Her face immediately falls and my heart tugs painfully toward her as my soul attempts to soothe hers. I lock it down, but Amick and Kyzen crowd closer to her. Riven, on the other hand, takes a step back and goes statue-still.
“Impossible.”
“The parchment is in my pocket.”
I step forward, reaching my hand through my cloud of power holding him in place. The thin piece of paper weighs a thousand pounds.
My eyes devour the letter multiple times over. Each line I reread has my vision darkening.
I’ll kill him.
“Give me that,” Amick demands as he snatches it from my fingers.
His power blasts across my skin and he scans it even faster than I did. His lids fall closed as though he’s thinking, but I know better.
“We’ve got what we need,” he says, folding the parchment and placing it in his pocket.
I grit my teeth as he walks up to Thayla and leans in so close to her there’s no space between their bodies. Whatever he whispers has her shoulders dropping and a loud exhale falling from her lips.
“So it was merely a coincidence my do not kill order was lifted the same day you received a decree from a Beginning God to kill her?” Sevryn’s tone drips in accusation.
“He wasn’t ordered to kill her. It was to hold her and Yemi here until he was told otherwise,” I say.
Thayla scoffs and crosses her arms. “That’s crazy, seeing as I did almost die.”
“I had no intentions of letting you or her die. I was attempting to step in when the God of Death tied me to my chair. As for you”—he cast Sevryn an unsavory glance—“I received that decree from your father on this past Veiling Day. He told me to use my judgment for when to announce the order was lifted. He said if you survived, you were free to come home. If you didn’t then…well, you didn’t.”
Sevryn’s face recoils for a second before he fixes it. I caught it, though, and it was a small flash of the past. I remember the kid who followed his father around like a shadow but who would also flinch if he raised his hand too fast.
I don’t know how he ended up here, and frankly I don’t give a fuck. He’s the least of my concern and I’m ready to get the hell out of here.
“You tell whoever asks or worries about him that he died here today, in your sudden death taurnshit. As far as you or anyone else is concerned, Sevryn, son of the God of Pain, is dead.”
“What?” We all turn to Thayla, but her glare of steel is set on the God of Judgment.
“He’s coming with us.”
“The fuck he is. Thayla, you have no idea—”
“I don’t. I don’t have any idea about a lot,” she cuts me off, but her tone isn’t fierce or angry. It’s just matter-of-fact, with a touch of tenderness.
“I can find out whatever is going on between all of you out there and we can work it out from there. What I do know is, he said he was going to help protect Yemi and me, and he did. He tried anyway. He never left her side. Plus, he betrayed his father. I don’t know what that means, but in my opinion, I don’t think he should even be here. You know people better than I do, though. If this is where he belongs, say that.”
I already know he doesn’t fucking deserve to be here. His soul is purer than my brothers’ and mine, so who the fuck am I to say he should stay. It’s our personal issues that motivate me to say fuck him and leave him.
Yemi’s movement catches my eye and takes me by surprise once again. She drifts closer to him as if she’s ready and willing to defend him.
From us.
What the fuck happened?
I grunt and face Delun. “You heard her. You betray me on this, and you’ll get your wish. You’ll see a hell of a lot more of me when we come down here to bring you food in your cell.”
“I fucking get it. No need for threats.”
I huff and use my power once again to lift his ass back up to his throne. He can sit there for a while and think about this shit show he’s created.
I want more than anything to kill him instead, but that would throttle Hellveilious into mayhem. After this fucking scavenger hunt we’re going on, I’m going to have to bite the blade and make some serious changes down here.
