I don’t have to open my eyes to know Kyzen and Amick have taken a side on each of hers. They no doubt sensed the call of her soul.
I pull her closer to me, even as I sense her pain and power ease.
With every stroke of my tongue, I try to tell her I’ve got her. I’ve got her soul, and everything is okay.
I slowly pull away, laying small, soft kisses on her lips as she gasps for air.
“Are you okay?” she croaks.
I shake my forehead against hers. “Was it his power or mine?”
“I don’t know. It doesn’t matter. I’m fine.”
I grunt, holding her tighter when she tries to pull away. “Tell me.”
“Thayla, I’m so sorry,” Sevryn calls from a few steps away, and my brothers whip toward him.
“Did you hit her with your fucking power?” Riven’s low tone is nothing shy of deadly.
I peer over at Sevryn and watch his eyes shatter. His own soul shivers in pain and Yemi’s trembling where she stands in front of him.
“No. I said I didn’t know who did what. Drop it now. I jumped in between them because they aren’t listening to each other. They were just ready to beat the hell out of one another before bothering to get to the truth.”
“What are you talking about?” Amick asks.
I sigh, laying a kiss to Thayla’s forehead before stepping away. I pinch the bridge of my nose as I attempt to recall what all we shared while throwing punches that she obviously witnessed.
“Creed is blaming Sevryn for telling his father your escape plans, but Sevryn is claiming Creed sent him a letter changing your meeting spots and that he didn’t tell his father anything.”
“Yeah, oh-fucking-kay.” Riven snorts.
Sevryn grunts loudly, gripping his hair before letting his hands slap down to his thighs.
“I didn’t tell him anything. I slit my own fucking throat to keep from telling him about your plan.”
Silence.
All of us fall deadly quiet and we turn toward him as though we’re in slow motion. My eyes trace the scar on his neck that I’ve noticed countless times but assumed it was from a fight in Hellveilious.
My own throat clogs.
“If you didn’t tell your father, then how the fuck did ours, and an entire army show up, waiting at our exact meeting location?” Riven asks, staring Sevryn down.
“I don’t know. Like I already told Creed, my father and an army showed up at the new location and took me. I woke up the next day chained to a bed with healers still working on me. You all were already gone. Made it out.”
“We didn’t make it out. We got taken out,” Kyzen says and Sevryn’s eyebrows draw down.
“That’s not the story I was told. My father told me you all tried to burn down Seductions with everyone inside. Then you went on a rampage through the heart of the Abandon and when your father showed up, you starshot out.”
“Uh, that’s not even remotely true. The only part of that close to the truth is trying to burn down Seductions. I definitely did try to do that,” Riven admits with a sinister smirk on his face like this isn’t fucking with him at all.
“So when your father arrived at the original meeting location and I didn’t, you all assumed I told?”
“We didn’t just assume. Our father laughed at us and told us to pick wiser friends. You were the only friend we had and were the only person we told,” I say.
Thayla’s head cocks to the side as she bounces her gaze between all of us. I wouldn’t have to sense her confusion to know she’s lost in the conversation.
We’ve got to tell her what happened that day.
