people and back to the stage.
“I am not asking you to follow me,” I shouted, since I had no control over the voice-projection thing that I had managed to pull off earlier. “I’m just asking you to wake up, to open your eyes, and to step out from below Staviti’s leadership—because he doesnotcare to lead you anywhere but into destruction.” I took a deep breath and closed my eyes again, willing my voice to project strongly, to reach each person. “I. Do. Not. Want. To. Lead. You.” I punctuated each word, allowing the finality of my statement to settle over everyone. It was important for Topia to be rid of Staviti—but not so that I could take his place, because that was only removing a bad system and replacing it with exactly the same system.
“Then who will lead us?” a man called back.
“Are you not gods?” Cyrus asked, his voice dry. “Must you really be led?” His words didn’t carry as mine had, but a few of the gods closest to us chuckled.
Some of the tension eased, then, as though they finally understood what I was trying to orchestrate. I didn’t just want to protect myself from Staviti. I wanted to befreeof him, and I wanted everyone else to also be free of him—whether that was possible to achieve without a fight wasn’t for me to decide.
“What if we don’t want to be free?” someone else asked, and the crowd parted around the voice.
Suddenly I was staring down a long stretch of grass at a man I had hoped never to see again. Crowe was wrapped in black robes, his features heavy and his expression mild—though there was something in his movements as he made his way down the cleared path toward me. The other gods shifted uneasily, and I realised that they had stepped away at the sound of his voice out of fear. I shot a quick look to Yael, even though I could feel him well enough to know that he was fine without even looking. Siret’s hand landed on the small of my back, a comforting reminder that even though they were letting me do this alone—I would never actuallybealone.
“Do you want to be in service to Staviti?” I replied calmly, when Crowe was before me.
Instead of answering my question, his dark eyes shifted over my shoulder, scanning the faces of those who hovered around me.
When he paused, I glanced in the direction of his gaze and found Pica standing alone, a peaceful smile on her face. The woman needed to learn how to read a room. Seriously.
“I am surprised to see you’re in support of this, Pica,” Crowe stated loudly, drawing a few murmurs from the gathered people. “You have long been Staviti’s favourite creation.”
“Staviti has been lying to us,” Pica replied happily. “I love all ways of expression … but … his lies have cost me an even greater love. The love of my child. If Staviti is forced to relinquish control over Topia, there would be no further bans on god children.”
“Is this true?” a woman asked, sounding confused. “Is it not the way of the land that our children cannot survive?”
“It is not,” Pica confirmed. “And it is not the way of the land for our immortal souls to remain separate, to not love or join other souls in relationships. If that were true, why would I be allowed to exist?” She tossed her hair from her shoulder, grinning at everyone in what actually seemed to be a condescending way. As though they should have all reached the same conclusion by now.
Judging from some of the faces I could see theyhadalready reached the same conclusion. So people weren’t immune to Staviti’s lies—in fact, the Abcurses had told me that many gods disobeyed the relationship rule, which meant that they had already started rebelling against Staviti in small ways long before I came onto the scene. I seized this information now, directing my attention at Crowe.
“Do you want to remain under Staviti’s control?” I asked him, my voice stronger this time, my question demanding an answer.
His eyes flicked back to mine and held, a quiver of power passing briefly between us. It was a strange kind of acknowledgment, as though his energy had reacted to the strength of mine. I only ever felt that sort of reverberation from a few others: Pica, Terrance, Abil, Adeline, and Rau. Each of their energies had set off a visceral reaction in my skin that remained unmatched by any of the other gods.
No … that wasn’t right, I thought, my attention skittering to the large hand that was still shaped tightly to the curve of my back. I had felt it with the Abcurses as well, and Cyrus. It must have been in direct correlation to the strength of each of the gods, or perhaps their connection to Topia—and how deep the source of their power ran. The Original Gods were the most powerful, and the Abcurses were somewhere between an Original God and a created god, if such a thing existed. They had been born of a god union, but they had also been “gifted” life by Staviti. They wereasoriginal as Staviti was—seeing as he had been born of human parents but transformed by the waters of Topia.
If I truly was the daughter of Jakan, then the only person with a stronger connection to Topia would be …me.
